001uh for this one a little bit S as well we do have some wonderful people leaving us as well so without any further Ado if you could please join us Asun board member Danelle lead us the plge flag of United States of America the naice all thank you Daniel okay that brings us to recommendation for Sen okay um as George said Sor recommended action that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of school board of education approves the 10 your appointment of the following individuals Courtney fan Elizabeth Muller Sarah renberg and Jennifer buer motion discussion okay you want me to convince you I don't think they need but yes as George said today is is you know a wonderful day um and it and the way we're doing this is we're kind of um we're talking
002about first off we've got some new hires in in the agenda tonight um and we can talk a little bit about that later in the agenda uh but now we're going to talk about some people who are going to spend their entire career here and where're I'm asking the board to make an investment in the future sevenes in these four individuals um because we believe so strongly that they will contribute um in magnificent ways to to Ceres and then at the same time we're going to honor those people who have done just that what we're going to ask um these people to do um so what I'll do is I'm going to talk a little bit about them but then I'd like to refer um to Dennis Richie Ando to talk a little bit more
003about them because they were in their buildings um and they can you know they can provide a little bit more information um so we will start um with um Elizabeth Muller who came to us from New York City um she has been her third year um and he's in the elementary school teaching first grade I'm going to kick it to Dennis to talk a little bit about this and if you didn't know there's a balloom in the back I think lizz's fan club makes it easy for me to give a sales pitch um Liz came to us three years ago and I've never seen well I have seen some people but I've never seen a person so seamlessly and organically like just become part of a team part of a culture and build the culture
004within a building so Liz came to us obviously with a background and a whole we actually have unpacked different things over the years with international travel and international teaching background background and being in bilingual classrooms and and giving us a wealth of knowledge about what her expertise in the city has been able to bring to just discussions that we're having at the building level now and a plethora of just best practices and experience in in uh New York City Schools which we all know you know provide just like we do tremendous professional development for their teachers and unique opportunities so so Liz was able to give us a kind of a breath of fresh air and and some different perspectives but has pushed her team to be their best also and I think they they
005do that to one another there's this constant uh one-upsmanship that's going on on the first great team um and it's really a beautiful thing to watch so we're extremely satisfied with the work that she's done eager to see the things that she's going to do in the future and we love having here so thank you Liz so we have a small gift still a get this all right um and so now we're gonna actually um I'm gonna ask Dennis and Melissa to kind of tag team because we have um Sarah who's with us tonight and Sarah um started Del med school did three years there and then um you know that was enough time she was an accelerated uh student um and moved up to the to the middle school so it only took three
006years to get through um six years worth of curriculum at elementary school and Masters at the middle school working as a teaching assistant um so Dennis if talk that sure I'm ironically I actually had my pen the other day in my pocket my little wooden Park pen my didn't so I thought I was gonna have that moment but um so Sarah came to us a couple years ago and it's been you know she's one of those people who I've never seen a dedication to continuing to learn more about her craft she is absolutely committed to to being a a team player pushing the people around her really wanting to learn and invest in in the work that we're doing within a school I think she probably learned I don't know five six different reading programs
007that she had committed to learning just as we were investigating new programs and trying to figure out what's the best things for our students um had unbelievable spreadsheets and different ways of collecting data for our kids that was so meaningful when we did have to have some challenging discussions about students that had greater needs um and did so much to kind of galvanize our RTI program and and the work that we were doing with that so we're really happy with the work that she had done and eager to see what she's going to do in the future for the Middle School in the Middle School um Sarah is in our 811 classroom and I remember when she first started even when was New to her walk in the clroom today you would never ever know
008that um it was a seamless transition and that's really The Testament to her dedication um and hard work and commitment to being successful no matter which placement we put her in which tells me that she going to be a successful member of the center reg school district for years to come um she loves those students and is a go-getter in the building if she sees a need or hears of a need she takes an active role in fills the need for not only her a one classroom but the school as a whole um so we're so excited that she um we' to the middle school and we're excited to work with her in years to come thank you continuing on you know I can I still remember the um the day I met Jenny um
009because it was kind of like we were we were like trying to figure out how we going to cover this box class and what are we going to do and um and then they were like I think Larry's wife might might be able to help us out like what really and I met her and I was like her background is really art um and I remember talking about she had all these like creative ideas um and it just like was the perfect fit um and it turned into just something that's been exceptional um and I think our kids we've seen the benefit because of you know Jenny's dedication so I'll pass over to Melissa um Jenny buer is a perfect fi for s's middle school and the sixth grade team um Jenny is a gem
010of human beings and we absolutely adore her if you walked into the middle school today you would never know that she's completing her fourth year here you would think that it's her tender here because she is a leader in the school building um she does not you would never know that she was an untendered teacher um Jenny takes an active active role in our school and our community as a whole I'm sure you see her everywhere um she uh speaks an active role in our new Poli for hate initiatives cure leadership initiatives family consumer science club is probably the most highly um attended Club she has to set up a rotation system because everybody wants to join once they have her in sixth grade the seventh graders and eighth graders are eager to come back
011right back into the um she takes an active role in all of our DDI initiatives for the district she's an NP Mentor um and she's another go-getter that if she sees a need in the building she's fulfilling it or she's coming down and says I noticed this do you want me to do this or how can I help with this um she's always lending and Helping Hands in the classroom um she's a meticulous planner her sixth grade consumer science room is always alive when you walk in um the students are truly the center of that classroom um and they adore her her connections with our students are really second and N she knows our sixth graders so well um and really is a leader in their transition from fifth grade to sixth grade she takes
012um really takes the lead on the sixth grade SE of that and makes that her passion for the first few weeks of school and really helps them um make Center which is Middle School their new home from so that will finel forign and was really an initiative that she created and came up with um and has ran with it the past few years um you'll see a lot of activities around the school the kids will come home talk about their food truck wars and their Monster Match if they go to Clayton Huey um we love Mrs buer we loved Mr buer but now we love Mr just as much um and she is an absolutely amazing amazing amazing teacher and our six grade is L of in par clro I love um having her a
