001visitors so is there anyone who would like to make a public comment if so please come forward grab a microphone state your name and uh limit your comments um there'll be two opportunities uh now and at the end of the meeting but uh I want everyone to be heard to the degree that someone has anything they'd like to contribute so please come forward well excellent then that takes us to the the prime objective of this evening which is the presentations and recognitions of as I was saying um our Stellar student athletes and um as everyone knows you know success in Cornwall when it comes to academic arts and Athletics is kind of the standard it's an incredibly High bar and we have to that high bar exceptional athletes this year that have broken through what
002I would call uh um certain limits that uh um have been out there for a long time um namely uh when it comes to volleyball we were able to get into the final four this year which is fantastic and beat a Nemesis on the way to do that which was Vestal which if you everyone was following last year uh um they denied us that trip and uh most importantly they had pretty much their entire team return and uh uh and we beat meet them handily 31 so so with that I just want to turn it over to to Terry to lead us through tonight's presentations thank you John uh so it's an honor and a privilege to honor our uh we're going to start with our varsity girls volleyball team uh if you have not
003watched uh this squad in action uh you're missing out um the to say it's an exciting uh display of just um awesome Talent uh and then you can just tell uh within um within minutes that uh they have an awesome coaching staff that uh gets these young ladies working together uh as a team it's truly not about any one person it's really about how they uh function and dominate as a team so with that I'm going to coach uh turn it over to Mr Simo and Mr molon to recognize our young ladies thank you very much for having us here tonight uh I want to Echo some of the things that Mr D said uh this really starts with the tremendous coaches that we have on staff um just being able to put together solid
004plans uh having the vision for what our athletes are capable of and then that's followed up by the amazing young student athletes that we have that just buy into everything that we're a part of in addition to ear earning their 19th consecutive section9 Championship this year uh this team was also honored with the scholar athlete team award um as well as every other team in the fall season for us so that's a remarkable accomplishment as well um so we'd like to congratulate them on a tremendous season uh but I can say the thing that impresses me most about this group is just their daily preparation if you walk into a practice the level of competitiveness and team spirit and camaraderie and everything else that you notice as soon as you walk into the gym is
005just a testimony to all the great success that this program has been a part of and girls I hope that you're really proud of what you a were able to accomplish this year but more importantly nine or eight seniors coach nine or eight eight seniors what you guys have left behind for the next group to now you've set the bar now it's their job to finish this okay so coach I want to lead leave this to you to say a couple words about the team coach loves to speak so yeah my girls are already telling me uh don't cry because uh at my banquet I'm I'm always a mess um I do want to say that I appreciate everything that my seniors have done for me um this is our biggest group of seniors that
006we've ever had which also puts the pressure on us for next year so we have practice right actually after this so just so you know um but they had a tremendous season um we always try to finish you know our strongest at the end of the season which obviously this year was a couple points short but uh just getting there and I know people don't realize how hard it is when you are at the final four uh but this group uh majority of them were on two straight teams that went to the final four um I would beg the differ to say that we are the second best team in the state considering our game was really close and then the team that beat us actually blew out the team that was in the finals
007so um kudos to them um I also was trying to reiterate what he was going to say our um student athletes this year was our third highest we've ever had as a team um so as a group they are very smart obviously a lot smarter than me um but so I'm really appreciative of everything they've done for us this year and uh I know our eight seniors are leaving uh we wish they could stay I think some of them actually want to stay but they can't so anyway thank [Applause] you e all right with then with that done it takes us now to our next team to to honor and celebrate the cross country team girls varsity so please come [Applause] forward so again uh I want to start by just uh the same way
008that I started last time by acknowledging our great coaching staff uh that is just continually year after year uh excelled in the preparation of our student athletes and and what they're able to accomplish this year uh the team proudly earned the Triple Crown as they call it uh they were able to win their division uh then they won the entire Orange County Team Championship beating out Monroe Woodberry and all the other you know Warwick uh the powerhouses of Orange County uh they were number one there as well and then they went on to win the section 9 Championship uh to go on to states where they face their Nemesis uh sville from Long Island uh they finished second to sville um in a very competitive race um and I think if we had more one
009more week to put that state championship there's no doubt that we would have come out on top in fact the following week we did run against them in the Federation championships and they buried sville so uh to earn second place in the Federation as well um so Federation championship includes all the teams from New York City uh all the private schools throughout the state uh and it was the highest that this team has ever placed uh in school history which is a tremendous accomplishment considering uh the amazing athletes that we've had so in addition to uh coach foyer and Coach cedon um these young ladies were you know committed from you know all year from indoor track to to outdoor track over the summertime going to their team camps uh to workouts throughout the village
010All Summer Long uh and just trusting the process that coach foyer and Coach ceden put in front of them along with their teammates uh these were the top groups uh group of individuals that went up and represented us at the state level so with that we're extremely proud of you uh and that we hope that the two of you that are going on to college that will be competing at the division one level uh will represent us well and we know that all the levels of competition that you excelled at will be represented in your preparation every single day in college and for the three returners as well as the other returners uh we hope that you continue to carry on the that the definition of what it means to be a Cornwall dragon in
011Cross Country in track and field uh coach foyer I'll turn the mic over to you well I I just like to thank Mr SEO and the administration for all their support and the board for uh these great nights of recognition uh for these kids we're losing two here as Mr Simo mentioned but I want to call them out by name they both are signing have signed signed uh to run division one next year Carrie Murphy will be running for University of North Carolina in [Applause] Charlotte and to her left Maris Potter will be running at Sienna College next fall we're very proud of them as Mr Simo said second in class B uh is still a great accomplishment even if it means losing to the same team two years in a row but the the
012following week not many sports have a federation cuz it really extends the season but in Cross Country to be third in the Federation it's probably a a bigger accomplishment than second in class B Because third in the Federation Means A B C D plus private parochial New York City uh Catholic and independent schools are all represented there so thank you girls for giving me another a great thrilling end to the season and I look forward to the the rores next year thank you [Applause] again I just want to thank Mr Dade and the Board of Education our administrative staff Mrs Wilhelm uh just for your continued support of our programs and uh hopefully we'll continue to have this type of success thank you thank you Mr Simo okay so then that takes us to our
013uh our next group to uh recognize and are we going to do this together or separately uh separately separately fantastic thank you so as everyone knows um having a a school district full of accomplishments doesn't happen by accident it happens through hard work at all levels and so tonight we're privileged to bring into the fold and and offer tenure to one of our great administrators over at the at the middle school so with that I'm going to turn it over to Terry who's going to um present to Maria thank you all right so it's an honor and a privilege to uh recognize uh Maria for tenure uh Maria is no stranger to the Cornwall Central uh School District she earned her Stripes uh coming up um starting uh younger and working her way up to
014be the brave uh administrator at our Middle School uh so um I have the pleasure and and in a smaller District I get to observe our teachers recommended for tenure and our administrators and a true Testament to uh Maria I'm walking into her observation she's got eight kids that she's ready to interview she doesn't miss a beat she finishes one interview brings me in her office we chat and then uh moves on to the uh next one but um if you don't um know this about Mrs plumbo uh she truly um develops uh our next principles uh she has a track record of that and that track record is not going to stop with uh Maria so um thank you for all that you've uh done um and that you will continue to do for
