BOE Meeting March 11, 2025

001uh good afternoon everyone and welcome to the monthly meeting of the eastrock Board of Education I'd like to call this meeting to order at 7:03 pm on Tuesday March 11 2025 uh at this time Mr Loris will you announce our pledge yeah uh Alex tup compson is a student at r Avenue D benedetto fifth grade class he exemplifies kindness respect and responsibility all to a role model for for his peers consistently following school rules and always giving his best effort in addition to excelling in math Alex is actively involved in a variety of extracurricular activities including the morning Sports Club art portfolio portfolio and the chess club he is also guest starred in the sixth grade newscaster Al is a member of the band and participates in isma chorus additionally he's involved in modeling plays

002basketball and baseball and has a passion for sneakers his positive attitude and enthusiasm create a welcoming environment for those around him making him a wonderful representative of our school Alex you going face here and say the Pledge whenever you're I pledge Ali toag of the United States America stands naice for thank you Al I for you today okay our first presentation okay um at this time we have um some presentations our first presentation is Project based learning Mr Mar so um as a district initiative we brought in Project based learning two years ago um reason being is we realized that what I call Essential skills problem solving critical thinking collaboration or all in the best interest of our students um in addition the Blue Ribbon commission uh is also uh putting forth different types of

003learning modalities and this is one of them that we feel that we're on the Forefront and ahead of and at this point uh when I was in Shan's position we decided that Project based learning is going to be an Initiative for the entire District so right now currently we have two-thirds of our staff trained uh they've been through uh the gold standard an extensive four is four or five three-day training um and we have so two-thirds of our staff are already using that's K through 12 Project based learning next year for our November superintendent conference day we'll have another three-day training in which our entire staff will be trained in Project based learning so I'd like to keep updating the community uh tonight Mr Murray will be updating the community with a project-based learning student

004centered presentation so without further Ado I'd like to introduce Mr Maria uh assisted superintendent for curriculum instruction who presenting first presentation tonight thank you Mr damaso um so when we think about Project based learning what we're really thinking about is how it affects how students learn so as we go through the presentation today I'm going to start with a little bit of a of a background just to remind people who may not have been at earlier presentations about pbl but pretty soon we're going to hand it off to some of our teachers and students because they're the ones who are living this every day and they are the ones who can tell you the story of PDL a lot better than I can um I always like to start my presentations with a reminder of

005our district mission statement um and one of the things that's really wonderful about pbl is its alignment with our mission especially when we're talking about how it engages students how it's an Innovative approach to learning it challenges students they become very self-directed and they're forced to be creative throughout the project um when we think about what really drives us this this is another slide I'd love to to go into with every presentation um because kids first is at the center that is what we're doing here and pbl best aligns with the 21st century learning circle of of this graph we have because it's about collaboration communication um creativity critical thinking and putting all those four C's together of the essential skills um you know we're a quarter of the way through the 21st century so

006I like essential skills better um and those are the skills all of our students need to be successful wherever they go after graduation and pbl really focuses on those um so just tonight again I'm going to start with just a little overview and reminders about what pbl is why we chose that and then we're going to really talk about the student experience we're going to talk about the teacher experience some of the outcomes of our pbl learning units and then finally where the district is moving in the teacher so just as a quick reminder and again I'm going to just very briefly because this is a presentation that we've seen before um but basically the idea of a Project based learning is that learning happens throughout the course of the project the project is not

007something students do at the end of a unit of learning students learn through project and every step of the project they're going to find out okay here's a roadblock what do I need to do to get around that roadblock and the Learning Happens through the project um they have authentic problems and challenges that they look to solve um they have to come up with a Public Presentation of what they've learned um and they really build deep knowledge while they're working with their colleagues with their peers and with other outside experts specifically here in East Rockaway we have subscribed to the gold standard pbl um The pbl Works which used to be called The Buck Institute developed this gold standard pbl and it's comprised of seven essential design elements of the project so the project is

008designed around having a sustained inquiry a real life problem to solve um student choice and voice is built into those projects and the idea is that there's a constant iteration of feed back from teachers experts peers Etc so that's one piece of the gold standing pbl the second piece is the actual teaching practices so there are also seven essential teaching practices in a PDL classroom and all of it goes to students being at the center of instruction and the Center for Learning so that learning is aligned to the standards there is content built into that but basically the idea is students get to go down various rabbit holes that really Intrigue and interest them and teachers just make sure that in those rabbit holes are the essential content and skills the students also need to

009learn um this is a great flow map so there's been a lot of research around uh pbl and the next slide we'll we'll talk a little bit to some of the specific findings of that research but this flowchart I think really visualizes very well what pbl does so you see the big fat arrow pointing up um towards the left those are the features of the pvl unit itself it's problem driven it's interdisciplinary it's real life it's Cooperative learning and then you can see some of the skills that students need to develop and that develop better in classrooms that use pbl are the ones that are circled there things like critical thinking creative creativity Cooperative thinking even their attitudes and motivations towards learning the research tells us is better in classrooms where pbl takes place um

010and of course at the end we want our students to be able to be better thinkers to achieve their academic goals and also to have a great emotional attitude towards learning towards peers and towards school and all those things come out of the research on pbl um and that chart Came From This research by Zang and ma um and they've done two decades of research and it just tells you all the great things that happened to for students when teachers take the pbl learning seriously um I don't need to read through that slide for you this will be up on the website tomorrow um but ultimately students learn better they feel more Adept at what they're doing they feel better and more confident about how they relate with their peers everything about it is good

011for students um but I think I've said enough um and so the next slide is a video from one of our uh r Avenue classrooms Miss rudenberg students um put together a video about what it was like to engage in a pbl so let's just listen to that learning during Project based learning is different from regular class lessons because we get to be more creative another the reason it is different is because we get to do cool things like making posters and work together one of the most exciting parts of Project based learning is shown off our project at the end we love when people get our hard work and it makes us feel proud something that is hard about Project based learning is having to come up with ideas without a lot of teacher

012help another thing that was hard is figuring how out how to put everyone's ideas together as one something I learned during the kindness week Project based learning is how to use CA I learned how to manage my time because we had a due date for all parts of the project I learned how to work better with others so that was how students felt about working in a pbl and you know I don't think you can do better than that um you know they really showed that it's not just all fun and games parts of TBL are hard but those are also the parts that they enjoy because they know that they they grew from that um so some of our students from Miss uh Benedetto's class over in r Avenue also shared some thoughts again

013I won't read through them all but what I will choose just a couple of great words that came out of some of their quotes So Raphael had to say to us that um it was fun and exhil in rather than learning the traditional way um a favorite part of making the cultural outfits um was taking inspiration from DIA deos muos um and she would definitely prefer pbl over the traditional way of teaching that's fenza um Derek and this is again this is one of those skills students learn my favorite part was evaluating and planning what I was going to do so let's learning how to to move forward um it's different than every other day in the classroom and loves and um Julia tells us that it's not just boring instead of just listening to

