001e e e my is William with Columbo group um I'm privileged here tonight to give you guys an update on the project actually very excited um to give this update uh you guys all have a pamphlet in front of you without a Podium is kind of a little hard um so today we're going to give you guys an update on uh phase one and phase two of the construction project I'd like to start with phase two at the high school um little contractor schedule an overview the high school field project uh is ramping up and as you can see a lot of material is starting to come in um a lot different since the last time we've seen it a couple months ago uh the site is fenced off and secured um and again for
002the start of school because the construction will continue through um the beginning of the school year uh we will reconfigure the fence so it'll be modified obviously for the school year um you're going to get your your parking lot back uh they're actually working on the alternate parking lot in the middle of the island as we speak uh the plan is to uh not skip a beat and you'll uh have it all back you know the parking uh at least uh back for the school year uh the track and tennis courts and the asphalt and the coating have all been stripped uh a matter of fact everything out there has been demolished uh the track um the rubber the asphalt everything's been stripped um and we're we're into the rebuilding phase as we speak um
003one of the first things we did thank you sir thank you um in the picture we're going to we're going to come up on you're going to see a retaining wall but since then has been poured uh it's one of the first things we have to do it's right in front of the tennis court between the tennis court and the in the parking lot um and the back fill has happened and we're starting all the new utilities so we have a brand new electrical service brand new Plumbing Service that's going to be uh feeding the new Fields uh we just started that this week so as you can see if you turn the page in the first picture here um it's a little different out there today again these pictures were taken last week so
004you can actually see the progress that we've had just just a little over a week um and what can take place out there this is uh a level tennis court uh and the retaining wall is not there and since then we've we've we've poured that uh moving on to the next picture um there is the retaining wall that we're we're talking about uh this is in the stages of rebar before they form and pour um and as we speak this is completed and back filled on to the next picture uh materials arriving on site uh this is a very exciting day of course for us uh to see this truck showed up with the materials U it's a very exciting time knowing that we're going to be able to start installing these things and working
005towards the the time of completion so I do have a little bit of bad news unfortunately and this is the only bad news I'm going to give uh all of you tonight um is that we are about 3 weeks behind schedule on the tennis courts itself and I'll explain so I know last time I did a presentation up here we talked about procuring materials things like that some of the things that are uncontrollable um in the market so one of the things that we found out is there's a didn't find out but there's a trench strain uh that divides the courts that kind of takes the water off the courts and and sends it out into daylight uh helps keeps the court dry it uh helps them last a little longer things like that so
006that under drain uh had a very long lead time on it uh we're expecting it actually this week unfortunately because it's underground it's underneath the asphalt it's one of the first things that you do uh we we really can't do too much out there until we install that Tren strain so we're going to do everything we can we're going to work some extra hours course we're going to pull some Saturdays and and try and get this thing back on track and I feel like we will so with that being said um once the asphalt goes down unfortunately there's a two we cure time two to 3 we cure time on the asphalt that's because fresh asphalt releases gases um and we have to wait for those gases to release out of the asphalt before we
007can put the coating on that which is the color and the striping and everything else that you see on the on the tennis courts and the good news is once that coating's on it'll be readily available within a day or two so we are anticipating um at the end of September we're going to be able to turn these courts over to you and like I said I I believe that's going to be the only bad news I give to you tonight so uh any questions on the high school okay sorry if I no worries not really a question for you question for for Terry or Harvey I assume we've we' worked with Jon and we have a plan in place to have our tennis team for three weeks and yeah yep so we'll we'll work
008through the logistics of uh of that delay yeah don't problem uh so moving on to leer Road uh leer Road was very exciting uh this job we are extremely ahead of schedule uh we weren't supposed to complete this until uh August 29th and I can tell you today we are 99% complete at leer Road the only thing left for us to do is to program the actual light switches and we're just waiting for the gentlemen to show up to program these light switches and these light switches are special because they they Auto dim um and that's why they have to be programmed but all the ceiling work the demo on that side of the school all the new lighting has been success successfully uh completed demoed all put back and all the rooms have been
009cleaned waxed and all the furniture has been uh been reinstalled back into those rooms so very very exciting there um we're we should be start we actually started a little bit of punch list uh we had the electrical engineer down here last week to kind of take a look around so that's uh real good news uh on the exterior of the building uh this was actually part of phase one but I want to talk a little bit about it here at Lee Road so we've all been in in uh tight communication with Central Hudson um and if anybody knows how um these utility companies work they're they're very difficult um it's it's a need to know basis kind of thing so we got all the underground service in installed all the parking lots patched and
010we were waiting up until last week for this for them to install the the new telephone poll so that we can complete the connections both at the poll and at the building um they showed up out of nowhere I think Harvey was the one to let me know that there was a brand new poll in the parking lot without any communication from from Central Hudson and we proceeded to uh get right back on the project so uh with any luck we'll we'll have that tied in but unfortunately we are our hands are tied by Central Hudson to make the final connections they're the ones that do that and we're working with them every day to make sure that we can try and get the power into the building for schools starts okay uh if you
011go on to the first picture um showed you a little bit now this is what the room would look like uh once the ceilings and light fixtures have been demoed as you can see we protected everything inside that room with plastic um and everything that could be moved was moved out of the room uh moving on to the next picture um new ceiling grid installed if if you see the the white lines in the ceiling and you see the wires hanging on the ceiling this was just a progress of what it looks like when when things start going back um all the light wiring was was brand new back to the power panels and the ceiling grid here in this picture on to the next um this is what your ceiling brand new ceilings look
012like uh light fixtures are in um again this picture was taken a little uh it's a lot different today than it was when I took the picture to get this progress report done um but the furniture is back in these rooms and and all the floors are polished and waxed all the protection was removed and the furniture back in the room uh on the outside of the building new electrical service install I again this has all been backfilled and uh patched with Asphalt in the parking lot um today um but this is what it looked like when when we installed it this will be on the right hand side of the school if you're if you're facing uh leer Road uh next picture over you can see where the guys came in and they they
013patched the parking lot over the trench and that wraps up leer Road any questions for ler Road you um said something to the effect of you're working to make sure power is in the building by the time school starts so what is the probability or the chances that it wouldn't be there and what is the escalation process to ensure it is there so we we have reached out even Harvey himself has reached out as the as the District representative to try and get Central Hudson to maybe say hey we're a school district right we try to use that leverage that kids you know this is different we're not a warehouse uh we're not a mechanic garage like we need power in the building and and Harvey did reach out to them um they are trying
014to do everything they can like I said they showed up and didn't even our communication has been great we have email chains we have phone records of all the communications that's happening daily and they just showed up out of nowhere and installed the the telephone pole so I I honestly can't answer that question it's really in the hands of Central Hudson uh we are doing everything we can I don't it doesn't it's not going to affect your your school as it is I was about to say there's power currently building I didn't mean to I didn't mean mean to Mis lead you yeah this so I'm sorry it's just switch it's so it's an issue of switching over from service a to service B that's correct it's it's not for to your service service a
015is still active that is correct yeah my apologies I probably should have said that and and it's I I heard the same thing Christine heard and I was like wait a second we don't yeah so there so there there is zero operational difficulty with the school right now it is power students could be in the school everything would be functioning correct and and furthermore when they do the cut over the what we bought in the specs from the contractor is uninterrupted service so they have to provide a a power generator which would probably be the size of a tractor trailer truck to provide the power uninterrupted if Central Hudson is down more than a quick cut over so so worst case scenario um if we have the two options we we can bring in a
016track the trailer we can power up your building or we can wait for a break uh because the school will have to be shut down when we do the power over and it takes about a week so we we'll make that decision whatever is smartest for the school at that time does that make sense or you have questions or just the switch over takes a week takes about a cuz it's a lot of power coming in there and okay so it either has to happen before school starts or over break yeah that's correct okay yep but you'll have power it's not going to impact day do impact dayto Day School correct thanks okay so that's leer Road and again um our schedule completion date was uh August 20th so we are ahead of schedule on
017that project all right moving on to the Middle School uh Middle School we had an abatement project uh of the locker rooms it was a very intense uh abatement in there um they took about just about all the demo out uh as ACM containing material um that has uh been completed uh demolition is complete inside the locker rooms the new underground plumbing is starting so all the all the plumbing that was originally there is all being routed so your your showers your sinks your toilets are all going to be in different locations um and the shop drawings for Mechanicals are in progress so what shop drawings are are uh once we got the room emptied we go in there uh and the mechanical actually set up a 3D scanner and uh does everything by 3D
018so now they lay out all the duck work all the lighting we're doing coordination making sure everything fits and coordinates with each other we put that on a set of drawings and we couldn't do that until the room was completely stripped and bare um it's very hard to do it with existing conditions so that's that's in progress now uh starting at the first picture um this is pre- abatement so if if all of you remember what the locker rooms look like um we did remove a couple things in here in this picture but this is basically what it looked like pre-demo pre- abatement next picture um is what it looked like post abatement where just about everything out of the room was was uh removed except for the ceilings uh tile the curbs and light
019fixtures moving on to the next picture you can see where demo was in progress uh you can see a lot different a lot of work ceilings are down floor tiles coming up and just another room uh from a different angle of what it looks like in there as well under demolition I actually happy to report as well that we are on that project our uh demolition was slated to be completed on August 24th and we've completed that as of today so we are we're ahead of schedule so I think that's great news uh any questions on the middle school I have one oh I'm sorry go ahead just a quick question when when's the completion date for that those locker rooms yeah and just to to piggy back on that I mean um the public
020doesn't have the pictures in front of us we're talking just about that locker room right off the gym um is the only that's not usable now but essentially that was unusable St before it basically wasn't used I mean it was the same when I went to school there and it was basically unusable then so uh that's why we need to have capital projects and do improvements in our school district but we're not losing anything in function in our school from what we had yeah until it's done uh substantial completion is March 3rd of 2025 all right any other questions with the Middle School okay uh Willow Avenue so now we're on to phase one um basically everything we just discussed was phase two um phase one uh last time I presented to you guys I
021made a very strong promise um that we would complete this project by the end of this summer and I can stand here today and tell you that we will complete this project by the end of the summer uh we are actually just working with the architect now and in the next week week and a half we'll be doing punch list um on that phase which I think is great news if anybody's been by the Willow Avenue and seen the the beautiful loading dock it looks great what a great design and I'm sure it'll function just as well so on the interior uh of that building uh Willow Avenue is where a tremendous amount of work has taken place um you see the new asphalt just outside of the loading dock uh we fixed all the
022storm drainage that was in the in the underneath that parking lot um I could tell you they were made out of uh Center blocks they were extremely old uh the pipe was deteriorated um I don't know how it it went that long but uh you got brand new uh storm drainage so it works wonderful now uh all the interior ior doors if you haven't seen it yet um all the stairwell doors the double doors and uh added doors within the hallways um for fire code have all been installed painted Hardware is complete uh all the new stair railing all the stair railings have been either adjusted replaced uh with new in kind um the bathrooms have been completed the new hallway from the main corner to the auditorium is complete and um The Phase One
023open items uh is is complete or on track for completion by the end of the summer so some of the things we're still doing today in in Willow Avenue is a little bit of sanding a little bit of painting um and uh there's a couple unforeseen that I'd like to talk about as well and I know we talked about this in the past but I'd like to give credit to some of the contractors out there as well and some of the some of the things we encounter during construction that we don't anticipate so and I want to tell you this story so where the where the security guard used to sit uh is now a new bathroom and it's a new hallway that that connects the the main Corridor to the auditorium well when we
024were drilling through uh for the new toilet roughing we hit a beam below so we opened up the ceiling below which was which was plaster we really didn't want to go in there and start making a mess but we had to so what we found out is that was an old shaft and uh long story short we had to go in there and install a brand new ibeam to support that floor and it took about 3 4 weeks just to get the design get the engineers in there right right look at everything calculate everything give us the design order the material and then get it installed these are the types of unforeseen that we don't anticipate when we build these schedules and then we we go in these schools and I can tell you this
025happens more times than than you would think of especially in the older buildings so that's one of the setbacks that we had this summer and we were able to uh uh fix and accomplish and everything looks great today so um like I said inside that building I think we got a little bit of painting going on and uh there is one window that was on a major back order that's scheduled to be here the 16th of August so um that will be in place uh replaced I believe that's next week next Friday we're anticipating to be here following week we'll get it installed and then we can we can say that Willow Avenue will be officially complete so some of the pictures here the first one you can see the new loading dock um complete
