001all right let's stand for the pledge good evening thank you everybody for coming down board president advised members of the audience that they may address the board regarding agenda items after the superintendent's report only those members 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 dolan thank you very much mr zachary um before i start the report it's it's really kind of hard to believe but thanksgiving is a couple days away and uh you know we have a tremendous amount to be thankful for and you know we the entire world has been put in a difficult
002situation where we're not always uh quite sure what is right and what is wrong and uh we you know we're watching arguments among friends where people can pull up facts that support opposing viewpoints and um you know i for one am thankful that people have gotten much better at listening to each other being patient and moving through um what has been you know an incredibly difficult time um and i i do believe that we are moving to a better place we might not be moving as quickly as some people would like we might be moving a little too fast for others but in general um you know when it comes to school school is back in session um i think that in september if if by the at the end of september if you told
003us we would get to thanksgiving and be in the shape that we're in i think we would all have been um at least reasonably pleased with that so i'm gonna say a big thank you to the east islip community i'm extremely thankful for all of your advice your input your support and i am very grateful to the children who are doing you know wonderful things and learning how to deal with difficult situations um you know we we have been very successful in a certain number of areas and we'll talk about those celebrations in december because we hope to bring some kids back to the board meeting for the first time um the two major items that i'd like to address right now um the first one is the long-range planning committee and we said this
004when we convened uh the purpose of the 2015 long-range planning committee was what do you want the district to look like in 2025 um i'm very pleased to note that we're we've pretty much checked everything off the list that we had in 2015. um you know we we still have some things to to finish some some tidying up to do um as you know we finish up the bond and we we now have a a computer device for every student um you know we have a smart board in every classroom which you know we we have moved forward from the year 2015. the charge of this committee is going to be what do you want the school district to look like in 2025 and 2030 what do you want instruction to look like what should
005our kids be seeing in the classroom in terms of tools and things they need for learning to what the teachers need what do we how can we support our teachers so can they can provide they can provide the best lessons for our children um we were waiting for an enrollment study from boces which we just received so what we're going to do is we're going to take some time to take a look at it at the next board meeting we'll make an announcement how you can volunteer to sign up to be on this committee and it looks like we're going to start the long-range planning committee who again his charge will be what do you want east islip to look like in 2030. um you know we will begin that process probably mid to late
006january um you know we don't have a time frame you know the committee will meet until it's done um so we are excited about that so market calendars um i know several people have approached me about volunteering and i said well when we're ready we will make sure it's publicized so at the next board meeting we'll have the specifics and we will we should have a starting date for that committee which will again be in mid to late january all right the second thing on the list is the board has decided we have a capital reserve account with um you know just under six million dollars in it that's the account that we started when we didn't know if the bond would pass that was the emergency money that um you know wouldn't have done
007much for us but we've accumulated that money that money can only be spent if the public votes to spend it and it has to be spent on capital improvements um it looks like we are moving forward i'm going to give you some of the items that we're looking at um in terms of capital improvements for the district that we would like to see and we will you know we'll be putting together a resolution and we'll have a proposal and we'll be on the ballot in may you know there is six million dollars sitting on just under six million dollars sitting in an account designated for capital improvements that can't be touched unless the voters vote on it um the things that we're looking at is we want to um finish electrical upgrades so that we
008can get an air conditioner in every classroom um we have some faculty bathrooms that have to be finished in for restorations the music theater area has some you know we want to do some more soundproofing but we also have some rooms there that need to be updated and upgraded you know for the theater group there's paving parking lots at the high school the middle school and the rck playground the tennis courts at the middle school need to be refurbished air conditioning for the fitness center at the high school extension of the bus loop at the high school and a refurbishing of the maintenance barn down at jfk and we're looking to create an innovation lab you know ladies and gentlemen this is not the final list by any stretch of the imagination there will be
009some other things you know based on pricing but this is something that you'll hear more and more about but it is i think you know all of these things are important to the everyday function of the school and like i said the voters will have a chance to vote on that in may and with that i want just once again want to thank everybody for all of the things that you do on a daily basis and i would like to you know i'm very grateful and thankful you know this holiday season to have the east islip school district in my life so i'm going to turn it back over to the president we still have teams playing you don't congratulate them till it's bad luck to congrat no no no we we've had a great
