001everyone and welcome to the monthly meeting of the East Rockaway Board of Education at this time we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance uh Selena quiros is a second grade student in Mrs rotkan's class at Center Avenue School Selena comes to school eager to learn every day she always has a smile on her face and she can always brighten your day she is also a great friend and classmate Selena always tries her best in class and shows great pride in her work she loves to discuss her ideas and share her thoughts about the classroom read-alouds we are so proud to have Selena lead our pledge tonight Selena can you come lead our pledge foreign [Applause] nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay all right um okay at this time um
002we had uh letter C public comments on agenda items if you are viewing the live stream of tonight's meeting and you have questions regarding items on the agenda or other school related items you can email them to board of education at ersd.org this email will be monitored throughout the evening please be sure to include your full name and address I also want to remind you that most concerns are appropriately addressed with your child's teacher and or building principle other General District questions should be directed to Mr D tommaso our superintendent matters involving curriculum and instruction should be addressed to Mr Murray and matters involving budget and Facilities should be directed to Mrs Creo if you need technological Assistance or have issues with a device please reach out to Dr Fisk anyone who is attending in
003person if you would like to make any comments please complete a comment card okay so at this time are there any public public comments on the agenda items for tonight okay um moving on the approval of minutes [Music] um you guys are there any questions about the uh no it was right there the four minutes okay so at this time can I have a motion to approve the minutes from from the October 25th meeting Okay so what is it oh sorry sorry about that um so that is to approve the minutes from the September 20th regular meeting of the board motion motion by Mr kilgas second second by Mr di Matteo all in favor opposed staying motion okay um number two acknowledgment of monthly reports and correspondence um okay receipt of monthly Financial reports um
004as at this time are there any questions from any board members about uh Financial reports okay um can I have a motion to approve the financial reports motion motioned by Mr D Mateo second second by Mr kilgis all in favor aye uh abstained opposed motion approved um okay correspondence we have um we had a bunch of correspondents uh concerning the new field and the uh the lighting on the field and the um I guess the the sound and the level of the sound at day night they're all coming from the other side of Mill River and we understand I wrote to a lot of them back and Mr D tommaso has been in contact with the company that um installed the sound system and they're working on a solution and the same with the lights
005so um uh again I am sorry for this and hopefully we can get this resolved shortly and then I would like to read um another dealing with a correspondence we we received the Board of Education received an email expressing concerns over some of the videos available on the BrainPOP platform the offices of curriculum and instruction and instructional technology examine the platform and upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools removed student access from any video that BrainPOP labeled a sensitive content which indicated that the video should be viewed with adult supervision such as a teacher or parent after surveying the staff many of the teachers are only showing BrainPOP videos to the whole class as part of a lesson but students can access videos at home through the district subscription this change in Access will
006ensure that students are only able to view material that is age-appropriate when they explore BrainPOP independently okay so that's it for correspondence uh moving on recommendation of superintendent instructional and non-struct instructional uh Personnel Mr Larry sure um we have resignations upon the recommendation of the superintendent except the following resignations Alicia faring Krug teacher aide Amanda Crawford substitute monitor Amanda Crawford part-time monitor Jason Morales cleaner Center Avenue School uh appointments instructional uh upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the appointment of the following instructional staff Mitchell Pressman short-term substitute science teacher Jerry Hoffman permanent substitute teacher Jody shankman substitute teacher Jonathan corbo substitute teacher and Catherine kissling short-term substitute school counselor uh see changes to existing instructional appointments upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the following changes to instructional staff super appointments Heather Bolanos speech
