BOE Candidates Forum May 02, 2023 @ 7 00PM

001uh funds and as well as supporting students impacted by the pandemic and as time goes on tonight I think you're going to hear the rest of what I would like to do I just got flashed down thank you do you have a time keeper she's going to let the candidates know when they have 30 seconds left and then um she'll do a time's up and then you will get a little ding on a bell if you go way beyond that so a little okay thank you Christian you're next hi my name is Christian brunelli and I'm not going to go too much about my biographical details if you want I'm going to make a little plug you can go to cornwall.fernelli.us you can find out more about me than my mother knows um I just

002want to talk about the three themes that I kind of want to organize my candidacy around which is being a parent being a teacher and being a neighbor and being a parent um when I was a really young teacher I had a colleague who told me that they wouldn't trust a teacher who wasn't also a parent and being young and single I said well I'll do my best but what I learned when I became a parent is the immediacy the urgency and the priority that comes with being a parent and I learned that like no parent wants what's fair for their child every parent wants what's best for their child and that's what I kind of learned because that's how I feel now I don't want what just is a fair share I want what's

003best for them and what that means that if I'm if you honor me with being on the board if you come and you yelling at me and tell me I'm not doing a good job for your child I'm not going to see you as being pushy or angry I'm going to see you as a parent who loves their child as much as I love mine and however being a parent doesn't mean that you get to have a veto over other children's education we have a lot of parents here on this Deus right now I think we have very different views on what's best in education and I don't think being a parent means that I get to have that veto and decide what is and what's not on the classroom which leads me to the

004second thing is that I'm a teacher and I've been a teacher for 20 years I think I've taught almost every subject Under the Sun I've been tenured in Social Studies English I've taught Japanese language and I've ended up as a business teacher and I teach College accounting and business law and I'm proud to say that I as some other people on the Deus I got the endorsement of the Cornwall Central Teachers Association and I'm honored by that support but I think a teachership I see that my time is up and I will save the answer for later thank you very much and the community for coming I know how difficult it can be to facilitate something like that this and to organize it especially when you're given approximately seven days to do it so thank

005you um I hope tonight that the public does get to see each of us and sees what we do bring to the table I personally think I'm I'm a I'm a grandmother uh I'm a mom I have children that range from 24 up to 43. I have a teacher and a nurse and an accountant and my youngest son is now in trade school and he's doing very well my grandchildren are great they're not in this District they're all over the country and I travel frequently to see them that's my history of family which is what I bring to the table as well as far as may I was on the Monroe Woodbury school board for 18 years 11 as vice president I formed along with another woman a lovely woman we formed the special the

006first special at PTA in Orange County back in the 80s there was definite need and the world was quite different when my daughter needed services when it was in school and we brought our kids we started to bring our kids home and put them back in our schools and as far as what I see I okay I see a great District that I moved into six years ago I've lived here 49 years I I want to keep it that way and I love this community because it's small and compact and I wanted to stay that way thank you hello Theresa stole my opening line so that's always tough um so uh but thank you everyone for coming out it was a pleasure to meet most of you in the lobby I know you know after

007a long day whether it's you know with the kids or at work it takes a lot to keep going so we all appreciate that I think when I think about why I want to run for the Board of Education you come up to a point in your life or at least I did where I thought how can I add value where can I make a difference you know am I doing enough and I didn't know where I could do that um I didn't know if I yeah I didn't know where um and sometimes it just comes and Pops in front of you so I had spent a lot of time at the Board of Education this year advocating for students and not just my student although that's what prompted me and as I sat through

008the meetings and I saw how they were how they run and you know the work they have to do every time I left it would be like you should really do that you could do that but I never said it out loud and then one day a friend said to me you should really run for the board of it and I thought there it is um and I do think that the skills I bring from the work I do in corporate world really will benefit the board and the school district I am constantly having to balance the needs of people with the needs of business with the needs of budget and coming up with the solution that is fair and that is Equitable and that is going to give us a good return on that

009investment also I'm the daughter of a retired teacher I'm the wife of a teacher and I'm a taxpayer um and I think I see things from multiple angles and I don't have a favorite angle so with kids always at the front and the center of my decision making I hope you'll consider me for a seat on the board of education thank you good evening once I get rid of these Jitters here I think we'll we can I'll give you my speech here first first thing I wanted to do is I wanted to congratulate everybody that's sitting up here for even making it this far you know um I thought it was I think this is um really good I I learned a lot put it that way and I wanted to especially thank Theresa and

010Larry for all their years that they've been on the board I find now tonight that it's not that easy okay uh so anyway my name is Carl gilpatrick um I've been in a school district now for 25 years my wife Christine is a teacher at the Middle School Middletown School District my daughter Aaron is a junior and my daughter Shannon graduated in um 2020. the reason I decided to run is because I think we really need to get back to education I think we need to start prioritizing education and I just don't think see that happening um uh you know uh we need to we need to invest more in the safety of our students I see a lot I see a lot of problems going on in different different schools and I think we

011need to bring back the respect for the uh the teachers the teachers deserve and staff um I am a proud endorse endorsed I am a proud endorsement got the proud endorsement of the CCTA today uh actually yesterday and I am a member of the CSEA I was um uh 25-year member of the csca 19 of those years was as the union president uh three of those was as the vice president and I think that I can bring a lot um a lot to the school board um I know how to compromise um I think in all the years that I was the president I think we may have had free grievances one of those actually went to perb and I just don't think we need to see that in in Cornwall School District there's there's

012a lot of issues going on and I think tonight we'll hopefully we'll be able to address a lot of them thank you hello thank you I'm Lori Beth polyata I was born and raised here in Cornwall I stayed in Cornwall and now raise my family here we live in Cornwall and Hudson um I think I think what's important to know about me is that I'm honest and hard working and I see I have five children from ages five who's just going into pre-k this September um to a daughter who is a first year college in September um and I volunteer in every way and place that that I possibly can as my kids are getting older I have a I have this time that that I can give back you know I've been watching all

013all my life watching people do for me you know um I walk through all these hallways I I did the sports I went to the Little League I did drama I was in concert choir you know I did all the things and it was only because of volunteers that all these things were really there and now I'm realizing that and I'm looking around and saying you know if if I don't do it who's going to you know I have to be part of the solution part of this community to keep it going to be exactly what it's always been to me which is amazing I love it here um and I hope to bring to the board um my ability to work well with others I I feel that um that's something that comes really

014naturally to me I don't um I don't see things just from my point of view I'm very aware that there are many different areas of every situation that I might be in or conversation that I might be having or Association that I might be working for um and uh I just hope to continue keeping our kids happy and uh safe and wanting to raise their family here thank you thank you everyone we are going to start Christian this is going to be your question to start with and this is a two-minute response it's safe to say that there are many issues in budgetary lines that school board members do not control and there are quite a few that you do have sway over what two to three topics or issues do you believe school board

015members can have the greatest impact on what would you like to see happen with those issues so I think the easiest issues are the ones that don't cost money um let's start with just the code of conduct our code of conduct is 67 pages long I looked at some others in the area I couldn't find one longer than 40 pages long what that means is not just like a number of pages it means that there's contradictions that means there's kind of loopholes and anyone with Savvy can get through it and one of the issues is bullying and you know what I would want to look at the code of conduct reorganize it and at least for some areas put in restorative principles because I think that would be better because if we put the victims