015our district this Rec this recognition um is very very well uh deserved your students love and adore you your staff loves and adore you and I couldn't be prouder to be your uh superintendant so uh without reservation recommending you for ten year this evening thank you thank [Applause] you so then that brings us to our final recipient our final awardee our final uh um person to celebrate this evening and that is um a teacher uh at uh this local at uh at CES and uh I'd ask now that uh Amanda come forward and to be recognized and uh awarded and celebrated thank [Applause] you uh so like uh Maria um changed names on me Amanda did uh as well she recently uh got married um and if you couldn't tell has other exciting news uh
016to come uh so we're glad we were able to squeeze this in before um our little bundle of joy uh comes uh so I uh am the proud parent of uh CES uh so I got to First interact with uh Amanda probably at field day uh when she was probably the most exciting most spirited uh there's nothing um that um Amanda doesn't do uh for our students but she was literally leading the charge with her uh students she does the same thing uh in the classroom uh there is not a dull moment they are not sitting in rows uh they are not just sitting and listening to Amanda instruct they are up they are working in groups uh they are engaging in high order uh thinking skills so um used to be uh ver and
017now miss Simmons uh we couldn't be uh prouder to have you in our district uh this is a veteran teacher that's just going to continue um to do great things because she's uh taught um in another state and in the um City uh as well and now um we're honored to have you uh with us so congratulations um congratulations on earning uh tenure and we wish you all the best with your little bundle of joy to come fantastic it's a great time of year and it's uh great to be able to celebrate all the accomplishments of our our fine people here in Cornwall so that will then take us to um the next agenda item which is reports and we will start with Kate who will tell us all the good news that's going on
018in the schools CES good news for December throughout the month of December our students have been collaborating with one another and focusing on the monthly character trait of initiative each year millions of people tune in to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and this year the fourth graders at Lee Road had a Thanksgiving Parade of their own each class read the book balloons Over Broadway and then worked in groups to create their very own balloon the children were also responsible for creating a city building with multiplication arrays and writing a descriptive paragraph about their balloon creation then Miss J set up the lab with New York city streets and the students program Dash robots to travel their balloon down Broadway the students worked hard and should be proud of their creativity Cornwall Elementary School celebrated its
019fourth annual rockier school day with a whole week of spirit days rockier school is an initiative cre started by get your teach on to encourage teachers in schools to create an educational experience by doing something different for their students CES faculty held a vote and decided that this year's theme would be Disney on Friday on Friday December 1st each of our classes had a had unique Disney themed lessons as part of rock your school day we thank Mrs harder Mrs N Nunan Mrs kamacho and all of our student council members for their hard work in making this day so special our librarian Miss Chrissy has been teaching our students all about the different holidays celebrated around the world our students have also been learning about the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts and will soon
020begin their research on winter animals in preparation for a new project Mrs Jos our technology media specialist is always working with our students to help integrate technology into the classroom this month kindergarten students continued practicing their iPad skills and later and letter tracing with the letter identification near pod activities Mrs Jos also gave first grade students mice for their Chromebooks and had them practice typing dragging and dropping in Google Slides second grade students learned how to research on Google slides and practice note taking on their Chromebooks and third graders began brainstorming and typing their personal narratives on Google Docs Mrs Connelly's and Miss Bunzel's third grade classes along with our student council members were once again invited to farmside acres to assist with their treat trees for troops fundraiser the students helped load the trees
021onto FedEx trucks to be donated to different bases all around the country as always this was a very special day and it was a great way to kick off the holiday season we are now looking forward to having a cozy and relaxing winter break and spending time with our families and loved ones it will be busy with a whole new line of lessons for students when they return in the new year below Avenue Willow Avenue has kicked off the holiday season with our annual door decorating contest and after afternoon gingerbread house decorating activity this week we are looking forward to our fourth graders from both Willow and Co showing off their musical skills at our combined Winter concert at the high school tomorrow night the musicians from both buildings will perform in band Orchestra and
022chorus we will we are welcoming parents to Willow on Thursday evening and Friday for parent teacher conferences Willow is full of holiday cheer for our holiday spirit week students will be showing their school spirit by dressing up like candy canes wearing their holiday sweaters and docks showing off their flannel and their holiday hats and dressing as their favorite movie character we will be ending the week with our holiday fmo where we will be collecting for Toys for Tots and getting a visit from Santa Rudolph and the Cornwall Dragon too everyone at willab wishes you a happy and healthy holiday season cooh December kicked off with the pto's first cookies and with Santa event it was held on the evening of December 8th over 150 students and parents attended the event a holiday movie was featured
023in the auditorium in pictures with Santa and Mrs Claus in the lobby it was a wonderful way to spend an evening with family the PTO will host their annual holiday bizaar on December 19th and 20th students will have the opportunity to shop for their friends and relatives they are looking forward to thinking of others during the holiday season the annual combined Winter concert with Willow AB in Cornwell and Hudson will take place tomorrow December 12th at Cornwall Central High School the fourth graders have been looking have been working super hard to prepare for their performance and they will not disappoint thank you in advance to miss trcy miss subie and Miss Johnson the concert choir from the high school is going to visit Co on December 21st to fill the halls with song and holiday
024spirit to keep that Spirit flowing all are welcome to Carol with the co community on the morning of December 22nd beginning at 8:30 a.m. on the front steps of the school if the weather is inclement the Caroling will be held in the main lobby of Co during the month of December the first create and student council at Co sponsored a food and hygiene product Drive the donations have been abundant and they will be given to the food bank of the Hudson Valley in the new year a stuff the bus event will be held on December 13th and the students in the first grade in student council will help unload the donated items at the food bank thank you to all who have donated the staff at Co would like to wish everyone a happy holiday
025season Middle School CCMS band students provided music at the Cornwall tree lighting many thanks to Mr aloia to to bringing our students out to kick the holiday season in Cornwall this week fifth and sixth graders grade students will join a fun and sweet afternoon on Friday for the annual PTO gingerbread house build students had the opportunity to make some Sweet Creations many thanks to the PTO our eighth grade students got all dressed up for their annual red carpet event we are so thankful to all the volunteers that made this event happen happen it was a fabulous evening the middle school would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season and finally good news from cchs December has officially started with Christmas in two weeks and Hanukkah celebrations continuing the cchs music department held
026the Winter concert on December 5th and 7th last week shout out to Morgan Hill for her outstanding solo performance with which received a standing ovation from the audience congratulations to everyone involved we can't wait to continue the festivities during the annual concert choir caroling next Thursday and Friday through the schools winter sports got off to a great start with the cchs girls basketball team taking a close wind over Newberg indoor track and field also took off wrestling held the dragling the Dragon wrestling duels good luck to everyone in their winter season the environmental Club is selling Christmas ornaments uh were sold in the snack line during fourth and fifth period by search by purchasing a paper ornament to be decorated by your choosing and hung up in the main Bridge everyone received a free chocolate
027bar thank you to everyone who decorated and donated our holidays our hallway our hallways are looking especially F festive this season the cchs drama club is holding auditions today for the spring production of Rotten Tomatoes good luck to everyone auditioning and we look forward to seeing the production this spring as we look forward to the holidays in the New Year remember to take time to be grateful for friends and family and rejoice in the coming weeks thank you Kate and let me just point out the reason why Kate had to do that by herself tonight normally Nick is here to to assist he's actually auditioning uh for a part in the uh in the musical so wish Nick luck um I've seen him before he's tremendous Talent so I'm sure he'll be uh entertaining us
028all in the in the spring but again thank you Kate for for doing that so then that takes us to um our next set of reports which will start first with the superintendent report Terry I just keep it short and sweet because uh my moment was in recognition of our fabulous teacher and administrator so happy holidays everyone I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable winter break thank you Terry so uh next on the agenda is President's update I will be not as brief but uh hopefully um just as quick for first yes um this is the the holiday season happy Hanukkah for for those who celebrate and for those who celebrate Christmas and uh other things like um um gez um it's escaped me for a second but K Quanza um please enjoy and be