010athletic season we've had a wonderful season but we're still playing so we don't talk about it until okay public comments on agenda items anybody have a comment on an agenda item certified personnel be resolved upon the recommendation the superintendent of schools the board of education approves the resignations terminations leave of absence physician abolitions employment appointments tenure appointments and salary changes in accordance with applicable provisions of education law and civil service law as cited in these certified personnel attachments okay get a motion second discussion all in favor aye aye we resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the board of education approves the resignations terminations leaves of absence position abolitions employment appointments tenure appointments and salary changes in accordance with applicable provisions of education law and civil service law as cited in the
011non-certified personnel attachments can get a motion motion second discussion all in favor aye aye consent agenda 9.1 or yeah 9.1 through 9.32 does anybody want anything removed from the consent agenda okay all in favor of the consent agenda hi 9 33 be resolved upon the recommendation the superintendent of schools the board of education accepts the donation from the ice elks lodge number 2533 of 132 dictionaries to be distributed to all jfk third grade students can get a motion discussion uh thank you very much to the ice elks lodge that's a very generous donation it's very much appreciated that's a great gift to our third grade students all in favor aye aye aye any old business can you um update us on the middle school cafeteria situation that was brought up last meeting is that getting
012better based on an administrator's report there is improvement in the cafeteria operations uh they are also making adjustments based on students requests and parents requests any other little business new business so i have some new business uh i was able to get around to some of the events that are happening around the district you know for example a trunk or treat at the elementary levels that was good to see as well at the middle school they had the cornhole event and then just recently with thanksgiving coming up the high school had their food food drive that was good to see and i'm really encouraged to see that we're we're having the concerts and as well as the drama club is having their play next month so i'm looking forward to that thank you [Music] i
013too want to commend the ptas the teachers parents and administrators i was at the pumpkin patches at both connect quad elementary and timber point and the kids really enjoyed it and everything worked out fine i was also at the trunk of treats they had a combination rck and connectquat ran one timber point and jfk ran the other and it was amazing how the parents decorated their cars and it was a very well thought out community event and moving forward with this stuff any other new business yes um i know last month we approved the trip for the wind ensemble to go to rochester but after approving that i found out a small detail i thought i would share many schools throughout new york submit their audition tapes at and also colleges and private schools and
014we were the only band that was selected from all of new york state to participate and perform at the nismo performance in rochester so kudos to mr neski for getting his wind ensemble chosen and i would also like to thank ei maps because they are paying for the hotel most of the hotel fee for all of the students that will be attending so that's the entire wind ensemble having their hotel rooms paid for by e.i maps so kudos to them and um kudos to mr neski thank you congratulations mr nesky also ei maps they do great work um are they gonna be having their clothing drive they always do it i believe in like december uh january so if uh keep an eye out for that uh starts you know start going through your closets
015you see things that don't fit anymore one way or the other or you don't want please save it up for ei maps and their donations because it goes towards great things like this for the kids so uh please start keeping that in mind and we'll keep keep our eyes open for that date any other new business i just want to congratulate all the fall sports teams that did so well this year it's an excellent season for for ei sports uh and it continues to be an excellent season for ei sports anything else steph [Music] and i'm sorry miss thorpe just before you start guys again if we can try to limit the three minutes um we have a lot of people signed up like i said if you start hearing the belt please start wrapping
016up your thoughts you know i'm not going to cut anybody off right away but if we could just uh keep in mind the three minutes and be respectful of that and each other thank you so to start i would like to thank the board of education mr dolan faculty staff and administration for their commitment to our district and our children for their patience and the attention while listening to everyone while it be in a board ed meeting on a phone call or in a letter i would also like to thank the board and past administrators for a precedent of inclusion in our district whether it be peanut-free classrooms discouraging goody bags or costumes at halloween iep's 504s and providing services for those with special needs or free food during a pandemic it's clear that the
017mental and physical health of our students has been a priority for this district in the past whether it be school board or community driven the goal has been to make sure that every child feels included and not left out these are inclusion practices that benefit our children and i hope will continue masks have been a hot topic at these meetings for months now but they are really just another form of inclusion allowing everyone to stay in school while protecting our children their parents and grandparents there is currently no vaccine mandate but by the time there is there shouldn't be any doubt in the research that this is the right thing to do to protect our children and their families just like every other fda approved vaccine that is required for our children to attend school
018and i just want to give grace to everyone in this room we're all living and trying to survive through a once in a lifetime and seemingly seemingly never-ending pandemic it's not the masks it's not the vaccine it's all of it we are all going to need therapy when this is over if not sooner and i get it we're all scrambling and looking for direction to displace this anger and frustration but giving credence to misinformation and ignoring basic recommendations from the scientific community will most certainly prolong the pandemic i also want to highlight the effort to prepare our students not just for college for the but for the world beyond elementary middle or high school while the parents family values and religion play a huge role in shaping the minds of our children it is clear