014our teacher the boring way she made it fun and we got to design clothes from the countries that we were studing with so sorry to boring this deep andto but you know um but we're not just doing this work at the elementary school um and having been a middle school principal and having a middle schooler and two former middle schoolers at home um if you can get this age group connected you're doing something um so let's listen to what some of our middle schoolers have to say in my opinion I feel like pbl projects were fun because we got to work with our groups and come up with creative ideas and I feel like it was exciting because we got to learn more stuff and help each other in my opinion it's a lot different

015from regular class because instead of taking notes and stuff we're working class I hands on it's a lot fun my favorite part of the pbl project was uh getting to really see my ideas and creativity on the project in come to life kind of getting to help my team out made a team and so these are some students from Miss pant Antonio's um and Mr Jet's living environment classes in eth grade there's just a few more thoughts that they have some of the hardest parts of learning with pbl like working with new um classmates Maybe like like the teamwork you have to put into it like you all have to work together very I was trying to convince my teacher pbl more I would say it's really great because it's a hands-on experience and I

016feel like I learn better that way when actually doing something getting up and moving around working right so those are some middle schoolers who are enjoying this um so miss pantr anonio was not able to be here tonight but she also wanted to share her experience with pbl so that's what we'll listen to Next in our living environment classes we typically always have students working together and collaborating the thing that we noticed that was much different about pbl was that some of our struggling Learners who typically don't respond as well to traditional classroom lessons really took more of active role and throughout the pbl unit whether it was researching or working Hands-On they really just felt more comfortable they were able to be more creative they exhibited more leadership roles and that was something that

017we really likeed to see uh in the completed projects some of the best ideas that we saw that went into the project actually came from students that typically take more of a back seat in class so that was really surprising and really exciting and made us teachers really proud so so what I love most about what she shared was that students who may not succeed in a traditional classroom have the opportunity to succeed when the the class is engaged in a PPL and it really gives more access to more students to be successful um so we have uh a couple of guests in the audience I'm going to ask Miss fenberg and Miss deetto to come on up um and they're going to share with you how they feel as teachers about PD we could

018clap we give them a [Applause] clap hi everyone um I am Molly de benedetto I teach fifth grade over at rain Avenue and since introducing Project based learning I was in the cohort last year so I've had pretty much all of last year and now all of this year under my belt with pbl I've seen a huge shift in my classroom specifically engagement has simply skyrocketed even my most reluctant Learners are now leading discussions problem solving in ways that I haven't seen before and collaborating with one another one of the biggest challenges I see right now with this um recent age group of students is a lack of productive struggle um my students often want quick answers and get discouraged easily when things don't work out but with pbl they learn to adapt so if

019they come up with an idea that's simply too big to complete they adjust if something doesn't go as planned they find Creative Solutions and instead of shutting down they decide to persevere instead group work has also improved in ways I didn't expect in a fifth grade classroom collaboration can certainly be tricky um students are EAS easily off askask if they're with their best friends or they could easily get in a conflict if something doesn't go as planned but with pbl they take more respons ility because they know their final product depends on their teamwork I've seen fewer behavior issues more meaningful discussions and a stronger sense of ownership over their work with the freedom to be creative they stay engaged and motivated making learning more meaningful for them and more rewarding for me Project based

020learning hasn't just improved academics it has helped my students grow as problem solvers and teammates so with that I'm Alexis rudenberg and I also teach at r Avenue grades 4 through I'll be honest embracing Project based learning was a challenge for me at first our classroom thrives on structure and P requires something different Letting Go instead of leading every step I had to trust my students to guide the process that was uncomfortable at first but what I discovered was incredible when students took the lead they didn't just follow directions they asked questions made decisions and problem solved problems on their own they gained confidence in their abilities and I saw them grow grow in ways I never expected Letting Go didn't mean losing structure it meant creating space for deeper learning creativity and Independence Project

021B based learning isn't just a teaching strategy it's really a shift in mindset it makes learning meaningful engaging and most of all student driven and while it challenges us as Educators the results are worth it our students are more engaged more responsible and more prepared for the real world thank you for supporting Innovative learning in our scho schools and I just want to you know thank once again uh Alexis and Molly for that they um answered the call when I said you know anyone willing to talk about their experience with pbl and they go right into it and I had a couple of meetings with them um and they couldn't stop talking about all the wonderful things that their students were doing and how it worked for them and none of that came out of

022my mouth that was theirs 100% so thank you both um and I think it's really important now for us to just see some of the things that our students are doing with pbl um you know because you know frof is in the pudding so over the next several slides you're going to see some pictures of students in process and then you're going to see some pictures and a video of the final product that our students came up with um what's really nice is that this is a far cry from the old days of reading a textbook chapter out loud answering some questions maybe sitting for a lecture um students are doing the learning themselves which means that it sticks um here's some more pictures of some of the final projects so in learning about the

023human body systems they were not studying diagrams in a book they were creating three-dimensional diagrams to share with their PE which is really wonderful um here is a great shot of our elementary students coming over to our high school um to learn from some peer experts we had architecture experts from um from Mr Howard's tech classes and we had some fashion design experts from our art classes and that were're uh learning from our students um here's just a great little path um for one project from sketch to presentation so um you see the the on the left the students starting their their sketches uh in the middle they're actually working on putting those designs together and then finally on the right um the students had a an event where they shared their learning with parents

024and with peers um and that was their their culminating thing so this was a great little way to look at Project based learning from beginning to end um and this is what the classroom looks like when you're in a pbl classroom it's really designed with a child's brain and mind there's movement there's novelty there's exploration there's collaboration and all of those things put together lead to engagement motivation and most importantly one um our our classrooms should be a little messy and pbl helps them stay that way now one of the real keys to a true gold standard pbl is the authentic audience for the presentation so they're not just putting something together and handing it to a teacher for a grade that's not what PDL is um so we have virtual presentation we have real

025life presentations um we've had experts in the field listen to students presentations we've had families we've had Congressman dto come in um and so the really important thing is that the learning gets shared with an authentic audience because these are real life problems with real life solutions that they're sharing with real life people um here are some posters and Miss fenberg if you want to chime in at any point feel free to but um Miss furberg's class and you know these are students that have some some significant learning challenges at times um they decided they wanted to take on kindness week and when I say take on kindness week I mean 100% student designed implemented produced time this week as one of the uh teams over at R elementary school so they took on the

