001All that Hello everybody. Happy new year to everybody. Let's stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Board president to advise members of the audience that they may address the board regarding agenda items after the superintendent's report. Only those members whose names and addresses are listed on the sign-in sheet available prior to the start of the meeting will be recognized during new business. The chairperson will limit discussions of any item by the public to three minutes in order for the board to expeditiously conduct its business. Mr. Mantel. Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Roland. Uh Mr. ruling. This evening we have two special recognitions and two presentations to share
002with the board of education and with our community. I will begin by asking Mr. Bernard who will be recognizing a very talented group of students to come to the podium. Thank you Mr. Manzo and thank you for the board of education for allowing us to be here this evening. Uh tonight we are recognizing some of our very talented art students at the at the high school. Um, we have some artwork over on the the side that is going to be displayed at the district office over the next couple months and we wanted to uh put some faces to this uh this beautiful artwork that they've created. I want to thank the teachers, Mrs. Tubing, Mrs. Figuiosce and Mrs. Gibbons for uh uh supporting these students in their creation of these wonderful works. First, we have
003uh Jacob Sarasina. He's going to come over and he's going to grab his artwork. He's going to meet us here at the stage and Mr. Montto Morano is going to distribute a certificate of appreciation to uh Jacob. Next, Jaden Fernel. Jaden Surel, Christina Dorgan, Olivia Garcia, Paige Denowski, Vicky Lee, Kayla Lopez, Britney and Cario, Madison McCarron, Joe Zasso, Eva Lumpin, Abigail Lamort, B Law, Michael Carer, Nicholas Dadis, and Ty Shakowski. Congratulations to these artists. Their work will be upstairs and [applause] slide slide. I'm going to get in here and wide angle. Thank you. Congratulations again. CONGRATULATIONS. [applause] At this time, I'd like to ask Mr. Steven to come to the podium. Good evening. [clears throat] Uh, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our superintendent, Mr. Manzo, and our board of education for
004their continued support for all of our athletic programs here uh, in the district. We had a a very successful fall season and I would like to recognize our varsity football team and all of their coaches and if coach Champion could please come on up and talk a little bit about the season and some of the accolades that these students earned on the field. Thank you. [applause] Like to thank uh the board and everyone, Mr. Manzo and administration for having us here tonight. It's, you know, it's always an honor to bring the kids in here and be recognized. We had another outstanding season. We won another county championship. It has been 15 in in the school's history. And, you know, and this group is pretty special, like I said, all year. We far exceeded what anybody
005expected we were going to be able to accomplish. And that all the credit for that goes to the kids. Like I said all year, they're a wonderful, wonderful group of kids and, you know, sometimes you win and, you know, you're not necessarily unhappy to see some uh people, you know, um, leave the program, but in this season, there's not a kid that was associated with this group that I would not want back. They're outstanding kids. They're outstanding people and it says a lot about them what they were able to do this year as a group genuinely because they I think cared about them their teammates more than they cared about themselves. And so I'm very very proud of them. It's one of my favorite teams I've ever coached outside of the teams I had with
006my son on it. But uh they deserve all the attention they've got and uh I just want to congratulate them again. Thank you guys for a great team. [applause] Let's [applause] go. Yes. Okay. [laughter] We good. [applause] [applause] Maybe they congratulations for our Suffach County Champions. [applause] I will now turn the floor over to Mrs. Le and Mrs. Samarco for the first presentation. Um, thank you so much for having us tonight. So, we're here to discuss and present on our special education two-year plan. Thank you. Um, every two years we have to look at our special education plan for the district and make sure that we have everything in place and up to date. So the purpose of the plan is to make sure that we are um under education law maintaining um our plan
007as it would connect with the New York State Education Department. We're responsible for maintaining this district plan and have to review it every two years to ensure that we are following um what New York State's asking us to compliance, accountability, and always continuing for improvement. So we want to ensure that the New York State Education Department and Eastip our missions and values are aligned which is part of the review that we do every two years. So when we look at what New York State is kind wants for special education and what we as a school district want for special education, the core um the core and mission for us is really to look at the equity and inclusivity for our students, making sure that we are providing special education in the least restrictive environment and