013part of our sixth grade team so it is my pleasure to reprend well you're not all but I you know so Larry sorry but I think she went from Larry's wife now you Jenny's husband they got her first but uh Jenny congratulations okay and we have one other person to talk about and obviously this person is no stranger to some riches um coury's been here since 2006 right 2006 been here a long time uh but change roles um and you know when you're it's very difficult um when you are working in a place for a long time sometimes to make that switch and to go from teacher mode or in this case social worker mode all of sudden becoming a building leader um and I would say that um you know Courtney has done that
014so gracefully um and is really just such a a win for S riches and which she brings every day uh to support our kids to support our teachers to support our families um so I'm turn over some words so when I um first started in 13 years ago missan was the districtwide social worker so she was running from Clayton huy to the Middle School to the high school um and doing it so well um but it was evident to me after watching her role that she was a natural leader in the CER school district and community at large everybody um really respected her opinions valued her input and conversations um and she was a go-to person for not only the students but the staff and the parents and she um her natural leadership just always
015had Me Knocking at her door saying you be a your administrator remember you want to be administrator I think you would be awesome um and Mrs Fabian knowing um when the time was right for her stepped up four years ago to be the um Middle School assistant principal and she has done a phenomenal job and I can say from the bottom of my heart that hiring her as Middle School assistant principal was probably the best decision that I've made in the 11 years that I've been the Principal of Middle School um she's absolutely wonderful so I just want to WR a few things because I've wrot too much but um she one thing about is that she is an assistant principal with the heart of a social worker and you can see that in her
016interactions with the student staff in the community and she's always going to a problem and never away from it and she's always going with both arms extended saying how can I go what can I do what do you need um she is a woman of faith that will always stand up for what's right and just her moral compass is spot on and as a building leader I feel like that's one of the most important attributes about her um is that I know that she's making decisions always and what's in the best interest of students and from always like a fair um amazing wife and her um uh she knows every student every parent usually a lot about them Mrs swen grew up around here so her community connections our second she knows um the students
017their parents their sister their mother where they're graduating from high school who thinks the data she has historical valge that really helps in the connections of the students so many people come by the middle school and they're like is that you and she has these connections with families that are very special because they're Generations long um something also very important is that the assistant principes are charged with dealing with aany discipline in their buildings which is a challenging role that they have um but again her consistency and her fairness make it such a place that the students feel safe and comfortable coming to her because she again operates with that part of a social worker and ends with like a restorative um counseling approach she is a strong presence in our school a lot of
018the times students are like oh this B you know and we play the good cop bad cop ying and yang um and she always jokes and she says you think I'm strong here imagine if I was your mom I have three boys at home imagine what I'm like and they're like but at her heart she has a tough experior and a heart of gold um and it is a pleasure to work with her every single day and um really truly such an asset to the Middle School the district that so I'm so excited for be here tonight all right education recation it's nice toar it's nice to hear uh such passionate I don't even knowly uh it's just nice to hear how much you are passionately advocating for these Educators to get tenure because this
019really is a 30-year decision so it's always good to know that you're in good standing and making a good decision when we vote on this so let's uh all in favor yes yes MO you so as I said that's you know strong congratulations and and this board has just made an investment in the First sances with with these four individuals who would be spending their careers here um and we couldn't be Happ um so what we will oh and I'm my note say that I'm to announce that there will be cupcakes after the meeting we are celebrat um so we do have some refreshments uh we do have one presentation after we do some more acknowledgements um and then we will uh adjourn after U we conduct our our business and have a little reception
020um but so we go from the people who just started that to our um collectively the retirees represent 167 years of service to s extraordinary um just wonderful careers um at each board meeting when we accepted them we did say some words about each of them but we asked them to come back I I so I think I saw most of them I think that may have been one I did not see okay um so any but so let me go through um in terms of the number Year I'll start with the um Brenda Bloomberg from um Elementary art if you have gone to the Elementary art show um it is in full display just remarkable um this year was just exceptional and BR always does an extraordinary job um it's a treat to to
021see the work that our elementary kids and it's it's not just the exposure it's I think the inspiration that you get to our kids to really level um and so for a tremendous career and 20 years of service um to um our elementary school I'll ask Dennis to come on up please and I'll ask the other two principles to come on up as we honor the rest so BR 20 years there's a speech involved we forgot that thing that carry [Applause] supporting our students who struggle in Reading at the elementary school for 27 years um just exceptional service and everything Dennis has always ra about um you know the level of support and care and nurturing that Michelle has provided um has been exception so 27 years of service Michelle [Applause] for well we certainly
022want to recognize Bob he's the one I did not see Bob has been teaching in art science and Earth Science in particular I'm in our middle school and Bob has 28 years of service so of Applause and I have to say the the next person I would honor um I think I I might have said 27 years um and I and I realized that I had made a mistake um and so we want to honor 30 plus years for John mandro in our social studies department and um I have to say that the three years that I forgot about I think were years in P school suspension room so just to know that he came in here to do that job which is not the most desirable job and decided to stay for 30 years
023um is is certainly exceptional but the words that people describe and I may be saying a little bit more about John later um that's a little foreshadowing for those people um but I I congratulate joh Andro 30 plus years 30 [Music] [Laughter] and with 30 years of service in our elementary school um we also have um and again this is I have a soft spot in my heart Valentin she was always one of those people that invited me into her class um got to work with the student council in the elementary school um and always made me feel really weles so with 30 years of service atement School and then we have one other teacher who had 32 years of service to seven riches again the teacher who really always feel you know they they
024say when you move into Administration like you're gonna have some really hard days and um and and the cure for that is to walk down into the kindergarten classro um and so you know I have to say that every every year Linda has invited me into her kindergarten class um and I'm we're gonna have to make get the rain check on this year I miss it this year so during Dr Seuss Week there's nine days left I apologize but we're gonna have to make that up L um so 3 years of service and wonderful okay I'm allow mawell just you know board ofeducation thank all the retirees my children started here um all graduated had many of you in the case of Mr Mand had been multiple multiple times every class I think that you
025offered um and you know we're not these are not people that were just here for a minute these are people that the very fabric upset of riches and what we accomplish here and what our children are able to accomplish thank you for your dedicated years of service thank all right so um now we're moving on to our teacher of the year so I want to just say that again this a process that you know we have been doing I think it's probably 55 years um but just really important just to highlight some people that are doing this road every um and so for our power profession of the year um she has been a power professional for um looks like seven years since 2016 eight years um Jill has basically I'm going to read some
