001okay good evening thank you everybody for coming down 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 dolan thank you very much mr zachary a few things tonight number one beginning next board meeting i think we're going to go back to the uh tradition of inviting students or student groups here for recognition i think the time has come um people seem to be a little more comfortable um we'll get you know as
002and as we you know move back to a uh to a new world a new normal um you know that's what we're going to look to do starting in november um we do have an auditor's report but before we do the auditor's report i have a couple of quick things number one i'd ask the audience at this time uh there's a special group of people who do this on a volunteer basis and every three years they uh have to put themselves out in the public and ask for the public support and a vote and you know it's a it's an extremely difficult job to sit on the board of education um because you have to make some very very difficult decisions you certainly cannot say yes to everybody you know you go shopping in the
003local supermarket and you get accosted by people who are usually upset about something and they they patiently listen and you know the board's job is to really shape policy and guide the district they work tirelessly so i think we should give them a very nice round of applause in recognition of board recognition month [Applause] you know nothing and i stress nothing and of all the good things that go on here and even some of these discussions and debates that that have been lively lately none of it happens without having a board of education so i'd like to thank all of you um you know for all you do we have a nice little gift package for you a crumb cake from stanley's and um you know a couple of little goodies for you but you
004know we certainly we thank you for allowing us you know to come here every day and work with the kids and to have the kids here learning so again i want to thank the board um i'm going to jump a little bit out of order here um but you know there's there's been a lot of discussion about a lot of topics but seven years ago we came together and with a long-range planning committee created a vision for the district and that vision was heavily dependent upon construction you know at that time the facilities were um you know in dire need of upgrading beginning with the roofs um that committee and i stress it was that committee with representation from all parts of the community and it was open to everyone i believe it was a
005committee of about 30 people came up with the vision and honestly we had a multi-tiered vision to fix the facilities to get our finances in order and um you know to get a one-to-one device in every student's hands by the year 2025. now 2025 seems like a long way off um but i'm very proud of the fact that that committee has successfully uh you know completed the mission we're 95 percent of the way up the hill um the students have one-to-one devices the construction has been you know mostly completed we're moving into we've laid the foundation for a new era um but it's time i mean we can't take we can't stop and the next long-range planning committee is going to look at things like delivery of instruction what our student needs will be in
0062025 2030. where do we want this district to go um we have commissioned a uh a uh uh an audit a a an enrollment audit an enrollment survey by boces we put a video out a couple weeks ago that we're going to resend tomorrow we say very clearly in that video that we left things out because we want people to watch the video and to think about where they want this district to be in you know five to ten years we put in that video and i'll take ownership of this one is it time is it time to go from seven schools to six now i stress to you there are a lot of questions to be answered but if this committee can be as successful as the 2015 committee i'm extremely confident that this
007district will continue to grow and move in the right direction we're going to be looking for volunteers we're going to we're going to be looking for people from as many different constituent groups as possible and at the last over the last several months we've seen some parents get active politically who were not active before and it doesn't matter the reason they got active what matters is we want to keep them active and engaged we want to hear everybody's opinion you know this is not a committed committee will not be chaired by myself i will be an observer but we will have a board of education member and administrator chairing the committee but we are going to look to get representatives from all areas of all constituent groups in the community and we will discuss some
008of the really tough subjects that have come up over the last several months in a civilized organized fashion and so i want you whether you're at home or you're here with us today live we expect to get the enrollment survey right after thanksgiving we look to kick off we're going to look to kick off the committee in the beginning of uh uh you know in january in the beginning of the new year and again the you know the hope is that this committee will be as successful as the 2015 committee um you know anything good that you see that's happened here was the collective effort of the whole community it was not one person it was not one group but a collective thought from many many divergent groups so um you know stay tuned we're
009gonna repost the video tomorrow um if you're interested contact my office give us your name and your number um you know we we are going to look uh like i said the last committee had 30 people on it and in the beginning people said to me that's too many it's unwieldy it can't be done and it certainly worked out pretty well so i'm extremely proud of what this community has done and we're looking forward to uh you know the next committee um and with that it's time for me to turn the microphone over to mrs marianne van dyne from rs abrams our external auditors to give you our audit report it's not up there text do you want to give her the microphone thank you okay so thank you for inviting me to present my
010results of the audit we did two separate audits we did the extra classroom audit and we also did your financial statement audit in both audits we gave you the best opinion you could get as a school district it's called an unmodified opinion and we felt your books and records were in excellent condition steve harrison and maria braybender and the rest of the business office do a wonderful job at keeping an excellent controls and excellent financial records so we gave you the cleanest opinion we can get as a school district in addition to that we also do look at your internal controls and we felt your internal controls were excellent they were in really good shape we did have one minor recommendation with regards to the school lunch program however it is something that i know