029safe in all your activities over this winter break coming up um in terms of updates for the board I just want to give update on four items first uh follow-up questions from the presentations that we had special ed and the drop rotation schedule uh thank you for all your input on that it's been Consolidated uh uh Jim Terry and I met and discussed the the the questions given the scope and the number uh we thought it best to to give the administrators more time to provide adequate response so we're going to look to see responses come January um on that but thank you all for for the input that you provided in the questions um I've provided that in an email so just as a a reference guide the second thing I want to talk
030about our our board goals just give you a brief update on where we are um in terms of the strategic planning uh uh document that we're we're looking to uh um I would say decide on come February I think we're making good progress on that I would call that project on track recently we discovered that some of the the vendors that we're talking to in regards to surveys have actually done strategic uh uh Consulting initiatives with other school districts in the county uh Middletown coming to to mind as one and that uh the Consulting fees are actually aidable um which is uh I know Terry mentioned this notion that hey you know this stuff can be expensive but the good news is that uh um it seems that the burden will not fall directly on
031the district that uh we will get some support from the state on that so that that should be uh something to look forward to as we get to that decision node um self-evaluation just to to reiterate we've already decided that we're going to use superval which is the same software that we use for uh Terry's evaluation so that's I think uh existing board members are familiar with that technology uh for the new board members we'll have an opportunity to to do an onboarding as it pertains to that between now and January what we will do is we will populate it with the with the criteria that we're using we're if if you all recall nisba had uh uh provided a checklist on what uh items are uh suggested for uh board self-evaluation so what we'll
032do is we'll put that into the system we'll give everybody an opportunity Unity to opine on it we'll also include our annual objectives otherwise known as board goals in that and so and as most things in Cornwall I think the Heidi method is used in terms of performance rating scales so you know highly effective effective developing and uh ineffective and we'll we'll just adopt that same thing unless there is someone with a an objection or a better idea to discuss on that but we're making good progress on that and so look for something more concrete I have the the the documents here uh but look for something more concrete coming at uh at you U before the January meeting okay um next uh let's go to the positive School environment goal uh where we are
033on the survey I had anticipated that we would be able to have chosen and provided the the board for review uh of a contract with a provider um we're not there yet and I will tell you why this Aid that may or may not be um available to us needs further research and we are researching that it's a little bit complicated we have organizations that we're talking to that have multiple uh uh Subs um and some of those subs have been identified by uh Orange County uh uler and orange vosis others have not and so what we're trying to do is find out what exactly will be permissible in the aable space and whether we have to create a new Avenue of approach um because of the savings that that would involved I think it's
034more important to get that right uh than getting it before us right now so I hope to have something to everybody at the January meeting where we'll have an actual contract we'll understand understand the actual cost not only for the project itself but also what it means to our budget how much it will in in affect this year's budget as well as what type of Aid we might get as Harvey mentioned in the following year as a as a reimbursement uh or reimbursable item any questions on that I I apologize for the delay but I think the monies involved are so significant it's it's worth getting right than trying to push it through Christine you mentioned Subs like they subcontract out the work for no they they they they they they they have wholly owned
035Subs that uh are part of their organization so sure so so um I I'll give you for instance um an exact one too so scholaris which is the parent of uh one of the providers they have multiple uh Subs uh that are under their umbrella of companies and under that umbrella of companies they're able to affect contracts in a way that while the provider will be the people that we know the actual legal entity is a different than the person that may be working on site with us it's a little bit complicated uh but it's kind of how things have evolved D and all these Subs have different Specialties and the one specific to scholaris because you asked the question is the one that helped Middletown with their strategic plan and that sub's name I
036think is called PC L Associates I just hadn't heard it in my engagement bu um experience are we going to be intervie interviewing the Middletown board or talking to anyone there about their experience or is that common knowledge that you guys are already aware of so so when we get I don't want to to conflate the two issues one one is a survey and the other is strategic we'll we'll I want to keep the the the two concepts divided but in terms of of references I think we we we've we've heard sufficient Terry's a reference on on the other provider and and we've talked to a number so but but when it comes to Middletown I think as we progress towards the other board goal which would be towards the Strategic plan are we going
037to go out and and actually try to make that a reality um then we will definitely to the degree that we're going to do that with the outside provider definitely make uh uh um referrals and the like okay thanks any other questions or comments on that the last thing I want to bring up is uh be woods and that has to do with the zoning board of appeals meeting that I believe they're going to opine on a request that was submitted back in November as you all recall we provided uh the board of appeals a uh an opposition letter to them uh entertaining be Woods's request and uh I intend to be at that meeting I believe it's on December 18th Brendon you're at the last one with me as well uh I invite anyone
038who wants to to come and and uh join in the fun um to come on down is it just for the dragons way kind right of Entry correct this is specific to the public or private road is is dragon's way public or private that's it any other questions or comments on that the the the the last thing I will just tee up for our next meeting is there has been uh some discussions I understand um amongst the board about public engagement which is I believe something that we all Embrace and want to encourage we had a Communications Forum just recently uh um where there was public engagement at there's I believe ideas on what other alternative mechanisms or channels we might in include in that desire to engage um with the public I know the
039survey is another mechanism that we're going to make use of as we go forward so if you have any ideas please bring it to uh Jim and my attention and what we will do is at the next meeting work session in January we will we will see what we have and have a uh a disc discussion on the the the merits of any of these uh ideas currently we're in the brainstorming uh phase of life here we're we're nowhere near making a decision but I think it's important to always be thinking of ways to improve how we go about uh engagement and so if you have ideas and uh you're would like to share them please come forward and we'll try to consolidate that list and and put it out there for discussion next time
040okay great all right well thank you everyone for that and I'm sorry I was a little bit less brief than Terry um that takes us to our next item which is committee updates and I'll just go alphabetically and start with audit Jim nothing to to report for audit great thank you uh Brendan Communications yes so we had our uh First Community form form of the year last week to the day so that was uh last Monday December 4th in this room that was a project a capital project update presentation uh the uh video is currently on our YouTube page for anybody that did not catch it live we've also uh shared it again on our Facebook page we've uh also updated the website with all of the information that was shared um at the presentation
041so anybody curious can go on it's the capital project 2022 tab that is on the cornwallschools.com website that's going to have a uh a running list that we'll we'll keep updated with the status of every part of the project so anything that's completed anything that's in progress and then the target dates for everything else that is uh in both phase one and phase two we also have some nice before and after pictures for anybody who wants to see what the uh the difference of the the difference that that work has made um which moves us into you know our future activities what we want to do to continue to support this we uh as a committee are are discussing some different options um I think that we are interested in producing some sort of um
042physical asset maybe a mail or a trifold something that we can hand out um either at uh buildings or perhaps even again as a mailer that gives a a clear sense of where we are now part of the challenge is that this is always a moving Target because work is constantly being done so we're going to try to you know weigh what's the best way of uh of handling this so that it's not outdated the second it it hits mailboxes but um there's also discussion of uh creating the sort of communication stations we're calling them at different locations high traffic locations particularly um at some of the bigger bigger items uh on the capital project list begin to either uh be completed or or work becomes or work gets underway so you could imagine U
