Commack Schools BOE Regular Meeting & Budget Workshop #1 (March 6, 2025)

001all right good evening everybody Welcome to our March Board of Education meeting would everyone please rise for pledge of allegiance 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 all right I will start the roll call starting from my far left Mr Scott Ashen assistant superintendent for human resources Miss Laura Newman associate superintendent of business and operations Miss Dana Schultz board trustee Dr Bill Hender board vice president Dr Jordan Cox superintendent myself Steve Hartman board president to my right Miss Sur Miss Su Herman board trustee Mr Tim Russo assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and assessment Miss maror Harvey District Council and Miss Debbie verer district clerk with that again this is a Board of

002Education meeting followed by a budget information meeting afterwards I will turn it over to Dr Cox for the administrative report thank you Mr Hartman so as Mr Hartman had stated we will start with our administrative report um followed up by uh board business and then we will jump into our work budget Workshop number one which will go over to the instructional plan for the 2025 26 school year so just a quick update on what some of our agenda items are for this evening we'll have some Community updates and anal update that Mr Russo will share with us uh we do have a security presentation um from covert investigations and I will spend a little time going over what that process was and what it looked like and how it got to uh this evening we

003do have a number of committee updates and then we will go into board business and then we will come back for Budget Workshop number one so welcome again to our March 6 board meeting and at this point I'm going to turn it over to Mr Russo for a few Community updates thank you g Cox good evening everybody so just a couple of quick updates we have uh first off we're welcoming back our Discovery Camp this summer information registration will uh go out on Monday so early next week so we'll be ready to go with that so looking forward to being able to bring our students in into some of our buildings over the summer and be a part of that comac Community um the next thing that I want to touch on is just as

004you know one of our Board of Education goals this year uh was to review um our social and emotional learning programs and ensure articulation K through 12 and look for ways we can possibly enhance that so those have been ongoing conversations we've been having throughout the year um it started really in the summer I want to thank um the principles our staff that helped uh Dr Anda put together a really comprehensive um community bulletin that we have on our website highlighting all of the all the things we do to support social emotional learning throughout comac if you haven't had a chance to take a look at it I encourage you to do so it's on the website and like I said it's about 30 pages and really goes through all the different grade bands and

005what we've been able to do and the programs we've been able to bring in um there's two different ways that we really look at Social and emotional learning here in comac and the first is through being really intentional and purposeful in designing lesson plans and implementing programs that specifically focus on some of those social and emotional skills that are outlined in that castle framework that you see in the lower right hand side there so for instance take responsible decision making at our secondary level we'll bring in specific programs for our students that talk about uh social media uh social media dangers or drug and alcohol dangers and things like that so we take some time to do that and again that's really purposeful and intentional on our part at the K5 level we bought in

006the second step program um and really kind of implemented it fully this year I really want to thank again some staff uh especially our fette teachers U Miss riddle our director of um special education our principes Pat frel our athletic director who really kind of sat down and unpacked that curriculum for us and figured out the best way to implement it for comac um we take a lot of Pride here in developing a lot of our own programs or at the very least taking fixed programs in saying what's the best way to do this for comac and they went above and beyond to make sure that we did that and we have a really great program going now and we've had a lot of conversations about things we can do even to further enhance that

007as we look at some of the skills we're hoping that our our students can uh embody the second thing we've we've done really well this year we've started to really do intentionally this year is really brand our comac champion and really focus on directing our conversation around learner traits um that really speak to Social and emotional characteristics right take making our helping our students become more um better thinkers more uh caring responsible things along those lines and we're excited at having a a common K through2 language um about this I really as I said we we've really kind of started to roll this out one of the things that we're looking to do in terms of an enhancement is look at inventory all the different programs we have and how they tie in to the

008different learner profile traits uh we'll look to put that together then kind of create really what we see as what the K2 comac Champion looks like what the 35 comac Champion looks like our middle school and our high school finally and that's what we're looking to do uh as as as our next step with the comac champion program so those are some of the things we do distinctly Cedar Road school as well is out there um and we do that program continues to grow and we're very excited about the ways we've been able to support students but really the other way we do it is really through embedding seal throughout our culture so we'll hear more about this later on this evening as well but one of the things we talk about is how when

009we talk about social and emotional learning um we really want to make sure our students feel connected to school not just connect to the people in school but are excited about being here and they find that find things they love doing so that they're comfortable being here so doing things like developing curriculum that supports our students in that matter is something we're really proud of um and there's there's so much more that we do I'm going to give credit to uh Dr Lawson at the middle school as we were having one of our early social emotional learning conversations and talking about the different things we do with the broader picture he said at the time that social emotional learning is really just life and learning in comac schools it really kind of has stuck with

010me at least and with a lot of people that have had these discussions pretty much everything we do into how our teachers interact with our students how we work with our families the every program we bring bring in has a social emotional lens we look at it and say what can this do to support our students so and we see it play out every day uh this particular slide has shows a lot of the charitable work that our students do from our younger students in toys for talks to our high school students uh um whether it's packaging uh goods for veterans or or uh collecting winter coats all these different things we do our students have really developed a sense of what can I do to support one another support our community and support others

011and we're really proud of that and again thankful to all the people that make that happen for us and finally some of the other stuff we do I really want to thank the PTA for what they've been able to do and helping us bring in um our arts and education program again they work so closely with our principles and our staff to make sure that we're bringing in programs that have a purpose we're bringing in speakers um assemblies that really are purposeful and looking at how can we address some of these character traits that we want to see our students um eventually attain so really excited about the work we're doing it'll be ongoing throughout the rest of the year with the uh principales directors their staffs and we'll continue to kind of look at

012what we do we'll give it another update later on this year in the beginning of next year to where we are after looking at all these so Dr Cox thank you Mr Russo at this time I'm going to ask Mr Flynn and cobbert investigations to come up and get settled in to uh begin their presentation but before we get started I'd like to share a little bit about how we got here so um these have been some ongoing conversations between our PTA community members have who have brought up um time and time again in some of the meetings the opportunity to bring this to more of a public conversation um we've had covert investigations conduct security audits multiple times throughout the district for years um and we've made some significant enhancements and we shared that

013in one of our presentations um earlier in the year some of the things that we've done to get to this point where we would start a conversation about armed security um we did put out an RFP or request for proposal um we received five uh vendors um that submitted proposals there is a rubric that these vendors are graded on and they were then narrowed down to the two top vendors that could potentially fit a comac armed security model um the Board of Education conducted an executive session where both both vendors were able to come in and present to the board and the board asked outstanding questions very detailed questions um just about the safety of our children what the training looks like Etc because in these presentations there are things that security vendors can share

014with the board in confidential and executive session that they cannot share in public um because as part of that model to prevent worst case scenarios it's not something there are certain things that you do not want to be public but board had an had an opportunity to hear from both both of those vendors um and here we are uh today we have to say that covert um we use the line above and beyond is our Baseline here in comac and they have certainly demonstrated that they go above and beyond whether it comes to training or um the seriousness that they put into an armed security model they do provide other resources for us um but at this point in time I'm going to ask uh Mr Flynn and covert investigations to um conduct their presentation

015for our public about armed security here in comac uh Dr Cox and the board Administration uh really appreciate the uh the opportunity and uh steal some of my thunder but I I have I just want to I just want to Echo the uh the process that uh that did uh take place because uh you you smize it very good the uh the Inquisition in executive session was extremely thorough um you know and and again you you know what we can answer in exact obviously as you said u a lot cannot be in in public but very intense questions which we relish the opportunity uh which gives us you know to be able to answer those and and delve down deeply uh and expound upon um how how serious we do take this um again go

016forward um so I have up here and I know the board has seen this has seen this before uh but uh general public who have not you know our our background is not we're not a traditional security guard company um we've been in the K12 realm for uh almost 22 years now uh it's 98 99% of what we uh of what we do so 365 days a year but um in trying to keep the presentation as uh concise as possible just just want to speak to the point of the uh you know currently in 2025 we are the largest uh provider of armed security in the uh said preate uh 12 environment uh on Long Island and uh we do take it extremely serious because we know it is a game it is a game

017changer so um with that uh several members of the team are here tonight um these are the individuals who are ultimately responsible for the implementation and the oversight um uh of of the program and again you know we believe in the philosophy executed your level of expertise so although um I oversee the company I have uh you know um I have the people who are actually the experts in specific disciplines who are responsible for the day day-to-day operation good evening everybody my name is Bob Brown um I am a 40y year just about 40y year veteran of police and uh security world uh my the main part of my career was 35 years spent with the suffer County PD the last five of those were as the chief of Patrol my I've been working with

018cover for a year a little more than a year now and my primary roles are uh to liais on to law enforcement obviously and uh to to just assist the flow of information back and forth between the districts and the uh and the different precincts and uh I also have a uh quality assurance quality control role which we'll get into a little bit more uh a little bit later good evening everyone think I know quite a few people here so my name is Brian Frank um start out my career professional career in the NYPD I was there for about five six years and then I moved over education and education um certainly started as a teacher then a curriculum director um principal um and really one of my main roles in this company is providing

019the training that is always necessary for security Personnel but also being the liaison for school districts from the company itself so we know certainly that the culture of a school district is very different than what you may see in other areas and to try to balance that that carryover when we bring for former law enforcement into a school district and we explain to them how a school district operates how we're different how the process works um we find that it's effective and it really does need to be done um I'm also one again it's one of the primary Trainers for the company itself and the lead trainer instructor so thank good evening everybody uh my name is Danny Colona been a self County police officer for the last 25 years prior to that I did

020a short time with the NYPD uh prior to that I was a US Army paratrooper um currently in the emergency service unit um what is the emergency service unit it is a SWAT team Rescue Unit and bomb squad HazMat team all rolled into one I'm a graduate of the FBI SWAT School New York State SWAT school I'm a certified bomb technician I'm also uh a member of the sniper team uh one of the things that the sou County Police Department is responsible for is active shooter response there's two schools of thought with the with active shooter response you have laser principles and alert principles I'm certified to teach both of them one of the things that we do is one active shooter drill approximately a month um the the PRP uh the principles and Concepts

021that we have at covert are very similar to what the suffa County Police Department provides the public and our guards are able to train and actually go inside the building and operate alongside our uh our offices hello everyone my name is Tom I'm an analyst and trainer for cobt my background is Emergency Management I worked at the local state federal levels both public and private sectors I'm an FAA drone pilot I hold instructor credentials from the American R cross as well as The Crisis Prevention Institute uh my day today is to support the work of the Tactical Team uh scheduling equipment procurement um in short the instructors tell me what it is they need to run the program better and I go out and get it done for them I also like AI artificial intelligence

022staying on top the latest trends training Solutions how these things can be brought into a district and uh better protect it thank you so um one of the uh one of the things at a little bit advantageous is that you know we've been and we've been blessed to be working with comac for for many years um we just put up here we're not going to hit each particular bullet point but um we've seen uh unfortunately in the world of K12 evolve over over a long time um the needs for certain uh certain of these things that are up there and we'll delve down into it a little bit further as we go forward but I think o' Brian wants to speak to some of the day-to-day operations that that happen so again it's really important

023that when you're working with security Personnel you're working with sta you working with parents even that they understand the process of what security is all about in a school district so having a working knowledge of staff and students and the guards themselves interaction is important um uh ongoing training not just in comac but in other school districts it's a regular part of it what makes our training is unique and different is that we strictly focus on K12 so you may see other security companies that do a general training and whatever it may be our syllabus is is k12 and what are some of the things that are going on in a school district and that evolves over time what are the Hot Topics what are the hot issues that need to be discussed and brought