007language teacher 2.9 FTE Kevin Fuller to permanent substitute teacher D leave of absence uh for non-instructional and non-instructional upon the recommendation of the superintendent approved leave of absence for James O'Driscoll school counselor Caitlin kovarsky enl teacher Louis duet science teacher appointments non-instructional on the recommendation of the superintendent approved the appointment of the following non-instructional staff Mark sebesta teacher aide Matthew wren's substitute teacher Aid Amanda Crawford teacher aide Hedwig Renee Macchio leave replacement part-time typist clerk Thomas reynadis part-time monitor F approval of revised Club advisor assignments upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the revised raym Avenue School and Junior Senior High School Club advisor assignments more fully set forth on the 22-23 club advisor schedules at the stipend salary set forth in the East Rockaway Teachers Association contract for the 2223 school year and up
008G approval of winter sports coaching schedule upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the winter coaching schedule dated October 7 2022. um at this time are there any questions from the board members on items three a through G nope nope okay so at this time can I have a motion to approve items three a through G motion motion by Mr kilgas second second second by Mr di Matteo all in favor aye abstained opposed abstained motion to proof um okay uh number four a audit and corrective action plan um be it resolved at the Board of Education accepts the final audit and corrective action plan prepared by the rocky Smith LLP for the year ended June 30th 2022 uh B be it resolved at the Board of Education accepts the risk assessment update report prepared by
009Cullen and danowski LLP for the year ended June 30th 2023 see approve the independent accountant's report applying agreed upon procedures on information technology for the period ended December 31st 2021 prepared by the internal Auditors Cullen and danowski LLP d Rove the members of the professional development team pursuant to policy 9700 staff development e approved the tuition agreement with the Brookville Center for children's center for special education services for one student uh for the 2022-2023 school year and authorized the president of the Board of Education to execute the tuition agreement on behalf of the East Rockaway Board of Education uh F approved the tuition agreement with Lawrence Union Free School District for special education services for one student for the 2022-2023 school year and authorize the president of the Board of Education to execute the resulting
010tuition agreement on behalf of the East Rockaway Board of Education uh G approved the 2022-23 consultant contract between the East Rockaway School District and Nancy Kaplan to provide professional development workshops addressing diversity Equity inclusion and community building in the East Rockaway School District for the period of July 1st 2022 through June 30th 2023 and authorized the superintendent of schools to execute the contract on behalf of the East Rockaway Board of Education uh H approved the award of the October 11 2022 catch-up bid for transportation services do we Transport Inc and authorize the assistant superintendent of finance and operations to execute the resulting contract for the Sagamore Day program on behalf of the East Rockaway Board of Education I uh accept the following donations to fund senior scholarships six checks in the sum of four hundred
011dollars from various donors delivered to the district by Stacy Lane for the Keith Lane Visual and media arts scholarship um at this time are there any questions from the board on items four a through I I did have a question on you on G okay um do we have a list of the PDS that um Miss Kaplan is recommending as well as how many she's going to be doing yeah I don't have that available but I can get that to you most of her work this year is actually directly with students um and most of the development she's doing the teachers are in the room while the students are in the room so in that sense the teachers are learning but most of our work this year is directly with students grades 5 through 12.