026here with the rolling door great color uh the next picture is some of the new doors that we talked about this one happens to be at the bottom of the stairwell uh next picture is uh the installation of the handrails um I believe we had to raise them for Code Compliance Jim I think was okay so this was a major undertaking as in itself as you know there are a lot of stairs in that building and uh the next picture is the uh the new entry to the auditorium that we discussed a little while ago on the right hand side you don't see it but is uh the new bathroom and new storage closet all right the next picture that's this so this is the how difficult I want to show you how tight and
027difficult this was where we installed the steel beam unfortunately I do not have a picture of them installing it um but this was uh this is what we had to do this is below that bathroom so we had to go out rent scaffolding install the scaffolding tear down the ceiling get it investigated by the engineers and then perform the work that he he suggested very tight space and that's all I have for tonight's presentation and I have uh some time for Q&A if you have any um before I open the board I just had um one question and this this is first of all uh thank you very much for this presentation you know obviously sleep much different situation last summer and everybody's a lot happier um about where we're at uh today um my
028question was on the Leer road paving I thought that was originally scheduled for this summer we must have pushed it back to next summer I can't remember is is that on scheduled for next summer that's correct so we do have a phase three um uh tetr Tech and PLO group are actually working on that as we speak got it uh we're expecting to go out to the to bid I think by the end of this month we'll be on the street and that that's included in the package yep sorry perfect yeah and then the other we have to go out and bid the co for the windows and yeah yeah it's all part of the same package perfect just wanted to make sure that was still on the docket and had you know these schedules
029get uh complicated and convoluted and uh certainly I'm I'm looking forward to uh an upcoming facilities committee meeting and we'll really dig in um to the to the Mee of these issues but you know thank you for this update I I open the floor for questions comments from board members thank you very much I'm not seeing anybody thank you thank you guys thank you okay the next agenda item here is public uh comments recognition of visitors uh recognition visitors for any item or agenda or for any other concern the Board of Education welcomes ments from the public each person person wishing to speak is asked to speak into the microphone identify themselves and respectively limit their comments to three minutes two opportunities to speak are available uh one at the beginning of the meeting and
030here at the end uh the one in the beginning of the meeting we will limit to 30 minutes the one at the end of the meeting will have no time limit uh each speaker May address the board only once uh at the opening and once in the closing portion of the agenda please remember there will be no cross dialogue between speakers and members of the board all speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil manner obscene language liel of statements threats of violence statements advocating racial religious or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated persons wishing to discuss matters involving individual District Personnel or students should present their comments Andor concerns to the superintendent during regular business hours uh with that I open the floor to anyone from the public out here who wouldd
031like to make a comment oh okay hi I'm Leah Brickley um can you hear I'm sorry can I pull it out already wasted a lot of my time I I promise mm- hello sorry okay I promise to try and limit it to 3 minutes um I'm a parent and an employee of the district um a substitute teacher um I am here um because uh I had written to the Board of Education 30 days ago about a security issue um with doors chronically being propped open at Lee Road um I I got no response for about 20 days uh I followed followed up um and was told that it was kind of like a sorry I had not followed procedure um it was kind of a bureaucratic reason that I had not uh heard from anybody
032um and I became enraged and Furious righteously so um I I really felt like um I wasn't being heard um and that this was a serious chronic issue um it has been uh I just want the public to know that it's been a wild week um I have emailed all of the board members and the superintendent's office um vigorously I have um I do feel as though I owe all of you an apology um I um I was I was very angry um I didn't insult anybody but I I was I I was angry and I will say that I met with um two board members gave me their time today and they um before I before I go there I'm sorry I just want to back up um I was righteously angry I started
033talking to people in the community um and people in the community people who were born and raised here started warning me that speaking up negatively about uh against the district was not a good idea um that there could potentially be retribution against my son and um I have very good news for any parent out there who wants to speak their mind about what's going on in the school district and what's going on in the board and what's going on in the superintendent's office that you have the word from the superintendent's office that your child treated any differently and I have I have the word from the superintendent office and believe it and you need to start coming down here and you need to start talking because change needs to happen two board members today to
034go over the security issues and had um they were um sorry they were attentive they cared not only did they meet with me thank you I'm sorry not only did they meet with me but they met with my son a seven-year-old and they let him talk to him talk to them I'm nervous I'm shaking I'm sorry I'm trying to stay grounded um they they let him ask questions he was really happy he he thought he was really special that he got to talk to the president and another board member and they gave him his time and and he got to tell them what it's like not to win the principal's award ever and what it feels like they got to tell him he got to tell them what it feels like to be yelled at
035by a teacher not a teacher but a TA in front of everyone they got to see a seven-year-old look him in the eye and feel it and I know that they did I was there I saw it they gave me they gave me I feel much better about security and they and also I want to say to the parents if you see propped exterior doors it is not allowed tell someone and tell them to shut it okay this doesn't take a grant we can all do it it is not not worth the convenience I am a grieving parent okay I picked my daughter's earn out at Quigley and Sullivan you don't you don't understand it's not worth it the doors need to stay shut and I don't care if it's a special event they need
036to stay shut okay I want to thank the board members again I want to say that you made a huge impression on my son he walked away from that meeting feeling I mean what a special thing for him I hope he always remembers that and it made me realize that you need children in this process you as board members need to be able to go into those schools unannounced read a book to those students sit with them at lunch you need to see what's going on in your District you shouldn't have to have them scheduled so principles can smile and Usher you through the children in the middle school and the high school should be here why is there not a subcommittee with students from the high school and the middle school tell me why
037are you keeping children out of this process that needs to change there is a person in your office I know I'm not allowed to identify I'm not allowed to identify anybody but I will say this their email signature says we must prepare students for their world what world are you living in have any of you spent time in any of our kindergarten classes I have they are a disaster and it is shameful those teachers are drowning these teachers they need enl yesterday they need they need inclusion they need they need to learn every General Ed teacher is now a special ed teacher every General Ed teacher needs to have training so that they have a special ed toolbox to deal with this new generation of children and I don't know what world this person thinks
038these children are maybe back when they were principal but this is a whole new ball game these are not Millennials okay this is not gen Z this is Gen Alpha before I left my job at the Food Network for 15 years I did marketing and research for food Trends which means that I follow generations and I follow Jan Alpha not only because it was my job but because I have a son who's gen Alpha I would have had a daughter who is Gen Alpha 2 and let me tell you something about this generation that I don't think anyone in this District understands these are these children are a whole new being it is wild they are wonderful and they are wild I have seen your kindergarten classes I have seen desks being thrown over by
039students I have seen students in altercations I have seen students spit on each other I have seen seen classrooms where there were 10 students that were disruptive because they needed special they needed special treatment they were clearly neurode Divergent they were clearly suffering and our teachers do not have the tools for it now this is not the teacher's fault it is certainly not the students fault they're wonderful it's not their fault and I mean the parents can only do so much it's somebody's fault if you want to measure a district you go into a Kindergarten class and that's how you measure a district our teachers need our help you are not prepared for Generation Alpha these children are born with screens in their faes screens from the beginning of from the beginning this is a
040first generation where technology is there they are whizzes their brains work in ways that we will never understand you ask some from someone from gener generation Alpha what they want to be when they grow up president or a YouTube influencer they will tell you a YouTube influencer mental health issues are off the charts neurodivergence is off the charts and one board member mentioned to me that we now the standards becoming a specialed teacher you don't have to do your student teaching anymore like teachers are coming into classrooms less prepared out of school why are we not giving our teachers professional development to help them okay gener generation Alpha is coming winter is coming and this district is not ready and it needs to change and parents need to get down here and children need to
041get down here and we need to start advocating for ourselves thank you thank you for your comments uh anybody else all right should be quick um unfortunately well I shouldn't say unfortunately so I am a parent of a freshman tennis girl player he was very excited to be playing at the tennis court in when I just calculated 14 days sorry Victoria half penny Sor we know who you are I was trying I trying to go fast um so you aren't here all night but um so I do hope there's a good contingency plan that is worked out because as a working parent uh was kind of counting on her being here and being told last minute like the day before the week before isn't always conducive so I am eagerly going going to be looking
042at my email for those contingency plans that do not entail any less time on the courts because our whole fall is sort of planned around her uh playing tennis thanks thank you anybody else in the audience have anything to share in our public comment session please hello um my name is Karina Hunter I also have a child in the Lee Road School who's going into third grade um to kind of piggyback off aah strictly on the security issue regarding the doors it is a serious issue I'm a parent who was part of the PTA last year a parent who's heavily involved in the school um activities I'm I mean during a week I'm at the school at least three four times almost every time those doors are unlocked and they are propped open in Le
043Road specifically there are two sets of doors the doors that are supposed to be locked and is in the parent handbook for 2023 to 2024 that front door is supposed to be locked 24/7 with no other entrance or exit for anybody there are three security guards there that I know of that work there I have seen multiple times not a n one of them look up as multiple people people walk through that door and be very selective with who they choose to look up for and wait make sign in or they wait till they get down the hallway and it is a very L Fair attitude sour security at that school again I have friends in the community with children in Willow AV and Cornwall and Hudson and I know it is not the same
044there and that the attitude with the security guards specifically is not the same it has been brought up before and to go in more to that the front doors at Lee Road as you all probably know there are two sets of front main lock doors if somebody comes in those first doors that are supposed to be locked before any one of those security guards even looks somebody could be in two kindergarten classrooms that are to the left anybody could walk in and hitch a leap and not any of those security guards would notice I have brought up security issues with the principal Mr Arman before and again with a very relaxed response so just to again as a parent in the community I don't know how we hold the security guards accountable for leaving those
045doors again unlocked and propped open um but yeah I I agree and I've seen the the lack of security at specifically that school and I know it's not the same other places um so yeah thank you thank you uh very much for for your comment do we have anybody else in the audience okay thank you uh to everybody who joined us here for uh public comment um again there there's no uh back and forth but um just a few uh I'll just inter interject a few factual Things One Security is taken very seriously I appreciate these concerns and we will certainly look into them and make sure uh we do a better job of following our procedures um it is a multi-layered approach with security guards um sheriff's deputies cameras other other um other means
046of detection um as a board we have met with the sheriff's department with local police um so it's something uh in addition to additional physical measures of security uh we've got a state Grant will be reconfiguring uh entrances in most of the schools so uh I just want the public to be aware that as a board that's something that we take very seriously always room for improvement and and we appreciate the comments um in that regard um and would also like to uh say Miss Brickley thank you uh for your comments about uh coming to speak at the board meeting um I think something that we shared in our meeting uh today is probably most of the board members have come and given a public comment because they had an issue before they became board
047members um and this board uh and all boards that I've been a part of Welcome public comment um and we welcome the public to come join us at a meeting uh or if a public forum is not your preferred way of of uh uh of getting that out there we would appreciate if you email us um we'd be happy to help you if it's something that's in the board's purview or to direct your traffic to the superintendent uh or local building uh administrator if that's the more um if that's the the Avenue that will get you uh a resolution to your issue but that's uh this board always wants to hear from our public and hear those concerns and make sure that the district is addressing them uh the next item on our agenda uh
048are reports uh we've got superintendent goals and then board goals uh so I will uh toss it over to Mr Dade thank you Jim uh so I sent the board uh my goals and they on uh board docks and key metrics uh so uh goal number one centers around um the engagement survey for 2024 and identifying key areas uh of growth for both the district and our five schools um and then demonstrating um growth by the end of uh the school year when we administer the 2025 engagement survey uh goal number two is focused on um continuing our uh efforts with the diversity educ um equity and um inclusivity uh committee uh so uh this portion of the goal last year was really focused on development of the policy which we did successfully um in
049assembling uh a diverse group of stakeholders from across the district uh to um provide me with feedback and information um the board with information and feedback to develop that policy uh phase two for this year is really getting around the action planning for addressing any barriers to uh diversity equity and inclusion in our district centered around um any identified areas from our parents and staff and students um and developing a plan uh for those uh and updating the board uh as needed uh and then goal number three is a switch from what I provided the board at the end of last year um just based on the data that I reviewed from uh the last school year I changed it from uh enl to Chronic absenteeism uh so for a district like Cornwall our chronic