008to foster the collaboration between our families, staff, and community. So while we were reviewing our plan for this upcoming two years um we up here is the four different keys a key key objectives um that we really were focusing on. So as we progress we'll kind of go through each of these different key objectives. So when we looked at making sure that our students are focusing on our their post-secary life, ensuring that they are ready to graduate, um one of the big pieces was making sure uh for independence for our students. So when we're reviewing, we were looking, we look at our IEPs, we have team meetings, we look at how our students are building independence and ensuring that we're kind of pulling back some of those special education supports to make them as independent
009as possible. Also part of this was looking into how to be a little bit more proactive when it came to our social emotional well-being of our students. So we um this year really worked on collaborating with Stonybrook and their their help is been providing not only access to outside supports for our students but also providing professional development for our staff and community. So, also looking at how um we encourage our students to be able to participate in all different school programs and activities. So, up here is just a couple of the different programs that we have helped build or support along the way. Um so, we worked on collaborating with the coordinators of the Buddies program to help grow and support them. uh we were able to connect and find new materials for their program
010and we meet with them often um to discuss the supports for our students and how we can connect with our high school students to best support all of them. Um for our unified sports, we're now in our third year for our unified basketball which has been an amazing addition to our school community. Um and we've also this year going to be adding bowling, the unified bowling which will be starting in February. Um we also work with the club advisors and the athletic department um for any supports or staff that are needed to ensure the participation is available for all of our students. So looking at even some of the varsity sports, um having our students be able to participate in in a sports such as track, ensuring that they're able to have that that level
011of support to be able to engage in those activities. Um, we also have our amazing core teachers and our CEOs teacher who works diligently to find a variety of work-based learning opportunities for our students to be able to build those skills as they're looking to graduate and what they're going to be doing in their post-secary life. Um, also looking to increase our more restrictive environments within our school districts to really help to continue to support our students and make sure we have as many of our students within district as we possibly can. We also do have a B Boseis partnership and part of that two-year plan is to make sure we are up to date on what different Boseies programs um are available for our students since we want to keep all of our students
012here but we know that there are some times that there they need more supports than we can provide in district. So we partner with Eastern and Western Suffach Boseies as they can provide those different levels of supports. So, we make sure cuz Boseies I know each year really does switch um where those programs are held. So, we make sure that within our 2-year plan all of that information is up to date. We also have students that attend non-public schools. So, we have students that parents want their students to go to St. Mary's. So, we ensure that they still have that same opportunity and equity of being able to get special education services. So, we work very closely with St. Mary's and other other schools to ensure that they have that ability for the evaluations um
013and any type of instruction or support that they require. So, really just part of our program evaluations, we're always looking to continuously improve. So, we meet bi-weekly with our mental health team at each building to really connect and see where the strengths are in each of those buildings, where some of the areas of needs are for those buildings to really help um continuously improve to help our students with the best outcomes possible. We also make sure that we are connecting with um the special education department for New York. We have to make sure that we are in compliance with everything. So all of our data is sent to the New York State compliance to ensure continuity of services. Um and we just really commit are committed to continuing the growth and improvement for our students.
