001good evening everyone and welcome to the September 27th Board of Ed meeting for the Chester Union Free School District if everyone would please rise for the pledge I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all is there a motion to adopt tonight's agenda I'll make that motion I'll second all in favor I I okay thank you and I'll need a motion to approve the board meeting minutes from our last meeting September 13th I'll make that motion I'll second all in favor hi hi thank you all right that'll move us right into presentations so we will turn it over to M Garcia good evening everyone I um highlights of all the things that took place over
002the summer since I haven't uh presented uh during the summer so over the summer there was a lot of busy teachers working on curriculum writing there were a total of 33 teachers districtwide who worked collaboratively by grade levels or subject areas um content ranged from creating science units to social study math units they worked on course descriptions as well as outlining um storyboards for each unit throughout the year to create at least a overview so this is an ongoing process and um I was able to meet with every uh teacher team or individual uh to teach them how to input the information on Ed Planet 21 which is the digital online platform and teachers are getting familiar with it so we have tech savvy uh faculty members uh so then we're bringing on other people
003we had a support additional support provided and then in November um there'll be somebody coming in person to provide additional support so that's moving along uh slowly but we're making progress so I'm excited about that um it was a pleasure working as the summer school uh principal at the Su uh summer Learning Academy at Chester Academy um it was great to have steam Incorporated in both the elementary school and uh at the Academy and we was able to I was able to implement I ready mathematics as well as I ready reading uh was the curriculum in both uh K through uh 8 so that was pretty cool that um they were able to provide support to students and um one of the uh areas of need that students need additional support is in Reading non-fiction
004so I was excited um that it was approved to incorporate science as a subject in the in the middle school so that was great and thank shout out to miss gson who did Labs um Mr Rodman did two weeks of stem and they worked collaboratively to engage students in the Sciences so that was a a new a difference but it was amazing to have an additional subject so it was math English and Science and uh I'm going to give a shout out to miss dudy langlitz and Json Rodman and Miss Thompson um they were an amazing team and it ran smoothly because of their efforts uh one thing that I didn't put in the report was that um I was I was working as the today's students tomorrow's teachers um District Mentor so because of
005that was able to facilitate the required 20 hours of Summer internship that the students are required to complete and it was great that um they had the summer reading program in this building so students were able to help the teachers out we did name badges for them they had to sign in like staff members um and then the teachers were requesting them so it was like so cool like they needed the extra hands um inside the classroom so that was amazing and uh new teacher and staff orientation was team driven it was like everyone was on board helping the new uh newly hired uh staff and faculty at our district so we went from one day to two days and I was like oh my God now we have two days to plan but then
006I asked the I got we got feedback from the new faculty and they actually appreciated the two days because they were able to synthesize all the information it was one day of onboarding with um filling out all the required paperwork and then the second day it was targeted on professional development for The Faculty the teachers so you didn't have people sitting there for a whole day um if it didn't pertain to them so it was like very uh effective in that sense that was summer so then now when you fast forward to um the new school year um I wanted to give an update of uh Dei so um over the summer I was able to participate in the New York Statewide diversity equity and inclusion leaders Network meetings so I attended the first meeting
007in August and as you're aware there's a there was a new uh guidance there are copies if you want a hard copy um of the new guidance that the attorney general and the commissioner of education collaborated on so they kind of give us information on that and uh the new meeting is going to be the second meeting is going to be tomorrow at 1:00 and I was actually asked to facilitate one of the Breakout uh discussion groups um so I'm excited about that and um today I attended this uh webinar so I signed up for this three day well it's not three days three sessions of elevating student voice as Leaders to uh Advance equity and inclusion so it was amazing it was like a one hour they focus on Etha school district and they
008actually had uh students as they were training students to be curriculum advisers so they Incorporated the student voice to have a say in what is being taught in their schools and it was like empowering them so it was like uh informative I have handouts of my notes that I took if you would like to see those um enl update so as you are aware we having a increase in our English as a new language uh Learners um so right now at CES we have approximately like 70 students and at Chester Academy we have 22 which is large cuz usually by the time students are enrolled in the elementary school they usually are commanding and test out of ESL by the time they come to the academy so we have a lot of new enrollments um
009we're excited um that we were interviewing uh a second person to work at Chester Academy so that will increase our enl population in terms of our enl department will be four people strong instead of three and I just want to give a shout out to the enl Department at the elementary school they were like modifying the slides for open house for the teachers in Spanish and in other languages um Miss uh van Dasio here created a newsletter to support the teachers with best instructional practices so it's kind of overwhelming you know for the new students to come into a classroom and then you just hear gibberish because you don't understand what's going on and it's difficult for the teachers to try to communicate uh with the enl students so I'm excited that there is support
010and then I was able to participate in an open house and provide um support to the Spanish speaking parents I wish I knew more than one language Spanish and English is what it is but at least I was able to help navigate those who had questions and um uh today was the second day of advisory at the Academy and they were able to implement the seven mindsets was the first time that they did the seven mindsets lesson so that was great I was able to walk around and I actually posted pictures of barbes and Ken's next to the big seven mindset signs today it's very weak so Barbie and Ken hence the pink today um I was VI IO Barbie so and uh okay so family instructional Academy so yesterday was the first class and
011we were focusing on improving communication it was a great turnout in terms of providing the support but there wasn't enough people so um we did a blast we did a Google form and we had like maybe four families four parents come and that was it but I felt good in the sense um I had the Spanish teacher uh uh Vita and uh the and Jennifer the enl teacher they provided support we had three Spanish speaking families they participated I was able to do my workshop in English and in Spanish and uh they were able to log in to school tool Messengers so the people that were actually there they benefited with uh figuring out the technology to improve Communications so if you're at home and you're watching please let us know what type of workshops
012you would like for us to create for you to support it could be social activities it could be learning activities um we have four more dates the next one is October 26 so we're hoping that more people come out uh and I miss teaching so that's a a good way to continue my craft and um superintendent conference day was another uh big thing uh the theme was reigniting our wi I think that's going to be the focus of the professional development uh for this year and we that was a difference uh a difference in uh days as well so we went from one day of professional development to two um um so there was a lot going that day so I survived that we all survived it and uh we had the arburn come in
