CCSD Board of Education Meeting August 14th, 2023 @7 00 PM

001everyone I want to welcome you to the August 14th uh Cornwall Central School District Board of Education meeting I'll call the meeting to order and ask that everyone stand for the pledge I pledge of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay I hope everyone is having an enjoyable fun-filled and refreshing recharging summer um we have a I think an agenda tonight that's going to be full of discussion I know we have some very important action items as we get closer to the start of actual school session so without further Ado we have a presentation first and foremost about getting ready for school from the Palumbo group so Terry I'll turn over to you to introduce please all

002right so these are two faces that are not strangers to uh our district um we have Scott and Lou from the Palumbo group uh that were part of the planning process um as we um emerge from the successful vote from our community for our Capital project so we just are getting about a months away from uh the start of school so we felt that this was a good time for the plumber group to provide an update on um where we are in our Capital project scope phase one and plans for the next couple of weeks so I'll turn it over to you gentlemen use the mic don't use the mic use the mic use the mic good evening everybody my name is Scott Butler the project manager for the Palumbo group and we'll give it

003a little synopsis here of um where we started with where we currently are and where we're headed uh so a little bit about agenda we will uh go through the phase one scope um they were effective four buildings Cornwall Elementary Willow Avenue Elementary Cornwall middle school and the high school we have a couple progress photos status overview and then a budget recap a little bit uh acronyms as you go as you go see we have our locations our architect as you know was uh tetratech where the Palumbo group and then uh you know general contractor mechanical and plumbing were combined together and they get electrical and abatement contractor so at the end of the day there were four different entities amongst these buildings doing the work uh start with uh Cornwall Elementary uh we also

004refer to as Lee Road so the scope to work was the Hazardous abatement material uh so it was uh back the day in the uh when the building was built a lot of asbestos and or lead materials were used in the construction of these old schools so when we go ahead and we take these walls down we encounter this insulation it needs to be abated under hazardous conditions uh then we go ahead and we redo both the first and second floor hallway bathrooms at the rear of the buildings uh there's also a new exterior sanitary line we've abandoned the one inside the building and we run a we run a new one we also have some classroom casework and sink Replacements and first floor second floor and then a handful of the kindergarten classrooms and

005then a new Central Hudson provided secondary service uh to the existing switch gear so this is kind of what we uh what we plan to to accomplish here over the summer uh heading over to Willow uh you kind of see a theme it's a it's a bathroom-based theme so again we have that hazardous abasement on all the material inside the the bathrooms our goal was to go after the first second and third floor hallway bathrooms there's a couple that we didn't touch but these were the primary ones in the adjacent to the one of the stairwell corridors we also were bringing stairwell handrails throughout the building up to code compliance as well as a brand new loading dock ramp and new shed sloped enclosure around the existing slab for water protection storage and uh and

006a little bit bigger fire yeah egress access we was also replacing various interior and exterior doors as well as a more code compliant Auditorium egress entrance to the building uh with with hardening and security protection into the the front office over at the Middle School uh again with that hazardous abatement material we also went to go replace the C D and e-wing hallway bathrooms uh again we have a various interior and exterior doors brick repointing and repairs on the exterior of the building uh in random places throughout and then some the only thing that we touched at the high school was for some exterior flashing at the canopy entrances uh so a little bit about some of the work we've been doing over at Lee Road you can see on the left-hand side that was

007a picture of the Interior hazardous abatement we go ahead and we protect all the classrooms while we remove you know the materials in this case it was the flooring adjacent to the to the casework that was removed um you can kind of see you know what it looks like um you know post abatement you know kind of redoing the flooring here so that entire wall adjacent to the door um that had countertops it had casework and attack boards and some closets that were built in uh Circa original of the building so all that is currently being replaced a little bit of a in-depth review of of the demo operations here again at Lee Road so the tile comes off the wall we remove the medium wall in between both the boys and girls bathrooms so

008we can expose all the piping kind of give you an idea of some of the stuff that would have been wrapped so that's the stuff that we're removing under hazardous conditions and then it all gets removed and we'll get a brand new sanitary lines brand new um sink and toilets carriers vent pipes another typical uh guts of the bathroom a little bit about the sub slab sewer uh Replacements and exterior trenching so again we dig out we dig out the old um we physically remove that we put in the new and then we prep so this was just happened last week so this is some of the new case that we're installing again so this the orientation for the most part is still the same we still have our base cabinets and our our open

009shelf bookshelves and then coat hooks and closets and then we're still waiting for uh larger wardrobe type cabinets that will infill the rest of the closet again this is all on the first and second floor uh kindergarten isn't as predominant as there we're just replacing the sink that was there jumping over to the Middle School very similar theme on the bathrooms we go ahead and we've got the Hazardous abatement uh within the the bathrooms themselves and then we go ahead and everything from the studs down you know straight down to the structural walls gets completely removed we go ahead we knew studs new Plumbing uh new electric uh new HVAC exhaust fans and then uh uh new finishes and fixtures a little bit of a typical picture of some of the underslab removals and replacements

010so all new underground sanitary and then jumping over to Willow very similar stuff again structural repairs wet walls or the walls where all the toiletries the plumbing will go behind and that's for the predominantly the second and third floor so a little bit of status on where we stand today so all the hazardous material was removed in fact that was moved a couple weeks into the job I'd say Late July that was all completed even the the additional found material right so a lot of old buildings you can assume some stuff but once you open up the walls and you really see what you're dealing with uh all the demo locations are complete so you kind of see you know studs and the scale ton of the bathrooms oh and various uh Plumbing operations going

011on in in a variety of the bathrooms uh classwork casework like I showed you the one pretty much all the classrooms look finished such as that now we're just kind of waiting for the for the details uh we got some additional casework being delivered next week uh we've got the sinks and then their tie-ins happening uh beginning of next week so they're they're progressing along right now we're working on all locations um with the exception of the high school we work in extended hours and we're on Saturdays ongoing work uh so mostly right now we are waiting on the electricians and the plumbers to finish all the work behind the bathroom walls so that can get certified to tested uh so that way we can start closing up and really get into what everyone else

012will will finish seeing is the you know the ceilings and the and the tile the loading dock uh what we started on is the structural foundations with the goal of finishing the ramp uh prior to the start of school the plan was always to build the building the structure the complex the roof you know into the fall coordinated with the school uh whether it be second shift or weekends and things of that nature that was always the plan so we're we're on par there and then um various contractor change orders uh so we've got a whole slide when it gets to uh to the budget uh obstacles so with any of these older buildings there um are always differing site conditions you're going in we've done a lot of structural repairs particularly at Willow we

013have found a lot of additional hazardous material particularly around the bathroom scope we go ahead and we take the casework down all being ADA Compliant some of the bathroom water supply lines and drains needed to be you know it kind of comes into the sinks at a certain angle you know from the rear of the sink they were all in the way so by the time or by us getting into the details of getting that moved bam you find a bunch of additional additional hazardous material we've we've all as a team made the decision to go ahead and mitigate that mediate that you know that's the benefit of the school benefit of the maintenance team long range right it's just kind of that unexpected you know scheduled bump um we get into the Central Hudson

014coordination for Lee Road as a secondary coming in we're working through some Central Hudson specific design considerations so they've been a good Ally right but a little bit of an obstacle at that point um because we're going ahead and re-scheming how it is that we want to come up with that plan and then it's the post covid nobody wants to talk about availability of of material and land power right as much as you don't want to talk about it you know it it hasn't gone anywhere by no means is it to the extent that it was you know three or four years ago right but it's got lingering effects things are just you know aren't on Home Depot shelves as an example right something that you think that you can get from a supply house

015tomorrow takes two days and so that kind of starts to lag and slow up a little bit um and then as is with you know summer work specifically in the school industry you know you you grew up with your resources come you know third or fourth week and it's not like you know we're getting a wave of people to help finish so that's why we are working extended hours that's why we're working over time that's why we're working Saturdays just to kind of fill in those those labor gaps um um we've also had to reschem so with everything that we just talked about um and the the original scope of what we thought we were going to go after the summer so here's a slide of the stuff that we've kind of had to rescheme

016and maybe push off summer not exactly off scope right just not off summer right so we're talking about you know redoing or re-seming the Central Hudson secondary line um the loading dock uh structural so again we've we're talking about some structural uh Scopes and potentially moving that to you know later date holidays things of that nature all that stuff will end up being coordinated with the district the Willow Avenue staircase handrails uh you code compliant you know you got to really the design intent is to bring it up to a certain power level you need to make sure that's spot 100 so there's submittal processes review process You Know Field investigation processes um so that was something that we were hoping to accomplish over the summer time not that doing it on you know Saturdays

017through the fall is obstruction again through coordination we work through the team to make sure that we're you know we're taking all the proper precautions and and the building is available for us to do that but uh so that went from Summer to weekend um Willow Avenue second floor reception area with code compliant Auditorium so you get into like the Willow Avenue and the age of the building there's just lots of un you know unnoticeable or on um unknown conditions right so with the condition of the building and where we've gone you know it was the team's decision not to over exert ourselves and open up more than than we could put back so we're gonna really have to take a fine tooth comb and and plan out a good way to attack this uh

018in the fall to make sure that uh you know we're getting what we what we paid for but still keeping the the building in an operational state and then things that uh that that can be typically done after hours or on weekends would be you know flashing exterior repairs um this is what really everybody really cares about right so this is kind of an ideal location by location map of where we currently stand in our projected product uh nine one is the Friday before Labor Day weekend and we were looking for the classrooms by the end of next week this week being the week of the 14th and the next week being the week of the 21st so we're hoping to have classrooms completed by the time teachers come back specifically at Lee Road but

019we are looking at two uh turnover delays at Lee Road and the Middle School particularly the first floor and the c-wing which was school starting on the fifth we would be looking for that following weekend to be turned over now we would just convert into nights it's not like we were waiting for the ninth it's just you know the operation the building gets turned over to the team and the and the admins and the students right so we turn in a second shift to finish what uh what we need to um today as we continue on these next three weeks you know we're going to continue to work on all locations extended hours and weekends uh most likely double shift towards a talent of this week most definitely next week the goal is to start

020installing finishes by the end of this week that would be you know the tiles and the paint for the drywall the stuff that the everyone is uh proud to see when we're all done we're prioritizing Willow Avenue right now uh just to the the account and quantity of bathrooms in that building and we've taken out you know so many stalls so many bathrooms uh and then Lee Road and then and then by the middle school to follow and then um we're coordinating with team as as everybody ramps up for their return making sure that we're out of everyone's way the um the building is in a condition for you know occupants come back the week the 28th also um you know storage and and Logistics right what does the school need you know how do

021we finish accomplishing what we've set out to do in a manner that everybody can work together uh for a safe turn to school um and then last but not least just kind of a status on budget so this is what we originally set out to bid um in the in the spring with their proposed contract values and then where we currently are and and somewhat of a little of a little click quick blip as to you know reasons behind um some potential change orders that we're tracking between RFI processes additional work um things of that nature so we kind of get an idea now um some of these are inclusive of some allowances that are already in the contract so that's something that you know when we start approving change orders with the board right

022it's we ask most contractors to carry an allowance set of money kind of like an internal contingency in theirs and we ask the permission when we go to utilize that right so some of that stuff will will start to draw down but we're in the process of you know squaring up all those books and and keeping an eye on the prize as far as our projection goes we did anticipate a certain contingency allowance for for the scope of work which we're within even though that you know we found a lot of additional work and you can kind of see you know where we've been spending the money is mostly on on the on the additional found work particularly Lee Road in the in the classrooms um questions comments that was the kind of quick but

023I think everyone's got a handout I can pull any slide that we want to dive into a little bit further you have three questions uh anybody else has questions okay I can start okay uh three questions of your slides uh one is uh not just like you had to slide putting the high school and the middle school on the same kind of phase I believe abatement of hazardous material and this mainly piping insulation I don't think there should be any in the high school I mean you can correctly it's a new building so the only scope we had in phase one which was the summer of 2023 was some um exterior flashing to the canopy that doesn't include that slide base I mean that doesn't include the scope of work that we have in phase

024two uh which will have some more Lobby work yeah the high school where it says High School slide yeah there's one number one abatement of hazardous material and piping there shouldn't be anything in my opinion and that was a middle school middle school middle school but the okay the title makes it together okay that's good uh same question is Lee Road again if you can show the slide for Lee Road please yeah installing uh new Central Hudson service to an existing switch gear how old is the existing switch gear I don't have a day for you but so are we sure that that's gonna work yes so so the existing switch gear and the cables running out to the existing Transformers when you go up to the when you go up to the elementary school

025and you're facing the entrance of the building over to your right there's a utility pole with three very large Transformers the idea is to take those Transformers off because of their age bring them down to the ground with a new Central Hudson provided Transformer uh for better maintenance better eyesight better Aesthetics um and then he you know kind of replace that age of the of the um of the of the Transformer in future not part of this Capital project but a future I know the building condition survey will will certainly address some of my electrical upgrades there are some kind of like when you're talking about like an aging piece of equipment I mean if you want to connect with changing the connections I mean there's always I believe some risk involved right whether it's

026compatible not compatible Works capacities whatever I mean you get on the technical side of things and electrical systems so uh the there's an electrical subcontractor I believe working on that should be yes so one of our one of our bid contracts was an electrical contractor uh Fanshawe electric also known as rock on electric they are our electrical prime contractor certified doing all electrical work so they're very qualified to work on switchgear yes and you mentioned like on somewhere else like there's a coordination going on with Central Hudson so there's uh because from the switch gear and Beyond so we so we had demarcation lies I mean how do you know so we had our um designer yeah you know designed what the design intent of what this um the scope of work is and then

027right before Summer started we actually brought in Central Hudson and we did a survey with them this is what the design intent is this is what we plan on doing this is the schedule that we want to do it and then we tie in their code comply in or their you know site-specific requirements um one of the things being you know like a new utility pole for the drop down because of the condition of the old one so we kind of work out those details schedule that work understanding they would uh they have any concerns with the work going on they would let you know right away they would and that was the reason between that coordination meeting is to bring their their area forming or their supervision out and okay and debrief our scope

028to make sure that things are compliant we're doing things up to not only you know electrical standards but their standards of things acceptable using some of their certified materials okay uh thank you my last think what got my attention I mean again your words various change orders what's the main cause underlying cause to have a lot or you said various like why is that I mean a lot of changes also a lot so we looked at like negatively but positively you know so when we're removing a lot of masonry walls right it can only be assumed that behind there all the water lines are you know have uh hazardous material insulation so when those walls are removed then you can actually see the extent of what's behind the wall so it's like unforeseen conditions you're

029not gonna do some probing in uh you know in a school um you're worried about disturbances so there's some precautions that you just you know and that's why we carry allowances going into bid because you assume that you're going to find some of that it just happened to be at Lee Road a little bit more than than we would have anticipated okay and you again one slide you show the cost of all these change orders put together percentage-wise on the main bid doesn't look like much actually 140 000 compared to four Millions right I I would say that yeah yeah actually industry standards five percent so when you look at how intrusive the work was your buildings yeah so the fact that I'm you know 4.2 million dollars worth right now we're projecting to be