043communication station about the progress for the athletic complex when that time comes or um about bathrooms that have been completed you know it's uh it's been our experience talking to uh parents community members Etc that might be aware that work is being done but they are not Walking The Halls so they don't really see uh that work and so just being able to see the work that is being done at their school when they pick up their kids or whatever uh could be a very valuable piece of communication so um that's what we'll be working on over the next couple of weeks we want to get a proof of concept done before Christmas break and we'll be certainly in touch with the district about what uh will be required to that get that kind of
044stuff out into the public great thank you Brendan uh facilities Lewis yes thank you so facilities met uh um in November and uh fruitful meeting um we had a review of Mr Dade with uh ongoing projects a briefing on phase one and two kind of a 30,000 foot view of of where we are what's happening milestones and what what we can expect in the future um Then followed that with um a presentation with Harvey Mr Satan spoke to all the ongoing projects that were initially identified in the fiveyear building transition survey slated for potentially a um a capital project a bonded Capital project but were able to be completed inhouse by the the um Walter Moran and his and his skilled team um over in buildings and grounds a number of projects that uh again
045were slated for um a capital project that again we're completed inous which is which is beneficial for our our bottom lines um upcoming meeting January 9th in uh the district office um agenda it will be forthcoming thank you Lewis policy committee Jim uh nothing new to report since the last meeting policy committee members um look for an email uh then next week or two here so we can get something on the calendar for uh probably second half of January or first half of February for next meeting great thanks Jim and uh visitation committee rich all right thank you so in front of all the the board members and administrators you have the uh visitation committee report and this was based off of the November 13th and 14th uh School visits that the committee went on
046and observed so I'm going to briefly I mean unless you want me to read 15 pages of uh the report but I think I'm just going to give a a brief rundown so we're not here till midnight so our objective as the visitation committee is to observe the implementation of Next Generation standards and to quite frankly understand the needs of our schools better so we visited the Cornwall Central High School cooh Cornwell elementary school our Middle School in Willow Avenue and each visit gave us some unique insights into the strengths of our district and also areas in need of attention so some highlights from each School Cornwall High School um our classroom visits we observed some really effective integration of of technology in the classrooms and a healthy balance between traditional learning styles and and
047lesson plans and using technology um it was clear that the the learning methods and our teachers were Forward Thinking in their educational environment and we had a discussion with our administrators about um the National Honor Honor Society um you know they're they're updating their community service requirements they're actually going back to pre-co standards and we had a brief discussion about the uh new proposed drop schedule for the academic school year next year um co uh we witnessed a real vibrant classroom environment had great student participation you know our our the teachers were were doing a great job with that there were a couple uh when we were walking through the schools we had a couple things brought up by the teachers um you know they they felt that they need more help or or they
048want us to look at uh the special education referral processes and uh there's some there was some discussions about the increas in class sizes due to the rising enrollment in our district but overall a very positive experience we had we were very impressed uh Cornwell elementary school very similar um very impressed with everything uh we Act we went to an enl class and um that was enlightening at the Cornwell Middle School we looked at the uh renovated library and our steam room um there was some things brought up from the staff that we need more custodial staff we need to look into that and um some of the renovations that recently took place and that we need to look into having more training for our enl programs and at Willow Avenue again our teachers and
049staff are phenomenal um they have great energy they're dedicated and they really care about our students and that's what's important um classroom sizes again enl were discussed but in conclusion our visits highlighted the dedication of our staff and the dynamic learning environments in our schools um we identified areas needing attention such as infrastructure Improvement improvements and the need for more resources in certain areas we look forward to addressing these issues in the coming months collaboratively for the betterment of our district and again there's a 133-page report that everyone at this table got and we will be working on that within the next month or so thank you so so thank you Richard for for this document and and um so what I'm going to ask everyone to do um is to review it um not
050tonight um but between now and the next time we meet and we will confer as a board and uh uh U discuss the the report in totality uh at at that time okay um can I just add one more thing very quick and I want to thank everyone that was involved in making the report or the the visitations possible because without you guys wouldn't happened thank you great thank you Richard for that um I understand there there was some some rescheduling that had to occur people seem to be flexible and I appreciate people's working together to to to find solutions to to the challenges Richard could you kindly distribute this to the whole board via email so we have the actual document sure right yeah absolutely I me in electronic form okay and uh uh
051I'm assuming Terry you got all right good great thank you all right um that will then take us and thank you Richard for that um that'll take us to our uh consent agenda um as everyone knows the consent agenda uh permits us to to make more efficient use of our time is there any item that a board member wishes to discuss separately uh tonight Christian number six which is the tax certification resolution okay any other items none okay so let us then go to a consent agenda that includes items one through five can I have a motion please so moveed second second thank you all in favor I I any opposed any abstain all right thank you so then um item number six tax certification resolution I will take it as uh listed in the
052uh document itself have a motion some second second all right discussion Christian uh so this is not about any particular case but perhaps Harvey can um address this because one thing about you know the tax security and reassessments and things is one reason why property taxes are regressive is because they tend to be people with resources can reassess their property relatively easily and people who don't uh do not and that leads to somewhat more regression in terms of the tax burden so that's just the um thing I was wondering if you could just explain the process for people this is really a question that I know but I think it would be useful to the community to hear what is the process because obviously we're not the ones who make the reassessment where would they
053go to how they would file that just so they understand that um so it can be more broadly understood so generally speaking there's think of two different levels there's the local Town level Town Village level and then there's the county level so you get your taxes you you feel you're over assessed everybody has the ability to challenge that you can challenge it to let's just talk about let's suppose you live in the town of Cornwall you can challenge that to the town uh itself they have a a review board and they can um so decide whether or not your challenge is worthy of a change if they do there's a change and we get notified and we have to reflect that accordingly if they've already paid their taxes we have to reimburse them their respective
054Shar if they do not accept that your challenge you can take that on to the county and there there's paper work and so forth that you have to fill out where you would again go through the same process justifying why and how come and what you feel the the valuation is um if that doesn't gain any steam then you you pretty much have gone as far as you can go at that point in time one thing I will tell you is that relative to the the effort and what you were talking about the regression and so forth Just because somebody may feel that they don't have the wherewithal there are organizations out there that do this for individuals and that's really important because a lot of this may be very foreign for taxpayers um a
055lot of these organizations actually come forward and you may find a mailer in your mail and say you know and what happens is they get a percentage of any savings that they yield for you if they don't save anything they get nothing all their effort is on them so that's just that's just good good to know as well Harvey thank you for for pointing out that there are these uh organizations out there that that do inv involve um doing this leg work for people and it may not be as um repressive as uh as people might uh otherwise think okay so all in favor I I any opposed all right motion carries well thank you everyone so that takes us to the new business and I noticed that the only new business item we have
056this evening is the engagement survey discussion I I think I covered that in the president's report but uh since it's on the agenda I'll give anyone an opportunity to to comment or question as uh as you may feel the need Carl this is the engagement survey discussion um no okay great so oh wait no it's okay this is yeah but you earlier you mentioned um keeping separate the Strategic plan and the engagement survey and I understand why for a multitude of reasons however if we're going to be going to the state asking for Aid if we can package this as one thing we will not have to wait on state aid and and approvals and such if we can do it as one unit so if there is a vendor that can do both because