013as well we had edil Planet training we have enl support we also provided CPR and AED support to uh 10 of our school AIDS and we also have new curriculum Pilots um we need a little bit of improvement in that uh in terms of professional development um we had a few glitches and presenters so we're navigating that um so that the teachers feel a little bit more comfortable in analyzing and reviewing uh the new curriculums so that was a lot of my presentation but do you have any questions I can clarify for you does anyone have anything for Miss Garcia okay it was a great report and a great summary um and when you said you were busy busy you're always very busy we we know that and we recognize um you know you're always
014looking for improvement um so thank you for all that you do and for bringing in you know some of the new ideas that that you're trying you know especially with the parenty and and so forth you know hopefully folks will take advantage of the opportunities okay thank you Mr ducet uh just a little background of this for some who may or may not know we started a new academic it wasn't a new policy but it was a new method of imple implementing that policy we were trying to create live documents to keep track of our student athletes so we can put them in a better position to succeed uh and by having our live documents we were able to in real time track our students see what they're doing check their grades if they're missing
015study sessions find out why get everybody back on track and as a result 13 of our 14 VC teams uh received that scholar athlete status so we're going to need a new Banner in the gym for that one and uh we were presented this award at this section 9 uh Workshop this at the uh actually I'm sorry was at the New York state conference to start the school year they presented this to the school districts that all received this award um it's a high honor it's the second highest honor you can get and our goal for this year is to get the highest so it goes from a school of uh Excellence to a school of Distinction so that is our goal for this school year in the coming weeks so an update to our
016I mentioned this last year we were going to try and stream some our Varsity Sports this year this process is taken a little longer than we thought it was going to simply because of the logistics of putting in the cameras and wiring and and the things of that nature that are required for this um also we're in a little bit of a unique situation as to where some of our fields are located we don't have accessible power and internet necessarily in the perfect locations for some of these so it's been a little bit of a trial and error trying to figure out proper camera angles and getting our access that we need again Mr doosa and uh Mr Spence and his staff have been great with us with this we actually did get power and
017internet running to the scoreboard at the Academy we do have a camera sitting on the top of that scoreboard now we recently installed a camera in the Academy Gym and we now have a flex camera that works off of a cell signal that we're going to try at the commas this coming Friday for our homecoming game if you're wondering why you haven't seen live stream yet it's because we're still working with the company huddle to fine-tune what these streams look like so we have been recording games in addition to live stream the Huddle program has there's several tools that our coaches use for this and and I'll give you an example what we do is uh we'll record a a volleyball game for example and at the end of that game it automatically gets uploaded
018to our huddle all of our students can access that game film they can cut it and edit it and use it for college recruiting they can we can also do film exchange with other coaches I can also sub submit that film to huddle and within 24 hours I will get a uh detailed stat report on everything that happened in that game so just from the time management perspective as a as a coaching staff the time we save here is incredible and the advantage it gives our coaching staff against other schools inter scholastically is also a huge Advantage for us and it creates a good relationship with the other schools because now we're exchanging film with all the different school districts in the area anybody that has a huddle system we can exchange film with football
019primarily uses this and we're trying to get the rest of our Sports on board with this as well so you know we'll see how the the the portable camera works the camera in the gym has been working very well so I expect to be live streaming within the next week or two and again after we do our trial run with this first football game uh with this new camera we'll we'll see how this goes but we'll make announcements via social media through the district to let everybody know and the good news is our streaming will be free of charge we will not be charging anyone to watch the games so no matter where you are you'll just be able to click on the link and watch the game once we go live with these all
020right so upcoming important events we do have Homecoming coming up this weekend so this weekend at uh Friday night at 7 o'clock at the Chester Commons we do have our homecoming football game the homecoming dance will be Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. at Chester Academy uh we also have a few other dates coming up towards the end of October and early November which I'll report on at my next board report but we do have playoff dates coming up so highlight down on your calendar the end of October is when we have most of our soccer cross country swimming football is typically in November speaking of future sports winter sports we're already talking about winter sports uh we have October 13th is our planned opening for family ID so anybody that wants to register for winter
021sports you must wait until October 13th we can't register any students till 30 days prior to the start of the winter season we already have the letter ready prepped everything ready to go we'll post on social media we will put the link is already on our website uh it's the same link for fall winter spring but it will not open for winter sports until October 13th speaking of social media our social media class version 2.0 uh I do want to thank you for allowing us to run our social media class last year was a huge success uh it was something we talked about I had a working lunch with the athletic directors and the uh League coordinators last week and one of the topics that came up was our social media a lot of people
022are asking what do we do how do we do it it was a similar conversation that we had last year uh and I sat with a table full of Administrators and told them this is how we do it this is what we do how do you find the time for this I don't the students do it so I explained to them how our class works and they thought all and I'll repeat this as I've said it before everything that's on our social media for the most part maybe 1% of it might be some things I throw in there on a snow day or this day whatever but the other 99% of what we post student generated everything comes to me we use our canva program we post out for everybody nothing but rave reviews from
023everybody at this part at this point and uh a lot of the other school districts are having paid services to do some of these things and they feel as though our students are actually doing a better job than what we see some of these other places doing and it's it's getting them ready for if you look at a lot of other districts a lot of businesses colleges they're having these social media departments and this is what they do they work social media so we are we have a lot of students who are getting a taste for this and this might be something they want to do when they get to college so it's great Workforce experience for them as a reminder we can be found on Facebook Instagram and formerly Twitter now X at uh
024we are Chester Academy Athletics and lastly for you I have the Athletics website refresh is currently underway I've been working with rose upstairs trying to navigate through this but one thing I did want to highlight and this has always been a problem for parents coaches everybody that's involved with Athletics is trying to predict when can I go on vacation when can I you know plan this plan that when are sports starting and it's nice that we have our planned for when family ID opens but we all know how difficult it is to plan a vacation now sometimes you got to plan these things one and two years ahead of time so a lot of times it's well I'm going to miss tryouts because I didn't know when it was we are going to open up
025uh New York state offers a seven-year calendar for start dates for All Sports uh for the fall winter and spring so we know what those dates are for seven years out we're going to create individual tab in the website so you know and and the big one is always August when the fall Sports start because everybody wants to go on vacation but we start two weeks before the school year starts those dates will be listed for the next seven years on individual tabs on the website so everybody can plan everything they need to do and still hopefully get back in time to try out for football soccer volleyball you know cross country so whatever we have going on and you've probably heard me mention swimming cross country things that we don't normally offer here we