030at 140 we're really fantastic spot look at where we could be you know you could be a place where foreign did the award Governor kind of these laws do you know anything about like the award itself did it have language regarding the change orders yeah the award of contract wasn't reviewed by the Board of Ed it was the the district Personnel that reviewed the reviewed that information okay how would the approval process I mean go to approve disapprove whatever I mean here going on it comes to the board uh just like some of our other expenditure approvals so it would come to the board okay most likely through the facilities committee first and then to the board this week so we have language in the contract you know to pretty much proceed proceed to finish

031right and then we've got reconciliations of of of what might be time and material costs but any expenditures above and beyond the contract value you know will come with a recommendation from the architect and the construction manager to the board for approval okay thank you very much but on the heels of that the notice to proceed is issued by the district itself so it's not a surprise at the End by the way here's another here's a hundred thousand dollars that oh no one knew about what we did anyway I assume Walter someone's team from the district we all we've been having um review meetings right these aren't newly found okay let's just let's just go for it right these are reviewed and agreed to things that we need to move forward for for the benefit

032of the district yeah any other questions Christine what is the true likelihood about that 9-1 and what is the impact to the faculty and students for the 998 and this 99 is nine one [Music] um 99.9 sure we're going to get there or is it is there a risk we're prioritizing right uh we are to the point where we're starting to install finish it not finishes but infrastructure right um we're still in the middle of that let's say a Willow Avenue right where you have almost all of our plumbers to try to knock that building out because it is such a priority once that is done then it just turns into a finish game which is why we talked about second shift um Willows a must-have right so there's no not so I would say

033Willow is probably on the scale of comfortably getting that because we have to um and that's where we're being realistic on our resources right if we're making our commitments to other areas right something's got to give because we don't have a flush of of resources coming right so we prioritize based on conversations whether it be first floor in the c-wing being something now not acceptable right so we're still going to push right we're just trying to be realistic on on you know worst case scenarios right and then and then try to beat them yeah we'd rather plan for that than be surprised any other friends yeah thank you um thanks John so just to put a finer point on that most recent question from Christine so it's if by 9-1 let's say we're 95 percent

034done on a certain project has to be kicked to nights and weekends we would still buy your estimates because we're prioritizing the most important things we would those would be for not far enough along where it would be fully operational it's not gonna We're not gonna have a contingency plan for limiting the activities in the building for those particulars right we talk about 9-1 you know flushable partitions you know fire door you know completely usable right I mean you know are we talking about painting ceilings yes it's on the list of things to do is that something that would keep us from being open that could be a you know uh Tuesday nine five night shift right so we are prioritizing what will make us usable for those spaces perfect okay um and uh only

035other questions is just the uh related to the items that were moved off the summer schedule I recall back when we received a presentation in the spring we had planned on having uh things on the uh the nights and weekend schedule my question is are these in addition to things that were already planned to be completed during the school year or was there just kind of like a blanket allowance we're going to have to move some things off of the summer schedule into the weekend or into the the school year just want to get a sense of like are these the items that we more or less anticipated doing during during the school year or these in addition to them no I think these were so technical like we planned on doing the Central Hudson

036switchgear work right and for a variety of reasons right it just comes very apparent that if we make that commitment we're going to over exert ourselves from the bathrooms right being a priority right so in that case it is it was a goal to finish over the summer time now it is a let's make sure the district is operational usable that can that can wait so we're prioritizing that um the Willow Avenue second floor reception right it was a goal to finish that in the summertime right due to operational and making sure that we open right we're going to push that sure sure um so are there other aside from these six items here are there other items that we will be addressing during the school year no because at that point aside from the

037bathrooms these are the remaining Scopes and then it's everything else one is closed phase two next summer got it okay and then what we'll do in the fall right uh phase two not to jump into that right is up at SED we will do a very similar you know scope review what's included you know what's the bid schedule things of that nature so everybody's kind of up to speed as we as we walk through that cycle for the next academic year sure great thank you uh Central budget we are also looking at it was actually a better in the future if you want to have um look at that building oh when you come down at the weight of the time hosts a little more time if you look at both applying interest below exterior

038repairs so yeah it wasn't just okay thank you for that Lewis think Christian yeah so um it's important what you just said the Central Hudson angle to when you do changes to make sure you're thinking of the angles not just to push it through but to make sure it's the right decision for the district today and for our days moving forward it's a hundred percent and um to know you talked about overages I believe you're you're kind of right on par with that on that three percent number under that five that's that's where you want to be but um Scott when you talk about these delays nights and weekends and such it sounds like there's not enough guys working if we're if we're if we're not hitting our if we're not killing overages that means

039we're not just we have a handle at least on the front end of what we're going to discover to the the greatest except we can when you break up with CMU will you have no choice but to say oh that's him you could find a bag of money for all you know you have no you have no idea let us know if you do because we'll we have a spot for ours um but it sounds like you're you're missing you're missing Manpower it sounds like you're you're light on guys if you've got a they have anyone operators so I'll jump in and say we're the ones holding the bag on that now this board this board is the ones I have to answer for uh a 99 date where so let me clearly back up

040a second one the heels of Brandon's question and ask it a little more directly the bathrooms that you're all we all are working on will they be all the bathrooms you're into will they be operational when teachers arrive when you look at this schedule yeah name the road when you look at the road classrooms you know Facebook and everything else if that student is operational number second floor about to start 9-1 that that gives us we'll have a bunch of patterns that are copied good position so that we can actually operate and nine nines really that's effectively so that kids will have a while but when you look at the way it's set up it will be that located at 9.90 again that's pushing I'm just pushing down and then at the middle school when

041you look at c-way that's your that's your core value that are up and down each other get out of this whole job that's been the hardest because allow Ed so we could draw all sorts of Manpower and yeah it's on purpose to pull out and and there was a contingency if for some reasonable and or not pricing and coffee so we do have another so some of the facilities won't be open on the day's teachers arrive okay and what you said the idea of a sink and some casework in a second grade classroom that they're bankrupt of for two days I don't like it I mean you we you shouldn't take out more than you can chew in in a work cycle but I think it's palatable I think it's valuable the idea of the

042bathrooms is is is is a hard swallow um and you mentioned external facilities I'm not sure if I that's that's going to be a hard swallow as well blue anywhere Middle School yeah yeah I know you are I know what you're talking about yeah and you mentioned the contractor surprising supplying external facilities if needed he's not looking for a change order for that okay yeah they're a little more focused now good good you you noted you noted um some of the large casework is ordered is there anything that else that's that's critical Pat that is back ordered or can't get your hands on that's not on the quote-unquote Home Depot Shelf no we're tracking everything I think we're our doors are expected at the end of this week uh where I think tile just came

043in a couple days ago we're waiting on those sinks um at some time this week for those National so everything is is either in transit or I got our thumb on it it's just getting it here okay have the contractors any of the subs or primes asked for additional time on contract no they're still they're still anticipating that early September start and you're pushing I appreciate it three three weeks double shifts whatever you know nights and weekends and nights and weekends thank you Christian um so you've kind of answered my question because it was about the bathrooms and I'm a teacher and you know so I know it's eight days between the ninth and the first but that's really only three instructional days Tuesday is a conference day not here not here um so to

044Forex instructional days that's what happens when a bathroom breaks down normally you know repairs like a bathroom broke down about the building that I teach at it would be out maybe for that many days and you close down one so I guess my question was there are going to be operational bathrooms in every building yes so that right here is the the bathrooms at their projection so the c-wing would be the the seawing Laboratories like we talk about boys and girls right d-wing would be available 9-1 boys and girls okay and so none of these are teacher bathrooms these are all student bathrooms they're all student hallway bathrooms right so for the on the first that's none of these bathrooms would be expected the teachers to be using so like on the conference day on

045September uh September 1st correct so so I just want to clarify that I would I would assume operationally I don't know what is available to to what faculty and staff but um so the other question about hazardous materials I presume this is asbestos is there anything else beyond that that was found it was primarily asbestos thank you any other questions come down Megan you have a comment question just in a planning purpose just a quick comment I know it at this point in the game this might be really difficult to switch things around and you're dealing with underground and so on but if you're looking at one student working bathroom at CES the second floor is where our third and fourth graders are whereas our first floor is where our kindergarten first and second grade

046is so the independent factor of our third and fourth graders making their way downstairs is a lot better than our K12 students making their way upstairs so the management component in the first week of school is intense to start if that's something that can be considered I think it would be very well appreciated because that's a that's a management with five six and seven-year-olds understood I got a question for you who's your who's your go-to in the district my point of contacts you have any issues here right you know on the job site stuff like that is your go-to Walter Walter and Harvey okay and Walter you report to and that would be like a weekly report on what's going on monthly how I'm trying to understand how this is all Happening Here I'm sorry

047hey Walter could you come up and grab a mic thank you so basically what I'm getting at 2 when it comes to the change of work orders you would go to see Walter right and Walter would report that back to Mr Dade and then eventually that comes to the facilities which comes to the board that's correct so uh so Scott and his field superintendents are housed in the training room at buildings and grounds so I see them in the morning they arrive about a quarter to seven so they're in and out all day long I also make uh inspections of the buildings in the morning and we confer throughout the day I have multiple conversations with Mr Scotland three four seven times during the day I'm also speaking with the with Scott and having conference

048calls with our architect trying to work through some of the problems and some of the things that were found that were unknown perfect thank you thank you thank you Walter I have a follow-up question I appreciate what you all have answered it kind of close the gaps I had but going back to the bathrooms at the middle school we're saying that the sewing you anticipate to be available on the ninth do we have enough bathrooms without those available during those four days to house all the students in the building or is this idea of external facilities not just the possibility but a necessity I was hoping someone could address that so another element that's going to be in the mix is we will have our inspector come in and um proves each of the sites

049that's part of our turning the buildings over for student and staff occupancy that's going to occur next Wednesday the 23rd so at that time we've already done some work with the plumber group and our Architects there count bathrooms and Facilities what is needed according to code so we'll have the double check on the 23rd at that time and then look at the modular at the middle school and and what's needed to safely open for our students and staff great so it's on the on the to-do list correct and we'll know better the 23rd by the 20th or but in the meantime Tetra Tech has already looked at the code required by by New York and and given us an initial report and the reason I bring this up is it sounds like there's some some

050latency or some lag time between what your material needs are and actually having them on site right this notion of just-in-time delivery is it is not working anymore it sounds like right if it ever worked at all but but if it's if we're looking for external facilities to accommodate for four days I I we need to get a sense that they will be available when we need them and that means that the necessary decision to get them needs to be earlier rather than later and I think we're all in agreement working towards that so thank you for that perfect um my other question Scott I'll take you off the hook thank you for your presentation um Terry to you um when Scott was mentioning the 9-1 completion date of the classrooms it dawned on me

051that these classrooms no longer look like the classrooms did when they had their last day of school which was all beautified with all the teachers um paraphernalia when did the teachers normally get in to refresh their rooms for the new school year and does this schedule accommodate that so we have the dream team of Walter and Company who's already on top of what needs to happen in backwards map to make sure all of our classrooms are ready to go for our staff the principles of each building earlier today sent out a message to each staff of managing expectations that we're in the midst of a capital project so the earliest that they would be able to enter the building would be the Monday prior to superintendent's conference day is the official starts the school year

052our teachers will tell you there's an unofficial start of when we want to get into our buildings and start setting up our our classroom so on the 25th the principals will send out another update to their staffs letting them know what next week might look like in our heads there might be a rotation of Staff coming in depending on how far along Walter's team has gotten with getting the classrooms and wings ready depending on where we are with needed adjustments there was a slide up there that was really important the coordination that has to curb occur between Walter and his team so to answer your question the official start is 9-1 but any teacher will tell you that you know if they have availability to come in and and the time available that works with

053their family schedule they do like to get in earlier but at this point we've talked about managing expectations we'll send out an email that Friday before and and talk about what that staff week is going to look like so it sounds like flexibility is going to be required on all hands to get through this challenge that we're facing right now to include the teachers because they're they'll be affected too from what they've normally been able to accomplish okay thank you John you just have a question so obviously we as a board can't do anything with like putting in bathrooms but we can do something perhaps with the schedule and I know there's Logistics involved so like my school district the Tuesday is a Superman's conference day as well I was wondering is is it possible

054to explore perhaps maybe giving them an extra student conference day that Tuesday so there's a little more time and the impact is less on the students and the teachers in that first week I know that there's a lot there's a lot of different between parts and there's schedules and things like that so I'm not saying it's an easy but it might be something if we have time at this point to to do that if it's worth it so Terry I I don't know if we're in the brainstorming phase of this operation at this point or not but uh um this is new information I I'm not familiar with the the normal course of things which your initial thought on that I'm happy to entertain it I just don't know this is the part of the

055agenda that I want to entertain it at if you know what I mean okay so yeah to move a whole District a day off of schedule I just I'm not personally um it's just superintendent in in favor of that day from my conversations with the Architects and Palumbo group and Walter and his team doesn't it's it's not worth it being um for for the buck um to delay that day I know I'll tell you as a parent I'm also ready to get my kids back in school on on Tuesday as well so if the indication was we need a day and that's what plumber group was telling us that that would really make a significant difference but I'm not hearing that in all my conversations so um that's just my my initial impression thank you

056thank you may I ask a clarifying question how many classrooms are we talking about 29 oh okay it's almost the entirety of Lee Road okay okay in the classrooms we'll be ready so the the target date is gives us a lot of cushion there the really the important question is is the bathrooms and how far along those are and then our inspector coming in and putting her eyes on it as well that phone that photo is a Friday afternoon photo so a little bit of electrical work throw the tack board in that in that void on the left-hand photo so and then it and then as long as it takes to get unpack right because those were full that we get to do or you know do our courteous uh coordination to be respectful and

057get them in to do the things they need to do while maintaining you know momentum so it so it sounds like as we move forward the the real challenge at the building level is going to be kind of room by room uh bathroom by bathroom oh not the bathroom no from the classroom perspective 26th right so I think it's the end of next week yeah so the important thing to understand is um it's really not the work being done in the classrooms that's um at issue it's the coordinated effort of the summer time is the best time for capital projects because no one should be in the building or the very few that are in there we can manage and make sure that we're coordinating off as soon as you let safen and students and

058it's a game changer so a simple something as simple as can't teachers just get into their classroom that becomes a safety concern if we have people inside the walls and things of that nature so our number one concern is safety so it really is just that coordinated effort so when I talk about that staff week teachers and staff will be in the buildings it just may not be a free-for-all that we've been used to like Monday come hither and set up wherever you want same thing with our pto's we're sending out nice reminders to our ptos that the buildings may not be as accessible as they're used to so it's really not the classrooms being ready by way of capital project it's Walters team needing the time to come in and do a summer's worth