050absenteeism rate uh hovers around 177% which is um not meeting anyone's expectations uh I think it's something that we need to bring awareness and attention to uh it's something that everyone uh needs to take a part in from parents to students to staff um myself uh to put some strategies in place to reverse the upward Trend that we're seeing um taking Co out of the picture there's an upward trend from preco to what I consider the 22 23 school year as our first semi back to normal um so I changed it to address chronic absenteeism as my third goal so just wants to see if anyone had any questions concerns on those goals I do um so thank you for providing the current absenteeism rate so we can we can see that the goal is
051to reduce it down to 12% um is there state or funding tied to absenteeism is my first question and then my second question would be um what do we do to ensure that students actually reside within the district boundaries and or are legitimately mckin vento like what steps do we take um I've heard concerns particularly from leer Road school and I'm just um wondering what um what steps we take as a district uh so for uh Point number one uh I actually went back back and forth with the data and Metric for uh that originally I had the absenteeism rate and reduce it by 5% but I felt that it was confusing and um Miss gallano uh confirmed that um the the true uh goal intent is to take the number of students who are
052chronically absent and reduce that number of students by 5% so it won't be a 177% to 12% if that happens I'll sign myself up for superent of the year um that will not happen uh in one year so take the total number of students that are chronically absent and reduce it by 5% as the goal but I will get the final numbers uh to the board uh second question was around funding uh there's some grants and things that nature um that uh are around the state um that we could apply for I think uh we'll do that and get the ball uh moving from day one on some strategies and not uh try to wait for that uh funding uh to come through um and then number three uh it's not a ler Road um
053issue every single um School in our district has been under investigation for students who may or may not reside in our boundaries we have a distinct process in place where we'll send out confirmation of residency um requests um so if someone has uh showed residency years back and we question it we can have them prove their residence again um if we still question it we have our security team conduct an investigation uh to make sure that uh head is on pillow um at that residence uh to confirm the residency and and just to follow up what are um regarding the McKenna vento students I don't know and I'm not asking you to provide the number as we sit here um but for students that are considered homeless do we have a large population a medium
054I mean in your in your professional estimate and um how do we ensure that they are um you know that is actually accurate yeah we have a very small number especially compared to our um colleagues uh around us in the in the county uh there's a process where families must provide documentation supporting documentation they work with our pupil Personnel Services uh Department uh there someone doesn't need an internet um office to know all the criteria that must be met um um to meet mckenny vento status but we have a very small population in our district thank you I have a question thanks yeah my question is regarding goal to the CCS DDI committee uh there's a pledge to begin to implement a plan to ensure Equitable access and opportunity in order to promote greater greater
055achiev M for all students all is all caps um what is the plan uh what's the idea behind this plan and kind of how would you uh imagine the plan uh looking like and what's the the method of implementation if you want of such a plan like the plan it's going to be kind of like a documents set somewhere or how are you going to implement it how I know there's uh you know further explanation under the title that it's going to be provided to the board for adoption let's say we adopted I mean how are we going to go about it uh so the wording um is taken directly from policy so that's why you see the um the wording there with regards to um improving academic outcomes for all students not just um
056any subgroup of students uh so we worked hard on the wording of that uh portion of the uh of the policy uh the plan is is not simple but it's simple to explain if there's a particular subgroup and I will take um special education I will take um our enl students where there's significant gaps in achievement or there's disproportionality in suspension rates or disproportionality with referrals to uh special education and things of that nature if those rise up in the data from our parents and our staff and our students who are serving on the committee uh then we'll investigate those further and see if there's strategies that we can put in place to address those disproportionalities discrepancies and and things of that nature so that's what the plan would look like is identifying areas that
057could improve our um District's overall outcomes for all students and put strategies in place uh to do such great thank you bass anybody else on the board any comments Christian um so this needs F uh goal three I think needs further clarification about what we're talking about is chronically absent and then you said that there's still some ambiguity there that it's going to be clarified I'm sure by the final goal um but what I'm concerned about is that you know and how this interacts with a policy in the sense that you know we're adopting a drop rotation schedule and just by eliminating you know class meeting we're probably going to reduce the absenteeism rate and particularly that chronic chronically absent means how many students are above a particular threshold the second thing about it is
058that I'm not sure about looking speciically at District information is going to be particularly informative about addressing the issue and the reason is this is that generally speaking and I'm using ballpark numbers here The Chronic absenteeism rate in the country was about 10% pretty much historically for a very long time and what we've seen generally is it gone from about 10% to 20% Which is what people tend to be talking about which means if you look at our district what you're going to see mostly is the 10% that we've known about that is for reasons that we know about some things that are not responsive to policy interventions for because they reflect things that are in life they're not so the point is what you're going to see at in our own data is things
059that have been there and that is not necessarily the problem chronic absenteeism is something that's kind of happened in a lot of different districts we might learn more by looking at it broader and look at the cause of that and certainly there's more uh rigorous research on that to inform what we might do for the steps going ahead um on Dei I'm just concerned about how this is because we all know what the attendance was at the uh the third meeting last year so I'm wondering how the steering committee is going to be put together and how that's organizing because after the policy was passed there was a big drop off and engagement and I so I kind of would like to see more detail about how we are picking the steering committee and what
060issues they're over considering you know there are board members there reporting you know about 20% of the meeting was board members who were there and that's going to report to the board just seems like we need to maybe think about how we are going to engage and how that whatever policies or feedback is actually coming from the community as opposed to documents and things that are coming really top down and then lastly on goal one I just think that the choice of areas to grow is really the prerogative of the board all our language on policy is that you know the goals and the the targets are set by the board and I think the board has uh competence to look at the data to discuss it and identify what we think are the priorities
061that need to be focused at and I think that that is a process that I think should occur before that this happens um happens by people who are are elected versus people that are H you know in a sense in the administration of the of the school so I think that this can be either better designed to interact with what action the board might take in the strategic planning committee or own discussion of the engagement survey that was going to happen in June and that should kind of inent shape this as well all right so I'll I'll take that point by point so chronic absenteeism uh is defined by New York State and pretty much Federal Regulations as missing 10% or more of the school year so that's an easy um defition uh for everyone
062to wrap their head around so chronically absent once you are more than 10% absent uh from school um I I agree with Christian I we're not limiting research to our own District I I'm very collaborative with my colleagues in Orange County bosis and um in other areas of the uh other states that I've worked in um to address um that rate um so I think that answers uh that piece with um the Dei um committee um I'm in I'm implementing policy that's the role of the superintendent the policy was approved by the Board of Education it was supported by a robust um Dei committee um that provided ample feedback to inform the board of next steps uh the meeting that Christian's referring to happened extremely late in the year uh so attendance was uh sparse
063um but the next steps identifi we sent information out to the whole committee that was there at the beginning which was in excess of 60 uh people and ask them for their interest in serving on either the steering committee being a part of a subcommittee or volunteering their time in some other former fashion so we still engage with that robust um Dei committee uh that showed up for the first two meetings not the June meeting which was really late in everyone's um schedules so that's um for two it's really important that is my function as superintendent is to implement policy the policy states that the Dei committee will um provide me with feedback to develop a plan to ensure equity and opportunity for all students and that's what goal two is um is centered around
064for goal one um I think that there's kind of a a good way to make both happen um the uh interaction with schools is my responsibility that's identifying targets for each individual school is just it really is my wheelhouse and identifying those areas with our Administration who are Stellar um to dive through the data and identify those areas of growth is um I feel like in my Lane to Christian's point if the board wants to determine the three Focus areas for the district absolutely I'm just trying to um capture all of it in the goal whoever who comes up with those three areas uh for the district um makes no matter uh to me but at the school level that's absolutely I believe my uh frequent interactions with the schools with our Administration with our
065um teachers and staff to really uh dive into what those um data points mean uh unpacking uh What uh might reasons uh might be interaction with our students uh to learn more about why they may have answered particular survey questions in a particular way so um again for goal number one if if the board wants to provide that direction for the District of those three Focus areas absolutely um but at the school level um I'm not sure the board um would have the time nor the ability to follow up like me and my team would uh to ensure that we're making progress by the 2025 engagement survey Administration thank you uh any other board members comments oh hold on I think we've got a remote participation here technology here we go all right Brendan let's
066see if this works go ahead Brendon okay are you getting any of the volume yes are you getting any volume for me at all yes [Music] okay so there's a significant delay so I'll just start uh I'll start going so Terry uh just about goal number three uh I'm just wondering how you see the key results uh working with regards to the the schedule because it seems like one will influence the other like key result one will have to be achieved before you'll have to analyze the district's chronic absente rate before you work in collaboration with school buildings before you uh you know come up with strategies to reduce it so I'm wondering if you if you've thought about what that uh that Cadence will be um and you know will we be able to
067uh track your progress I guess along the uh each of those touch points thank you brandan uh so uh in case anyone didn't hear kind of the Cadence of how this will be tracked over the course of the year uh so uh we have an admin Retreat uh on August 26th um at that Retreat uh we'll be diving into the chronic absenteeism rate uh for the district and looking at Trends over time um and then each of our schools will be uh diving into their own data to look at uh Trends um in the data and beginning those uh efforts to develop um action plans to address uh chronic absenteeism uh for their school um and then I'll set up uh uh touch points uh throughout the year so at the end of each quarter
068um getting a sense of where we are with chronic absenteeism rates uh there are some schools that are already engaging in these uh efforts so while you can't calculate an absolute end of year chronic absenteeism rate at the end of first quarter you can see who's trending towards being chronically absent uh by the end of the year so let's say by the end of the first quarter a student in second grade already has five absences they would be on our alert um uh uh list for we need to have some kind of intervention here or this student will definitely be chronic AB chronically absent by the end of the year um there's also those students who we can um tell the story of why they were absent five uh days and look at Trends this
069is um a student who's always here but they had a family trip which resulted in uh these five absences so um there's a story behind um all of them but that's how I see it playing out Brendan as those touch points um throughout the year uh you all meet with me mid year um and at that point that would be a great opportunity to kind of see where we are as a district what the numbers are looking like um and where we're trending for for those rates just add one thing to uh just this discussion generally that it always seems to Warrant uh explanation that uh the superintendent goals are representative of the unique goals for this year and they don't uh they're not the only three things that you will be uh focusing on
070that these are on top of the normal duties and uh and annual goals of a superintendent which is to optimize the achievement of the school district I again I know that some sometimes that comes up in board discussion sometimes that comes up in public discussion but uh it seems always worth pointing out thank you uh Brendan for that comment yeah I'll just uh I think everybody in the audience uh can hear you but just to Echo that standpoint um these are specific goals and areas for improvement for the year and we can walk into ugam at the same time and that does not mean that we will uh lose lose sight of operating the district uh any other um members who have yet to comment who'd like to comments questions okay I am not seeing
071anything here um it seems like we had a couple different issues I I don't I I didn't hear anything in here that would actually be a A showstop or I think some of the the questions um in terms of the metrics on on chronically absent um you know we said that's a you said it's a state mandated term meaning 10% so I don't know that that necessarily needs to be um rewarded I I I'm kind of think that this is ripe for um a vote right now um we we didn't really have a consensus here of of honing in on on on one issue that we'd like to see change so um Christian you have a comment I don't think this is ready for a vote I mean if we can I can go on
072on that explain why I think that is but this was not an action item and I think if it was an action item there would have been a chance for public comment before there was a final vote so I don't think that today is the day that we should have a final vote on these so I I've just I've expressed this in in the past um I worked with the board to preview as much as possible um goals ahead of time so the board first saw at least goal number one and to um or or heard where I was going with those goals um back at the end of last uh school year um sent them out to the board um as well so they could get their eyes on uh these goals um and
073just for the public and for uh new board members what we didn't want to happen is I'm responsible for making sure our administrators teachers and staff members are ready to rock and roll from day one um and they can't be waiting hear what the goals of the district are um so I again I want to make sure I'm providing Direction uh for the district um and not um hindering that uh progress so the shift was made to kind of forecast as much as possible early and and that's that's what we did Jim uh Mr President if I may please um I would support uh voting on this item this evening I um have confidence in um ad the superintendent and administration giving the board updates anytime we have questions uh issues concerns regarding these um
074superintendent goals therefore I would I would make a motion to approve the goals yeah thank you for that um Christian I'm sorry did you have an additional comment did I see a hand there was a common respon to superintendent but the motion has been made okay so I think we are in a different phase the motion's been made and I think that uh we're going to do a second and if there's going to be discussion on the motion we can have the discussion then okay would anybody like to Second uh Tiffany's motion to have a vote on the superintendent goals we have a second from Christine any discussion on voting for the goals since I guess we had a discussion on the goals Christian so I think the first thing is that there is actually