026planning they took on the promoting they took on the launching um and these are just some examples of posters that they made around the school to help uh drum up some excitement for project for kindness week and some of the students there decided they wanted something a little bit more professional looking they didn't know canva they wanted to learn canva this rber is not an expert in Cana so she said okay figure it out and the students were motivated to learn a new desktop publishing program called canva and with that self-driven learning they created this poster and this was one of the many posters that was um all around the room but it really just comes down to when you're doing a project based learning unit um as as Miss benedetto said before when the

027kids hit a road block they figure out some way around it when the students were learning canva and they couldn't quite get something to work they tried they tried again they persevered until they came up with this amazing uh project here and I'm sure some of our teachers are looking at it thinking that's pretty good canas not you know it takes a little while to get used to canva um and one of the other stop that this month I want to introduce this so one of the other things that the students in her class did for kindness week was create this video and when I say create this video they came up with questions they recorded it they produced it they did the video editing and all this this is 100% student created video as

028a culmination to time is dedicated to doing something kind for someone without any specific reason to me kindness means to be kind to others to me kindness means to treat people that you treated um kindness means to me that like I do good things and good things happen to what kindness means to me is to help others when they need it kindness mean means to me is being kind to others kindness means to be nice to people kindness means to be respectful to people kindness kindness means to be a best friend respectful be nice to others to be nice a problem I I like to fix it when there's a problem when you fix it they feel happy and you feel happy make friends kindness means to me um it means that being kind to

029like a friend kindness means to me to be happy and have [Music] fun when someone's hurt you stand up for each other and when someone's mean you can help them and help one another I I like making um good choices to help other people I like to help other people when they get hurt helping your brother with his homework to be helpful and treat people the way you want to be treated so be helpful and to help people around you kindness means being respectful kindness means to treat others how you want to be treated I think kindness means um being like helping someone when they're down or just you know kind overall I think kindness one like playing with say when they don't have anyone to play with and just being nice to someone kindness

030means to me that um um I'm respectful to others kindness means to me to treat others the way you want to be treated kindness means like empathy and being kind towards others to be kindness means like treating others the way you want to be treated and like helping others kindness means to help others kindness means to be respectful scary other when they fall Comfort them be nice to other people be kind to other people means when you show people respect and you care for them um basically the same thing but uh got kindness is uh everywhere but bullying is still is still a thing but we can make a difference and just be kind I guess thanks for watching and it be kind February is kindest month so that was then distributed to all of

031the classrooms in the school and so that was something where it was a community um involvement and you know last month we did the school report card nothing the federal government or state government does measures that and so I think it's really important to know that this is the other kind of work that's happening in our classrooms that makes these Rockway such a wonderful Community um so where are we going in the future um Mr deaso had already stated that about two-thirds of our teachers have been trained already um the last third will be trained next year but that's not going to be the end of it so moving forward we will work with the teachers and with the professional development committee to figure out how we can sustain this movement and continue to help

032our teachers do um these projects in their classrooms when they're most appropriate um and again as Mr diaso said the State graduation measures are changing and one of the expected changes is the possibility of using some sort of portfolio or Project based demonstration of learning instead of traditional region exams and East Rockaway is going to be way ahead of the curve on Long Island was we're already doing this work um and our Focus like our focus is in all of our curriculum is to prepare students for the future whether that future is Career College or skies the limit to be Future Ready you need those essential skills of communication collaboration critical thinking and creativity so that you can solve the problems of the world and I know that the students here are going to be

033the ones solving those problems because we adults haven't figured it out yet so kind of have to leave it to that um and with that I don't know the board has any questions how much of the curriculum is pbl and how much is traditional so it does vary by grade and by um content area so some content areas are a little bit more challenging to turn into pbl um like thinking about let's say um algebra there are certainly some units in algebra that can be taught in a Project based manner um but some things you just have to learn the algorithms for and learn how to do so um our teachers are choosing the units within their curriculum that make the most sense um and then some of our classrooms like the fifth grade at

034both Center and R has um just been particularly enamored with pbl and I think they're up to four units um that the fifth grade students are doing in in the two buildings um so that's probably where the peak would be um what our expectation is U for all teachers is during that first year that they get trained um they choose one unit in their curriculum to uh teach through Project based learning um in year two one of the things that we're doing with the superintendency is giving teacher teams time to develop a second unit so at a minimum um teachers will be using two units in a Project based learning manner um and then it really depends on the subject area and some subjects are going to lend themselves to doing more than that and

035some subjects that's the right dose so if you had um if a student learns better traditionally do they have that option not to do uh pbl or not during the unit um but honestly I think what I would say to that is there are students who can learn traditionally most students learn just as well or better in pbl but there are some students who really struggle to learn traditionally and that's where PB I don't think I I'm trying to think of the profile of a learner and Mr if you can think of one from from your lens I'm trying to think of the profile of the learner for whom this isn't better and and I would I would struggle to to say who that is I have a question yeah please so if there's a

036class of 20 kids they're in five or six different groups they pair to you know qu how many kids are in um teams it varies but um the teams would be anywhere between two and four or five more than four or five it gets too big to to work meanly and who picks the teams that's going to vary sometimes it makes sense for the teacher to put certain sets of kids together and a lot of times it's student driven by what interests them and they find other kids with the same interest I was a bossy kid that told everybody else what to do would just get worried that kid always fooled the world that would not happen because when when our teachers do group work and this is separate and apart from pbl but one

037of the structures of quality group work is assigning roles within the group um and those roles will vary from Project to project so you know the bossy person sometimes is going to be given a role that doesn't allow them to be the bossing okay good question um does every grade level do this not yet because they're not all trained um so what we did with our um training is we started with the middle and are working our ways out from the middle um so in year one we had our fifth grade sixth grade um and our Middle School Humanities teachers trained for year two we extended down to um second grade and then we added um science and math at the middle school now again you have to remember that most of our Middle School

038teachers also teach High School classes um and for next year we're going to finish out and we'll go all the way down to kindergarten and we'll include all of the rest of the High School departments that haven't been trained yet what about creating how does that work does that work as far as the teacher is there a rubric for it um again different projects will look different but generally speaking um the rating would come along the way in um check-ins so um at this point in the unit you need to have had this much done and if it's a rubric is probably one of the more likely ways for that to be created so then also students can direct their own learning like students know what quality is and they can measure themselves against that

039point of quality um and then those check-ins are happening on a regular basis so that student basically aren't allowed to fall behind okay last question materials I saw that they did those diagrams which look great where do the materials come from because I know sometimes if you're doing all these projects is that dependent upon the parent to bring in the materials or is that a classroom thing where the materials come from um I'd have to have the teachers answer that but I also know that as a board you've always been very generous in the supply budgets that are allotted to the schools so generally speaking we do our best not to push any costs onto families and um the schools are able to manage bringing in most of the materials that would be necessary that