057whoever is going to help with strategic planning is going to have to use the engagement data as part of their process so I would just I would encourage you to look into that further before you decide one way or the other because there there's economies of scale there that I think you'll save money and we won't have to have multiple administrative tasks of asking for money so I understand your point about efficiency and I view what we're doing first in this survey uh project is kind of like a pilot program right [Music] where we find the vendor we assess the vendor we decide on the vendor and then we see what the vendor provides us and to the degree that we get comfortable with that little lift as we move and migrate toward the decision
058whether we're going to do a strategic planning initiative or not and this I thought that was one of our goals this um what what what our goal is is to look at the road map oh right road map okay and then once we say yes this road map works and we want to pursue it then that's where the other so so where it's a little bit early in the at least the timeline that we've established already for us to kind of co-mingle these these two items together so I appreciate your your idea I really do and I believe when we start negotiating um the the the fact that we've already established a data record with one organization would put them to the degree that they could deliver on the other aspect of a strategic planning
059initiative right would give them probably a leg up in that decision criteria as we try to find that provider but I I really appreciate the the idea and and hopefully we'll be successful and be quite efficient with the the expenses in this regard any other Chris um so let me just start with that I support the idea of an engagement service and I think that it is a good thing to create a baseline what I am having done some research knowing what the vendors that you are looking at and just who are their principal leads and who are their kind of the people running the survey I'm not sure what we are getting from them on doing an engagement survey and it seems to me that look you can find this an engagement survey instrument
060that's equivalent in fact you can find these companies survey engagement instrument online they're not copyrighted they're not proprietary except for the way they aggregate the data into like factors that they think you know they think go together and they've done some testing on that what they've proven that the factors correlate I mean they're they maybe to not the extent of research you're comfortable with but there is research behind how they correlate and how they lead to great places to work and everything else so I I'm I'm to to save us a discussion of factor analysis and and some of these things I'm not I I will just say that you know I I I think that the factor analysis is something that I Gary King at the MIT Harvard data center would say something along
061the lines that factor analysis is not really it's it's an art technique it's a way saying things go together and so it's an interpretation it's not it's not a an inferential argument but the and look and I understand it's use I'm not saying don't use it I'm just saying like we this is something that people can do and we have the ability to reach out to the people we want to survey um the the aggregation of the data or the writing of the items is not something that I think is that complex and so I understand that there's something for an outside organization but I I guess maybe because I don't understand exactly what we are looking for that what is the major cost or what are we paying for them to do other than
062be not us and have something that's independent to look at this so um I'm concerned I guess that if we don't move forward this is something that we are maybe going to miss it and I take John's word on this and I support the idea that we are going to we should do this correctly um but um perhaps we need to also discuss what exactly we're looking for because otherwise we're using their model and some of the models they use are mostly as a way that they I mean for example this the one scholaris is basically the idea that they could use their their propriety factor analysis as a way of evaluating teachers by just asking students questions and you know and he basically that started as him just doing a little pilot survey for
063kicks in a small like setting and then developing it from there so I guess my point is that is is there are other ways to do this that are perhaps even more cheaper than hiring a vendor and maybe and look I don't want to add that if that adds an additional level of complexity or difficulty I just want to make sure that this moves forward before we get into budget season and you know that starts to drive everything else we're doing so and I appreciate your comments Christian I think from a monetary perspective the dollar amounts that I've seen from all the organizations in my mind's eye when I think of our budget is Dom Minimus and when you factor in then something that might be aidable reduces it to a fraction of the Minimus
064um I think Harvey probably earns more in interest in a month than the project that we are actually uh um talking about um and that's before state aid and with state aid it would reduce it to what he earns in a day so so when I say di Minimus I I I'm I'm talking maybe anywhere from $2,000 to if we don't qualify for Aid somewhere in the tune of maybe $20,000 maybe so while cost monetarily is one dimension I always think of cost in terms of a broader utility function and that utility function would include time and expertise and other factors that I guess we could you know delineate in terms in terms of what that algorithm might look like but I do believe that we have an opportunity to rely on a thirdparty vendor
065to get feedback that would be valuable that would not hopefully uh um involve a high degree of skepticism from any of the potential participants in that process and would be controlled in a way that it would not be disruptive to the current staff involved because time is money and and and I work wor whether we would have the bandwidth to take this on knowing that the number of respondents that we're looking at is in the thousands potentially and that the utilization of the information is yet to be determined other than what you rightfully mentioned as a benchmark of of where we are and how people feel and to do that internally I I don't know what that would take and so something off the shelf which is what these vendors provide in my view at
066least um and I've seen it done in other organizations that rely on it and these obviously are are uh cottage industry players in this regard um with their organizational psychologists as well as the database of thousands of questions that they have that we will be able to sift through and select for our purposes um make it seem almost like the preferable solution um thank you any other comments or questions on that thank thank you though I appreciate the the thought on that John just to um piggyback on that a little bit um just to underscore something that you said um I do think there is a big difference between a it just your comments just bear out the difference between a aable and not I think 20 to2 for instance um I can think of
067a few items on budgets of recent years that have been $20,000 or less and I just wouldn't want to get into a situation where we're sitting up here contemplating whether to add another coach you know which is in that range and we've already spent something close to that on a survey which not saying it's not necessary but just harder to Jud justify when given an Apples to Apples uh comparison so I think we're all in agreement that aable is the preference um but I think it's again just to underscore the importance of of getting that and you had already mentioned I mean if it means waiting a little bit to get that Aid certainly worth it um I'm not sure I I agree with that Brendon but we'll I mean we've already established this as
068a goal for the year and um I I'm not sure agree with what part yeah what what what I understood you to say uh could you repeat it in a different way I I don't know what your you want me to repeat I thought it was pretty straightforward what what part do you disagree with did okay what I heard you say is that not waiting for Aid is okay no I said the opposite I said waiting for Aid is the I'm sorry I I it it threw me off a little bit I thought you were going to have me repeat everything I just said which would have been a waste of time no I I unless I added an a not accidentally again no I was I was trying to actually repeat what you said
069thank you thank you okay got it all right I am getting my hearing checked and oh by the way I'm you know probably GNA get something for it anyhow I'll go back and roll the tape and I might I might email you a YouTube clip later of our meeting now I'm just kidding it's okay unnecessary that's if if you don't know ask the question I did now we're in a better place okay any other comments on that none great so can so oh can I have I mean a question on one of the reports that we heard about can we do that help me understand you want to go back on the agenda and talk about committee reports no no we heard about the committee reports can I go back ask one question about that
070or not [Music] um we kind of moved off SS like a building question John it it we we we've kind of moved off of that right so we're further in the agenda um however I'm just going to look at everybody we have kind of a short agenda tonight but you agree that that is everyone that's what I want willing to hear a question I mean typically I would say the time for that has passed but I don't want to be put this way for the fut Spirit of inclusivity let me just say if if it's the will of the board to to to revisit something that was said in a committee report at this juncture we we we we can do it I'm looking John maybe you could clarify something for me now that you're