059of work in a very condensed window which will happen it just can't happen by that that Monday before like we've been I'm blessed with in past years Terry just real quick you said the inspector's coming what what inspector Maureen can you I don't know but what would you represent well sir couldn't cover that all right so a little little back background to uh capital projects um when we reach what's called substantial completion or a TCO a temporary certificate of occupancy we bring in our fire inspector which is BOCES so Maureen Doherty is our fire inspector coordinator and we've scheduled her to come in next week Wednesday is the tentative date just to paint a little picture and that's when Scott and his team will start demobilizing all the equipment supplies out of the building doing

060their cleaning clearing out the corridors really cleaning up the buildings and I'll walk through with the architect with Scott and the inspector and we walk through and make sure that the fire safety everything is completed so when the teachers and the students come back we're all in compliance one thing I I want to mention to the board is our unsung heroes it's our custodial workers it's our maintenance folks this summer has been extremely complex and challenging for them so I really want to give them a shout out as as the leader of the department starting at Cornwall and Hudson we had the extended school year program that ended last Friday so we had that building was completely occupied also we had summer school here over at Lee Road we had both the village and the

061town playground in the front of the building coordinating with the Palumbo group with the construction in the back Willow Avenue was empty and the middle school was empty I will tell you right now all the classrooms are cleaned Lee Road they're putting back the furniture we took staff from the high school and sent them to Lee Road we are ahead of the game these classrooms will be ready in addition to that our staff painted every classroom on the first and second floor of Lee Road this summer so they all have a clean paint job took them about 12 days to do that when working with Scott and his team so I am supporting the Palumbo group if anything I would want to move that schedule up to create that sense of urgency for the contractors

062we need these bathrooms I'm confident that Scott will get the casework done so the students and the teachers could have their classrooms but these Laboratories are very important so if anything I could say to both Lou and Scott is just staying on top of these contractors let them know that Cornwall needs those lavatories and uh and we need them for the first day of school thank you John I have one more question fast then Richard oh sorry go ahead yeah are we doing any commissioning say that again commissioning we do have some new heaters going into these bathrooms um so we will do the appropriate balancing and testing of those when they go installed but there's no boilers or or rooftop units or anything like that annoyed fact it's all just Plumbing yeah mostly Plumbing

063on the electrical side I mean no rewiring or everything's new bad too and existence commissioning basically I mean I would have to look back at the performance work statement and the award the contract itself I mean commissioning should be a fundamental part of accepting delivery of the project before occupancy takes place so separate and aside from what the Palumbo group is managing we had an air conditioning Capital project at the middle school which is just coming to completion now so they are commissioning the system now the manufacturer has been on site and I would estimate by next Monday Tuesday that's in full operation even Plumbing I mean flushing everything no no that's that would be with the Palumbo and they would do that and I'm sure they tested uh you know uh the the uh

064the domestic piping and the venting piping and all of that the the project that needs the commissioning would be the for mechanical equipment would be the air conditioning project and and that's the project that I'm managing not the Palumbo group go Richard all right thank you so I guess this question is for Terry and then maybe you guys when are our uh open houses for parents in the buildings and will these delays impact those will the buildings be ready for the parents so Dragon Camp uh for the middle school is August 30th I've already been in conversation with Miss Palumbo and and their team of how we make up consistency plans communicate with families Etc um for kindergarten Megan can you remind me of the date I'm pulling it up now but the kindergarten um

065open house or the orientation is that for superintendent's conference day and then open houses are typically about a week and a half to two weeks after the start of school it's on the just give me one second I can't see it thank you um yeah so September 6th it looks like they have open houses it depends on what building but yeah it's it's right after the start of school so everything will be good to go with flexibility yes okay thank you that is the plan all right Lou Scott thank you for for giving us an update you know there's a saying that uh um bad news doesn't get better with age so I appreciate you coming here and letting us know of the difficulty you're encountering but like all things once you've identified what the

066issue is then you overcome it and I'm confident that you guys will get all over it to to make sure that the contractors get this thing done on the time frame the new time frame that you've just established so thank you for that I have one request could you turn that projector off because it is blinding historically at 10 weeks yeah great great thank you Walter thank you for for you adding uh um what you added um as a follow-up I've written down I'll talk to Terry about it later but having a a view of all the capital projects not just the the ones that we've externalized but the ones that we're internalized would be would be beneficial at some point I think at the fall but we'll talk more about that in terms of

067the the staff the unsung heroes that you illuminated um thank you for that um please pass on to all of your team that we as the board appreciate their hard work and I'm sure everyone's been a bit frustrated and if it's anything that like what's happened at my house you clean one room you think you're done and then a week later you come back and you realize you got to clean it again because of stuff happening so please pass on their our gratitude thank you all right with that let's move on to the next part of our agenda uh public comments of please step up I believe that microphone will be on please hi all I'm Cynthia fasillo I'm a Cornwall resident and one of the founders and advocators of universal pre-kindergarten I come here

068to basically thank you for standing with me I came here basically to just remind him please add Universal pre-kindergarten as a goal to continue the expansion into this year and into 2024 2025 as Terry day knows we now have 20 we now currently have 80 slots so we are looking to continue to see the growth and expansion of this amazing program that has impacted every single one of us positively as you can see by my little one she is very involved so I like to see the continuation of that program as she goes into Lee Road we're going to see more parents take that over and that's going to be nice for me as well as for the other parents to see this continue to grow the second reason I'm here besides the adding of

069that goal to the agenda is the park at Lee Road I was hoping to bring it to the plate because the PTO has brought it to our attention that they would like to see well we all would like to see the Lee Road Park updated the Cornwall elementary school I guess the biggest question was the company that the school district would like to use to continue this progression and this updating of the park if we could get that information we could actually get the information guess the estimate talk to the senator and then go from there but the PTO once is hoping for that information so maybe someone from the board can reach out to one of the parents I'm not personally on the PTO but hopefully we can get the information maybe next week

070so that's kind of the goal for us as a group I wanted to thank the board for your time and commitment to the parents and the residents of Cornwall so that's basically the question and um that's pretty much it if we can get an email about the information for the company we can kind of start moving forward yes honey you want to see something all right I'm gonna go ahead and give it back to the nice man over there this one this one's better thank you you too all right oh I'm sorry I did that okay my name is Brandon collory um I'm actually in Woodbury I was not able to meet the make the last meeting when everyone got sworn in I was on vacation and then when we came back I worked for

071the town of Caldwell so you know what we've been doing for the past month been very busy but the work is rewarding and we're getting a lot of stuff done so as I said my name is Brandon collory I come before you today to introduce myself and also congratulate everyone on the recent elections with those elections behind us and a new school year approaching I know there's a lot of work to be done I am a Woodbury Town councilman and I am the liaison to Cornell Cornwall Central School District I also work for the town of Cuomo Highway Department where I'm the president of CSEA local 836 unit 7924 and also like to mention that my children go to school here in Cornwall we are one of 455 houses in Woodbury whose children attend CCSD

072I have a daughter in high school and my son is in elementary school I understand the importance of a good education and I'm proud of my children and their academic achievements I also understand the importance of community and volunteerism like Cornwall Woodbury is always looking for volunteers is my hope to work with the Board of Education and the district to offer volunteer opportunities to our children opportunities like woodbury's Community Ambulance where one can start their love of helping others at the age of 16. or if they live in Woodbury they may also join our fire department as a junior member at 16. we also have regular volunteer opportunities at our parks and libraries and other community organizations in our town these opportunities will help students fulfill their High School requirements and give them the prideful

073sense of helping their community It's My Hope working with this board to be able to inform the students here at CCSD of these volunteer opportunities in conclusion I very much would like to work with this board of education on new and fresh ideas to connect our two towns in more ways than just route 32. with your permission I'd like to give you guys a few of my Town Council business cards so my emails on it you can contact me or just go to the tunnel Woodbury site and I'd like to thank you for listening and I hope to hear from you all soon okay thank you yep thank you thanks for coming out stand on my tiptoes my name is Joelle Aguilar I am a Community member um parent my two boys or my one

074boy went to school here my youngest one still goes to school here and I'm also a teacher at Lee Road um first off I just want to thank Mrs argenio for pointing out the issue with the bathrooms down on the first floor because my classroom is down on the first floor in Lee Road I have a kindergarten classroom I'm the only kindergarten classroom that's down on the first floor and it it would be a challenge for the little ones not just mine but the first and the second graders and there's I also want to point out there's two special ed classes that are downstairs on the first floor that would make it a little tricky I'll say to go up to that second floor but just to piggyback on what she said just to make

075everybody aware there would be approximately 22 23 24 classrooms all sharing one bathroom upstairs for approximately eight days if that timetable uh that the Palumbo group gave um I can't personally see that many children using one set of girls bathrooms and one set of boys bathrooms even though they are renovated um there is also one single girls bathroom and one single boy's bathroom that's up near the cafeteria by the gym I don't know if those are the gym I don't know if those are being renovated but they are single bathrooms the rest are adult bathrooms so the children would not be allowed to use those to my knowledge uh the other thing I do want to point out is although I'm super excited about the 826 start date the classrooms every teacher had to pack

076up the entire contents of their classrooms so every single thing that I use in my classroom is in a cardboard box that has to be then unpacked starting on August 26th on a rotating basis so if I can get into my classroom maybe one to two days or three days before that 9-1 start date I don't really know luckily I have a teaching assistant but most 99 of the other teachers do not have a teaching assistant that can help them unpack and put their classrooms back together in addition to then preparing for the kids coming into the building whether it be you're making photocopies getting their lessons ready getting you know the desks ready to you know with the kids names plates on them what have you all those like tiny little things that teachers

077do in order to be ready for the kids and I understand we have to be flexible the parents have to be flexible it flexibility is the name of the game but I also know what the expectations are in this school district from parents and with our open house on the second day of school I I can't honestly say if my classroom is going to be ready parents are just going to have to come in and if there's boxes sitting around then oh well boxes are going to be sitting around there's really I mean I have no control over the the construction nor does any other teacher in the school district have control over that so I just want to point out to the board that if you are being flexible and we're being flexible then

078we have to make sure that the community understands that they have to be flexible if there are still boxes sitting around our classrooms so thank you very much thank you anyone else hi everyone can you hear me welcome to the new board members and congratulations on your election um and thank you for serving all of you so I wrote to Mr Edelman last night regarding the code of conduct so I just wanted to read that just for the public record shouldn't take too long um so I was writing with regard to the draft code of conduct I reviewed the document and was surprised to see the changes made to the dress code I was already concerned about the lack of enforcement of the dress code policy at the middle school specifically where I've seen girls

079as young as 10 and 11 were extremely revealing and provocative clothing it was my intention to bring this issue to the board's attention so you could consider better ways for the school Personnel to enforce the existing dress code as the code rightfully States I think in my view teachers in all other District Personnel should exemplify and reinforce acceptable student dress and help students develop an understanding of appropriate appearance in a school setting so crop tops and shorts that expose the buttocks are clearly not appropriate in the school setting creating I think unwelcome distractions for many students and no doubt many adults as well yet I found upon review of the updated document that the dress code has been made less stringent and more permissive the section that specifically banned revealing tops and bottoms has been

080removed the relevant section reads a student's dress and appearance shall not include garments such as tube tops net tops halter tops spaghetti straps plunging necklines and see-through garments ensure the undergarments are completely covered without our clothing it should not include the wearing of skirts dresses shorts or skorts that are higher than mid thigh that's the end of the section these restrictions I think are perfectly reasonable and removing them in effect sends a message that wearing such clothing is acceptable in a school setting my question is why would the school seek to make a laxer dress code policy it suggests to me that rather than find ways to enforce an appropriately restrictive policy the school is opting to make the policy less restrictive to make well just to avoid the problem of enforcement altogether I would

081hope the board would see the problem with this approach it doesn't put the interests of the students first and doesn't aim for an optimal learning environment so I'd like the board to consider retaining the original language of the dress code and work with administrators on finding ways to better enforce it and I should say the reason this matters to me is that I have a child in the Middle School daughter and then a rising fifth grader and a fourth grade son so my older daughter I think had she struggled with her peers dressing this way and feeling the pressure to dress that way too um which you know we found objectionable and she feels that way as well she felt like it's really objectifying to dress that way but that peer pressure is there and

082I just wish she didn't have to face it and then for my son I really worry obviously he will struggle for different reasons and I just don't see why we have to put our kids in that position thank you thank you Rana hi I'm Lori Beth poliata I live in Cornwall in Hudson I have in our district a incoming kindergartner fourth grade and fifth grade I also have concerns and questions about our updated dress code at the middle school is what I'm referring to quite a few items have been taken out but nothing has been added to replace them I would like to understand why and the thought process around that decision with a daughter entering fifth grade I need to know what to expect as does she there is a section of the dress

083code that says any garments which exposed to cite the private parts of the body I have to ask is this is the buttocks considered a private area and our breasts considered a private area um it feels uncomfortable to even have to say that but I need to know because I I do see the trends right now um especially you know their the shorts are like super short and um we're just we need to know what what what we're going to be seeing my daughter is also very uncomfortable when she sees other people's bodies in this way um and by taking out the section saying undergarments need to be completely covered by clothes are you saying that bras and underwear are sufficient enough to be worn with nothing covering them um I know there's a lot

084of girls that wear sports bras as shirts or just wear them and I think that there are places where that is appropriate and fine and I I also feel that in the school it it's not appropriate and I just wanted to know where we as a as a district stood on that it's also important for I believe the teachers to have a leg to stand on in their classrooms they need to have a backup from Administration I've I've heard and that some teachers do find certain clothing to be um you know not um not appropriate and they do send the children to Administration and from what I've understand is that they're sent back and with no uh no changes or anything so I just wanted to know how we are going to proceed thank you

085thank you Lori Beth anyone else okay so that then takes us to the next part of the agenda which is reports and uh let's start with the superintendent's update Terry thank you John uh so for my update I just wanted to review publicly my draft goals for the 23-24 school year this was provided to the board last week so goal number one is establishment of a CCSD diversity equity and inclusion committee representative of all stakeholders including students uh the superintendent will partner with this committee to develop and Implement policy professional development and practices that support success for all students so a few pieces with this goal um rather than it seeming like decisions coming from me I felt that it was really important to broaden that perspective and really bring in our teachers and staff

086our parents and our students to talk about their lived experience here in the Cornwall Central School District and what we can do to support every single child that walks through the doors of any of our school buildings in the district so this committee's purpose one if you were to do a query in our policies to search for the words diversity equity and or conclusion you would hit a a zero hits in our policies we find it in our code of conduct but we do not have a policy in support of diversity efforts in the Cornwall Central School District so I would lean on our parents and our teachers and staff and our students most importantly to help us craft a potential policy for the district that would then run the standard go through the policy

087committee and then to the board for review and approval the other pieces is just thinking of the professional development that our staff would like to see with regards to diversity equity and inclusion and then what are our students looking for in the classroom in our buildings what are our parents looking for to have a welcoming environment for each and every family so a big goal but something I'm excited to undertake in partnership with our stakeholders uh goal number two uh continue our District's transition to a one-to-one school district with a focus on enhancing instructional strategies to increase student collaboration engagement through the use of integrated technology within the classroom uh so I've talked for the past three years that the devices are the easy part of going one-to-one in a school district what really is