019that the support that they get from their school can either prepare them for life or fail them all the children in our district deserve a whole child education that is diverse equitable and inclusive and while it may be easy to blame a lack of ap classes or educational rigor on a college attrition and test scores our children also need to be taught age-appropriate truths social and emotional practices for good mental health and not be shielded from the things that they will need to know and learn about anyway from the world for continued success we should not be so focused on the purpose of high school to achieve a college degree in a high-paying job that we forget to prepare our students to be good people self-sufficient resilient and mentally prepared for citizenship this is not
020just something to be taught at home but should carry over to every subject and modeled by every teacher and mentor by neglecting to do so we only undermine their education and limit their potential so i'm asking the board to consider these vital points when asked to re-evaluate topics or remove books that are recommended from leaders in education to be covered in school i often consider the statement that you fear what you don't know and from fear comes judgment discrimination hate and bullying if we all took the time to not only understand and teach about but celebrate our differences whether it be race religion gender or sexual identity we would be able to hold our community to a higher standard concerns from of induced enrollment from schools should not dissuade the board from making the right
021decisions not to just assuage parents but to protect our kids both mentally physically and emotionally this is public education we need to come together as a community and decide not just what is best for your child or for my child but what is best for the most vulnerable children in our community whether they live in great river islip terrace east islip or may be temporarily displaced every child has a right to a safe comprehensive and enriching education and i hope we can uphold these values in our schools thank you thank you miss thorpe and i do want to listen to everybody but i have to relieve my babysitter so i will be listening online [Music] good evening everyone this is my first time i'm sorry if i'm going to be a little bit scattered but
022this is a topic that's very close to my heart um so i've been 20 years seniority living in the united states so excuse if there is any language problems here and 12 years out of those they will be in uh school district and i chose the east islip school district because i found out that's a very good school district so that's why here i am now for the most of the time i have three children and two of them they are in the school district 14 and uh 11 years old so i'll be talking up to the ninth grade basically right now because i don't know the rest of the curriculum since i have never studied in united states so for the most part i've been really pleased with the education i love all the
023teachers they are really amazing amazing people however my disappointment uh is really greatly and increasing um with the department of english language as an outsider and having different education i know most of the english speaking authors and i'm finding out that as my kids are growing they are not learning about them so that is really upsetting to me maybe they're learning later on but those some of those books you know that would be appropriate for the 14 years and younger children however today i'm upset because my son came very very upset from school he's 14 years old 9th grade so he's pretty young right and in english class they've been reading a book and then watching the movie that included the topic of abortion and i'm really strongly feeling about it because i think these
024are as a parent i have the most um this is my topic that i should be covering now i don't mind if there he would be 16 17 18 to talk about it in school obviously this is something that many people face today and it's very you know difficult for every single person that um is in the situation like that on the top of that uh the movie that was uh related to the book that they were reading was presented and part of the one of the cuts that was there all the instruments for abortion presented my son was hysterical hysterical beyond himself i um i i that's you know i don't know if there is some kind of committee that we can revise the books for the children because i don't know they not
025i don't see any jack london although i have the um english standards for language and he should be there there is no joseph conrad no lucy mad montgomery no lucy uh um not mary elcott wilder jack london i mean multiple multiple authors that all the kids around the world learn about them and i haven't seen them yet up to the ninth grade but we're talking about abortion with the full you know scope of showing instruments this is this is not right and you know i i i guess we can probably i'll be finishing okay you know we can either trim the movie you know or anything but we definitely need to move some of those books that you know i've read them every single one to the higher grades because they completely inappropriate for the
026little kids um you know up to this topic at 14 years old you know in school now this is the last comment i'm sorry i had to take say for the little kids i have a fifth grader right now i mean fourth and fifth and i don't remember third but fourth and fifth grade books that are chosen are within last 20 years and the words excuse me i don't use the words but i have to say jerk and in the third and fourth grade literature english language literature that is completely inappropriate we have to address it we totally have to address it and i apologize i'm really upset but thank you for listening to me i would like to ask the board of education to really look into the books and revise it with the
027uh with the english language department because they cannot be like this anymore thank you thank you thank you for for getting up there um there are plenty of books out there i think that don't have controversial issues and and words so i understand mr dolan perhaps you could talk to her or get some more information on that and discuss that class what's going on over there thank you [Music] hello how are you guys good evening um okay so i just want to start off by saying i don't want anyone to be taking this speech as an anti-vac speech because that's not what it is most of my energy is going to be going into the vaccine but again this is not an anti-vac speech this is all factual data that is anyone public knowledge can