014So when we look at this past two-year plan and then we're looking at moving forward into the next two years, um really we were looking at what are our biggest changes over the last two years and what are we adding in for next for the next two years. And really one of our biggest changes has been working on our inclusivity for our students, providing more opportunities for the supports for our students in district. Um being able to add the unified um high school sports for our students, growing our buddies program, looking at um different courses for peer courses to provide for our special education students at the high school level. also understanding the social emotional needs that have increased in our district and being able to collaborate with Stony Brook to be more proactive to
015support our students and be able to support them within our schools instead of having to always look at outside supports. So, I talked a lot. So, to end, I really just wanted to show a couple pictures of different um activities. So, we have our unified basketball um just to, you know, show what we were able to add in for the past three years. And then for our buddies program, we were able to really help um build that program and give them different materials and supports for our students to be able to enjoy and have a great time in that program. And they're adorable, too. So, thank you so much. Um I don't know if there's any questions. Um, but that is an overview of the two-year plan. First of all, I'd like to thank you
016for doing all the work both years. I did have one question, though. Was there any major changes from the prior two-year plan to this two-year plan? I think the major not nothing major. Um, a lot of it was trying to find ways to increase the inclusivity for our students. So really looking at the last two-year plan, this one even from New York State, the mission really has kind of shifted a real focus on least restrictive environment. So you know, even saying that we're increasing our more restrictive settings in district is still actually a least restrictive environment because we're able to maintain our students within the district. So really just looking at those different ways, being able to add the unified sports to help the inclusivity of our students. um looking at the programs that are
017offered at the high school level and seeing how [clears throat] we can find ways to be able to include our um alternately assessed students into different activities and things like that. Okay. Thank you. And again, thank you for all you do for our district. Any other questions for the morning? And thank you. Thank you. [applause] [applause] Thank you, Mrs. Lean, Mr. Marco for this very informative uh presentation. At this time, I'd like to ask Mr. Botti, principal of Connect Elementary School, to come to the podium. Thank you. Each year, building administrators come to a board meeting and we uh highlight or spotlight something that is special that's going on in our buildings. And usually I come up here with some of my teachers and then they'll tell us what something that's exciting that they're doing
018uh in their classrooms or around the building. And this year I thought I would change it up a little bit. And instead of speaking about just one event, I wanted to highlight a group of people who are really integral to so much of what we do in Kquad and and in our district. And that group is the Ketquad Elementary PTA. I'm sure that the community is aware of the larger things that all of the PTAs do uh in their buildings, whether it's uh talent shows or uh plant sales that they're doing or the different assemblies that we have coming in and and the impact that it has on students. Uh but what community members may not be aware of is the time that is involved with all of this and the preparation that is involved
019and how much organization it takes. um and most importantly both the academic and social emotional effect that it has on our students. So what I want to do for just a few minutes is just to focus on connect and just tell some examples and some uh idea to the community of things that that we do. For example, one of the things that we do every year is a kindergarten playd date. Every student, one of the most difficult things for every student is transition. Whether it's transitioning from second grade to third grade or from fifth grade to the middle school and sixth grade, transitioning is a very difficult thing. I would argue the most difficult is transitioning into kindergarten. These are students who have never some of them been in school and yet now they're expected
020to go to school and be involved in a much more structured situation. They don't know who their teachers are. They might not even have any friends. And so one of the things that our PTA does is about a week or two before school starts, we have a kindergarten playd date. What this is is every incoming kindergartener is invited to come to the school to the playground. And when they get there, they receive like a color-coded with their teacher like a badge or maybe a a bracelet or something like that. And they go and they play on the playground and they meet new friends and they make new friends and they see the students who they're going to be spending the next 10 months with. It's good for the parents, too. The parents can network. They
021can meet the other parents who they're going to their kids are going to be with, and they can network and exchange information and set up playdates. And I know this might not sound like that big of a deal, but to a four-year-old, and some of our students are four, this is tremendous. They know that now coming into the school year, that they're going to have some friends. And this is all set up by our PTA. A couple of months into the school year, we have a spooky walk and pumpkin patch right around uh Halloween. I can't tell you the amount of time that our PTA spends days transforming our community room into this spooky walk. And I'm telling you, it rivals anything that that you can pay and go to around town. It's amazing. Kids