024up we continue to update our syllabus like any good teacher should be doing you update your syllabus over time um as things evolve and change um otherwi I guess all you about technology or you know I just want to jump into this point in time because we have a blur up there as far as the uh you know the comac security staff and the ongoing training and and um you know I I got I got to give accolades to what's happened in in that respect good group of people uh I can't say enough about Mike Smiles the district is is is lucky to have them on board very a very dedicated individual but in general the staff uh the staff has been very receptive over the many years of training we're in this room um

025you know several times a year as well as the High School auditorium uh training so that's what helps you know we can have we can talk about technology we can talk about all these other pieces that happen but really it comes down to the boots on the ground any ongoing training so um I think the St needs to be acknowledged in in in that respect uh Bob I just want to speak real briefly for uh the last one yes I mentioned the leazar role that last bullet point on there about the second and fourth precent Command Staff I mean that is an advantage for me and for covert and for you uh in that um I have uh relationships with um virtually three or four degrees down in in each of the precincts command staffs

026I know every one of the crime section lieutenants the people who run the detective squads some of that's technical you know for you folks but basically anybody who would be investigating something that happen here I already know who they are and they know me so that's I I think very helpful an example of that was the swatting incidents last year uh it was mentioned to me uh that uh there was an interest in running What's called the hot wash basically a review of an incident um I talked to both cosos in the second and the fourth they were on board that turned out to be out of attending two or three dozen of those over the course of my career that was the best one frankly I think it was because there were no chiefs

027involved it was all done at at the precinct level and um there were a lot of good points made a lot of good Lessons Learned and all those people who were involved in that have now moved up in the police department and now so that uh that good information and uh and learning is spreading so this is an awareness training that we put on for our district with armed guard programs from 30,000 feet which you're looking at um it's good to get live in Suba County where you get a good response time from your First Responders like Danny but it's even better to have a building full of hundreds of people who know how to dial 911 effectively and run their first aid care as the professionals can get on scene trauma informed and age

028appropriate just meaning uh we're not going to talk to your security staff the same way we talk to a sixth grade student okay so when we talk about behavioral threat assessment um we already talked about this in the district certainly there's always a hope that if you see a child in need or you want identify that child early or some kind of threat early before it gets to that more serious level so this is not just about having armed guards it's not just about security it's about the bigger picture of trying to provide that support and also the training so that we have an understanding of where we can provide help if help is needed certainly for um students or even staff members so I'll just talk up uh up to the left there um

029one of the things that we bring to the table is um as far as the ongoing training I think you're going to hear that a lot from each one of us because it is the backbone of what we do not just as it pertains to the arm piece but just in general one of our basic philosophies so to continue to train and and and with our with our personnel and to keep them um where they should be uh we train multiple times a year and the federal firearms license that that that we have in Ables that to continue to happen at a much higher level a much higher frequency and and as Tom being in charge of procuring the equipment to make this happen it's put us at an advantageous position Bob you yeah the

030uh the rest of that slide is uh along the right side there you see a whole bunch of certifications you heard as everyone introduced themselves everybody here has at least one of those certifications uh all the people that do training in covert work for covert this is probably the biggest differentiator that sets covert apart I and I think it's incredibly important uh you know some of it already because we're training your District guards um none of our training is outsourced any one of us in this room could go and get a security training course of eight hours that would allow them to work at a bar or a school for about $100 and you probably wouldn't be there8 hours I'll tell you at right now uh we we take this training thing very seriously as

031you've heard it's a huge part of the company culture and that's why you see all that information there we're not bragging uh but we're very proud of it so um I like to put this up there because over the and the superintendent um had mentioned earlier as far as the assessments we've done uh in comac over the last number of years one of the things that I'm very proud of is that when you um work with a district and do an assessment for a district um usually after a tragedy is when they're asking that has not been how comac has operated they have been ongoing assessments the other thing different about comac uh and the boards that have been here in the administration they just haven't taken that assessment and put it in the drawer

032and said thank you um very calculating as to how these things have been implemented you know credit to miss Newman because some of these programs could lead you know have definitely have fiscal uh implications but needless to say she's been able to over the years um stagger them you know 1 three and five year plans to make sure that they have been uh that they have been done our philosophy as I say earlier we're just not an armed guard or a security guard company um we believe in the multi-dimensional approach to K12 security you know Brian speaks to the Social and emotional and behavioral threat assessment it is a huge part of what we do but the same thing as the district you know talking about the armed guard program we don't uh we don't

033uh consider it a Panacea it's just another it's just another layer of a multi-layered security uh you know Security operation uh and very well thought out by the district over a prolonged period of time not a knee-jerk reaction by the process that has been taken place I know the district has been having this conversation for a very long time and that's to be congratulated because um most times we hear this we get a call from the district after a tragedy and say hey send me 10 send me eight and that's not uh we won't go down that road so um the district has uh put themselves in a very advantageous position as far as implementing another layer so uh here are Co we don't believe in the philosophy you do have some districts in the

034county that believe in a philosophy if you're a police officer bring your gun the workday we don't we don't subscribe to that theory we don't believe in it um shooting and tactics are a perishable skill they're always evolving and we always want to get better so we train our standards we exceed the DCJS which regulate from New York State what security guards do as far as tactics and and weapons proficiency we exceed that um our guys trained under stress-based training we want them to be comfortable like I told you guys before we want them to be comfortable being uncomfortable that's our mission as far as our our tactical instructors uh our permanent patrol all our weapons are always going to be concealed um there no time do we ever want to uh act like we

035are in uh you know we are a militarized uh country all our weapons are always concealed our guards are on the perimeter at all times um they're not out talking to the public they're back in the background and they're watching they got their head on a swivel 360 Degrees watching everything being observant and a slight omnipresence you'll see them out there but their their job is not to to really engage with the public um we do popins we do check-ins on them daily we have our supervisors that go out and they check on these guys daily make sure that everybody is doing what they're supposed to be doing um and it's a uh it's an ongoing process yeah I'll just on on this again clearly delineate and we didn't pick our uniforms based upon comac

036that's we've been uh had them they are sharp looking no um but we've uh we are adamant about not just uh acting professional but looking uh looking professional Danny lady out clearly uh clear delineation of uh duties and responsibilities between you know the comac security guards here have great reputation with the public they all those warm fuzzy friendly people um you know the duties and responsibilities of those as Danny described red on the on the perimeter completely different I'm not going to converse with the public about the Mets and the Yankees and the Jets and the Giants it's not what they're there for I'm there for a different as as Danny made mentioned um just understanding and operating the preap uh environment this is something that Danny I go back a long time ago you

037know when districts first started talking about this um this is just not an armed guard again we understand the environment that um that we're working in and Personnel the process and Bob will go into that in a minute what that looks like of identifying those individuals who could work in this capacity is pretty pretty intense I just wanted to add one other thing too to the board is that um our our our um our relationship with the police department they know where we are they know what our plates are on our vehicles um they're aware of what we're what we're wearing um when in the districts that we already do have when a 911 call comes out to that District it's broadcasted to what the security guards are wearing what their their physical descriptions are

038so that that's going to uh alleviate any any future uh Blue on Blue scenario is if that occasion ever arose okay so u a little bit more about that uh quality control quality assurance Dan talked about it a little bit just before it's uh it's about selection it's about training as we've mentioned many times already tonight and it's about inspection um we need to uh what we're we're trying to do out a stack of resumés I think it's somewhere in a vicinity of 200 right now uh we need to go through those and identify the people not just individuals who have the background not just individuals who have uh you know an certain amount of experience but what did they do while they were engaged in that work um you could in any line of

039work be uh incredibly active engaged uh you know enthusiastic or you could collect your paycheck we're looking for people who are on the first side of that uh balance if you will uh because we need to be able to uh assure you and the community we need to be able to sleep at night to know that these people are ready to go forward if a tragic incident were to occur and you have active Killers or an active killer uh at one of the school buildings God forbid um that's a lot to expect from people so we're very careful in how we select our people U we're going through these resumés trying to find those uh hard Chargers if you will uh and after that in addition to whatever their experience was we're adding much more

040training on to them we uh Dan mentioned we shoot more often than we're required to by DCJS we do active shooter drills way more than uh you know we're required to uh and we talk about this tactic stuff with these individuals all the time they'll have uh those who you know as they come in they go through a panel interview with a bunch of different people in every different realm we have educators security um they're all looking for key things to make sure that these folks can be successful in this environment uh the the uh prek to2 environment um they'll go through uh an initial range qualification I don't know if you want to talk about that so again I um the range qualification we are pretty strict on the Range um I've had to

041fail family members we don't get we don't get Reise we go on a range we're looking for weapon proficiency we're looking for weapon manipulation um we're constantly judging them and and and um watching their weapon proficiency I will tell you we probably have right boss uh probably close to a 60% attrition rate um on our initial range uh interviews and then that you know that training is followed up by an active shooter drill where people as Dan mentioned earlier are put under stress where we're evaluating their uh you know aptitude for this kind of work and their physical capability to do it uh that those I don't know how how to put this exactly but every one of these range qualifications every time they go to the range they're with our instructors as I mentioned

042before if they we do an active shooter drill there with covert Personnel who are constantly evaluating and every single one of those training sessions eight seven or eight a year each one is a qualification if they don't pass they don't continue working um that may sound harsh but that's uh important for uh for you to know for the members of the community to know that uh we take it very very seriously and uh you know that's the end of their service as an armed guard there may be some other role for them with covert or with one of the districts as an inside guard but they do not continue as an armed guard if they can't pass these evaluations so I think the important piece to take it back why I have a federal firearms

043license we trained we trained on we trained nonstop um it it's a game changer you know seven or eight years ago this game to me you know I keep using that terminology so um again you know I think the message tonight was um trying to drive home two really important points um the process that the district the Board of Education and the administration went through where we come from and what the process looks like where um we um as Danny said and Bob said uh we have no favorites where it's open um we we're looking for those particular individuals um we we we certainly want to talk to the comac security Personnel who may be interested in going forward that being said it's not like some uh you know a law enforcement around the country

044where you get an extra five points because of when everybody they've got to meet they've got to meet those standards and we want nothing but to have the best the best of the best we treat our people well we give them the best equipment that to be able to push them to go forward as Tom Tom mentioned the last on the bottom up there is that go from that point forward as the superintendent started out by saying you know things we can and can I show the board saw some things in in exec session as to how the Tactical training is actually conducted you know so there's some medical pieces and and and that go along with that because we push the envelope as far as the size of some of these buildings so it's

045pretty intense uh process that goes forward these are just some of our partners um that we work with we continue to work with and uh just appreciate it U just want again want to say uh thank you for the uh hard charging questions that uh thank you Mr Clinton thank you to your team for being here so I think at this point um if we can switch back to the original presentation um the slide is questions from the Board of Education just regarding Armed Guard Security presentation I know that you asked a number of as Mr Flynn said hard charging questions uh which they were um because I know that the board has the best interest of our children in their heart and making sure that they're coming to school safe every day um but

046I'm going to give you an opportunity to certainly ask any questions hi um we already asked all our questions so I don't have a question but um I do appreciate that you understand that a school is a very different kind of community and the fact that you have an educational consultant to be the liaison is really important so um it it's it's comforting to know that you understand that so thank you not so much a question but just a comment that um you know this has been a process and I know uh Mr Flynn Dr Cox have talked a little bit about that but uh just for the Public's own edification this is something that um we took tremendously serious like we do all of our tasks as board members um the interview process was

047intense um and you know it came down to for for me personally it came down to being able to put my head on the pillow at the end of the night and uh be comfortable obviously um you know as cover presented the amount of training that they do on a consistent basis and when you talk about the word consistency something Mr Flynn I don't know if we can mention or not mention but is just how um consistent the guards are in terms of their presence at a building um in regards to knowing that building so that's the U that's certainly um a part of what we strive for it's one of the reasons that um one of The Advocates were having to talk about the you know the comac uh security personnel and seeing who