088the proof in the pudding is seeing a change in the way our our students are interacting with technology in support of their learning so this was partial goal last year but I wasn't able to really Implement and enforce it because of we weren't a full one-to-one device wise for the district next year we will be so we'll really be looking at professional development review of instructional strategies and and how our students are interacting with technology to enhance their engagement in the classroom and goal number three Advance the academic opportunities at all three levels with the focus on k-4 guided reading uh the First full year of implementation of the K5 Next Generation science standards and an expansion of high school course offerings so the guided reading piece of that goal is really there's been ongoing

089professional development at our elementary grade levels for the instruction of reading with a focus on guided reading this is the year that we're really looking for that full implementation in our classroom instruction same goes with the Next Gen Science standards we've provided a lot of professional development through the use of OU BOCES and in-house so this will be the first full year and then an expansion of high school course offerings we're looking at um this is year going into year three of us exploring the potential for a drop rotation schedule at the high school level which would expand um and opportunities for students to take an additional course we have some extremely talented and ambitious students who were taking who didn't have room in their schedule and were missing lunch to be able to take

090another course so they were eating while they were taking an additional course that they wanted for their University and and college application process also at the AP level at the support level this would do quite a bit so again we're still in the planning stages there's a lot of work to do but we're excited about tackling that as a support for our students at the high school level thank you Terry um this is a discussion part um it might be helpful Terry if we we talk about the process first just to get everyone on the same sheet of music here so so you're proposing these goals for for the year the the I think not to to move forward but next week Monday night um we're actually going to have um Mark Schneider from from

091nisba who's part of their um board leadership uh and development team um give us some training board members and part of the offerings that I sent out you'll see the board's role in diversity inclusion uh and and Equity so there there seems to be like recognition that there's stuff to be done now it's just a matter of us kind of taking that piece of wood and whittling it down to something that's that's attractive and and useful for for for all of us so as an example this is just the start of a of a conversation to arrive at what ultimately the goals for for Terry as well as the board goals and the goals of the district will be we're not going to do that tonight I think what we're doing tonight is providing Terry

092feedback and given the uh the hour of the evening I'm wondering if instead of doing it at this session if people would be willing to um defer that or if you feel compelled please feel free to do it in this session right now but but wait till we um listen to to Mark Schneider about what nisba to get us all on the same sheet of music is not just in terms of Di um d-i-e um but but more importantly about the whole goal setting process because we're that's part of the training as well right so so so if we're if we're going to do it I'd rather us see what the leading practice and the standard is first knowing that Terry has some needs he needs our help um and that we can best do

093that once we understand where we want to go as a board and then arrive at that approval process so so I just throw that out there I know it's a long way of saying hey we this is a little bit too early to to to Really move on uh and but if you want to ask Terry questions please feel free because this is very I think valuable feedback in the discussion bass go ahead yeah thanks John I I do remember last year uh we looked at the code of conduct I think few days if not maybe a week before the start of the school and at this point that that was not enough time for us to review to discuss it to debate it and we had to approve because you can't start the school

094year without code of conduct that's approved by the board that's what happened last year and my understanding is like now you give us enough time to debate it to to talk about it which I appreciate so that's kind of like my my my general kind of sense of what's going on but of course as a board we need to uh uh you're talking about you're talking about maybe I'm mixing two things together talk about the code of conduct or you're talking about the goals right so we're looking at the the goals that Perry has drafted and just provided us for for basically comment great uh two things I felt like kind of rushed lost here I mean the code of conduct and and the the the the the superintendent goals and I think this is

095kind of appropriate time for us to to discuss I mean we're going to come to the code of conduct later that's later in the agenda yeah for the goals I do have a few points I mean I can make if uh you're like are you suggesting we should delay that or I mean well we're going to be meeting next week on Monday okay and it might be a a more beneficial time to provide comments okay but if you have an initial thought that you'd like to share one more reaction please feel free to share that yeah thank you very much I appreciate that one more reason maybe I should talk tonight because next week I wouldn't be able to attend I mean I'm uh I would be in Canada okay so uh I saw the

096like my comments on uh the goals uh I see number one is Dai as it was last year uh it is very important and I do appreciate the fact that Terry is suggesting to include uh stakeholders uh rather he he worded perfectly rather than taken upon himself to do the whole thing he wants to include more stakeholders uh thumbs up I mean I totally support that to proceed to the procedure you mentioned procedures John and you're right kind of I mean there's a committee suggested uh suggested to be formed including kind of including students kind of emphasizing this fact like including students there are the stakeholders Mike why question maybe something to be thought really thought very uh closely about which is how exactly you're gonna form that committee kind of like parents I mean

097uh how would you select members of that committee right uh I don't know I mean I don't have the answer I mean something maybe that should be considered very very very closely uh because when you select like a student on that committee does he or she present everybody okay are you gonna select two students with opposing views are you gonna select two parents with opposing views we'd like that committee to be unbiased especially that we're talking about Dei here and you know how divided the society is in some parts of that EI general question that's my comment number one so it's process like John mentioned process is very important the last thing I mean here my all I have is two points this my second point is math I think you everybody remembers lost here

098I do not remember whether I abstained or did not support the goals of the superintendent loss here and mainly it was based on the lack of mentioning math at all altogether and I see now in a second year in a row math is not mentioned uh last year I mean Terry did say kind of start I still remember his words he said like I am a math person and he gave us a good reason I was 100 convinced that math shouldn't have been like uh one of the goals and now we're talking about second year in a row I did not see math I did see science I did see reading but I did not see math thank you Beth I'll jump in on on your suggestion I think seeing who you have Tita Mark

099Schneider with nisba and your um training topics I think he would better tool us to field this conversation at the later date I think you you we can know that this is coming and use this as a springboard in that training to you know flush out any ideas thoughts or concerns we may have and we may better better tool us to have a more fruitful conversation at a later date my opinion I kind of agree with with your thought process thanks Louis Christian um I don't want to get into the substance of any of the goals because I think that would be a very long conversation so I just want to make a point about you know the form and what we're useful and I'm just thinking in terms of you know the acronym smart

100that's usually used for organizational goals that goals should be specific measurable achievable relevant and time-bound did they get them all you did okay and particularly what I'm concerned about is I look at these goals and I wouldn't know how to measure them um and since like what does success look like and things of that sort and so I think as we develop these goals we should think about perhaps putting them in a form uh you know using that as a standard to kind of in a sense not necessarily change any substance of them but in ways that people have metrics and looking historically through some of the goals we've had in the past um for example in in 2019 2020 the Elise reference metrics alongside the goals and the second concern is just time bound

101because some of these goals have been our goals now for two or three years and so the question is having a time or where we think we can achieve it which does help us discuss them and whether we're getting closer or farther away from where we want to be and so as we develop them I think that might be useful to have in mind thank you Christian as I was looking down at you I I noticed uh Dr Harrington there at the table welcome by the way nice to see you here this evening um yeah in terms of of of goals I think Christian you're right in terms of that acronym and my take just to have a dialogue about it is when I look at what Terry has just put on paper and shared

102with us I see that not as goals but objectives and there's a difference between an objective which is this is where I see us going versus a goal which is as you said specific measurable achievable relevant and time-bound so so I I do think we have some opportunities to improve how linguistically we talk about things I think and I look forward to to some help from nizva on that um come the retreat and anyone else with Christine yes so all that you're saying everyone around goals and the semantics around whether their goals or objectives you know businesses get caught up in this all the time I think it would be important for us to establish directionally are we going in the right direction and if somebody wants to see something like math what is the

103evidence that says that should be in our goals for the year so that's where I would like not necessarily today to take the conversation but I think in general are we directionally committed to what's here we can fine tune and we can come up with what success looks like and then if someone in the board feels like we're missing something I think we should come with either you know the data or the the ancillary data that says you know this is important and we should really focus on this as well because I I want to make sure we're putting all our energy behind the right things to make the biggest impact thank you Christine well said Brendan I want to just underscore your idea before and Lewis's suggestion just so we don't end up having

104the same conversation twice um yeah I think that it's a and maybe it'll end up setting a precedent for how we deal with the goal since it kind of falls into that Retreat calendar and it's not like we're pushing back the adoption date we're just pushing back the discussion a week when we have more context so I think that's a good idea and uh we should do it and I think we'll end up having a better conversation next Monday anyway because of it yeah thank you Richard so I think it was two weeks now I went up to uh Albany for the leadership and education event um it was hosted by nispa a lot of these uh a lot of topics were brought up including uh Dei I think I gained a lot of information

105from it I'd be happy to share that uh the content material with you um and I think I agree that waiting until we have our Retreat and allow nissba representatives to share with the entire board these similar topics and procedures and ideas would allow us to have a a better discussion and like I said I'd be happy to share those materials with you maybe during the retreat or beforehand thank you thank you Richard since uh we mentioned the retreat maybe that's a good segue to the my update um and and with that so our Retreat is next Monday the 21st five o'clock I believe is a start date and uh Mark Schneider will be our facilitator for that will will be undergoing some training we'll be going some go undergoing some uh a relationship exercises

106and we'll also be reviewing uh the results of the survey that everyone participated in earlier in the in the summer so that should be a a jam-packed uh evening of discussion I look forward to it the what I wanted to to to to talk about and see if we got consensus on at this juncture is off the laundry list that that Mark provided I suggested basically three main areas of training to focus on trying to tailor it to the things that we may need I specifically said roles and responsibilities not just of of the board itself but but also uh Terry in our relationship with Terry and uh and his staff there's a whole laundry list of things that I included under roles and responsibilities um including internal external Communications the role of hiring staff

107that is the board's role in the hiring of Staff as well as the board self-evaluation so I'm just looking back and forth just to see if I can get some some north-south or East-West does that seem like a reasonable set of of things to have Mark help us with the roles and responsibilities yeah okay great so so that takes us to what I think is really important for any team and that's to have trust and uh and understanding with the participants where we come from what motivates us and uh um what our values are so so he's going to help us with that if we want him to I think it would be extraordinary for us to do that plus since we have three new board members that um it would be great for for

108them to share their experience I know um six of us have been around each other for a while so we we kind of know each other fairly well but I think it would be good for all of us to to go through that exercise and have Mark lead us through that um and again I'm looking for North South or East-West I'm getting a lot of north south and thumbs up so and then the last thing kind of dovetails with exactly what Terry was was mentioning as part of his vision for the his goals was uh diversity equity and inclusion and and tackling it from okay what's the board's role in all this and so Mark as I understand it has a lot of materials on it nisba has been very um I don't want to

109say Cutting Edge because I don't think your Cutting Edge in this space but but uh uh very um helpful in structuring and providing guidance as it pertains to this especially from a board perspective so so um that would be the third thing and I'm getting some north south so I think we're all and and I'll just throw it is there anything else because I think we could probably fit something else and uh if if you don't see it or have it off the top of your head if you could let me know tomorrow just in an email I'll be able to coordinate with Mark specifically on that so we could make the best use of our Collective time and and serve the district and uh in the year ahead okay seem fair wonderful so that's

110that's the retreat the second thing I want to talk about uh real quick is finance and I don't see Harvey but he originally or earlier in the week put out I know he's there I just couldn't see him I I don't like this this is more like a panel than a helpful board configuration but that's that's going to change here shortly so we'll just have to deal with it for now the um Harvey worked with an underwriter over the summer and issued a bank anticipatory note to support the capital project this is a step one of a many-step process that eventually will lead to the full Capital bond that the community supported uh two years ago I just wanted to make you all aware that that actually was done it was executed those monies have

111been received and as I understand it they're being safe kept right now and earning interest in our account with our um I'm looking at Harvey can't what's what what what's the name the New York it's called night class night class thank you which pays a a very competitive interest rate on it so so so there's good news on on that front um on the legal side I want you to all to be aware that since the last meeting I did execute the document of retention with the Honeywell group I've been talking with Jeff we're looking for a date to have him come in we want to do it sooner rather than later which I think was the uh View consensus view of the of the of the board at that time at that first meeting

112I I hope to have it um by the September meeting the first meeting I'm going to have to talk to Terry I have a conflict now on the seventh I just found out as I was flying in uh this uh this afternoon so I'm not going to be at the the board meeting we may have to push that meeting stay tuned on that the the 7th September 7th meeting is is if we can get Jeff to agree on a on a date I'd rather have one meeting with an executive session with Jeff and then the board meeting as opposed to having two different nights one with with Jeff because I want to be there for sure uh um when Jeff uh makes this presentation and the like so stay tuned on on that we may

113need some flexibility there Brendan what would he be presenting so um there are a number of things that have surfaced over the course of the summer pertaining to some legal actions that have been taken against the district there were also some questions that that board members had about his um performance that we want to have an opportunity to have that dialogue with him so basically like all things a recap of 22 23 school year as it pertains from a legal perspective and then what are the legal uh pertinent issues currently and what are possible or pending in the Wheelhouse you mentioned questions about the performance how were those raised I understand that at the last meeting there was a discussion of RFP and so I just wanted to clarify it's in reference to that conversation

114correct yes correct all right any other things questions as it pertains to that um I covered the the possible slippage of uh our next board meeting date we'll we'll get back to you on that for sure and um that covers my update all right so that then takes us to I believe the consent agenda and um are there any items that a board member would wish to um remove currently from the consent agenda to to discuss separately at this time 22. um number 22. thank you Bass any others number 19 please okay and no others very good so uh we have a a list here of items one through eighteen uh 21 20 and 21. is there a motion some of the second second all in favor aye aye aye aye opposed motion pass thank

115you everyone all right um item 19. let me catch up sorry adoption of the emergency remote instruction plan uh can I have a motion I'll move it second discussion yeah thank you Richard good thank you so I think it's a very simple question more of a clarifying question and it was brought up in in the superintendent goals so it says in the emergency remote instruction plan that the Cornwall Central school district has transitioned to a one-to-one Computing device District as of September 1st 2023. and this means that every student in our school district has access to a Chromebook grades 1 through 12 and an iPad for our kindergartners so my question is does one to one in the context in Cornwall mean that all students have a computer in school a personal computer in school

116that they also bring home so it's a layered answer our kindergartners are not going to be taking the iPads home and our youngest students will not so right now at the elementary level it's that there there's a Computing device for each and every Elementary student at the middle school and high school levels this means that there's not only a device for every student but they carry it to and from their home to school and this is just our initial it could change in the years to come okay because I thought just from you know research that one to one implies that each student would have a computer at home and have access to one to be brought home as well yes we believe you can do just that so if there's enough devices in each

117and every building for students we can easily Implement a process for them to take said devices home okay thank you foreign kindergarten for age-appropriate and this is what's feedback from our teachers they utilize iPads which is much more familiar to them intuitive too correct all elementary devices will stay in the classroom all right any other discussion all right so adoption of the emergency remote instruction plan we've moved it we've seconded it all in favor aye opposed no opposed so moved okay item number 22 tax levy resolution can I have a motion please some of discussion fast yeah thanks John uh my point is just like uh for the benefits for everybody especially the taxpayers if we can have Maybe Harvey explained the numbers a little bit for everybody uh you know mentioned that we approved