026have been working relationships with our uh area school districts to offer more Athletics for some of our student athletes we have been uh combining with SS Seward Florida Union Free School District for cross country for girls modified Soccer without these other schools some of these teams would not have run because we did not have enough athletes to fill the roster so in this particular case with girls modified soccer year neither did Florida so by combining our two school districts for this we were able to give both set of student ath athletes and experience that they would not have had we've also expanded with Goan we have now offered we have a swimmer that's doing swimming and Diving for the girls in the fall last year we had a uh young man who also did swimming
027and diving in the winter so that relationship is going to continue this year you know we're in talks now for wrestling for this winter and other things going on so we're trying to give our students as much opportunity to compete in as many different sports as possible while also being mindful of we don't have the student population necessarily support a lot of these things but combining we can do it together so more on that next month when I get a little more uh of a final decision on what we're doing with winter and then potentially with this spr and that is my report well first I just want to congratulate all students um that's a wonderful achievement having 13 out of 14 of our varsity teams um you know as scholar athlete teams um I
028I think it's it says a lot about you know the focus of this District sports are important without question but the fact that we're able to have students maintain their grades um the academic focus is is Paramount so it's it's really a testament to all of the students and what they put into being able to be competitive in the classroom and on the field so um you know I think that's just outstanding for sure um and then before I turn it over to the board for any questions um I just wanted to ask one question about the Fielding the teams you you mentioned you know that sometimes we don't have enough students to support a a team between what we're able to do here in district and with Partnerships with other districts are we represented
029in all of the sports that the students have interest in in participating in or is there um an area where we're going to be looking to perhaps develop something we have three at the moment potential that we're talking about uh one cheer has always been a tricky one because there's competitive cheer there's sideline cheer and then there's Club and the state is very specific as to what's allowed in each individual group um you know certain stunts certain things that you're allowed to do not allowed to do so we we decided that this year I was meeting with Mr Flanigan about actually several times we decided to start this year as a club just to see what the interest level was because in the past we've tried to run it and we had a lot of
030interest and then nobody showed up so this year we did that and we had over 40 girls show up to the meeting so we were able to in my report you saw some of the inventory control we've been working on we actually uh did find we have cheerleading equipment so we have it we inventoried everything and there's enough to outfit this club and no additional expense to the district at this point so it's something that if that sticks with us that we can budget for it for next year and we have to talk about whether that what that's going to look like whether it's going to be silent or cheer depending on the types of student athletes we get and what their interest is so once we have that conversation with them and see how
031the season goes because it's also a much larger Commitment if we're a club you're meeting once a week twice a week you go to the football game you go to the basketball game if you're a competitive cheer squad you're six days a week you're just like any other Varsity Sport so there's postseason competitions there's the sectional meet you know counties things like that so once we get a feel for this year the plan is to budget for that for next year and we will start with that in the fall that is our football competitive sideline and in the winter there's also our basketball and there is a winter uh Championship as well uh girls VAR City wrestling is going to expand this year uh that's something we currently offered last year because it was such
032an emerging sport that should look to expand as well this year we are expanding the lacrosse program in the spring to try and make that more of a top to bottom program because we had modified then we had JV that group has transitioned to Varsity so now we need to build program so now it's you know and I just had this conversation with um our potential coach in the hallway before is it better to run the JV and the varsity is it better to run the modified a program with the varsity what's the best to develop that for us in the future because if you run just JV and varsity well then once that group graduates you're starting over again so for long-term sustainability you're usually better off running that 789 and then 10 1112
033so we're not starting from scratch over year so every I should say every three to four years uh as far as other things that we're looking to offer it's we have to put a survey out that's one of the things we had talked about uh you know we're limited it's a it's a debate on whether we offer everything and then we kind of water down the amount of students we have available for each sport because we are such a small District or do we decide to open it up and and you or keep it small the way we have it and be able to field those teams because we're already struggling with certain Sports um specifically for example girls varsity soccer they have plenty of girls for Varsity soccer but we did not have enough
034for a JV or a modified team if we had not combined you know so then if we go and look to add another fall girl sport you know do we start them pulling from other programs so it's a little bit of a balancing act uh the relationship with Florida certainly helps and now with Goan um it it's that survey we had talked about was potentially putting it out to the student body saying what are you interested in what do you want to do because it's not necessarily just adding this program it's also maybe adding this program and if this program is not as popular anymore maybe we take from there and move to here so it's a a balancing act for sure and obviously there's budgetary concerns uh but we can look to that and
035see what are the students interested in because if you had talked to us 15 years ago there was no conversation of volleyball there was no conversation of girls wrestling there was no conversation of Lacrosse it was soccer softball basketball but we've gone above and beyond that and 10 years from now it may flip the other way so we need to be ever evolving with the students and what they want so definitely a survey before the next budget season is something that's on our radar well thank you that's wonderful to hear I I like that um you know we're we're looking not just throwing darts and we need to be adaptable putting things out there but actually putting things out putting programs out that um you know the students are are requesting and will be involved
036with does anyone else have any questions for Mr Jette I just had one question I think it's one wonderful that we're partnering like with steuart and Goan it sounds like a win-win we're helping them they help how do our students get to practice do we transport them so it depends so it depends and we have shadows so if we Shadow another program say for example swimming with Goan if it's something that's on our Transportation Route already that we can provide we can do that and and there's no I work with Mr Hannon and and Miss Fusco on this we work on this all the time trying to figure out where we can you know how we can shuttle the students there ultimately if it's a shadow it's up to the students to make their way
037wherever it is they need to go because that's a sport that we didn't offer we don't budget for we didn't have an agreement with anyone we went to league and requested a shadow status so we had the conversation with the family I reached out to this particular student's family said all right if you want to do this we can do it however you know we will pay the league dues but you have to provide transportation and that's how that works now if it's a merger that's different so we work with Seward fortunately the similar bus company helps we will uh have our students potentially take uh an after school bus down to Maple Avenue Seward sends a bus over they pick up those students and take the back because they're already dropping off the football