026of the stuff that came from the application um she's dedicated she's been characterized as dedicated effective and a warm individual always put suit first um Miss gic's ability to handle difficult behaviors in a calm and professional manner is nothing shorter than F she approaches every situation has the opportunity to go and learn um Jill has described this basically not only is she there for the kids but her infectious smile is just so warm that it lights up in the entire School um she's a colleague that consistently Fosters the support of inclusive environment ensuring that every student feels valued and understood her impact extends Beyond individual students she uplifts our entire educational Community promoting a cultureal patients understanding so for these reasons um Jill godek is our 2024 power profess whereas it is with great honor
027and admiration recogniz for outstanding dedication commitment and district and J has demonstrated an unwavering passion for supporting students growth fostering positive learning and empowering individuals to reach their full potential and whereas her tireless efforts compassion and enthusiasm have not only enriched the lives of students but also inspired colleagues and the broader School community and whereas her invaluable contributions kindness and professionalism embody the core values and mission of the C School District promoting Excellence education for culture of inclusivity respect andong and whereas J's exceptional achievements a remarkable and and remarkable impact have distinguished as the epit of and a shin example what to professional the highest now therefore that be Proclaim that on this day the 12th of June 2024 the Sen school dist will [Music] proudly I know there going to be a group but
028thisen now for those who were follow along earlier I may have dropped a hint um but uh you know I have to say um you know John my missing those three years in ISS may have tilted scales for you um but honestly you know John again I'm going to read from some of the things that were were described in the application um John is clearly a dedicated and passionate teacher um I have to say that you know I'm I'm not gonna say that there's a favorite amongst one board member um but George has often commented about how um the Maxwell family is in the milandro fan club um and and that's that's true you you have said that to me on several occasions um and so John you know you are you are deeply respected
029uh by your colleagues by the kids by the families who set them riches um you know so one of the things that talks about making john milro exceptional an exceptional connections he makes with students um John has made such a profound impact on his students that they often invite him to their graduation parties weddings family celebrations he attends their Proms and hasn't missed the high school graduation since he started in C just 30 years AG um when they posted a video of Mr landra on the ALS Bucket Challenge former students got in there and commented in in the social media that's my favorite teacher of all time and Mr milandro is so awesome um and those are the kinds of things that that you know you reflect on and you know um that John you
030built a legacy and and your legacy is touching the lives of of S and R's kids for 30 years um you're the epitome of what it means to be an educator that makes a difference in the lives of students and a person that will never forget heing Sun um so John congratulations you W with UT admiration and appreciation that we commend John mandro for his exemplary dedication outstanding leadership and exceptional contribution as an educator in the cementary school industry and whereas John mandro has distinguished himself as a paragon of Excellence Serv as a beacon of inspiration encouragement and support for students Endeavors and achievements throughout his career and whereas his unwavering commitment to fostering a culturefly respect and academic Excellence has empowered students to embrace challenges pursue their passions and Achieve remarkable success both inside
031outside and whereas joh Angel's remarkable ability to connect with students on a personal level coupled with his genuine care compassion and mentorship has left an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of those he taught and inspired and foras his exemplary professionalism integrity and dedication to his craft have earned him the utmost respect and admiration of colleagues administrators and the for school Community now therefore we Proclaim that on this day the 12th of June 2024 the C School District proudly recognized okay president of the board is but but we can't do that um we do recognize one other individual um I have to say that you know being a superintendent um is you know not always the easiest job in the world and I I rely on um the effectiveness of a governance team that
032that works with me um and for the past several years past six years George Maxwell has served George has asked me to not make a big deal because that is who George is um but I told him well I have to say some nice things it's my responsibility uh but George you know the thing that I would say about George as as a board of education president is that George has always really you know the word integrity comes to mind because George has always justed for kids he's never asked for anything um never never sought a special favor or or anything and as a board president has always stood by and respected the voices of not only every single board member here but in particular the kids in CER meres and en our community of
033centeres um George is an exemplary um model of leaders ership and so for that reason George just I I offer you my heartfelt thanks for your years of service and a very small token of appreciation she means she means thought six Ines was taller than that [Applause] cupcakes there cupcakes may never see those app EX [Music] spe you I now [Applause] oh yeah for there you us you [Music] know you but you have it on e e e started back up just going to wait uh one moment for Bill to let us when ready yeah okay great all right we good thank you uh I hope you enjoyed the cupcakes we are going to pivit a little bit we do have a presentation um but I know there are some people that are sitting anxiously
034in the audience waiting for agenda I'm glad that I'm still here for this so we're going to go to do I have to do everything let me do everything and first the super we skip the superintendent's report I'll do everything else we'll do that at the end questions and comments regarding tonight's agenda only okay Financial reports Fe have resolved that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools test the following Financial reports internal claims quot report May 2024 motion motion second discussion all in favor yes yes motion carried unanimously donations be resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Board of Education accepts the following donations $600 donation from the PTO supplies for the Dei cultural event and a $500 donation from sa Association of school business officials
035or scholarships you could that's your Association right thank you very much for that and thank you to the PTO uh for donating for our di cultural event motion second discussion all in favor yes yes motion Carri unanimous approval of all consent agenda items as presented be resolved a motion to approve consent agenda items 11a through 16b 16b motion motion second discussion all in favor yes yes motion carries unanimously so we offer congratulations to Alex Rachel for you guys if you stick around for four years you get a pen and if you stick around for 30 you get everything else looking forward to Great go back now come back to um well okay so we're going to go back now to the beginning of the superintendent's report we do have presentation you are more than welcome
036to stay for that you are also more than welcome to gra a cupcake congratulations conratulations [Laughter] all right so all right so Dr Mar and I would like to share a presentation um called charting the course essentially um we began last summer and I think to start um I think four years or five years ago now I first came in we talked about this idea and I think Daniel and marus boid at high but we talked about this idea of um you know kind of building um C's footprint making the Regal lead in K public education um and at the time the idea was that if we kind of charted the course toward bringing International doating here pyp myp and IB uh excuse me diploma program we thought that that could provide some consistency and
