001okay okay good evening everyone if we could all please rise for the pledge of allegiance and tonight led by my fellow veteran mr john patrick i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all good evening everyone i will need a motion i'll make a motion that the board adopt tonight's agenda i'll second that motion is there any discussion all in favor aye any opposed and only the motion 1.6 to approve the board meeting minutes of october 27 2021. i'll make that motion second any discussion any issues with the draft looks good i had not all in favor all right any opposed we'll begin with tonight's presentation i believe first up is mary kate
002bosh elementary principal good evening everybody how are you i'm well thank you so um enrollment i'll start with as of november 4th chester elementary school has 391 students enrolled um ces is reporting a 94.5 attendance rate for the month of september and october we are working with families to ensure that students attend school regularly we have been holding steady at that uh 94 round which is good that it has not gone down the pta the chester elementary school held its second pta meeting on thursday november 4th at 7 pm this meeting was held in person in the ces cafeteria 17 people attended and matters of fundraising and events were discussed i'm working with the pta to increase their membership and they are working with us to have a table during conferences so that families that
003come for in-person conferences can also sign up in october we did a few events one of them being a social and emotional learning initiative at chester elementary school the book we're all wonders was chosen last spring to give to the graduating fifth grade class the kiwanis club generously donated those books for the fifth graders and purchased a set for another class of for distribution distribution this year thank you to the kiwanis club for all their support of our ces students we really appreciate it a little bit about the book rj palacio wrote the best-selling novel wonder that became a motion picture that has inspired a nationwide movement to choose kind after many fan requests the writer of the book wrote a book for younger readers she as well illustrated that book and it's called we're
004all wonders kathy o'hara and social worker lisa ringel discussed having the books available for every student as the message in the book supports the district sel initiative lisa ringle the school social worker was persistent in contacting vendors and the publisher to try to get it at a reduced price as as we would be ordering approximately 400 books she contacted the publishing company and they mentioned that they had a limited edition they had for partnering with parents magazine they were able to sell ces this version of the book for about half the price the books were ordered and ready to distribute thank you to chester union free school district for supporting us in that initiative we're all wonders was read in all of our pre-k and fifth two fifth grade classes on wednesday october 20th some
005of our upper grade students went to our primary classrooms and read aloud this book represents community acceptance kindness and empathy ces teachers embraced this initiative and planned and implemented various activities after the reading students could be heard telling each other how they are all a wonder teachers had students fill out star sheets that said my friends think that i am a wonder and their classmates filled out reasons why pages were filled with statements like you're a good friend you're nice you play with me when i am lonely and you are kind other classes engaged in conversation about the message behind the book when speaking with a fifth grade student about the message behind the book and um sorry fifth grade student about the the book i asked him what he thought about people staring and
006laughing and talking about auggie behind his back he told me that he would tell others not to do that because we are all different we should all treat each other the way we'd like to be treated be kind it was powerful talking to this fifth grade student we're all wonders may be augie's story but it taps into every child's longing to belong and to be seen for who they truly are it's a perfect way for us all to talk about empathy and kindness with children every student at ces went home on october 20th with a copy of were all wonders to share with their families families have shared with me that they really enjoyed the book and they're reading it with their even younger siblings at home and it's really brought a nice way into
007the home to embrace reading and embrace the social emotional initiatives at chester elementary school as well the chronicle covered a story that was printed last week and i was interviewed and the story is also a nice compliment to the initiative and spreads the word in the community about what we're doing at ces next in october we also had med science come to see it cbs on various dates we welcomed mr brian from mad science to work with students miss rendi set up and facilitated students working with mad science presentation and interactive activities students explored various topics including sound waves and lab works measuring and working with liquid volume the kids had a great time in the maker space and you can see some images in the ces monthly highlights of mad science another large event
008during october our halloween parade has returned on october 27th the ces halloween parade returned families joined ces for an outdoor event as students paraded around the front of the building with parents looking on we had six parades in total each consisting of three to four classes at a time we were monster mashing all day breaking up the day into multiple parades allowed us to be mindful of social distancing and to also provide us with the ability to accommodate parking within the ces lower parking lot and keep attendees and attendees from needing to park in the surrounding community overall the day went smoothly and the kids enjoyed it thank you to the ces teachers for their participation in managing kids and costumes for an entire day of school i'd like to thank miss emily donut our