040would be interesting to me because I would not want that to reflect onto parents to say oh by the way tomorrow we have to run out to go get so and so because we need that that would offend me as a parent so if I knew that was happening it has not been brought to my attention honestly we use a lot of recyclable material so Amazon boxes are our best friends yeah which everyone has on their doorstep like we do volume Zoo as one of our math units and the kids can't I have to like slow down Amazon boxes that come in and then our our teaching is very generous so she'll give us like paint and paint brushes and stuff like that and then even just like email blast like do anyone have yarn

041and then all of a sudden I have three things the yarn from teachers at my at my doorstep from my yeah most teachers have something I like to call Barney bag which is a bunch of random supplies that we have collected through the years of people donating or other things and when those emails come out we just Barney bag is given to the next person he p a Funky Junk in my house and it's still sitting on top of the freezer I even had a a student in that last pbl who his gecko had like just died and he was so upset and then he was so happy he got to reuse the tank he was creating water scene so he like brought in he said can I please bring in a tank I'm like

042can your dad Dad please help you bring so they were able to get it to school but he was like so happy with this like sad thing that happened he but you don't find any negativity where you have parents complaining like my kids are taking all my art supplies from home no because we always say we say ask don't te like that's always in my notes home to them and then usually like there's lots of great stuff around the house that they can bring in or it's some sort of project can be reused recycled and then we also like I even bring in some stuff for my own house for like the kids that maybe might not have or didn't forgot to bring stuff in so that everyone can always still be engaged but we

043we definitely have supply line codes in our buildings and our departments so that that would be taken care of if needed it's got to be so much fun for you guys to to get to change it up and see those kids that I I know for me personally if someone tells me how to do something there's no way it's not happening it's going in one ear going out the other it'll never happen if they show me there's a better chance but if I actually get to do it I'll never forget it and so for you guys to be able to see that with the kids it's got to be so much fun it's definitely a lot of fun and it goes back to there was a question at the beginning of what about the Learners

044who want to learn traditionally or can learn traditionally it goes to the accommodations we make for kids if you put a a staircase at the front of a building all of us can walk up those staircases but if you put a ramp at the front of the building though we can also access the building but so can the other children who are in a wheelchair or people who have trouble walking so it's really making the curriculum accessible to everyone and if there are kids who are exceling we can make it harder for them so it helps our lower level Learners who might need a little help and it also lets those other students take initiative and Excel so it's really great thank you great great thank you so much thank you all good job any

045other question question I I want to make one comment please so I've been doing this 35 years um my wife is actually a teacher in the gifted and talented education program and uh to speak about your resources there hasn't been a toilet paper roll paper towel roll box Amazon box that we haven't saved and I think uh parents are great with that and we do have you know lines of supplies that are actually probably shifting from traditional materials to Project based materials and the second thing is that when I walk through the hallways very rarely does someone tug on your arm and say hey come in I want you to see we we're starting a project-based learning unit or I get invitations all the time to come to classrooms to see and uh Mr Murray

046and I get to see the projects at the beginning and get to see the projects at the end and it is not made up about the engagement in the classroom when I walk in I walk in and say to myself what what kid wouldn't not want to learn in this room and uh I think it's just provided another vehicle another tool for our teachers and as Mr Murray said to prepare our kids you know for postsecondary doesn't matter where you are it doesn't matter if you're at Harvard if you're working you know for the town National Community wherever you are you have to problem solve you got to think critically and you got to be able to work with people and if we can teach those soft skills through Project based learning uh we're hitting

047a home run and that's where we feel like we are I can't wait till after next year when we have the entire staff change uh uh trained and then um not Chang and that wasn't a Freudian slip I promise uh train so um so I'm I'm really excited about it you know and I again I love when the teachers tug on my arm send me an email come in in and see um I haven't felt that kind of excitement about an initiative in a long time so I'm I'm I'm very proud of where we are we do have some work to do uh but you know we're moving in the right direction absolutely 100% great stuff great thank you I would like to say to um all the teachers I love presentations like that to

048see what the kids have taken from a simple box and what they've made I would love to see those so whenever you want to please bring it to us show us on a video invite us to a classroom uh love all of that stuff love to see how children get so excited by something that they were able to develop so and thank you doing that thank you thank right good job all right okay uh next item is new business Mr D Tomaso you want to take a look let them leave or okay okay okay so U moving on to the regular agenda of the meeting new business so we have three items in the form of donations I'd like to thank uh every month it's become a r a ritual Mr Jimmy lores um donating

049uh $387 for athletic supplies for our athletic team so thank you Jimmy uh the usual donations are much appreciated again grants from the center uh Avenue PTA $46 for help for our fourth grade class trip and for classroom supplies as well and last but not least uh scholarships for our graduating seniors uh the limrick East Rockway uh Soccer Club established two new $500 scholarships and the East Rockway art Department established the East Rockway art Department scholarship fund so I'd like to thank all those who are contributing to the success of our students and that's it for new business uh okay next is old business old business so I'd like to talk for a minute about our Capital project uh in which the voters um voted uh for approval last year so we were authorized uh

050for $313,000 for the project to to redo the Koopa um we put a bid out in June uh and we put in RFP which we get different contractors to bid on it and the lowest responsible bid close to that was $500,000 so it was exceeding the amount of the authorized voters so the original project you know the materials are different uh it called for vinyl materials to replace the wood uh to extending the life of the KOA and we added uh a bell to it and we added uh different features to it so long and short of it is the price was higher than what we had anticipated now we could have went two routes we could have went with the wood not the vinyl uh took away some of the exciting features and maybe

051we would have been able to fit it into that uh but you know instead of repairing the CER in five years we wanted to you know set a sound foundation so we had an option to which I said to make it cheaper or a recommendation to put it out for bid again for authorization at the next uh budget vote so I just want to say that we will be putting that out uh for an extra $250,000 but I would want to remind the taxpayers this is in our capital reserve it is at no tax implications it has no impact on the on the community at all so when you vote for the budget you'll see a proposition there for for the KOA I don't want people to get off card and say Hey Oh I

052thought we voted on it last year uh we have a new vote for it we're excited about it to me uh you know again been here a long time the koer is almost like the Hallmark of the community you know that symbol of the KOA for East Rockway High School is a big symbol for us so when you see it on the ballot for a vote uh I just don't want anybody to be caught off guard that's surprise sounds good okay that's it okay all right uh public comments on agenda items um at this time are there any comments regarding tonight's agenda items anyone no okay approval of minutes are there any questions from the board regarding the minutes from the regular meeting on February 11 2025 no no no okay can I have a

053motion to approve the minutes of the regular board meeting on February 11 2025 motion motion by Mrs Salo second second second by Mr lores all in favor uh opposed abstain motion approved uh acknowledgement of monthly reports and correspondence um uh you guys all received monthly reports yes okay uh we did receive two emails um and that was it okay now we have h a motion to approve the following resolution to authorize proposition number two capital reserve fund for building Improvement projects be it resolved that the East Rockaway Union Free School District is hereby authorized to appropriate and expend $250,000 from The District's capital reserve fund for building improvements and repairs in addition to the amount of $313,000 previously authorized by the voters on May 24th 2023 to be expended from said Reserve fund for the