016restoration first and not just in a sense punishing an offender with the hope that they're going to deter them the second thing is I think and really this is a Teresa's issue but I think it's mine too we need to make it easier for special education parents to get the services that they need I was walking uh on Sunday and I had several people tell me that they have moved out of District because they couldn't get the services they needed in Cornwall and they go into Monroe Woodbury and if you look at their special education PTA and you look at ours it's really no comparison and I really think we need to make that easier um and it's not my personal experience it's knocking on doors and hearing that same story five six seven and

017eight times and then my last issue is upk and I think that we could have allocated the money this year to basically give every person who applied at least the financial resources to do it it would have only cost 68 dollars per person per month I think we live in a generous enough and caring enough community that we can help 32 kids change their lives for six to eight dollars a month if you live in a really nice house here in Cornwall and I think that's something that I want to be an advocate for I want and I'm not the only one but I want to take a maximum position because the kids going to upk now are the ones that were toddlers when the pandemic began if we don't help them now even if

018it's not just about helping them we're going to be paying for it later as a district and I think it's better to make the investment now than later I think at this moment if we even look at the budget that's been created this year it is more child-centered than I think I've seen in many years not just here but in other districts we are approaching it with a budgetary with budgetary items counselors psychologists adding a teacher at the elementary school adding 20 seats to our upk the budget itself we've kept at zero for this this board for the past two years this year it will be approximately 1.2 percent increase and what that increase will show with things like I just discussed because those positions were paid for originally through covet funds and when those

019funds go now we either have to let the people go or we have to fund them our children if you read U.S World Report recently four out of every child in our country feels hopeless that is not what I want for our children that is not what anyone wants so I really believe the things that we're working on right now directly affect our children they have been through a lot we all have but our children have suffered and it's not just educational which we all admit there's learning loss although we are I believe ahead of the Curve but there is learning loss but more important we have to spend the time and we are spending the time and the money to help our children be whole again and start living normal lives thank you so

020um I think one of the ways the board can really get involved or have some Sway and I don't know if it's primarily budgetary or I mean everything costs money but I think we can really start to take a closer look at our Deni initiatives and specifically along the lines of what Christian said being really inclusive of all of our students I'm of course very sensitive to the needs of the mainstream special ed students but when we look across the board I think we can take a a more critical look at that and figure out better or or improve the ways that we make sure we're being inclusive beyond that I agree with Teresa I was there for the budget meeting I think the board did a really good job being critical of what was

021being proposed and asking really tough questions to come to their final decision and that is where I think the board as the adds the most value we're asking questions on behalf of the community and on behalf of what we hear from teachers and well students and parents and so that's the second place we can have the most sway I don't know what that would be for next year but our ability to ask questions build consensus and come to agreement is the biggest impact we can make in terms of moving everything forward I think that's where we're all going to differ because I don't believe that the um the board actually did enough as far as the um as far as the school budget went in addressing the needs of teachers classroom sizes um and and

022the learning loss I just don't believe we addressed it enough um I I know we lost a lot of teachers through retirement that haven't been replaced with full-time teachers at class sizes they're 23 to 24 kids in each class and yet we still we yet we have schools over in Willow Avenue would be an example of classrooms that are still empty um they're using them for you know teachers desks push programs um stuff like that so I I just think that that's I think that's where we're all going to differ I just think that the um the board should have done a little bit more to address these issues and the fact that when you're when you're looking at a budget and you don't have an actual um budget in front of you that's concerning

023too I mean we don't necessarily always have to raise the raise the taxes we have to look we can look at the budget and go what what things need to be there and what things don't need to be there and I that's where I think we just made our mistake this year with the uh with this school budget so in my opinion we didn't go far enough and if we had to address three things in my opinion that would be the we have to address the learning loss um everyone would like to tell you that there wasn't a learning loss but Cornwall did suffer at least a 20 learning loss and we we need to figure out a way of doing that and by losing teachers and not replacing them you know that that's not

024the answer we have to we have to replace these teachers that we lost I think so am I on okay um I think the number one the the number one thing that's coming to my mind is as a board to listen to the community and to the parents and to find out and act on what is truly the issue that they might be struggling with I um I worry that when things are brought to the board I would want them to be um addressed I know it goes right into the learning deficit from the pandemic which I also agree is a huge issue um in in academics and in behaviors I I've experienced um there's you know my my little ones are going into school they're they're happy and healthy it's the ones that are

025that were caught in those middle years the middle schoolers the early high schoolers um and I I would like there to be a focus on that um more so I I think those kids are going to be hanging on to these these issues for a really long time and I would like those to be to be focused on um another and my my other huge um focus is like others have said the special special needs available services and also mental health I've experienced we've experienced as a family a lot of a lot of bumps along the way especially the pandemic really really through through us for for a loop especially having already have issues to begin with and I I would have wanted to see my children learn through those those bad times and even

026when they are having these mental health issues or special needs that that the help was there and we didn't have to fight for it or beg for it or try to finagle a way to get those those extra services thank you this is also a two-minute question and we're going to start with Teresa oh Larry I forgot about it yeah that's okay I was waiting for the last you know I think there's a number of ways that we we can impact the budget that um above and beyond the the parts that we really don't have control over uh first one that comes to mind is the capital project we get 75 of it back from the state we do not have to put those repairs into our regular budget so that has been all those

027repairs and improvements have been pulled out of the budget um course offerings uh I believe we need more course offerings in the high school and yes that will impact the budget um clear size I am a proponent of smaller class sizes in the elementary school and some of those classrooms that are are quote empty are in fact being used maybe not for a full class but for individualized instructions so that we can help those students that have um emotional reactions to the pandemic um upk absolutely agree uh that that we need to increase that keeping in mind the state has imposed that usually at about a two percent cap on our budget so there's only so far we can go in any individual year we also have to look at what the um the taxpayer

028has to pay and and that is something that I think has has been high on the priority list of of the school board um Teresa is right we have uh in the last few years we've kept at incredibly low uh tax increase um learning loss was not dismissed during Mrs ordinio's presentation and we do have to address that thank you okay thank you I apologize again now we're going to start again it's okay my wife forgets about me all the time okay this Christian you're going to start with this question oh my God what's wrong with it it's okay that's okay no problem all right I'm gonna I have it written down Teresa too I just okay I'm gonna be good from now on the American Library Association recently reported that there was a 38

029increase in the number of books challenged in 2022 versus 2021 more than half of those challenges were to school libraries classroom libraries and school curricula what is your position on book challenges in schools again you have two two minutes for this well specifically in in this school district there is uh there is a committee that reviews all books uh and and it's in every building it's a general part of me it's a general committee as far as in General within our our sphere what's happening now when I was in Middle School I read Fahrenheit um four five one pardon me uh by Ray Bradbury and it frightened me then and it's kind of frightening now because I see books that people are questioning that are they're the basics they're they're they should not be touched

030and I don't think at this point in our school system I don't think people that yell or shout should determine how our children are taught I am a firm believer that our teachers and our administrators I trust them I trust people to make the decisions for a curricula obviously I don't always trust the state don't get me wrong but on a local level I certainly trust our teachers and our staff and our administrators to use caution when going into this trend that we're starting to see around our country and I certainly would hope that we as a community understand that our children are going into a real world and we have to prepare them for it and they have to be able to read and think and critical thinking those things you have to teach

031Basics because the world changes so quickly if you get two very specific it'll change within five years so I really believe that reading when it comes right down to it the language arts is the basis of everything and I don't think we read enough and I certainly don't want to see people take Classics and decide that we have to change the words which changes the meaning or decide that that book shouldn't be in our school at all so that's about how I feel thank you I'll be quick on this I don't think we should ban books I trust our Librarians and our teachers to make those decisions I know that when my kids were in middle school I had to sign a permission slip for them to be able to ring read young adult so