009audio video coordinator for doing an amazing job capturing all the fun we had during the halloween parades you can find the link to the youtube video if you click the chester elementary school tab under quick links on the chester union free school district home page and it has been posted to chester social media pages as well as always our monthly highlights are available on the district website so please visit the site take a look at what we've been doing and every month we will be posting highlights of the month i'm open to any questions are there any questions i just want to say mary kate that nothing says almost back to normal as that halloween play everybody like that mr flanagan is still in his costume from the 31st we'll get to see it in
010a minute but uh yeah so one thing that we heard from that on social media and parents uh just the fact that it happened i think is says a lot because it really it took a lot for you guys to pull that off just to make it happen in social distance so as the board we thank you for that's another little piece of getting back into some type of normalcy so yes it means it means a lot obviously in this community that it does parade has been i've seen many of which lead that parade and i just want to say that the fact that it happened i think really speaks to the amount of work that went into getting it done we know that it was not easy and i know that you know her
011hearing from parents it it really did mean a lot to them that it happened yes i think it very much was worth it um and we were happy to do it and we are looking at future events and how we can bring back as much normalcy as possible as we can excellent anything else for the board thank you nice job that must be time for mr flanagan how are you job very good thank you good evening and thank you for the opportunity to present here tonight to the board of ed um mr petrolek miss o'hara mr brennan miss elise everybody thank you so much brian um so it's been a great month i think that we we look back at the last month and we're starting to really get back into the groove of of
012what we've been doing and still being conscious that we are in a pandemic but just knowing how to do things a little safer and how to go about doing things a little bit different than we may have in the past i'm sure you've looked through my board report um you know we we had our dance you know we had our dance outside and and you know a little rain didn't hamper us you know one of the students said early on if it rains we'll dance through the rain and well we got a little bit of rain a little but they did they danced through uh the drizzle and uh you know they were they were certainly weren't hampered uh by that and we enjoyed the food truck and some students went inside to the cafeteria
013where we had the chairs set up socially distanced for when they were inside and while they were outside they were able to enjoy the uh the dance so we and we thanked the town of chester police department for providing the light for us which was great and uh and certainly i i enjoyed the the food truck as well as mr aguilar did and many of the students so we had a great time with that um we uh traditionally with homecoming we have a pep rally and uh you know it's a little difficult to have a pep rally especially inside the way we normally do it with the given circumstances so we got creative and the the student council especially with the guidance of miss caraba the varsity club and mr aguilar really put their minds
014together and we came with the idea of doing our our hambo pep rally parade uh which was six through twelve and it was a lot of fun and one thing that i did not put in my board report it was we actually had a pink out for uh to you know to raise awareness for susan g komen and breast cancer awareness for for october so and the students you know everybody had pink on it it was a lot of fun and it was a great cause and things that you know you wouldn't think of in high school would be a lot of fun and see a lot energy but let me tell you the roar of the crowd during musical chairs was something that was was uncombat was an intense game and i have to
015give elijah laconte a lot of credit for uh for not plowing over the young sixth grade boy liam peterman and uh and uh liam liam took the crown there and won our teachers uh participating in in the mummy contest our tug of wars you know they were everything it was a good time um so we we we appreciated uh being able to do that and it gives us options for the future and some people said i actually like get outside better than inside um you know the way we did it uh the marching band and ms hysani uh you know everybody that was involved we truly appreciate and certainly you know we had our we had our students from greenwood lake middle school that came and visited us and you know that's always a good
016time we love meeting our our students in in our neighboring district that becomes part of our district um we had it we had a great time and our teachers that helped out along the way mr rodman did a lot you know to to really show off his program as he did here you know and he he continues to to shine here for us uh mr stover miss garcia miss doris miss mckenzie mr aguilar miss loftus roll a part of the presentation at some point and uh we we uh we really appreciate their their attention to that and uh we're excited you know we've had some good feedback and we we hope to see many greenwood lake families here come come the fall coming up uh next week we start with our parent teacher conferences so
017the the 18th we have day and evening some will be in person some will be online we let people choose their comfort zone and for families that are that are listening out there we'll provide additional guidance in in the coming week of you know what do i do when i have an online appointment you know we'll we'll reissue the you know the the directions so everybody can be comfortable with that lockers are our back at the beginning and end of the day we saw there was a lot of concern and you know it's getting cold and people need to be warm and so we wanted to make sure that we're providing that and we've been monitoring it and the students are doing a really good job keeping to their lockers at given times and keeping
018distance and you know and actually i'm really impressed especially with the sixth and seventh graders of how quick they got it because even the seventh graders haven't had an opportunity to use lockers here so we're you know kids are making the bus and uh they're on time to class in the morning so that's a great thing um we uh we attended a presentation it was virtual uh called today's students tomorrow's teachers which was a really interesting program that we we learned about and when we talk about diversity equity and inclusion it's something that we wanted to find out more information about that provides opportunities for uh different socio economics uh students that that might that may be having a tough time in finding ways to get into the teaching profession so uh we'll keep you