022are able to weave their way through the community room, which looks nothing like a classroom anymore. And they see different lighting effects. There's ghosts hanging here, a spider hanging from the wall. And the end of this walk is the students then empty out into what is the courtyard, which is now strewned with hundreds of pumpkins. I can't tell you the look on these kids' faces when they see 500 pumpkins and they're able to go pick their own pumpkin and bring that home. Now, again, people might be saying, "Well, I don't understand. How does that have to do with with school?" Well, first thing I would say is [clears throat] not every family has the opportunity to go pick pumpkins. Things are expensive. Life is busy. Well, this gives every student that opportunity to have a
023pumpkin, decorate it, bring it home, and enjoy this with their family. The second thing it does, it also teaches kids about different cultures. We learn about Halloween and how it's celebrated in our country, but we learn how it's celebrated in other countries, too. Ketquat is the magnet for ENL students. So, we learn what other countries do, too. And this is all part of what the PTA does by setting up this spooky walk. and uh the pumpkin patch. This kindness that they show extends to more than just students. They show the same kindness to the faculty. In the beginning of school, they greet each of our faculty members with sweet treats. And it's just small things, some cookies, a bag of chips. And I know that that doesn't sound like much, but it lets our teachers
024know that we care about you and [clears throat] we care about all the work that you're doing and all the time you spend with our children. Everyone likes to feel that that that they're appreciated. And that's what this does. The PTA takes time out of their lives to not only enrich the lives of the students, but also our faculty. uh they do this all for kids. They buy our students shirts, t-shirts for different events again. So what does that have to do with school? Well, let's say if you're going on a field trip and you're going to the planetarium and there are other schools there. Well, these schools, most kids just dress in whatever clothing that that they wear to school, but not us. every one of our kids. Imagine 130 kids wearing the same
025shirt, red East Iceland. This identifies who we are. It builds a camaraderie among the students. Those of us who have been here for quite a long time, I'm sorry, I'm one of them, can remember Dr. Payne. Dr. Payne was the principal of the high school and he used to bellow. I see Mr. Zachary looking. He's like, he knows what I know what I'm talking about here. And he would bellow ei pride. Well, that's what this does. This shows EI pride and the other schools see our students and our students feel that pride all because of our PTA. They organize free evening events throughout the year. What's free anymore? Nothing is free, but we have free evening events every single year. It may be a winter dance. It may be a magic show. And when I
026say free, it's not only free for the students of Connectquat, but it's free for their whole family. If they have younger siblings, they're welcome to go. If they have siblings who have graduated from ConnectWat, they're welcome to go. Whole families can go and watch a magic show for free. Usually snacks are inc are included. I mean, think about that. I know these things like they seem small, but it's an incredible thing that our PTA does this multiple times throughout the year. We have a reading night where students can come up and they hear stories. What's more powerful than putting books in children's hands and listening to stories from multiple teachers for free? That's what our PTA does. Last year, we had a very unfortunate incident. A former student of ours, now she's a was a
027young lady, she battled a disease her entire life. And unfortunately last year she succumbed to this. Our PTA heard about this and we spoke and we decided in honor of this young lady to plant a tree in front of the building for her. When I called and I'm going to get emotional when I called this mom who was dealing with just I can't think of anything more terrible. The outpouring of emotion that this mom had and the gratefulness that we would remember her daughter in this way. It's very difficult for me to even describe. That's what our PTA does. We have a kickoff this summer on the last day of school every year. It started small with cotton candy and a DJ. It it's now graduated to a petting zoo and pony rides. They even
028got me to go in a dump tank for two hours and that water was cold. I'm telling you right now. But we did it. And this is what our PTA does. Every administrator knows that a building is only as good as its PTA. They're the link. They're the connection to the community. They provide our students and all of our families with academic and social experiences that help kids grow. There are some of my senior officers here tonight from the years that I've been in Connect. And I'd like to thank them, all of them, even those who are not here. Alexis Rosand, Erin Dorgan, Colleen Moltari, Christy Geodano, and Jackie Garrett. I even see Cheryl Pepe here, too. And I'd like to thank her, too. Oh, it's true. For all that she does for the district,
029too. I want to thank them all for their work, their generosity, their time, their patience of having to deal with me. Thank you for making me look good. I want to thank them. Last year, I've always spoken about the front of the building, and I like to make the front of the build. the face of the building look good. And they they do plantings in the front of the building. Uh they have seasonal decorations. They even last year gifted for the building a bench. I've been speaking about a bench. And so we have all these beautiful things, but everyone just runs into the building. No one sits down. They gifted a bench that we we lovingly call the Botti bench. Um and it's great to see parents and kids sitting on. Well, most of all,