075there's no urgency to pass the goals at this time you can look at any when these are passed through any districts the 90 districts in the Hudson Valley um they're passed as late as November these districts have really nothing you know they don't ill Fair because the BS aren't passed on time these goals are not necessarily affecting the operational things of the district because well uh if we wait a month or two a month and a half to choose what the three are or even have the first Dei meeting or look at Chronic absenteeism I don't think that changes what I do as a teacher because I still want students in my classroom whether or not there's a chronic absenteeism goal or not um I think that the goals have things that need to be
076worked on and that was came out in the discussion not for me and I think that means that we should give it time and I think when it wasn't put on the agenda as an action item it shouldn't be an item that should be acted on during that meeting when it's put on the agenda as a report um last year we had let's say someone making an action item for an RFP for district uh for the district's Council and I think there was General agreement on the board at the time that that was not the right and time and place to do that and I think that that gives the public a chance to understand what's happening and that we don't take action prematurely especially when there is no evident downside so that would be
077my argument for not taking a vote tonight uh that's fair thank you for your thoughts I will um counter that by saying I is the district going to stop to function if we don't take a vote on this tonight no no it certainly is not um in past years in M all of my experience on the board so far um this has been an issue that's just dragged last year I think we approved these in October um I wouldn't say that it's impeded the board's function but I would say it's hindered the board from function optionally um you know there's business to be had and to be done uh and if we can have that business and move on with it I think that's a positive thing um to your point out about it not
078being an action item um you know it's on the agenda um it the board goals were listed up on board do for public review um uh last week if you want to take issue with the heading of reports versus new business consent agenda um as that being somewhat confusing I I guess you know uh Terry and I will take responsibility for that when Christine and Terry and I met to set the agenda um that was really more about just staging the meeting in what order we wanted to tackle things um and I you know in emails uh the next topic is board goals uh and in se you know multiple emails to the to the board I said hey these might be right for a vote uh this week they might not be depending on
079how the discussion goes so um following that same logic um I think this may be right you know same same logic applies this may be right for a vote or may not be right for a vote depending on how the discussion goes uh in my mind it was right for a vote we have a motion in a second um if you uh would like to vote no on the vote with your reason being I don't think it's ready and they need Improvement you're perfectly within your appr to do so uh and if the vote does not get uh five yeses then we will have to um change the goals and come back to it again so um I I think my current the current plan right now is we'll take a vote here in a
080minute uh if anybody else would like to comment before we do so I have a comment B thanks yeah u i I just like to remind you know uh the the board that the discussion on working on the goals be it superintendent goals or the board goals uh should start earlier this year than we used to you just mentioned that like we used to delay it till October November uh which is good I agree with that but during that uh when an an email was sent out I commented by saying that the way I like to see the the the goals uh uh I like to see the uh board goals more like an umbrella under which uh you can put the goals of the can I ask you to hold comments where board goals
081is is the next topic we're discussing yeah yeah no but but we're still talking about the the superintendent goals so I'm giving you an introduction to ask my question okay my yeah thank you my question is for for for for Terry and you as the board president was there any effort to uh work kind of together to make sure that uh uh the the the the board goals Encompass if you want the superintendent goals in other words the superintendent goals don't mention anything that the board is not being as you know uh worthy goals to pursue yeah no I I think your comment is what's the upper level document driving board goal superintendent goals I've been um a vocal critic of the process since I've joined the board um and I think we've all um
082agreed that we need uh strategic planning as a district to to drive that process and this year sort of an interm step there and when we get into the board goals you'll see board goal number one is to uh work on a strategic planning process so I think until we under until we undertake that process I don't think we're going to get to the optimal State um so this is the state that we're at right now is how I view it I mean I okay I I just I'm okay thanks and um for for my part I I've been paying attention to the board's conversation with regards to the board's goals um Jim's been very good about putting them up for board and our admin uh to see um and i' I've made sure that
083there's nothing in contrast with regards to where the board is going around strategic plan facilities and academic achievement those are directly what I feel like is a great umbrella for the superintendent goals Christian so first of all we don't have superintendent goals we have District goals and that's very clear in the language of all of our policies and description of them in the context of their policies and it's very clear that the board sets the district goals as it's supposed to happen if the B if the board chooses to defer to the priorities that the superintendent wants to do then that's obviously our prerogative but they are the district goals and that's why there should be more discussion about them we got the language of these goals as was mentioned uh until Friday we might
084have thought that there was enl and we only knew a general area we didn't know any language we didn't know key results um there's a lot more that could be said about this and the point about that means the board should take responsibility for one of their main tasks which is laying out the priorities and the values of the district which is then implemented by the administration and that's clear in our policies and it's clear in the language of policies and the language in education law and the language of policies throughout this uh the region and the state thank you uh any other comments before we take a vote okay uh can I get everybody uh who eyes I've got one two 3 four 5 six Brendan Brendan is an I uh so we have
085seven eyes Nas Christian one nay um anybody I guess there's no exstension because that is all eight members so uh let's just record that as an approval of the superintendent goals uh document for 2425 uh by a vote of 7 to1 thank you uh moving on to the next topic on our agenda which would be the board goals for the 24-25 school year um again we really um kicked off this discussion in the June meeting uh we had a more robust document um at that June meeting it has since been tweaked um revising um minor revisions to what we had in June um if I can pull up uh can I can I steal your Pap of course yeah thanks um so uh I won't I won't read the whole document for the public it
086is available on board docs but uh the the number one uh overarching goal is a CCSD strategic plan um the board of education's committed to longrange planning to build upon the strengths of our district uh so we're going to review the climate survey that we did uh complete an RFP process um to determine feasibility uh for strategic plan and make a decision if we want to go through with that or not and then uh updates as needed um I will add that an RFP went out a few weeks ago to five respondents four respondents we um we have what five respond yeah so five different groups have been contacted there uh goal number two uh facilities Improvement again you know piggybacking on the presentation we made here um it's obviously important that we have clean
087safe and well main maintained facilities for all of our students and staff uh goal number three student achievement um partnering with superintendent to review uh math uh and data assessments at the elementary and middle school levels region exams um you know it says the board of education is committed to maximizing the performance of all students providing the resources needed for an excellent education while staying focused on their social and emotional needs um and I I guess another key point I'll highlight there is you know continuing um our our upk uh program and continuing to evaluate that that do we need to add more seats and uh make sure we're providing the the needs of the district there so uh I guess I will open the floor to uh any comments on the board goals as
088drafted and uh on board docs now and as emailed to the board last week bass thanks uh Jim I have a question on goal number one four times we say we will we will like they sound mutually exclusive and you go to the second one we say complete the RF RFP process it doesn't say what kind of RFP what does RFP refer to so just kind of for more kind of to be more informational for anybody who looks at the document understands what we're talking about sure it's I mean it's referring that's a bullet referring up to this strategic plan so it's it's an RFP to Providers to thirdparty Providers um who provide assistance um in having districts craft overall strategic plans I sure right yeah is your mic on yeah sorry just to I
089can hear you but you know they can't hear you the the eight people on YouTube can't hear you if your mic's not on just yeah B you just want us to say something like complete the RF process to select a partner purpose of strategic planning spell it out what the RFP refers to for the outside for the community if they read the document they understand that's we can do that that's easy enough yeah thank you bass any other comments from the board I have one um Christine go ahead okay Richard thank you so overall I mean I think I thank everybody for putting this together in a timely manner the only thing I'll say is I know at the June meeting um I proposed a goal focusing on special education um um personally as a
090board member I think this is something that still should be included um so we make sure all students including those in our special education programs uh receive high quality inclusive education um I know a couple people mentioned you know the goal I proposed might be a little too uh specific to start had too many steps so I think maybe starting with assessing our program creating a baseline figuring out where we are um I just think it's important that's what I hear from people in the community as well just want to throw that out there thank you Richard I'm gonna um actually um defer to Christine here um as we were finalizing that draft and reviewing board members comments from June uh we had sort of a a did not a sort of we we had
091a robust discussion about that in that language and um she wants to comment on that so I'm going to refer to her here so um for the sake of reminding everybody I am very passionate about our special ed program and for members of the audience I can assure you that when you are critical um of a program and hold people accountable your children are not retaliated against because I was one of those people specifically around the topic of special education so I just want to say that in the context of I don't think the details that were proposed are appropriate for board um goals they are some of those things were um you know things that we just wouldn't have access to because it's confidential information so in working with Jim my recommendation was that
092we provide this language around prioritize student needs with a focus on providing appropriate resources and I think Richard that if we decided as in order to fulfill that goal we needed to assess our special ed program that could be an action item under that right at least from my perspective and then the last one around supporting Administration and professional development programs that cultivate ongoing learning ET ET so that um our skilled teaching staff um meets the needs of all levels of Learners using research-based programs so it's not just about the special ed program but of course if we're finding and hearing that that's an area that is an extreme paino we can dive into that deeper and it's covered by this umbrella versus holding us to a a goal that just legally we couldn't fulfill
093because of the laws and other things around special education I may add to that Christine we kind of we trying to come up with language back and forth that included special education and appropriate supports and every time that we added it in it was like well wait a second now you're ignoring all your other students right um and the counter will be what about gifted to talented students what about students that are on special ucation or gifted and talented right um so we just we thought it was best to leave that more open-ended with the knowledge that that's um an area for the board I think really dovet tales with the discussion we just had on on superintendent's goals where um he said hey areas for Dei for improving uh inclusion would be if we
094have a disparity with special education that's something we need to look at and improve that so um that's just sort of how we felt about it just to to provide you more color on that not not that it was not included or ignored just it was we couldn't find the right way to work the language in yeah okay that's fair um yeah I mean as long as we focus on it and it's in our minds because I do know that it's important for me it's important to a lot of people I think we can always do better and yeah as long as we keep that in mind thank you great thank you um Tiffany just a quick question when is that 2024 climate survey uh available so we have got finished when in June um
095and Terry and Tiff or Terry and Christine and I um talked about it in our agenda meeting last week we've had the the survey data is available um uh just with summer and vacations we've had a little difficulty um chasing down the vendor to nail down a time we're get a good presentation but that's we're trying to organize that as soon as possible um right before you were on the board um John past president John edelin sent out um some information on it last June so let me let's dig that up and make sure that you and elanora have access to that that's wonderful thank you I do recall being present at that June meeting and I remember Christine I think it was specifically asking for a summary so I was wondering when we might
096have that yeah so sorry that's that's one of those when a new term begins you forget who had access to what so let's um we'll make sure that that email um gets forwarded to you and Elanor so you have the information that all the other board members have yet uh comments uh from anybody else on board goals uh Brendan did I see a hand raise okay we've got a hand raise from Brendan here Jim yes I don't know if you can hear me yes yes so I just uh I appreciate the explanation uh Christine's explanation in response to Richard's question it's always helpful to hear the context and the thinking uh behind the the actual language so that we as a board understand what's covered I think ultimately um the words on the paper are
097obvious very important but it's also equally important that we are all on the same page as to what they mean now one thing that I want to suggest is something that we have spoken about I know we talked about it last year and it's probably come up in in years before as we go throughout the year uh trying to track actions by the board or presentations that the board receives to a specific go so when we get a presentation or some information regarding special ed in the case that that Richard was pointing out to I think it's just helpful for us to always uh point to the specific goal that uh that the board goal that that is fulfilling so that we have a better sense of the progress that we're making because oftentimes we
098work on these board goals and then they become a bit disconnected from the monthly operation of the board so as we go um you know I think that's that's part it's probably going to be partly your job partly Christine's job to remind us when those things are are relevant to uh the actions on on the agenda uh but I think that's something that we should try to stick to as as much as possible this year because I think that will be a helpful way for us to track our own progress uh thanks Brenan that's a great suggestion and you know um Christine and I will certainly try to work on that and uh anytime anybody else on the board wants to connect those dots and say we're doing a great job as a board I'm