019posted on that as we is we learn more information um thank you to ms o'hara on our professional development days um we had a great couple of professional development days in in the district and certainly here at chester academy so bringing in uh you know our burn to to help uh provide some education on on inl our you know population is certainly something that's needed and uh i really appreciate you taking the time to do that and giving our teachers the time to work in in groups on scope and sequence was was incredible so thank you kathy and then finally uh you know probably the most important thing i can say tonight is that tomorrow is veterans day and we reminded everyone today that tomorrow is not just a day off from school that it's
020important to remember what veterans day is all about and it's about the sacrifices that many people have made and the service that people have given to our to our nation so we started off today with uh some of our students singing the national anthem from our from our voice ensemble uh bianca newma amani curtis and um and chris tabuchi did an incredible job um we had a few different groups with our nhs working with kiwanis uh sending out cards to a local veterans organization and we uh we we kind of worked with mr rodman and our and our high school students along with our seventh grade stem team in putting together our own little version of a card for traditionally we have a ceremony here we haven't had it in two years and it and
021it's kind of one thing that we we all miss because it's important to have that ceremony so we created using some of uh what we do now uh you know and the technologies to create a little uh card and we wanted to hand it out to some of the veterans that are normally here and normally participate and actually brian's going to assist me here because we have a couple of veterans here on the pad on the panel that we'd like to present um our our little car that we we made for you guys here today and we appreciate your service to this country and to the united states navy and we thank you appreciate it thank you that was very nice and then on on the second note we reached out to um to the
022uh the orange county veterans cemetery and uh we asked if there's anything we could do to help and they said it would be great if we could help them on december 18th with reeds across america and so we made a commitment to be part of reads across america and there'll be more information for students um we have a couple of athletic teams that want to participate but we want to make it available for more than just our teams uh to be able to organize and participate on the morning of the 18th we think is a is a great way to to pay tribute to our veterans as well that's a great ceremony and uh any questions for me well i'm going to say the same thing to you that i said to mary kate that
023it's obvious you know you would not really know that we're still in pandemic mode for all the effort that's going on in both buildings to have the most as normal as we can be i just want to just keep reminding people that you know i think the lockers was i know it was hard to make it work but i think it really is a big deal to the families that kids carrying all that stuff around so i i just want the public to understand the work that went in to try to make that happen in the social distance mode of everything that we're doing so great job on that and you're you're making foot with everything going on the fact that you still you know you did that outside for the pep rally you know
024posting all that online it seems very normal so you guys are doing a great job it's not it's not going unnoticed believe me well we had a good time over the last month and we want to we want to keep the not only the the top quality education but we want to keep the good times rolling here so yes these guys are making it happen anything else on your board great job thank you very much for the card sorry about your preaching it thank you thank you i just wanted to um thank you for all of the time and effort to you and your staff that went into the greenwood lake presentation um you know the the brochure that was put together that really highlights all of the benefits of the chester school district um
025it was so well thought out and well presented um you know sometimes people forget what can be accomplished in a small district and when you have something like that that really highlights all the things that we're doing that larger districts are doing and things that we're doing that larger districts can't do because they are so big it makes me proud to be able to say yeah this is what chester is doing and a lot of credit to that brochure really needs to go out to maggie beiger who's our new uh computer teaching assistant and eve levolsky who's our library they did a lot of work in kind of you know brainstorming ideas a note would look great could we try this and they ran with it and they did an awesome job they did i
026just have one question um i didn't see if there was if the uh the flyer and it's an incredible flyer it really is if the flyer is on our web page it's not on there yet but we will make it available on the website yes i mean this would be great for anyone even if they're not from from greenwood lake anyone thinking about possibly moving into chester this is phenomenal it really is thank you nicely done sir thank you sir now everyone's favorite part of any board meeting well thank you mr simmons i was going to say mr o'hara but okay i will i will take it from there i don't get that opportunity to to roll with those compliments that often well on tonight's board meeting we have the american rescue plan plan and
027we'll get to that i just want to make a few comments about some of the other items that are on the agenda for tonight the tax collectors report so we are done with our tax collections for the year any unpaid amounts will be turned over to orange county at which point they will be re-levied and people will see that on their january county and town bill when that comes out so that when the board approves that i'll be asking for signatures and and all of that so the the county makes us whole after they've collected their january collections so that's a uh a partner that we work with next is a tax certiary reserve the tax certs they're legal proceedings for corporations to challenge their assessments these have been filed with courts in the area