048amongst that group would um want to go forward in many of our districts where we have this program um we have some that work inside and a couple of days they'll work outside it's knowing the inside of that building um like really like the back of their hand we understand the need to know the building we uh we stress uh the importance of of consistency um that that being said is that um tactical training training that's conducted um um both uh on in buildings we train in we will train inside these buildings We'll be asking you over the summer I know we'll have to work with Frank because I know with you know custodians will work going a million miles an hour over the over the summer but we'll be conducting our tactical training inside

049your inside your buildings and with consistent Personnel thank you so I know that um I'm not sure if you can share like who would be in that building when You' be conducting training Mr Flynn because I think that's important for the community to know if you can share that just us okay I think that answers the question so um yeah no no nobody um it shut down um we have uh we have some of our security uh and or com security under perimeter our property is completely shut uh shut down so there's no Sports no nothing taking place that that's inside the building completely uh and we do those on holidays Saturdays Sundays I know we had the pleasure of being here on a Sunday morning at 4:00 a.m. going back a couple of years

050ago of doing it working with s with Danny ran that uh ran that drill Bob Bob was involved so we trained off off hours and holidays okay and on that topic as well um you had spoken a little bit about uh the armed security being out on the perimeter of the Omni presence um are you able to speak about I'm not asking about location but I'm asking you know sometimes the conversation will come up will there be in the building outside of the building can you speak to that you're going to be on on the perimeter where and and not just because of our model has been on the perimeter um as to the reasons exactly why I won't delve down into we've heard you know we've heard it discussed in either way I can

051tell you one of the things that I bring uh to the company I'm uh I'm a student of uh unfortunately some real dark incidents and U when Danny and I talked about this a real long time ago um we you know we we believe um and know that this is the best way to operate for a whole host of reasons and it was brought up by more mem as far as you know working in in you know in the K12 environment a lot of that um factors in but we trust our members and I trust the training God forbid to be able to operate and uh so yeah we're we're only on the perimeter and that includes um there's no reason to win they're not going in there for lunch or meal or whatever it

052may be and in bathrooms also thank you so much Mr Flynn that's important a couple of points that I wanted to bring out that really resonated obviously I saw the presentation in executive session wasn't sure exactly how much was going to be shared this evening so I'm say Obviously Sav my questions for the end but I have to say Obviously chief of P Patrol um the relationships that you have with the suffa County Police are so critically important there's no there's no doubt that we've depended on them in the past to come and uh and be a big part of our enhanced safety here in the school district we have I do believe we have the most phenomenal security team on the inside of the buildings um we've actually extended them on the outside of

053the buildings and patrol cars Etc but um I think that you know the suffa County Police does does do a phenomenal job they're in our buildings all the time I get the text all the time that they're doing walkthroughs um just checking in on the building so they're always close but the reality is is that in some cases you know they might not be there two three four sometimes more minutes um and time matters um which goes to my next Point Danny when you had spoken about you know the training level um and correct me if I'm wrong but you know one of the things in worst case scenario is that these guards are going to be going in and the people who will be coming up shortly thereafter you mentioned uh suffa County Police

054who will have you know the physical appearance dress what they're wearing Etc um but knowing that your armed security and correct me if I'm wrong that are going in are basically receiving the same exact training that the suffa County police would be showing up with um so it kind of goes hand inand in terms of it's there's not a different tactic and we don't have to get into the tactics but I think it's important that knowing that there suffa County police and these armed security would be on the same page yes is important yes so like like I told you before the emergency service unit we're responsible for training Patrol in active shooter response uh that's our job and what I bring to covert is basically the same principles we train him the same exact

055way because I feel like it's important because if if if you have single cars here in this sector you get one cop on a scene and the armed guards in there at least they can operate together they know how to to flow through a building together and to have a guard that knows the building is the most important thing for me um as a father as a parent you know they say the FBI statistic is every 8 seconds during an active shootter someone's being shot now you have a guard outside your building that actually knows the layout of your building when they're saying where's he's in the math wi they know exactly where the math wi is that's cutting down your response time dramatically okay good and Mr Flynn back to your point just about

056um we do have an amazing um set of set of guards inside of our buildings that are not armed um but they they have a tremendous amount of experience and you had said that they could potentially be that was a big part of what we were looking for that if we had some of our security that were're interested in participating and becoming an armed guard obviously they got to go through the train and qualify but if that's something I just really it's a thank you that you would you know the work that we've done with you over the years that you would consider some of our phenomenal armed security to go through that process if they choose to and without a without a doubt Dr Cox the other the other piece to that um it's

057essential as the program rolls out um you know although covert and comac they have have to operate seamlessly um it's a critical aspect of of of of conducting um a response successfully you've got you've done a lot in your video surveillance platform your command center and things so those individuals that will train with us um you know in response their response is critical to the safety of those who are going in the building so we rely on each other thank you so much and I think another piece that's critically important um that you need to know is through this process we've interviewed different vendors but I have to share with you the seriousness that you take regard guarding this conversation is not something to be taken lightly and the effort that you put into it

058is commendable I also think that the staff that you have hired speaks volumes I think as simple as having somebody who is a former high school or school teacher administrator you know we do know that every profession is different but to have somebody on your staff that has the ability to bridge the gap between law enforcement and how School schools function because schools can function differently um is is so critically important especially as part of that training so I want to thank you for that as well and that sums up my questions for the night we're blessed to have U Brian you know we have other Educators I learned a hard lesson 20 something years ago from a superintendent I worked with when I was as coming at cop mentality and writing plans for a

059district and he sat me down and said son you know so I I I I do I do know I do know the you know 22 years later um and and you know executed your level of expertise we've got the expert in the educational field here thank you thank you I think Dr Cox stole most of my glory to give on to Don I don't know how much more can praise Don again thank I guess the biggest compliment I think you said is the uh over the past 12 years the work that we've done like this is this is L on the community we've taken security not just this one point this is another layer and you know I thank you because over the years since you and I worked together over the past 12

060years you know we started day one which we had like little security and we built up a probably a state-ofthe-art system and you helping us along the way really got us to where we are so really glad to work with you and get for the community this is part of our upcoming budget for next year so this is um something we're looking you know basically looking forward to working with cover going forward on this process with you together so thank you for all that time no thank you and and I I don't say I don't say this lightly because um I have this conversation and it's not the same you know in a lot of places and I said earlier about the assessment process um the community has has embraced and I I keep saying

061it's unfortunate where we where we've come in the world but uh comac has rolled with it and uh been very uh very responsive so I I appreciate it thank you thank you any other questions just um can you just tell us most important to me is technology just tell us about the technology that you use yeah I'm going to start and then I'm joh and Brian because we have two cyber experts here one one of the things um again i' I've had um my my background when I left um when I left PD I did a lot and that's where the name of the company comes from cobart uh I did a lot of cobart uh surveillance going back with um some uh tou was a we did a lot of technical stuff so the

062video surveillance and access control piece I I call them the toys I love the toys uh they're another another layer of where it's evolved at this point in time i' I've left it um to the experts in Tom if you want to talk about the a the a and so I love the toys too um I'm a drone pilot myself as far as the AI training Solutions there are incredible wonderful things that are being developed by companies out there um active shooter training school security training there are wonderful things coming down the pike so I love investigating all that stuff getting on call show me how this works can we get a demo can I come in and try it um so there are wonderful advances technological advances that make our guards better um every

063time they train I just want to say one piece uh the communication Park which is a PL by this technology we talk about Rave app we talk about radios you talk about cell phones all the different ways in which we're able to get information across to staff members to certainly children and certainly to the parents um having a robust communication system is really the most important part of this and that's with technology we have to keep evolving technology is getting better we have to keep moving along with it and c i kud toise she's been fantastic working with her regarding technology and focusing on the security aspect of this so there it's not we're never going to stop here we just if something new comes out we're just going to keep looking forward okay so

064if that concludes the questions from the board um to finish up our administrative report we have a few committee updates so we're going to start with legislative advocacy Mr Haron sure so again kind of rehash over the past year I guess maybe before uh I'm sorry I forgot I'm gonna you're not students but you know usually when we have students here uh I'm still I'm still maybe you guys have homework I don't know but ask any questions of Don can you answer the public questions guess Don before you leave just a quick question does anyone in the public have any questions for cover because I don't want them to lose the opportunity but again we're going to try to we won't time you but just try to keep it to a one question regarding so

065at least if Don has I don't want to lose that opportunity go ahead I have a couple of questions I don't necessarily like expect you to answer them now um my name is Heather Gordon I have two children in the district uh a first grader at Northridge and a seventh grader in the Middle School um also on many of the ptas and Council um so what is what what is the cost of the program what is the impact to the budget um is a question so I will let Mrs Newman I know the numbers but I will let Mrs Newman or is that part of is that part of part two of the meeting then you want to answer it now no I'm happy to answer the question question um we're not going to be

066uh reviewing that part of the budget per se but in the um the three-part Budget on the capital piece there's a little over a million dollars for this then also in the administration cost there's approximately $300,000 which is anticipated increased uh Insurance costs okay thank you um I know like initially we had discussed most likely one guard at all of the buildings possibly two at the middle and two at the high school is that still what the plan is yeah so the plan was to have two guards at the high school two at the middle school and one at the elementary schools obviously Road as well at C Road as well and then what what happens with the armed the armed not armed the security vehicles that we have at the buildings now are those

067used by covert or do our guards remain in those buildings outside or do those guards trans that's a great question I will share with you and then I'll let Don follow up with his staff in terms of uh vehicles but we did increase our security presence in all of our elementary schools by adding a patrol car putting it on the outside close to the perimeter they are our security guards we are not looking to reduce any security guards they will remain in place and now I will hand it over to Don to talk about what that will look like if he can um your guards their transportation Etc yeah we provide our own uh our own vehicles and as Danny mentioned that's how we coordinate with the both the second and the fourth um our

068Personnel are in and out of their vehicles but uh responsible for providing them which we do are they uned vehic they're unlocked vehicles um and then do will will the armed guards be linked to the Rave app that the district currently uses absolutely um they don't have a choice now they so that'll so they'll immediately you know absolutely every everyone in every District we have them mandated to be on it and they they they embrace it it's an unbelievable tool and um you know Brian and and Bob are are very in tuned with that so yes they will have the Rave app and there's other apps that they'll have on their phone as Brian mentioned as far as communication but yes they'll all participate ra we just so you know too when we do our

069daily check-ins we check and make sure that their Rave app is up and working every day there's a way on the Rave app to actually do testing and we we actually right in front of us have to test every appap and make sure that it's functioning properly awesome thank you just one last question I'm sorry Steve um like with regard to the guards that are assigned to comac so I'm assuming that it will be you know Tom at northr Joe at Indian Hollow you know do they rotate around the building so that they're familiar with all of the buildings in case there's an emergency like if there was an emergency would guards leave one location to go to another location no um we're not sort of our our Personnel that are assigned to that particular

070building that's what they're assigned they're not racing from building to building there are things that we won not talk about but procedures that we have in place God God forbid but um response the lights and siren that belongs still belongs to the suffer County Police Department our people be holding to that particular building and if Joe at Northbridge crawls in sick who replaces him like is it somebody do you have other people that are you know backups or Subs if you will that are familiar with the buildings and everything we have a very uh substantial uh substitute pool a lot of our substitutes are actually active uh suffa County nasso County and NYPD so that's where our active people roll in and then we have things in place to make sure that they know plan

071layout and then there are other tactical pieces that um if they if they don't work there every single day that there things that Dan teaches them tactically to be able to respond but we have a very uh substantial substitute pool of active Personnel thank you thank you very much thank you you hea any other questions for covert all right gentlemen I'll let you head home early for your homework get ready for school so back to Mr Hartman update on our legislative advocacy committee thank you Dr Cox so again the big big culminating event is the Lis advocacy committee will be going up to Al on Wednesday March 19th again uh the students Administration um myself and other people will be attending and certainly meeting with our legislative groups and other people of the Department of