032my you know sense is that we have people act people have access to books at the appropriate developmental age and of course there's no absolutes maybe somebody will present a book that I would think oh maybe we should put that in the high school but um yeah I support our Librarians and our teachers to make those decisions and I don't think we should be banning books I actually I am absolutely agree with that I don't I don't believe that we should ban any books uh my wife being working for a publishing company I put my faith in her when she grades these books and they hit the libraries which that's what she does for a living that their their age appropriate and and as long as we stick to that I'm okay with that but

033I don't believe that any books any book should be banned because uh that's that subject's a touchy subject that you know everybody says well let's ban certain books well what books you want to ban the ones that you disagree with you know it can't be that way so I will definitely leave that up to the professionals which would be one would be my wife who actually grades the books that are in your in your schools um and and the uh the administration can I say ditto um I I agree I also I don't believe in banning books either I I am also aware of the policies in place that our board has if there is um a question brought to the board about a particular book um which we all have the right to do

034that's why these policies are there us as parents teachers if anyone comes across something that they find inappropriate for an age group um we we have that process there we can bring it to the board and um well first we would bring it to the librarian and then we would bring it to the principal um and then the superintendent and then the board if I understand that correctly so there is a there's a whole process there um just in case there is something that's inappropriate and um I'm comfortable with that I absolutely agree then there's only one step that you left out there's a whole review board that is in that policy also that is made up of teachers administrators parents um and when it if and when it does get to the board level

035um the board also has the right to get another group together to review that book so no I didn't answer to the question I do not believe in banning books uh if something is shown to be perhaps age inappropriate talk to the Librarians maybe they can shift it to a different section of the library but that's I do not believe in banning books thank you I'm glad we all agree that we don't want to ban books um but you know there are people here who have gone to the board this year and have asked to question things that are in professional development that have questioned things about initiatives at the middle school and that's sort of the same thing and we should take that into consideration the reason why it's not just that banning books

036is bad it's that the surest way to get a teenager to do something is to tell them not to do it tell them not to touch the wet paint or touch the burning candle and get back to me and see what happens and I trust them but I think it's more than this I'm not afraid of dangerous books I'm more afraid that people will not read challenging books and I just remember something from the early 90s if you remember VH1 and there was a singer named meatloaf and they had this panel and they said what music don't I want my kids to listen to and this is the mid 90s it was you know gangster rap heavy metal you know Grunge music and when it came to meatloaf he said Backstreet Boys and everyone was

037surprised and he said what could be wrong with Backstreet Boys and he said I'd be just so disappointed that my kid listened to something so vapid and I think that is kind of how we have to look at books so this year um I was on bathroom Duty and one student came up the ninth grader and he had a copy of mine comp that he checked out from our school library and so I went to him I said you know what I'll make you a deal you take that book back and I will bring in 40 books on this period of history and you can take it and keep it as long as you like and so he took a book then two weeks later I took another book and I think that anytime you

038get a kid to go from mineconf reading about the economic history of Central Europe in the 1920s that's a win because good books will push out bad books and if you let them those books will kind of win out and we don't need to tell them not to do things the long history of prohibiting thing actually leading to the opposite [Music] okay thank you thank you the next question Christine will start with no no don't look at me it's also a two-minute question there were quite a few questions related to diversity and equity and inclusion and accessibility in the district most of them focused on race and gender how would you address diversity and inclusion in the school district and if you could allocate funds for your perfect diversity equity and inclusion curriculum what would

039it look like how would you like faculty and administration to be educated on these topics or do you feel that enough is already being done two minutes yeah [Music] [Laughter] and anytime there's a child in our schools who is made to feel like they don't belong and they aren't getting support that they need we need to do something about that I know there are issues that have happened in the middle school and we need to go back and look at what have we done what has worked and what could we do better I'm not in a position to tell you right now what what the curriculum should look like or where we should put that money as it relates to teachers and staff and children I think that's a decision and a discussion that has

040to happen with multiple people but I will tell you that I I will put I am committed to putting focus on that and making sure it's a discussion we have so that all students feel safe feel like they belong and know that they matter regardless of race religion academic ability um that I'm committed to that okay inclusion this was uh this this was a subject that uh it's actually an easy one everyone should be included there shouldn't be any um any issue about uh diversity uh children um everyone should be included I just don't understand why we go down this road all the time I have no issues whatsoever with having um the clubs that we have um including everyone no one should be uh ostracized because of their sex uh their race or anything

041like that and I just I just don't think these are questioned you know this is a question that we really need to be talking about all the time but that being said well we're gonna I'm gonna try to answer it as best they can and that is that all of our children should be included no matter what they no matter what they are um I you know I as so long as that person that's uh so long as the people that we're having instructing children instructing teachers and stuff like that are qualified that that's my uh that's my answer [Music] okay um I would hope um that if just like the others have said if if there was ever a situation that is brought up and someone is having an issue in our district um

042I would hope that it would be addressed immediately I think we have many different like um all the different volunteering that I do there's different types of people doing all these different things in our community and if anyone is ever being left out I mean I would be the first one I would be the first one to make sure that they were brought in um I I've experienced these hallways and you know what they can be they can be mean and they can be scary and I think that it's so important that everyone have a place to go and that we keep our we keep our hallways um you know inviting and um I just know I I would like um I think that's all thanks I think we all agree that um everyone should

043be included and that no student should be excluded let's talk reality the reality is uh in Cornwall as in the rest of the country there is racism there's anti-Semitism and it has to be addressed and um hopefully it can be addressed through uh staff development hopefully it can be addressed through programs that we can address with the kids and work on them and hopefully we can reach out to the families I have yet to find someone born anti-Semitic somewhere along the line they learned how to be that way no one is born racist and somewhere along the line they learned how to be that way so somehow we've got to not just reach out and and to our students and to our staff we have to reach out to the community we have to find

044a way to do that thank you you know as a teacher who has sat through a lot of professional development I don't really think that that's the way if you really want to do something about this issue I sat through probably about 40 in my career as a teacher what I think you need to do is you need to make the teachers feel protected to protect children so my goddaughter um goes to Eastchester schools um just recently last year just missed a music teacher who basically did a slideshow where she showed Elton John and Lady Gaga because she wanted to do it for lgbtq pride month and she was let go and when I talked to my goddaughter she's like one more nice thing that the adults took away from me she's not necessarily angry

045but it's kind of a resignation and so when you protect the teachers you are protecting the students because I think most teachers understand that because they have some experience with one student in their careers and they understand how important it is but when they feel like they have to think twice okay about do I talk about this do I mention this when I cover this you know that doesn't come out and then the child feels I don't really have an ally or I feel different and really I'm standing here by myself and so if you protect the teachers and you basically trust them to teach they will do the right thing and they will stand up for students and that's what I think about diversity the key is the board policy 9240 we have a

046very thin thing about you could say non-discrimination I've seen other districts the board language mixed diversity a priority or something to be sought out and I think good organizations when they look at someone they don't look for the best candidate they look for something they don't have what can you bring the table that we don't already have in our district because when you look for the best candidate you get an assemblage of all stars and teaching is a team sport where you have complementary walls so that every child has someone in their building that they know they can go to and feel comfortable with and that's how I think you deal with it me again huh okay well first of all um I think everyone here at this table has agreed that every child should