028and they rule on these settle these sometimes they just end they have normally a four year life span unfortunately because of the pandemic we're expecting that there will be some extensions so the board has received a very detailed list of all of the certiary proceedings that are on the books and what we're asking is that the board increased that reserve from the current 1.43 million to what we anticipate for coming settlements at 1.67 every four years the board has to eliminate this reserve and then recreate it for those that are still on the books or have newly come on as filings deficit lunch money the pandemic has been devastating to school lunch programs across the the country we've seen huge reductions in our revenues because of participation and we've also seen huge increases in our
029supply cost because everything needs to be individually wrapped for safety and to keep the meals warm as they're being delivered to individual classrooms so this the labor costs have stayed constant the supply costs have increased and we just haven't seen the revenues so we're asking the board to do an equity transfer from the general fund to cover those losses and fortunately the general fund has seen some savings in operations that we haven't done such as full-time transportation and some of the other items where we had the savings in the general fund we're just asking that the board transfer that to cover the losses in the lunch fund and also the corrective action plan this is a plan that we have to submit with the state education department basically identifying what steps we're going to take
030to correct any items that were noted in the annual independent audit that the board approved last month also identifies who the responsible parties are and when we expect that that conclusion will happen so that is also an item for this board meeting so thank you for your consideration of those those items now if i can turn your attention to the board behind you this is a summary of our plan for the american rescue plan also known as cares act 3 because it is the third of the federal acts based on the pandemic so i want to start by giving you a little bit of the background this legislation was signed on march 11 2021 and this is authorizing monies to be allocated to the school districts on a emergency basis for the whole of new
031york state cares act 3 provides 9 billion dollars in aid so this is a very substantial program the monies are allocated to school districts or as we're also known local educational agencies or leas based on our title one allocations it's not a dollar for dollar but that gave them the basis then to divide the nine billion dollars so in may of 2021 the district provided the state education department with a number of assurances basically saying that we will use these funds for their intended purposes then we received our allocations for the cares act and for chester small district that we are our allocation totaled 1.46 million dollars then we are set to develop a plan and how to spend that money based on what what allocations we have what needs we identify and within the
032applicable uses for the money so first of all the application this requires a form fs10 which is the sort of like a 1040 form this is a federal grant form that we provide to new york state even though it is federal monies they do allocate and distribute it then the there's online questions that we have to answer to in a narrative form and i want to thank kathy o'hare for her assistance in identifying how we recognize what our legitimate uh tests for whether or not these interventions we put into place are working or not so she was able to provide the framework for that then we move on to tonight's meeting which is meaningful consultation with the stakeholders that is any student any religious group political group anybody who is covered within this school district
033could be considered a stakeholder and that also includes businesses that may not have students in the district but certainly do support us financially then we develop the final plan and this will be submitted next week to state education through one of their online portals because everything now has an online portal so let's take a quick look if we can at the allowable uses for arp or american rescue plan monies so we can implement prevention and mitigation strategies to safely open and conduct in-person learning now we will be doing a formal review and update of our reopening plan to make sure that we abide by that requirement and just because it's the right thing to do to make sure that we are keeping on the cutting edge of keeping everybody in these buildings as safe as
034we possibly can because as was noted this is still a pandemic we'll address the academic impact of lost instructional time through evidence-based interventions and this is the piece that i was getting a lot of help from my fellow administrators respond to the social emotional and mental health needs of all students coordinate preparedness and response efforts with our local department of health or other agencies training staff on sanitation and minimizing the spread of infectious diseases planning for long-term facilities closures through online learning and the purchase of educational technology and providing mental health services and supports including summer school after school and school year enrichment programs now these are all allowable uses it doesn't mean that our plan is going to address each one of these some of them can be done without the expenditure of additional
035funds others are things that we're doing in the regular course of business but what we wanted to do is look at what provided the absolute best bang for the buck and direct student services both in teaching staff and in counselor staff well there are some required uses first of all twenty percent of the federal allocation must be addressed to learning loss through evidence-based interventions five percent or the state allocation must be used to address again the same lost time recouping the the instructional losses from the time that we were not in session one percent of the totals need to be put towards summer enrichment programs which we started this last summer and another one percent of the total has to go to after-school enrichment programs so the first the slide before told you what we