054construction of the high school Koopa replacement project including equipment construction and other required work and preliminary incidental and financing costs for a total project cost not to exceed $563,000 to be undertaken during the 2025 26 school year at no additional cost to District taxpayers provided that the detailed component costs uh may be reallocated among such comp opponents if the Board of Education shall determine that such reallocation is in the best interest of the district and can be made without any material change in the scope of the project okay are there any questions from the board regarding proposition two under item 3A no no no all right at this time can I have a motion to approve agenda item number 3A motion motion by Mr lores second second second by Mrs Lan all in favor opposed

055abstain motion approved all right um next consent agenda can I have a motion to create a consent agenda with the following items recommendation of superintendent Personnel schedules items 5 a through F other items 6A through o approval of csse and cpsc recommendations 7A and budget transfers 8A so can I have can I have a motion to create that motion by Mrs Lan second second second by Mrs Doyle all in favor oppos to abstain motion approved uh now can I have a motion to accept the items on the consent agenda motion motion by Mrs Doyle second second second by Mrs Salo all in favor opposed abstain motion approved okay um policy matters policy subcommittee report Let's see we were here uh all right so we met uh what was that last week last Tuesday last Tuesday

056the policy committee met um and we have uh the following policies review policies for review pending adoption uh policy 1120 School District records policy 2120 point2 voting procedures uh policy 8130 school safety plans and teams policy 4531 field trips and excursions and policy 8113 extreme heat condition days and we have three policies for review um policy 5695 student and personal electronic devices policy 0111 0111 D sexual harassment grievances under Title 9 and policy 2245 exico student member of the board okay um reports superintendence report Mr deaso yes thank you I'll start right off in the area of achievement a number of fantastic things happening uh k through2 um this uh students celebrated the midyear I ready accomplishments and growth scores um I know at r Avenue they had a uh how could I describe that

057jackally no a big celebration uh with mascots and giving out certificates not only for uh uh for scores of achievement but also scores of growth and uh Mr bixhorn bravely before the break had the entire School in the gymnasium and uh along with I believe this freudenberg who was here before was the mascot was the I ready mascot and it was a fantastic celebration uh so I was really catching on uh in the elementary schools and also in our Middle School um also in the area of achievement the boys basketball team made it to the semi-finals and played car place at Farmingdale College on the 28th like to congratulate Coach Collins and the team to making it playoffs outcome is not what we wanted but nonetheless it was a successful season ninth grade social study

058students are working hard on their enduring issues research papers in Miss Connelly's and Mr Collins and Miss uh parasmo classes this year the focus is on pandemic throughout history I think we know a little bit about that recently um we are pleased to announce our valedictorian Timothy Poland and Sal atorium Joey Lou so how about a nice round of applause for them very proud of both Timmy and Joey uh you know we're looking forward to great things for them in their future so uh you get a chance uh it's time to celebrate for our number one and number two in the class um I held IND idual meetings this week and we're piloting a new program called office hours um what we're piloting I asked I spoke had the opportunity to speak at a fa

059the last faculty meeting and we're making a shift from extra help to office hours and basically we're getting away from the negative connotation of extra help like I need more instead we're targeting to get more people into office hours and in particular the uh the middle the kids uh who were in the middle of the the road those students who are passing uh but could use a little bit of extra to really achieve their success so we know that extra help usually applies to our overachievers are usually attending we have our students who are not doing so well who we try to get attend and the office hours really is to move that middle and put more seats for teachers uh and students to be successful so I've been receiving really good feedback from uh

060uh a few of the teachers who have been using office hours concept uh explaining the fact that they're getting to students more one-on-one time grades are improving that's the idea so we're piloting the program this year I'm goingon to be working closely uh with the High School uh Administration thinking of bringing the concept at fifth and sixth grade although I haven't really discussed it yet but um it's a a little slight philosophical change uh that I have experienced with in my previous District that will not only bring uh more one-on-one time for students but also uh improve their grades and their academic standing so uh that's a program that you'll be hearing a little bit more in the future uh you hear me talk about it and I'm sure you I'll be able to bring

061uh some teachers to meetings to hear their testimonials so very excited about office hours um we have some great news the following students were selected to the elementary middle school outstanding physical education Student of the Year Award winners we have Audrey from Center Avenue Audrey relle and W uh Wilson Pablo Lopez at r Avenue we have uh Victoria crust and Henry Clifford and the middle school has Tom Donovan and El uh La nowakowski so congratulations to uh Mr Gregory the PA teachers and students and family on that accomplishment uh Mr Gregory set up a trip to Great Neck North school for the annual student athletic leadership con uh conference he discussed East Rockway candidates with the coaches and they selected five students uh in grades from 9 through 11 to a 10 he met with

062the five student athletes who were excited about the opportunity they are uh 11th grade Jethro jaet uh merge presentes uh pantes sorry 10th grade Paulina Cuthbert 10th grade Alexa Colman ninth grade and Jack Elliot and 9th grade so congratulations to those students in the area of opportunity we have exciting uh field trips that have been taking place including uh High School leaders who are reading to our elementary students to promote the love of reading during uh read Across America week I know the baseball team has been doing that for years uh the high school newspaper Club is also collaborating with fourth graders to teach them how to write articles for the upcoming projects the eighth graders will be representing East Rockway high school at the Long Island math Fair comp competition on March 28th they

063will be presenting their research projects on the concept of infinity so Infinity and Beyond they'll be presenting so we're proud of them and all the hard work they've been putting into their presentations on uh February 28th at her story club attended a workshop at Stony Brook University uh students were selected to one student uh alah visara was selected to read her personal work uh to the audience and did a fantastic job job so I'd like to uh congratulate those teachers and administrators who are involved in uh the her story students and families of the class of 2026 attended a virtual introductory meeting about our Nassau Community concurrent enrollment program uh this is in our third fourth year third year fourth year of running this program and students have the chance to uh receive a high

064school diploma while taking classes at nasville Community each year we've had about four or five students attend and um so we're looking forward to continuing that uh that uh participation with Nassau Community College where they could earn credits towards their associate degree and earn their high school diploma uh the r Avenue PTA hosted two very SE uh successful events this week family bingo night on Wednesday March 5th and the batch cookie fundraiser on Thursday March 6 I heard uh Through the Grapevine that Mr biorn was a star there U making cookies rning the cast register hopefully eating some of the cookies Mr bixhorn did that work out yeah um so thank you to Alicia faren Krug and Katie Spiegel and the PTA for coordinating those activities in an effort to expand Voca vocational training and