038players so there's always a way to make it happen so we'll have that conversation with them in detail we we never say yeah you can play over there but you got to figure out no we figure all that out for them ahead of time Mr Hannah and myself are always out there after school first few weeks nope get on this bus go here go there and we walk them through the whole process and there's someone to meet them when they get to the other District so there's two different terms then a shadow and a merger okay yeah that makes sense thank you anyone else I did have a question for the programs where we find the numbers dwindling like for soccer especially when we introduced volleyball and you have aot the students to do both
039or or is just the practice schedule and the game schedule so much that it wouldn't be possible no you you are allowed to play dual Sports uh we have had that conversation with students in the past it gets a little tricky with certain Sports what we have our students do is they have to pick a priority sport so your primary sport is otherwise it makes a very difficult decision for the student because it's well who am I playing this day or this or they worry about their teammates or you know or the coaches pulling them in different directions it's this is your primary sport we have uh one student right now who's playing uh vars boy soccer and he's also kiing for the football team so we do something similar like that where we say
040what's your primary sport that you know for the season so if there's any conflict he goes there the coaches are very good about working together they split practice times whenever necessary you know day before a game they might steal a little bit more time so we generally work it out amongst ourselves I have to be honest it works very well for certain Sports and not for others a lot of times it works very well with track and basketball and things things where there's one meet a week versus potentially three or four games a week so that's generally how we navigate that but the students we have the conversation with the students and the parents as well because it's also tremendous undertaking for them academically because now you're trying to juggle two practices two sets of
041games all the responsibilities go with it and your school workor and generally speaking those are the athletes that are probably also playing travel ball doing other things so they need to make time for their academics and honestly their social emotional well-being so we Factor all that into it before we even really entertain that conversation we have that with the families and we we move from there but the short answer yes there is an opportunity for that anything else thanks Mr duet Mr Mr Spence come on down good evening how's everybody doing tonight do and dandy that's terrific happy fall you know fall is a time when students are back in school leaves are changing um the weather is getting a little more brisk but it's also a time when um we're starting the teacher observation
042cycle we're handing out Chromebooks and collecting the necessary paperwork we're uh working on uh CBT assessments things of this nature so it's very exciting to be back um what I wanted to say first of all is to thank our Tech Team um we have a tech team member helping Mr Patel tonight that's Brian Matthews one of our new tech interns so each of our interns trains with Mr Patel to be able to stream um these meetings in case Mr Patel is unavailable or out of town so this fall uh the summer really we were very lucky because we got we added four new replacement interns two former Chester graduates uh Brandon Gonzalez and Quin Gonzalez uh Brandon Alaska rather and Quin Gonzalez and we also added Brian and David oon So we had four uh
043other interns who graduated moved on to bigger and better things and so um it's an exciting partnership with the colleges you know we've been doing this with the colleges since 2014 the names and faces change but it continues to be win-win for the students from the colleges and for us to get affordable um skilled you know computer students to help our students our teachers and students so um you have my board report I'm not going to read it to you of course there's a couple things I would like to highlight and that I'd like to allow some time for you to ask any questions you'd like to so as I mentioned uh handing out Chromebooks we did have our summer Chromebook handout it was a full week cand at again in August this year it
044was during the week of August 21st and then we followed up in the first day of school we had all remaining Chromebooks put into the classrooms and the paperwork put into the classroom for parents to sign if they weren't able to attend the summer handout we did have a brand new help desk system that's been put in place uh called ml work which has been a a better fit with our inventory system we did hold our district Internet safety night with Trooper watt uh with our representatives from Gaggle and so forth and so um that's your typical September as far as computers and so forth we did a lot over the summer um uh I'll repeat the theme for my colleagues of a busy summer uh time we added brand new desktop computers for the
045Academy um last year if you recall we added brand new desktops for the elementary school we have a five-year replacement cycle on all computers so last year it was the turn for the elementary school this year it was the turn for the the academy and then we're going to be pretty good with desktops now for 5 years so that's good news um we purchased new Chromebooks for the sixth graders because starting in sixth grade once again they get stylus Chromebooks which are kind of an upgrade compared to um the regular Chromebooks at the elementary school uh and we swapped out some Chromebooks at the third grade level um we're in good shape also with Chromebooks because um Google has announced that next year they're going to expand um the coverage for Chromebooks from eight years
046to 10 years what does that mean it means that the operating system and all the updates will continue to work for 10 years when you buy a Chromebook so we do have a five-year replacement cycle but we're going to look at that and revisit it and and make sure that um you know if if a Chromebook is going to be supported by Google for 10 years is it really necessary to buy one every five years uh we did add eight new new line boards uh to uh our classrooms we only have about about four left to place next year and we also um added three new software programs in August we added programs uh we worked with Miss Garcia to add seven mindsets common lit and Savas and all of those have a data component
047that had to be synced set up in class link so that was ready for September for the teachers and the students um and so that tells you a couple things that we've been doing over the summer we've been a little bit busy we are preparing this fall for something known as a New York State furpa website compliance audit which is checking our website you may recall in the spring um in this room I showed our school website and I showed that we were in compliance with all the reporting requirements for furpa uh family educational rights Privacy Act to make sure that if there's a data breach parents know where to go and who to contact myself being the data coordinator uh but there are audits coming this year and we're checking and double-checking and making
048sure that everything is on our website our new software we reached out to each of those companies we get a signed New York State data privacy agreement we posted that in our list online and so we're making sure that everything is is ready for those coming audits um Tech Team and myself participated in the new teacher orientation days with Miss Garcia and the principes handing out Chromebooks making sure accounts were ready badges Keys things of that nature part of something called onboarding and now we've been involved with a lot of the data aspects of things coming up in October October 4th actually very people are very excited it's called beds day uh and uh people are very excited about that basic educational data system it's the snapshot date for New York State School everybody looks
049excited I know I'm excited and that's your snapshot date to see how many students you have etc etc for state aid but also for something called student learning objectives for our high school region teachers so we're monitoring the data we're making sure that our teacher and principal evaluations are um submitted to the state it's due by October 20th we actually did an an upload today a first level upload and then we're making sure that on beds day October 4th that our high school teachers know what their learning objectives are set to based on their number of students and um and move on from there so some very exciting stuff you know whenever I get up here and I talk about data and Tech it's always exciting um and one last little one from my report