011mr harrison is working on and it's really to reinvest in the program um to bring the fund level uh fund balance level down and i know he has some ideas on how to improve the program and reinvest in the program so that really was the only recommendation we had which was excellent there was no and the recommendations from last year on extra classroom are all implemented so it's really nice to see that the business office does take our audit seriously and really want to do the right thing so all in all you know the internal controls were were really in good shape the financials were in great shape you do have a long term plan as mr dolan had said for financials as well as capital projects so it's nice to see that you do
012have that vision on thinking of the future as well as being prepared for the current year so you were at the unassigned fund balance at four percent which is really your current year savings account and um you also have money set aside for capital work um to prepare for any additional work you need to do for the district so i think you know long term you have a good financial plan short term you are you don't have a good plan also and um all in all i think you know the order went very well and and mr harrison please take um take a time with your staff and just thank them for working so well with my staff to get everything done in such a timely manner any questions no okay i'd just like to
013recognize the efforts of the audit committee that's met to review the audits presented by rs abrams and marianne van dyne we have jen rice andreaspina and bill madden as well as board members who sit on the committee mr zachary and miss walsh their efforts are certainly appreciated and i'd like you also to take back to your staff that we felt equally as able to work with them and in a collaborative effort and that that's appreciated and i just would like to say again that terry farrow maria brabender and the rest of the business office staff are really the ones responsible for getting the financials in the best shape possible and their efforts are also appreciated so thank you okay marianne thank you very much thank you for the work you did on the audit and
014also mr harrison to your team again um i know it's a lot of work the audit committee um thank you guys for for taking the time out of your your days and meeting with us and going through the audit so thank you to all involved and steve especially your team for doing an outstanding job as always thank you all right thank you [Applause] okay public comments on agenda items agenda items only certified personnel be resolved upon the recommendation the superintendent of schools the board of education proves 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 certified personnel attachments get a motion second discussion all in favor aye aye hi we we had a
015special um appointment tonight um you know this gentleman came to us in 2013 from the hicksville school district where he taught for uh i think it was nine years social studies um you know mr jason stanton came to us as an assistant principal um you know and one of the things that we like to see um you know is we want people to want to try new things it's great example for the kids an opportunity arose you know our director of guidance retired jason was interested he went through the process he successfully uh went through the process and it's just been really nice to watch over the last couple of years jason grow into the job um to the young man in the audience here i see a bunch of students here today um you
016know what he did is a wonderful example to you he got up every morning you know tied his shoes tight and came to work and worked hard and it seems like he's learning new things every day bringing fresh perspective to the job you know he does wear multiple hats you know he is our family consumer director and i know i'm forgetting i'm leaving one out well and business uh but you know guidance is the main the main portion of his job but we're really proud that uh you know jason's here tonight with his wife samantha samantha where are you you can stand up samantha and jason's in the back with the tie on next to our administrative union president mr brennan but jason has earned tenure tonight and i stress earned it you know you
017don't give this away you don't give this away lightly um you know he's been working here um like i said since 2013 doing an excellent job every day he's got and since he's come here the family's gotten bigger he's got his two children at home miranda and dean so we'd like to get him home to his family but jason thank you for all your hard work thank you for all the things you're going to do in the future and you should be very proud of yourself because you earned this so let's give mr stan a really nice round of applause and i think it's time for you and your wife to go home because you've got little babies in the house you need some rest so uh you know you want to welcome to stay
018but this is your chance to get out congratulations mr stanton non-certified be resolved upon the recommendation 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 non-certified personnel attachments can i get a motion potion discussion all in favor aye abstain resolve the board of education of the east side of union free school district hearing approves a seventh amendment to the employment agreement as amended between the board of education of the east side of union free school district and assistant superintendent steve harrison and being further resolved that the president of the board of education of the east side subunit free school district is hereby authorized to
019execute on behalf of the board of education his seventh amendment between assistant superintendent stephen harrison and the board of education of the east side union free school district i get a motion motion second discussion all in favor all right resolve the board of education the east side of union free school district hearing approves a fifth amendment to the employment agreement as amended between the board of education the east status of union free school district and assistant superintendent paul e manzo and be further resolved that the president board of education of east status of union free school district is here with authorized to execute on behalf of the board of education a fifth amendment between assistant superintendent pauly manzo and the board of education of the east side union free school district can i get a
020motion motion second discussion all in favor aye resolved at the board of education the assessment union free school district here and approves a second amendment to the employment agreement as amended between the board of education the east side union free school district and assistant superintendent lisa m bell's edd and be further resolved that the president of the board of education at the union free school district is here with authorized to execute on behalf of the board of education a second amendment between assistant superintendent dr lisa m bells and the board of education of the east test union free school district i get a motion motion second discussion all in favor aye aye i guess so joanne uh congratulations mr harrison mr manzo dr bells um you all worked very hard it's very much appreciated by