065our students in the skills and achievement class Cafe 2117 uh provided deliveries to the Junior Senior High School so Cafe 2117 how it's worked in the past they've made different visits to the guidance office the elementary schools uh to the Senior Citizen Center and now they're taking on a new role where they're providing deliveries almost almost like door Dash right almost like door Dash so um thank you to all the teachers and Mr Healey and Mr Kennedy for making that program successful and for coming up with innovative ideas in the area of innovation this MC's favorite students in grades K through two have continued to develop their coding skills uh with Miss man while steam students in grades 3 through six completed a project where they coded a robot to share three interesting facts about

066themselves a very own Miss man right over there uh in Mr Howard seventh grade technology class they have begun designing their dream dorm room uh students first design a scale of drawing of their dorm room and then build a 3D model so we can't wait to see those I think don't we normally present some of those at our budget at our budget meeting so those was a really fantastic projects come out we're looking forward to that students in Miss um Maya's eighth grade class have begun construction uh with functional circuits as part of the magev car project the project culminates with races along with mag Lev track so kids are all excited about that students in Miss Morano Miss best and Miss vul's e8th grade classes have completed their first pbl project of the Year

067dedicated to the exploration of immigrant experience through F photojournalism and you will be hearing about Project based learning more and more as parents your children will be coming home talking about it as administrators and teachers we will be collaborating on how to really implement this and make it work uh throughout the school system so uh we're very excited about that uh Miss mlen uh met with magic School uh onboarding specialist to secure Enterprise licensing for all teachers and students education's leading AI platform is now live in class link for our teachers ready for teachers to explore so we're piloting Magic School we're trying to keep up with the AI technology uh and what's special about magic school is it's Ed law 2 uh Ed law 2D compliant and it's specifically built for teachers so we

068already have a number of teachers in the district who are using and utilize it we will be having a number of training sessions I believe 10 or two in each building coming up for for for our staff members so um we're trying to stay on The Cutting Edge of technology and make sure that first we train our teachers how to uh access and utilize AI in magic school and then the plan is to start rolling out to the students to have them be able to use it responsibly um you know it's here I equated it to when the calculator came out when the cell phone came out it's technology that we can't push aside that we need to embrace and we need to teach our uh Community our students our teachers you know responsible use

069because it's it's here to stay um in the area of connection both elementary schools had successful career weeks shout out to Mr O'Driscoll families and community members presented about their careers covering topics such as Plumbing Aviation law enforcement occupational therapy veterinary care and more students in the world language classes celebrated language week which began on March 3rd they connected with cultures and languages by watching cultural films guessing languages in music and hearing different languages during the morning announcements uh East Rockway basball team uh I'm sorry baseball team held clinics for our elementary students in both schools as part of the Community initiative thanks to coach hickey and the players for emphasizing the word student in the phrase student athletes so it's it's a very cool experience to walk into an elementary school and see uh

070you know a junior or senior who these kids adore and look up to and they're in front of them in the classroom reading to them so uh I know this has been a tradition for the baseball team as I mentioned before and Mr hickey's doing a great job with that uh almost there we have a lot of great stuff sorry guys have a lot have a lot of great stuff on February 14th the East Rockway School counseling department hosted its uh annual future Fair students had the opportunity to meet with representatives from colleges trade schools unions employers and military branches uh and also on March 7th um East Rockway hosted career day bringing in about 40 guest speakers from various Fields students were able to select speakers based on their interests the senior class had

071the opportunity to network with the presenters during a lunch in um and at the end um one of the students will be the recipient of a $1,000 scholarship for the program we had a few alumni come back one notable is New York City deputy chief uh Billy Glenn uh who uh is high up in the nasso County Police Department great and I walked in great guy walked into his classroom it was packed with um uh students potentially interested in going into law enforcement and he was he was doing a good job emphasizing the importance of you know Civics and community and uh he certainly had the kids attention that was just one of many great presentations that the kids with prair to so I think career day at East Rockway uh this is our second

072time doing it and it was a very a very very big success um East Rockway competitive cheer team was highlighted by team up for community the cheer clinic they held at the elementary schools again great to see our kids being role models for our students coming back um and I know the cheerleading program particular is off the charts we have like I don't know got over 40 cheerleaders try out this year so uh that's a good thing keeping them involved I know you want to hear about this rock rivalry is in full swing uh quiz balls and volleyball took place before the February break and sports night took place on February 27th all very exciting events we're looking forward to seeing the finished stands murals entrance on Thursday and Friday night so I'd like to

073officially wish all the classes the advisers you know good luck and uh break a leg out there in entrance it should be from what I hear uh it's going to be a great night a great fun night as usual I wanted to talk a little bit about um my disappointment in an article that was printed in the herald um some of you may have seen an article printed that just strictly uh listed some of our scores and results as you know you know data is not the story of what's happening and is certainly he has it uh it's certainly very important results are important and I am not minimizing it but I was disappointed with the herald because there was no consult from anybody in administration or any of the teachers when this article uh

074was uh printed in The Herald I did I won't get into it I did print a rebuttal citing some of the Fantastic things that we are doing which will eventually like Project based learning I ready some of the things we're doing where we will eventually start to see some positive results so I want you to know that did not go unnoticed my teachers are working incredibly hard my administrator team my building administrators talk every day about how to improve instruction and how to make learning fun and putting kids first at East Rockway and that's what we've been doing so uh you will see now um honestly I got very upset about it I said an editorial they printed it I sent another one this week and hopefully you're going to see that and I have

075another one ready for the following week so um you know we're doing great things here we're on the rise here and um you know I'm not going to let it uh slip out and an article disparage you know some of the work that you know my colleagues and my teachers are doing here in the community so take note of that um the annual lottery for our upk program was really exciting this year it took place on February 25th this year we had 71 students entering into the lottery and we had 65 seats funded uh by New York State upk grant for the first time since the Inception of the upk program we had a full number of State upk seats filled allocated to the district available on the date of the lottery so this is

076a thanks to our expanded partner ship I don't know and thanks to Mr Murray in the curriculum office we've developed relationship with two to time building blocks of Oceanside and The lindbrook JCC and even more exciting about this is the fact that each family had to be placed with their first happened to be placed with their first choice so the families got to choose which Center they wanted to go to and all of them got their choice um but with that being said we still have six students who are on the wait list and if seats open up it'll it'll come down in order to who will uh get the next uh preek seat so we had 65 out of 71 uh last but not least uh some of the teachers and administrators were aware