036were allowed to use this is on top of that what we must spend the monies on so that brings us to this chart oh good it fits on the screen the arp plan which i refer to as one item is actually four separate fs10 budgets four sets of accounting codes and four sets of final reports so the first thing you'll see is the program dates these programs all start on the magical friday the 13th when everything very much changed for us in this world so it was march 13th 2020 and these go through 2024 so unlike every other federal grant program this is a multiple year approach so you'll as i made the statement that we were looking to provide the most direct services to the students you'll see that our allocations break down just
037in two areas professional salaries and the employee benefits that go along with those professional salaries and you'll see below what of the items we are trying to address with these funds mental health services 380 000 learning loss 882 000 summer enrichment and after school enrichment a hundred thousand dollars each so this is more than satisfying the 20 learning loss requirements and hitting all of those extra pieces that we need to do to get all of the students back up or ahead of where they were had this pandemic not happened at least that's my hope now the plan we talked about this at the last board meeting the plan the draft plan that we've developed for the cares act is to provide for three summer school teachers over the next three years two after school teachers
038over the next three years two full-time academic intervention specialists for two years as well as one year each of a math teacher k to six two special education teachers one full school counselor and one half social worker that is what we would be buying for the 1.4 million provided to us from the federal government under the american rescue plan this will be posted on our website on friday because we are off tomorrow along with all of the budget materials going forward as we submit this to the state one of the requirements in their online portal is that we link to it the final approved budget kind of a catch 22 because that has to be done before we submit the budget for approval so there may be some pages that you see when you open
039them up say american rescue plan pending sed approval and it's just a single page we are certainly open for comments or concerns of of the board the community teachers students anyone to that i will open up to the board for any questions on this approach and sort of kick off to [Music] this process one thing i think it's a well thought out plan um i think it really addresses direct student aid which is which is our goal you know making sure the needs of our youngest and most vulnerable population in the district are being met both academically as well as socially and emotionally i think a lot of homework was done to see where we would get the most bang for our buck with the aid that will be coming to us well thank you
040and one thing we learned today because there was a presentation by the education department today was that this is this process is a living document it's a span of four years and as they noted a lot of things can change in four years many districts are are purchasing supplies and materials that luckily we've been able to get in place before we had this funding source and these prices are changing availability is changing by focusing on the student needs and and staffing we have a little bit more control over over keeping those costs steady any other board comments but just our usual thanks aaron because we know that this was it's very fluid changes happening every minute on it and like sandy said the uh the work we know the work that's got into this and
041it's been the focus of the board all through the pandemic so we appreciate you putting that act into actual action so that we can move forward so and thank you and even though this this first budget has not been submitted yet some of these processes are in action right now thank you don't bring us to our first public comment section i don't think there's anyone in the audience tonight again if anyone at home has any comments for the board they can submit them ahead of time or submit them to the board and we'll address it at our next board meeting um that'll bring us i think to round table so i'm not mistaken mr petrolak i'll turn to you thank you mr sambets i know miss o'hara has some things that you would like to
042report out on so i will ask miss o'hara to take the microphone at this time okay thank you i'd like to begin with an update on our district professional development and our newly initiated instructional advisory team so the cufsd instructional advisory team was previously named the appr pdp committee it is comprised of teachers and administrators from both the elementary school and the academy working together to impact positive change for our students so i would like to share the the goals that were created by the team this year the first establish a collaborative process that provides teachers an opportunity to both model and enhance their instructional practice and enrich student learning through participation in professional and collaborative learning communities or plc's peer observations in classrooms targeting best practices in instruction opportunity to plan reflect discuss and
043discuss in an effort to support continual improvement in instructional practice and student success second goal identify instructional strategies and skills across content areas and disciplines that support successful interactive and engaged learners the third goal begin to begin to develop a k-12 pre-k to 12 scope and sequence in each content area discipline reflecting the new york next-gen standards and continuity of learning and instructional practices the fourth goal drive by the team was to implement the choose love program in grades k-12 and in that promote promoting social emotional learning interpersonal skills and a positive school climate the fifth goal was to review the current district assessment tool the nwa maps and identify potential recommendations for alternate measures of assessment and lastly and perhaps most important in addition to the goals mentioned previously is to develop policies and
044practices in support of diversity equity and inclusion so this this team is a uh dedicated team we've already met three times and again it is comprised of both mr flanagan mrs bosh administrators in both buildings as well as teachers also mr spence joins the team we've met already three times this year and will continue to do so on a monthly basis we just had a meeting yesterday and the objectives were focused on the review of our two recent professional development days which thank you mr flanagan for mentioning they were held on october 29th and november 2nd so just to give a general overview of each of those days as much as possible this year we are targeting our professional development uh to address both collaboration and differentiation based on staff needs so on the 29th