050we've acquired a new series of compliance videos called gcn so faculty and staff have been um taking the videos submitting those to make sure that everybody is fully refreshed on um a variety of topics I guess you would say so I wanted to stop there I know this is very exciting but I wanted to stop and give you some time to ask any kind of questions about my report or anything I can help with in general anyone have any questions I do Chromebook every kid has one now or is there still a few stragglers that didn't pick up or well I would say that um there's a couple forms that have not been signed that are in the classroom it's very small number um it's not 100% um last time I checked with the tech
051team just yesterday it was4 so it's a small number but they're in the classroom so we're you know trying to get those signatures and making sure that you know those are signed for for students but it's a very small number anyone else um I just had a question a quick question um the Chromebooks availability you know we we struggled for a while with getting most every technology into the building um postco uh where are we with being able to get you know Source everything that we need and are we okay with the amount of of of Chromebooks that we have do we have backups sure you know that's something I talked to our Tech Team um every week about right now we have extra Chromebooks you know for new students coming in this week we've
052just gotten three new students fifth grade and two second graders and so there's a process there that happens that of course you know paperwork has to be signed Chromebooks have to be prepared so I'm ever Vigilant talking to Tech Team and saying do we need to order more Chromebooks because because any District could suddenly have an influx of students on any week so we have a number of Chromebooks for things like Chromebooks that need repairs and for new students we plan ahead in that regard yes um you know right now as you recall all our a Chromebook our other students have Chromebooks fully available in the carts um you know God forbid if there were ever another you know National closing we could take those Chromebooks out of the carts very quickly and we can
053send them home need be so we have Chromebooks for every single student with extras for new students coming in thank you anything else thank you Mr Spence okay thank you very much thank you Mr josa you're up I know we always save the best hello Miss nagler Miss Oar Bo education thank you guys for the opportunity to uh provide an update on uh buildings and grounds um I so this is the first presentation I've given since June um have we talked about water can I can I talk about water we okay we may have mentioned it on occasion yeah so um as you know on July 3rd we received a letter from the Department of Health stating that we were no longer a consecutive water system uh um so that means we no longer have
054the obligation of testing and all that sort of stuff um so really really good news for Chester the the project to install the water filtration system is on Perpetual hold so that project is has been designed but it will be effectively so that money that we had asked for uh will go back into the till and I think uh Aaron can speak to that when it's when it's his term if he hasn't already so we're going to talk about that but the good news is since March 6th of 2020 when we became designated as a public water system and we beholden to all of the treatments and testing um that no longer applies so the onus of water treatment falls back on the Village Water Department which is which is great so um this summer
055was a particularly busy summer for buildings and grounds I wanted to uh thank Brett Sutton Tyler kryer Brian Rogers Mark Reed Lance Rogan Vic Rossy and our entire U Bose's custodial staff um I could stand up here for an hour and talk about the amount of work that these folks did um but I I don't want to bore you with the details this was by far the busiest summer certainly I have and I've experienced in 3 years uh being here but the other uh folks will will Echo the same as well um aside from the normal routine work that we do uh our maintenance staff has taken inhouse preventative maintenance on all of our HVAC units which is a tremendous savings to the district uh when we cut that out of our when we cut
056that contract out of our budgeting I think we saved over $100,000 uh in in fees so these folks take apart every airand grease all the bearings change the filters they do a lot of work that's very technical inhouse and we are very fortunate to have the skill set that we do um um and so kudos to these folks um I you know I'm not going to do just as the amount of work that they've accomplished but this summer was um was was excessive with the amount of work we had aside from the typical work that we do as you know we had um an issue down at Maple Avenue there was a giant Skylight that opened up in the building on July 3rd right the roof was uh was was blown off the building due
057to a um a Micro Burst and uh there was tremendous amount of damage that took place um I know you've been briefed on on the uh incident itself but I wanted to kind of update you where we are right now so um immediately the insurance company and Aaron Brennan uh and buildings and grounds team was in action uh we started work on repairing the roof that night um and then we were in negotiations with our insurance company which is uh the New York State Insurance reciprocal or nicer um to talk about what they're going to cover as far as repairs and losses as it stands right now they're going to it it looks as if they're going to cover all of the repair that are required by our contract by our insurance policy to protect
058the building um so they've covered the roof and right now um bfor and ACA who are remediation contractors are in Maple Avenue daily um remediating any damaged uh asbestos material that was inside the building so if you go by the building you'll notice there's plastic barriers posted on all the windows there's these big 18in holes those are actually exhaust holes that's filtered air that's leaving the building the building is under complete negative air so none of the dust or particles can leave the building all of this work is being monitored by a um third-party environmental monitoring company called quest environmental they the two companies the baitman contractor and the environmental contractor uh are opposed in their roles right so they while they both work for us the environmental contra RoR is responsible for ensuring that
059all state and federal laws are followed uh and that the work that's being performed is done safely so right now we have our Annex Gym open and folks are practicing in there uh we have separated physically separated the two spaces so there's a glass hallway that connects to the 1965 side there is a sheetrock hard sheetrock partition wall both sides of those walls have uh filtration devices which are not required but we figured it would be belts and suspenders and we're also continuously monitoring the air on both sides of that wall to ensure that none of the abatement work that's happening on the 65 side travels over to the occupied gym um there are so many barriers in place uh that it would be it's almost impossible for that to happen but if it did
060happen we would know about it immediately and take appropriate precautions um we anticipate that work will be finished by the end of next week so once that happens um you know the building will be fairly empty I don't want to say it's completely rid of all of the environmental hazards because it's not true but a majority of them uh a majority of it will have been evaded in the 1965 side um on October 5th right it's October 5th not October 2nd The Advisory panel October 5th October 5th they will be advisory panel uh meeting which we'll talk about um next steps with with Maple Avenue um our website there is a link to Maple Avenue with all of the relevant information regarding what happened during the storm what's happening right now and looking forward um
061there was also a handout I believe it was mailed uh to folks was it mailed it's posted on the website it was posted on the website there there you go you can download it and print it so lots of um lots of uh things to take lots of stuff happening with Maple in the coming weeks um with that uh I would like to turn it over to you guys for any questions you might have any questions so just to put a bow on the box the water box uh no more requirements at this point which we have to do on a daily basis a monthly basis we're just like every other school right I I don't know how to convey my level of excitement uh for this but we went from being a public water