077um I've set up meetings with the different uh dignitaries in our district uh the first meeting I had with assembly Judy uh Judy Griffin uh in which she came and made a visit and did a tour of some of our schools um I'm very confident and and happy and hopeful that we will be securing Grant mon money in the future um there is no guarantee on it but um you know I was very uh encouraged from what I heard uh from uh assemblyman Griffin and she is going to be in the future a good person to form a partnership and to help support East Rockway schools uh we're looking for her to help support uh some of our Innovation Labs that I'll be talking about Mr Murray and uh m mlen will be talking about

078in future meetings so I was very very encouraged by that and last but not least we also had a very productive meeting with assemblyman Ari Brown uh that was February 14th right before the break um we seem to uh have also formed a great partnership with him we took him for a visit to Cafe 217 showed him different resources in the school and we talked about upk funding in which you know we hope we'd never have to have a wait list but we talked about that and we also talked about funding some Outdoor Learning spaces and Innovative spaces for our students in the elementary schools at Center Avenue and r Avenue so I'm keeping my fingers crossed I think the timeline will be uh I was told that June July August I will be notified

079if we are eligible for some of the bullet grants grant money um I'm really excited about it if we can get that we could really um create some exciting learning spaces in the form of innovation labs and in the form of Outdoor Learning spaces in our schoool so that's it for the report all right thank you Mr D Tomaso uh this time public comments are there any public comments tonight anyone no just quick that's it got good andare oh I'm sorry okay I apologize what um have yeah okay um uh condol es to Sher Poland and family on the passing of her Father Richard Nelson condolences to Bethany Kade and family on the passing of her father Jeffrey Kincade and condolences to the Lucas family on the passing of George lucus father of former high

080school student Frankie sorry about that um and now public comments are there any public comments okay good evening everyone how are you hi um I don't know if you know me but I am my name is Melissa VOR I have four boys had four boys in the district one was graduated the year um ke I had something that I wanted we also want to thank the board for your thank for your hours of dedication and um all you do for our children thank you good evening I appreciate opportunity to address you tonight as many of you are may be aware a disturbing incident occurred at home at a home basketball game in January the opposing team including including their coach physically assaulted my son no school district can fully be prepared for such a shocking

081display of poor sportsmanship and Leadership our secur security Personnel was vastly outnumbered and it was clear that they needed assistance a few parents intervened to help my son friends were trying to defend themselves against the opposing SCS aggression aggressive behavior Mr Gregory and Co tread in particular put themselves at risk to protect the boys I was understandably distraught as I watched my son being attacked and I was pulled back by my other son and and a supervisor I called 911 to request police assistance in the aftermath of the incident I received an email informing me that I had been banned from attending any District of events including my son's graduation the parents who had intervened to help my son were also subjected to excessive punishment however after reviewing the available evidence including multiple videos of

082the incident it became clear that I had I had done nothing wrong My Punishment was eventually lightened but still ridiculous I had been forced to miss out on significant events in my son's life I believe that the administrators administration had handling the situation sorry handling of the situation was unjust and that they were attempting to deflect blame on each other I want to express my gratitude to the parents who intervened to help my son their actions were Brave and selfless and they hadou undoubtedly prevented more serious in serious injuries from recurring as adults we must recognize that our actions have consequences and we we must be willing to take responsibility for those actions however we must also be willing to intervene when necessary to protect others I hope that in the future you will take

083a a more thoughtful and open-minded approach to addressing similar situations thank you right um thank you I do have something else to say but I I was going to say it from another parent who is not feeling well but it's along the same lines so thank you can you just tell us the other parent was yes eler bazetta she's not feeling well um I could actually read what she wrote if you'd like sure okay nervous before now really C all I I recently witnessed a deserving incident of my son's basketball game where the opposing team and their coach physically assaulted a Spectators prompted prompting me to intervene and assist security and supervisors who were struggling to regain control in hindsight would you have stood by a by and watched or provided assistance in this in

084such a situation despite taking what I believe to be the right course of action I was banned from attending any District activities including my child's graduation after several meetings and phone calls My Punishment was reduced but I still I was still prohibited from attending the remainder of my son's basketball season I was initially allowed to attend the senior ceremony for the senior game but later told I could only attend a small get together in the classroom after the game this entire experience was utterly absurd and I reluctantly conformed though I was far from satisfied I then forced to attend the playoff game making several phone calls to administrators who gave me the runaround and blamed each blamed each other for the decision making it seemed that the administration had acted hly in handling in handing

085out the punishments without reviewing the evidence I am deeply discouraged by the way they handled the situation as it took away important times in my son's life and deeply affected him in the future I hope you will take into continuation into consideration the extenda circumstances and punish only those who deserve it thank you you thank you anyone else no we do okay hello hello how's everybody doing hello folks you don't know me I'm Joe Loris I've been coaching basketball or softball or soccer at the school for 42 years coached some of your kids I taught some of your kids I coached some of you I've spent two-thirds of my life offending what goes on at dway you know uh not everybody feels about the school the way I do uh I loved it so much

086that I sent my kids here and all been very successful I've always told everybody whoever wanted to end me their ear how proud I am to be an e stol coach but I've got to tell you took place on that day he escapes me but one that we're talking about here where it was an incident was an extremely dark day I was I was embarrassed I'm the one that lives in town I'm the one that's been here for 66 years 42 of them at East Rockway I'm the one that defends us against people might say something Lim or Ocean Side whatever if if people had done what they were supposed to do on that day what happened would not have happened coaches are trained that a players stay on the bench something like that happens

087our players the kids weren't the problem the kids were actually pretty great and so it was the coaches I felt and so was Mr Gregory and his staff as I felt I was working the table that day doing scoring um we're taught as coaches that the players stay on the bench get the assistant coaches to keep that if I need to go out on the court okay I will I have to sit out the next game but I go after my own right I don't go after somebody on the other team unfortunately we had people come out of the stands that don't understand that thought they were helping but they're actually putting fuel on the fire and I honor ly believe that if everybody had done what they were supposed to do on that day

088we wouldn't even be talking about this today right parents stay in the stand if the parent stayed in the stands then it would would have been one kid rushing toward one of our fans with a supervisor in between them I think you would have been able to handle that yep no it was one kid at first it was one kid first okay was one kid at first you can look at the video all right um the parents had stayed in the stands and like I said I think our supervisors wouldn't be able to handle it okay they didn't then when things were settling down we asked we were asked to clear the gym so now we're clearing the gym and we got the F parents saying no we're not leaving one person in particular threatened

089us to call the police go ahead call the police I mean how do we expect kids to be able to handle discipline on things when we can't handle it as adults I don't understand that now I totally get from your perspective your son's being bu rushed by some kids that you want to go out there I get that I we do the same thing okay but I would also accept punishment when it came down that's what I'm saying okay I accepted okay okay but but yet we're still talking about yes because it was exua and I don't think it was extenuating in the fact that the people if everybody had done what they were supposed to do we wouldn't be doing what I was supposed to do is protect my son who was being absolutely