072Education we're looking forward to to uh the upcoming meeting and we'll report back on the next board meeting thank you Mr Hartman and now we're going to ask Miss pulum to give us a quick update on the technology steering committee meeting good evening everyone I'm here just to let everyone know that our next meeting for the technology steering committee is going to be on April 2nd it's going to be in the comac high school student study center and it is an inperson meeting with all of the subcommittees getting together to share out all of our findings um over the last couple of months months and um Dana and I are very excited to see everyone there uh please feel free to stop by even if you've not been a part of the committee before we

073are always looking for new members thank you Miss pulam and last but not least our Multicultural committee which is coming up it's hard to believe it's already March and in a month we'll be uh celebrating our Multicultural committee yeah so Saturday Saturday April 5th from 12: to 3: at the at the middle school will be our Multicultural Festival really excited this year um our students especially our high school students have really kind of Taken taken uh taken a hold of this and embraced it and are doing some phenomenal things um tremendous thank you to miss Lano and Miss dienzo for their leadership with this but really um really excited a lot of families have been interested in coming out and it's been a great great event every year and continues to grow so really looking

074forward please mark your calendars and and we hope to see you on Saturday April 5th thank you Mr ruse I want to thank you and Mr rienzo because so much of the um of the work has been driven by the students that are part of this committee and they have really started to share a lot about their own cultures and celebrating their cultures and educating other students about their cultures and to see them sort of light up in our hallways and actually say that they feel a stronger sense of belonging to the comac school district because you know they're able to freely speak about their cultures and educate other students in a in a very productive way and then celebrate it as a culminating activity at this Festival is to be highlighted so phenomenal work

075so at this point before we get into our budget Workshop number one we're going to move towards board business thank you Dr Cox with that I'll turn over to Dr Hender to read the Board of Education statement thank you Mr Hartman our board meeting has two opportunities for public comment one where the public can comment on specific agenda items only and one at the end of the meeting where the public can comment on other school district matters please take a white card if you have a question on specific agenda items and a green card if you have comments during public participation on other school matters comments must be no longer than 3 minutes the district clerk will call each person up by a number we are monitoring the time and we'll let speakers know when

076their time is completed when called up to the microphone please state your name and whether you are a district resident please only speak to the board directly the board appreciates the community's feedback these commentary periods are not time for public debate or for answering specific questions where a direct answer cannot be provided we will make a note of any questions where the answer is not known and provide a response as soon as possible to the person asking the question public comment does not allow for positive or negative statements about a specific employee as it relates to his or her job performance any matters related to specific students will not be discussed the president shall terminate the right of any speaker if they are overly lengthy repetitive disruptive disrespectful to anyone and or offensive as well

077as if the public becomes unruly and lack Max respect for others thank you thank you Dr Hender with that I'll turn over to uh the district clerk to do our comments on specific agenda items only again these are anyone that has a white card can come up and speak please state your name yep thank you hi uh my name is Priscilla Warner and I am a district president um I had some things that I'd like to share about Safety and Security as relates to the armed security presentation that we heard tonight do I just start yeah go right ahead okay hi my name is Priscilla and I would like to thank the board for this opportunity to speak I'd also like to thank covert investigations for their thoughtful and comprehensive presentation tonight the safety of

078our children is Paramount and I would like to share my gratitude for the exploration of ways to protect the students and staff of comac research research shows that armed officers in schools can have negative effects on suspensions expulsions absenteeism and graduation rates rates with this in mind I would like to draw attention to some additional evidence-backed measures of gun violence pre prevention as recommended by the every town Coalition of which I am a member safe schools are built on trusting relationships among students staff and administrators this means continuing to cultivate an affirming academic climate where all members of the school feel comfortable sharing information they have about potentially dangerous situations it is also important that any individual who may be at risk of acting on a dangerous plan be identified and offered proper support such

079as trauma informed Crisis Intervention before any harm comes to pass additional additional advice offered up by the Sandy Hook advisory commission suggests implementing Access Control measures such as single access points fencing or external door locks and intern interior door locks to enable Educators to lock out dangerous individuals in October the board presentation include the topic of social emotional learning and there was a follow-up tonight this is the foundation of the safety principles and I applaud the district for working hard to improve and maintain the highest standards ofal opportunities for our children I hope as we discuss the budget and the many accomplishments of our students and staff we continue to make mental health and counseling a priority for the safety of everyone this information I provided tonight is from the everytown research is from everytown

080research.org thank you thank you is it Miss yes so I would say the a number of items that you brought up just in terms of security enhancements that you had mentioned um if you do have the time and you want to email me I'd be more than happy to set up an appointment to sit down with you because we we have done a number of security enhancements over the last 10 years so I can share some of you them with you that I am am not able to share in public in this setting yeah AB um so if you want to leave um if you want to email I know my email address is right on the website so feel free to um reach out to me and I'd love to sit down and go

081over some of the changes that we've done over the years awesome thank you Dr Cox i' love to do that yes thank you uh if anyone has another white card that would be number three okay thank you Miss verer with that I will continue on with our agenda there are no correspondences to be acknowledged for this particular board meeting so moving on to donations a motion to resolution to accept the following donations as listed um one from Daniel and Stephanie Ginsburg and one from uh Jack Henry for his Eagle Scout project can I get a motion can I get a second second any discussion all in favor I I motion carried I need a motion to approve the minutes from the February 13th 2025 Board of Education meeting as well as the February 27th 202

082executive session meeting can I get a motion please motion can I get a second second any discussion all in favor I motion carried can I get a motion to approve the Personnel agenda as listed motion I get a second any discussion all in favor I motion carried consent agenda item new business I get a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented Andor amended numbers 2 through 15 I get a second second any discussion all in favor I motion carried there are no consent agend items legal and then items remove for consent agenda be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Board of Education Awards the district's armed security guard services to covert investigation for the period of July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 pursuant to the terms of the

083district's RFP and the proposal submitted by covert investigations can I get a motion can I get any discussion all in favor I I motion carried I'm going to acknowledge the statement of Professional Services from Bond shanuk King King for the month ending January 31st 2025 as well as acknowledge receipt of the January 2025 Financial reports as listed below I'm going to acknowledge receipt of the internal claim orders monthly update I'm going to acknowledge the seat of the committee on special education dates as listed as well as the dates of the preschool as listed as well just want to give a pause for a second before I get into the next meetings because there actually some important things so to my left Dr Cox is actually getting a big award this this month and he doesn't

084want to be but he's actually getting the scope administrative service award he was chosen for outstanding service to the comac schools and will be honored to scope's 24th annual dinner the comac school district dinner be held on March 24th in hobber also Dr Cox is nominated and be recognized for the 2025 matok Boy Scout excellence and education award that ceremony will be held in September in November so again as a district we're really proud of all the accomplishments that he's done and this is ackn ment of all the great things that he's done and accomplished here so I just I know we did send that acknowledgement out to the community but I definitely wanted to acknowledge all the hard work that you've done over the past three years here in the transformation that you have

085done so we're really excited about those can I say a few words absolutely speech so um I do not like this type of attention but I I will say that I am so humbled um to receive these Awards they were they came as uh as quite a surprise and I have to say that we would not and I say we would not be recognized or I would not be recognized for these Awards if it wasn't for our staff it wasn't for our staff um who are carrying out you know the day-to-day every single day it's one thing to have a vision um but it's another thing to see administrators teachers staff support staff internalize it believe in it um you know sometimes they say you try to get buyin and um you know I look

086at it more like enrollment you know and I want you know individuals to enroll in what we're doing and I think that our staff they see the value in the direction that we're going in and I and I just um am so grateful to have the staff that we have because there is absolutely no way we would be able to accomplish the things that we are accomplishing here in comac if it wasn't for the board support and if it wasn't for the staff who were in The Trenches working with those students every single day it's one thing for me to be up here and I'm probably going to be saying this again in a little while when we do our budget presentation but it's one thing to talk about authentic learning and for students to

087be able to find meaning in their learning while they're here in comac but I'm not the one in the classroom and the single greatest influence in student learning are the teachers in the classroom and so um I'm just so proud to be a part of comac I'm so proud to see some of the positive publicity that comac is receiving not only on Long is but across the country and so Mr Harman thank you so much for the acknowledgement but um I share this award with everyone who works here at comac so thank you welcome all right so for the upcoming meetings little tweaks and modifications so our next meeting for the comac Fe Union fee school district will hold its uh budget Workshop number two on Thursday the 27th at 7:00 p.m. The Hub Administration

088Center 40 Clay pitz Road however it is anticipated the board will not make a motion to adjourn into executive session at 6: p.m. and then we'll reconvene for the meeting which is the budget Workshop number two as well so the meeting is going to start at 6 we go at 7 next come back to public at 7 and again the budget workshops are public meetings they're not they're not board meetings so basically people know that workshops are not actual official board meetings so we're not doing any kind of voting board business doing board business right and correct so in addition we'll hold an order committee meeting at 6:00 on uh that is April the 3 here at the hubs Administration Center 40 Clay pitz Road East Northport New York at that time also again we'll

089probably also be going to Executive session at 6:30 just to have another executive session meeting at 6:30 and then we will exit executive session and then reconvene at 7 pm to hold our informal budget hearing so that's another one and then lastly the Board of Education will hold a regular meeting budget adoption on Thursday April 10th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at the hubs Administration Center is anticipated the board will make a motion for the purpos of adjourning to Executive session at this time and the board will reconvene at 8 o'cl for its regular public session meeting good job thank you a lot of modifications a lot of stuff this is our busiest time of year so yes and I thank the board but there's a lot of stuff going on we want to make sure

090we're all together work working on these different issues so with that I'll turn over to miss verett for comments on non-specific agenda items this would be the green card if anyone has a green card that would be green card number one green card number [Laughter] 28 okay okay if there's no public participation at this time we're going to I get a motion to adjourn the meeting motion can I get a second second all in favor I I motion carried so now we will start our budget Workshop number one thank you Mr Hartman and Mrs Newman we all know that this is the you I'm gonna time of year the Most Wonderful Time of the Year mine usually comes with a little bit of warmer weather um but at this time I'm going to turn it

091over to Mrs Newman so Mrs Newman is going to speak a little bit about budget Workshop number one the numbers and then uh we have a couple of presenters to talk about what does the instructional plan look like for 25 26 so Mrs Newman the floor is yours all right thank you very much and welcome and yes it is the best part of the Year even though it's still winter but we're going to get through March very quickly so good evening everyone and tonight uh just to kind of go through a little bit about what our proc process is although Mr Hartman I think kind of just identified um the dates that the board will be getting together for those workshops we have listed out exactly what we'll be talking about at those different workshops

092um that certainly will then culminate on April 10th at that board meeting the Board of Education will formally adopt a budget for the residents to vote upon uh voting day is going to be on Tuesday May 20th and that will be at the normal polling places at the high school and middle school so first thing that we want to talk about is our tax levy uh we do uh operate under tax cap formula as you can see throughout our uh history here we have never uh exceeded what our tax cap is and that is certainly going to be true as the budget we present to the Board of Education over these next budget workshops our tax cap formula is capped at a 2.29% and the budget that we will be presenting to the Board of

093Education uh would carry that number as well that figure represents approximately a three and a. half million increase uh overall our Revenue budget would be increasing by $5.9 million the largest portion of our revenue is our taxes the next largest portion is our state aid uh right now the governor has released her budget uh we are looking at a budget to budget increase of a little over $1.9 million I always do like to point out I know that the board is keenly aware of this but for the public when Newsday prints their charts the public will see a different number the reason for that is because when the uh State and the governor released their budget they readjust the previous year budget so as a result of that when we present our budget to budget