045that was a half day we had four different components of professional development the first was targeted to our instruct excuse me our instructional staff which was in content area groups and that was focused around strategies for building english language learner background and vocabulary the second professional development offered was targeted to our sel team our school psychologists guidance counselors social workers i know mary kate and mrs bosh and also john flanagan joined that as did rachel loftus and that was titled connecting with our diverse students trauma and cultural responsive education we also had our phys ed teachers led by mrs loftis continue to work on the choose love initiative in the morning or excuse me in the afternoon and then they did join in a synchronous professional development on english language learners and then there was
046a school tool attendance training led by mr spence and provided for the folks in the main office working with that component i will say on that particular day it does address the new york state requirements that 15 of our ctle hours are targeted on language acquisition and it does also specifically address several of the advisory team goals inclusive of that collaborative process so working towards the second which was a full day i was happy to and let me just backtrack for a minute in terms of the provider of that professional development was arburn the hudson valley auburn and so thanks to the input from alanna sullivan and regina defazio who are e uh enl teachers at the elementary school they identified the arborn and as the lead professional development provider of which they are in
047the hudson valley they actually service over 142 public schools across the lower and mid hudson region and that was the program that provided the instruction and the professional development for our teachers so moving forward to november 2nd which was a full day superintendent's conference day we were happy to bring all of the teachers together here in the auditorium and i thank mr derosa's team for labeling all the seats to ensure that the staff was safely socially distanced for the event i also thank danielle mcfarland for putting together a breakfast for the staff which was extremely impressive so we were able to join together in the morning and then came here in the auditorium for a presentation with the theme looking back seizing the moment and moving forward so looking back uh reflecting on the challenges
048that we've overcome seizing the moment recognizing that the opportunity to improve is now because we do have all of our students back and i know mrs bosh and mr flanagan have been working with the teachers and myself to identify standards identify priority standards looking at gaps in learning and seizing the opportunity to improve instruction for our students and then moving forward really again reflecting that district instructional advisory team that we are a team administration and teachers along with the school board support working together to impact positive change i am extremely proud of the teachers for the work that they've begun uh as well as the input that they've shared in terms of needs for support which is a component of that day so as i mentioned uh collaboration and differentiation are the goal for professional
049development the elementary school teachers were focused on reviewing a math and social studies program that could potentially support next-gen standards and then continuing or beginning the work in developing a scope and sequence the sixth through twelfth grade teachers were in collaborative groups of science social studies ela and math they participated in a two-hour workshop focused on identifying priority standards in each content area and beginning the work on the scope and sequence k to 12 teachers were in collaborative teams art music math and stem so those folks were in collaborative teams uh district-wide and then we had our sel team guidance counselor social workers uh focused on continual professional development each of the collaborative teams did work on that scope and sequence and i will share that it is in a folder it's a shared document
050broken down by each content area inclusive of stem and all of the specialist areas of art music and phys ed it is comprised of they began with the work in november targeting november the unit or concept taught the new york next gen standards or the new york framework specific to social studies what prerequisite skills do students need to be successful what is the goal or target skill for students to master in that identified standard what is the pre-assessment that we're providing students to identify where they're at in that particular standard and we're seeing a significant change or there's a there's a very different you know if you look at a any given class we always target differentiation but as mentioned when we talk about gaps in learning what we're looking at is we're seeing students
051in a classroom as we always do that require differentiation but now more so than ever so you have a group of students that might have been on remote instruction for a year you have students that have been in person for a full year and they have varying needs but they're all in the same class so how do we address that what are the priority standards that we teach so pre-assessment is key what materials and tasks um are we using for different excuse me for differentiation the six through twelve ele team ela team created a uh list a list a book list so you know one of the conversations in terms of working on vertical alignment is a seventh grade teacher knowing what perhaps a fifth grade teacher what novels they're using the classroom so the
052sixth group sixth through twelfth grade team not only worked on a scope and sequence but also addressed a book list by grade level uh that supports the standards that they present to students and then of course assessment uh the most important thing you know teachers are saying that the collaborative work was helpful and and we are going to continue that work it's not just on those professional development days as a matter of fact on monday the 6th through 12th grade teachers are going to be continuing to collaborate in their teams and the the work will continue on a monthly basis in the elementary school as well that is it in a nutshell i could probably go on and on that's what i love kathy with your passion that you could go on but i i'm