099sure we'd all appreciate to Pat ourselves on the back we're doing a good job but yeah um no that's a that's a good comment that it is important um when we're doing the work to tie that back to a board goal um you know I'll add to that I don't think we did was it last year or the first year that we did a board self- evaluation is something that we're supposed to be done and and you know was newly implemented out of last year the year before so um always the areas for improvement there uh any other board members uh with a comment on board goals okay I guess I will ask then for a motion to uh vote um to pass's point uh actually let's just we'll update the document um but we'll
100just make one change here under strategic plan the second bullet point uh we will complete the RFP Pro RFP for selecting um that was just my short hand for selecting an external partner um for planning Services is that good yeah so we'll update that language and we'll update the document but I I think with that just that minor change um I would like a motion to uh vote to adopt these goals so Mo okay we have a motion from Christine a second I'll second okay uh anybody uh all the I votes Brendan I oh and I I will vote I so we have uh seven eyes uh nay votes abstention and one abstention from Christian so that motion has passed 7 to0 to one uh thank you for that uh now we can move on
101to the next part of our agenda uh which is the president's update um what I was really going to cover in the president's update was just a quick update on the RFP process which we just covered um and I I don't really have anything else to add at this time that was that was the big thing I wanted to cover um and I wanted to just State the two things that I said at the tail end of public comments there um in terms of security and and welcoming comments from the public so uh we will we will call that finished we'll call that the maybe the briefest president's update in history and we will move on to the consent agenda uh use of the consent agenda permits the Board of Education to make more effective
102use of its time by adopting a single motion to cover those relatively routine matters which are included rest as per document we have this month numbers 1 through 16 um who would like to pull any of the items 1- 16 out for discussion Brendan do you have anything to pull you w to joh Jim pull number 14 okay Brendan S signaling he doesn't have anything to pull um bass sorry did I hear do you or do you have an item you'd like yeah I'm not sure about the number might be number three the Personnel action but I can tell you what I'm my question is it's about uh okay substitute teachers substitute teaching assistant okay should be should be number three right number three okay um and I would like to pull number three 15
103myself personally anybody else okay then can I get a motion to vote to approve items one and two uh numbers 4 through 13 and number 16 so moved we have motion and a second eyes I I I I Brendan on on tape delay says I that would be uh a vote of eight to to nothing on the eyes we will take uh the items that have been pulled out in order uh so we'll go to Bass for number three um I guess actually so let's how do we always this is the part we always get so let's take a motion um on this item so uh motion for item number three I move okay motion and a second uh discussion pass thanks yeah uh my question is very simple when it comes to appointments appoint
104appointing substitute teachers subst substitute teacher assistant and non-instructional non-instructional substit substit I can't talk tonight non-instructional substitute appointments my question is for these three category what kind of vetting are we doing uh Terry what's it sure I can answer that sure uh so certainly for our substitute uh certificated and uncertificated teach teachers as well as teaching assistants they apply through Olas uh traditionally I dedicate uh two days in the summer a day in the fall a day in the spring where we call in substitutes and then there's more or less a rolling uh period that occurs if individuals Reach Out directly uh so they go through the same vetting uh process in terms of submitting a resume references being checked uh transcripts being submitted uh as far as non-instructional substitutes uh similar in that they
105complete a civil service application they do submit a uh a resume they meet with me uh and references are checked as well and of course fingerprints so everyone's fingerprints are cleared prior to going on the board thank you yeah um let's take a vote I we've got seven we're waiting on the tape delay here for Brendan I okay we have eight eyes uh so that motion uh carries 820 uh now on to item 14 cabinet 2425 contract resolution uh can I have a motion so moved a second a second uh discussion Christian is your is your mic on now it is so my Bas my basic issue with this is that um what is the need to pass this and what is the need to consol a contract that is relatively I don't see any
106advantage to the district and I see potential downsides to the district I think that um two years ago the board decided to make a two-year contract okay including three people who were not returning um and only four members who are currently on the board if we want if and basically deprived last year's board from negotiating a contract talking about the terms basing it upon the evaluation Etc um I see no reason to open up the contract or consolidate the contract I think the contract if the terms are equivalent is equally in force now and I don't see any upside and some potential downsides and I think that given that we're having a contract recommended uh by people who this contract basically covers and we get this contract on Friday that that is not enough time
107and I think we should have at least some type of legal advice or review or time to have done that before we are taking action on that and since I do not think this has any negative impact on the people covered I think uh tabling this to the September meeting would probably be the most prudent course forward um so if I may this actually came from advice from legal counsel uh it doesn't change the terms of anybody's contract as you uh correctly State uh it was voted upon uh um two years ago for a 2-year contract so we're not changing or updating any terms this is really just a housekeeping item uh to update dates so this item actually came uh from advice of council could we provided the advice of Council on the reason
108for this and why the council thinks that there's an upside to consolidating a contract and reopening a contract um meaning requiring a new like um ratification of the contract and it would be nice to have seen the basis for that legal opinion sure so we're not um reopening the contract it's just we're voting on an addendum to that contract um updating the dates um certainly happy to pass along uh council's advice on this subject um I would say that this has been you know duly added to the agenda last week um I can't produce an opinion from Council right now um had a request come across um you know Friday or uh possibly even as late as this morning we certainly could have reached out to Mr Honeywell um for a note that could have
109been passed along to the Board of Ed but obviously I can't produce that at this moment may I also add if I may um any opinion of council should be discussed in executive session uh any other uh comments on this agree um Mr Gano I think what I was saying is that my reservations are that we don't have that for the action of this item that's for us right now and I agree with your how it should be done it's my it's my understanding this isn't changing anything about the contract it is not changing any dates it is not changing any prior agreements we're simply taking the main contract that was in place originally and the three adums that have taken place since the original and consolidating them into one document so that we're not
110opening three documents to see the most current agreed upon contract so there's no in my understanding there is no change there's no date change this is simply a housekeeping as Jim had said certainly if there was any um any change to contract then it would require more time more talk etc etc so I'm not sure what the downside is to just consolidating a document and this is the practice that we have in place with the CCTA with our administrator groups um all of our um collective bargaining uh units undergo various Mo MOA stipulation agreements over the course of the year and our legal uh Council consolidates them so that we're all operating um with one contract because it gets quite confusing to say well what about the mo MOA from X year um so that's
111just been kind of our standard uh practice for the district is over time making sure that we consolidate um all of those addendums and moas into one one document uh comments any other board me or questions from any other board members Christian I mean no downside also no upside so the question is what action but here's the thing like there what three or four agendas uh are we being paid are we paying by the pixel or would you have a difficulty of opening up more than one attachment or fewer attachments than are typically attached there doesn't seem to be purpose for this so that's why I would like to know why the council I don't see that there's an advantage to a legal documents simply because it is in one doc one PDF file versus
112three PDF files and I think that that makes me want to ask questions and therefore I think it would be prudent to have you know the discussion an executive session with an opinion um that's fair I I appreciate your a rationale rather than opinion sure um I appreciate your opinion uh I will reiterate that this has uh been du on the agenda um and has not been raised until now so there has not been an opport opportunity to do that uh this item has been moved and seconded so we will now take a vote uh if enough of the board members agree and uh vote no for this action then we will um have to get an opinion from the council and uh revisit this next meeting so all eyes uh before you take the
113vote can I point out while the our policy does allow us to for board members to participate remotely for them to take a vote there are rest there's standards by the New York State about that they need to be visible to the public to C to take the vote and participate and if that I would like to have the a ruling on that before we take the vote um if anybody from the public would like to come down I have Brendan on my screen and watch him raise their hand please do so um ice I Richard B no so we have 1 2 3 4 five eyes no one no from Christian uh and any abstentions we have two extensions for Richard and bass uh that motion is carried five to one to two uh
114next item on our consent agenda number 15 can I have a motion so have a motion do we have a second we have a second um I just wanted to pull this out always just to understand uh obviously this is based on uh the the budget for this year which we voted upon um this is just how the rubber meets the road and just wanted Harvey to give the board especially in fact we have two new board members the the 360 902 version here whatever it may be of of what this entails sure so this is required by law we have to the board as a as a whole has to set the rates themselves based on the tax levy that was identified as part of the budget process um it's worth knowing that the
115the tax levy as a whole increased from last year by 1.72% but uh as you might note in the memo that I put out to the board uh the increases to each of the three municipalities because from remember we have Cornwall we have Town parts of New Windsor and parts of Woodbury the rates for each of those respective municipalities is actually under 1% and you may ask well if we increase the pot 1.72% why is the tax increase for the individual uh tax payers less than that and the reason is for for two two two pieces one is the actual pool of assessed value has grown okay that grows typically every year at least in my experience in this community uh equally one of the uh variables in this calculation is what they call the
116equalization rate and all that does is try to equalize the value of a property in each of the three municipalities that were part of so that a home in Cornwall is of the same value as a home in New Windsor so with that said um the reason that this came down is because of the largest part is because of the assessed values in these three municipalities as a whole have increased they've increased pretty good rate uh consequently it's favorable to the taxpayer and the rate is actually less than that 1.72 thank you Harvey so just a great note um to our taxpayers uh when you think about your tax bill holistically um between the town uh in the village and the school district um that when you vote for yes for a budget in the
117spring at a 1. 72 tax perent that your tax percent as a homeowner is actually less than that if we add more ratables in our community um so when the town approves new buildings uh and those buildings pay taxes that helps lower uh the tax burden on our homeowners so just important to note uh can I have a vote for this uh All Eyes Christian I don't think it's appropriate to advocate for Town policy using School District resources thank you I don't believe I advocated for a policy I explained the fact that when ratables in the town increase that a homeowner's tax bill increases that's a factual statement not advocating for a policy all I votes please vote I I I uh Brendan votes I that is eight uh I so I will not take
118the Nays and uh the abstentions because we are there that takes us Jim if I could just add uh before the end of the meeting tonight there is an actual physical tax warrant that I need to get a majority of the taxpayers to sign so before you run out tonight if you could just um walk look for me and I'll have the paper thank you tax paying board members what board members board members thank you Harvey needs signatures from board members after the meeting thank you going okay that brings us to the end of our consent agenda uh brings us to item F here uh the non-consent agenda discussion of BOE committees um part A here is discussion of existing Boe committees uh we obviously discussed at the last meeting um what those committees were
119we took um preferences from all the board members to go ahead and seat our committees um I emailed those out to the board last week um I emailed those to Linda today get on here they don't look like they made the printed version but I would assume that they came through on um board docs um sorry I just need to go back here on my agenda um the oh okay great thank you um okay so thank you Linda so we do have under each committee got it you added it to the description in addition to not replacing perfect thank you um so everybody uh if we look at the exist existing committees we have members and chairs on there um so that is item a there UMAS was that is that easier no it's here
120um I I just didn't see it on the page um and then we've got um so we have a separate agenda item for delegates to Orange County School boards nispa legislatively aison so uh all of these board members are filled um I will in past practice have voted on these as a board um I don't think that's actually necessary uh legally speaking I think these can certainly be filled at the um pleasure of the the president and the vice president uh but I also have found a good practice to make sure that everybody uh agrees and has buyin um I didn't receive any comments back from email uh the Committees were filled based on preferences that were sent out via email so I'm going to assume that everybody's happy if they have not uh commented
121on their committees so um if I can get a motion to just take a vote to improve to approve uh the members and chairs listed here for our existing committees so moved second second okay all eyes for approving these committee assignments I I okay Brendan says I so that is eight eyes um again don't need to take names because that is a to nothing um it says the next item here is discuss uh additional Boe committees um I'm going to actually Circle back to that and let's discuss first um since we've already seated these the oxa nispa and legislative uh liaison um so oxa we have Christine Diaz and then we had a lot of volunteers for um the alternate so I guess I'll just take you know um if we can pencil in here
122who wants to be the alternate to the Orange County School boards Association I had multiple people via email said they would do it does anybody want to step up here uh in public and Christian everybody good with that okay so we're going to put down uh Christian brunelli is our oxa delegate uh nispa uh delegate is is bass and we're going to go ahead and take an alternate bass did a um tremendous job there being our delegate in that long NPA meeting going over all of their uh legislative priorities and voting um on our District's uh behalf does anyone want to volunteer to be the alternate if okay Tiffany everybody good with that seeing lots of yes great um uh legislative liaison again I had lots of so I put two down I put Christian
123and Tiffany down there um in the p and last year we had two people go up to Albany for that lobbying day um and I've seen other districts send two people up so I just put both down there uh Jim just a comment on this um since we are doubling the Staffing to this um one of the things suggested also to create a local government liaison position and I think rolling it into this role would be appropriate and useful I know that some of our local governments have talked about having aasis on to the school district and that would just give them a point person just to make sure that information is passed on yeah I mean and I think uh I think uh there are people in the position that have the ability to