094figures we don't change our numbers the numbers that we list out are the numbers that the public and the community and the board saw last year so again just like to point that out so that everyone is aware of that we are seeing a slight increase in our tuition-based student program um and then there's a slight increase in our use of money in property that is B basically driven by leas space the district does have four buildings that are no longer utilized as school buildings they are rented out to outside entities so therefore we generate revenue from those I'd also like to point out there's a decrease on our Reliance on fund balance and reserves that has been something that the superintendent and the board of education has been uh steadily decreasing every year we

095always like to say that that is a good thing the less that we have to rely on our savings accounts to fund our programs the better so again we're looking at a budget to budget increase of about $5.9 million and we're also seeing that decrease uh on that Reliance on fund balance and that is a long-term goal that the superintendent and the board of education has um embraced uh to identify all those the fund balance and reserves that we are utilizing in this proposed budget uh you will see on the appropriated fund balance that is where the $250,000 decrease is we are recommending that we uh re regenerate and re uh allocate the same reserves that we utilized in this budget cycle for the next budget cycle also New York State requires that all school

096districts present their budget in what they refer to as a three-part school budget uh and that is a good thing for residents to be able to then compare their school district to any other school district in the State uh it gives more uh uniform information for the public to be better informed as to where their school district is spending their money there are three categories uh the largest of which is the program piece that is what we will be uh seeing tonight um by our presenters um that is where the overwhelming cost to a School District budget resides it's what I like to call kind of the classroom walls in it is your teacher salaries it is your uh classroom supplies it's your textbooks it is your mental health support all those items that go

097into the education the social emotional learning piece of a School District budget in comac that will represent 72 2% of our overall budget so tonight you will be seeing a tremendous amount of where the school district's resources are being spent the next item is capital or cost of operations and that's literally what that means it's the infrastructure of our buildings of our utilities it is where all of our bond costs and our capital projects costs reside and then lastly our administrative and general management of the school district that's kind of the corporate piece of any business that is the portion and that represents about 11% of comac's overall budget again to look at the numbers we will be reviewing tonight the programmatic portion uh that carries an almost $3 million increase uh would point out

098that that figure would have been higher um but we are uh facing we have actually 41 seasoned employees who have um put in for retirement so from a budgetary standpoint that is a positive uh Reliance on the budget in that it's less money for the school district to have however we also have to recognize that with an exodus of those seasoned veteran teacher support staff custodial staff maintenance staff um we're also going to be losing uh quite a bit of talent and skill along with that uh next piece of the budget would be the capital portion that increase uh just would like to point out we saw a presentation tonight regarding our security the increase to the budget it will be on that line so that accounts for that piece of it the other portion

099is we are budgeting for what would be the final phase of the bond borrowing uh of about $1.6 million um depending on the speed uh that SED approves projects we may need to borrow some of that money in the next uh fiscal year so that funding is accounted for and then finally the 11% of the administration and general management represents about a half a million dollar increase overall the budget to- budget increase is a 2.62% the tax levy would be be a 2.29% increase and that recommendation would be at our tax cap and with that I'd like to hand over the controls so that the board and certainly the public can see all of the programs and services that are happening inside of our school buildings thank you Mrs Newman so now moving on to

100some of our 2526 instructional highlights um so Mrs Newman shared the numbers and some of the increases and these are some of the results there are a combination of things that we are maintaining our budget or things that are in our budget which um becomes a challenge as the governor is decreasing the amount of state aid that we get year over years the percentage seems to be going down um but we're still able to not only maintain our programs but in some cases enhance it we do have a little combo presentation tonight so I'm going to start us off and then I have Dr lson and Mrs Li hols who are going to speak a little bit about some of our uh you can see in the picture right here even Mrs Santella was clapping

101in the background in that video she was so excited that they were coming up the timing timing is everything but um so they're going to be highlighting some of our middle school and high school programs and some of the enhancements there you know you see in newspaper you see there's in newspaper you read about some of these District's buildings are opening they're closing you know they're reducing Staffing um you know you're going to see in tonight's presentation that not only this year we've been able to do some pretty amazing things we've been able to Pilot things but we've also um been able to sort of uh spread that pilot out to make it to make it reach even more students so first we're going to start off with a vision right a shared Vision so

102when we talk about transforming we really we are transforming what a traditional education looks like so for those of you that graduated from high school years ago I can share with you that everybody seems that to visit comac high school now or some even some of our elementary schools we all saying that they wish they could go back to school um we're creating these authentic learning experiences I say like our children come into our system and they come in and you know because you have probably Legos all over your living room that they're learning through exploration and Discovery and they're building and they're asking tons of questions and we really want to empower that we want to cultivate that we don't want um for years education has been sort of this industrial model um where

103students have regurgitated what they learn rather than taking the approach where there's a time for skill and drill there's a time for that lecture piece but it has to be balanced with being able to apply that in real life situations and that is how we do it we apply their knowledge to real world experiences and you will see with some of our exit criteria which we have shared time and time again um that our students are graduating um not only well we know financially fluent which we'll talk a little bit about um but also ready to make the the best decision for what they want to do when they graduate from our schools so you'll see here that when that last box talks about preparing students to make the best decision I'm going to keep

104saying it because when I keep saying it we keep thinking about it and we keep thinking about that 17 18 year old that has to make a decision on what they want to do with their life at 17 now most of us look back let's think back to when we were 17 I know it feels like a blip on the map right but for some of us it may be and I won't say you know I won't do it in decades you know but it's been some time right but it feels like just yesterday and remember that just yesterday when you were 17 you were like what either College you going to go to or if you were going to start a career what are you going to do the rest of your life well

105I hope the rest of your life there's a lot of it after 17 18 years old so to make that decision it's an impossible task so how do we do a better job at preparing students to make that decision I got to say the administrators the staff the conversations they've had the career exploration tapping into students interests finding out what they're interested in because if you have interest and we can turn those into career interests imagine if you could do what you want for a living and it's something that you're interested in I'm fortunate I love what I do and I get and and this is what I get to do when I get to call it work um you know what the best part about it is and and there's not too many jobs

106where you can say this we're changing children's lives all right we're changing children's lives together parents our community our teachers our staff our administrators our board we are literally changing children's lives and I feel like half the time and Mrs lien Holz can back me up on this at the high school that a student will stop us in the hallway we'll have a conversation with them and we ask a lot of questions these poor kids we ask you know what made you choose that class what do you want to do after high school what how did you decide that and when we hear the stories based off of programs that this community has supported and the board has supported change the trajectory of a student's life and you watch their eyes light up with passion

107about what they want to do after high school now that is the most rewarding feeling an educator can have at least we me now you will see on this slide this is our educational Continuum Mr Russo did a phenomenal job talking about some of our learner profile quotes you will see traits you will see them up there the inquirers principled balance clearly I need glasses now uh um communicate so I'm going to walk closer to it communicators thinkers knowledgeable open-minded Risk Takers reflective I have these 10 memorized but they're getting a little blurry in in the last couple years so um let me let me share with you one of the things you know when we talk about social emotional learning right we talk about um we do it through literature right we talk about

108kindness I think um there's so much if you have a chance to look at our social emotional experience um pamphlet that we have on our district website please print it there's even a student on there um with a video talking about their experience but I'm going to share with you that and I'm sure many of you can agree the experiences that you have in your life don't they shape you as a person right don't they shape you as a person I think about all those baseball games I lost where I really wanted to maybe throw the helmet or the bat and I didn't there's lessons there you know you learn about adversity you learn about disappointment we can be very intentional our children are with us for 13 years typically 13 years in our school

109system it should not just be about checking boxes Indian Hollow Brian I won't leave you out and Jessica I won't leave you out Rolling Hills but you know in a K2 building it's I'm finished in a 3 four five building am I finished it's just like checking okay I finished with that school I'm moving on to the next now I'm in middle school I finished middle school now I move on to high school and it starts new and every every you know know the end of second grade beginning of third New Year the end of fifth grade beginning of sixth grade it's a new start they're with us for 13 years it shouldn't be a dress rehearsal it shouldn't be just checking boxes it should be an experience and I'm going to point out and

110and I'm going to give a lot of credit to Dr Larsson and his team he brought in two brand new electives probably stealing your thunder when you talk about electives just about stop so I I'm going to shorten mine so because we know yours is going to be long no actually have a work so Dr Larson brought in two electives one of which a student uh is uh sports management another one is mock trial these these electives line up with our Pathways at our high school we have Pathways at our high school School of Business School all right I'm GNA stop Dr Larson so we have students now in sports management that I we got to teach and observe some of these classes and they and you hear the student say okay what classes like

111this are at the high school so I can continue what I'm doing here because I think I love business I'm interested in it but what are the classes they are now connecting what they're learning in the Middle School to high school they're Bridging the Gap themselves based off of programs based off of language um and so they're doing a phenomenal job 13 years is a long long time to just to not be an experience and we want your children to have an experience so here are some of the things some of that were continuing Traditions but in some cases we're enhancing obviously small class sizes in our elementary is something that we're very proud of expanded career Pathways engaging at clubs and events High School schools concept Mr liin hunz won't steal your thunder because

112I know you're going to talk about that in a little bit I did talk about the learner profile branding but here's where I'm going to get a little bit more specific we are going to be very intentional some of the planning that we're going to be doing in the next couple months and over the summer with our staff is going to be very intentional so so if you have those learner profile traits right here what are activities that we can put our students in that will help shape them as a human being to develop those learner profile traits so maybe it's a simple and our teachers are doing this right now so whether it's writing letters to the veterans clearly that's caring right so we can create authentic learning experiences activi that our students can

113engage in maybe at the high school it's going to a soup kitchen you know there's a lot of different activities that students can go to where they're going to shape themselves as human beings and they will start to embrace those learner profile traits if you Embrace those 10 learner profile traits then we are graduating some really really good children and our CH I'm not saying that the children with graduating are not great children they're amazing you walk through the hallways of that high school and they are the sweetest most kind students ever met they don't just say hello they ask how your weekend is um they notice when you get a haircut it's it's it's unbelievable they're just it's a it's it's a special place comac but I do believe that for example we have

114the ability to create in k to2 a set of experiences to help shape children and embrace those learn and profile traits I believe that there are activities taking place right now in our intermediate that we can assign to those learner profile traits and surface it and talk about it and maybe some of our staff have some new ideas what other activities could we think of to help students shape themselves so they Embrace those learner profile traits um same thing with the middle school and the high school so we're really looking forward to that work because again it goes back to social emotional learning it goes back to the students experiences shaping who they are and putting them in that environment Financial fluency you've heard us talk about financial literacy Financial fluency is a step so

115much further that we've created this year and when you talk about financial rece those are things that you can teach in a classroom you can teach a student about credit card debt interest loans mortgages checking savings accounts you can teach that in the classroom and we do but for them to then go and apply it in a real life setting like our Bloomberg Finance lab to the point where students were given a mock okay we didn't give students $10,000 we gave them a simulated $110,000 to invest and create a portfolio and boy did they learn about risk because they came in the next day and they saw that their stocks took a serious hit and $10,000 turned into barely $11,000 and then it's wow where do I go from here students are understanding risk they're

116understanding how to build a portfolio I'm sorry parents but your students might be asking you to download Robin Hood or they might be looking to invest now in retirement at 17 years old that's a positive thing so when you get to that level it's beyond financial literacy it's Financial fluency college courses accredited college level courses let's talk a little bit about our college level courses folks we've always mentioned the percentage of students that take college level courses you know we used to show 2120 because when you looked at one or more college level courses in some cases it was we probably should still show it it's in the 70s we're in the 90s we're 96% of our students take one or more college level courses 84% take three or more and 77 more than three