021the board and the community so thank you all for for all you guys do year round this is very much appreciated be resolved at the board of education the eastern union free school district hereby approves the first amendment to the employment agreement with the assistant plant facilities administrator dated october 21st 2021 and be further resolved that the board president is hearing authorized to execute said amendment okay get a motion motion second discussion all in favor aye aye uh and anthony is here with us anthony congratulations thank you uh it was a very challenging summer that you had with all the work going on you and your team did an excellent job getting the schools ready for school and i know you worked very hard and it's very much appreciated so thank you for all you
022do be resolved that upon the recommendation of supernatural schools the board of education approves the consulting contract with the center for workplace solutions incorporated to provide sensitivity training and performance coaching effective october 12 2021. take a motion second discussion all in favor aye aye okay consent agenda items 9.1 through i guess 913. uh does anybody want anything removed from the consent agenda motion to accept the consent agenda motion all in favor aye aye be resolved that upon the recommendation of supernatural schools the board of education approves the attached list of appropriation changes for the 21-22 school years okay get a motion motion second discussion all in favor aye aye okay how appropriate that mr montori just walked in the uh any old business not not referencing your age mr montoya but referencing that this was
023a very popular point in the meeting that you would jump in any old business anybody have a question no any new business i got new business just two items i just wanted to mention i attended last month's septo meeting that was the first in-person septo meeting since uh the pandemic started it was very well attended and it was very informative i just wanted to mention for anybody the next septo meeting is next week next wednesday if anyone wishes to attend from the community the second item i had was i wanted to thank dr wadwa for the enl ceremony for organizing it for the students their parents and teachers last night i just wanted to congratulate all students who were honored last night great thank you any other new business okay cooking right through stephanie oh
024yes i'm sorry ms miller before we get started just i know we've been uh lacks we only had a few people here at the last meeting you could come up you come on um but we have to adhere to the three minutes there's there's good reason for it uh whatever item you're speaking about if you go on for 10 15 minutes you know we'd have to provide the same time to somebody else even at another meeting so it's really there's a reason why these rules are in place just ask that you'll be respectful of three minutes at the three minute mark please wrap up uh your comments we don't want to have to cut off the audio or anything like that we want to just have a nice meeting so if we can just be
025respectful no not at all man so just in the past meetings we've been a little lacks with that but we got to really get back to it so thank you ms miller the floor is yours i feel compelled to come here tonight to point out some stats i ran across in researching east islip's overall performance as a school district i started my research after hearing stories around town concerning college freshmen and sophomores who were either struggling in college returned home to attend to attend community college because of these struggles or made the decision to drop out altogether there were common denominators that i found when speaking with these parents their kids were completely unprepared they struggled to construct and write essays they lacked organization and time management skills and they did not know how to
026study well i understand that college is a huge leap from high school i heard struggles before but not quite like this my son has faced some challenges that he has worked through but fortunately he entered college as an athlete a football player so he gets twice the help that a non-athlete would get two academic coaches and an unlimited tutoring for four years this kind of help is not available to the students who do not play a college sport the students most prepared for college in my conversations on the field and the grocery stores were the ap students i came across a few stats published in u.s news best high schools in the nation according to u.s news there were 20 long island high schools among the best in the nation i looked at the 20
027schools and looked to see which would be most comparable with east islip and i came up came up with number 20 on the list west hampton beach our football rivals the enrollment was similar to east islip having 17 78 more students enrolled than west hampton beach i won't go through every stat i don't have time but i will share a few and and and match up a few and can tell you that we were we had we you know some of these stats were in our favor please know the demographics of the schools match up very closely and the teacher-to-student ratio is identical so let me quickly compare a few numbers and i will get to one that really jumps off the page national ranking for east islip was 2419 which is not bad out
028of almost 18 000 schools and west hampton was 988. okay um i'm gonna i'll leave the new york alone for now expenditure per student was roughly about a two thousand dollar difference twenty eight twenty eight thousand spent in east islip west hampton was uh twenty six thousand here here's where the numbers get where i'm going with this took at least one ap exam east island was 43 percent west hampton beach was 75 passed at least one ap exam east island was 35 west hampton was 61 mathematics reading and graduation rate we were we outperformed west hampton by about four percentage points okay the most alarming number to me on on this report was the college readiness index okay east islip performed at a 36.6 out of a hundred west hampton beach performed at a 64.6
029out of 100. okay now what college readiness is termed by the following class rank coursework gpa and test scores a-c-t and s-a-t this number was alarming to me any anyone at this point saying how could this be should sit at the bleachers with me at a football game and and hear hear some of these parents and the students this is not just a situation related to covet because these stats and data was collected from 2018 through 2019. uh i highly doubt that these numbers would have been approved since the covid pandemic and a comparable school district outperforming the district by double digits in this field was was concerning to me points difference it appeared that the ap class kids in the ap classes were probably were most prepared for the colleges on in the higher