062source so regulated in the exact same manner that the village of Chester water department is regulated in providing public water and we're a school it was very limited resources we don't have the expertise in place to really appropriately manage that so a lot of it had to be outsourced um and and the the the um the requirements to meet all of these mandates are well beyond what any school system should have to uh endure so the Department of Health I think in my own personal opinion rightfully um reinterpreted the definition of a public water source and has since resented that so we are in all intensive purposes a um um a water customer uh just like anybody else in the village so a tremendous burden I mean I this this situation has caused me more
063uh uh I had hair when I started r yeah um so I we're very you know we're very grateful at the involvement of our local politicians and the Department of Health um we're very grateful to have come to this resolution at this point in time right anything can change but at this point in time we are no different than a any other customer on on the Water System great thank you for and if I can just add that Mr doosa mentioned the savings from not having to build those that savings was actually able to be re board authorized the tax levy already knowing that that cost would be not spent rather than hold the monies and and go through the process of fund balance and and refund that was actually refunded to the taxpayers immediately
064in this tax cycle correct so yeah so everyone paid a little bit less at uh in their tax bill and yes as Mr D also mentioned that July 3rd letter was extremely good news which lasted two hours not even not even two hours before the roof blew off yeah so yep July 3rd we received a letter from the Department of Health and then immediately after uh the roof blew off of Maple Avenue it was an interesting day that was a fun one there the good and there's the bad yeah um well I would just like to you know ask you to please convey our gratitude to your team to to Brett and Tyler and Vic and and everyone um you know everyone steps up to the plate um and they always have they always do
065but you know this summer as you said was very busy um they they really did go above and beyond we did have a couple of unexpected things come up naap Avenue um we were in the midst of a a big project here in in the academy with the maker space and you know that that required things to be shifted a little bit and work not necessarily to be done in the order it would have um but the guys always do such a terrific job and and they they really bring their expertise um and I think there's a great deal of pride in what they do so I I mean I I've spoken about this before and I'll I'll say it again team absolutely loves working here right right I mean I you know it's um
066you don't find that often right A lot of people show up it's a job that sort of thing you could tell that they take pride in what they do um they really enjoy coming to work and um you know for a lot of them I think it's not a job right it's a part of their life and it's great to be a part it makes my job very easy uh when it comes to stuff like that so um I'm I'm grateful to have um them on the building and grounds team and um we're grateful for your support cuz you guys have funded a lot of the things that we do and um it's uh you know for us we're we're very thankful for the support of this board um and the only one other thing
067that I do want to touch on before I um ask if there are any other questions is you mentioned the um Maple Avenue school and you know our community engagement where we're going with that um and you did mention Thursday October 5th the parent advis advisory panel meeting um and there is a there is a schedule that we're sticking to that has been crafted so we can keep the process moving along and shortly after um after that meeting uh the first meeting of the Maple Avenue task force will be meeting on Monday October 16th and all of this information will be shared and will be on the website um but you know it is something that is a front burner project so um fortunately we we are moving For Better or Worse we have to
068keep moving rather rapidly on it so thank you for reminding us of that uh does anyone have any questions for Mr doosa no thank you for everything that you do thanks guys thank you thank you um Mr Brennan do you do you have some news for us you'd like to share well I certainly do hot off the presses yesterday the uh Department of Agriculture on the federal level had announced a change that we talked about some time ago to the community eligibility provision for school lunch that would give the district an opportunity to provide free lunches for all of the students in the school building as long as the New York State funding is available to cover that what community eligibility is is that once a district reaches a certain threshold of free and reduced
069students they can declare all the students free students that threshold is now well now on October 26th will go from 40% that it's been historically down to 25% so now Chester would qualify to be c community eligible that provides an additional reimbursement to the school district to offset the cost of the food the labor and the whole process of providing a lunch for students and a breakfast by 1.6 so 40% then becomes 64% and 25% then becomes 40% the problem is is that leaves a big hole is that that additional let's say use the example of 40% we would get a reimbursement of 64% of the the revenue that leaves a hole of 36% that would normally be filled by students paying for their lunch on a regular basis that hole is being covered currently
070and into the future by New York State using State funds so as long as that supplement is there to and they call it the C subsidy is available from New York State I think Chester ought have absolutely take advantage of that and be in a position to provide hot meals both in the morning and the afternoon for all of our students um the next steps in this because I I mentioned October 26 we do have a board meeting on October 11th so I hope to come back to the board with a resolution to adopt C for Chester the rule the USDA rule takes effect October 26th and then there would be a waiver New York state has applied for a waiver that gets rid of the June 30th deadline to apply to BCE so really
071with all due respect to the USDA if they don't provide those waivers then this is just a big bait and switch because you can't retroactively do this so that's where we're at we're pushing forward in this this this news as I say hot off the presses was delivered yesterday and luckily we had a board meeting coming up I said let me get this in front of everybody so we know what what the process is and and what steps we need to take to get there well that's very exciting news um certainly for a lot of families right now um so everything if I understand what you're saying correctly everything is status quo until the end of October at a minimum that would be the the date that the final rule that the USD presented will
072go into effect as long as the waiver for New York state is in place we can start on the 27th terrific we'll start ramping up absolutely does anyone have any questions for Mr Brennan on on this yeah well it's not always Doom and Gloom it's nice sometimes to get some some good news relief news um for families and to get it for me and to to get it from you the bearer of good news um thank you Mr Brandon thank you and now I'll turn it over to miss O'Hara thank you um very excited this evening to have the opportunity to present the 2324 District goals and supporting objectives um I do want to indicate that this will be included on our website by the end of the week so uh one of the components
073uh included in the district goals that I reference often is the vision and Mission and uh the vision statement which is also on our website references learning opportunities that Foster critical thinking creativity collaboration and communication that students engage in authentic applications that support inquiry and Innovation through Partnerships with their Community local businesses and higher education and you should see that theme that vision uh follow through as a thread throughout the district goals bless you um speaking of that theme is our our mission so in all that we do uh student centered that's why we're all here whether it's Athletics facilities technology all staff is here for one reason and that is our students our we are always uh working through the lens of being future focused which um not only applies to academics and our