118the school budget of 87 million and uh the table showing our numbers compared uh like Corner purple to nuancer Woodbury and I've the total of a uh just an explanation of the numbers for the benefit of everybody I think that's all Harvey is that uh clear do you think you could go over that for us please sure thank you sure so as you know we are as a school district we're comprised of three different municipalities the biggest being Cornwall then comes New Windsor and we have as was mentioned earlier we have a small piece of Woodbury the actual tax levy itself that we approve includes the tax the tax levy for the public library as well they do not have a means and legally we are responsible to put that levy on our tax bills

119and then remitted to them as we collect for them the um the breakout for the um each municipality in terms of how much gets levied onto each is based on the assessed values within each Township we do not determine that that is given to us we just have to accept that we have no say in it and it's put from that information that we use in our calculation to come up with the amount that each municipality does get charged Ambassador is that good yep thank you Harvey all right uh any other discussion done all right so uh all in favor aye any opposed um all right so moved uh public service announcement for Harvey um as a result of this passing he has some documents that require each of our signatures so before you go

120home tonight please the document is going to find its way across but please make sure that you sign up before going home all right great thank you so that takes us to the new business section of our uh agenda discussion of uh board committees uh first I I want to thank those who have reached out to me and expressed interest on uh serving on various committees I I appreciate that information it should make hopefully this evening go a little bit quicker but before we start talking about um who's on what committee I'd like to take a step back and talk about our current uh committee structure and uh just as a recap we have uh uh one two three four five six uh seven committees currently consisting of audit Communications facilities new member handbook policy

121scholarship and visitation those are the current standing committees of our board does anyone have an ad or a uh deletion that they would like to propose I'm John Christian John is a um emailed you earlier about a temporary one-year committee to examine and look at the code of conduct or not for this coming Academic Year but for the following Academic Year and I don't know if that means the committee or that should be something under the policy committee but I would recommend that thank you Christian anyone else no okay I I have an ad that I would like to suggest um and that is a strategic uh formation process or formulation process uh committee I don't know if that's uh best as a committee it wouldn't be a permanent standing committee it's it's to jump

122start what I think would be really helpful for the district is taking all these pockets of of information that we have and looking to consolidate it into somewhat of a unified uh strategy which then would become I think a source document for for all of us and the community to be able to refer to when things kind of get cloudy or or somewhat gray kind of like our Our Gospel when in doubt what is this what is the current strategy document say if we had one I think a lot of the potential misunderstandings that we have as well as the lack of transparency or claims of lack of transparency could be uh um taken care of if we had a document that we could refer to but before we have a document it just doesn't

123grow on trees unfortunately I think we would need to Steward the process along to develop what that process would look like before we start getting into the the nuts and bolts of the document itself and so the first step is in that is forming a task force or a committee in my view that would look to actually build out what that process would look like what the components of the strategy would also entail as well as what type of of of feedback from what constituencies would that strategy formulation or build out consist of when I think of of all the stakeholders I think they would all have a role to play in that which means that there would be probably some engagement um similar to maybe what we've seen at the communications uh forums that

124we've held but more importantly specifically designed um on surveys now I can tell you that that nisba also performs this service so Mark can provide additional information as it pertains to what he's seen in other districts but having some type of a a source document like that I think would would be quite helpful especially as we try to move forward and Elevate the district to Greater Heights so just throw that out you mentioned I think part of my struggle with this is just trying to imagine what the deliverable is what a strategy document even is and so you mentioned that Mark from nisba has experience with this in other districts so he'd be able to provide to us what this has looked like in other districts in its final form uh correct correct and and

125there are and Terry and I have talked about this before that there are other districts and I think Terry's actually been part of it is this is not something that someone can do in a year it it it it takes a lot of effort and thought and if you think well about it it will be a a a workable useful document if if you don't put the the legwork in then it may uh just be a piece of paper that never no one ever looks at and getting help from outside I think will will go a long way many districts uh that I've talked to and I think Terry has been a part of um have actually engaged outside facilitators to help Shepherd the process for them in that um but more on that I

126think I think though from our perspective is this a worthwhile uh Endeavor it's something that do we want to pursue that's the I think that's the question for the board tonight well I I would I would suggest I mean for my own sake I would want to hear from Mark or somebody who can provide to us a little more uh specifics as to what it would be I I just can't have a an informed discussion nor do I think any anyone else can unless they really know what this is maybe you're asking you know is it worth the commitment that it is still unclear so I I would be more comfortable to have real simple I would be more comfortable to to have that presentation for Mark and then continue that discussion oh okay I

127appreciate that view I think the it is having a strategy that is documented and articulated it's that it's that it's that simple I don't want to make it too complicated well that could be gone that could be one page or 100 Pages you know I just I want to get a a better sense on the deliverable that's all so I in in the grand scheme of of how it affects the lives of the kids in the classroom eventually it is able to be referred to by the teachers so they understand how the goals that Terry just articulated affect them in their daily lives and and how they're providing instruction it basically is just a sheet of music if you will that can consist of many pages that make sure that we're all on the same

128sheet and all working rowing together as opposed to maybe you know somebody roaming this way and another person running that way but but I understand that they're is great opportunity for more discussion on it Brendan but I think um it's really that simple and this would be just the first step of pursuing that process at the end of the formulation process if the team that worked it would recommend to the full board hey it's too hard you can't do it or it's too cost prohibitive we can't do it because you know consultants get paid good money John what if we that would be the that would be the outcome but I don't think we get to that recommendation until we actually launch and actually form a group to consider that is that something we can

129do if using uh Mr Schneider at The Retreat and make this an agenda item or or Retreat put a bullet here that says you know this this committee let's let's see what he can show us that is a deliverable and in his experience what is what are pros and cons of it and and you know maybe he can float it again in in that in that training process and and help us better understand the nuts and bolts of it such that and it's not something we have to land tonight if it's such such a nebulous thing that needs to get funneled in it's going to take time to do you know certainly if it was next meeting or the one after that this really gained momentum that's okay you know just as long as launched

130properly and correctly and everybody is under a full understanding and again maybe maybe Mark can give us all that that'd be great my thoughts yeah thanks Louis Christian sorry I'm generally in favor of having a strategy document um because I think that's useful I think we can talk about the specifics of what that is but I think it does provide stability and it does coordinate um across time because many things I think a school district wants to do or not year to year and it's good to have whether it's phasing in Chromebooks one-to-one whether it is um developing a reading program whether it's develop uh something for example upk it's good to have let's say benchmarks to aim at over time thanks Christian anyone else just for consideration in addition to that not to necessarily

131decide tonight but to float the idea of a Deni committee based on our conversation with Mark Etc thank you Christine okay so that would take us to um actually no question for for Lewis on the scholarship committee that's your baby it was a great idea it's it's it's uh it's well on its way um we've had some awesome students awarded the the board scholarship is this committee um meeting does it need to meet can we is it is it useful for our purposes or could we allocate other people people to to pursue other things at this point you can probably strike it as a committee because the committee was founded and and utilized to put the structure to the to the scholarship it's not met there is no true scholarship committee that meets if there's

132an evolution of the document that we choose we can certainly put a team together um you want to establish a steward for us I mean that just monitors it and keep it you know make sure it keeps up on communication with Mr de bold and and you know collects make sure that you know the funds are supplied we can certainly do that and you know Nick's the idea of its of a committee for I don't know if that's I object to that or the team we all you know so for the record we didn't meet last year at all to be a Catholic committee an outstanding committee as needed okay all right so so why don't we do this because I think we've had some really good ads that have been proposed um and I

133do think it would be helpful to have um Mark Schneider provide some background to the board um not just on the strategy aspect but but the diversity uh committee and it seems like we're going to flesh out because we don't want to have to to compete as it were but we want to to support and so how that works with Terry's initiatives that he's articulated or proposed tonight uh I think we'll just continue to work on that but let's put that as an ear marker the following committees to consider for this year we'll decide at a later date I have written down a diversity inclusion and Equity committee um I've also put down a code of conduct committee because that's what Christian mentioned and the strategy formulation process committee so we're we'll we'll noodle that

134around some more before we uh figure out if they're worth pursuing or not so let's get back to the standing committees then that I think we're all in agreement so so uh first is the audit committee let me tell you who has responded to me so far expressed their interest and I will ask if there's anyone else that uh uh is interested there are by tradition committees that consist of anywhere from two to four we we limit the number of board members to any committee uh to to for Max I think there's some concerns that five might represent uh uh Quorum of the full board so nobody wants to go down that road so so I don't think we have to have four members of every committee um but I think three would be helpful

135and currently for the audit committee I have uh Jim and Christian uh expressing their interest in volunteering anyone else want to be part of that that form can I just clarify the process here John so yeah yeah um you want to select the members of the standing committees tonight uh yes that's what we said last time okay so people have been emailing you because I I emailed you a few weeks ago asking you to clarify this process to see if we would need to email you our preferences prior to this meeting at the last meeting we said that we would actually discuss it at this meeting and make our final choices or at least put in put in our and that's what we're doing oh hold on because I have a suggestion to make I

136think there's other considerations so uh I think generally speaking it's going to be easier for people to make decisions on what committees they want to be part of because if once we have the discussion on some of these other committees instructional technology committee Health Safety and Security professional learning plan committee is that the way I make these decisions is based on priorities but also how much time do I have so if I know where everything stands on those other committees I can I think more clearly make a decision on which committees I want to sign up for here this is why I emailed that because I wanted to know when you were expecting this information I I didn't hear a response from you so my suggestion is either we fold this into one large discussion

137so we can make all of our committee commitments at the same time or if we only plan on making these standing committees tonight and then we just discuss the other ones perhaps we pushed that back so let me clarify yeah so uh the goal that I think has been articulated as all the board committees and possible representative assignments we're going to try to resolve this evening and basically have it approved by all of us right get to some level of consensus at the time at the last meeting I I encourage people to to reach out and discuss and and people actually have reached out uh and and asked to serve on various committees um it doesn't mean they're on the Committees it just means they reached out and expressed their desire ahead of this meeting

138everyone this tonight has their prerogative and and hopefully their their ability to express what they'd like and I want to make sure that everyone is able to serve the district on the committee or working group or Outside Agency as they would like so that's the the process I understand that for you it would be helpful if um we do it a different way and express I guess your notion would be for all the just go individually and and take count of what everyone's individual uh Dream sheet would be no no I I would prefer just to organize it well I I'm going to go through um them all I'm going to do the standing committees first because I I think the standing committees from my perspective have the most priority and probably the most time

139required and hopefully the most impact because those are committees that come to the board with a recommendation for action the other representative assignments are kind of the board's eyes and ears as well as providing a feedback whether it be at the state level or at the county level or at the district level in the various measures so I I I I don't know if I feel coppelled based just on on you highlighting your preference but if others want to follow suit I'm happy to deviate from what I was planning to do which is go by committee committee in order as they're listed so I I'll throw it up to anyone else to and again just to clarify what my the idea is the instructional technology committee Health Safety and Security committee professional learning committee we

140just fold them into this conversation because I may be thinking well I want to sign up for two committees over here because I would like to serve on one of the Committees over here but once we get to this discussion right because it's a separate item if you say well it's full you there's no room on this committee well now I'm on one less committee that I would have planned on being where if we just do it as one conversation instead of two different items I six of one half dozen of another Brendan I'm sorry your point is being lost on me but if others want to support that I'm happy to entertain it I'm not a dictator I want the will of the board to kind of be heard and followed so Christian I

141think it would be just helpful just to get a draft and allocate people and then we can always revise it and people can say well you know can I get off this one on this one I don't think we're finalizing any committee first and then finalizing a second committee and I think that's what Brandon is saying is that the instructional technology the professional learning are part of you know the whole thing so I think the point is that instead of just doing standing committees separate to have basically treat this as a really one whole universe of assignments thank you for that Christian bass yeah I might comment is probably very close to what uh Chris just mentioned uh let's go ahead with your plan John of uh kind of appointing uh the seven I know

142we thought like we take out scholarships so but like six appoint the members three or four and then when we move on to the district wide appointment the person who'd like to be there would you take it on top of your appointment previous appointment or you would throw one of the main six in order to add uh your position on the district white comedy I think that compromise for everybody thanks Beth and Lewis I don't specifically hear it district-wide committees are the hang up here because they've existed they're always there it's just do you want to be part of it or not um I think it's the proposed new committees that we don't know just what their involvement may or may not be if we decide hypothetically to yes we all agree that a b

143and I said a b and c I have uh the Dei and code of conduct committee floated in mind if we agree that all three are are viable committees and we Institute them that may change well wait a second I can't be on Communications because it's going to occupy too much of my time I would prefer to really be on the Dei committee for example that's kind of what what I'm hearing um yeah you know if we if we decide on a through F tonight A through G tonight and then we go through a through C at a different night it's just two conversations uh as opposed to as to opposed to one because we don't know what a b and c of the proposed new committees are going to entail I think Lewis that's

144a great point I mean we have things that are tangible in front of us and the others are like draft choices that may or may not be named let's do the solid six now yeah so so so like like all things I think the board will be able to as the world evolves and our understanding of maybe or our interests or our desires to have these other committees added unfold we can go back and and and and look at that the the issue that I'm concerned about and that's why I'm trying to stay focused on what we have in front of us is that I think there are a number of things that are out there that having a committee in place and meeting before our next board meeting would be quite helpful for instance

145public comments we have a policy committee we've had a desire to try to work on how we engage the public and continue the good work that happened last year in becoming a little bit less rigid and more flexible in the dialogue that we have with the public we're not going to be able to to do that unless we have a policy committee and that policy meets hopefully for the next meeting so we can have a discussion about what they're working on another committee that comes up facilities we have all these projects that are going on but we don't have a facilities committee to kind of help the board kind of understand what's going on well if we had that facilities committee established hopefully those participants could be meeting prior prior to the next meeting so

146that they can have pertinent information and questions answered by the administration so that when we meet again in September we're we're me I don't know if we're ahead of the game but we're at least on course or on track as opposed to starting behind and I will tell you that I've learned in life if you get behind you get left out and I don't want to be left out and I I don't want us to start the year off on the wrong foot so I I appreciate the the desire to be somewhat flexible and and Brendan if if that's your point that you're worried that the code of conduct or the other committees might interfere or that the uh working groups or district-wide committees um May interfere with other work on that I I can

147appreciate that I know you people are very busy but they're the process that I would like to pursue is we're going to go committee by committee and in the end if you want to start with the one that's most important it sounds like to you and others support it talking about these district-wide committees but we can do that is would that would that help yeah it's I'm just saying um we've probably spent more time talking I'm just saying let's just have one conversation as opposed to separate action items that's it for the district-wide committee so we can allocate our time so yeah so so so so so and I thank you for that now because I think I understand what you're saying so hopefully at the end of the process I'll be able to articulate

148all the Committees and all the different assignments that we have here under one big motion and say all approved perfect and and not like we're doing committees first and then these other right delegates second and no it's it's all it's all in one sheet of paper I'm just trying to figure out where all the players are going yep thank you okay so get back to audit so uh Jim and Christian have uh uh um expressed interest thank you for stepping up on that I've also had a Community member who was a board uh member Nina Ross who has volunteered again I think she was a part of that committee last year uh very valuable uh with her expertise so she would be number three is there anyone else that would like to be on that