030higher learning institutions now this brings me to my next point and you guys might not like this one but i what exactly are we focused on as a school district and how do we expand our focus to help these kids succeed after when they leave this district it appears that of late we're more concerned about removing indian heads from the high school building in the middle of the night like a covert operation did you think the community would not notice this cancelling traditions such as prom queen and queen and renaming the tradition in an attempt at gender neutrality so our focus has now gone woke we are now dealing with the pandemic of wokeness and pandering which is spreading as fast or faster than kovid i truly thought this district would stay above the fray
031i along with many other community members were wrong with scores that i just read aloud the only area focused by the school board and school district should be on the education of our children there are two choices here where public schools are concerned and where the district should be concerned in my opinion and it is simply deep deep politicize public education get back to an academic emphasis with the general generalized instruction and values and ideals that actually unite americans such as honesty hard work and yes equality and love of country enough of this pandering i could not care less about fifteen thousand names on a petition with most being from outside this community not paying taxes neither property or school ms miller can you wrap it up yup as best you can thank you and
032therefore not paying the salaries of every person employed by the school district okay and i would encourage you to revert back to international law article 26 where it says that the p as um i'm sorry we as parents choose the kind of education given to our children thank you [Music] wow um first i would like to say thank you to the school board for the change in the facade of the high school i think was long overdue but thank you so much uh my question i don't have anything prepared to say but mike i do have a question regarding the website um when i go on the website to look for like when a sports team is playing i can't find it the only reason i know that west islip and east islip are playing
033tomorrow in a soccer game is because my friend called me to tell me that because his son plays on west islip so i would just like to know or put the idea out there if you can somehow change the website so that you can make all the teams schedules up there so if someone wants to go see a tennis match for example we can if somebody wants to go see middle school soccer we can and to extend that the website itself is quite archaic if it can somehow i don't know the cost i don't know what's involved i have no idea but as a parent i go on there once in a while i know where to go now because it's almost the robotic thing you go to the link excuse me you go to
034your um what you're looking for but it's not intuitive it's not easy to find if someone wants to want to move to east isa from outside the district and go to our schools webs our district website it's not the most attractive thing i went to other schools with other schools around the country's website and some of them stink i'll you know i'll give you that but some of them are absolutely fantastic and i think in this digital age there's no reason that we should not have a fantastic website um it's just something that is i think uh each folks you really think about and and look into and that's all i have to say tonight but thank you thank you thank you i've thought about it myself for the same thing i don't know why
035that we can't do that they sent it to the section 11 site and it's a pain in the neck i agree with you in terms of the sports they send this to a third party site right that has nothing on it and it's ridiculous that i don't even know when the next high school football game is i see folks from the lacrosse team here i have no idea what they did last year because it's not on the website so if you can just do something about that it'll be appreciated thank you okay frank before you go um thank you very much and and this is exactly a topic that again long-range planning where do we want to be what do we want to look like yes you know the website needs to be upgraded as
036far as the section 11 link the danger of not being linked to section 11 especially now with with some of the issues we have with busing and bus driver shortages uh section is supposed to be the the place to go um i know i've gotten you know we've been told at the beginning of the season certain things i put him in my phone and then i show up and i'm either an hour late or an hour early um you know section is changing because of uh referee shortages and bus situations um you know they they are changing daily so i'll look into to section because you know if we put something on the website and section changes it and we don't know they change it um it could be a problem but this is you
037know what you're speaking to is exactly um you know what i spoke about in my report what do we want this place to look like what do we want to invest our money in you know the construction piece is you know nearly complete you know we have one more we have one more phase of the project and we'll be talking about that you know at the next couple of meetings but we really need to focus on uh the modern curriculum you know a couple years ago we didn't have a smart board in any of these classrooms now we have a smart board in every classroom again thanks to the board every child has a one-to-one device so you know we're poised and ready and that's where we're going to need this community's input whether it's
038how the website looks you know i i would be i would be remiss to say hey we're going to change it now and then have this committee that hopefully by next summer comes back with a plan and you know but i do like you said i've seen some real good ones on the web i've seen some ones that i wouldn't want to copy and quite frankly um you know by next summer we need something new and creative and innovative that will carry the message of the long-range planning committee so thank you very much thank you thank you good evening um i thought this meeting would have something to do with the uh controversy over the crt supposedly being taught in our schools and i guess i'll just flat out ask you ask you do you
039teach anything like that or any similar things in east islip school district no crt is a is a college curriculum that was developed back in the 80s um you know we work with the new york state standards um for education so no no no no strictly academics yes well the strictly academics apparently the previous speaker was trying to tell us that we're not doing so fantastically um just just an observation actually i guess if i have three minutes uh the two and a half i have left could be used to talk about the middle of the night uh flights into uh into the airports in the metropolitan area and then and then the bus trip to uh mercy first in syosset um since i've asked this board and the superintendent to tell us how many