053just really impressed that we are constantly focusing on the focusing on the gap and learning piece of this year which i think you've said uh john has said also in past meetings is that's the scary part of all this like how when you're having all those kids in one classroom and the differences from how they learned in the past year and um how you make that work i it's it's almost mind-boggling and put that all together in one can and and i would add that there are times that things come together and and just fit and make sense and there are significant gaps in academic learning there's also significant gaps in social and emotional learning from the pandemic and when you put together the fact that we're addressing those issues with the resources that have
054been provided through the cares act you know then we have been very fortunate to have hired additional staff that was very carefully and strategically selected to meet those gaps in in those two different areas so i i want to commend our our administration our staff and the support of the board of education for uh their hard work and their foresight in anticipation uh in anticipating these gaps and and getting the resources correctly positioned to address them we're in a really good place i hear about things that are happening in other districts in our area and nationally and people are playing catch-up in many instances and i feel that we're very fortunate and that we pre-positioned resources and they're just where we need them right now and i think it's something kathy also said in the
055middle of your presentation was the part about working as a team like you could not do all this if you guys were not working hand-in-hand as a team and that's recognized by the board that everyone is working together to keep us moving forward so thank you for and for your passion thank you and again i thank the instructional staff for their dedication and efforts i was extremely impressed with the amount of work that was accomplished in a short amount of time and that's a reflection of the passion that our educational staff has so i'm excited to move forward thank you anything else from the board i have a couple other items i wanted to mention that one of the items in the consent agenda is a change to the student calendar and that change will
056be for march 18th presently march 18th is an instructional day but we do need to add an additional conference day to our calendar so we've spoken administratively and we've selected march 18th as that additional conference day so with the approval of the consent agenda tonight there will be a change to the calendar where march 18th will become a conference day day of non-attendance for for students my next item is that i wanted to mention that this week we received from the governor's office a copy of a proclamation that recognizes school board recognition week so i'm going to take a quick moment to read that proclamation whereas each year school board recognition week is observed by more than 700 school boards and school districts throughout the entire empire state and whereas our state's public education system
057is designed to meet the educa educational needs of all children and to empower them to become competent productive contributors to society and an ever-changing world and whereas throughout more than a year of the covid19 pandemic school boards have worked with school administrators and educators to help navigate unprecedented challenges restrictions and disparate effects of the health crisis on our children's learning and whereas members of local school boards are dedicated to children learning and community and devote many hours of service to elementary and secondary public education as they continually strive for improvement excellence and progress in education recognizing that all children can be successful learners especially when education is tailored to the individual needs of the child and whereas local school board members are strong advocates for public education and are responsible for communicating the needs of
058the school district to the public and the public's expectations to the district by working closely with parents educational professionals and other community members and whereas the members of the new york state's local school boards respond to the educational needs of communities they serve and help ensure the solid foundation of our school system in doing so these leaders help strengthen our state's educational system and improve future prospects for our children and whereas october 18th to 22nd 2021 special and activities and programs were held in communities across new york state in observance of school board recognition week and it is fitting to join in acknowledging the commitment and contributions of members of local school boards now therefore governor of the state of new york kathy hokel does hereby proclaim october 18th to 22nd 2021 as school board
059recognition week signed by our governor kathy hopel so a little late after the fact like other things with kovid we're flexible and and we're rolling with it but uh we certainly have recognized our board members and appreciate them on an ongoing basis and uh it's good to see that our governor is is joining in this very special and appropriate recognition so congratulations to our board members thank you i want to mention that yesterday the district sent out a survey to parents the district is organizing vaccination clinics for children and also coven 19 testing for our students k k-12 so if parents have not had an opportunity to respond to that survey that survey is available on our website and the purpose it's a confidential survey the purpose of the survey is to give us an
060idea of a number of parents that will be requesting vaccinations or testing so that we can bring in the appropriate resources uh the tentative date for the vaccination clinic i don't know um november 20th okay tentatively is november 23rd so uh just about two weeks off uh so uh if parents are interested in signing up for the vaccination clinic uh there will be an opportunity to do that online we hope to have that information out early next week um but if parents are interested please go on and complete the survey and uh lastly i i just want to join mr flanagan and uh all of our other uh students and staff and and others in the community in recognizing our two veterans on our board of education uh thank you to mr sambats and to