074offerings but also uh looking through the lens of continuous Improvement and being open to feedback so that we can improve in all areas and in order to uh be successful it requires the efforts of a team and I couldn't ask for uh a more supportive and phenomenal administrative team in all capacities Board of Education staff teachers families and community and students so I'm very excited uh to progress in our new year we have five district goals uh which I'll go through uh one at a time and reference the objectives and support of each so the first goal promote an environment that provide prioritizes diversity equity and inclusion where every individual feels safe valued respected and empowered to achieve their Highest Potential the themes of that goal reference safety social emotional well-being and diversity equity and
075inclusion with regard to safety three key components ensuring continue to ensure law enforcement and risk management expertise are involved in all facets of our Safety and Security protocols and procedures this was in place last year and this will continue to be in place we will be advancing our emergency drills and specialized training for staff and students going beyond the training that uh and drills that were initiated last year and continuing to utilize building emergency response teams to review and expand emergency protocols in terms of social emotional well-being we're going to continue uh PBIS which is positive behavioral interventions and supports it's been in place for quite some time at Chester Elementary School as well as the Choose Love initiative we have enriched support systems within CES this year by introducing a dedicated specialist focusing on
076school culture and student behavioral support and please reference the article with what that entails uh it's supporting programs already in place which is the PBIS and choose love and then supporting uh our students success in all areas The Advisory model at the Chester Academy is new this year it focuses on two components that is a the seven mindsets program an academics organizational skills those two components are reflective of what the advisory program is the other uh advantage of the advisory program is it puts our students in small groups so that we have a better understanding of their needs so in larger districts it becomes very difficult think about a a proactive versus reactive mindset so um not only does it give us the ability to um support our students academically in a smaller group setting
077twice a month it also has the opportunity of supporting students social emotional needs if we see any at risk students that uh need additional support we can act appropriately that is the role of advisory the seven mindsets program and then also supporting the academic needs organizational skills in a smaller group setting by grade level we will be continuing the safe School ambassadors program at Chester Academy and also expanding opportunities for staff professional development leadership collaboration input and support with regard to diversity equity and inclusion which has been uh referenced in the goals previously we'll be expanding programs and professional development focused on diverse Equitable and inclusive practices aligned with the New York culture responsive sustaining education framework that's a lot in one sentence we'll also finalize the district policy on diversity Equity inclusion reflective of
078the four key components in the culture responsive framework those four key components are very simple welcoming and affirming environment high expectations in rigorous instruction inclusive curriculum and assessment and lastly ongoing professional learning those are the four key components we are speaking of when referencing the New York culture responsive sustaining education framework and then lastly establishing platforms for student staff and and family input on how we can enhance initiatives in support of a welcoming and inclusive environment the second goal provide Innovative data supported and engaging learning experiences that Foster College and Career Readiness through highly qualified staff who are student- centered future focused and team-driven what does that entail Innovative engaging learning experiences data supported instruction and highly qualified staff in terms of our learning experiences we will expand programs in professional development aligned to the
079New York next Generation learning standards Mrs Garcia mentioned several programs that we're piloting this year in support of New York NextGen integrating technology and multimedia resources to create interactive and Innovative learning experiences you heard Mr Spence reference the technology available to students doesn't even reference um all of the technology and software programs used for students whether it's CAD at the academy and our brand new maker space or its uh robotics at the elementary school or its green screen technology for that Interactive Learning Experience also continuing to promote collaborative and engaging learning experience for students and staff fostering a culture of teamwork within and between Chester Academy and Chester Elementary School continuing to evaluate and enhance High School courses and programs so we have some new courses that were introduced this year uh I will be
080sharing more specifics in the midyear update on our district goals so each of these objectives I will be presenting uh midyear in terms of what have we done to meet these objectives specifically and lastly finalizing course descriptions prek through 12 progressing the vertical alignment of curriculum and instruction districtwide so at the end of the year on our website All Families will be able to view course descriptions prek through 12 and that is just one layer of our efforts in this initiative to progress our vertical alignment of our curriculum data supported instructions we talked a little bit last year on what is the importance of testing if we're testing our students whether it's an assessment on a given day in a class or it's a New York state assessment or it's an I ready assessment then
081what are we doing with the data in order to constantly look through the lens of continuous Improvement we need to be looking at the de data that is the result of our students assessment and then using that data to drive change whether it be needed professional development whether it be differentiated instruction within the classroom that's the reason for the assessments that we provide to our students and that is the concerted reason and uh purposeful reason why it's a goal to to designate data supported instruction uh there's going to be several professional development organized this year where we're giving teachers the time to look at student performance and make decisions in terms of how to progress in the rest of the year to different differentiate instruction Andor identify needs for professional development initiate student goal setting
082and item analysis of the I ready diagnostic Assessments in ela in mathematics K through 8 so our students are taking it we actually expanded uh which is the last goal there we expanded the I ready assessment to nth grade this year uh but the importance of not only having those conversations with staff but also having the conversations with students and having them take part in their learning and them understanding what it means and of course that's grade level appropriate those conversations and student goal setting that also includes initiating data analysis of student performance on New York State assessments regions grade level course specific assessments prek through 12 what does it mean when you take an assessment what value are we finding from the information uh that our of our student performance and then as mentioned
083expanding the I ready Diagnostic and individualized learning support to identified n9th grade math and Ela courses everything centers around who's teaching our students and who is uh working with our students right so highly qualified staff established professional learning teams in support of instructional programs and identif goals enhancing the new teacher orientation and mentoring program Mrs Garcia already mentioned that we expanded from a one-day program to a two and we'll tell you that uh we're proud that our entire administrative team shows up at this teacher orientation to introduce ourselves to explain our roles and to offer our support throughout the year should the any new staff member uh need so it's it's really unified effort and I appreciate uh the time taken from all of our staff members Mr D in particular does an entire training
084training specific to safety and the emergency protocols uh continue to provide professional development for faculty and staff reflective of District goals and professional growth uh continuous Improvement involves constant and ongoing learning not only for our students but for all of our staff the third goal expand opportunities for Meaningful Community engagement communication and Partnerships that support real world application and learning community engagement communication Partnerships and learning are the themes represented in that goal the focus of that goal with Community engagement which you've already heard uh this evening we will be expanding informational workshops for parents and families reflective of current needs uh thank you to Mrs Garcia who offered the first instructional Workshop yesterday on communication uh also to provide opportunities for Community input and engagement related to communication facilities planning and District initiatives we do