117quarters of our graduating seniors this year are taking college level courses but let me draw your attention to the right side of this slide because we also look at how do we create access to college level courses for every single one of our students in our high school not just the general ed students but our students with IEPs our special education students and you will see that last year I started to track this and you will see in 20124 last year we graduated 19% of our students with IEPs graduated and took five or more college level courses 19% at the end of this year we are going from 19% to 24% that's an incredible incredible increase now I will share with you that many of those students are ICT students resource room students but do

118you know that our 151 class at the high school is also included in that and there somewhere between 12 or 13 students who have taken college level courses one of our students in the in the special class has taken three college level courses now there are also in those class special classes many of our students spend half the day at Wilson Tech participating in a technical uh trade we do have the school of vocational and Technical studies at our high school so students over a 100 students so close to 100 students participate in those programs where for half the am or half the PM they go to Wilson Tech many of our students in these uh special classes are attending those so they don't have the room to fit as many electives as some of

119the other students but the fact that that number represents all of our students all of our students is something is something that you should be proud of and something that we are proud of um Elementary program things that we're going to maintain obviously professional growth our administrators our staff look at the excitement in the top left that that's what our professional growth looks like they're having fun movement in the Arts maida that's something that we're going to keep uh enrichment for all at the at the intermediate something that we're going to maintain the things that I did not mention we do have lunch and learn in our 3 through five but we did not have lunch and learn this year in our AR we did not have Tower Gardens we did not have the agricultural

120education that we have we have a high school teacher that runs the greenhouse that comes down and teaches our intermediate schools about agriculture then takes them to a farm that we own yes a farm that we own Mar and Carl farm that we brought back to life where they're planting lettuce bok choy celery cabbage definitely because we uh we have a student that has grown the largest cabbage in New York state and won $1,000 the Cabbage was literally bigger than him it was 15 15 pounds 18 pounds I was way off um 18 pounds we are so excited because these were pilot programs we piloted the discovery Den at Northridge we piloted agricultural education we piloted lunch and learn this year next year we will be looking to expand Discovery Den across all four primary

121schools lunch and learn will remain in place we're going to do some work with our agricultural education to find out where is the best spot for our intermediate schools to go and visit the farm um you can see Ryan McGrath in one of those pictures he's phenomenal teacher at our high school that has been doing just great work with our elementary school students and this picture Tower Gardens they were new this year when we talk about authentic learning this is what it looks like when you look at the faces of these students and obviously I think Mr Simpson has the brightest smile down in the bottom but he's really excited about the amount of lettuce that he's grown is it it's something special when you see students their eyes light up because of programs that

122this community this board and these and the staff in this District have put in place and found a way to make work is um is something to be proud of these are some of our class sizes on the left hand side you're going to see that do not exceed starts in kindergarten and if I work my way up to fifth grade it starts in kindergarten at 23 25 26 27 28 29 these are do not exceed these are not contractual these are numbers that we feel we would like to keep our classes at this size I will share with you for 25 26 we are projected to be below all of those do not exceed numbers and at this point I'm going to invite uh Dr lson and Mrs lipen Holz to come up and

123talk a little bit about our secondary education program this is an overview of our secondary education everything from enrichment to Career related programs to preib preap enrich courses college level courses honor societies programs NP digital fluency Cedar Road electives the list goes on and on and on Miss liping Holtz and Dr lson the floor is yours thank you Dr Cox and board of education for having us I really appreciate that uh we're having the opportunity to to to sit with you apparently as evidenced by Dr Cox just moments ago I say too much [Laughter] so I actually have a plan for that and I actually think that it'll serve as a good balance right because one of the things we've heard a lot tonight isal programming balance programming um so when I put this presentation

124together I want to thank the Board of Education and Dr Cox leadership team as well for creating a budget that allows for the mainten M maintenance of a remarkable program K to2 but specifically I wanted to talk about CMS so on this slide here I kind of broke up our pre my presentation this evening into two slides one slide about the instructional component of CMS but the other slide that kind of speaks to what Mr Russo was talking about seal and life and learning at CMS but throughout the evening tonight we've heard a lot from adults so really what I would like to do is just give a quick snapshot about this and then allow the community allow the Board of Ed to hear what our children have to say about life and learning at

125CMS so basically at comac Middle School we're really great grateful that we have an IB IB Middle years program that is a very student centered instructional philosophy it encourages skill development we want our middle school students to become communicators thinkers Risk Takers all those learner profile traits that Dr Cox and Mr Russo were talking about before and what you'll see when you hear from some of our students in a couple minutes is they are embodying many of the traits that Dr Cox was mentioning about those comac Champion about the comac champion traits we are really proud of our enrichment program at CMS seventh and eighth graders uh can enroll in an enrichment course we were have been very intentional in the past couple years in trying to align the teaching and the instruction that goes

126on in those rooms to specific schools of that now exist at comac high school so we're trying to get students to begin exploring their passions now so that when they make the transition over to the high school they're able to enroll in a course of study that they have some degree of familiarity and exposure to Dr Cox had indicated before two classes that we began this year were mock trial and we began a Sports Management course both of those have become extremely popular and we'll be running next year next year we intend to fold in two additional new courses to kind of complement our stem program one will be an app creators class and a a Project Lead the Way app creators and a med Medical detectives class as well as a Global Connections cultural

127exploration class what I love about the enrichment program it's entirely student interest driven I'm not creating the enrichment program um that we we have had the opportunity to meet with children focus group with children um ask them what their interests are what their passions are and start to design courses that meet their interests as they presently sit um and enrollment drives the program right we can see from the data side of things what are kids enrolling in and and why and can we replicate those experiences in other places so in a nutshell our academic program obviously includes a strong focus on the IB Middle years program a great enrichment program we start language app um Exploration with our sixth graders taking language every other day continuing right up through 8th grade kids will leave comac

128middle school with a credit on their transcript for their world language class but there's also Advanced programming and Earth Science living en environment and algebra so we have CMS students that are graduating obviously from the middle school with transcript grades and that opens up opportunities for for them as they move into the high school with Miss lien Holtz so in addition to all of that we have a wonderful we have the entire spectrum of special ed services Dr Cox was just talking about the success of our special ed program K to2 we obviously offer a full complement of special ed services at CMS from beginning to end and we're grateful for all the support of the Board of Education the phenomenal teachers and the and the um support from Dr Cox to build the program

129the instructional program but Mr Russo was talking more about and learning at CMS and social emotional supports and life and learning at CMS is being involved right and we strongly encourage that the district supports that it's been uh one of Dr Cox's uh comments often is how involved do students get in the programs throughout our district we offer 37 different extracurricular opportunities for our children 22 different athletic opportunities for our children and we have a whole complement of mental health professionals standing by to lend targeted support individual support Universal supports on a tier one on a tier one level but tier 2 supports they attend team meetings they they do group counseling they provide pushin programming we really try to wrap arms around children as many ways as we can and we encourage them to

130become involved in extracurricular and athletic opportunities you'll see that sixth graders are uh afforded intramural activities because section 11 doesn't allow for uh elementary students to participate in uh sanction section 11 Sports so really the 22 sports at the top there that you see for athletics are primarily for seventh and eighth graders so we have a wonderful program um I'm grateful for the support of the superintendent the leadership team and the board of education for allowing us to for the creation of a budget that allows for the continuance of such such a robust program but I I tried to be as quick as I can Dr Cox but I would love to hear what the kids have to say so I took about we took about eight children and randomly we kind of asked them

131different questions what do you enjoy about your experiences here at CMS and they commented in about the enrichment program extracurricular programming and a number of other things so uh Miss buam I'm Conor Gil I'm in e8th grade and I go to comac Middle School my favorite sport to play is lacrosse my teammates they're fun to play with like we've been playing since kindergarten come back lacrosse so we have a good connection with each other the bus rides there really fun and on the way back we put play music and we sing together and it's really fun leadership it's cool how to see like how like I looked up to the eighth graders last year and now like I realize how like the seventh graders this year look up to like us eighth graders so the

132sports that they offer here that I played I play all four seasons I play soccer basketball volleyball and Lacrosse um from all of that I've learned obviously I said leadership and like it offers you like you get to have a good time with your friends after like a long school day and like learn to have build relationships with like other people in school and like make new friends hi I'm Ry Hill I'm in eth grade and I go to Comack Middle School I do the soccer program the volleball program and the track program when I was in seventh grade I looked up to all the all the eighth graders when I was in seventh grade and I used them to get more skill and they just taught me a lot so being in eighth grade

133now it's I got to teach the seventh graders new skill to like trust people like cuz now I trust like all my teammates and friends with all of them and balance for me was most like the most thing I struggled with in seventh grade but I've realized that like in seventh grade I would not take time as like much time to my school work cuz I thought like right when I got home from soccer volleyball track like I would just like need a break but now that like I'm in eighth grade I've realized that I need to make time for both my education and my sports I'm navigating like two things at once will just help with my future in general like when I go to high school cuz I know high school has more

134work and if I want to do the sports programs there that I'm just going to have to like be able to manage everything my name is Samuel cha and I'm an eighth grade in coac Middle School I do Student Government NG ghs CH and chamber orchestra because of all these things I've learned that time management is one of the most important skills in my life and I'm sure that it's going to remain relevant in my life because I want to do more than this when I go into high school and doing this is like a precursor to what I want to do in the future and I'm going to need to do more so then even in like past school this is going time management is going to help me balance everything that I want

135to do in life chamber orchestra and student government is like a well-oiled machine where like even though there's like four groups in chamber orchestra it's really just four different people working together and student government is the backbone of our school working on all the events that help everyone have fun and create what comac middle school is today my name is Luca Silva I'm in seventh grade and I go to comac middle school I do Student Government I do mock trial and I do wrestling probably organization because coming into sixth grade it was kind of hard like I was in resource room because I couldn't really keep track of my papers and it was just hard to keep everything in one spot and I knew where that spot was but in order to be like on

136the wrestling team or in mock trial you need to have good grades and in order to have good grades you need to be organized and so being on those teams have kind of pushed me to do better organizationally and better in school because if you don't do better in school then you can't be on the teams I want to be an attorney when I'm older and so mock trial is giving me the skills that I need to have to be an attorney and like it's taught me how to be quick on my feet when I'm under pressure in a situation it's taught me how to do proper research for cases and it's taught me how to you know speak up and then with wrestling it's not only Made Me Stronger physically but it's also helped

137my brain because like like I said you need to have good organization and good grades in order to stay on the team you need to be doing well in school all my teachers are like awesome like my Ela teacher she she's kind of just like my friend honestly like she's so nice and everybody's always coming up to me asking me about like my grandma my uncle and everything and so it's nice cuz like instead of just having teachers at the school and like principls and like guidance counselors and stuff like that it's also kind of like a family because of how involved like my family is in the school so it's also kind of like having a family my name is Josh Len and I'm an eighth grade and I go to Comic Middle School

138what I love about the enrichment program is that there's just so much off and every kid has something to do that they love I think I just learn like what I'm interested in and what I like and what I don't like cuz if I didn't take these classes you wouldn't know what you like and don't like I like that I could just have a class that I have something that I enjoy and just be free and like be comfortable talking about stuff sports management is something I wanted to do in the future so it I saw it and I'm like oh that's like a great program so it shows that um whatever you have an interest they will have in that program I'm Julia yand I'm in seventh grade and I go to KAC Middle

139School my favorite part about theater is getting to do it with my friends because since we already have so much chemistry together it's fun to like do different scenes because we get to like laugh about it and um I also get to teach them stuff about like acting and stuff and it's really fun it helps me learn how to like come out on my shell and like not really care what anyone else thinks and just go for it and it doesn't really matter if you do it right or wrong or like you forget something but like you tried and you did it it's helping me practice speaking more like in front of other people and like practice to like not like stutter or like be confident with what I'm saying hi I'm Kai Carol uh