037instruction K12 in a district that would then um and again bring in many of the mental health initiatives that we brought in really become a district that would people would look at as a Regional appucation Education public education um but now um you know again we we accomplished that goal next year we started to think about well how are we going to steer this this District into the next five years so from 24 to 29 and thought that last summer Amy and I talked about the idea of bringing doing a full-blown strategic planning initiative so that we could really engage our community effectively and find out what this community really values and bring that back um and have this strategic plan that we would develop um collectively with our community so I'd like to start
038by right there not thank okay just start by thanking the participants uh started out with over 30 people um in in a room in in district office a really full room um lots of community members from people that were just former graduates from many many years ago um to we reached out to almost every um like every stakeholder in the community from the Little League to the you know to um her stroble to lots of people in the community um Community leaders um as well as District Personnel teachers um just parents in the community and we had all of these people from you know Ob La was there um as well as um you could see about 30 people even Russ Stewart former superintendent was in was in the room um and so lots of
039stakeholders and lots of good conversation around that um and at the time we introduced what's referred to as a thought exchange and leveraged this idea of some really cool technology um that incorporates um sort of like a survey but not a traditional survey a survey that really exchanges ideas and that's the thought exchange survey um and we'll talk a little bit about that subsequent to that we did a climate survey that had teachers students and sports staff um that we put out there for everyone to complete um and we had um a great number of responses on that that that again uh provided data for us um our administrative team and our Board of Education um in terms of over the course of the year we kept um informing uh and at our administrative council
040meeting to talk about this and gather ideas um move this initiative forward and SE and obviously had several updates to the Board of Education over the close of the year um so this is basically our journey um and our process and basically we you know we kind of come down this winding road to Strate through strategic planning um we as I indicated we engaged a lot of stakeholders we knew what was coming out of state Ed we knew what the Blue Ribbon commission's work was going to be or or was projected to be um and really looking at some changing um changing expectations for education in New York state um plugged into the idea of what the Regent was working on and and their Blue Ribbon commission and so we in the back of our
041head we knew that we wanted to come up with this idea of a portra gradate what does it take for a graduate of s to be successful in the work um and so that an important driving force for us as we started to think about this thing so as I said we used the thought exchange and thought exchange there were 122 participants um and over 2100 what's that oh I was just going off of that over 21 um distinct engagements the question the provocation we used for the thought exchange was right here what do you value most about s we want people to p g and say what are the things you really love about SES and then um what can we do that so it was was again working with thought exchange this provocation
042was put out there um as a way to really try to get both sides of the the conversation going um their thought was you put one question out there but you basically allow people to engage um and you get unique engagements and unique responses from people so of the 122 participants 77 unique thoughts were put in there so people would comment and put a a I love the small techic community that is one comment um I think we could do this better would be might be another comment um and then what happens is individuals have to rate those comments so when we have 77 thoughts in there there were 2,166 actual engagements where people went in there rated those thoughts so on a on a one to five Liker scale you might say that that's
043Comm is a five I really agree with that when you might say it's a one this um and that's a good way to gauge you know the way I always looked at it is get 30 or more people commenting you probably have a good sample size for for something like this um and then you could gauge whether on the life scale it's a one to a five you can really see what the effectiveness of that comment think so basically if we look at who participated in the thought exchange 54% of the thought exchange were parents or Guardians 42% were faculty and staff and 24% with community members so a pretty broad spectrum of people um actually participated no students participated in this um but again the data that we got from students was a much
044larger sample from our app survey that we'll get into a little bit later so um and when we look at the buildings again across the elementary school the middle school and the high school it was pretty balanced so it wasn't heavily weighted toward one or the other um the data shows that um information came from all over our district so all different um constituent groups and all different building and this is the word cloud this is the this is where we start with the word cloud um that basically was generated out of it um one of the things that I have to say the best I don't know if it's the best part but the part that I really loved about using F exchange is the AI piece of it um it takes our bias
045out of it and it really looks at the comments and the suggestions from our community and so this is not something that I can manipulate I can create or Amy can um this is something that's generated by the AI in the system and so the more people talk about things the more people the more they show up on here so the value of social emotional learning um the small tight-knit community that we have these are the kinds of things that people value Ines um and so when we look at the key thoughts and and we're going to make this presentation available to everybody in the interest of time there are a bunch of these slides so I'm going to go through very very quickly uh but this presentation will be available the board you have
046a copy of it if anybody would like a copy you know Daniel we can get you copies of this um certainly um but you know again you know valuing um the integration of uh and inclusion of our special ed students valuing the tiic culture all of these things you could see 44 different people rated these things and they rated rather high so these are these are the ones that actually came in um real high for us um as far as diversity equity and inclusion um you can see this the ation of special education students into our curriculum was something that was valued and something that that you feel passionate about and that's something our community believes we should be doing and I think that speaks to the success of our UniFi program um but support
047of peer groups value shared decision making all of these things were real positives um and if I'm missing anything let me just jump in week um but again valuing that small town feel of SES um loving um SES uh the love of settl throughout the community people really feel feel the place is special um and all of these things I think were important um some thoughts about that that they really love the idea that that we this tighten Community gives a sense of safety for our kids the kids are comfortable taking risks in our educational environment because of this um this feeling back say something oh go ahead oh so one of the thing you know we're not trying to pull out just the positive is you know resoundingly in the thought exchange lots of
048people um positively agree with the statement that there is a need for upgrading facilities and security measures and it's a clear concern to our community it's something our Board of Education and administrative team take incredibly um seriously um and and so it's it's nice to hear that you know those efforts are um echoed in the community thank you um and again small uh student engagement a you know the um the caring culture that's visible like that I like that kind and that doesn't come from us that comes from the community putting those things out there um and so like I said you could get in there and you could look at these kinds of things there's some things around student learning um and what what thought exchange does is we didn't create student learning as