028look it up um i'd like to start off by saying um remember that our fight has always been about choice you what you want to do for your family is fine but let us please make decisions for our own family this is a subject which any parent should want to keep an open mind to anything being injected into your child's body should be closely looked at the cdc released new data showing a total of 875 653 adverse events following coveted vaccines that have been reported between december 14th of last year to november 5th of this year to the vares website which is the primary government-funded system for reporting any adverse reaction to the u.s current data includes a total of 18 461 reports of death an increase of 383 over the previous week and 135
029400 reports of serious injuries including deaths please keep in mind that vares has only been shown to report one percent of actual vaccine adverse events does anyone know what tromethomine is okay i didn't think so i didn't either as of october 29 2021 pfizer has included this element in the vaccine for 5 to 11 year olds only this ingredient is only included in that vaccine for that age what is this element the most common use is to correct acid in the blood during or after cardiac arrest or cardiac bypass surgery this is used to stabilize heart attack victims we must ask ourselves why is this included in the pediatric vaccine pfizer will tell you it is to simplify and prolong storage also why is the fda approving their first ever oral blood thinning medication for
030children as of this june this medication is called pradaxa it just seems a weird timing for this being that blood clots has been a reported reaction from this vaccine as a concern parents things are not adding up as of november 12 2021 the cdc and vars database reports that 47 children between the ages of 5 to 7 have died from the cove vaccine keep in mind that they were only able to get this vaccine november third there has also been 210 now remember this is just the 5 to 11 the newly authorized vaccine 210 children have been permanently disabled and a total of 394 life-threatening reports have been documented i know my time is up but my point and my purpose of this speech is to understand why we are so passionately against this mandate
031again it is not it's whatever anyone wants to do for their family if you want to give it to your child it's fine but we know that this mandate is coming i spoke to assemblyman jared gandalfo's secretary today and she said that it looks like it's coming this january she said it's very real it's very true parents need to call and fight because if this comes i know we all were upset about the mass but this vaccine obviously as you know is a different story we will not be giving it to our kids and we want them in school so that's why we're just asking you guys what we've been doing is to please fight for this mandate this cannot happen this is insane these children have a zero percent chance of dying they have
032a more likely chance of getting a reaction from the vaccine than dying of covet and it's true you can look it up so i want to ask you on mr doyle i know we've spoken to you about the letter to the um governor and i was just wondering how that's going with meeting with the other local districts about writing the group letter well thanks mrs lufka because you you know you've always been really great about just laying it out there and being articulate uh we we continue to work on an exit strategy for the masks and and we do believe um you know a a vaccine mandate would be incredibly disruptive incredibly disruptive um you know i'm going to be very i'm going to choose my words carefully here um you know but rest assured
033we you know we and i've said this to you we're working very hard with other school districts to try to come up with a a a full coalition of districts that are willing to say um you know we want an exit ramp we want an exit strategy from the masks and we're willing to work with you and um you know as far as the invasiveness into someone's body and the choice um you know we we feel that uh that that should be a parental right but again um you know i'm not going to mention any offices or who we spoke to um you know we have a lobbying meeting tomorrow we'll be speaking with folks and then we have meetings set up over the next couple weeks and as i've said you know if if
034there can be some sort of um joint letter with several districts or across the county that's what we would like to be a part of um the individual letters uh tend to get picked apart you know each each district is slightly different it's boards of education you know our goal would be to find a letter that would be acceptable to all school districts and all school boards and it would have to be a very simple letter to do that and that is um that we we have meetings scheduled and if we the deadline for us now is december 9th if i don't hear that it's going to happen by december 9th we'll put ben to paper and put our own letter up on the on the website i really hope so because last time i'm
035going to tell you right now how about this i'll promise you that if uh if there's no broader consensus and you know i do feel for our elected officials because they are getting bombarded um and it's it's very hard for those especially for the people in the front lines in their office and it's very hard we you know we had some confusion the other day about where the shoes were going and it was because someone who was in the front lines didn't necessarily have all the information he was just you know gathering things the shoes up to be donated so you know again i appreciate you folks continuing to call and being you know honestly being polite and respectful and expressing your opinion and um you know we we we're gonna we're gonna push real
036hard for the next couple weeks because um you know this is a very very delicate situation but it could be extremely disruptive to the educational process so we hope well we're hoping we saw in new york city when they tried to uh you know mandate things with the police and fire department all of a sudden they backed off and and they're taking a couple more months to look at it and i saw today that long beach hospital had to close their emergency room because they didn't have enough nurses so i think that should speak volumes for people that nurses are refusing this like they we all know they went through it face to face for a year and now they're getting fired like this nothing's adding up and i also i know that lady left