140I'm in eighth grade and I go to comac Middle School my favorite part about being an art student is really that I can express emotions in the way I draw and the way I do things on the computer I could just draw however I feel and there's it's really loose so you can be very creative with what you make and it's just a really loose and free way and me and my friend we just love to hang out show each other our drawings in that class and it's really just a fun class it's digital and traditional so I do prefer traditional art but I did take digital art this year so it had me experience a new way of art that I didn't know that I could actually excel in and it was really fun

141and I love digital art and traditional art a lot of people say that they can't draw stick person but really A lot of people actually have talent they just need to experience it first through ART I can learn that I can be a lot of different people just by showing my art and I could be a person to someone by inspiring them to be an artist themselves hi my name is Sophia GRS I'm in e8th grade and I go to comac middle school I'm in band and chorus but there's also like select groups for each like I'm in select band and I'm also in treble singers and select chorus it's definitely given me a lot more confidence like in sixth grade I was not in any of the select groups but after I kind of

142pushed myself to get out of my comfort zone I've just kind of broken out of my shell and am now like really confident in music there really is something for everyone here and you don't have to follow what your friends are doing you can go and do what you want to do and you can always find people because everyone is so [Music] nice so I get when we talk about the learner profile traits and we talk about are we creating students that are balanced caring thinkers communicators Risk Takers are they reflective um I simply asked those students I I grabbed eight children and said listen would you be able to comment in on your experiences as an athlete or your experiences as a participating in clubs your experiences in art or music that was the

143only prompt they were given so um if there was nothing doctored there miss uh I want to thank Mr uh malam malamud and Miss pulum who were sitting there when we were recording this these kids had way more to share um the original cut to that was about 30 minutes we tried to get it down to 8 um so we're sorry that it was a little long but those kids were very excited and proud to talk about their experiences um so I know Miss Newman always says budget season is best you know most exciting time of the year but sitting with those kids and making that video with those Learners was far more exciting than um I mean well for me anyway not from a business standpoint but for me far very very exciting and

144and rewarding so um if there are any questions from the Board of Ed I'd love to um we'll wait till the end and then we'll ask questions thank you Dr lson cck yeah you have microphone uh good evening everyone um on behalf of the high school and the entire administrative team at the high school we just really wanted to thank Dr Cox the Board of Education and really the entire Community for allowing us to do everything that we do every day every day at at comac high school to be able to um build and provide programming to really fulfill and maintain our vision of preparing our students to make the best decision for their future we've really done this by maintaining and building College and Career programs for all of our students at comac high

145school um a lot of you know that we've had so many visits from other districts even visits from colleges to hear about the programs that we have available and every time a school comes to visit I they always ask what does it feel like to be principal of this building and I say to them I pinch myself every single day that I come to work as most of you know I am a graduate of KAC high school and I've always been so proud to be a member of the comac community from the time that I was born here but I couldn't be more proud to be the principal of comac high school now to know everything that we are doing and that you have helped us and allow us to do every single day to

146help all of our Learners succeed and to really prepare them for their future this year our theme is we are CHS exploration and Discovery through collaboration and we really are helping to our students explore and discover their interests their strengths and their passions as I said before to make the best decisions for their future feels like yesterday but way back in January AR we had curriculum night for incoming e8th grade uh nth grade students they're current eighth graders and we tell them this and we tell them they're going to explore and continue their interest and their passions that they probably did in their enrichment classes and some of their courses in e8th grade and we say that we are going to prepare them we're going to start talking about College and Career and I think

147they look at me like I'm crazy and I say to them I this is the same kid that probably has dirty socks in the middle of their bedroom but I promise you that once they reach by 10th grade by 11th grade you're going to see a different child and we're going to be with them every step of the way on their journey in order to help them do that and how do we help them do that we really help them to do that by making meaning of their learning we talk a lot about how students need to connect and Dr Cox said it before um connect with their teachers connect with the staff and build those relationships but they also need to build the relationships and connect with what they're learning that is so important

148um so one of the ways they do it there's really three parts of making meaning to what they're learning and one of it is relevant coursework the second part is really that Hands-On authentic learning experiences whether it's through field trips Vocational Technical Training or it may be through internships and the third which is amazing and really I think sets us apart from other schools is the real life spaces and experiences that we have created in our high school which has been truly amazing to see we're very lucky that next year we're going to meet meet be maintaining our coursework that we have at the high school we worked for the past couple years with our departments and with our department directors as well as our teachers to make sure that all of our coursework is

149up todate and we use the term a lot in education about 21st century skills and actually a lot of us just went to our Workshop in Texas and one of the Keynotes said well we keep talking about 21st century skills but the 21st century started 25 years ago which is kind of funny um so I don't and ever since then I'm like okay we have to stop using 21st century skills but we have to start thinking of we have to think about what skills do our students need so a lot of what we have talked about and what we're going to continue to explore is having conversations with people in career Fields right now having conversations with people in colleges professors what are the skills that our students need and we're going to continue to

150embed those in the coursework and if the courses are not challenging our students if the courseworks don't contain those skills and Concepts maybe they need to be revised um one particular particular one that I'm going to talk about in a moment was revised and we're bringing in a brand new course now for next year because it was a little outdated and we don't want to have those courses anymore again it's meeting our kids where they are now based on their interests based on their strengths so we're so excited to be able to maintain all of our courses based on student interests as you can see it runs a gamut in all of our different areas and we have 65 college level courses that we will be offering as Dr Cox shared before to all of

151our students have access to that and we have four new courses that are coming next year constitutional law will be coming next year discovering educational Technologies is a very different course that was um recommended by our technology department this is a mechanical engineering course that we've never had before we have a whole bunch of pltw um Project Lead the Way courses and Engineering courses but this is a very different course than we've never had before these are students that may not go to Wilson tech for vocational training um and courses students that the PLT double course may be a little bit too difficult for them because it contains too much math and science um so this is definitely a popular course for our students the course that I told you that needed a little revamp

152we have college presentational skills and and speaking this is going to be presentational skills course that actually is going to be a dual enrolled course by Syracuse University and again not to use the term 21st century skills but it's all communication skills so it's not just going to focus on public speaking it's going to focus on all different type of presentational speaking so just like I'm doing here or podcast or recordings or any type of different types of presentational skills that our students are going to need to enter whether it's into the workforce or enter into college and finally of course introduction to Bloomberg Corporate Finance which has been the one elective that has definitely bloomed significantly and I'm going to talk about that more in a moment the second part of making meaning of

153their learning is really the Hands-On experiences 106 of our students currently go to Wilson Tech that means that they spend half their day whether it's in the morning or the afternoon and they go to Wilson Tech on a variety of different campuses throughout suffi County and as you can see they go from anywhere from culinary arts to HVAC we have students in the nursing assisting program to hospitality personal training um carpentry drone technology it's really amazing um we had regions Tillis visit us and one of our own students is getting his pilot license and learning how to fly a plane and he is in the Wilson Tech program so it's really incredible and amazing what our students do a lot of our students graduate from comac high school and they are part of a Wilson

154Tech program they can't start till 11th grade but a lot of them are part of a two-year program and they are graduating from comac high school already with a job so that's absolutely incredible some of them are part of a union um and that's part of the Wilson tech training as well and it's really incredible training and um opportunities for our students we're very lucky to have extensive internship opportunities something that other school districts are definitely jealous of as well we currently have 64 students that are engaging in internships some of them are during the day some of them are after school some of them are even on the weekends um they range as you can see from accounting to kids who are working in a pharmacy to Sports Marketing law firms even people working

155with some local um legislatures we're very lucky that we have an education internship within our own School District where currently we have 22 students that go to our own Elementary buildings last year we actually had a student that wanted to teach Spanish and she was able to go to the middle school and intern with a middle school Spanish teacher so really the possibilities are endless we're really lucky to have somebody that works with us from Bose's but really works with us in comac um that works with us with um Wilson Tech and our internships and really just providing these amazing opportunities for our students um our students at Huntington Hospital they watch live births um they watch just incredible opportunities for our kids to realize is this something I really want to do um and

156maybe it's something they don't want to do before they leave high school before they enter into college and leave High School the third the third part of making meaning of their learning is really to us the most unique um it really does as I said set us apart from other schools and what it is is we can have the most amount of coursework which I think we do if you take a look at our course catalog and we can have the experiences where we take our kids on incredible field trips um but you're learning so much in the classroom but really it's the transfer of knowledge and taking it in and applying it into a real world space where you're really understanding and acquiring this deep learning and this deep knowledge and so it really

157started with our mock courtroom that opened as most of you know last September and these are some pictures of it if you had the opportunity to come to our high school it's absolutely beautiful and incredible it takes your breath away when you walk inside of it um we have an award-winning mock trial team that's currently in the middle of their competition season I feel like they're traveling every single day because they keep winning the competition um we also have some business courses Citizen Law that uses it business and personal law actually Dr Cox and I observe them doing their first trial it was actually very funny because they had no idea what they were doing but if you go now and see them they're incredible they know exactly what they're doing everybody knows their role

158and it's really incredible to see their growth but to see them do it here and not in a classroom so instead of putting the desks up and trying to to mock what it would look like now we actually have a courtroom that people have said is nicer than any suff courtroom that you can actually go into miss hermer you agree it is yes um and we also have even English classes so we use this as a lab so anybody can use that space English classes go during you know they use 12 Angry Men there's a trial scene in it to Kill a Mocking Pur they use that as well so our constitutional law class will also use this next year as well our Bloomberg lab our incredible beautiful Bloomberg lab that everybody walks past and

159I just stare at I think every single time I walk past the the um Bloomberg lab um that opened in September um is just really an incredible space for our students it is um a three-year plan in which we are rolling out to really um get our students financially fluent um we start with this year in which our students are visiting it in both 9th and 12th grade our nth graders do have a course called Career and financial management in which they do learn some basic Financial literacy Basics um but we take it a step further when they visit the Bloomberg lab in which they learn just about the terminal it kind of gets them a little excited about what's to come what they can learn about should they want to engage in a little

160bit further and deepen their knowledge about the exploration of Bloomberg Finance in 12th grade this year in order for our students to be prepared in order for them to enter the real world they do engage in financial literacy in their economics classes so that was already happening all right it's not something new however again deepening their knowledge deepening their understanding um we had mock stock market games happening um and they were taking a look at the stock market but now think about it they are on the same terminals that we visited Bloomberg headquarters in New York City that the Traders were on and this is exactly what they look like when we visited Bloomberg headquarters two years ago um and what they're doing is they're engaging in a few week long project in which they're

161actually building their own portfolio they're investing money and then they actually have to present some of the challenges they found as well as what they found to be the most successful and they are learning an incredible amount and then that really is bringing us into year two we'll continue with the push-ins in n9th and 12th grade and then in addition to that as I said before we have our introduction to Bloomberg Corporate Finance which is an elective and year three we'll have both of those things and then our third is an advanced Bloomberg course that we're going to be offering because Bloomberg for Education offers certificates that our students can graduate with one is Bloomberg market Concepts and the other one is Bloomberg fundamentals of Finance so they're going to actually graduate by taking this

162course that will be not for the 20 until the 26 27 so I'll come back here and talk about it next year um but it is a three-year really sequence of how to engage our students in finance and getting them financially fluent we're really excited about another space that's going to be coming in um our high school that we are so lucky to have the facilities department so um talented um in order to create um I don't even know if half the high school knows this is actually happening um but if you take a look at the picture actually to the right um that's not what the room looked like about um about a month ago um it actually had old stoves and refrigerators that didn't really work anymore and we were utilizing it as