047be included that's a given but it's not happening I can speak from experience one of my children had a stroke at two years old and she was one of twins and as she got older and she was in school her hearing was affected she had some learning disabilities a few processing things she was great she's amazing she's a hero she was my husband's hero and mine she would come home sometimes and ask me why kids would call her stupid and her sister would be so upset and Defender she wasn't stupid half the time there was nerve damage and hearing loss that's just one example how I saw it how I knew it and I have to tell you I was sick at home you didn't know you wanted to do something and there's nothing worse

048than when your child is hurt nothing so having said that our demographics are changing um in in the country in the state and not County in our town that's the world we live in and it's fine this we have Dasa which is a federal law dignity for all students acts where children should feel safe in school and they shouldn't feel intimidated they shouldn't be bullied but we have to provide training but it also has to do with reaching out to families because as Larry said it starts in the home we can train teachers and we can train children but that's not going to work unless it starts in the home and that's where parents and teachers and all the staff every staff member needs to work in conjunction to make this safe for our children

049thank you we're going to move on to one minute questions now this question is for Carl to start with what issues do you believe the school district needs to address in its academic programming and what changes would you recommend Teresa you want to go first the academic program I'm going to ask you to repeat it again I have to write it down guys what issues do you believe the district needs to address in its academic programming and what changes would you recommend so I I think in their academic programming wow I don't know to be honest with you I think um I think the school district has been you know as far as the academics go I think every they've been doing you know doing a great job with that but but again I think

050we need to address the learning loss that's uh that that's happening there um you know the classroom sizes and stuff like that so as far as the academics go I think I think we're on we're okay with that right now okay thank you very bad I believe I would need more information um on this topic I mean from my experience I I see a you know I I see the Arts I see the sports I see the academics I see it all um like you were saying I mean that from from my point of view I see um I don't know what the needs are you know I I would sit on the board and I would understand better I think um as having first-hand information brought to me um that's that's all I have

051on that okay thank you Larry okay um changes in program um I would like I've mentioned this I'd like to see a little more in Richmond maybe higher level courses but the enrichment K-12 I think that's that we used to have it the state took a lot of money away from us years ago and and we've been slowly bringing this back but it isn't there yet um I think we also need to expand our non-college path uh way to go um there were a lot of kids that I think would benefit from a BOCES program the the career in technical education they walk out of that program with jobs and and six-figure jobs so I think there's an area we need to look at also and um The Learning loss I think is being addressed

052uh we have support staff being uh brought in uh it so that they're there and they are working on it I only have a minute um well first of all I think we should have BC calculus which I advocated for at the last board meeting second I think we could create a new Visions theater program by using Community Partners like Empress sound stages and prg and storm king art center and the blueprint already exists for that which Not only would serve stem needs because you could do the technical side but also you could build upon a really strong arts program here in our district and actually use it and kind of Leverage that to kind of deal with some of the issues we have with the auditorium at the high school um I think that

053we should look after more concurrent enrollment versus AP classes I think AP is a bad model for New York because our school year starts later but the AP exams are at the same time and so our students are basically short Change time and that means we're not using the time after the AP exam in concurrent enrollment programs through like SUNY Orange County Community College or SUNY Duchess or Supa I think are a better model that we should pursue to provide for those enrichment classes and I think we should develop classes that teach what I would call study skills whether it's typing how to make a presentation um and I think that could fit into our curriculum okay I think it would be very helpful if people went online parents because I recently did to look

054at our curriculum and our class offerings because it's it's really enlightening um there are things that I would like but again I I caution everybody I'm one person one person does not make a decision on a board it's done through consensus so I can have all the great ideas I want I'd like to increase you upk I'd like to um get co-teaching I'd like to bring co-teaching into our elementaries and I'm hoping we do but it's one person there's a lot we can add to curriculum but I I think right now we need to really concentrate on what we're doing now with our students and give them the support they need so yes I would like to see co-teaching I would like to see additional classes in in academics thank you oops hold up you're

055doing like me I know um is it on now yeah no there it is oh gosh sorry I just want to um Circle back really quickly I was so worried I was going to say the wrong thing that I didn't say the right thing and when I was describing diversity I did not mention LBGTQ and I just want to make sure that those folks feel included in my vision or my thinking anyway uh in it in addition so um that was bothering me um as far as it goes with changes to academic programming interestingly enough somebody asked a question about bringing cursive back and I'll tell you the truth when I first heard it I'm like really and then I did some research and I talked to people and I think there's an argument to

056bring cursive back so that would be interesting if we to look at it not to to for sure and then we need to really be looking three years out to look at what we need it is not what we need today it's one of our students going to need in the future with chat chat GPT and other things coming down the pike we need to really analyze and plan in the long long term not short term Africa uh Lori death this is for you as a one minute question what unique skill would you bring to the board and why is that skill valuable new unique skill um I really believe that working with others is is is a huge asset that I have um uh I see that um it it like Teresa said it's

057not just one person it's never just one person um there's you know I um I find that having black and white thinking on issues does not work when you have to be on a board with a group of people making decisions it can't be my way I don't know everything and um I think having a clear head and realizing that you know um compromises are going to have to be made and where's where's the right place to make those compromises um I think that would be my best asset first thing that comes to mind is I'm not a politician um I'm a father or grandfather and a Community member and I think bringing that to the board is important um I also have experience and history um uh yes I'll I'll uh address the the

058elephant in the room I'm the oldest one sitting here at the table uh not by much but it it's um I think that that's an important piece that I can bring to the board is is the history of where we've been and uh not saying that just that I have never said well that's how we did it in the past let's do it the same in the future that's I've never said that I believe in sitting glistening and uh talking it out thank you okay so a first of all one thing that I wrote about on on my website was one reason to vote for everyone else uh sitting here at this Deus because I can think of one reason why they're going to bring something unique to the board um I think my strong

059suit is that I'm a teacher and I'm a current teacher in the high school and I think that's important when you're going down to the end of the budget and you're making trade-off choices and you understand like when you're trading off let's say a school counselor versus a classroom teacher you understand what that actually means and therefore you make the better trade-off and you want to and you can at least provide that perspective to the other board members so when you make that decision together they can understand have a fuller understanding of that and I think the other thing that I've brought is that I have a record of doing a lot with a little resources innovating curriculum moving things around creating new programs creating new curriculum and I think that I can throw a

060lot of ideas out there that if there's an interest in them that I can show you kind of how we did it before and I think that means we can do things ambitious and on a budget and even Revenue positive well what I bring to the board some experience um 18 years in MW and now three years here but I also bring to the board the fact that I always keep in mind how much I can learn how much I don't know how much I want to know and most importantly I think listening and hearing and not talking necessarily which was always a tough thing for me but being able to actually listen to somebody and hear what they're saying consensus on a board and realizing that you're just one vote and that your opinion

061is your own but doesn't necessarily mean it's the opinion of the school district is probably one of the best things I can bring to this board because I I'm at an age where I don't have children in the district but I I work full time and I am excited about school district education and and children thank you so you asked for one skill I think over my career I've been certified in a number of training and development programs that I think would really benefit the board their programs about building consensus improving communication skills um you know listening skills Etc but I think for me personally the skill that I would bring is critical thinking I ask a lot of questions I really seek to understand before I make a decision I make connections between information