085have the first uh Chester advisory panel of this year it was newly initiated last year uh it's going into its second year so far we have 18 returning Representatives uh today was the last day to respond in terms of confirming uh participation for this year so any openings that are available in given grade levels will be sent out this week uh with a final agenda sent uh on Friday so I look forward to that obviously we have the Maple Avenue task force and um really look to expand opportunities for engagement in all areas in terms of specific communication we're excited that this year we will be highlighting student academic and extracurricular experiences by implementing a district-wide newsletter and we are in the works of getting that ready to share by next week and that will
086be uh every other month is what we're looking to provide for families and also to expand communication avenues for families inclusive of the district website and social media platform forms uh as mentioned specific to academics on the website we'll see some improvements there at the end of the year with course descriptions and we're always looking to uh improve the efficiency and information provided to families Partnerships and learning we will continue to expand uh the phenomenal program which is the workplace learning internship program and the newly initiated today's students tomorrow's Teachers program so the work uh learning internship program allows our students uh to to have experiences in careers outside of the school actually on-site job learning and uh the second goal continuing to develop Career Connections to student learning through Partnerships with families businesses and
087higher education that Career Connection initiative was started last year with the goal prek through 12 of identifying a skill that is relatable to a career or trade where we can bring in that expertise to the classroom and students could understand the why of what they're learning how does this apply outside of just something that I have to learn and take an assessment on this is actually related to a job a skill and imagine from prek to 12 if we're having those Career Connection opportunities where there might be a spark for somebody to decide this is something that I might want to pursue and it was very exciting to see Ariana aiz uh speak so excitedly on her passion uh for Cardiology and uh she was actually on the Today's Show uh just really uh amazing
088to provide students with the opportunity and that was something specific to Ariana but in in general the workplace uh learning internship program will continue to expand as well as Career Connections prek through 12 our four fourth goal ensure the continual Improvement and expansion of District facilities promoting safety security and student opportunity in the most efficient and economical manner possible you just heard Mr doosa mention already uh savings that the district has uh incurred due to to due to the quality of the facilities team that that uh we have in their expertise two components of focus Safety and Security improvements continual Improvement and expansion of facilities so in terms of Safety and Security continue to evaluate District safety plans ensuring law enforcement and risk management expertise are involved in all facets and of Safety and Security
089protocols and you've heard that four ensure all staff is trained in building safety procedures and protocols evaluate and pursue options for the Maple Avenue School building and property contining to upgrade the district computer network infrastructure to improve safety security and efficiency expand data privacy and cyber security efforts through the training and improve security applications and I just mentioned and went on to the next goal after uh noting Maple Avenue we've spoken about it a lot and and certainly in terms of community engagement uh all of those dates um are a part of the process and determining what the best option is to move forward continual Improvement and expansion of facilities develop a comprehensive plan for voter consideration on the expansion of athletic facilities and safety infrastructure there will be a lot more information to come
090on some very exciting opportunities to consider for our voters in support of our students future and B continue to advance facility improvements and the implementation of a districtwide Energy Efficiency plan and lastly our fifth goal which is truly what makes all of our initiatives possible is the budget so creating a fiscally responsible budget that effectively addresses the needs of the district while considering the concerns and input of the community District needs assess federal and state stimulus funds to support District goals and program programs we've already uh realized the healthy foods uh Grant which was a a wonderful opportunity uh for our students uh I think I sampled a little bit too much at the recent open house but I will say firsthand it's uh pretty exciting to have the local food supported in our uh
091lunch program evaluate the usefulness of current programs and shifting demographics is an ongoing objective as is evaluate financial implications of identified safety and facility Improvement ments um continue to implement and expand shared services with neighboring districts and you heard that this evening from Mr ducet communication and Community input communicate the Imp implications of the property tax levy cap provide opportunities for Community input and engagement related to Maple Avenue School and future safety and facility improvements subject to voter approval and there will be ongoing not only meetings with the Maple Avenue task force but I will have opport opportunities for Community forums uh the first is currently targeted for Wednesday November 29th uh there will also be uh meetings when we have the information available and are ready to move forward with information on a potential
092Athletics facility on land that we are acquiring thank you to the Town of Chester uh so more information will come on that uh and that will also involve quite a bit of community engagement there and lastly continue to use the district website newsletter and social media to disseminate budget information uh those are our five district goals this year with the accompanying objectives they will be included on the district website as I mentioned by the end of the week and then you will hear an update uh presentation with regard to our progress on these goals mid year as well as the end of the year thank you miss soara that was a lot um but really great good stuff you know I I have to say I'm very proud of of this board and the work
093that we were able to partner with you over the summer to to draft this you know I think these are all very important goals and when we sat down and looked at the direction we wanted this District to go in continue going in um I I think we were all pretty much on the same page but it really was a matter of fine-tuning and it will always be a matter of fine-tuning because you need the road map so as you achieve certain goals there will be new ones that will crop up but I think looking at the district goals these are all attainable and achievable I think they are things that we all can agree are important to educate the the children of this community and to work with the families that live in this
094community so I thank you very much for making the presentation that you just did and giving everyone an opportunity to to hear about the priorities that we are all on board to see come to fruition does anyone have any questions or comments ments for Miss O'Hara on the presentation all right terrific thank you thank you um that will bring us to our first public comments section if there is anyone who has anything to um discuss bring before the board on the agenda on agenda items now is your opportunity seeing no one we'll move into Round Table um does anyone on the board have anything for Round Table discussion anyone no all right thank you um then we will move to our consent agenda would someone care to make a motion I'll make a motion to
095adopt 5.1 through 5.1 six I'll second is there any discussion all in favor I I any oppos all right motion carries thank you much and that will bring us to our second public comment section uh anything that is not on the agenda that anyone would like to address feel free seeing no one that will bring us to adjournment if someone would care to make a motion I'll make that motion oh second all in favor I I all right have a good night and thank you everyone who joined us um who couldn't be here um and was able to tune in uh there's a lot of great stuff going on so stay tuned