049a bucket the thought exchange does that and then the comments go into that bucket um again so it's it's a powerful tool that provides a lot of information that we're able to share with the the strategic planning committee to really prioritize make decisions and look at the data and look at some of the things that AI is generating about um as far as parents you know having parents as partners talking about our great PTO um you know um parenty and things like that um all important things uh talk about College and Career Readiness here's one again Amy you know pointed out before they'd like to see more Technical and career skills and that's something that came out in the thought exchange that we could do a little bit better um so you know again lots
050of positives but also a lot of suggestions we could be doing and this is again guiding um a lot of the information that that we're sharing know what you jump in on that yeah um so one of the other things that the AI does in V exchange is it um helps you to understand when there are conflicting thoughts within the community and so this is a good example of one um that has to do with IB um a rated IB as something very POS positive for the community and then the second response kind of indicates that it kind of alludes to the idea that IB um is just for a few students um and so one of the things that we learn from that as an administrative team is that we have to improve our
051communication and exactly what IB is we know that IB is for all students our pyp program is throughout our elementary school our nyp program the same in the middle school at the high school all of our students our IB students with the ability to go for an additional credential um and so when we're seeing this and we're seeing people rate these thoughts we realize that we do have some more um communication marketing if you will to help the to help the community understands what you know the value of the IB education that sen mares offers um and that it is for all students Amy Excuse me yes A and B are different respondents or what so there are two different um thoughts um that were conflicting right so not so everyone said they love the
052typ nobody said we hate our Titanic Community right but here they're saying IB is great but why are we doing iy just for a few kids and and we know that to not be true but if it's a perception in the community we know that that's something that we have to address in our communication gools okay yeah so um after the thought exchange or kind of tangentially with methodic change um we engaged in a climate survey and the climate survey um focused on three areas that's the environment safety and engagement um I know this is very small hopefully you can see it in front of you at first glance the thing that we looked at is like okay great everything's favorable or above we have maybe some like just a favorable but we're doing good
053um and and while that is true we really dug into the data to say but what does it tell us so um the first section is for just students and again I'm not going to go through piece by piece we did this as a committee um but just to kind of illustrate the point um when we're talking about discipline from a student perspective um things like school rules are applied equally to all students right that's a statement and and students had to either strongly agree agree disagree or strongly disagree and we see that quite a few students uh what we're at 43 and 16 so 5 not 61% of our students are agreeing with that statement um and then we have you know the other part of our student population who is saying I don't
054I don't believe that to be true I disagree and so there's work to be done here in our restorative practices right we we still have work um to understand the difference between equality and Equity um and should they be equally applied should they not and so we know here's an area for example where we really want to dig in um and we have started to and and I think that that's a key point right is that that this data like we had this conversation about the perceptions of and we started because every time we have these things we start talking and you had asked that question you said we know that there's this perception problem and this is how we know it as far as this goes this is something that the high school administration
055clearly because this is mostly high school students that that are reporting here um and the changes that we've made at the high school are certainly changes that address some of these perceptions as well so it will be interesting to see when we do the climate survey yes excuse next year how this um how how maybe change hopefully I want you to talk to that I'm sorry my teachers give me individual attention when I need it right we're talking about that that small town the individualized attention the culture of care that we built at the high school through all those administrative shifts and and and programmatic implementations and we're seeing over about 80 of our 80% of our kids are our responding positively to that that's that's impressive already but we still know that there's 20%
056who we need them to feel like there's an adult in the building that they can go to um and perhaps maybe there's one and they just want more but those are the things that we're digging into with pair um and and all of the different other ways that we explore student Voice through our programs mental mental do you want to keep going on I think yeah all right so we could we could go through like data slide dat a slide but just to show you the kinds of things that are driving the information and the stuff that we're reporting back to our strategic planning committee so mental health um class environment here our instructional environment discipline mental health physical environment um and you know like you could see that most of it's favorable but there
057are highs and lows in that data that we can dig into further and we have started to do do so and if you're really interested and want to dig in to this data so then the next St is from the teacher perspective right so uh for the most part it was teachers and students we had some non-instructional staff but not a large number um but it's broken up like that in the presentation just for your so now we're into the the teacher data here um and the teacher perceptions of of the discipline so yeah and then physical environment my teaching is hinted by a lack of instructional space um you know 64% want more instruction space that's coming from the teachers um we need some um and by now now we get to the parent
058information highlight anything just keep kind of going I know if you just pick it up how heavy this presentation is but there's so much data in it physically heavy yes physically heavy um and so we didn't want to belabor it too much but we want to again show you the the amount of data that we actually sorted through um as we as we were preparing this and looking at it um and then student safety um again mostly favorable but some work that needs to be done in regard to bullying is the lowest in here um emotional safety physical safety and um so here's some of the bullying things um you know there are some instances where kids are saying kids a bully so we need to we need to be thinking about that um physical
059safety um safety from the teacher perspective mostly favorable um again this is perspective about bullying um and some of them are agen for to kids You' see that um physical safety feeling safe school for for the teachers themselves El um overwhelmingly feel the teachers um and then parents um again you know like clearly there's something because we have kids saying that there there's some bullying we have teachers saying there's some bullying and now we got parents saying that there's some bullying there's work to be done um and so we really need to address some of these things um and then the substance use piece um student engagement was another this is from the student perspective um and here's some of the cultural linguistic stuff um we're kind of just moving through um relationships um engage
060engaging the teacher again we kind of showing you it's repetitive but we could dig deeper into this data and we have um and we'll continue to of course so then back in February through May is where a lot of the meet came from the Strategic plan we took all the data from the climate survey the thought exchange we had multiple meetings where we collected stakeholder feedback physically writing in notebooks and then um kind of put that and and and use some AI technology to help us remove bias and and understand that feedback as well what the vision is for where they want some riches to go um we put that into AI um it generated these and we said wow that's overwhelming so let's do some things let's align it with IV let's boil it