062which all which often leads to Solutions we didn't previously think of and um I I see problems from all different angles so we can sorry I see problems from all different angles so we can creatively solve them and build consensus around that sorry yeah as the father of three daughters the one thing I did learn is to listen and listen and compromise I think that's the skill that I bring to this and after being the union president for for 19 years um you know I I believe that my skill is definitely in the realm of uh listening and making compromises for both sides okay thank you Larry this question is for you again it's one minute what's the greatest strength of the Cornwall school district and how would you maximize that strength the greatest one

063strength our students our staff and our community uh and how do you maximize that you work with them and you uh you listen and you move forward um I really believe that we have a strong School District because of those uh everyone is involved we we have a a good Rapport I believe with our community yes there are issues that arise and they get addressed but I really believe that our strength is our community our staff and our students this is sort of the same answer that Larry but I'm just going to maybe give a little bit of a different emphasis um what I see in the community is a generous spirit and I also see a commitment to education and I think this is a community that if you try to sell education the

064community will buy that argument and that means that they are going to provide what is necessary to help the students and help the teachers and sometimes it's just a matter of communication and finding out what that is but I think that's where it starts and a generous Community also raises students that care about education and care about other people and I think it also then in a sense the teachers as well who are part of the community but I think it starts with that kind of commitment to education and generosity of spirit we've all kind of expanded a way from one greatest strengths but um yes definitely I came here four years ago very strange to retire in Cornwall eventually I don't want to move South I want to stay right here in a community

065that I've felt at home I felt that connection I wanted this the Main Street but what I also see is a great strength here is what I'm witnessing now your PTO organizations in every building all the volunteer work the plays that are all extracurricular all the different drama groups and plays that connection keeps our fam families together in schools firsthand and I'd I think it's our greatest strength and one that we need to even build on to make feel make parents feel even more welcome to come into our buildings and see what's happening I'm going to double down on the community answer but I just want to provide a perspective that I think what really impresses me about Cornwall is the minute someone's in need Cornwall and the community rallies if somebody needs help with

066something or someone has a tragedy the community rallies you have six people interested in the Board of Education you have folks showing up you know for the Forum I'm sure there's much more online the ptos as Theresa said are bustling people are engaged in the community and the benefit of that is it really teaches our kids how to be good citizens in the future to be engaged and care and make a difference one thing I did learn since I uh decided to run here is the involvement of the the community it's it's enlightening that's for sure um but but the strengths of the school district I believe is definitely our teachers and our staff and and I would say the uh parent involvement with the uh with the school districts I believe First would be

067our teachers and staff um they're the heart and soul of our schools and um my my kids Thrive because of them um I I also think that that our kids are amazing and I think that comes from our community being amazing you know being there at the Forefront of everything um wanting to be involved and to help um you know we're we're a community that that parents all the kids you know we we all have these homes that are just open for friends and family and whoever neighbors whoever happens to be there and that's what's really kept me in this in this town and um makes me want to really put in the effort and the time and the work to continue making it great keeping it great okay thank you so you agree on

068the strengths for the most part I'd like to hear from you what you think the greatest challenge the Cornwall School District faces and how you would address that and Christian that's these it's a minute and um we start with you I think the biggest challenge is that we often too often see ourselves as taxpayers not often sometimes we our other role as Neighbors and I think when you focus on the cost you end up finding reasons not to do the things and when you're reminded about the benefits that's when the generosity comes out and I think as far as our school when you constantly refer to taxpayers and one percent tax living increase we should remind ourselves where taxpayers came into our political vocabulary it came in during the Reconstruction Southern whites wanting to disenfranchise

069new uh freed people and particularly to dismantle their schools and when you remember that it's not because use taxpayer is racist but remember that it when you reference taxpayers you're basically appealing to people's stinginess and not their best uh their better angels I think one of our greatest challenges you're going to find out I'm not a fan of New York state or New York State education of the county where I live but not stated you've my mother used to use the term um a day late and a dollar short well our challenge is not much different than any other District the state is always a year late and 10 million dollars short uh we we have to wait for everything and then pray we're going to get it that's a challenge in every District I

070would love no matter who is elected to the board my biggest wish and I've said this in public is that we start to be able to speak less about squeezing dollars out of the state of New York for unfunded mandates and start working more on program and children and parents and listening to kids coming in and bringing music into a into our meetings to show us what they're learning and doing so yeah money it's a challenge could you repeat the question what's the greatest challenge the Cornwall School Central School District faces and how would you address it so I think a major challenge um is that I've talked to many teachers in the district and I've gotten feedback that they often don't feel listened to or they feel that their concerns are minimized I can't

071validate that firsthand but if that's the sentiment that's an issue and I think we could do a better job asking teachers more directly what does support look like for them what do they need how can we better serve them it's not to say you get everything on the wish list but we can start by asking the questions so that we're at least delivering what's going to make the biggest impact for them and building that bridge and building that trust within the whole District I think our biggest challenges are infrastructure here at the school district we have we have schools that are literally falling apart inside and we need to address them soon we have children that are sitting in gymnasiums with holes in the floor teachers are actually using these you know we're actually using

072this as we speak these are stuff these are the kind of things I need we we need to start addressing today I mean the infrastructure the schools need to be taken care of [Music] be political I see a political division in our community like never before I feel I feel right now that that's that's our current biggest issue um I feel we need to keep the focus on our kids education to give them the opportunities that that they deserve um to to grow in their education and to be able to um go on to college or BOCES and and become adults um without being stuck in um in a community that's focusing on other things challenge I actually we actually have a couple of big challenges um but I think the biggest challenge we have

073is communication communication between um the community and the and the the board the community and the district the teachers and the administration and the teachers and the and and the board they just have to we have to open that up a little and we have to work on that um much better uh I would like to I I do have to say something about the infrastructure the community passed a bond that is addressing that you will see that this summer we will see major changes in our facilities starting this summer so um I thank the community for doing that thank you okay thank you so um Larry did not get the questions ahead of time but the he just answered my next question so fortunately we're not starting with him again one minute and this

074is for Teresa to start with what specific steps will you take to ensure good communication between the board Administration and the community when I was elected three years ago I came onto the board covid I I couldn't get to learn the culture of our district so what what I think needs to happen I don't I don't know do me one favor please could you just repeat the question a little because I have a problem with hearing over here sure um what specific steps will you take to ensure good communication between the board Administration and the community okay thank you I'm sorry um with covid there's they've been a year and a half of no communication basically we when I came on the board it was just nothing Zoom meetings so I think the steps now

075are beginning with a new superintendent we need to start to communicate more uh I really think that that's going to happen I feel like the past year of my term this last year was the first year I was able to connect with people and I think there are other people that feel the same way so I think that connection is is probably the most the most important I I can't think of anything else because there is division but it's division everywhere anger everywhere in our country these days but this is our small community we can do things differently here and I I truly have faith in the people in this community that we will this is a Hot Topic everywhere trying to solve it where I work now as well but I think we have

076to start by doing an analysis so who doesn't feel like they're being communicated to and what information are they are they not getting or they don't have access to and so the first thing I would do is take a look at that whether that's through a survey whether that's through an open Forum or fireside chat but I think we have to first and first figure out where are we on the Continuum of good communication then we can go back and ask the question how would you like to be communicated with do you want to watch a video do you want an email do you want a newsletter right and once we get a sense of what's the best way to reach people and with the information that they want then we can come up with