071bringing this all up what can you can you hold Carl because we I have a board member who's asking that we go back to a committee report and ask a question yeah and I have no problem doing that if it's the will of the board to do that and is anyone object to that if we can agree on the procedure I mean I can hold on on my question but like when we hear about committee reports are we allowed to ask questions or not sure I I I mean this the whole purpose of committee reports is engagement for board discussion okay so is that was that the question can I suggest you have a specific question next that we just close the engagement survey discussion and then you can even reopen committee reports just so
072that we don't then go back this for the avoidance of Doubt so no one is is having any problem with the the survey discussion that we had thank you all right so so do you have a specific question bass that you'd like to ask ask okay thank you and maybe next time I'll uh I wasn't sure if somebody gives a report if you're allowed to engage back and forth yes I it would be standard protocol if you have a question to ask it yes okay so again I appreciate now allowing me to go back on on on the what do you call it the not the infrastructure the Louis what do you call Fa yeah uh and Brandon I wasn't able to come to see I mean participate in the Forum haven't seen the tape
073yet okay that's why my question so when uh when a project is completed right kind of I mean they do some kind of commissioning right and then letter of acceptance I'm accepting uh did did we accept the work that has been completed officially accepted that uh or not so the facilities committee wouldn't accept the work they wouldn't inspect it or be part of that it would be the district Terry uh or um Mr Moran would do that on-site inspection Andor commissioning and or you know transfer of of of paperwork or cranks or levers or whatever parts and pieces attic stock would be part of that yeah there's some kind of I mean from Project I've I've seen kind of recently we have one of the project completed uh at was point and uh I was
074going there to to get some training on what they installed and I saw kind of you know like tape like blue tape here like there SM Tu tuck tuck you know it's a great like something like that similar here because during the visitation we've been to places where obviously there are few things that have to be redone maybe re thought about uh they don't look great I mean for somebody who going there quickly and leaving it's not going to notice but if you're into it I mean you're going to see that that's not acceptable so are we going to go back and fix those little things here and there so you're looking at the facilities Direction I'm going to put a mirror up and let it reflect the Harvey for a bit because he's the
075guy with the sticky pad and the tape and or and our Mr Moran walking in with the with with the the deficiency list and the punch list okay so let me just say this there is a very clear and defined proc C to accept the work if it's not acceptable it's not accepted um so there are many parties involved there's the construction manager there's the architect yeah there's there's the district and I can tell you that we're not even at the punch list phase yet there's still a big to-do list okay much of which is a lot of the things you're talking about um so believe me the list is from you know it's it's six feet long okay right now now they're working on it and when it's ready and it's acceptable to us
076it will be accepted okay not before and and bass I'll just add AIT a bit on that we're using the word acceptable it's not to what Harvey believes in his heart to be acceptable or what in his Mind's Eye is acceptable Andor Walter's interpretation it's based on the plans and specifications did the did the contractor meet the goals of the plans and spefic specifications not designed intent not almost made it did he did he meet the goals so that's and and Harvey's looking at the same book saying well he did meet it is you know seafoam green in the color met and it's accepted okay great thank you thank you thank you leis Harvey bass Jim you got something covered it great Carl thank you John John I think I think in the future especially
077for a board me a new board member is um when these guys are giving out their reports maybe you can at the end of their report say are there any questions because I get confused on when the proper time to ask a question about some of the reports as a new board member sure Carl and I'm glad to hear it from bass too because it seems like he's he's in this you know the same uh same thought process any rate I had a question and it was uh towards the I believe Communications but facilities could probably uh is probably part of facilities at the communications meeting it was a teacher had asked the question about faculty bathrooms being done and it was said that the it wasn't on phase one or phase two of of
078the jobs being done I think maybe that may have been a mistake on the communications portion because and and I'm just going by what I you know what I understand is that uh Walter when he gave his um his video his uh video on Capital Improvements The Faculty bathrooms were included in that okay and then Palumbo group on April 10th they came in and it was added to that also my question is nothing was done in the faculty bathrooms in particular in the Middle School what's the story with that because phase one and phase two and I think I honestly believe it was a mistake that it was reported that it wasn't in those two phases but it actually is and the bathrooms haven't been touched for the faculty so I was just curious on
079what this story is with that thank you Carl Terry uh so not too recent uh history it seems like eight years ago um unfortunately but we had to make some decisions that we communicated with the board and the community that to get everything online we had to punt some things uh to later of which um The Faculty bathrooms were uh was some of that work so um I think the question Terry is are they on phase two I'm getting confused with the phases but they will be are they going to be done next summer timeline Harvey the all the bathrooms in the district are on are in the scope some of them could not be done based on the cost estimates that came in for phase one okay what that means is they will be
080pushed to phase two okay but depends on the cost estimates that come in for phase two they still might not be done one of the things that we were geared up for once we got the bids for phase one we knew we couldn't do all the bathrooms Walter and his team had geared up to do a lot of the bathrooms inh housee that we could not do through the contractor through the project we started the preliminary work on it couple of the bathrooms for instance at the middle school we found some infrastructure issues underneath so that we could not proceed you know so it's going to be pushed off to phase two but again it's all depending we only have a set sum of money okay if if if we cannot afford it it's going
081to have to go into another project so so Harvey could you just clarify what phase two is just for the avoidance of Doubt sure um the the Crux of it is is the Athletic Facility it's the middle school locker rooms um and then we're going to also have the bathrooms that weren't done that's the lon share I mean there's a lot of the little stuff but um that's the bulk of it well again in this building it will also include we have classroom ceilings and lights you know nothing significant cost-wise but significant in terms of outcome um but I could I could easily get that information it's it's very clear we have a sheet that says phase one and phase two um thank you Harvey Richard no go ahead okay thank you so in this
082capital reserve we got the capital project approved it's phase one phase two right and then after those two we have to go out for another vote to approve future projects correct right correct so we don't have the right so if we don't have the funds right now let's say phase two the bidding comes in we can't afford to do certain work how much money do we have in our next capital reserve that was approved in the 2022 vote so we the the most recent capital reserve which is really capital reserve number two that has a ceiling of $5 million that was authorized we currently have three million in it so do we have to reach 5 million to go out no so we're at 3 million right now so let's so let's say that we
083have an estimate that we're not going to you know we're not going to be able to fund some of the projects that need to be done can we this may go out and set to the taxpayers and say in order to fund these projects can we tap into capital reserve number two you can but you have to always be careful of what I'll call voter fatigue you don't want to just go out with a little piece and say okay we didn't do this one little piece you know you really want to wrap it into a package yeah um and get it done the purpose of setting it up for the 5 million is because based on our Aid ratio we would essentially be able to do 20 million and the five million would be all
084it would cost us and we have it in a reserve cost of taxpayers nothing so the point is the more that we can get to that five million the more of a project we can do okay yeah I just think it's you know some of these projects might be very important to get done soon the better so that's just my opinion but I get where you're coming from yep thank you Richard I think that's that's that's a fair point to make I would also include to to Harvey's comments is that there's a running tally of of expenses and some of the expenses incurred so far have been less than what were projected and so when it's all said and done um we will either be flat have excess or or have to cut something potentially
085uh from from the phases that are currently approved by the taxpayer to to pursue but there my sense not to handicap anything but my sense is that there was enough margin of error built in for all of it to get done barring an explosion on inflation which lately looks like it's starting to tame a little bit but you know we all need to be just uh hopeful Jim do you have something you want to add I heard oh great thanks anybody else on this trying to digest this whole thing here because it it it just doesn't seem it doesn't seem to to to make sense to me it's like you budgeted for something correct and now you're saying that you know and you included the bathrooms and everything like that in it for everyone right