037but she a lot of people like to say oh we're adding a vaccine just like all the other fda approved what's the big deal this is completely different it's literally still in experimental trials it's not even like there's babies dying 23 babies under the age of 2 have died during the experimental trials 23 and if this just started as of november like it's sickening and the media doesn't want to touch at all about this you have to search it took me two hours to come together for this and i literally have so much more like no one would ever talk about that on the news it's like we have to you know dig for all this to keep our children safe they went 20 months without this vaccine and now it's going to be mandated
038and get get out of here this is crazy so i i do believe that you guys agree but we really need you to stand up and take more action like this letter should have already been written so all right thank you thank you [Music] hi um we've been playing this game with you guys for seven months now and honestly nothing what you have said has been followed through i and i'm sure many other parents feel like you just say what we want to hear to calm us down for the time being you told us on multiple occasions the bulletin board in the middle school would be taken down before school even started here we are days before thanksgiving guess what the bulletin board's still up you promised no covet propaganda in our schools guess what
039my son pulled up a game so you could decorate a mask on their chromebook you told us no crt had no place in our school you said it wouldn't slip through the cracks on the middle school website there's blm stickers on an article that a middle schooler wrote you could shake your head no i could pull it up and show you immediately so i'll show you you told us math breaks would be generous and wouldn't depend on the teacher again not true teachers are using mass breaks as rewards or taking away mass breaks for bad behavior next we could talk about the letter a month ago we were told two weeks for the letter waiting for multiple school districts to join and if not you guys would send your own here we are still waiting
040now it's december 9th we are sick of it is anyone seeing the pattern everything you guys said to us nothing has been followed through with do you understand bill a08378 authorizes the commissioner of health to develop and supervise the execution of state aid to schools requires immunization against kobe 19 attendant for attendance at school this very well could be passed and then what i don't think this school or many other schools could survive the amount of children that will leave pub the public school system you guys are not working for us and we're fed up joanne walsh you're up for re-election in 2022 william carplake christopher zachary in 2023 stephen rulin and michael jurgen in 2024 if you're not willing to do what you say you were doing for us and fight for our children
041the community will work day and night to find candidates with backbones to replace these seats on the board and work for the people and the safety of our children also today i picked up my son early from school guess what nobody in the front of timber point had a mask on not even on their chin none of them so you could enforce these rules on our children but the staff could do whatever the hell they want we're fed up we're done and if things don't change i promise you when you're up for re-election every single one of you will be replaced thank you steph as you can see we are losing faith in your abilities as administrators and as governing board we are losing faith in some of our teachers we've heard countless stories of
042art teachers asking children for their gender identification articles in our middle school newspaper with gender ideology and crt graphic abortion movies in english class history teachers sharing their political beliefs and teaching communism in america not so bad the lady who spoke first wanted to talk about bullying the other day my daughter was walking through the hallway my oldest she was pushed by a teacher told to put on her mask we are done tolerating your allowance of such insanity you have no answers and you placate us with lies of how you're working on it or we didn't know about it we didn't know about that that's not true we didn't know about that you've taken money from the federal government with ko for covid with strings attached and then you were either too ignorant to realize
043there were strings attached that are clearly stated on the cdc website or you were just lying to our faces again you sit and you say nothing because maybe you have nothing to say but we are not asking you anymore we are demanding you stop catering to these radical leftist agendas that you swear up and down you don't agree with that are leading us down a path to completely shut down the school when the vaccine mandate comes to fruition you said i lee back and you do nothing but when 35 or more of these kids get pulled out of school because they don't want to get a vaccine that they're going to be forced to get nobody here will have a job we are the people and we govern you your unwillingness to take responsibility is
044over by following the mass mandate alone you're in direct violation of federal laws 18 usc 241 conspiracy against rights and 18 usc 242 deprivation of rights under color of law i can give those two later if you'd like consider this a warning as we are willing to take legal action against you personally and as an entity for violating our children's rights step hi good evening this is the first time i've ever been to one of these meetings and uh i'm not about to berate you or tell you how bad you are because i really don't know but uh what i have to say is about the vaccines um i'm here today you know for our kids i want to make a valid point about vaccinations and i'm sure you're all fully aware of what it's
045all about a true story you know when back uh this kobe first started back in 2020 i had my husband sick my sister lives below me the whole house was sick me myself and my daughter have never got sick um you know i went above and beyond to help them i did whatever i could do you know and never wore a mask i watched i watched a lot of hands i did what i did okay the point is um there are people out there that are naturally immune okay to the covet all right now i know that some of you may not believe this but it works okay i know because i am one of them and my daughter is one of them i have immunities proven by a doctor and have no idea why