124um you know connections to make that and facilitate that sure in in my mind actually that the legislative liaison is not just to ALB for that lobbying day but also is the liaison um to our local um municipalities to to M municipalities um and also to our State Assembly member and state um Senator you know if we need to Lea with with Mr EAS or Mr scus um it's my um I'm only but the language is legislative so you know obviously they're not all legislators legislatures so my point is you think you've answered the question that it's just a general purpose and I think that would be um that would be a good um good path forward fantastic um so I think um okay so that's item two there so uh we've just gone and
125appointed all of those on item two can I have a motion to vote on those move we have a motion second eyes I we have eight eyes for that uh number three here discussion to appoint representative to the following districtwide committees uh Dei health and safety and security and professional development um let's flip the page here um so we have uh Richard Schaffner for health Safety and Security Tiffany gallano for uh professional development um and then Dei I left blank and said we're going to do that at the meeting because I think I had six or seven people volunteer for that and obviously that's um that's Overkill I don't know Terry if you want to discuss um I know you're you're looking for some changes there to not have a 60 70 person committee but
126to have an executive committee and and um because it's actually not clear to me on on where we want board representation here so if you want to discuss that and then we'll discuss um who should fill those roles thank you uh so six would be uh too much for a steering committee so you're correct um but if six board members were interested m too much uh so the steering committee is really supposed to be a smaller group that's going to help facilitate the ongoing conversations and the smaller subcomittees uh for the Dei committee so my recommendation would keep that number at two uh and then for the additional board members who still have interest there's still going to be um an opportunity when I bring back subcommittee um where various board members could participate in
127those subcommittees based on their interest so a subcommittee could be around um teaching and learning there could be a subcommittee around um parental involvement uh things of that nature so there's still those opportunities as well okay so we're looking for two so who wants to I know we had just via the the email traffic we had a lot but um I think you know some people might not raise their hand right here so I guess let's just raise a hand and see if the number is still higher than two uh Jim just um suggestion just um obviously Christine and I on the de committee last year certainly did and um you know obviously I will withdraw you know just to reduce the number and you know I think it would be appropriate to give us
128other people an opportunity to serve on the committee thank you for that um show of hands of people who are interested on the Dei committee I've got one hand went from six to one Christine Brendan are you going to raise a hand for this or no you want to give me a thumbs up thumbs down delay is wild Brendan gave a shoulder uh shrug thumbs up so I guess that means if nobody else wants it I'll take it I'm going to interpret that Christian are do you want to throw your hat back in and say I only step down to open the the door yeah if Brendan's going to give me a shoulder shrug I think we'll uh we'll appoint Christian and Christine to continue their role there does that work for you Brandon thank
129you got it um so we are going to then for Dei we're going to have uh Christian brelli and Christine Diaz uh great so we have uh those three committees here in number three filled um did we do a motion in a second on that before we discuss sorry I can't remember if we moved it and then discussed it did we move it okay so let's take a vote then we're voting on number three here for um the Dei committee which would be uh brunelli um and Diaz the health Safety and Security committee Richard shaer and professional develop de development committee uh for Tiffany gallana so just voting to ratify the discussion we just had so um just um Jim just point of order because we I know letter B under uh number one was
130we're coming back to it we're coming back to that y thank you we're coming back to it I just wanted to fill the I I understand the the reason I is making sure that you know we didn't just move on it is not gone and forgotten right um so you know what let's just take another Motion in a second because I honestly can't remember if we moved it so we've got a motion second we've got a second uh eyes we have eight eyes uh on that one so that's number three um so the next item number four is the code of conduct so now we'll Circle back to number B um number b letter B um letter B under subhead a a subhead b guess it doesn't really matter uh discussion on proposed additional Boe
131committees um I did not send to Linda what those committees were so they're not written down there um so off the top of my head um they were um curriculum code of conduct um it was um and also um did we have did we have um are we talking about all the ones were proposed or all the ones that we considering I think I remember what there was a special education committee there was a professional education policy book club which was kind of a professional development and uh to have people read and discuss as a committee um there was a code of conduct committee and I think there was a district curriculum committee yeah I curriculum uh code of conduct special ed I'm not sure I recall the the the as I said it wasn't
132a committee to do something was a committee to basically um kind of you could say for board professional development and for so yeah we we have the I mean we have board representation on the um professional development committee that the district already has so we have a yeah can I ask a quick question yeah Mr President that does the district have a curriculum committee Mr Dade I guess would answer that uh not specifically so we have a professional learning uh plan uh committee but not a curriculum committee uh my my proposal um the curriculum committee I know something I discuss certainly I want to let you air that view I just want to agree on which proposed committees we're going to discuss and then and then um we'll discuss them we'll go down the list
133there so right now I've got three I've got curriculum code of conduct and special ed do we have anything that we want add a strategic planning committee but that might be covered by our board doc our board goals yeah I I I think we can knock that off right now and I'll just ask for head nods here I think that's part of the board goal we've sent out rfps we'll have a discussion as a board if we want to approve those rfps uh if we choose to go ahead with that and select a vendor for an RFP that we will obviously have a strategic plan committee I think it's kind of a we will have one if we choose TR comprehensive so we get it done that was yes I agree that's in my notes
134but I I think that's a clear path on there so um so I've got curriculum code of conduct special ed um well Tiffany you had a curriculum comment so let's open the discussion on curriculum uh committee a proposed committee sure so my my proposal for a curriculum committee was not necessarily a board committee but perhaps a uh recommendation to Administration to have a district curriculum committee for which there's a board representative similar to uh the health and safety and and professional development that's I just wanted to clarify that to be not as a a board in my recommendation that I'm just that's just my opinion um that's certainly um a valid part of this discussion is to should this be a board committee should it be a committee that has uh membership um with other
135members of the district uh and not solely a board Committee in addition to should said committee exist um other comments on a curriculum committee I guess what I would like to hear um and I I spoke to um Miss Panero on this before she um uh went on her on her trip that she's on right now so she can't join us her sort of um I don't want to put words in her mouth but I will try to do justice in a very short firm short for form um her thought with a curriculum committee would be really to um we both agreed that you know 98 99 maybe 99.9% of the curriculum is really kind of mandated by New York state but her concern was more of how how does the board know that that
136curriculum is being implemented uh if we're changing um our science um um discussion if we're changing our science curriculum uh external provider textbooks and and and materials as we did a couple years ago how does the board ensure that those materials have made it into teachers hands um so I think that was that was um just to raise a concern um that she had um Tiffany I'm sorry one more comment I was the one that proposed the committee so one more comment on that was um also to to make sure not make sure not that there's a lack of trust but to have some um information on how it's being implemented and I understand it's probably Administration that's interpreting these New York state laws and rules and what the curriculum should be and I'm I'm
137fine with that that's as it should be but that's why I'm saying a board representative and I also want to make sure that there's teachers on there that that have a voice um in how these um the curriculum is being interpreted and implemented hence my my proposal uh thank you for that I know you've got a hand I'm I'm gonna I'm coming down that way um I and I guess I will add as sort of an overarching comment to this discussion um on all three of those proposed committees that we may be uh a half a step ahead by saying we need a committee so I think your question Tiffany is a fantastic question and one that we should ask the administ rtion in a work session um so the board meetings are set up
138you know in the summer we have one meeting per month but during the the the meet of the school year we've got two meetings per month one is a business meeting one is a work session the work sessions are designed to dig in depth to a topic so if we have a to a question like that um which I think is of interest uh to many board members of you know how does the rubber meet the road how do we translate State Standards into a curriculum and what's taught to our students in the school I think a start a great starting step would be let's have that in presentation as a work session and then we can see after that okay does that answer our questions or do we think that needs ongoing committee work
139um from a board committee um Christian curriculum committees are pretty standard on Boards of Education um the fact that we don't have one is kind of wory anomaly MH um and while yes New York state does put out standard for the required classes and in some grades you know it's more about the implementation um all electives are to generous to the district um the general process is that when a teacher wants to propose a new class that class is proposed it goes to a board committee they make a recommendation the board approves it um there are decisions for example what foreign languages to offer any District can decide what foreign languages they want to offer maybe we want to add a foreign langu language or maybe uh reduce our foreign language that's kind of an
140issue that I think that the board should take up and that's you know responsive to the community um interest um there is also as uh Elanor as you or at least as you uh represent elor's position which is making sure that the curriculum is being resourced and you know implemented Faithfully to what the intent was and I think that at least four board members express some type of interest in serving on the committee and I think that would be enough to let's say create a committee and allow that committee to figure out what it's what its perview is um because some of the things that are would be done by curriculum committee are things that are handled in the visitation committee but there's also things in addition to that and so I think it would
141I don't think we need to wait I think we can create a committee and the committee can decide and if it's not necessary like perhaps the scholarship committee or the new member board committee it can decide to make a proposal or a charter and if it doesn't get the Improvement it can be uh it can be dissolved or it can be uh suspended I think that would probably be the would would be my preferred way going forward on this and just I mean there I could go all examples of curricular decisions from like adding a gifted and talented program adding you know certain types of uh enhancements to our curriculum and I do think in the past or this Coral board of education has weighed in on that and approved course it just hasn't happened
142as far as I can until in the last four or five years and I think that would be a return to form and a return to how most Board of educations conduct their business yeah I'll make um two comments um one I think that our visitation committee is really what other districts call a curriculum committee is really how I've seen it um because our visitation committee was originally uh as my understanding it was before my time on the board but it was originally founded when we had a change I believe in a reading curriculum and the board wanted to go into the schools and see how that was being implemented so I think there is some overlap and I think there are some things um that we're talking about curriculum wise that could be um
143given to the purview of of what we call our visitation committee or pass possibly we could update the name of our visitation committee to visitation curriculum or just change it to curriculum but um uh just on a process um you you said um I think we've got enough interest so we should just form a committee and they can make up what they do uh and that's not a that's not a quote right so so I will say for me personally not as a board president facil itting discussion but as a as a board member my my vote on that way of doing it I would vote no on that committee and I think what I would propose in in response to that which is uh similar ACH will achieve a similar end but it's just
144a different way of going about it is if we have for members who want to do it they can have um an ad hoc meeting you know we can I don't think it needs to have a a committee title it can be a proposed committee um those four members can then propose here what we think this committee could do I'm not prepared to vote to open a committee until I know what the perview of that committee is I'm also not opposed to if members are interested in forming committee for them to get together and propose what they think the purview of that committee would be if that makes sense I I think it's I think it's going to the same place it's just a different form I I think we have a difference of opinion
145but I think that's why we have democracy um other uh B yeah on the curriculum committee um I mean I see it in a way uh as a u as a Budd you know that can put some enforcement mechanisms on what to teach in the classroom for instance like if a course let's say is you have to teach a given course like the the state tells you you have to teach this topic now does the teacher have the luxury to say well I'm not going to cover chapter five and chapter six for instance you know so when you go down because like I can give you an example I recall one time looking at results of regent exams and the results came back not good and I think I heard that uh we don't cover
146that topic like why don't we you know so like when you have a curriculum committee I mean something like that would be handled I think that's a good question and in my mind that is along the line of Tiffany's query of let's collect a list of questions that we have on curriculum and have a work session on curriculum and see if we can't answer that question there and then if we're not satisfied as a board with that answer set up a committee that's how I see that question so I I appreciate the question I just think we should what um I guess that was I did I did have one thing that I forgot to say in my president's update I wanted to solicit and I believe I solicited earlier um this summer via email
147but um if any board member has uh suggestions for a work session for the upcoming year please do send them um so this this is now a solicitation there so I I think we've got a couple uh good questions here and we can flesh out more questions via email uh to be answered in a work session on curriculum but to me that's where that falls uh other comments curriculum committee I'm looking at you Brendan do you have a [Music] comment are you on mute yes okay go ahead I think you might have muted me I sure did you're unmuted okay now uh we're caught up yeah I just want to uh I actually just want to underscore what you said uh because I think that that is the the uh the approach I would take