086and now you're saying basically you don't know if you'll have enough money to do that phase two which makes you know okay and and it's really you know they build in I'm sorry Terry no no worries I see no you understand where I'm coming from right John so I I I I understand your concern I think it's a it's a fiscal reality your concern that you're expressing and as someone who's like built a house I can tell you that at some point you start cutting things that you thought you wanted or needed and deferred it for another time because the estimates initially were either um off base or or or uh um slightly uh um how shall I say it in a clean way uh they were just an error okay that's the only way
087I should say it so so I got you on that but what what what's confusing to me is that when the Palumbo grp group was here giving their presentation they also said something about being um close to two or3 million under budget so and Carl I I think I I don't know if it was that much money that but but I understand the concern right I thank you for for for for recognizing that somewhere along the line maybe erroneous information was was shared we'll we'll get to the bottom of it and see what was out there um but I don't think it's fair to think that that the things that have been deferred from phase one to phase two are not going to happen Okay I don't I don't think that's a fair jump it's
088too early in the process to to make that that leap okay I was just looking for clarification when that was going to begin that's all I think we're all appreciative of you finding that there might be information out there that's in opposition potentially uh um to previous records that stated that this was being moved as Terry said and we'll correct it to the degree that it's out there okay all right thank you so much for that I would just add John I think that you know what you've described is is correct I mean there are going to be certain fiscal realities that you have to deal with and maybe you just can't do everything that you initially planned but then to Carl's point I think that if we come to that worst case scenario where
089there are things that we aren't able to tackle um we would it would be incumbent of upon us to provide a clear road map to getting those done so it wouldn't just be a hey we ran out of money it would be being honest with the public about the the challenges we faced and but then giving a a very clear with not just a wink and a smile but again a clear fiscal road map to when all of those things would be done I think that's the the best that anyone can hope for but like you said this is a road that it's too early to tell if we will even have to cross it and so the the the best I think we can do as a board is to be informed on where
090we stand as it pertains to the projects that have been completed the current projects that are ongoing that you know were delayed for a variety of different reasons um and those that are planned and since I would say these bathrooms are planned for phase two as we get closer to to the execution of phase two where Where Do We Stand overall so so with that let me just say stay tuned more more discussion more communication um on where we stand on this and so I think the story continues so we're clear John the reason for my question to begin with is because at the communications meeting it was reported that it wasn't in Phase One or phase two so that's the only reason I brought it up to begin with okay understood just to and
091just to to clarify that because I don't want to make it I think that the implication to what you're saying Carl could be uh taken as more nefarious than perhaps and I think that you intend you say it was reported well it was well no it wasn't it was it was a qu it was a response and a question and answer and you have to realize when we're up there we don't have access to all the the the all the information I mean you just imagine how much information there is behind the scenes it was not it was not presented I gave a presentation it was not in the presentation there was a a Q&A after afterwards I in the moment I didn't quite I I was a little in between I I didn't quite
092expect that question I didn't know immediately the answer and we gave the best answer that we could so you know I don't want I don't want to overblow no that there was any sense of like you know misleading the the public on that just just car Carl sure I'm letting CL I just want to give everybody a chance to be heard maybe put a period on the end of it no one's mentioning it but you know this was all developed pre-co and Co we all know Co blew rates numbers and expectations out of the water things disappeared off shelves that you just couldn't get so that that that changes the cost structure and then again hopefully to put a period on this um you you're on the facilities committee as well Carl so we have
093a meeting coming up coming up in January what I shared with the uh person who asked the question was we will bring this to light at the next facilities committee meeting and if it's not found anywhere when we drill down on this and and it's not on any any any list phase one or two we will figure out how to put it on a list and make it a priority just as we did with the other important items identified in in the five year building condition survey hey Louis thanks for that Christian hopefully this is a concluding comment but I think this underscores the importance of having a strategic plan because strategic plan outlines priorities that then kind of guide how we make these decisions about tradeoffs when you know we allocate a certain amount
094of money and we find that we can't do everything at once the street the plan indicates what we do next and I think that's what's most important for people I think it's most important and what people really want to understand is not they're angry that I think people are realistic that they know things can't be done now but they don't want it to happen never and that's what I think people are always afraid of when they see things being over you know overseen and I think that points to something that we are already working on hey Christian well said on that I I think we all suffer the tendency to think the worst when we hear something that surprises us and I think it's incumbent on us the board to the degree if we're going
095to fulfill not only our oversight responsibility but also our responsibility in terms of achieving our overall objective which is creating and modeling a positive environment if we do have those negative thoughts a trigger or what have you or doubt we need to be quick and run it to ground and discuss it with the parties that were part of what was observed because if we don't give people the opportunity much like Brendan and I just had this little thing earlier where I heard the opposite of what was said and that's just a cognitive whatever um instead of me reacting and going no I could you say that again because I I must have misheard you and the truth is I did mishar you much like perhaps armed with better information people would not have inadvertently misstated
096the reality because of the desire to respond quickly and that's the danger sometimes so the more that we can be thoughtful the more that we can be um giving people the benefit of the doubt I think the more we could set the tone for the district to achieve all the things that it needs to to achieve um and all of us surviving that process um because I think we truly are on this bus together and uh I don't want people dropping off the bus or or being thrown out the window or the bus going off the cliff so so let's let's all kind of just keep that in mind and not to say that you're not doing that Carl I was just just reinforcing the overall notion that we all have a tendency when faced
097with information to think it's right when it may not be right it could just be a misstatement and then we give people the benefit of the doubt to to correct the record and I think I think I think when I first spoke I did say there was no gotcha moment for me I I I'm not saying that Carl understand I want to clarify something with Brendan right now okay so there was no gotcha moment for me what it was and I think I made myself pretty clear when I said listen I think it was a mistake and I meant that okay so I I I did I thought it was a mistake and for the record I wanted to make sure that hey yes you know what it was a mistake and we are going
098to address this in phase two that's all it had to be done and that was it great okay so that takes us to our second recognition of visitors is there anyone in the public that would like to come forward and provide some comments so seeing no movement we will then move to closing comments from the board and I will start with uh Lewis oh I'm sorry Kate Mouse singing thanks um I just want to congratulate all the girls and their success again it's really amazing I go I have a lot of classes with these girls so and I know they talk about practice all the time and it's their main focus so just congrats and um have a happy holidays thanks Kate Lewis thank you uh Kate thank you for your reporting good job tonight
099on the solo Venture um yeah again also congratulations to the girls cross country team and um the volleyball team fantastic to hear all these all these wonderful accolades and successes um to our tenure candidates congratulations to you guys um and very simply happy everybody have a happy holidays Happ happy and safe holiday thanks leis um really ditto um thank you Kate for stepping in uh giving the full reports tonight congratulations everybody for tenure obviously to the cross country and the VAR City volleyball team um and just a uh a quick shout out to all of the the shows and concerts that are coming up if you have a chance to to get over to the high school or wherever they're they're happening uh please do so there's so much Talent on display in this District