040children have come in and are in the schools because of the migrant laws where mckinney vento insists that any child that wants to come here can must immediately be enrolled and and then later on we'll figure out whether they really belong here or not i do have something here i was never given that information and that's five six years ago now do you can can you tell me now how many children you have that would qualify oh mrs vecchio we've had this conversation several times and and you've foiled several things and we've given you everything i foiled many many we can legally give you what i can say is we heard down 400 approximately 450 students since you made the request the school district has approximately 450 less students than we had um i appreciate
041that and obviously you're you're trying to keep it to a minimum but i know that it's not zero it can't be because the state is insisting that that we take in anybody who wants to come you know mr vecchio the beauty of a public school is that we um you know we educate kids and you know i'm not gonna sit here and and have you tell me that you know you know because you don't um you know i appreciate your questions you can continue to foil we will give you whatever we can legally give you but i am going to say that you know the east islip school district had almost 6 000 kids in the year 2000 we're down to about 3 400 now so we had 6 500 uh in the old days
042at the top again you know just from last year alone we're down 45 kids but we don't we don't break it out the way the way that you're asking we don't break it out that way the reason i originally asked was because i wanted to be able to get a good enrollment number and i was asking for the homeless homeless we asked that that was and mr montoya helped me out here mr montoya asked and answered last year um i believe the homeless number has never been asked the homeless number had gone from approximately 45 to approximately 30 but yet absolutely his numbers but he's not even sure absolutely absolutely asked and answered and they are true it was asked and answered several times oh really well i just want everyone to know here that
043nobody is getting is getting the facts in the figures or anything else from the local school districts because the state education department has has decreed that it's got to be kept a secret but it's kind of a joke because if you're in the schools if you're a teacher if you're anything involved you probably know what it is it's just the taxpayers and the parents of the other kids that that aren't going to know anything about it and that's got to stop mr jackie i don't want to cut you off because you only have three minutes i want you to get to the rest of your program and you and i are going to sit and talk but you just answered the question the state education department has made a directive and we're following it i'm
044answering your question as best we can what i'm saying is a good good school district would maybe not follow these things to the letter because what's happening is wrong thank you ms vecchio [Music] [Applause] hello so i've chosen spoken speak in front of all you today regarding the head coaching decision for east sides of varsity lacrosse we thank my teammates and brothers behind me that you should heavily consider mr thomas zumo to be our head lacrosse coach and i'm not just saying that because of me i'm a senior this is my last year but the little kid on the sideline watching us play i want him to have a good experience going up to the middle school and even the high school and we think thomas zumo is the guy for that he will take
045our program to the next level and excel everyone in it as a better lacrosse player and human being that's all i have can i ask you a couple questions i would love it will he make sure you do your homework i think so i could encourage you to do the chores around your house yes will uh he help you either get into the military trade school or college i think it would give us the best opportunity those those are the most important things as much as we love winning you know we always say yeah pride is not about winning it's about being a championship person you rest assured there's a process we're going to go through the process um you know mr zumo will be considered and um you know you guys keep working hard
046and allow the committee to do its work and then you know we'll talk next month how's that that sounds great sound good yeah you guys gonna do your homework of course you're gonna win a county championship this year long island championship you guys better start running more start running yeah we gotta get in shape all right okay thank you karen thank you [Applause] good evening um last time i was here i heard that we got a letter of intent to get on the mask mandate with locust valley any idea where we're at that did you guys make a decision anybody vote we have not joined the lawsuit you have not joined the lawsuit can i ask the reason why well let me let me ask this massa piqua has started this lawsuit if massapequa wins
047does it apply statewide or just to massapequa it's statewide but wouldn't it show unity to join together for all the superintendents but if mass speaker wins and we all get to make that local decision which we've pushed the governor for in several letters i understand that uh to commit east dice of taxpayer money it would cost about 22 cents a taxpayer so i don't think it's really a lot of money uh when you add up to taxpayers it is i'm pretty sure that well we'll go there next hold on you know i'm actually quite disappointed that you guys didn't join and i i have a petition here that i'd like to present to you with about five percent of the voters that voted all the board members that agree with me i just i hope
048i'm wrong i really do but it seems like you're not willing to fight are you willing to fight are you doing anything to fight the state of these unlawful unconstitutional mandates because the vaccine's here is coming and you all know it huckle announced she's gonna make our school a vaccine center right everyone's gonna be able to come to school get the free lunch and go get the shot right i know you don't all agree with that i know you don't i know you're not okay with it can i ask about the lawyer that we use anchorman smith ingram smith they also recommended to a lot of other schools not to go on this lawsuit was that their recommendation to you as well um i'm not going to talk about our discussions with our lawyers so