077a plan to execute on that but I think if we just start to you know uh we'll do a newsletter we'll do a TV show we're going to miss people and not everyone's going to get it it's like my standard answer not everyone's going to get what they want but we can at least listen and then you know make decisions that meet the majority of our community's needs Circle back for one second to something that was said about the infrastructure being addressed um that's not quite true um first of all the the the infrastructure for for the for an example will not willing at Willow Avenue School I'm sorry Willow Avenue School um that hasn't been addressed since 2016. okay and it's not being addressed this year don't be fooled by it being addressed this

078year that that's not the case and if you could just repeat the last question sure it's what specific State steps will you take to ensure good communication between the board Administration and the community well the first thing I think we need to do is we need to open up these school board meetings to to um to the stakeholders you come to you go to a meeting you're you're welcome to come to the meeting you're welcome to speak but you're not welcome you're not you're not being heard and um I think that's something that we need to address if you just go back and and look at these meetings it's the same thing from the parents all the time you're not listening to it you're not hearing us you don't let us talk you don't give

079us an answer it's the same thing over and over again so that has to be changed along with the policies we have to make the parents feel like when they do come stakeholders I'm sorry you know the parents we need to make them feel like when they come to these board meetings that they're actually being heard and then when you ask a question that you don't get a thing that says yeah I'll let you know in 30 days and by the way that 30-day rule that that started after I went to the meetings and insisted that we start having some sort of communication between the board and the stakeholders [Music] I would want to stay available and open and listen to um the community I would encourage everyone in the community to attend the board

080meetings and speak up I think that's that's that's so important and if you're not being heard to make sure that that's also known um I would I would try to think outside the box what can we add um I I love Christine's idea about doing some sort of survey or reaching out to the community where are our deficits where do we need more focus on to help our community our community um and the communication because I know that that isn't that is also an issue and I would like to dive into that and try to figure out how we could make that better yeah foreign that's a a statement that will probably be with us for many years um we used to actually have Round Table discussions with the the public we would go to

081the Cornwall Library in their meeting room invite the public and we would sit and just chat get ideas find out how can we communicate better what are your ideas and begin to bring those back to the board um I miss those and and perhaps we can start them again we need focus groups people getting information back to the school district to find out how we can communicate better with you we sometimes we think we know what we want to hear or where how to get it to you um if we don't know if it's effective or not unless we get feedback so I think perhaps focus groups would would help on that um I'm always reminded of what president LBJ said about listening um he says you don't listen to people you listen at people

082listening is active it means you ask a follow-up question and the most important thing they're saying is what they're not telling you to listen to let's say what the absences are and I look around this room and I see a lot of people who are very active in cornwall's community um but one of my experience when I was a ambulance driver for New Windsor and I wouldn't go into random homes and four o'clock in the morning if you see a much broader Cornwall someone people don't have enough time sometimes that and that's sometimes what we have to listen to is what we're not hearing and one thing that just struck me looking at the living and Cornwall questions and then watching a lot of board meetings is that the living and Cornwall questions are very

083secondary focused they're about class to rank they're about stem versus Arts and Humanities and these are Secondary School questions but if you listen to the board meetings you would find that it's really heavily Elementary focused about where people are talking about and the most important thing and one thing that I've done and does me finish is you know on Sunday I knocked on 400 doors and when you talk to someone one of the families who did not make the lottery New PK and you're talking in the pouring rain and you're talking for 15 minutes you really get a valuable perspective that you're not going to get in a survey or in a focus group okay thank you this question is also one minute we will start with Christine faculty and staff have been under tremendous

084pressure over the past few years how can board members support faculty and staff including teachers support staff nurses janitorial staff cafeteria staff and maintenance staff we have to ask what what support is going to make a difference what I think is going to make a difference might not make an impact at all but I think if we go to the folks who are under the stress and the pressure and we ask what is going to make the biggest impact and relieve some of that pressure we can act on that I think that you know we I haven't talked much about teachers but they're they change the world and I'm not exaggerating and so do the lunch monitors and so do the hall monitors I mean those folks have had significant impact on my kids throughout

085the years and so I want to make sure that they're not under extreme stress and I want to make sure they feel supported but we have to ask first and not just assume we know the answer this one should be an easy one because the you know this has been a question that's uh you know I've been asking a lot of the teachers and staff I I keep mentioning the the word teachers all the time but when I when I'm actually meaning is the entire staff the uh everybody that works for Cornwall and it's a real simple answer you can start off by giving them respect something that we don't do enough of the teachers get no respect the staff gets no respect we can start with that the second thing we can do is

086we can actually start giving some of the faculty some of the staff like our cafeteria people and our Recreation we can start giving them a decent salary 16 an hour and you're wondering why signs are posted all over all over New Windsor looking for trying to hire people you know to work for them you could probably start with those two things respect and a decent salary for these people getting personal with the staff is very important I I have the opportunity in the schools during the day but a lot of times in the evening and on weekends and before school for those extra activities uh and I've gotten to know all of them and um only in conversation a one-on-one conversation can you truly find what's important to each and every each and every one

087of them it's the only way I find that uh a helping hand goes a long way right now I know the staff is tired and spent and um you know giving of my time and myself to help their day um it it it almost blows their mind because I think they're overlooked I think they're not seen I think they're behind the scenes and they really are what make our buildings tick you know and what keep our kids safe and happy I I think pretty much what everyone has said here is that we need to open better lines of communication we need to understand uh to be honest with you they understand where the anger is coming from there is some real anger there is then and there are our teachers that are not angry um

088and and I think that it's it's we need to work on that that's it's not a healthy atmosphere it's an atmosphere that needs to be uh calmed down and it's I just think it needs to be um best way to do it is is like in some cases a one-on-one conversation go walk around talk to people what is it who is it and part of the problem is is the restrictions that a board member has you cannot just wander go in and wander through a building to talk to people and and that becomes so we have to work that out and how to how to do that but thank you um I just want to Echo Mr galactic's point but I want to put a number on it because I am a teacher um if

089I was to take a job in Cornwall it would be equivalent to a 25 pay cut and no one feels appreciated when they work in that type of situation it's not all about the money but the teachers have also had you know their motivations questioned in the past year and it's really hard to be high morale and be happy and be positive for your your children when that's the situation you live in uh I've always said if you want to know what's going on in the school you ask three people you ask the school custodian you ask the school nurse and the main office secretary and they know because you know what when kids are unhappy they scratch onto the tape on their desks and the custodian figures it out and when they don't like

090their class they go find a reason to go down to the nurse's office and because they're not in the chain of command of the school kids will be frank and honest with them about what's really bothering them and that's why you should listen to them young league teachers we see part of this whole story principals always give a positive spin but that's why they're sometimes the most important people in the building I I think it's important um that little girl I was telling you about my daughter she is now a high school special education teacher and um that is the success of combination of school and parents and and working together I mentioned that because she was traumatized during covid as most of our teachers were I believe as our children were when I met

091with the Union uh Representatives a few days a week ago we had a great conversation the first one we've really ever had this was the first opportunity I got to sit and to talk to them and one of the suggestions I made for the future is that if I was re-elected and the board agreed again it's the board that we would have smaller meetings during the year uh with teachers a very very informal they didn't have to come they can come even if it's at a school with some soda cookies whatever and just get to know each other before we get to the next contract before there's an issue so that's what I think okay thank you this question we'll start with Carl it's one minute it was written by 12 year old middle school

092girl and she writes sorry she said I feel as there are way too many students in my school who get into physical fights repeatedly and don't get strong enough punishment so my question is would you make a greater punishment for those who often get into physical fights and do that repeated repeatedly thank that 12 year old for that question my daughter experienced horrible bullying in school to the point where when she finally when she finally got out of Cornwall she told me it was the happiest day of her life just getting out of here because of the bullying and stuff really really sad to hear that and to know that any child would have to go through their greatest time of their life and they just couldn't wait to get out of a school district