100I mean you can show up at any one of these and you will walk away amazed uh with that Mery Christmas Happy Holidays happy Hanukkah happy New Year and we will see you next year thanks BR Richard all right well thank you Kate you did double the work tonight so double the pay good job congratulations to the uh volleyball team cross country team to our tenure recipients other than that there's not much to say happy holidays and uh we'll see you next year felt like I repeated what everybody said already thanks Richard Carl uh once again I just want to thank Terry and Megan for everything they did for us with the visitation and as you know and heard I had an awesome time um and just happy holidays to everyone thanks Carl Christian so
101this is going to be a little bit longer but I'm just going to advertises there are only three parts uh so the first part is um just to um recognize particularly the importance of um women's sports and it's not just simply about winning and losing on the field um The Economist bety Stevenson estimates that uh Title 9 which really was the equalizing um the impetus for this basically closed the entire gender gap in math and science between boys and girls in schools and to think of how big that is and what that means is that it's not just the athletes on the team that benefit it has a halo effect that carries the whole school and I think it's important to recognize that success in particularly because if you look at some other indicators some
102of the things are not so positive for young women um recently and so I'm really happy particularly for the of the volleyball team the cross country team um because it's not just good for them it's good for us uh second secondly um our the first meeting of the district's uh diversity equity and inclusion committee uh was the last week in November and I was there with um Christine um and I just want to highlight one thing that came up at least in my group and that was um I was in a group of about eight or nine uh members of the community and I heard about seven or eight different stories about bullying about the reason why they were there and their concerns about that and it's something that you know as an educ Ator
103I see a lot of things that concern me um sometimes about the culture and it just brought me back to kind of my first conversation about this which was with a Japanese police official um about 25 years ago and he said that you know bullying is really and this is a little bit translated in my head from the Japanese to English but it's about power and powerlessness and connection and isolation and he said that really what he thought the cause of bullying was and there was a and in Japan are really concerned about at the time is what we probably would call hustle culture and what I would call the win or die kind of like mentality and when you have high stakes testing and you know if you are a winner or you lose
104it creates that type of thing where the anxiety and stress manifest itself uh through the culture and I think about particularly about Rachel Simmons book that is now two decades old about Odd Girl Out that talks about pervasive of female bullying and very often wise schools don't respond to it well and that women often experience the effects of bullying 20 30 40 years after it occurred well after the bully is no longer in the environment and so I would like just to urge you know the board to think about this and to think about something proactively to deal with it because I think it's that important and third because it's the holidays um sometimes you get your gifts early and um I got one just last week and I'm going to make this as my
105kind of holiday message and this is from uh Nicholas talo who I've never met before but after some research he's the director of guidance at Westlake High School in Westchester and he put it on Facebook and someone sent this to me and I'm just going to read it and then just close with my holiday uh message so Nick depalo wrote every year for the past 17 years I get a phone call at work roughly around the same time of day midm morning from an iconic gentleman named Lou berelli and he wishes me happily St n day as his name is Nicholas and he ends the call saying do something good for the kids today in the Spirit of St Nicholas and he says for 17 years he never missed calling me and so my holiday
106message is to all the people in our community and our district uh do something good for the kids today and I think that's a good holiday thought thank you Christian Christine um yeah so thank you and deep in thought after Christian's um thoughts so you know the bullying stuff is fascinating to me because of the human behavior behind it and listen let's face it some people are jerks they're not bullying but how can we work through all that because it is devastating to kids that find themselves in that place so thank you for bringing that up I also want to give credit to Terry um the first de Andi meeting um it's that's a sticky subject to lead a grp group of what was it 60 people from all different levels of the community all
107different kinds of students but I will say the table I was at because we're broken up into tables we had some really vulnerable honest conversations and then Terry took us through an exercise to talk about right what is it we want as the ideal State essentially um but it's a lot to pull through and so kudos for really moving that along even when people are getting stuck because that's hard um I'm just I'm excited to see what comes next I think the people that in that room there was just really great energy and um intention right so even if we don't do it right the intention is there and so that was really powerful so I was glad to be a part of that um Kudos about the congratulations I got chills when they were
108talking about the teams um and um a a shout out to um TF too and he had the fifth graders come up and sing with the high school kids which was just really cool when you think about you know you have the kids you have the young football players go to the football thing like I was like oh that's great and then at the end he invited anyone to come up and sing the aleluya chorus um listen I don't have any talent but we used to sing it every year at my school so I just got so reminiscent it was great so I really appreciated all that involvement he created so um kudos to him and and all the students involved in that thank you Christine he bass thanks John um just want to mention
109recently last week uh you know I uh was it when uh Saturday I believe or Friday uh went to the high school to watch for the first time in my life uh our Varsity uh wrestling varsity team uh they had tournament uh four teams total uh I watched till 11:00 and U I left and um I was uh it's it's not like just a good me but it's because of my son I mean he's in seventh grade he's joining uh the modified uh Team it's official today coach Daniels uh selected him basically he selected everybody uh and that's why I'm mentioning this it's kind of I mean goes like kudos to our sports team under your leadership Mr Dade uh usually we have one team modified wrestling this this year we have two uh a
110lot of enthusiasm I mean like around 60 kids uh expressed interest and I understand like being a teacher before I mean uh coach Daniels tried his best to kind of cut down on the number he made it look tough you have to be 15 minutes before we start ready and you know and everybody was like for it he was trying to disqualify people he couldn't because of the enthusiasm so eventually he said okay everybody's on team so this year we're going to have two modified rasic team instead of one so it's going to depend when you go like on tournaments like what the other team have ready they have enough to let everybody compete or not but again kudus to our uh wrestling program to our Athletics program and again to uh Mr Dade being
111the superintendent overseeing everything uh that's all I have for tonight and I wish everybody every body happy holidays Merry Christmas and I see you in 2024 hey thanks bass Jim uh thank you I will um once again send a royalty check to Matt Bannon and Sid ditto um I won't reiterate all of the thank yous uh I'll throw one nugget in here uh with recognizing some of our sports teams and and Mr Simo will here was here um just a shout out to his dedication uh he and I coached together with you know a handful of other uh dad a youth football team this year his son and one of my boys were on the same team and he actually left his own son's game which he was coaching after the first quarter to go
112up to the boys soccer um I guess sectionals after they won the or after they won the section so the Regionals I guess so you know his dedication uh to all of our Sports programs where actually left one of his own Sons sporting events to go see our high schoolers um in action so and I know that he traveled all over the state up to Syracuse and Binghamton and around and about everywhere to to attend all these events so um he's sort of behind the scenes is uh providing these coaches with everything that they need uh to filter down uh to let our student athletes have the success that they do so just a shout out to his dedication there and uh Happy Holidays happy Hanukkah merry Christmas and I hope everybody gets to um
113enjoy winter break and and spend uh some good time with their uh family and friends hey thanks Jim so you know bass you you mentioned the enthusiasm for two different teams I know that in the Arts we have such talented kids that we have normally two different teams of of of uh cast when it comes to these Productions because it's hard to exclude any of them uh um and I think that the challenge for all of us as we move forward as we start thinking about the budget is how we can ensure that all the kids are connecting um and having the opportunity to uh participate in these things I'm so grateful to hear about the the modified wrestling team I'm sure there are other teams as well at that especially at that young level
114that probably would benefit from from having two teams as well much like the Arts has solved that that that riddle right of where you have two different casts like start two two starting teams that are able to to to participate I think it it speaks to the community it speaks to the quality of uh of our students and it speaks to our willingness to ensure that there are opportunities for all so hats off to everyone for that I just want to close by saying Merry Christmas Happy New Year happy Hanukkah please be safe and we will see you in the new year thank you all all right can I have a motion to close the meeting some any second second all in favor I all right so closed thank you take care