149uh audit committee for this year no all right next Communications committee Brendan has Shepherd this for for a long time and uh I'm counting on you I'm hand raised um anyone else for communications John I did not email you you did say that and I totally but it could no no no I missed it just to clarify you did not have to do it you can certainly put me on the communications list thank you all right anyone else thank you Christine anyone no okay uh facilities committee Lewis I'll take on that thank you um I have Jim down he he expressed the interest to me on that uh and I believe Carl has also expressed interest and and I say also I think um I've been checking emails sporadically as I've been in Indiana now

150for a while and uh now I'm back here so I I apologize to all that I owe an email to I've read them I just may have not responded to them yet so Carl did I have that right yeah okay great yeah you can you can pencil me as a chair if I I think I didn't pencil you I I think I I think a week on my left side I think I engraved you on your name on that thank you uh fantastic new member handbook this is a labor of love I wish Margaret was here to tell us what this entailed because she was the one that always did it I we said we wanted this uh committee still and um why don't we do this we've had three new members who have gone

151through the process I just hold a very informal pull in terms of the onboarding that you received was the new member handbook redundant to the official training that you received um by the state and the nisbah new board member handbook as well okay so redundant yes no I'm sorry Christine handbook part that's just an from the training the stuff on the front end that has points of contact and committees and you know our timeline for things is somewhat helpful but I don't think it needs a committee I think I think Linda updated it thank you you know I mean because I saw the old one and then got hers today so I don't want to put work on Linda but I think it's it's a matter of just compiling that front page or pages I

152don't know if Carl and Christian would agree but that was really the only difference okay fantastic so so why don't we do this I put that on the same ship as a scholarship I was going to say let's let's let's let that one sound like it served its purpose and and now just needs to be updated with with with names and numbers and the like uh going forward yeah and maybe with a caveat that says Hey listen at every year we'll visit this again this is this is our Our Roots and do we feel like we need it if we do you have that same words to the same new members that are next year potentially hey what are your guys thoughts wow it was weak well you know what now we need to talk

153about it so so I like that idea so so maybe we have these standing committees and then we have these possible what we'd call ad hoc committees and and this might be a recurring as needed committee as we as we go forward so thank you for that Lewis all right making progress um policy committee so I've had the following uh uh folks express interest uh Jim has expressed interest Christian has expressed interest bass and Richard is there anyone else I was also interested okay so so that gives us I am as well Christine too good this is we should have such problems right um so we have six um and then we have a choice we could do this as a standing committee of or a committee of the whole which is all the board

154participate in it or we can Whittle this down to a manageable number of four and uh I'm willing or happy to do either I think it would be better to whittle the number down to four and as a result I would ask is there anyone that would upon scene those who are interested in it be willing to possibly step aside move on to something else I have I mean I let me share my feelings if you are I served lost here on this committee I was very interested in it and you go back to the video what I mentioned in the last meeting uh I thought the work is uh is very important and I mentioned that like somebody asked like what is it involver thank you Christine asked this question and it sounds like

155you know usually in every meeting the bulk of the meeting goes towards what Terry kind of goes through the policies one by one does kind of share with us like they have changes and we debate that that's the bulk of me now again that's my personal experience lost here uh I can't say I can share with everybody I was the only one on the committee that introduced new policies and they went like a long way I mean all the way to basically our our lawyer right I mean our legal law you know Authority if you want and they were back and forth a little bit it's still undone business I like to finish that business but just just to say that I'm genuinely interested in this committee and I can kind of go further and

156say I would be interested in sharing it even this time now the I heard that Chris and Christine are uh you know I mean they like to Surf and uh thank you for that uh probably if we're talking about six we need only four maybe Chris and Christine can talk among themselves and we get one new member compared to the incumbent members uh to continue their role uh there's uh I think Teresa uh is not with us anymore so that's kind of we see that can be kind of filled again and Larry Berger actually like two members of the committee are not with us anymore so we can fill those two seats uh we were only three we can make them four and that fourth member again maybe between Chris and Christine we can you

157and who you're proposing for the other two uh the other two okay so we were we were three I'm the only one kind of like still there so we have two vacants two vacancies right two vacancies and we have three vacancies one of those three vacancies my suggestions should be a new member and the other two would be kind of you know existing members like in common members from the previous year members of the board not yeah there's currently four four incumbent board members that want to be on it got it there's currently four not three okay let me be a kind of on a very explicit here I mean Richard is kind of is serving his second term right he expressed interest in it uh Jim is in his what third term expressionism so

158I would say Jim and Richard would be on the board on the on that Committee in addition to me that would leave what one vacancy it can be discussed between Chris and Christine to select one of those you're missing Brendan Brendan you're missing you're missing me Brandon I miss Brendan you're also missing me last year so then uh no you were on the committee as as the president was here I no that was one of my my only committee membership uh it was that and the well it was that audit and uh and communication mine yeah my incentive was like the president would sit on the committee I mean just right well you're you're so bad I don't mean to cut you off I just move it forward so so so we have six who

159have expressed interest bass you've just made the case why you'd like to be on again okay I get that I'd like I'd like to to to go back to my earlier request which is is there anyone at this point willing to say you know what uh policy that's okay otherwise we're gonna have to start drawing straws or do something and I just throw it out there is there anyone willing to take a step back and uh um of the six and the six just for the avoidance of Doubt Jim uh Christian bass Richard Brendan Christine and no one is okay very good so in the interest of time I'm going to just tag that and move on to our next committee and that happens to be um alphabetically visitation Committee of which I have those

160following members expressing interest I have Richard and Carl so far are there any other members of the board I'm interested for the same reason like what they just explained about the policy I sort of Lost Years yeah got it anyone else uh is that a this was so I I had uh just give you not that you're really asking but my uh goes back to the other conversation I had I have three committees I want to be on three committees and my third I thought would either be visitation or safety so okay I you can consider me an alternate Inc and we'll see how the other ones shake out so so so if you express interest I can put your name down yeah and then when we get to the other committees we can then

161look and say oh well I'm overbooked or hey maybe you're you're underbooked or whatever right but that's yeah uh so so you're just expressing interest which is fine and we don't but not as much interest I get it yeah it's you're not uh it's barely making the minimum requirement I think it's like a five point issues John is it possible to have a rotating spot on the visitation Committee in the sense of we have our main folks who run the committee but um if there's a spot open a member of the board could join the visitation but not necessarily be committed to the committee right so what's what's happened in the past is exactly what you've just uh articulated Christine so I I would see that continuing in the year ahead thank you um okay

162what other so let's move then to outside or organizations and we have um Orange County School boards now I've had uh Christine and Carl I believe express interest s you did you you okay now you're clarifying I think you did at the meeting yeah at the meeting okay anyone else no okay next is then the New York State School boards Association delegate an alternate I have bass I believe you've expressed interest in that is that right yeah yep uh anyone else okay I'm happy to to do that as well I guess by tradition I think either Brendan you're always the alternate I believe is the president is that how that works that's how it worked last year okay so yeah so I'm happy to fulfill that tradition as well um and then that takes us

163to legislative liaison which would uh I believe Jim actually did this last year if I'm not mistaken and Brendan you did it the year at maybe two years two years prior previous okay anyone interested good thank you okay anyone else on that nope wonderful so then that takes us to our uh district-wide committees of which uh I'll start with the health Safety and Security I believe last year we had three board members on that um the year prior we only had one if I'm so so so there is no Rhyme or Reason um or or number uh other than I don't think you know three is probably the max that we would want I know these these committees that are run by the district are very large and and I think it would you know

164one is probably the optimal number of board members to participate but but three I think worked last year so um anyone for that I'll throw in an interest hat on that okay thanks Brenda anyone else I did it last year I'd be willing to do it again I think you could put an interesting hat the same as as Brendan okay security would fold into that facilities genre so Lewis thank you so that's interest Richard you're on it last year are you yeah I'd be interested in doing it as well okay good good good good all right fantastic um the next I think alphabetically instructional um technology committee I guess this is an existing committee uh Larry I believe has served on in that capacity as the board rep um is there anyone wishing to follow

165in Larry's large footsteps instructional technology no okay I will uh I will note that everyone is Richard yeah if there's nobody else interested I'd be willing to uh all right on there and you could you're showing interest that's all so interesting you can if somebody else wants to be on the health and safety committee right um I can move myself from there okay fair enough and uh thank you for that Richard and then um the professional learning plan committee uh just as a as a reminder earlier this summer Megan started her her work early in in working on the um bringing together the team and asked um who the the board would want to be part of that process I reached out Christian and Christine both expressed interest in that I think those are great

166choices I believe Megan actually was uh very happy uh um with those volunteers and um because we didn't have a board meeting and I said it would be just kind of temporary until we could actually endorse it and um seeing if there was anyone else give them the opportunity if they're so desired to be in that no good all right I mean I if there's a need I'll uh if there's if I was enjoying yeah okay I think Megan actually asked for only one and and we gave her two okay so because that's we try to over deliver here so so thank you bass um um so good all right so this is what I have for those who are keeping track um I think audit committee I have Jim Christian and Nina Ross um

167that seems to be well to move forward um the communications committee I have Brendan Lewis and Christine facilities Lewis Jim Carl policy uh we have six gym Christian bass Richard Brendan Christine where I have to come back to that visitation we have uh uh currently Richard Carl Bass Brendan Maybe more like whispered whisper oh so so so yeah yeah right right it's not a hat it's like a visor I I think I think that yeah right good good um right yeah like a pawn brokers visor oh oh not an accountant visor okay okay accountant advisors are green I don't know what a pawn brokers I think it's all bought from the same supplier all right so then uh Orange County uh Carl and Christine um New York State School Board Bass uh and me um

168legislative liaison Christian and then for the uh district-wide committees uh Brendan Richard Lewis great uh Richard John I'm hesitant I I was going to treat myself similar to I think what Brendan tried to do last year which as an ex-officio to all the Committees not be a big Committee Member but you know be there um as the as the need might arise but I'm happy to to serve in this capacity Richard if that helps you any I'll let you figure that out we have two for one slot as I see it and then Christian and Christine okay so I think we're great and now we just have to decide uh how we want to deal with policy um Jim is not here so I don't have the opportunity to see if he might say it's

169well covered um and so given the late hour I'm I'm of the opinion that maybe we we table this for another day the policy committee even though I really wanted to get get going um other than that I'd be willing to take um ideas for a consensus on how to move this forward lots of different ways but I'm yes Christian so I think last year um it's prerogative of the of the president to decide who's on the Committees and you could exercise that or you could delegate you know in a sense to a vote of the whole board but I think this might be best I know we're maybe having a meeting before the retreat next week because of some um some business that needs to be done before the school year and perhaps then

170that one week from today is when we take the vote or to have the discussion on the policy committee I think that maybe allows then Jim so is that is that a motion that you might not be there and I know you're interested so I'm not sure if that works because we're going to have Jim is not here tonight bass won't be here next week I believe he said so I just want to make sure that it's fair to everyone so so so is that emotion okay I like the idea I will move and see if I get a second is there a second I will move to have the policy committee uh the constitution of the policy committee tabled until uh the retreat so so just for the voice of that thing will happen

171before the retreat just for the avoidance to doubt there will be a uh a special board meeting to cover um new hires that uh we were unable to to do this evening um it will just be a personal action in what Christian is saying is because of a number of factors we should possibly wait on the policy discussion until that uh um that period Monday night as part of that special that meeting [Music] um he's moved it is there a second I second it I agree okay uh we have a a motion it's been second it's on the floor um all in favor I should be discussion I think no oh I'm sorry thank you thank you fast discussion yeah discussion I mean I don't want anybody to to Miss interpret misunderstand what I suggested

172I mean this is a people volunteering to several committees they're always welcome more than welcome right I mean I I'm saying kind of you know there are unfinished business uh if we can kind of maintain the structure of that committee as much as possible now there was a fact there is a fact that Larry and Teresa are not with us anymore so that create two vacancies my understanding all along Brandon was lost here we were on the sitting I mean part of the committee as the board president not not as a member of the committee itself I mean that I was always under that impression uh so I mean to say that we were three not four but now you know we have two new members two new board members expressing interest and again you're

173more more than welcome uh a vote I think full committee vote I mean you know vote for four and with Tally you know the results and we'll see what happens I think time might allow people to reconsider you know like as opposed to putting it to a vote and I I just I in my time on the board I've never seen anyone vote for I've never seen such interest in that which we haven't had that problem right and that and that is that's a very interesting sign I think and and the last thing I I want to encourage is to take that encouraging sign and make something good bad and that's why I I'm I like Christian's idea I think from a timely perspective we do have some time still and if we can defer

174to that moment it would be I think helpful um anyone else on the discussion side bass thank you for your for your comments um and I know how you feel about it um and I respect that anyone else um Christian so just as a Counterpoint to what um bass said I think that there's one way to look at this in terms of seniority people who have served before have an incumbency and the other way to look at this is to look at this that the policy committee should be a microcosm of the committee as a whole which means it should represent the spectrum of views of the things that might be decided by the policy committee and so I think that you know there's a balance the consideration and then there's I think an experienced

175consideration and I think we should you know those are maybe if I had to make a decision those are the things I would try to balance or take into consideration in making a hard choice because obviously I think all six people are passionate about this uh by the fact that no one wanted to take a step back but also that you know everyone would bring something to it and therefore we have to make a hard decision because it can't be six people balance shouldn't be careful I mean you counter are good with me I counter argue with you again now one more time uh balance is not a factor should not be a factor it's a committee the to work hard put some time behind everything bring it to the full board the balance takes

176place at the board level not at the committee level all right well thank you bass um I think the the the points on that I think have been uh articulated and um I think um we're ready to move for a vote and all in favor aye any opposed great so we're going to defer on the policy and now um based on our previous work um let me just reiterate the committee structure that we have uh worked on this evening and see if we can get a a motion on it for for audit I have a gym Christian Nina Ross Communications I have a Brendan Lewis and Christine facilities I have Lewis Jim and Carl visitation Richard Carl Bass and Brendan the board rep to outside organizations Orange County School Board Carl and Christine as the

177alternate New York State School Board I have bass and myself as the alternate legislative liaison we have Christian for the board representative to our district-wide committee's health Safety and Security Brendan Richard Lewis instructional technology Richard professional learning plan Christine and Christian I have one ad and what I would like to do is also put the chairs of these committees that we've just articulated the standing ones so facilities Lewis the chair for communications Brendan the chair and for audit Jim the chair for visitation I propose Richard the chair with all that said can I have a motion so I moved discussion all in favor aye aye opposed past thank you so now we come to the part where um oh no we have more items I'm sorry next is the uh adoption of the uh code