046but for some reason we don't have it now for the point of what i'm trying to say is for the amount of time that we've been exposed and the amount of time that my daughter has been exposed and yes we need to wear a mask i get it everybody needs to wear a mask but the whole point is why should we have to agree to a mandate that is is going to have to force our children to get vaccinated when we know of all the precautions of everything that's going to happen with our children we don't know we don't know what this vaccine is going to do 10 years from now we don't know what it's going to do five years from now i know you all feel the same way i know you all
047do the point is i don't want this to be a mandate for my kid and if it is then i'm gonna have to pull her out and i'm not gonna count her in for school and there's a lot of parents that feel the same way as me we're gonna pull them out we'll teach them at home if we need to i'm not gonna give her anything that i'm not 100 percent sure that it's gonna keep her safe now i know you know what i have a sister she's diabetic she's had three of the vaccines she got a booster recently she passed out on the floor from the booster okay i'm not going to subject my child to anything there's been numerous events of of children getting vaccines where they're getting the adult dose and they're
048not getting the correct one they're getting uh you know too much of it and and so on and so forth i'm not even going to go into statistics because i'm not into that i'm not going to tell you every statistic there is all right we all know them i'm not going to sit here and preach statistics and i'm not going to read from my list either i'm going to tell you that this is what it is i am not going to vaccinate my child and i believe that these parents aren't going to either and i think that everyone should stand up for their kids and know that we have the right to say no and we're not going to let our kids get vaccinated because we don't feel that it's safe and i'm not going
049to do it and they're not going to do it and that's why we're here and that's pretty much all i have to say about this thank you thank you hello first i want to start on a good note the jfk playground is absolutely phenomenal so that's good news secondly a lot of what i was going to say has been said but i do want to ask you mr dolan what protocols are in place to communicate with the staffs of the various schools what's promised at these meetings i do think that i'm giving you the benefit of doubt that what you say is what you think is true what you want to happen however we've seen very little follow through with the actual staffing of the schools just by different stories that you've heard tonight and
050then a couple of more that i have i'm not so sure of the transfer transference of information such as generous mass breaks or the crt curriculum or gender identity in schools i'm just not so sure that what's going on here like they one hand knows what the other hand is doing so is there like a staff meeting with the principals and the principals with the teachers and everyone's defense i know that this is a crazy time i'm a teacher myself how are the teachers to know what exactly we're talking about because this seems to be not the generous mass breaks that we were thought to happen and optional masks in october was kind of talked about but never heard about it again that we were hoping for masks optional maybe by october so well let's
051go with the first one you're asking about mask breaks correct you know we we talked about this earlier in the year um you know you're a teacher what grade you teach i teach special ed alternative high school okay so i mean it's very hard for us to come up with a hard schedule because every teacher does different things at different times in different ways you know i've had i had a very nice conversation with a woman today who wasn't happy about something but she was happy with the fact that her daughter was happy with the mass breaks so my answer to this is if you're having trouble with mass breaks it should be directed you know you should ask the question of the either the building principle or the building administration because they've been working
052i know they've worked with numerous kids to solve numerous problems when it comes to mass breaks um you know we we've asked people to be generous we've asked people to be sensitive now sometimes there are kids that don't speak up so it's kind of hard we've talked to parents and parents have called this school social worker or guidance counselor we now have guidance counselors at the elementary level so i know we've worked with numerous students to get through this there is not a one-size-fits-all because it depends on the activities in the classroom you know we've had unfortunately we've had some covet cases this year but we've had to quarantine very few people because protocols have been followed you know so if there's an issue with mass breaks you know a nice note or you know
053call to the building administration could you help me out here and you know it could be as simple as getting the child to speak to the guidance council find out what the problem is then we talk to the teacher um you know my office has not been flooded with calls about mass breaks i can assure you that i've heard just as many positives as i've heard negatives but i haven't gotten a lot of calls about that um the second what's the second question let me remember the second question um i'm just i'm just gonna say one more about what we've been doing you know we we've sent out several letters and we made sure we sent them um via email and we also sent them receipt requested so there's evidence that we have sent these
054letters to to the governor to the state education department and to the department of health i'm talking about more about your staff like the culture of east islip schools related to children being able to breathe or being able to ask to go take a mask break i would like to see it a definite in every classroom or protocol for how that can happen and the kids to know how it can happen because the kids there's what's happening is i hope you saw our operation shoe drop which was hugely successful now parents are coming to us and letting us know some of the issues that their children are having that they just know some place that they could go get support um one student's having anxiety and breathing issues with the mask and now the teacher's