012but I can get that to you thank you I appreciate it all right um any other questions okay um at this time can I have a motion to approve item four a through I motion motion by Mr D Mateo second second second by Mr kilgiz uh all in favor aye opposed abstain motion approved um okay five approval of CSE and cpsc recommendations um are there any questions from the board on item five CSE and cpsc recommendations nope okay at this time can I have a motion to approve item five motion motion by Mr kilgas second second by Mr D Mateo all in favor aye opposed I'm staying notion approved okay item six budget transfers um okay uh any questions from the board on uh item six budget transfers I'm very clear all right um can
013I have a motion to approve item six motion motion by Mr D Mateo second second second by Mr kilgate it's all in favor uh opposed abstained motion approved okay uh seven policy matters um policy committee met for the first time this school year on October 20th and um tonight we will be adopting policy 2160 School District officer and employee code of ethics and policy 6700 purchasing and then on the agenda for tonight there are seven uh no not seven I'm sorry 23 policies um that the policy committee will be looking at next so um are there any questions from the board on item seven policy matters no okay uh can I have a motion to approve item seven motion motion by Mr kilgas second second second by Mr di Matteo all in favor aye aye
014uh opposed abstain motion approved okay good in welfare um condolences to James D tommaso and family on the passing of his nephew Corey William Fallon condolences to Helen Collins and family on the passing of her father-in-law Timothy Edward Collins III condolences to Janine iadevia Robert Thomas and family on the passing of their father-in-law Thomas hoekman congratulations to Jack bixhorn and family on the arrival of his daughter Nora Grace bixhorn on September 30th 2022. Mr big swan congratulations [Applause] and uh she shares a good birthday that's my birthday that's so great um okay public comments um um okay please be reminded that the meeting is live stream and being recorded I encourage residents to contact the board at Board of Education at ersd.org and to contact your child's teacher or appropriate administrator with any concerns at
015this time if you have a comment please complete the form prior to speaking to allow for public participation a period not to exceed 30 minutes shall be set aside for this portion of the agenda and each individual is entitled to three minutes this time limit will be enforced so that uh many members of the public who wish to speak may do so okay Mrs Matthews okay I prepared um the border ed was elected to represent the majority these representatives are here because they care about our children they don't receive a salary for their work um they're here because we elected them and because they care about our community and children and parents who live in their community that being said I'm not here to make your lives more difficult I'm here because I care about
016the children and the parents in the community as well I'm here to try and work with the board to make our community stronger safer and better for the members of our community especially our children that being said I recently sent an email to the board along with the superintendent and assistant superintendent voicing my concerns about the app that um being used in our curriculum I've been in contact with one member of the board as well as the assistant superintendent regarding this app the app in question seems harmless on the surface granted but once accessed by teacher and or student includes videos that teach gender identity sexual preference critical race Theory and there's even a lovely video about the BLM marketers and looters to make them look like Heroes and make white people and police out
017to be villains the video in question that one specifically was made in 2020 and has several statements in it that are factually and historically inaccurate I pointed out some of these inaccuracies using data from the FBI website and pointing to other facts the fact that the district feels the need to hide the felt the need to hide the app inside another app along with some of the videos that the other videos that I've seen tells me all I need to know about the app this app should be banned from our district period no exceptions there's enough learning apps on the market now that we don't have a reason to utilize this app now I'm being told that they're going to block the specific videos within the app that are questionable or sensitive however I don't
018feel that's enough um I pointed out several inaccuracies in just one of the apps videos one several if one app can have that many errors then what's then what could possibly be wrong with the other videos right I mean all right I lost my space I watched several other videos that this app produces as well that really have nothing to do with politics or anything or the other nonsense going on but they have undertones political undertones um and other not so great anyway I'm willing to bet that 95 of the parents aren't aware of the controversial videos that the app releases CRT lgbtq and a lot of sexual um oriented videos I have a seven and ten year old at home and I don't want them watching it and I don't want a teacher being
019allowed to show my child these videos either um so I don't find it acceptable that the teachers can show my kids the videos either um in 2020 and 2021 Mass mandates were am I out of time you know what am I the only one here look I common sense you need another minute or two that's okay okay so as far as I'm concerned every single parent teacher and every school administrator every single board member should be held to account for children that are still struggling in school because of the mass mandates that were put in place that were not laws but we were responsible for it we are we should be held responsible for it we were complicit and complacent so I lost my place and I'm gonna just move on to the end of