178of conduct for the school year 2324 I will take it as the draft and the resolution that states resolved upon recommendations superintendent of schools the board of Direction direct education just hereby adopt the 2324 Cornwall Central school district code of conduct I have a motion second second discussion foreign the comments earlier about the um dress code there's there's a context that I I feel confident that was explained to us at some point that I'm now forgetting um so if that can just be offered I don't know if Megan or Terry are the best ones to to tackle that and just some of the changes that were made so every year we um look at what the lived experiences in our buildings get feedback from staff both teachers and administrators to see what tweaks we might

179need to make so last year if you recall one of the most significant changes to the code was the use of Technology of taking pictures and things of that nature for fights and and things that nature that was all based on what was occurring at the middle in high school uh this year um you'll see some of the changes are really focused on the student dress code and um what occurs when there's a Dasa violation discrimination harassment uh bullying are the two primary focus areas um just to add some context this didn't just drop out of the sky there's a few points that I want to make this isn't really a we give up we don't want to enforce that's absolute ludicrous that's what we do each and every day that's why you get the

180letters on suspensions and what's going on in in schools uh this is really trying to keep up with current times so if you go back in history there were times where females weren't permitted to expose any part of of their legs and things that nature and I I don't want I don't mean that as a tongue-in-cheek I mean that is a reality um that that times have absolutely changed when I have female students coming up to me to say why mid thigh or why a spaghetti strap I can't defend it that those are things that our own students and our and parents are are asking so looking at the the code and what was taken out and what was added I just want to kind of reinforce so one of the most important um pieces

181is that this is a partnership between students and parents and us while some are saying that it's inappropriate those are same parents that we live next to one another who are saying it is permissible for uh for their children so it's a really hard balance to strike because these are all our appearance and students um some of the guard rails we tried to keep in place is we added a section that said um a student's dress and appearance shall not include clothing dress or appearance which displays a phallic symbol and or sexual metaphors see-through garments or any garments which expose to cite the private parts of the body the question was this buttocks yes absolutely any private part that you would cover with undergarments things of that nature in reaching and re-reading this one of

182the things I would like to add as a revision of my own is to keep the the line based on the comments made so that today I think were very valid ensure that undergarments are completely covered with outer clothing gets at some of the things that we're trying to make sure that we are providing Asgard rails in our schools but I think all of those things together um provide a direction forward but not being overly um restrictive I asked my wife I asked I have a high schooler I have a middle school I was like do we even use the terms halter tops tube tops and things of that nature ask a teen it's not quite that this is again we just have to advance to what's happening currently so just blanketly saying no uh

183halter tops you would get some pushback with regards to how do you define that and things of that nature so it is absolutely not a we give up it's we try to put things in a place that we could actually defend and this is Through The Eyes of our students and our parents who have asked very important questions of why mid thigh what's what's mid thigh as an appropriate for females in our district the other question I've been posed is why can boys wear plunging necklines for their armpits and things of that nature I just want to make sure that we're striking that balance of not being overly restrictive of our one um segment of our population and and not the other so that is the true intent um we also scoured other uh policies

184of other districts and this is where most districts are moving is not being a you can't wear X X Y and Z but really talking about what needs to be covered and really that partnership with um with our parents and students there's still the caveat that if anything's an interference to an educational process we can still intervene again that that's very subjective so I we're just trying to make sure that we're being current with what's actually happening not just in schools but in in broader Society I I like to make a comment during this past school year I had to pick up my son from middle school to a doctor's appointment I went inside and I was waiting for him to arrive I mean they called them to come and meet me while I was

185waiting students were leaving classrooms going I don't know I mean cafeters I think it was lunch break and I I I was looking I mean looking to see my son among them right is he coming for this way that way right and I felt like strange looking at some very inappropriate uh female attires um I couldn't do it I mean it was a very strange feeling goes to what we heard from the community here tonight so I started looking at the floor at the ceiling out the window and I thought like my son's gonna see me hey Dad you know I'm here very inappropriate and that was based on the existing uh what do we call it uh you know what do you call it dress code dress code this word based on the existing

186dress code it wasn't appropriate imagine what's gonna happen now when again the Community member tonight told us kind of I can't use better words Lester's less restrictive I have no uh a problem with the existing dress code uh definitely I'm not gonna support making it less restrictive so I just I just wanted to just add one other um piece we just really have to be careful with when we say the community has said um again um the part that I just want to stress is students and their parents and Guardians have their primary responsibility for acceptable student dress and appearance so while we might hear from two members of the community tonight I have also heard from other members of the community who are saying it's overly restrictive we had students and a parent come

187to a board meeting last year that I know you were in attendance who said the student dress code is overly restrictive overly biased for females that was our kids I didn't I didn't seek them out they came to a board meeting so I just want to be careful with um we heard from the community because I do have a decent perspective of the emails that I get when there are suspensions when there are students sent home I get the responses back from parents in in the students I just I just want to make sure that we're being careful with yeah I'm going to allow myself again to say it maybe in more descriptive fashion girls walking looked as if they're walking in there and they're underwear not shorts definitely not shorts underwear totally inappropriate unacceptable

188in your perspective so if I could just uh um try to take this discussion to a different level um it see it seems to me that the purpose of a code of conduct of which the dress code is a subset of is is to establish a standard of of behavior that's acceptable for the district how we go about doing that takes a lot of work and much to Christian's idea of having a code of conduct committee that looks out into the future as opposed to immediately at the issue that stands before you um Society is changing however what is deemed as appropriate I believe is for the district to decide not for society to decide and that's where we as a board come in and that's where the administrators come in as Professionals in this

189realm and trying to carve out the language in a way that allows what I will call discretion but still maintains good order and discipline by ensuring that the dress of our students is acceptable to the common good the common cause I know that people like brightline tests it's convenient sometimes those bright-line tests can become your enemy especially when things change my question for Terry just trying to take it to the next level is this change I understand there's a lot of of community input that this change is looking to address would you characterize this change as actually relaxing or making the dress code of what is appropriate for a Cornwall student laxer yeah it's not absolutely not more relaxed um it's one Clarity and two it's what's defensible saying that a female cannot wear spaghetti

190straps I have no idea how you defend that to any parent whatsoever what makes that inappropriate you will have parents lined up in this Auditorium to say apps why the question of mid thigh indefensible where I have no idea it used to be when I was in school um we're down to your fingertips and that that's ages ago what makes down to your finger tips appropriate so I'm really trying to help the district move forward to what's defensible but then also how do you still put up the guard rails which is why I think what is covered is shall not include clothing or dress which this way is a phallic symbol and or sexual metaphors see-through garments any garments which expose the sight the private parts of the body or undergarments are completely covered with

191outer clothing all of those pieces along with the um things that have remained in place provide us cover it provides us what things are defensible it's a clear cut I can see your undergarment it's a clear-cut you shall not expose your a private part of your body without layering female articles of clothing that are just not permitted in in the district it's it's so it's Clarity and advancing just like I talked about the kind of the brief spot in history of what was an appropriate dress for a female 50 years ago would not fly in a code of conduct today that same school board 50 years ago would have said absolutely not you um girls cannot wear that because in their lens at the time that would have been inappropriate during that day and age

192so it's it's those two pieces I can tell you when I got here I read the code and I was looking at exposed midriffs Megan will tell you I I pressed to say why does the code say one thing and what I'm seeing in the high school middle school different and that's when students would start to reach out to me to explain what's um what's unfair about particular dress code codes they were very articulate to say it is female focused it's just what you're going to see is if you listen to our students and and all parents you we have to strike some balance and allow some subjectivity to occur at the building level of making that on the spot uh determination of having that conversation to describe further so I just think we set

193ourselves up for failure to say things like mid thigh no spaghetti straps and females cannot wear halter tops two tops and things that nature I just think it's it's it not defensible Terry do you think that the uh it seems to me that the one of the issues and our community members have spotted have pointed out is enforcement as well and Bassman based on what you're describing I don't think it would would be acceptable under either the last year's code of conduct or this or this new one that so that to me the question becomes enforcement and what I'm hearing from you Terry or what I think I'm hearing is that Clarity will help enforcement is that right I mean is that where is that has that been one of the driving objectives here yes

194it's it's the um this is the distance between um what should be uh you need to come into my office uh call Mom or Dad and have them bring you a change of clothing and then getting those emails back to administrators and to me to say why um so it's a combination of that so when a principal is faced with I've had five appearance in a row say why can't my daughter wear show her belly button um it's it's it becomes a hard administrative task so we're really trying to provide do not show your private parts do not show your undergarments see-through clothing is unacceptable um any clothing that endorses drugs Alcohol Tobacco those are clearly trying to provide direction for our kids and what's appropriate and not while also not being overly restrictive and

195overly biased to female students Christian um I just want to start like as I I think there's a lot of things that are imperfect about the code of conduct which is why I suggested the committee that being said I just want to say that my intention tonight is to vote for this code of conduct and then work on those issues over the year because at this point we have a school year coming up and we need a code of conduct and it's not no code of conduct is perfect and we need to I think we can work with the one we have and also commit ourselves to work on these issues going forward this is not my priority but I would say as an educator my experience is very similar to Mr dates on this

196with the issues and striking a balance and I have been in had probably about 3 000 students in my career and I've seen a lot and I have also had a lot of conversations with students um my general thing is to look at a dress code that the primary purpose of a dress code is the health and safety of the students uh wearing a t-shirt in the middle of a New York winter is a health and safety issue and I think that should be the core of it and then as Mr Dade said the interruption of instruction but I don't think that the dress code should endorse a particular sense of propriety and actually when I think when you start to go into their you run into issues but that's on the dress code I

197have some concerns about the change in policies about cell phones mostly because I think they would they're going to become a headache as far as enforcement and interfering with our transition to one to one but I think those are things that we can work out and I don't want to make that to stop and the second thing is about giving bus drivers the authority to take cell phones from students and to make the determination I think I'm uncomfortable with having non-district Personnel making those judgment calls when they're not defined in the code of conduct and I think that could be a legal issue and I I think it's going to be a headache and since there's no parallel policy for inside the school that meets that I just would like to flag that and lastly

198The Clarity on the escalation of um disciplined for bullying and then the bullying that is in direct violation of Dasa what's not clear to me is that Dasa you go through four stages of bullying and then you switch to the next column next row on dafa and that's then step one or step five and I think we either can combine those uh because I think the Dasa is Broad enough but um these are minor things but I think there are things we can work on and I as I said the reason why I think we should have a committee that includes members of the community uh the staff and the administration as well as the board to to revisit this and to make it appropriate for what the reality of our school district is and

199going forward thank you Christian any anyone else I just if I if you don't mind the dress code but we're talking part of the other challenges to Terry's point about I'm sorry do you want me to stop John people came to him to say I think the challenge also when you think about like mid thigh a very very different perspective on that and they can't find clothing that does what we're asking them to do and these are nuances but they make it difficult to enforce and I think that when I really reread this a second time I I think it covers everything that has been brought as a concern um and I think it doesn't say it here but it's also you know the reasonable person's standard that if somebody you know if an administrator

200saw something that you know we're describing I would argue you can probably see undergarments through what we've been heard here described and so that would be something that would fall in the current you know iteration of the policy I just I know it's a hot button and so I want to make sure that you know folks feel like we're still holding people to a standard of appropriate dress and and conduct we're not saying to just give and give it away because Society has changed thank you for that Christine I think that's very important to articulate and my understanding in talking with Terry and Jim and and some others is that the intent is exactly what you just articulated now when it comes to what what what happens as it unfolds I think to Christian's point

201it's imperfect and if adjustments need to be made I'm sure they will be made when I thought about what is appropriate dress in the 21st century I don't know if I could articulate it well other than referring to what I heard about defining pornography which is I can't Define it but I I'll know it when I see it and I think that's what we're asking and the administrators and the teachers in the classrooms to be doing is when they see it to be able to say it and that puts a heavy burden on them because now the discretion that's that's for them to figure out where before it was I think very easy when you have a standard that's articulated oh spaghetti straps I'm sorry you're out of compliance you know go to the principal's

202office whatever so so I think it's it's it's tough it's made tougher by societal influences but as long as we can have a dress code that preserves the focus of our students attention on learning their studies I think will be in good stead so I think this was a an attempt whether it's a successful or not we'll find out and if it's not I'm sure we'll be quite uh uh quick to to adjust but foreign there was an argument made maybe three times already tonight and this is kind of times has changed women do not dress like they used to dress in the 30s and 40s that doesn't mean that you know you want to go and exposed and it does the I mean the the kind of the policy does say Do not expose

203private parts whether it's a man or a woman everybody understands there's the lag and at the top of the leg the buttocks start correct I'm trying not to be very kind of I mean here when when the the short should end somewhere on the leg Do Not Go and show half of the buttocks that's what I saw when I went to pick up my son understood bass totally unacceptable don't tell me that time changed and we don't dress like we used to dress in the 40s and 50s and 60s I I bet I I hear what you're saying I agree with you saying I didn't hear anyone object to what you're saying I think there's there's unanimity in in what you observed as being inconsistent with what I'll call the Cornwall Standard and hopefully going

204forward with these novel changes hopefully it won't occur again so with that I'd like to to I think we have a motion in a second all in favor of adopting this code of conduct say aye any opposed I have uh Carl and and bass okay um that's seven to two motion passes oh six two I'm sorry Jim's not here thank you Matt you know we need more math um six through motion pass thank you and and good discussion and I think from an intent perspective my hope would be as we move forward with this new or this change that as the policy were to be challenged and I know that's what middle schoolers do they challenge things that uh will be able to to quickly address it and Terry putting that one sentence back in

205okay thank you okay so that takes us to uh the recognition of visitors I noticed we still have a crowd thank you for staying this evening with us the conversation was getting close to late night TV I guess um is there anyone wishing to be heard Ronald Ebert series I appreciate the discussion you all had just now I just want to add to the business of the dress code that it wasn't clear to me um where the midrift lies on what's private and what isn't everything in the old code suggests that that was inappropriate and you could call it halter top or tube top now they call it crop tops if you want to focus on what's revealed I would include that but Terry I think when he just discussed what he can't defend included

206the belly button so now I'm thinking that's acceptable and I just I would have a hard time like defending you know boys or girls going to school exposing their mid-rift as being appropriate for a school setting I mean we have to remember that this is a like a professional environment for these kids and we're teaching them how to conduct themselves as professionally as they can just like you wouldn't go to your job in it I mean most jobs anyway um in a tube top or whatever they're calling them I don't think we want to send a message to our children that that's appropriate at school so just to put it out there I would like maybe some more specificity in what is private and what shouldn't be revealed and then my other comment has to

207do with committees I'm sure it's too late now but um I'd like the board to consider adding an academics committee uh I don't see like any systematic assessment of the data which we have and you all get once a year when State you know the previous year's State assessment data is out and the board I think is a little bit caught off guard because they haven't been tracking this and I think having a committee that's comparing year to year academic data to see what the rate of progress is to see like where where the difficulties come up where the learning loss happens this would help us Target our resources more effectively so just for the future I would consider having an academics committee thank you thank you Rana that then takes us to closing comments