148I I think I'm not against uh any of these committees in fact I I I can definitely see some form of these committees being established um but we've come into problems in the past uh just in my experience being on the board where we have committees and then there's a there's some confusion about what the committee should be doing and that becomes a much more difficult problem to solve I think just having a little bit more uh diligence upfront will allow us to establish this committee with confidence especially when the committee is working so closely with the administration we want to be very careful about how we're diverting the administration's time and resources and a curriculum committee would almost by definition need direct input and time from our administrators and teachers so I think just
149having a little bit more due diligence on our side will allow us to proceed uh in a way that everybody uh is happy with uh great thank thank you Brendon for that comment do we have any other comments from board members here I have a comment I mean curriculum committees are pretty standard we are not re we're not inventing the wheel I don't think it has uh affected any District administration of all the districts that have curriculum committees there is a reason I think that uh John Hines at our last meeting in his comment asked us to form a curriculum committee because it does help support the teachers and make sure that it has that um and I think the point about it is that somehow they were going to create some you know uh
150some weird monster that's going to somehow upend it is just really not with the common practice of boards of Education in New York state of which there are many and part of the reason why you need a curriculum committee as I said you know last year is that when you talk about let's say for example our controversial issues policy the what's in the curriculum and when you set a standard has to be adopted by the elected members of the community because it's the community standard that determines what is and what's not in the curriculum it is not an administrative or shouldn't be an administrative thing which is why courts have again and again and again rule that way that it has to be and if the board of education does not take a position then
151you are basically saying that whatever the teacher decides of how to implement the course and it's pretty Broad and we can look at all you know commissioner decision after commissioner decision after commissioner decision on this it behooves us to have one so that we can take action or we can establish that standard or have some type of scrutiny about over it not to let's say check in on the teachers but have a process by which curriculum is adopted evaluated proposed planned Etc and that's why more than I'm sure 90% of the districts I do know I looked at the 90 Hudson Valley I think 86 or 87 had something called the curriculum committee and the rest had something that was similar and I think it it frankly it's something that we really should do and
152the idea that somehow that we're proposing something that is odd that something is been proposed on is really just not standard practice and so I mean maybe we maybe we should I don't know uh try it out and give it rather than treat you know tabling and treating something that we have to investigate thank you um I I just wanted to give the background that um was explained to me with regards to visitation um and Megan can correct me if I'm wrong but visitation was really born out of um the introduction of Common Core which upended districts all across New York and um the country and the intent of visitation was hearing from teachers and staff what with these changes we need X Y or Z to make sure our kids are getting what they
153need so the board would go out and and look at something like science instruction and that would be the purpose and intent of their visit to go into classrooms and observe science and then meet with teachers to say what's what do you need what what can we pass on to the state as we um undergo these uh changes so I agree with Christian that there's some version in districts I think that Cornwall took a different take on how that might be best accomplished so the visitation committee was really supposed to be curriculum focused teaching and learning focused and then coming back and Reporting out to the board in order to advance what our our teachers and students need in the area of reading um align to Common Core or best instruction for students this is
154what we saw in classrooms this is what we heard from teachers so I think that there should still be some more conversation about the purpose of visitation how that could best be useful for the district in these very conversations and the only second um uh caution I would provide to the board is um we're um we'll send you an email with the updated Curriculum maps just it it's a beast so if you think that you're going to review all of the um curriculum from every Consin area from K through 12 it's a lot so all I say is we're here to do right by our students so bring us what problem we're trying to solve and we'll surely provide you with the answers and then we can delve deeper if there's something that we un
155unveil as a committee individual board members or or the like so just wanted to make those two points thank you Terry Tiffany Christine I I was going to ask or suggest can we enrich the visitation committee if I recall last year even in the year before I I think it was like we went to I didn't go people went to the school they they they met they watched they looked they took some feedback but I don't know that anyone went in with like the curriculum in mind or that wasn't at least discussed at a board level so as a first step could we enhance the expectations of the visitation committee to include some prior to discuss about a specific Cur curriculum that we want to w we want to be looking at through the district
156as we go on the visit um and then it can evolve from there perhaps based on that committee's recommendations and insights and you know if there's somebody that very strongly wanted to be on a curriculum committee but didn't see visitation as such we could maybe revisit who's on the committee if that's you know part of it I I don't know but this way two birds with one stone uh it's a great suggestion I have uh a proposal for path forward but I open it for any other additional comments before I make that proposal okay I'm not seeing any so here's what I'm going to propose I'm going to propose we work on two tracks here one and then we'll follow up via email uh one track is um soliciting questions um such as Tiffany and
157bass had uh for the board for a uh potential work session on curriculum uh the second track uh is for those four members who are interested in a curriculum committee uh that they have uh a meeting and they begin to Define what they think is a curriculum committee and I I think um Christine suggestion is wise um with maybe a lens or a thought process towards is this something that we see in the purview of a new committee or something that could be rolled into our existing visitation committee um with a potential you know name change or update to an existing committee uh and adding more um to the purview of that committee um so that would be my proposed way uh forward and well I'll follow up with email on that um next proposed
158committee here is the code of conduct committee um and I know this uh suggestion came from you Christian so I will open the floor to you um and I'll I'll just ask um as we think about forming this for a committee my questions would be um what is the problem that we are trying to solve and how would um how would this committee solve that problem for the district that's sort of my overarching questions in this area because I I'm I'm not entirely sure on that yet so I'd like to hear your thoughts there so as I've said before like the code of conduct I think runs something around 60 60 to 70 Pages we should make it more than twice as long as any code of conduct in this entire in entire region and
159that's not the problem is the number of pages but it indicates how the code of conduct is done which is that it's basically reactive something happens we change some language something happens we change some language and what you get is an ever expanding document and our code of conduct is not of to me what I call would call a workable document which means there's a table of contents but there's no pages so you're asking someone to go through 70 pages to figure out what exactly is in there and we have different policies for different buildings and just judging by the the inconsistent type faces and knowing where some of the language came from there's a lot of copying and pasting and I think the thing with why we have a code is that a code
160is actually something that people understand and therefore it governs and understands their behavior in the sense like this is what we expect and in a sense we simplify it so that it can be usable to the students teachers Etc the reason why I think we need to have a committee is because for a code to have effect it has to have legitimacy and to have legitimacy I think we need input from a lot of community members about the different types of things that you know are important to them and I know there are people tonight that have differences on dress code and they're both members of our community and they should have an input into that so that we have not just in a sense a changing of this word or that word but something
161that in a sense creates a principle and a lot of that I think would say the examplars of a code of conduct have that because when things are not spelled out you have in a sense some principles that in a sense guide to how those things would occur but then there's a practical issue about how the code of conduct Works which is that let's say you have school tool and I'm a teacher so someone does something transgressive I write up a referral in school tool it gets go to the administrator administrator who did not witness what happened and in most cases when someone's breaking the code of conduct someone's V someone's being victimized which means a student a teacher Etc someone's not doing something that they're supposed to be doing and then someone else is
162treated like that they're somehow the transgressor or let's just say like in criminal justice terms the offender and then it comes through a criminal justice process which is that well do we know the facts about this offender and did they offend and you know what were the details of that but then that will be determined okay by someone who's distanced from that and then of course if it's a significant penalty there's going to be an appeal by that parent and then that parent will say well this is too harsh and then the administrator might say well then we'll maybe cut it in half and then what happens is several things the first one the person who's victimized just feels like I'm waiting for you to do something about the thing that happened to me and
163that victimization means that he comes focused on the person who offended and the facts of the case and the punishment on a deterrence model the idea that if you put some of these punishments or these sanctions on them they're outlining the code of conduct that will somehow prevent that behavior and you know there's a voluminous research on deterrence and criminal justice including codes of conduct and they say basically that the P the size of the punishment is irrelevant it's a consistency of the implementation the second so the point about that is that it leads people victimized and feeling that they're not well treated and it leads to a lot of arbitrariness because what the code of conduct has done is basically expanded the scope of What kinds of sanctions that an administrator can put onto
164a student and that actually undermines that because I don't know if it's going to be a slap on the wrist or the you know the figurative death penalty and that's left in the hands of let say a person and that's not what a code is because a code puts limits on what individual people can do who have are in positions of power and supervision and what happens then to teachers is that they see hey I wrote this referral and went to my administrator it wasn't dealt with it's like why am I doing this and then they resort to doing things inside the class which means I'm going to deal with this in the class by walk uh talking aoling persuading people to do the right thing but the code of conduct is not operative and
165why I think we need to committee is because we need to in a sense start from scratch come down decide what our core principles are are there are things that are required because of D and state laws and I think that would lead to more workable and allow to address issues such as bullying we allow us to address some of the other issues that people have and have let's say a document that is usable and a document that is effective and I think also just from the point of logistics diverting some of the cases away from let's say the administrative path whether it's some version of a restorative justice where small things are dealt with by by groups of students would reduce the administrative burden and load and free them to do other things but
166I think the only way you do that is not by rewriting one section of the the code of conduct and let it just keep going on and on I think you go and you say look we need to rewrite this but the best way to do that is to have a committee that's going to create a document that's usable and that's why I think we need a committee and I think that it's something that would take a longer process and that's why I did not want to do it for this year but I think over the course of the Year thoughtful people can come together and let's say improve some of the things related to social emotional learning some of the as uh well as you know the point is what kids are dealing with
167and some of the issues that are happening in the new generation and I think that would be something that's worth our time thank you uh comments from other board members Brendan yeah Jim so uh first of all I I think uh I think this is well my impulse is that this is a great idea actually um I think having some uh some input into uh you know the the code of conduct will uh will will lead us to a stronger place I do think that uh whenever we look at establishing new committees it's just a matter of uh formalizing it I think a little bit better you I I I think my suggestion last time was misconstrued a bit as saying that if something is new then we have to be suspicious of it that's
168not the case at all um in fact I think that we're just respecting our own process respecting the commit the creation of a committee uh more by making it a bit more of a formal process and requiring us to put this in writing and saying this is what we're trying to accomplish this is how we're going to do it these will be the stakeholders I I can't really say I disagree with anything that Christian just said um you know as far as uh the the the goal and very high level stuff but it's still very high level and I would just like to see what does that look like on a practical level who are the stakeholders uh how often would this committee meet and then we can actually take a vote and informed vote
169as a board as to whether we want to form that committee so again it's not about being reflexively against anything new it's just holding us to a high standard and having more respect for the creation of a new committee uh thank you Brendan comments from any other board member is anybody else uh interested in uh proposing um similar to the way of a you know Christian you said we have four people interested in a curriculum committee uh it sounds like we've got two uh Christian and Brendan is there anybody else here who would volunteer to uh have a meeting there to lay out um a little bit more what that might entail before we come back to the full board Richard um so we'll follow up on email on that and have you guys get
170together and get a get us a little more there um I will say you know um my thought process as a board member is I agree with quite a bit of what you said Christian um but in an ideal I I think we just have finite resources of what we deal with here and if we took the code of conduct from 60 pages and made it 20 and there was no copy and pasting and everything was written perfectly and there were headings and and you know all of those issues were fixed I don't know that it would make an appreciable difference in how uh discipline is handled in this District in my experience as a board member um building and central Administration is very consistent um and thoughtful in the way um that discipline issues
171are uh dealt with and I'm not sure uh that if we undertook the work to do this that it would make a noticeable difference uh that's me personally speaking um so I you know I I I think we need to think as a board before we take a vote to approve this committee um uh what resources are we taking away from other areas you know and what's the what's the Improvement there um that's my thought so I I I would ask um for the three of you and and we'll kind of follow up as a whole board via email but the three of you to have a meeting and sort of outline this a little bit more um and we can bring this uh back up at our next meeting Tiffany just quickly I agree
172with uh what what Jim stated I would also point out that the discussion of the victim and the aggressor and um the comparison to the criminal justice system um which I don't think is the greatest comparison but I I get where you were going with it every student is is afforded their due process right and that's not going to change and I and I just don't think that having um a committee to to make it prettier and and pagate and reduce the number of pages is going to ultimately change the way that discipline is is handled in the district my two cents okay um special ed as a proposed committee um I do not recall who proposed this um is that did you propose does anybody remember who proposed this does anybody want to be