055calling him out and the other students are now joining in and i mean i'm not saying that everyone's going to be perfect as a teacher and i'm just saying i would like the culture to be well known in east islip schools what's you know that the children should be being supported with being able to breathe we will uh you know i'll be happy to revisit this i'll speak to mr manzo and dr bell's tomorrow but i'm pretty comfortable that people understand what we're supposed to be doing and there can be on any given day there can be problems and um you know that that's when i appreciate people going to you but it'll be much more helpful if they came to us so we can solve the problem we need to identify what the problem
056is you know what exactly is going on and when they go to you and not to us it becomes a fractured message right well i feel like maybe they don't feel comfortable yet but we all work together like i would like also to know if there could be possibly a committee between you maybe some of the parents that want less restrictions parents that want more restrictions and we can maybe form a committee that we could all talk to each other and try and come up with understanding i'll be more than happy to make myself available like i'll sit and listen to you i'll show you the letters that we've sent i'll show you whatever we've done um you know i've seen really beautiful letters written by other districts that have gone nowhere because they're all
057by themselves and each district based on the board of education and the district has their own little spin on it and that's how we get divided in and conquered you know our goal is simple we want to get back to normal school i listened to the board members and some of the things that they saw we're moving back to normal like i said before for some people we're moving too quickly and for some we're moving not fast enough i'll be happy you know what call my office tomorrow we'll set up a meeting and i will spend as much time as you'd like well i want us all just to be fighting for our kids because we all need to be working 24 7 at this point this isn't just a photo op board at this
058point you guys definitely are in for more like the most important time in our history i would say for our kids between the different crt stuff going through the vaccine mandates we need your help we really just need everybody to put their heads together and help fight it's not a time to be like we need a leader we need people to lead that's what we're trying to do half of us never went to a board meeting before now we're here like every other board meeting unfortunately for you guys but you know we're not trying to be against you we're trying to stand together and fight because it's going to be too late that's all i want to say good evening my name is tara bartek i have three daughters in the district two in in
059the high school and one in rck in third grade um i'm here to say i am 100 against the covet vaccine for myself and my children there is no circumstance that i would even consider the vaccine we all had covet and our natural immunity did its job and fought the virus and for people who want the vaccine they have a choice that doesn't affect me therefore i want a choice for my children not to vaccinate them not only is this mandy completely unconstitutional and non-american but it is having adverse effects on children over a virus with a recovery rate of between 97 and 99.8 percent not only is this vaccine having adverse effects but children are dying of cardiac arrest strokes days after the vaccine so if you're not willing to fight for our children's
060health let's talk dollar signs because everyone who is against this vaccine either will move out of new york if they haven't already or be homeschooling their children we are tax pay taxpayers who are paying your salaries new york is one of the top ten states with the highest per pupil spending and new york being number one at twenty four thousand forty dollars per student so times that number by all those shoes that you saw out there who will be homeschooling their their their children and with the shoe thing i'm so disappointed that you didn't even have enough respect to leave those shoes out there for the day when you knew arrangements were made for them to be picked up but i had to pass there and watch the custodian throwing them in a garbage pail
061that was just like a slap in the face that our voices didn't matter and the signs were too political that they were removed by the morning arrival what happened to freedom of speech the narrative ended up changing custodians were throwing them in saying they didn't get the point of the shoes my daughter's social studies teacher saying how stupid they that she felt this the whole shoe thing was and she didn't understand us parents um because the signs weren't there they were removed and you couldn't even let our voices be heard over the summer you had a board meeting with a handful of parents including myself saying how you were on our side well that was just all smoke and mirrors because nothing is being done and we as parents are tired of it we want
062to know what's being done now before it's too late we don't want to hear the little johnny's little johnny scenarios about things would happen way back when we need to know that you are willing to fight for our children who deserve to be in a public school without any vaccine mandate in effect maybe if you start leading by example for other districts will follow suit you will gain some respect back by your actions rather than words to appease us [Music] i know my time is up but we as parents were fed up and this fight has just begun and we will not give up we will pull our children right out of the school if you're if our children's health is at risk we are their parents we decide our decisions for our kids and
063we want answers and we want to know you're doing that we want to know what you're doing to fight for our children because i feel like i'm just dealing with a bunch of politicians at this point i don't really feel like our kids even matter because everything is just like i said smoke smoke and mirrors we want to see action thank you hello good evening i just wanted to end the night on a positive note backing off mr dorgan the trunk or treat was amazing for the first time in my son's educational career in second grade the shrills and the giggles from the children how happy and excited they were we need to get back to that i my son was so excited that day he couldn't wait we need that and my question today