208of the board and I will start with Carl speaking of dress code Carl you're taking us to it I'm trying um first thing I want to say is um there's a person sitting here who probably never gets recognized and she is probably the one person that makes this all happen for us and I know as a new board member um Linda's been awesome I mean she does everything I mean within seconds it's done if I call her up everything is taken care of within within seconds so I want to say welcome back and thank you very much for everything okay um I just wrote down a couple things um I was able to go to my first High School play here the other day with Frozen um awesome it can't can't say enough about it

209um John Hines I just wrote a few names down uh John Hines was the director produced by Bridget carty we don't we say how great these things are but we never mention the people that actually make them happen and um I was just blown away by this play um Denise Carr uh Carter the Ireland family Peter and Dee awesome thank you so much I mean it was you guys did a great job these kids are phenomenal how much how little time they have to put a play together like that and do the work that they did is just unbelievable so man keep that going um and really uh John I had a couple things I wanted to ask you the attorney was the attorney supposed to be here tonight was that one of the requests

210uh I understand that was in the future okay um not specifically tonight okay and um so while we're on that subject why couldn't we go out for the RFP that we spoke about at the last meeting um there's not going to going out for the RFP is not going to put us in any kind of a gap we're not terminating anybody we're looking for proposals um I think that's something that we should consider doing um I really feel that this the fact that this was brought up at the last meeting I would have thought unless he had a conflict of you know he had another prior engagement or something I would have thought he would have been here tonight um so I would like to make a motion at some point that we go out

211for an RFP for an attorney and get that moving so Carl I I appreciate the comment there I don't mean to interject I know it's your your no time to talk um I do believe that we are making movement okay towards a discussion with the lawyer that will be as we mentioned earlier in the evening and what follows from that we'll we'll see if you do have a motion for for such things um I'd ask that let's talk about it before we come to uh a public setting for that but uh um you know to the degree that there's other things to talk about there's always uh that opportunity um especially as it pertains to people or or other matters but I would prefer that to occur in an executive session that that that's fine

212but the only thing uh the only uh motion that I'm making and I'm Gonna Keep it out there is that we go for an RFP for for attorneys at least we start the process I mean they can turn it down but it's out there and um so so I appreciate that Carl I guess you know I will I will say that when we do new business in that section that would have been a good place for that okay I don't wanna um I don't want to hijack the the the format of our agenda however to the degree that you you have articulated uh emotion uh for that um maybe not during the new business section okay during your public comment is there a second there's a motion before the board to do a RFP for

213uh Legal Services second is there there is a second okay I have a motion for RFP second my best discussion so I just want to jump in here I think this is uh this is a terrible precedent to set that we're we would I think that what you said should be enforced we should our agendas should be clear we should stick to them I think that you're you're obviously going through this process yourself it's it's not it's comprehensive I think when we we go into a meeting that should be the agenda um this is the faith that we put in the the President and Vice President and we should follow through on that um also just about this in particular you have articulated John earlier in the meeting next steps on this very issue um

214I I don't see the need to have this this motion tonight there's no urgency um also it should be considered the context of our relationship uh with the law firm that this is a very long-standing relationship and if this is something that we were even going to pursue at the very least we would owe them on a just a professional and personal level a discussion first and so I think for all of those any of those reasons I don't think we should pursue this certainly for all of them so so just to clarify um an RFP is not a discussion on the services received as I understand it um we would not be talking about that in in this setting if it were um there's no conclusion um as I understand it it just I'm

215trying to to entertain um this Motion in a second and get uh a discussion going from you the board but we are not we we're we're not looking to to to to to make a change at this juncture we're entertaining the the motion and discussing the motion as it pertains right now that's the the purpose of this right so but and I appreciate what you said we also had this discussion at the last meeting though and the conclusion was that we were gonna we were going to take a course of action and I just don't think that if if something doesn't go you know a particular way that we I we just can't set the precedent that we're just going to keep revisiting revisiting and taking new votes on things just imagine if this was

216for any other issue you know the next meeting someone so it makes a motion again and we just we're continually rehashing the same things so I don't know if there was a motion last time or not I I don't believe there was it was on well I don't believe there was one under a second it was I don't think there was a vote and no no no you're wrong with that there was there was no there was no vote no there was no motion for an RFP there was it was an item on the consent agenda to uh re-up another year with the Honeywell Law Firm so it was something we voted on we voted essentially not to do that not to I'm sorry not to go out for an RFP by voting to approve

217them for another year I disagree with that conclusion but you mentioned earlier I disagree with that John you mentioned earlier in the meeting that you signed the agreement for another year with them so it's already been executed so a couple things and not to get technical but I'll I'll go down this path with you okay because I don't believe by saying as the board did last meeting that the appointment of our general counsel meant that we were not doing an RFP I think that is adding something to that motion or that resolution that did not exist and I do think you can have one without the other or you could have both and if it was the intent of the board to have that one or the other either we're doing an RFP or not

218we should have had a resolution emotion and a vote stating that I don't believe that's what happened I believe we had a list of various appointments they were discussed specific to the general counsel we also discussed RFP at the same time because it was in that that uh section of the the board meeting but we we haven't taken a stance on RFP and that's I think clear to me and I just throw that back to you and I'm happy to have a conversation with the other board members on that I think fundamentally John um we were in closing comments board member has the right to create an agenda item and send it to you in a timely fashion we have a policy that speaks exactly to that I think to um introduce the idea of

219emotion at this point in a meeting that all of our agenda items have been met I don't think it's I don't think it's prudent for this board to entertain it I think it's prudent to say yes it's a valid it's a valid concern and it's on the board's radar right we talked about it last meeting you you saw you signed the agreement with the law firm to have a you know Council in place for this coming school year and I I recall that our last meeting was we will visit this at upcoming board meeting yep so it's it's on our radar and I think again I think to use closing comments to introduce something is not a good precedent to set and again every every every board member every public uh every member of the

220public has the right to ask for an agenda item and that's the appropriate way to handle what we're trying to do right now or what what Carl is trying to do right now is to introduce it I think this should be removed thank you so so hold on Carl and please um Christian uh so 202 at Lou said I I understand that some emotion was made and someone seconded so like to respect the fact that any motion made but I also think that the time and place to do this and closing Commons means that we don't know that's coming it doesn't give us enough time to consider and think about what we might vote on and therefore I would encourage uh Carl and bass I think second did it to make this motion for new

221business of the next meeting if they think it is that important and then to take a vote on it then but I don't think the my I will not be voting for that motion I can't speak for anyone else but my point is that I for all the reasons I articulated the last meeting I think there is a process to do this if that is what we want to do and I would still advise to do it in the sense that we have a year we need legal representation we have I would keep the legal residents we have for this current you know current school year thank you thank you Christian anyone else John I I just I need to can I can I get someone but we have a policy on this I can

222read directly from the policies so so before we hope Grace please I appreciate reading the policy um at the end of the day though we're having a discussion okay and so I think this is very Humane to that discussion very good but before you do that the purpose of why I even entertained the idea I think the points that Lewis has made is dead on right there's a time and a place for this this was not the time of the place Christian's idea was dead on CE I I'm I'm sure Carl wants to say some stuff but hold on hold on please I appreciate it but but this is all about it's all about process right I am not going to I will I will entertain to the point where I can but if we

223can come together as a team to a better place as opposed to being divided between this is what I think should happen and this is what you think if we all can get to the same place I'm willing to try to explore that it may take some time and trust me I don't want to be here tonight any any more than at this late hour than anyone else however that is why against my intuition of saying that it's not right because Lewis is right by the way I said let's do it as a learning point for us on how we want to conduct ourselves going forward and that's why it's like a laboratory emotion and I'm sorry for those who have to see it so now that I realized that I had actually spoken I

224you know uh proposed a motion on closing comments and I wasn't supposed to which is the learning curve okay I will rescind my motion at this meeting thank you Carl okay and and we will we will take this up in a subsequent meeting I I promise you that yeah okay very good thank you so much Christian yes we're back um so just um ditto to a Carl said about Frozen um I know many other people went and saw it so I'm not going to elaborate too much but it is great to see all the things that uh the many different parts of the district who made it possible second thing I'm reading over the uh uh the Personnel list I saw many names that I recognize um hired as substitute teachers and I don't know

225everyone there but the ones that I do I'm really happy that these people will be exposed to our students because I know personally the quality of those people and I'm just going to tell a quick story in the interest of time that early in my career when I was a substitute teacher I worked in Upstate New York and I would go in very often substitute teachers have forgotten because they're kind of like the temporary people and an AP would always come to my room no later than second period and the first question is what do you need and if I said I needed anything within five minutes it came to my classroom and every single day same thing and last day I was there I asked him said you know this is not typically how

226people treat substitute teachers and what he said was everyone who comes in contact with our students is important and it's my job to make sure you have what's necessary and I hope that we as a district will support those people because they're just important uh to making sure that our students get the education uh that they deserve thank you Louis thank you John um just ever so briefly Lou and Scott thank you for their their presentation tonight and I encourage them to to keep their nose to the grindstone and keep the push on to open our schools um on our first day that's necessary in the in the greatest capacity possible possible and I think they can do it and you know Walter noted his his folks there so thank you to those him and

227he and his team um uh doing all that they do because you know again they are the unsung heroes to a degree from top to bottom so um thank you for those guys and everybody enjoy the balance of their summer and um for all the kids that are probably not listening but enjoyed what's left because it's coming there's I think they're sleeping right now yeah indeed hopefully in bed happy happy balance of the summer thank you Lewis Richard all right so I too went to Frozen Junior and what a phenomenal performance uh to say the least and I won't uh belong here Echo what Carl and Christian said about it I think everyone involved did a wonderful job and our students really put on a show it was a it was a great performance tonight

228we had a lot of interesting discussion from our Capital project to goals to committees code of conduct um this is the kind of collaboration and engagement from the board the districts and the community that I'd like to see through this whole year and I want to thank everyone that came out and spoke tonight and know that what you said has been heard by me and I want you to continue to come out and uh be Advocates and and voice your comments concerns and opinions on uh different items and as we approach this new school year this is our last board meeting well except for the special board meeting next week and the board retreat before our kids are back in the school so I want to wish everyone the best of luck our students our

229teachers our staff um I hope that we give you a great academic athletic extracurricular experience that's uh fair to all and and great to all so with that thank you to our staff fellow board members administrators who work very hard behind the scenes and and make this all possible and have a good night thank you thanks Richard Beth thanks John yeah very quickly I want to mention that this is the first year as a parent I would not have any of my kids in elementary schools my youngest is moving to middle school I can say for everybody attached to uh the good work that our elementary schools are doing my kids went to Willow and coh and they enjoyed it in both places and we enjoyed it as well as parents we see exactly kind

230of what homeworks they give them uh you know the level of uh you know how how should I say proficient I mean the the homework would result kind of in the student getting his and her education uh top-notch job at our elementary school and it's kind of a special feeling when you feel like well okay my youngest now is in Middle School so um kudos to our elementary schools my second point is just kind of just to let everybody know that rich and I went to the educational uh Summit in Albany and the the majority of the topics were centered around Dei so it was again kind of interesting to see kind of what the speakers were uh were saying we're talking about um it is an important topic that everybody is talking about we

231just heard from Terry that I mean they we want to expand on uh that as a goal and involve more stakeholders in it that being said it can be very sensitive and I always Advocate if you want for going as much as possible with the mainstream kind of ideology not to go to the extremes that would be to the benefit of everybody I mean you create friends you don't create enemies in a way inside the school and outside another topic that both Richard and I chose to attend I mean they were conquered uh kind of like seminars and we felt that like two days I mean felt like wow both topics concurrent topics are interesting or what are we gonna do one we chose was about addiction and the speaker was a commissioner for I

232mean she had like very long kind of job title she gave a very nice kind of presentation and I brought a point I said uh marijuana is legal kind of and she represents the government to fight addiction at the same time we're making marijuana kind of easily accessible kind of I mean it's the same government doing I mean playing like the right hand doesn't know what the uh left hand is doing basically they're fighting each other and and the speaker I mean very kind of like professional person or credentials were kind of impressive and she couldn't answer me the only answer she says well it is legal okay kind of I mean you're fighting the another part of your own government in a way so just to say that it is not that easy out

233there it's very complicated bottom line is access to drugs has been made very easy in this state something that we have to be very careful with and sometimes unintentionally if some parents choose to use products like that kid doesn't know pick up a cookie or whatever bring it to the school let's be very careful of that and I'm sure Terry and his uh cabinet are doing great job just let's keep our eyes up and do not take anything for granted thanks bass Christine um so yeah just to double down on the Frozen discussion I've often said you know we have Regional Championship teams we have state championship teams and I would put our um drama production orchestra band in the same category as state champs there are not many I mean Frozen was amazing but

234when I think about how that grows there are not many Productions that have a live Orchestra streaming in right and so that's really impressive on the heels of that I just want to mention that you know Mr rovinsky recently um was a chaperone at a program where I don't want to maybe 10 of our students went it's called American Music abroad they travel to six countries and they sang played Orchestra or band um in all these different cities where the locals came out so it was like an immersion in other countries but also like a doubling down on there um you know love of Music in the Arts and then um I seem to have a theme tonight um I want to give a big shout out the dragon mural in the lobby is incredible

235and I believe Ellen Kramer did that and I just I think now I'm like oh my gosh there's a stairwell that's empty there's a bathroom I mean it really like brings that area to life so kudos to Ellen I don't know who arranged that um but I think it'd be great to see more of that throughout the building Brendan thanks John uh try to be very brief I just want to underscore everything that everyone has been saying about uh Frozen Junior and the arts and drama in particular programs in general I think um if there is one message I want to take out of this or I want to convey from this it's not just you know we need to appreciate our kids but we need to support the programs and think of ways perhaps

236to evolve the programs and that's from not just the funding standpoint but from an organizational standpoint I think we are an incredibly lucky District because of the volunteerism that is present in the district but our component schools have not always or that volunteerism sometimes is not spread out evenly you know so for for instance you have the smaller schools Willow and coh they might not have the resources because they just don't have as many people you know as CES so it becomes more difficult for them to put on shows and I just want to make sure that every kid because these programs are so amazing because they're so enriching because the skills that they gain out of them are so transmissible to what they will do in their adult life um I think it is

237essential that we come up with uh or it would be ideal if we allowed uh we came up with resources that allowed every every kid in this District access to these programs um I know that's still very a little high level but I think that there are so many options for getting there and I think as a board we should remember this as we get into our budget seasons and we prioritize these things as much as we prioritize some other extracurriculars thank you hey thanks Brendan so um it's been a long meeting I really appreciate the dialogue the input from the community as they say the the proof is in the pudding and um these documents that we've approved tonight are are actually just not pieces of paper that we put and hide but but

238are living breathing documents that kind of guide our behavior and to the degree that our behavior is not abiding by the intent or the documents don't go far enough I I'm pretty confident that uh we have the right people in place to to make those necessary adjustments along the way because most of life is iterative as we go and um as we start the the new school year I'm sure we'll face challenges but I know we're up to those challenges so I want to thank everyone with that I will ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting so I moved second second all in favor aye aye opposed good night everyone enjoy the rest of summer please remember to sign Harvey's document before you go home or yeah safe home