061down to fewer statements that are more concise there's a lot of overlap here and what you'll see what we ultimately got to with multiple Renditions in AI as well as bringing it back to the the committee word smithing things here or there are these five value statements in order to try to encapsulate all of those other values into five general value statements this is that's kind of the work and yeah just focus on you know flexibility responsiveness and Leadership Community impact and positive change ethical integrity and go global citizenship Collective Partnerships for student wellbeing um as well as holistic development and Innovative Excellence um as a part of the Strategic plan document we would be remiss as a committee if we didn't include that we're an IB Continuum school you'll actually see how that sets
062us apart and really positions us um well for the the recommendations of the blue ribbing commission um and and again another effort to try to communicate that all of our students are IV and they are benefitting from this Global um mindset curriculum um so that's why that is in the document keep on yeah okay um so then what we did was we took our mission statement there was a request from the Board of Education to take a look at the mission statement since we've become an IB continual District um to ensure that we're completely aligned and so what we did was we just deposed the two mission statements this is the IB mission statement this was the previous version of the sun riches mission statement right no but basically again incorporating all of the ideas
063through every everything that we went through the data and the AI support and then essentially moving more toward this idea of a launch of a street future plan um and so this idea of charting that course um and coming up with some goals can I up for one second with the with the um disclaimer um that we will continually you know as times change our strategic plan may have to change and it was really important to the committee to say you know what this is our vision for now for the next five years but two years from now something changes we want the flexibility to revisit and speak sta it's it's a living document you know can obviously be modified based on our progress and other factors as we continue to collect data in those
064um you know in the climate surveys and and everything else we do and so um looking at trying to build goals and trying to think about some of the goals that the board of education has had um you know these are some you know umbrella ideas um that things can can again taking a look at all and synthesizing all of this data came out of the thought exchange um and trying to prioritize um what some of those goals are in you um and and thinking where we were where where we've been where we're going um and so this idea of goal one we've talked about about 20 person for mons um and so comprehensive facility maintenance program really digging into how we can maintain our facilities in a better way uh Safety and Security measures
065huge priority for us we've talked about that and then looking at our instructural spaces creating Innovative and open instructional spaces to support the kind of 21st Century Learning did you want to talk about the board retreat process and how this could be oh yes yeah so and again when the Board needs you know the board you know these are not board goals right these are this is a strategic plan and the board can dig in use some of this information use what they know and the information that that they have to start talking about using setting some smart goals moving forward um so I I don't want the board to assume that that you know trying to do the work of setting board goals uh these are an overarching just kind of strategic plan charting
066the course correct for creating their goals um goal two fiscal and education sovereignty just you know kind of taking that language um you know strategic fiscal plan funding diversification efforts and measures um supporting student agency and academic success would be looking at equ academic standards development and educational techs um go for and did you want anything um communication Community engagement it's going to be a big big one for us uh build continues to build on strong Community Partnerships transparency and communication um and celebration of achievements to the positive um perceptions of our schools um social emotional learning diversity inclusion stand for seven years now four years um but looking at our multi system sport How We Do really supporting kids from a holistic standpoint um making sure that we have these inclusive environments within our
067schools and obviously that's been a goal of ours um and the culture of care and issues that we've already started and we continue to reflect on um quite frequently um so that brings us to this idea of New York State's graduation measures initiative um and again you know one of the things I would say about the um our current commissioner and our Board of region is that the thing that's driving the conversation in New York state is all about Equity of access and educational opportunities um there are three things that are dividing and and this is not from State Ed this is my perception there are three things that are really dividing different schools uh a school like s merus has two things against it we're small and we are not a rich District okay
068because smaller districts don't have the opportunity to put the N the numbers of programs in place the AP all those offerings that other districts have you know we don't have an orchestra program it's too small to have a band in an orchestra but if you go to great nck they're going to have both of those aren't they right so size of a district really matters in terms of educational opportunities um the other thing is we're not the wealthiest of districts we're you know again we're six to eight you know poorest in the county we don't have the same resources and I'll use Great Neck I'll use Jericho so you know and think about the the little and then geographic location rural districts are at a disadvantage because they don't have access so between size geographic
069location and poverty level districts are at different places in terms of the educational OPP they can provide and the state sees that so when you hear the commissioner and you hear the deputy Commissioners talk about regionalization and push toward regionalization I was just at long educational Coalition this morning and very passionate gave this ple to say Hey listen nice got to be on board with us here because we have got to work together to find Creative Solutions so that the kid in clurg New York can figure out how to take that AP course that they don't offer with a kid from Jericho because that's what should be happening in 2024 we should be leveraging resources to provide opportunities and that's part of this transformational Vision um that they have in terms of graduation measures but
070there are things that are going to change yeah so just to educate you a little bit on on the process they engaged in a lot of research and um stakeholder feedback they've essentially identified four priority areas um and 12 recommendations about three each in those areas um and all of it hinges on this this idea of a New York state portrait of a graduate when we're graduating students in New York Cate what does that look like what does a graduate from New York state with a New York state endorsement diploma what does that look like um and and using that as and so basically New York state am I but New York state is saying that it's it's not a test that tells you if you could do this but in these six areas a
071graduate needs to have some Mastery in all of these six areas so you need to be a critical thinker okay you know like and everybody needs to have that skill um yeah we're going through a lot of information and I know that quickly so but just to pause this is a whole other that you just started on so just wanted to um just comment on we just went over for a second so um the Strategic plan and um I recognize the sample size La um help for the umer students and teachers before like yourth exchange app I think it would be really great to like post about the that was used to the community in like a more um easy to find way on the they can feel like this is a really great tool
072and this is what it does versus Us by telling them um they can see it for themselves go to the website check it out um see that it's safe and what it does so um although it has a small sample size what I do like is the amount of data that's produced so like the qualitative data and quantitative data is immense as you can see from this thing so I think that will help the community understand the impact of it when originally they might look it that and be like like how can you tell anything to 25 people you really can tell a lot like any on a dissertation that's qualitative know that you can do a small sample size and still get a lot of data so I just wanted to comment on that