049i'm sorry i'm not going to talk about our discussions with our attorneys oh okay all right so well they've obviously recommended it to a lot of the schools because every school district pretty much that they've represent um did not go on the lawsuit either and it just seems like a bit of a conflict of interest to me because i'm pretty sure and i could be wrong but that they also represent boces which is a state-funded organization right so if the lawyer that you guys use is being paid by the state she probably isn't going to want to sue the state i could be wrong i hope i'm wrong but pretty sure [Applause] did you did you guys even sit with the lawyer that we asked you guys to sit with for the free consultation no
050you didn't you didn't sit for the free consultation just getting more information about the lawsuit no okay i i'm just truly disappointed i really am um and i know a lot of your constituents are very disappointed as well and i'm gonna present to you this petition we've also come up with a um some other besides the parents have come up um why can't i think of what this is called nicole a survey that we'd love for you to even give out to everybody we've tried to get it out to differing opinions across east islip but we had 167 people fill it out and 73 of them would like to join that lawsuit it's not too late um 73 of them would like their kids to have the choice to wear a mask or not and
051i know you guys agree with that because you agree with it last time i spoke to you and over 61 of them are willing to homeschool or move out so that's a lot of money out of the school that's you're going to lose and we're all organizing and getting ready because if this vaccine comes we're out we're done so i'm going to present to you both of these mandates uh both of these petitions it's my time up is that my bill you could finish your point you could wrap it up okay just see mr dolan leaving so i didn't know i said something to offended i'm gonna get your survey um i just it's not really about maths or mandates about public health right this is about our freedoms our liberties that are being taken
052from us thank you [Music] good evening um i'm gonna wait for him can you stop that because i just want him to be listening uh you can speak to mr dolan afterwards if you like no if you want to talk to him now no i want him to be sitting when i'm presenting okay so i'll just wait okay so it was brought to our attention that east islip school district has accepted covet funds from three different grants arp esser and gear and we are aware of covet funding for this school year standing at 1.9 million dollars for the east islip school district the following questions that i will be asking are truly just because i'm a concerned parent and i just have concerns obviously um [Music] are you aware of the contract with cdc when
053you accepted these grants by accepting this money are you aware that the district must comply with future unknown guidance by hhs which is health and human services this will end local control will you be able to walk away from future guidance or mandates if it's something you do not agree on the truth is no one has any idea what the future holds regarding any of this um are you aware that this is turning our schools into social health care networks our governor recently stated that she wants to use schools as a vaccination site she also mentioned that she has been in touch with superintendents about this have you guys heard anything about that about she had recently put out a statement saying that her plan is to make it more easier for parents and have
054the vaccination on site at school so the children can you know she said that the pediatricians are going to be bombarded with you know giving out this vaccine which honestly is not true i'm sure there's parents that are going to want to do it but there's actually a very large amount of parents that do not want to give this to their children especially five to 11 since they have zero threat with this virus and we've said this to you guys a hundred times um but again that's what this has always been about personal choice medical freedom so i was just curious is this something that she's reached out to you about like coming to a possible elementary school or the high school and doing the vaccinations on site nobody's reached out to us um at
055all okay in fact uh one of the things we we were told we had to start testing our employees we haven't started yet we're looking to start next week because you know i keep saying if we're going to have to be in this situation we're not going to win the race we don't want to be the first ones um because we want to see how it goes we want to see how it works nobody has um spoken to us about vaccinations okay um you know look if they if if we're told we have to do it at the loss of whatever the state aid or what some of the things they've said in the past um you know we'll cross that bridge when we get to it um but i i don't uh you know
056if if it's not a mandatory thing um i think by accepting the grants it's something that you know none of the money we've taken has strings attached to it um outside of um you know i'm not too sure that that's true well we're sure and so you know we we feel that i think the cdc is stating otherwise that once you there are strings attached with the money from the grants because i'm talking about the money we've taken so far we're not talking about anything that might come down the road we haven't seen anything we're not talking about it one of the things that i i am optimistic about is we have been writing to the governor we've been sending it we you know return receipts so we have paper copies but um the suffolk
057county superintendents association will be uh we have a meeting in a couple of weeks and one of the things on the agenda we've gotten on to the agenda is uh mr carpluck turn coined the term the other night that i liked an exit ramp how do we get off of this you know this this covert highway and back to normal and there are a growing number of schools in the county that are saying and and our elected officials i was with phil boyle the other day he said feel free to use his name you know we need an exit point we need to know how to get off and what's happening is we are seeing more and more people um becoming supportive of that concept a concept of communities uh collectively saying hey when we
058get to this spot you know and people have had their choice you do what you have to do we can become masked optional um but that's only going to come with the vaccine that's always been the plan we've been saying this since last year somebody said to me today we were talking about next year's election and i'm not going to say which candidate but he said that person can't get elected in new york state and i said well you've already given up you know the idea of democracy is okay you you you fight for what you think and you believe in okay you you lose that fight you don't start throwing rocks you you you go back you regroup and you come back harder and elect people we have we have an election in a