093so I think the question was what would I do to to a to that okay so yeah I've seen it far too often here where a kid just starts a fight and the next thing you know uh and I don't know if this is a law this is why we have Mr Dade in the back and Larry and Teresa can tell me this but they all seem to get equal punishment because a child got bullied in school and he finally stands up for himself and he does something about it he gets the same punishment as the child that's been picking on him for over a year this happened to my child for four years for four years when I finally had to come to the school board to the school district and do something about

094it I sat down with Neil Miller and we tried to come up with a plan on on how we're going to address this and why should my daughter face the same punishment as the bully did Carla I love that 12 year old by the way back different ways I was bullied um pretty horrendously for for quite a long time growing up um I've had I have children who who have been bullied I have children who have acted out themselves um I feel that the biggest most important thing is going to be the follow-through and people paying attention and um you know it's seeing something and saying something and bringing it to someone's attention uh is is so important um and also then like I said the follow through there there has to be actual guidelines

095that are met and followed if these certain actions take place um if there are no consequences the children will continue to do it if the consequences aren't meeting their actions they're going to continue to do it it's it's just a fact um and I I would definitely advocate for um strong punishments not only strong punishments but the follow-through is really important and what I mean by that is the contacting the family having the family get involved um and uh being creative in the punishments um sometimes the punishment that is meted out nobody knows what it was because of various laws and you say oh nothing ever happened to this well well something did you know you don't know what it was um I think mentioned it follow through I think these things um these actions

096need to be reported the kids need to know that they have the support around them to allow the uh uh to report the incident and that they will not have retaliation to them and but it's more than just punishing a child I think you need to do as much remediation as you can with the child instead of just saying uh well you hit him therefore you are suspended why what happened in there work it through find out what actually happened in order to make that determination of what a punishment should be so when I knocked on one door I had a parent tell me that their child was on the ground and kicked in the head by another kid and that that student was in school the next day and I think what's wrong is

097that it's not about that you're going to deterrence doesn't work punishing the bully doesn't work focusing on the bully is the wrong focus and that's one of the reasons why one of the key things I'm asking for is to revisit our code of conduct and I think that's something that involves the community and teachers and the administration and I really think if we put restorative justice principles into it we would put the victim at the center and focus on making the victim feel mate whole rather than trying to deter bullying by punishing it does abilities know where the lines are they're not going to be deterred focus on the person who's hurt yeah I know it might sound strange but sometimes the bully is the victim as well it a lot of this starts in

098the home not only supporting punishments or um different we have a policy that we go through with children and if it's brought to our attention the policy or code of conduct and policy is always updated of course it has to go strictly with the law we have to follow the guidelines of the law but on the other hand children that bully are usually bullied there's a reason people act the way they do and the reason children do so it comes back as far as I'm concerned with going back to counseling punishment is is okay but we've seen it with our own children you need to find the root of the problem yes punishment yes you need to to make sure your children are safe in their schools and it always to me comes back to

099community parents teachers and remediation with the counselors that this district is hiring and the psychologists because we do recognize it thank you I just want to offer that my answer around teachers assumes that the pay was not part of the possible solution because that's to be done in a couple years not right away um because of course I think that has to be Revisited for um bullying you know she the question mentioned physical fights and I think that's what I've heard too has been increasing in the hallways um and really I don't know the discipline policy by heart so I can't speak to you know the chain of of command in terms of what people get but I agree with Teresa I think we have to look at root cause why are folks fighting in

100the hallway and really digging into it not like oh he stole my pen and I'm mad but like what is it that this child that's their that's their solution and we're doing a lot of work in social emotional learning and we have folks in the district who are are trained to dig down into that and I think that that we owe that to students to help them get out of that cycle of fighting they don't always and then you know we've done our part but I think we owe it to them to at least try okay thank you our last question for the night um is one minute response and uh we'll start with Lori Beth what are your thoughts on our school districts program for special education students and gifted students my experience with

101um special education is that um needs to have more of a focus I I have some friends that are special ed teachers and I and I understand that they are very overwhelmed and that they have um many many students depending on them and uh I I worry about them and I worry about those kids because they need extra and if they're getting less that that's an issue um and I also I am also aware in other districts that there is a lot more enrichment programs available to their to our kids than than in our district um and I would I would like to see that increased all right all right um we have more um more and more students being classified um for whatever the reason is they they are and I think we need

102to make sure that we have the support in place to address that um gifted students uh we used to have a gifted program that was eliminated we had to give the teacher that was eliminated um some of that again goes back to years ago when the state actually took money in the middle of the year and took it away from us and it wasn't until now that we're beginning to see it come back but that's many years of lack of funds that we had in there so I think we need to address our gifted students no doubt about it some of them are bored sick sitting in a classroom where they know that they've they can do a whole lot more so that needs to be addressed thank you um being a parent to a

103special needs child is hard it shouldn't have to be difficult and too often our district makes it difficult for parents to Advocate and get the services that the children's need and there's a long history to this there are people that I've talked to who said they'll never vote for a school budget because of how their child was treated I've had people say they moved out of District because they couldn't get the services in this District I think we actually have the services but we have an approach that focuses on the legal minimum that a student is entitled to and not what is in the best interest of the child and I really wish we had you know Teresa footage to create you know Cornwall special education PTO because to have that network of support is

104what gets those resources so that parents know what to ask for what is out there what other services are there that they can get to support their child and it really is non-existent in Cornwall I was a um on the committee for special education for three years and obviously when I went on the school board I had to stop that that wasn't allowed um I think what we need to start with I I know going back to the past um gives you some kind of a basis but I want to look at today and I think that we need to consider as a group as a board to meet with and administrators and teachers and the COC and discuss what they feel is needed what they feel is missing they work in it every day

105they're the ones who are sitting and making decisions finding out how they make their decisions not being judgmental and yes unfortunately again special education isn't almost a totally unfunded mandate the state comes down with wonderful programs but doesn't give us any money and never did thank you I could talk on this for an hour so spare I'll spare you but I will say I understand the money that's a factor and people have to be reasonable in terms of what services a child needs where I want to focus though is on early identification and intervention I know a whole lot about dyslexia one in five kids are dyslexic it's the largest population of incarcerated people people leave High School unable to truly read they can get by early identification makes a difference and if we spend

106the money training teachers in the elementary ages on how to identify that it will cost us Less in the long run for special education services I've been talking about this to the special ed team for years we finally have a reading intervention for that um but I yeah I could go on I just think there has to be more partnership it can't be the minimum and the the first thing out of the mouth is no we don't do that there has to be some conversation and meeting in the middle to meet the needs of kids I'm sorry and I think for enrichment programs um we we have to come up with some Creative Solutions I mean it's not like one end of the spectrum's more important than the other um so I think that you

107know that's certainly worth exploring more so I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I know everything the kids need for special education but I will tell you that I have listened to Christine over the last few months at the school boards actually probably close to a year now advocating for our children with special special needs um so she's the expert in it I'm not and what I will say is just after listening to her speak about it over the last few months or years um whatever they need that then I think we should be giving it to them there's no reason why we can't do it you get oh 30 seconds okay so as far as we had a child come in not too long ago for uh Advanced AP Calculus such