173the proponent of this or does it does it die before we even discuss it I was one of the two okay but I I will take this one since I I'm doing I I think I'm I propose more than anyone else um I think a special education committee would be useful because I think there are concerns and there are issues in the district and I think that um the questions we asked uh last year uh raised a lot of questions and I think these questions and concerns continue um and I think that we need to be this is not replacing the committee on special special education or the committee on preschool special education and I think people have made that point and that's not what it is uh special education is not just for students
174who struggle but also students who need a different type of educational program and I think that it is something that requires our attention I have I mean I'm not going to go into specific examples of individual parents and concerns and things of that sort um but part of it is also just as I said earlier um I think in July and June when we talked about special the special education Committee in the board meeting is that there are some decisions to make about what capacity we want as a district because otherwise what happens is that students don't have we we basically say we are going to give this person a service but it's going to be by an outside provider and that well we're not a therapeutic institution so we can't handle what I would
175might describe a mood disorder which should be perhaps something that you can do within a school framework and schools do and I think those are decisions about how to best to use our resources and also to address some of these concerns because there's a long history of them uh when you take speciality education there's a case study on Cornwall about how Cornwall denied a student their lost a job because tall said that a long time ago that they had their uh diploma and they did not get it and that's something that's taught about us Cornwell was the respondent on the rights of a student for an extended school Services during extended school year because we refused it and then you know uh we were sued and hey now it's case law and you see Cornell
176Central School District as the the district that is the poster child for that I think that's a reputation and frankly it's not just a reputation it's a practice that we really should be giving more attention and I think that's why and I want for Richard why he thought he should be part of the board goals and um I I don't think it's as common but I think it's something that would be useful and helpful to us and I think that we have people in the community and people on the board who um are concerned about this and I think it deserves some specialized attention so that would be my uh my pitch for that Christine um I don't disagree Christian I do think there's need for some attention on this and I think I've heard
177from teachers parents I've had my own experience um I think there's there's room for improvement um or at least for better communication and understanding why we might not offer certain Services here or why we might go outside there's such a fine line again and I know you're not suggesting this but I'm just saying in general with you know confidentiality and you know you heard my side of the story when I came before you as as a public person not as a a board member but you know there's the other side of the story too which is the school and um you didn't necessarily hear that now of course I think my side was right but I'm just being fair in that you know there are two sides um so I and I guess the bottom
178line for me is I agree I don't know if a committee is the way to do this I don't know what the answer is um and I'm I'm behind whatever we can do to make the experience of our parents and our students that fall into this category a more um where they feel more supported and um that they're getting services that they need you know all the above but I I don't have the answer I'm just sharing my opinion that I just I'm not sure committee is the the route uh but I don't I don't have a better option so um I I'll Echo your your sentiment I I I think I'll really I'll speak for the board and that we all want to see um improved outcomes for our special education students it's something
179that's important all to all of us uh on this board it's just a very difficult issue to handle at a board level as Christine said with with so many um confidentiality and other issues so one thing I'll throw out for discussion is um I know there's a parent and and we currently don't have a special education PTO PTA whatever you want to call it uh and uh I'm aware that there is a parent who's starting that um and potentially something that we want to do would be have a board you know liaz on to that um as a way to just really improve communication between uh parents and the district and the board um and really give everybody more um information I think that would be a place to start um again I I um
180I I I I Echo Christine's Sentiments of I'm just not sure what a standing committee what actions they would take I think we all want improvements and I I just so I I think that's again what it's kind of falling into the category of the other two of of let's reconvene via email uh and have some people raise some hands and see if we can't flesh out um what that might uh look like so Christian Jim I think uh there are many ways forward and you proposed some good ones and I think that the issue is not about having a particular form but addressing the substance of the issue yeah um I would just suggest that um you know Lakeland Central school district has had a long-standing board special education committee um and I would
181say one of the things that came out of that and why it's been there is because um back in the 1980s uh Lakeland was the first district to mainstream uh student with Down syndrome and have uh and when that was very abnormal and at a time when um you know spe uh special education students were basically put in the closet uh literally and figuratively and it was it took a lead on that and they run a program that provides Special Education Service not just to their District but to surrounding districts to this day because they made a commitment a long time ago to that and it would might be if we are there's interest to ask them what they did and why they think it's important and what their framework is and whether that's appropriate
182for us uh I would happily work with you to reach out to that committee I think that's a fantastic idea I I think we're all in agreeance that we want to uh push this ball forward it's just a matter of matter of form as she said so um I think there's a couple of good ideas that have come out of this and and we'll reconvene about email too and and and um um and get that so um I think that ends um our discussion on proposed committees let's find the right paper here uh next action item here is number four adoption of the 2425 CCSD code of conduct uh can I get a motion we got a motion second second uh any disc discussion on item four adoption of the code of conduct okay all
183the eyes I okay we have eight eyes so that motion carries uh the next item on our agenda is uh item G recognition of visitors uh so again uh repeat the same ground rules as before but if anybody would like to come speak uh welcome you to the microphone please state your name uh thank you can you hear me it's very loud r leebert i want to commend you all for spending so many late hours at these meetings because uh I'm having trouble staying alert so I can only imagine how it feels for you um I just had a question about the board goals the the board and superintendent goal goals set for this year first I want to commend the board because I know I know in years past um the super super intendent
184goals have been voted on before the board goals have been developed and that always struck a lot of people as kind of a backwards process so I was really happy to see that that both of them were developed simultaneously this year um my question is probably really simple I don't know if there's a maybe an easy answer to it but I was wondering why the superintendent goals weren't um set up just to implement the board's goals it seems strange that there are separate priorities and my understanding has always been that the board sets goals and policies and the administration implements them and the superintendent of course would be you know the head of that initiative so um it seems like with two different sets of priorities that may be your hamstringing your own goals so
185uh obviously for this year that is the way it is but for the future I would consider having the superintendent's goals more aligned as a kind of directive to implement the board's goals thanks thank you uh any other comments um I um there's no back and forth between the board as you know but I I'll just a factual rejoinder here um I think that there's been ample comment by both the board of the administration that the process that we currently have is flawed we all really want to at least explore and that's the noo board goals a strategic planning process where the board goals and administration goals would fall out of that overarching multi-year plan um that's an area where I think many on this board want to get to it's our number one board
186goal this year um so hopefully you'll see continued improvements in there but thank you for your comment um with no other public comments we will move on to number H here closing comments uh from the Bo and I will we'll start with Carl I just wanted to say um you know I'm was happy about all the work that's being done and um we're at from there that's it thank you uh Brendan you want to closing comment uh thank you for Jim for facilitating what has been my strangest board meeting uh in my almost uh six years on the board uh but other than that I will uh put an end to the awkwardness of everyone hearing me speak through a computer and just wish everyone a good night thank you uh we'll start at the
187end and come work our way back in Christian so in our last August meeting I talked about how happy I was by some of the people I saw on the substitute teacher list um because I know them and I knew them to be high quality people and people that I you know I happy that are exposed to our children and it's a little bit sad but a lot of those PE those names that I recognized last year not on our sub list this year and just you know I'm sure there were legitimate reasons but I just want to talk about the importance of substitute teachers um and why it's important I think to listen to them and I just want to talk about quick briefly about my own experience and uh way back when I
188was starting my teaching career a long time ago I was in Upstate New York in Williamsville school district and their process of hiring their subs was basically more rigorous than I think what most people hire for probationary teachers um and they basically put you the ringer they made you do demonstration lessons they put you through multiple levels of interviews and it's because they um you know and it was kind of surprising because that's not how typically it was done and uh so I became a sub there and I had a very good experience because I would sub in this high school and no later than second period the assistant principal would be down in my room and he would ask what do you need and if I said anything he would literally run out of
189the room and within five minutes I had exactly what I need to be successful that day and at the end of the year you know I got my first teaching job and I went to him I just want to say look uh you know kudos to you because this is not normal and I really appreciate and I just said like not everyone treats substitutes like this and he said everyone who comes in contact with our students important and my job is to make sure that they have what they need and I thought that was just probably one of the best things I've ever heard from an educational leader and then like later because in my Parish the former superintendent of that District happened to be a parishioner uh in the same parish and we had
190a conversation with them and they talked about you know long conversation but when I mentioned this he basically said like my basic philosophy and this is probably very Catholic he said you know I think about how Pope Gregory the Great described his papacy and the phrase was service ofum day the pope is a servant of the Servants of God and it's I can't uh say that's probably why that culture existed in that school district and when you look at who are the substitutes the retired teachers they are young teachers who haven't you know starting their careers and their parents and they're really important because what they do is that they bring an outside set of eyes on things and they notice things that kind of like a fish doesn't notice the order the substitutes who
191are there maybe for one day can probably tell you what classes are going well and what classes are not going well they can tell you about like hey why are you doing this or this thing that everyone is taking for granted and it's particularly important to listen to people who are kind of not at the top of the power pyramid but at the bottom of the power PID because they often point out the things you need to focus your attention on and they're not the only people but they are one class of people that I think that sometimes people want are like why can't we find Subs anymore and it's pretty clear why that is if you're in a in a school every day um and it's because they're treated like disposable people they are
192treated sometimes like you know they're like a babysitter and they're not expected and some of the best comments I've had on my teaching practice have been by substitutes and it's because they come into my room and they tell me like how my students behave when I'm not there and that tells me whether I set up my classroom and expectations correctly and I just think that you know this is something that is going to become more important we talk a lot about shortages and teaching and educa Educators and that might be where we should start microphone thank you Christian bass thanks Jim um very quickly I my comments are going to be very short just to say that I'm looking forward to a a very successful new school year for everybody student teachers staff and for
193us board members too uh I can tell you how uh my kids are excited about uh kind of you know like we're almost done with the summer here and every day they ask me when are we going to get the school supply list where are we going to know who our teachers are and uh today I got an email with a school supply list and I printed it give it to them they were very excited so I believe everybody is excited about the new school year and I wish everybody success thank you bass Richard thank you I'm going to keep it brief because we've been here a while but I want to thank everyone who came out to uh speak and to attend the meeting um I know most people stuck it out till the
194very end or the last few minutes and I just want to wish everybody luck in continuing prepare for a successful school year and that's it thank you thank you Richard Tiffany thank you also very much for coming um your voices are important we value what you have to say um and thank you um for as Richard said sticking it out till nearly the end thank you Christine um I just share the same sentiments about um encouraging folks to come share your thoughts you know share your ideas um you know we're here as of service to all of you in the in the community for the fellow board members I just wanted to draw your attention to an email I sent earlier asking you for retreat topics again to be of service to you giving your
195opinion and your ideas is helpful and um bass you brought up one of my favorite hobbies school supply shopping I love getting new pens it's like a thing so it's exciting for all of us have a great week uh thank you Christine and I'll just you know bass you just really made me p my calendar go wow we we don't have as a board a collective body here our next meeting is after uh back to school it's after the first day of school so uh enjoy every drop of uh your last uh three three or so weeks of Summer here everybody um and uh you know wishing everybody since we won't uh be meeting as a group before that uh a great back to school for not just our students but uh our staff as
196well um so looking forward to that um that comes to the end of our comments there um next item here is I executive session if needed uh I would like to propose an executive session for a matter related to their particular person and their actions can I have a motion no mo can I have a second second uh eyes okay we've got uh eight eyes across the board here uh so we will uh adjourn uh for the public here we will adjourn for an executive session um there will be just for everyone's knowledge there will be no business uh conducted after the executive session all we will do is come back out and uh adjourn the public meeting so thank you all for joining us I would ask everybody before we retire um to Executive
197session to see Harvey and get him the signatures that he needs um and we'll get those signat and then we'll retire to Executive thank [Music] you e e e