059week and a half that that is not a direct line to this uh issue but this election will send a message to people for next year's election and next year's election is a direct line to a lot of the things we're talking about so you know what are we gonna do if she like they're already talking about this being like approved for kids five to eleven which is insane and if she mandates this for school we we're there's gonna be like there's a lot of parents that are not willing to do that we're already having a plan i have to have my plan be done homeschooling curriculums like i can't i can't give that to my kids i won't here's the thing and i don't want to cut you off but no it's okay i
060don't want to uh no i i don't want to see kids that is the end game though the best of them look it's the self-fulfilling prophecy you guys keep coming in here and telling me what's going to happen and i keep saying you know we need the saddest thing in the world is if kids don't come to school because quite honestly with all due respect to the adults i have much more fun with the kids than i do the adults and i have i really believe in the future well where are their parents what we need to do is it starts with eight days from now nine days from now there's an election and this election can send a message a pre-message to next year that's really truly the american way so we do your
061research look at the candidates who are going to support the things that you want or the parties that are going to support what you want next year because let's you know i know next year is the senate the assembly and the governor's office this year is not a direct line but this year can send a very clear message and what the what people want is to have us here fighting and arguing and school boards in turmoil because then they're not paying attention to the the officials that we elect to make these decisions so you know my thing would be get out the vote do a little research vote for the candidates who are going to be part of the solution that you want but this is coming like now this vaccine mandate is going to
062be coming well you you keep the hillside and you keep like everything no no no you've got in 10 days talk to me after 10 days if if the vote goes a certain way in 10 days it could pump the brakes on it i think we just feel like if every single district would just do the right thing and leave it up to us parents then like that would do something that's like all we're asking for is if like every superintendent was like you know what let these parents make health decisions for their kids does that sound so crazy like if everyone just did that it would literally be the only way to make a difference it's the only way to make a difference everyone's complying because they want this to end but because everyone's
063complying this is literally never going to end it's this is crazy what's going on it is it's crazy and i hope all you boys don't get that vaccine so you guys can have children in the future all right that's it [Music] thank you guys wait wait one second lisa guys before you leave are you going to do your homework or are you going to run you're going to run right no run run home and then study all right thanks hello again okay so um um wow came here tonight and and heard so much that has me a little more concerned honestly so we ended off john where you said we have to vote in order to get things to change but we did vote we voted for board members uh they are the front line
064for us so it really doesn't matter who might come in as town supervisor or legislator um what really matters is the is the board because i've been speaking to town supervisors and to senators and to assembly people and they keep telling me as i said on september 22nd that it all lies with these board members so um learning that you also feel that there are no strings attached well listen you want to hope for a bait and switch i'm all down for that but unfortunately that may not occur so even if hulkel is gone and we don't have to abide by the strings that are definitely attached because i'll send you that in an email to each and every one of you um then that might not work so we have to be very cautious
065this money is coming from federal and they expect you to do certain things attached to that and they're going to audit you for that so you need to reconsider this money seriously as you said you want an exit ramp here's your exit ramp return funds right that's simple uh aside from that um i shared the new york state guidance the last time i was here so the 2018 new york state education department guidance on culturally responsive sustaining education framework which you just mentioned about 20 minutes ago is what you follow i gave it to you the last time i was here it is clearly critical race theory through and through and it can cover itself as diversity equity inclusivity and it could cover itself as social emotional learning but again look through that document i
066gave it to you i read part of it to you and it said children are to be trained as social justice activists it clearly said that we must forego assimilation cultural assimilation meaning cultural meaning american cultures and values and that they want a multicultural plural society which means identity sexuality gender etc and as i heard from the woman who spoke earlier that is clearly taking place uh here so and and our scores are suffering for it so we need to really review what we're doing as far as far as following the state is concerned both now as i heard with the kovid and also with the covet funding and also with the new york state education department guidance and let's let's focus on that word it's guidance it's it's not a law so uh even
067in the new york state supreme uh the the rulings for how education is is brought down from the state they are supreme guidance they you do not have to do what they say so let's remember that aside from that i would also hope that this board i mean you didn't join the lawsuit makes no sense to me you say you want to protect us you needed to protect us by joining that lawsuit even if that one district wins what are you saying to your constituents you you forego the the protection of of not just our local control but our civil rights and if you do that violating our civil rights by not joining that lawsuit and you put yourself you're protected to some level under indemnification but you have to be careful where you're not
068protected so um that would constitute you know violating a deliberate indifference be cautious of that i would really really suggest that you go back and reconsider joining this lawsuit and again someone mentioned there's a there's an appearance of impropriety with your law firm ouch ouch okay if this law firm is covering numerous districts and they all have not joined and they also work for boces we got a problem here so if you're being ill-advised now is the time to go through that and figure that out you may may wish to seek different counsel on this particular matter you may want to keep them for other matters but you may want to seek different counsel on this particular matter um last but not least i would ask please that you openly denounce the new that national