061mr pastor passagenik for their service the united states navy and their continuing service to the community on the board of education thank you happy veterans day thank you thank you it'll be my first one off in years tomorrow well deserved uh anything for a round table from the board uh last week ms snigler last week wednesday evening ms negler and i were in attendance at the orange county school boards association virtual meeting the topic of discussion was briefly the convention of voting results and the guest speakers were various orange county attorneys who talked to us about uh well we've we've been to this seminar before but they talked about the freedom of speech first amendment rights and where the two might clash and uh results might be different from what you might expect they gave
062the typical scenarios of the one case of bong hits for jesus and uh there were numerous other other ones and they discussed the cases and what the courts ruled how they found and it was rather interesting but it sure is a lot to remember off the top of your head it is and um now um social media plays a very large presence in um challenges to freedom of speech rights so that was a great component of what they touched on as well yep the tick-tock challenge was addressed and like that that's all i have very good brian yeah so just going through the list of some of the stuff that's been going on through the school this week um high school student council are doing a lot of fundraising for the various classes um doing
063a lot of like deck the halls kind of stuff clever which senior class which class does the best with decorating the hallways get a certain amount of money for their class just to do certain stuff like that like like dances doing a lot of t-shirts and also fundraising for certain programs and stuff like that they're doing penny wars they're decorating t-shirts to sell and stuff like that so stuff is something that is going to take to school there's also a lot of veteran appreciation like we talked before the national anthem was really cool today they had to stand up and stuff like that and it was really nice to see um we're also updating the service member wall on the front of the school which would be pretty cool my brother will be on that
064which is nice um i also taught about veterans day in class today i know mr maggie went over it today in class and it was pretty interesting to um go over they also had recruiters come in uh i did 20 push-ups for a water bottle they really you know fleshing over there was an army recruiter they had a lot of programs and talked about different stuff like the summer leadership program for west point and stuff like that there's been a big increase in usage of the tech room a lot of kids are loving it the laser cutter and 3d printer i know my friend are really using the 3d printer to make you know rings certain kind of uh things that they want i know they made like a little snake it's pretty cool they
065also use a laser cutter to just you know mess around not mess around but you know use it for things that they really want to to create stuff like that which is really nice to use we're also using that in class using autocad and stuff like that and designing learn how to use that with mr rodman which is really fun um things are really getting back to normal you know coming the first period going to first period today i got to see people using the lockers again which is really nice to see we also had a cuny guest speaker come in from she was a dean from manhattan college and talked about different engineering programs stuff like that which is really nice to see and it was really interesting to learn about those kind of
066programs we also have intro to health careers they have a class there and they're green guest speakers they had emt a chiropractor so it's interesting uh one of the different professions on a first hand basis from guest speakers their internship program is going really well i know um a couple of students from my class are doing it like emma fiore who is doing the music program at chess elementary school working with mrs scalli i know emily petromal is doing being a math intern with mrs burton and then i'm also doing the law enforcement program we did defensive tactics today so the nhs they're starting up the senior projects i'll be doing something with the veterans i know my classmate bobby santangelo will be doing something with the throwing field trying to get a nice field
067to throw instead of going to washingtonville throw which would be really awesome and uh yeah that's about it yeah thank you thank you we always look forward to your input brian because it gives us i think i said this to you before it gives us insight of what's going on in your everyday so we appreciate that and you're i don't know if it's mr flanagan's influence but he's very thorough and it it does give the board a taste of what's going on so that's why it's so important so we really appreciate your input if there's anything else as you know we have these meetings you know just bring it right to the board talk to mr flanagan and you know any issues that you have that's what we're here for okay anything else for round
068table it went good keith that one good okay i believe that it would bring us to our final public comment no one's come in maybe we should do that first let me put my glasses on that'll bring us to our consent agenda did you have anything else for us yes sir okay uh mr president i'd like to make a motion that the board approves items 5.1 through 5.13 on the consent agenda noting that uh there was a name struck from item 5.13 second is there any discussion all in favor aye aye aye and he posed and how about now is there any republic comment i don't think anyone has snuck in but again i'll just remind everyone at home that the board is meeting the public meeting you can attend and we will also still
069continue to stream online and if you have any questions for the board you can submit them to miss lease district and we will address them with that i'll need a motion 7.1 to adjourn so moved i'll second with a brief comment if i might um i'd like to thank all veterans that passed through the the halls of chester whether it be this building or previous buildings those currently serving and those getting ready to serve thank you all ladies and gentlemen congratulations stay safe well said mr passage with that all in favor aye aye opposed everyone have a great night