030what I want to thank them for is thank you for all that you've done and all you continue to do for the children of East Iceland. Thank you all very much. [applause] Thank you, Mr. Bell. And thank you to all our PTAs. I uh had the chance of going through that spooky thing and I really spooked up the kids. I I was the most spookiest thing there. But uh it was a great job and again uh thank you to all the PTAs in each of the schools. They do an unbelievable job. Thank you. Okay. Uh, I need a report from the student member, Angel. Yes. Uh, good evening everyone. I hope everyone had a safe holiday season and a wonderful winter break. It is great to see everyone back in the building and ready for
031the new year. This past Wednesday, science honor society members visited biology and chemistry classes to inform students about the different science electives offered at our school for next year's course selections. That same evening, we also held our elective fair from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. It was a great opportunity for parents and students to explore the diverse programs and classes our school offers. The National Honor Society is also currently holding its winter warmth drive, collecting new and gently used coats, scarves, and gloves to help those in our community stay warm. As we look towards the end of the month, we are nearing we are nearing the end of the second marking period. Midterm exams are approaching and may wish all students the best of luck. That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you. U comments
032on agenda items only. Okay. Certified personnel. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the resignations, terminations, leaves of absence, position abolitions, employment appointments, tenure appointments, and salary changes in accordance with applicable provisions of the education law and civil service law cited in the certified personnel attachments. Can I get a motion? Motion. Second. All in favor? I non-certified personnel. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the resignations, terminations, leave absence, position abolitions, employment appointments, tenure appointments, and salary changes in accordance with applicable provisions of education law and civil service law cited a non-certified personnel attachments. Can I get a motion? Motion. Second. All in favor? I. We're not there yet. Employment agreement. Be it
033resolved that upon the that the board of education hereby approves and accepts an employee agreement with an employee known to the board of education in executive session and be it resolved further resolved that the board of education authorizes the board president to sign this employment employee agreement. Can I get a motion? Motion. Second. All in favor? I. Thanks, Mr. Ruland. Um, Mr. Zawisawitz, can you please stand? I hope I pronounced that correctly or close enough. Um, Rich Z, as we call him, if you notice tonight on the certified board agenda, personnel agenda, um, was appointed interim assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, replacing Dr. Bells, who recently retired. So, Rich, we just want to wish you the best of luck. Congratulations on your new appointment and we look forward to you being our new assistant
034superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Congratulations. [applause] Now, we'll make it official. Resolve that the board of education hereby appoints Richard Zyowitz as interim assistant superintendent effective January 9th, 2026 for a term ending on June 30th, 2026 unless terminated sooner by the board of education and be it further resolved that the president of the board of education herewith authorized to execute an employment agreement between Richard Zyowitz. That is that right Richard? Perfect. Okay. Okay. Richie Z and the board of education respecting the terms and conditions of the employment for his services as interim assistant superintendent. Could I get a motion? Motion. Second. All in favor? I. Congratulations, Richie. [applause] items to be removed from the consent agenda. Um, I would uh like to remove 9.4 at this time and we'll address it at the end of
035the consent agenda. Consent agenda items 9.2, 2 9.3 9.5 to 9.15. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves consent agenda items 9.2 and 9.3, 9.5 to 9.15 in accordance with the action presented for each item. Can I get a motion? Motion. Second. All in favor? Hi. Okay. Uh 9.4 U out of state competition varsity cheerleading at UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship in Orlando, Florida. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the varsity cheerleading team to attend the UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship in Orlando, Florida from January 28th, 2026 through February 2nd, 2026. Can I get a motion? Motion. Uh second. All in favor? I Okay. I just want to mention two things
036on the uh consent agenda was a pre-approval for varsity girls wrestling female team duels that will be upstate and also uh the 2026 Eastern States Wrestling Classic in which a few of our uh male wrestlers uh will be attending. Uh the qualifying students are Griffin Alfala, Roco Dphano, Christian Horice, and Jace Rooney. Congratulations to them. 10.1 Appropriation Changes. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the attached list of appropriation changes for the 2025 2026 school years. Can I get a motion? Motion second. All in favor? I. Donation to JFK Elementary School. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby accepts a donation from the ISIL Elks Lodge of Dictionaries for each third grade student at
037JFK Elementary School. This donation will be a wonderful addition for each third grade student. Can I get a motion? Motion second. All in favor? I thank you to the uh ISIL belts uh lodge for that donation. Uh, old business. Any new business? Um, tonight Mrs. Le and Mrs. San Marco provided an updated special education plan that outlined the continuum of services for our special education students. The updated plan for the 2026 2028 school years has been added to the new business agenda for pre-appro approval. Barring any questions or concerns, the plan will be placed on the February 12th agenda for approval. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Or. Any public comments? No. Okay. Okay. The next board of education regular business meeting will be held on Thursday, February 12th, 2026 at 700 p.m. Motion to adjurnn. Second.
038Second. All in favor. We're adjourned.