090ambushed by absolutely but now there's a penalty that comes with that and I took my penalties okay why are we still discussing because we're discussing it because was not not I disagree with that I disagree with that guys we're gonna um we're gonna end it now we can guys can talk after but I I we as a board and the administration and everyone appreciate both sides of the situation it the night was an unfortunate night and we all saw the video um you know Section 8 does have a rule in place where if someone goes on the court it's a two game suspension if they touch uh a player or something then it's a the rest of the season so that's not a school thing that's a Section 8 my parents put their hands on

091other people's kids and that can't happen right um so we we definitely feel for everyone involved it was a very unfortunate night and um um if anyone wants to meet with us about it further we will absolutely talk about it um but we really do appreciate everyone's um side of the story and and we really do feel for everyone involved because I know if I was there and saw it my instinct would have been to go on to the court I know it would have been just to help out and I probably would have gotten suspended um but anyway we we do appreciate everything that you know everyone brings to the table on this and we are definitely willing to discuss it further if something that you said if you go on the court you

092get a two game suspension okay miss the whole rest of the season so my question is I took the punishment that came to me but why was it excessive why did I miss the rest of my son's senior year basketball season it was a two game suspension right it was clear as day that that's what I did that's all I came to say okay no I understand um again we will if anyone wants to speak about it further we can definitely set up a time because we I know we've all spoken about this so much and and you know it was such an unfortunate incident and everyone up here feels feels terrible about the whole incident so if anyone would like to discuss it further we will definitely do that but I want to thank

093both of you for coming up and and speaking thank you anyone else um all right board member comments any any who would like to start I I just have U about the presentation Project based learning um I thought it was very well presentation and I don't know if you're still here but I like the analogy of using the steps and the ramp uh it made me think about in in a completely different way and I want to keep seeing more from that and I thought it was great job um I want to piggy back on what uh Joe said and um this is what my statement is this was a very unfortunate incident and thankfully nobody was seriously injured thank you to our supervisors and security for trying to protect everyone thank you for the

094parents who stepped up to help without itation it is refreshing to know that there are still some willing to put themselves out there for others we as a board do not participate and what punishment should be that is the job of the administration we can give our opinion if we agree or disagree but we do not have a say in those decisions as always I appreciate all the input and always feel free to reach out to me thank you uh the also the Project based learning presentation was excellent I I like the kids handson and uh the valedictorian and salutatorian congratulations to both of those students in their achievement and there was a lot in your superintendence update so well I skipped it last week that's why I saw that's all it's all positive um

095movement within the district and uh that's all have today all right my turn thank you to the PTA for always doing what they can to help the children I'd like to thank um Mr lores for uh always donating and contributing to help all of our students um I'd like to thank um Alex for coming and saying the Pledge and uh I am also a sneaker person so I appreciate that I love to sneakers tonight if anyone didn't see them they were pink high Toops um um great presentation Sean um and I would like to thank both teachers that came to present really well done love seeing stuff that goes on in the classroom uh different types of learning um really makes me want to be here to help to to do whatever I can to

096help give that to a student um so kudos to those teachers that are giving that to those kids that are making them feel like they can basically do anything um Rock rivory everybody knows I'm a rock rivory nerd I absolutely love it breathe it um unfortunately this year will be my first year and I can't even tell you how many years they will not be there um so I expect to see videos so um just want to wish everybody good luck to all the classes um congratulations to a valoran salutatorian um job well done you know enjoy the ride um basketball this has been something that we have been discussing for an a long time um non-stop basically um I understand both sides of the situation um me as a parent if my kids were

097there if my kids weren't there just being a part of East Rockway I most likely would have been on that Court um because I just know my personality not able to sit back um I I was raised to help to defend so I understand that um I think that what um Denine had said we don't have a say in um how punishment goes um we do say how we feel and what we would like to see but it doesn't mean that's what's going to happen Administration took the role on this um we discussed it at length it was not something that we just pushed by the way side um there are several discussions several things that we did not agree on um and I just want to say that our basketball team um kudos to

098them because they are remarkable students for sitting there and making sure that um they did not participate um I have seen the video it is extremely disturbing um and I don't know what I would have done um but I can say that I am sorry that it did happen and it makes me sick to think that that's how a team reacts especially here where we all care and look out for each other so to me it just there's not much more to say I thank you everybody I'm gonna can I talk again yeah um I wasn't going to say anything because you know the subject was done but I just I'm sorry I just forgot to thank uh the staff that was there that day because I know it was an extremely difficult day and

099I do know that they put themselves front and center and they did get hurt and I want to thank them for jumping in to protect our kids so to me that was big and I'm sorry that's okaye cuz um just in general is spectator behavior in general um it's I think it's gotten a little crazy and I think we should police ourselves and our you know our fellow Spectators and the stands and tell people not to be obnoxious um my next door neighbor is a ref and he says it's a nightmare out there so you know what's going to happen is is sports are going to end because people can't behave so I'm just adding that to the mix is you know it's up to the adults in the room to to like be an

100example to the other kids and I would have jumped out on the court too as my if it was my kid but what happens Behavior wise in the stands impacted that evening so I just wanted to put that out there too cuz let's just lay it all on the table is behavior by The Spectators more than the kids the team was great so that's all I'm saying thanks um two quick things the uh pbl I love pbl Mr Murray thank you m wenberg um Mr dead thank you so much um for your presentation the uh you know like I wish I was a kid now in in a class like that where I could that's the way I love to learn so I just I just love the pbl I think it's awesome um as

101far as the the basketball um first I think we need to learn from this moving forward meaning everyone and and I I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone up here I I got on the board to help to you know be a person that can represent the community and advocate for the community W with the administrators and and Ne never is anything perfect and and people all of us make mistakes and all of us learn from them so I I think moving forward we need to learn from this situation and and know that you know I I I won't say this for you guys but for myself if anyone ever needs to speak about this that's why we're here come get in touch with me I will speak to you about it we will and

102then I will go back to the administration and we can resolve things okay we but we need to all work together but I really appreciate everyone getting up tonight and and the passion and it was just a a dark night and hopefully we learn from it but before you close I want to say one thing uh as the chief administrator superintendent uh it was an unfortunate incident but I want to make no question about it that I take full responsibility for the consequences that were issued has nothing to do with any other administrator so um you know the issues about the consequences not the Board of Education the superintendent so I just wanted to make that clear because there were questions about you know the consequences and administrators not being on the same page that

103was not the case okay thank you all right um anyone else have any but I'm also available just walk in everyone always does yeah all right um this concludes tonight's Board of Education meeting can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:34 p.m. and enter and enter into executive session to discuss matters leading to the appointment employment and promotion of personnel can I have a motion motion by Mrs L second second by Mrs Salo all in favor all right motion approve good night everyone