073and then the last thing was how do these schols translate into priorities pass actions and how do we factor in visibility with some of the challenges that we have so that we can then identify where are those gaps that we need to work on First and what are what are achievable the needs that we have like who decides that and how do we work on that yeah so I mean I think that we need to like and again as we as a board of education we'll dig into like some board of education goals again these are like sort of more umbrella ideas first teach plan like this is where we kind of steer the ship too but we're not navigating you know the nitty-gritty details of it that's for you know the board and then
074administrative um goals to be set to try to get and so that the responsibility is is right to kind of assess where are we as a district and what are the next logical steps to get us to that ultimate you know achievement of those goals course so you know and then you know as far as this so getting into the ports of the graduate because that's kind of like where I started right we need to look at well what do we want a s Rich's graduate to look like and that's so we started to get into that um you know and a lot of the mirror this but we kind of think ours is better um um but again now talking about these are some of the changes that are coming right so when New
075York State you know they have these three different diploma types what they're basically saying is you know that it's not making sense for for the way it's happening so they're looking for more one diploma kind of thing than with endorsement so you have your diploma you have your SE Civic read you have your seity you can add local credentials onto that um you know s of like you know in higher ed now with micro credentials and stuff you know like that that kind of a system and that's really important to some of our students with with lots of learning challenges right to say that everyone in New York state earns the same diploma and you can get some credentials on top of that is really important to some folks for employability and just mindset and
076understanding that we're all you know achieving at a level and then we can endorse from there um you want no go ahead okay so the other two proposed Transformations are that um currently we have a two-fold system we have credits and assessment requirements um they're proposing the decoupling of that what that looks like is is very rough and and kind of in the air right now but moving towards a more evidence-based system that's not strictly tied to assessments more flexibility and Performance Based um and and that's not to say assessments are going to go away like they're they're basically suggesting that assessments might be one pathway because traditional learners are fine with taking a series of region examins and getting an advanced region diploma but that's not for every kid and we know that's not
077the only way that kids can show what can demonstrate um and then finally um districts can add local requirements currently to their diplomas and and hold back on the diplomas that's not something we necessarily subscribe to here at s Bridges um but New York state is um proposing that students who meet the New York state requirements get the um there's are some instances across the state where it's not true so anybody that's been educ in education for a long time has seen this I mean I think I think I I may have 30 years ago when I first started an education I may have SE this Gotto T yeah so essentially to highlight what New York state is proposing or the Blue Ribbon commission is is proposing um this cartoon says for a fair selection
078everybody has to take the same exam please climb that tree um we have a variet of different ability levels in that and essentially by asking all students to take that Regent exam past it with a level of proficiency that's what we're asking them to do um it's not to say we're lowering standards it's just to say that there are other ways for individuals to show their their Mastery and proficiency and so New York state is proposing to move more towards a system that would look like this not necessarily equality but Equity giving students what they need when they need it to achieve their learning objectives um so the question is do you want to take this or um no go we'll kind of work okay so the question is based on the recommendations of the
079Blue River Room commission and we'll talk about the timeline in a little bit how have we POS how where are we kind of on that Continuum of implementation um and so we highlighted those four areas here multiple Pathways leading to one diploma what are what's the work that has been done or is in the process of being done at set of riches that puts us in a position to be able to respond to that once the Blue Ribbon commission um went once got so you know and we sent to the board that you know it was it was funny because we were not included in the plan pth and I was devastated because I said we worked so hard on this application and and it was a great application and so I I emailed the
080state and I said can you give us some feedback I don't understand why we were not included and you have to remember that the deadline for inclusion was January I believe maybe around January January and we submitted in January and then in February I was up at State you know leadership meeting and they were saying how they didn't have enough applications they needed more diverse applications they needed from UPS sleep New York and Western New York and I was kind of like oh okay and I'm kind like when are we going to hear and it was like they were basically they put they pushed it back and then they pushed it back and they pushed it back again and so I I kind of jumped in and well we seem to be doing this work
081where I be continuing District how can we not be selected and the feedback we got was basically well you guys don't need the plan pilot because you're doing the work and it was kind of like but if it's if it's a Consortium to support each other and we're doing the work shouldn't other people be learning from us and we learn from them and there should be different levels of Learners on the Continuum here um so really frustrating for us because all of the feedback that we got was no you guys are doing great you don't need us just Charming that in to say that the multiple Pathways idea is something that we've already started to build in yeah so um in recent years we've built the diversity of our course offerings probably to the math
082for our um for our size um you know going back to what we talked about earlier right right so the Myriad of courses that kids can um take in our high school course catalog all the enriching experiences through Elementary and Middle School um we did apply for and we accepted for a Civic Readiness pathway um an individualized art assessment pathway um we have applied and successfully awarded New York seal of Civic Readiness who are graduating class of 2023 uh we will do the same for class of 24 um but in addition they had the opportunity to uh earn the New York seal of V literacy um so really great again that that notion of here's your diploma and here's that credential to say to a future lawyer you are biliterate you know what a gift
083to get to a graduate of sun bries to be able to put that on their application C yep we we are um in the final stages of offering three to four Career and Technical education Pathways in house um again size makes this really difficult for some richest schools um but we took we strung together logically some sequences in our course books um we've articulated with some colleges um and we're really we're selecting industry credentialing exams in order to provide these Pathways in business management Hospitality uh agriculture um and I think it's ending up like an architecture engineering pathway right so within our course catalog we're able to offer those and so what that affords kids the opportunity is to have some industry credential to present to a prospective employer um postgraduation and then of course
084we have all of our IB app local endorsements like our CIP program and things like that so we talk about yeah some of the local credentials that we also add to our kids and homes and then assessment flexibility you know we've talked um a little bit um about some of the things that we've been working on here um in terms of the Performance Based assessments all of this stuff very much aligned to the IB philosophy um and work with Equitable grading practices um and creation of rubrics so that you know we are moving in the direction um where we really can be looking at performance-based measures as opposed to you know s you know take a test and come up with and I'm I'm fortunate enough to get to see this alive and thriving in