163a classroom and it really wasn't efficient um so our idea was why don't we create some kind of living lab um we haven't named it yet but some kind of living lab that we can utilize to really work with all of our students on real world learn real world living so the space to the right if you can see all of those are walls that were built those are actually going to be two bedrooms and a bathroom and a living space um there's going to be carpeting there's going to be furniture and then the picture to the left is currently a kitchen that's going to be totally gutted and remodeled and we're going to have a kitchen area we're going to have a laundry area and other living space and dining space over there this

164space is going to be used for our life skills program as well as an idea for our we do senior sendoff workshops with our seniors at the end of the year so it's an idea for them to also visit it in small groups to learn a little bit about dorm life living as well as apartment living um and living on their own so those are just some ideas of how to live use this real life living lab um we're not going to name it so when we reveal the space in September we're going to do a contest with our students and their families so that they can name this space so we're really really excited for that so the schools of study so a funny a little funny story so these as if you've come

165into the high school you'll see that we have um branded some of our um hallways and we have the School of Law the School of Business School of Engineering and Fine Arts and we we started to use these terms the schools of study and you've been hearing about it um but we really haven't introduced it to our students yet um we're gradually introducing it to our 10th graders well we had hallway night if you saw any of our social media we had hallway night um last night and then this morning the administrators all judge the hallways well every hallway had something about the schools of in it so they're they're holding on to something they're learning something um because the schools of are definitely something that they are gravitating to they're talking about our 10th

166graders have been engaging in lessons on Career exploration so part of their hway actually had something about meeting at a cafe and talking about career Cafe and career exploration and navian because we've been doing work with them on that so um it's catching on if anything so that just shows that we're doing something and we're doing something right um and really providing these authentic learning experiences for our students um and that's what these schools of really are they're not just pretty wall space um even though they are um they really are introducing these real life spaces for our students and engaging them in their thinking about what they want for their future so the schools of are going to be introduced soon to our current 10th graders right now what we're working on with our

16710th graders is really continuing the discussion of career interests and their own interest and strength that actually they started in seventh grade so Naviance is a program that we use starting in sixth and seventh grade in family and consumer science with their counselors in order for them to do career interests and their own exploration of interests and then we continue it through their career and financial management class in 9th grade and then we tapped into that just recently actually last week with them to start exploring their personality traits what their career interest inventory on navian said in order to start thinking about what possible career they want to enter in when they graduate from high school these schools sophomores will choose in May every single sophomore will choose a school of the school of is

168not an academic program so students will still have their academic program they will still take every single course that they would like to take the chance that they are probably going to enroll in the School of Law and probably taking a law class is probably very high however they might not be able to fit it in their schedule because maybe they have other courses that they want to take or they have other requirements that they need to take so they don't have to but the chance of them taking that course is very high engaging and being enrolled in the school of is really more of an experience for them so what we did was we hired or they really are teachers and we have advisors for each of the schools of and they're going to

169be working with us in order to create assemblies and programs throughout the school year for who are current sophomores who will be Juniors next year and we're going to be bringing in assemblies with people currently in the career field so let's take for example the school of medicine we may bring in home health aids we may bring in um people OTS and PTs we may bring in social workers doctors nurses um Pas and people from a whole spectrum that are dealing with Health Sciences and medicine for students to learn what is a career like what are the possible careers in medicine and Health Sciences is we may bring in alumni that are currently in the field or alumni currently in school that is pursuing that career path in order to do a Q&A we talked

170about bringing in people in the school of vocational and technical skills bringing in people from unions and talking about what it's like to be in a union in that particular field we may bring in college reps in order to talk about what it's like to enter in and what it means to get into law school or to get right into the School of Business we also have talked about fieldwork experiences as well so we're really excited in order for every single student to be part of this school of study because we're going to be able to set them up for Success because it is going to go from everything from our work-based learning all the way up to our students who may be in our IB career pathway or IB program so it really is

171for every single student and again it's starting with our current 10th graders for their 11th and 12th grade year and we're really excited to be able to offer this opportunity and really complete it's now not a triangle I don't even know what it is now um but really to create um these opportunities for our students um and really thanking you for continuing to support us allowing us to allowing the staff to explore and discover um to bring these opportunities for our students so thank you thank you Mrs lien holds so if you go back just one slide yeah that one nope nope that one that one so that completes our budget Workshop number one we will have an opportunity to for the board to ask any questions now on March 27th we will be conducting

172our second budget Workshop which will include facilities security transportation technology Staffing Etc um so we look forward to being able to present to the board and the community again at the end of this at the end of this month um at this point I'm going to open it up to the board to have ask any questions about budget Workshop number one question from Mrs lip hold it's great the school studies is great like I talks I wish my kids were 10 years ago but that's that's okay we all have the opportunities now so I guess one of the questions I have is a parent and how they get to understand what that is I guess you know you ask a 14 15y old would you like they go it's a school so how do how

173are the parents going to get to understand more about the schools I mean and experience what you've been telling them yeah so we are going to be creating a a couple of things so we're going to do infographics work really well right to explain it rather than a an email or some type of written explanation um we're also going to be creating a video that we're going to be sending out to parents to be able to explain it perfect and then uh Dr Larsson I guess over all the years of seeing all the different electives that the kids have how do you judge whether an elective is is being successful not just by enrollment is there another what other metrics did you use to say this elective is going well and whether or not I

174have to change it thank you for that question my team is probably laughing a little bit because that's exactly the conversation we've been having um about our enrichment program at at CMS um when we focus group with the kids and this speaks directly to what Dr said before the number one factor that drives kids into their the courses or they they scream that they love the courses the most is the teachers right so we see that we obviously look at the enrollment we look at courses that don't have much enrollment right and then we're seeing like some classes that are disproportionately higher than others so we're starting to unpack presently What's Happening Here is it just purely the popularity of the course title is it the popularity of the teacher is it the authenticity of

175the assessment and how do we start tailoring the the program to spread the wealth a little bit further but really the goal that we have as a team and what we'll be working toward over the next couple years is trying to create intentionally create conditions where children are kind of work these Learners are working through different Pathways we want I ideally I would love to give kids uh increased exposure to more Pathways rather than fewer Pathways right so if if there was ways to kind of allow Kids Choice but Choice within the humanities or Choice within the medical Sciences or Choice within Sciences that's something that we're trying to work toward because as it's presently constituted you can have an enrichment grade in seventh and eth grade one across the entire year because it's 20

176weeks every other day but can we can we tweak that can we change that can we start survey and cursory overview for children in more topics rather than fewer um which they're limited to right now so we're working that's that's one of the projects we're we're exploring great thank you both sorry um thank you for all of that my kids are really excited for middle school so buckle up because they want to do everything um so for the um the like enrichment and the advanced programming is that open to all students like I know Athletics is really the teams are seventh and eth but are these other enrichment is for seventh and eighth grade and then obious seventh and eighth grade students there's different too okay for enrichment yeah there's different there's different aspects of

177every child's program right in sixth grade there's the beginning of World Language exploration every other day there's also a double period Ela in seventh grade you also have an every other day lab and then there's all sorts of other related services that play in whether you're music student a language exempt student um if you have pullout Services otpt every every student's profile is different right so depending on what a child's program is there are some limitations to the enrichment program but it all depends on the degree of services necessary but we also have complimentary courses for students that we try our best to get as many students seated in an enrichment course as possible okay that's the objective got it um and we've we've made we've there's been some very careful scheduling that's G on

178to try to um increase seating of all students in enrichment courses okay but it but unique really like where all students arrive right they're super interested it's where their focus is so the more students you can get in there the better and because because of the unique nature of our classified students they're these are better suited for um you know CSC discussion and what programs will look like I'd be I can't I can't broadly say this profile fits each individual learner because the profile of each child and the level of services required for your child is vastly different right and there's only so much time in a given school day so that's why we have the csse to determine like what is the level of what is level of service and where can we fit

179things but we've gotten creative in a couple different areas to try to get as many kids in as we can great awesome thank you um Miss Li um I love that you're connecting with people who are currently in the fields because things are changing so rapidly all the time technology I'm technology and I mean it's dayto day I log on to something and there's like oh it's new it's every day so it's really important to keep up um for the presentational class are you also going to be having um that connect to digital presentation and not just speaking oh yeah definitely yeah it it so Syracuse University it's it's done by so it's it's a scripted curriculum from Syracuse but yeah the reason why we chose it was because it it's all presentational skills so

180it's digital it's podcasts it's public speaking you know our our old public speaking course um you know I say it's like how to make a balone sandwich you know um so it I wanted it to be to really be able to honestly fit into every school right and every pathway because no matter what you do you have to be able to present you need to be able to communicate and those communication skills are so important and that's what the Syracuse University um uh course was able to do so Mr SW director of humanities and I did a lot of re it actually took us over a year to get that course there was a waiting list for it um so we're really really excited and happy for that course thank you all right hello Dr

181Larson how are you tonight very good thank you just curious to to follow up on um Miss um some of the questions that were asked earlier tonight um in regards to um the percentage how many students percentage of students would you say um are able to take enrichment courses I completely understand the programmatic piece of it and obviously scheduling is a nightmare but we are in budget season so I'm just curious if there's any ways creatively that you know if the if we're not providing those enrichment opportunities for students that we can um look for some creative ways to do so I'm I'll be I can I don't have the percentage off the top of my head I apologize I'll happily share it with Dr Cox so I could share it directly with you we'll

182look at it when we get back to the building tomorrow Miss Martin made a note of that I'm sure so we'll be looking at that um so to to your question though is I guess you know is there any students that aren't able to get into enrichment courses yes it happens right there's a whole host of services that could kids that children could need right but we you know we have options in the zero we have options in the 10th period we have options for lunch chorus we have options for language exemptions it's it does create we have but we also have students with tremendous needs whether it's a a whole host of services add in re reading Services add in resource room and skill Services add in other pullout services that might be necessary

183um but like I said we've offered classes in zero we've offered classes in the 10 we've offered um lunch choruses so that children can maintain enrollment in their and connection to their music uh I don't have the the the actual number off the top of my head but we can look to get through that that number so if uh if required do we have a zero per period enrichment class at this time presently that's not something that that is planned for okay could we look into maybe Mrs Newman what the financial cost of that would be sure thank you uh and then my we're good okay thank you uh my next question uh from Mrs Newman is in regards to you know obviously we've been touting our different schools and uh the great work that's

184going on and creating those Pathways but I was just curious um you know Financial impact wise what what does that look like we we're in the middle middle of budget season we're at a budget Workshop so um you know as we continue to to come up with with these courses and uh the lovely work that's being done in creating these spaces um how much does that impact our budget generally I can also speak to that Mrs Newman when you I I think one of the items for us I think I just shut it off um is that as we move to these specialized spaces we're not necessarily adding additional costs because the seats are basically the same and certainly with the Bloomberg lab there were some upfront costs involved but after that we're maintaining the

185seat costs right and just in terms of creating the schools of it's really it has been a shift in language so by Shifting the language um it has changed the way that students think about school the other piece is courses run based on student enrollment and so in some cases when you create like a Bloomberg uh Finance um corporate Investments you may find that you know 120 or 140 I don't know what the enrollment is up to this point but it's pretty close to that are taking that which means they're not taking something else so the FTE switch the FTE don't necessarily increase or decrease but they move from possibly one Department to another department understand it thank you um you know along those lines too um Mrs lienal you talked about how there's going

186to be advisors for each that are current teachers does that affect us at all in terms of FTE or anything Mr oshan at I will thank you all right at this time there's any questions from the public on budget Workshop number one feel free to come up to the mic thank you again Mrs lipol and Dr Larson thank you very much again if there's no comments we again the next Workshop is on uh March 27th at the end of this month so thank you everyone have a great night