108an impressive guy um he wanted that unfortunately the school district couldn't give it to him but I think that these are things we need to address if anyone has a chance please listen to this child it was really it was really cool I mean he came in and he said hey you know I want I want to learn more and we just couldn't provide that for him and I think that that's something that we really need to address okay thank you each candidate will now have two minutes for closing statements and once again we're going to start with Larry well thank you um I think one of the things that um I Heard tonight is a little misconception about us getting back to uh getting back to education um we have the highest graduation rate

109in Orange County uh there's something say it just to be said about that so there's there's somewhere in there we are back to education I don't think we ever left a lot of our issues that we've talked about tonight um when you think about it all revolves around dollars can we afford to do this we are the second lowest cost per pupil in Orange County with the fourth lowest cost per pupil in the 43 surrounding districts now that's a double-edged sword on the one hand isn't that nice we don't have to pay that much in taxes on the other hand what we've heard tonight most of what we've heard tonight could be addressed if our tax rate was higher and that goes back to the community and and and now the problem is with the

110state because we can't go above the two percent tax rate it varies depending but we use the two percent rate as an average um I think if we going back we could address our special ed needs at an early stage and um it would save us money in the long run you're absolutely right uh I would love to see the community come together find a way to expand our programs all our programs and all our needs the one time we tried to go above the tax cap it was voted down so we need to know if if that's going to be a viable option at some point so that uh we can address the needs that everybody's been talking about tonight thank you we've talked tonight a lot about some of the concerns or things

111we want to improve or things that we care about the question really is who is has an idea of how to maybe start to approaching that um there's a way to deal with bullying we can look at our code of conduct there's a lot of room for improvement and I think that's one way we can do that on my website I talk about upk and how what it would cost because I think when you go to the people of Cornwall and you say look this is what it cost one Starbucks order per month per person the fund for the 32 students okay to provide that funding that's doable that would have happened under the tax cap this year how are we going to deal with uh you know uh special education what is the issue

112I think we have a lot of programs and a lot of teachers the problem is those teachers aren't necessarily getting to the students and parents aren't navigating the system so we have to think about not just here are our problems and do we feel bad about them but what are we going to do concretely to address them because otherwise these issues are going to come up year and year and year and we'll feel bad about them and they're not going to get fixed and so it's not because I think I have all the answers but I'm throwing things out there so that hey you can keep me accountable because this is what I said I would try to do and I'm going to advocate for that and I'm going to listen to people and I'm

113going to try to organize people behind some of these issues so that things can get done because I think that's how you can make change and I learned that from a teacher who taught me how to knock on doors and talk me showed me how to talk to people and how I had a conversation on Sunday where someone told me they're not going to pay taxes ever again they they don't have any children in the school and then I made a value proposition I said look I want to have adult continue education because I think all the people in Cornwall who are not engaged with the school district they need to be offered something and then when they come into our schools for those adult and continuing education programs do you see the state of

114the facilities and they say you know what we need to do something about this I'd like to just and basically by saying first of all I have probably more questions when I leave here tonight than when I came maybe that's a good thing my head's spinning when I leave here I'll think of all the right answers and say why didn't I say that so having said that I have to say as far as board meetings I have to go by this year because other most of the others will resume before this past year kind of normalcy started um our our board president introduced many changes but in order to hold us a school board meeting there's a lot of business you have to get done and when questions are asked most districts do not give

115two opportunities and we do one at the beginning and one at the end and when parents or anyone staff comes to us it's true we normally do not answer the question at that time but frankly we normally don't necessarily have the answer we when the board president asked people specifically can I have your email address can I have this and I know he gets back to them so there has been very positive changes more trying to reach the community as far as our our school district as I said I think I just have lots of ideas but it's a group it's one person but I think that's important because whoever you elect to the school board I ask them please to keep in mind that you're a board member just to the table and you

116don't make decisions for the district and you're very limited as to what you can do outside of the district you represent the school district It's a Wonderful school district and it can improve but I think we have a huge a really good basis here and um I hope we just keep moving thank you so I just want to start by saying I I don't think raising tax money makes things easier but it's not the only way to get things done and I think we can apply critical thinking and be a little more creative in terms of service that for services we provide whether that's to special ed kids or to gifted children all around we just have to think differently with that said I didn't come into this campaign saying I was going to do

117this or going to do that we're going to you know implement this I don't have all the information I don't have access to all the facts or all the background information or what's already been done so that wouldn't be fair to you or to me what I did come in saying is I will advocate for students teachers and taxpayers and that is a constant Balancing Act um you know when we look at it students they're the center of everything you know whether you're a parent or a taxpayer they're the future of our community they're they're important taxpayers listen I'm not stingy but I don't want to be paying taxes out the Wazoo I want to be reasonable right and I think trying to look at the budget carefully and critically is not being stingy thirdly

118I'll end on this you know we are so lucky in Cornwall because I at least for me we have amazing teachers really I mean not all of them are perfect but they're pretty darn close and they have made such a significant impact on my children's lives and many of them have even helped me be a better parent so I think when you think back on your years of school it's unlikely you're remembering the exact lesson they taught and more likely you're remembering the way they influenced who you are today so whatever we can do to support teachers and to make their jobs more efficient I think that's a big Focus that we need to look at because it will benefit taxpayers and it will benefit students I would be honored to serve on the board

119and I hope you'll vote for me first I don't think we're doing enough to address the educational problem that we have here we hired one teacher and we lost three I know people don't want to hear about raising taxes unfortunately that's coming it's coming we've had problems going on here for years and no one's addressing them we again I'm going to get back to the infrastructure of our schools since 2016 we've had gymnasiums that had Holes in the Floor we have yet to address that issue how much do you think it's going to cost us now to repair it when it comes because it's coming it's coming and it's probably going to be over four or five hundred thousand dollars okay so these are the things we need that we need to start addressing I'm

120again I know nobody wants to hear taxes going up but they're going up they're go it's gonna it's gonna happen Okay as far as the you know teachers go again we haven't hired enough full-time teachers we lost teachers we have to replace them we have to do something with the overcrowding in the schools everyone is afraid to address that issue the bottom line is it has to be done if you have overcrowding in the schools what are you going to do with these kids 23 24 in a classroom I mean that's where we're at and so this needs to be taken care of and please you know it's it's a passion of mine it's not out of anger it's passion I want to be I want to help the board um address these issues again

121I just don't think we that in fact I don't think we reach out to the teachers enough I don't think we listen to the staff we we're just we're lost and we need to get back on track okay I believe I can keep our kids at the Forefront of everything that we're doing here I I see the board works tirelessly it's it looks like a really hard job the teachers are working um to make our community run as amazing as it does it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of diligence and um you know I I feel like it's very difficult to answer questions on on matters that I think Christine said it we don't have all the information on um I think I think I'm a logical person that um while

122sitting on a board and having all the information in front of me and being able to ask all the questions and actually get the answers that I need in order to make up my mind on a decision I think I can do that I think I I think I can do that um and Excel at that I I want more than anything for our school district to run smoothly and effectively I I would do anything to make sure that that that that happens um I want my little ones to enjoy the same life that I enjoyed and to make it even better so that's why I'm here thank you okay well thank you everybody on behalf of the ptos I I think we really appreciate all of your thoughtful responses tonight and um and for

123being willing to participate in tonight's forum and also to be willing to run for the school board you're all very brave and passionate and it certainly comes through and thank you to the audience for being here tonight and for submitting your questions remember to vote and bring someone or two people with you to vote alongside you good night everyone [Applause]