085our classrooms every day um we're seeing more lessons designed around student voice and choice students have a selection in the way they get to their goal and what goal are going to achieve all align with the standards and our IB philosophy our Ivy professional development is really giving us that gift so again that assessment flexibility is not going to be some Earth shattering um you know new thing for S mariches our educators are varing levels of getting there um as we speak yeah then moving to the you know meaningful life ready credentials I mean I can't say enough about like the progress we've made in the school to community program and to see the kids engage with that group because the the first time we did it it was like the FL frankly but all
086of a sudden like that program has started to thrive and that is like a viable kind of curriculum from nth to 12th grade where people do different experiences and get to tap into some of the resources in so um we work with with local Partners to come in and and provide mock interviews for students and teach them how to shake hands and look people in the eye and talk to them uh about elevator pitches and and how to really put your best self forward and and communicate um you know the things that make you um special for an internship or employment or for that you know board seat um talk about financial literacy going to be a goal of of the the um the bard of Regents and the Blue River commission so cre Finance
087Center freshman sem right so for new new for next year um all with the exception of a few students all of our students um freshman year will sit through um career and finance which is a business course it's the first um credit that they need for CTE Pathways but it also provides as Dr Mah said all of those you know financial literacy pieces um and the plan because school to community program has grown so much so quickly um is to put a course in place that can kind of handle that and guide at least our ninth graders through the me meaningfulness of that program um and kind of carry them forward to all those Capstone events for each year of high school um and then speaking of Pass events um we have a um eth
088grade my community project that from last year to this year like and last year I thought was great but this year was extraordinary and projects the kids did the amazing things yes um we have always our 12th grade um students participating in a Community Action Service extended essays really digging into their passions through the so the board has received some emails recently right from from some students part of the Capstone project for Rich Roberts Civics classes so that's where those are coming from and the ones that didn't make it to you made it to other local legislators or other decision makers within the community um so kind of really neat that our kids are taking that initiative and and pushing that stuff out there and then really exciting and new for our our pyp program
089which is very is really in its infancy right we were just recently approved um we had for the first time our fifth grade exhibition um and Dr M and I were privileged enough to sit in on some of those presentations um and they were spectacular the the passions that these fifth graders found um the tickets have yes one of there there was a group who shared you know that there an equity issue with the rise in Broadway ticket prices and that they believe everybody should be able to go and see a play on Broadway and these are fifth graders who you know picked this passion project and and made a compelling um you know presentation and then finally we have the culturally responsive curriculum instruction and assessment um here is where my office really gets
090to focus on well what's the professional development moving forward to keep us in line with being ahead of the curve of the Blue Ribbon commission and just what's great for kids um so we always have that Dei Focus um it's a focus in curriculum writing it's something that our material selection committees are very cognizant of um you know we're looking at a literacy program potentially in K5 um that is at the top of the list we want to see authors from diverse backgrounds we want to see perspectives characters from diverse backgrounds we want to see different ability levels of characters all of the things that go into that um no place for hate designation across our buildings um the IB Global approach and essentially the professional development here is a list of the things we
091are we have done and are set to do for the upcoming school year so almost 100% of our staff are we're probably one of the only districts on on the island that has I think we are the only yeah that has the number of teachers trained in mental health personal um we're moving toward trauma inform practice actually and I told the board this we're bringing in Dr Robert and who did the initial Kaiser study on um on trauma and the acus study adverse childhood experiences bring him into the region and we will be train training a staff member that can bring trauma in practices to every staff member in our district um and then they had Global grading of course um we did a poverty simulation of the super comp way um and really all
092of these things about reason awareness um for cultural so these are proposed Transformations nothing is set in stone through New York State we want to be very clear about that yes we're ahead of the curve and we're ready for them um but they're not here yet so their proposed Transformations are to adopt that New York City portrait of a graduate to redefine the credits and expand the learning experiences Sunset diploma assessment requirements it does not necessarily mean that regen is are going away please don't spread that rumor it's already out there and it's running rampant um and then move to one diploma for all students and so their timeline is around November basically to have this full plan presented to ultimately so you I mean you know when when Amy and I reflected on this
093um and like this last up came from the question you asked and um and Amy and I said well we'll do this beautiful exactly what we're doing few slides uh because we really do feel so confident that we've been doing the work over the past couple of years um knowing what was coming you know like you know good leadership says you see it coming and this is what we we definitely did see it coming you know from critical thinker Innovative problem Sol content areas cultural comp confidence social emotional confidence effective communicator and a global citizen so you know that's great um but we thought we would kind of look at that and say based on the feedback we had based on the thought exchange based on all of the the things we did um you
094know you'll see some overlap here but a little bit different um that yeah so you know one of the things that's interesting in a New York state school and being a part of an international baloria program is sometimes we're using words for the same things and so it was important for the committee um to take a look at the New York Cate portrait of a graduate and put that with the IB philosophy and and all those vision statements as as Dr M said and so the language is slightly tweaked but the sentiment is there so one of the things that's very encouraging is we kind of were finishing this right about when the portrait of a graduate came out and we looked at and we're like oh we did a good job you know like
095we we got them all um and then probably maybe a little bit more um so it's a little bit more heavily IB language balanced and flourishing right language um but the sentiment is is is all the same and so um you know the committee was really excited about this uh one of the things that they were suggesting is to kind of through our communication goals piece this out out and share you know pieces of the portrait at a time and make it digestible for the community to really understand the good work that went into the development of this strategic plan um and then as a part of this presentation we as a committee came up with the uh descriptions of what the heck those things mean um and again we're not going to bore you
096and read them but they will be available on the website along with the propos plan that's you're not gonna say it all about the small town D glal mindset and again like our connection and this came out of the small time 12 months it came out of that work that we did last year about looking 10 years back at changing demographics and what are the things that people value about Center um and and that's kind of we came up with with our ti2 um I think it kind of kind of Suits thank you question [Music] any general public comment okay uh the next Board of Education meeting will be Wednesday July 1st 2024 the reorganization meeting followed by a regular meeting that would be at approximately Monday Monday Monday oh Monday July that approximately 5:30
097at district office motion to adjourn motion motion second all in favor yes motion car unanimous very much