064is what is the policy on field trips because again he's in second grade so he's never really experienced one is he going to leave timber point and not have one do they have field trips in jfk um it's just something it's about the kids and and to see my son and his best friend go i gave him 20 bucks i said buy whatever you want it was normal it felt good we need to get back to that i know you felt it because i heard you so let's do it so about the field trips we have been sending our children on field trips they are yes out of the school they are following whatever protocols they have in place wherever they're visiting and they have been visiting different locations maybe they haven't had one yet
065all right but is there a limit because i heard that like it was like kindergarten was on one trip first grade goes like is that is that old i i think they've had set trips set up by grade levels that's how they've done it correct thank you so much yes actually we approved an 8th grade field trip tonight so it's good to see them coming back stephanie that's it okay on the consent agenda we did approve there was a scholarship memorial um that's a donation uh in the name of thomas and potter i i believe if the gentleman i'm thinking of i i knew this gentleman if this is troy's dad was a great man uh baseball coach i had a few boys in the district and uh just a very good person who we
066missed so thank you to the potter family whether it's him or another potter thank you very much for your very generous donation it's a great way to have your name go on in a good way so thank you to the potters for that donation how's it going with the staff testing mr mr dolan i left this out of my report and i had a very nice conversation with a uh with a parent today who had a very interesting concern about the testing that we have to do for there um and honestly you know all of these things are being thrust upon us and um her concern was what was it doing for the relationships between the you know staff members but you know i've made it a point to be spend some time at every
067testing session and again putting all politics aside and in putting you know whatever personal beliefs aside you know we've been charged with conducting this testing for our staff and i have not heard um you know look it's not it's not necessarily convenient we're trying to make it as convenient as possible for our people not all school districts are doing it in-house so that their people you know have to go and travel um you know we we try to make it convenient so people can come on their free periods or they can come before after school so they don't have to disrupt their personal lives um and i've actually been quite pleased um with the with the demeanor and the willingness to um you know they want to be here we want to be in school
068we have been i believe very fortunate our number of cases are not large i think that works in our favor um you know i continue to say that you know i'm hoping and praying that the state gives us a target that we can all get behind to reach um but to have a community member reach out today and show concern you know for the the feelings of people i think is a nice way to end the meeting you know we are thankful for this um this is a slow and arduous process um it's it's you know we're gonna it's an evolution not a revolution i know that that does not make everybody happy but um you know we have to do everything we can to be respectful of both sides of the argument even the
069uh you know the far you know extreme sides of each argument um our goal is to keep the east island school district united you know i'm hoping that we're going to start with the high school at the next meeting i know these folks want to push me we've had a very successful fall here but it's not finished it officially will end on friday night at 4 30 at hofstra so um you know at that point you know at the next meeting my report is not going to be about capital reserve or budget or testing or the like it a big part of my report is going to be about some of the successes we've had you know and the the you know i like the lady that spoke last about the field trips you know
070we had a very successful field trip to boston to harvard university with our mock trial team um and i was very impressed with how the mock trial my son wanted to be a part of it unfortunately he cannot go because he's not vaccinated so we have two categories of the people [Music] i'm very sorry about that but that wasn't our rule that was the you know so that's not our rule okay it's your dime we use it um but again we are going we are going to get through this we're going to get through this together because i've said over and over and over again um a year from now this will be in our rear view mirror and we will all be here in east islip together so uh you know thank you very
071much mr zachary now we're not happy that email was about uh vaccinated teachers getting tested each week but that's not the state requirement correct it's not the state requirement it's not practical um you know i know some people are concerned about what the state is going to try to do some of what the state is some of what i'm hearing is just really not physically practical to do so we need to you know you need to continue to voice your opinion voice your opinion to your elected officials we're certainly here to listen to you um you know unfortunately we we speak up we lobby but we don't have a seat at the table we don't have a vote but we're here to listen and i know that the powers that be the politicians do keep
072track of what goes on at these meetings so again we're more than happy to listen we we continue to do our best to lobby but we don't have a vote in this we can express our opinion but we do not have a vote i'm hoping tomorrow after the last election we're seeing a shift in things that we're hearing and i'm hoping tomorrow morning to have a very productive um meeting with with several elected officials and colleagues of mine and we're going to continue to try to move this needle back to normal but again you know we're willing to listen we're willing to listen and we're willing to listen but there are other folks that actually make the decisions and then give us the orders so um you know continue to voice your opinion here continue
073to voice your opinion to the elected officials and you know i'm thankful to live in a country where you can express your opinion so i want to wish everybody a happy thanksgiving okay the next board of education regular business meeting will be held on thursday december 9th 2021 at 8 pm can i get a motion to adjourn all favor everybody have a great thanksgiving thank you i saw it