020it um I I I'm not a public speaker and I don't have a college degree I was born at night but I wasn't born last night this app pushes an agenda and it's unacceptable that's how I feel I'm not gonna let it go until we come up with another acceptable teaching app our kids missed out and are now years behind where they should be because of the masks and I'm not going to stop here with this the app needs to be banned other school districts in Nassau County and Suffolk County have banned the app because the undertones are political sexual and whatever I don't care what they do at the high school level you know at the high school level well I do care what they do at the high school level I'm lying because
021even at high school level I remember being in high school even though I'm old I remember being there and I remember being confused and not having somebody to speak to and having something like that you know give given to me or being allowed to see it would have confused me more we have more suicide than I've ever seen confusion about sexual and gender and identity and it's not fair to the kids that it's being pushed on them and it shouldn't be in the schools now the BLM video had so many inaccuracies in it that it was absolutely absurd and if you actually look at the data and the statistics and the and the truth the truth of it is they're pushing an agenda and it's not acceptable okay um also I just I don't want
022to fight about it but we need to come up with a better a better direction for our kids to go in the the education system is failing them and we need to stop the nonsense and get back to the basics okay I'm I thank you for listening thank you Mrs Matthews at this time are there any other comments no we have no emails here no emails no emails okay I just had uh one announcement that uh superintendent D tommasa would like me to make before we move on to board comments uh the superintendent would also like to announce that we have a number of special presentations taking place at our next regular business meeting scheduled for November 15th at that meeting we will share a curriculum presentation on visible learning recognize all of our new
023non-instructional staff recognize the retirement of Jen McKeon after many years of service to the district and celebrate a belated Board of Education appreciation month foreign yeah I'd just like to say that I don't know if anybody was at homecoming the other night I was it was what a great event um to see the kids out being normal you know it's the first year I know last year we had a semi-normal finish but it's the first year in a couple years that we're back to normal from the start and it just felt great I know people complain about the sound I get it in the lights but it's just it's for the greater good it's for these it's twice a week it's for the you know our kids here and for the Raiders so I understand
024but if you come to one of these games and just see the atmosphere it's it's awesome it's absolutely great and it's a great thing for the kids um Mr bixwell congratulations that's great stuff and just the condolences to Mr D tomato and Corey um I'm a huge Met fan and Corey was if anybody knows he was a minor league player with the Phillies and the Phillies are on a major run so I think there might be an angel in the Outfield and you got to root for the Phillies so I guess go Phillies and again condolences to uh to Corey tomorrow all right second everything Joe just said you pretty much took most of the words out of my mouth um I do have a quote that I like very much I'll leave you with
025this an investment in knowledge pays the best investment Benjamin Franklin you know to anyone in the audience you have an idea you have Concepts you have ideas it's it's we appreciate when you bring certain things to us right because we don't run the school on a day-to-day basis we we help get things done so I applaud that effort whether I agree or disagree or whatever it might be but also come with some ideas so like if we had the app idea that you know you don't like BrainPOP come up with three or four that you think are phenomenal you know what I'm saying send run that up the flagpole let's look at it it can't hurt to you know collaboratively look at these things or it's uh they're not screen rest or anything like that
026out there like if we actually hold hands and come together we can figure out what's best for our children and that's always Pinnacle that's always number one um you took a little time and you played basketball with some of the boys and particularly with my son for a little while I've had a couple of minutes but it resonated in his mind like Phil today that's all he's talking about they're little things of going above and beyond and that's what you swap away is about you know we talk of Pride and tradition you know but it's also some of the new things sort of the new members of our of our family of our community and it really meant the world to him and it means the world to me to see how we primarily a
027lot of boys are responding to the way that you're operating so thank you very much it really doesn't mean the world to us and people think about everybody you're all really amazing I just happen to know from Antonio his ways because they're always at the house all the time so always the big sword who plays PlayStation and he wants to play basketball you know what it's sometimes it really is the little crazy it makes such a tremendous impact and will get them excited about the educational sizes so I just want to say Well done I I think that was excellent nice um I'm going to make it quick this could be a record here tonight um but uh yeah I think we all need to work together um we talk about that all the time
028and if if instead of fighting one another there's no like line drawn in the sand that it's US versus them and and it's we're all in this community together and it's just like in the schools the the teachers the administrators they're all together they're working together all of us need to come together and and help each other we're we're here for each other we're not fighting each other so concerns are going to come up and let's work together to get to a point where everyone is comfortable with what's going on and um that's it this definitely could be a record um Okay so I believe I'm saying this now but um can I have a motion motion motion by to end this meeting motion by Mr dimateo second second by Mr kilgas all in favor
029aye opposed abstained motion approved have a good night everyone