069board of state board of education where they said that we are domestic terrorists this is disgusting beyond disgusting let's let's openly denounce that as board members please um and we hope that you also no longer pay any dues to the national school board association uh because joining with that type of ideology is just dangerous to our uh community as a whole so please i would ask christopher zachary the president william carplunk the vice president michael dorgan stephen rulin and joanne walsh to again understand that um any type of deliberate indifference now that you are well aware that there are strings attached to the covid um and that you have an obligation to protect our constitutional uh and federal rights um please reconsider and uh i i've sent emails and i've asked you to um let
070me know what the updates are i'll send them again please speak to me and again this is not just for all of us it's to protect you our elected officials thank you [Applause] good evening do i need the microphone i do good evening um i'm just here tonight to bring your attention to middle school and what's going on over there cafeteria period six you got almost 250 kids in that cafeteria which represents almost an entire grade in the building the kids apparently from the administration in the building and the teachers are saying that it's the worst cafeteria lunch period in the building it's the worst they've ever seen in years um five kids in this district i've been here for almost 15 years i have never gotten so many notifications about the behavior going on
071in the hallways and everything else within the building so i'm here to ask for maybe some more eyes and hands on over there that cafeteria the kids were pulled out of their first period subjects on monday and they were all assigned alphabetical order to sit in the cafeteria almost 250 kids maybe it's 240 even 230 why aren't the kids that are misbehaving taken out of the cafeteria and put into another classroom line them in the hallway outside the principal's office do something instead of punishing all of the kids in there that are behaving and shouldn't have to wait longer to you know to get their lunch aren't allowed to sit next to their friends it's middle school it's hard enough as it is lunch should be the one time where they can go in and
072kind of catch their breath get to see their friends it's probably the only time some of the kids get to see their friends and they should be given that right and now with them in alphabetical order you know i have a seventh grader left and he said the kids that are misbehaving are still sitting next to each other because some of them i just happen to work out with the way that they're lined up with the alphabet and they still got to sit next to each other so i'm just asking that maybe some more eyes can go in there maybe security can go in more security more aids throw teachers in there it's one period from according to what they're saying the other lunch periods they're all angels and they're under 200 as far as
073the head count and this particular great this particular period has so much more i'm sure you know the scheduling with music and all that you know plays a role but something has to be done and the kids shouldn't be punished that are behaving for the kids that are misbehaving that bad if they're they're behaving that bad then they should be pulled out and put into another room or in the whole something but something needs to be done that's all i wanted to say hopefully i can something will happen from this thanks mrs pepe just so you know mr manzo's working on this and look i i'm gonna say something that normally normal situations everywhere i've ever been in middle school they get assigned seats and they chafe under that they don't want to sign seats
074and i remember they'd come to the high school and they could sit whatever they wanted that was a big deal for them and and this is this is the case where i think um i i i applaud the building for trying to do something you know and to treat them maturely um but mr manzo has been working closely to build the administration i am confident that they are going to things are going to be back to normal as you described um you know we are very fortunate here the the behavior in general in east islip the kids you know um is excellent okay and but one of the things every few years you have situations like this all i'd ask the public is just to be a little bit patient and like i said mr
075manzo has been working with the building administration mr brennan mr thorley mr seifert and i think that by this time next week we're going to be in a much better place but just give give them a little bit of time sometimes sometimes with kids you um you want to see the best in them and out of these kids sometimes to their to their the teachers and the aids that are in there that should be punished because i know if my kids said some of the things that these kids did or throwing milk or any of the other behavior that they're doing there would be i'm going to say this gently but i had a i've had several experiences at several games this year i have a much easier time working with the children on their
076verbage but i do know that we're not teaching cursing in school but they're here and so and i've had to deal with several parents saying really so we it's all it's you know what i just said something mr zachary said don't say it yet don't jinx it but something came up about the president and bringing in the department of justice we don't need that you know what i'm really proud of tonight people are getting up they're speaking their mind you know do i take it personally yeah i like this place i love this place but i want to hear it we all want to hear it but people are speaking respectfully they are speaking in in very um i think very positive tones and this is why you know going to bring it full circle
077here you know we're going to all sit down at a table and have a long-range planning committee and we're going to define where we want this district to go for the next year 10 years and it'll include student behavior their language you know what we're going to do i don't need the department of justice to come here i believe this community hey look everybody blew off steam for a couple of months they needed to everybody let it out but tonight i have to tell you right now sitting here listening to the people get up and speak i'm very proud and i think the young men from lacrosse team got a chance to see some really intelligent adults get up and speak their mind so we don't need the department of justice we just need to
078take yeah i'm very confident mr brennan and his team and mr manso will have a good time and hopefully they'll invite me to the cafeteria so all right like mr dolan said thank you everyone for for coming and commenting um the next board of education regular business meeting will be held it was supposed to be on thursday november 18th um but just keep an eye on it it may have to be the day before uh november 17th so just keep an eye on on the date we're looking into it uh motion to adjourn motion all in favor