BOE Meeting

001good evening and welcome to the monthly meeting of the board of education i would like to call this meeting to order at today march 22nd 2022 if good evening ladies and gentlemen kayden green is a fifth grade student at rame avenue i'm also going to add that he's one of our best football players on coach joe's and my team and he's a really great kid he's a member of math elites art club before school sports and chess club outside of school cayden enjoys playing outside and playing basketball his favorite food is noodles cayden is looking forward to his upcoming trip to georgia over the april break caden please come on up and say the pledge [Applause] [Music] i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america into the republic for which it

002stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Applause] thank you so much okay i would now like to turn the meeting over to superintendent ruiz for tonight's presentation thank you uh miss o'hagan so uh wait for this to warm up oh here we go okay uh thank you uh welcome everyone thanks for coming out tonight uh tonight i have a true pleasure to speak about our universal pre-kindergarten program uh the upk program was begun uh this year it was a new program for the district uh universal pre-kindergarten i'm sure you've heard a lot about it on the news new york city has a full universal pre-kindergarten funding for this began many many years ago but unfortunately when districts did not apply for it years ago the funding was frozen and i

003think it was 2008 and districts who had not been receiving funds could no longer apply for it so our district had been one of the districts way back when that for whatever reason um did not apply so each year that i've been here we've called the state and we ask is there going to be more are there going to be more funds released our district would like to participate and the answer has always been no fortunately last year included in the state budget was uh funding for full day uh upk or universal pre-kindergarten and we were one of the districts that received it and were able to now participate so we are thrilled um this is such such an important program and so we want you to learn a little bit about it tonight [Music]

004um obviously the purpose of pre-kindergarten is to build a strong foundation for our students entering kindergarten and our program um is a little bit unique and i will tell you why uh in a minute but um we have some i had some wonderful parents who agreed to give us some testimonials so that you could learn about it from their perspective so hi my name is teresa castro and my daughter attends the pre-k program at center avenue i just have to say i love this program so much it creates a perfect balance between working on academic skills as well as social skills so my daughter goes to school every day learning so much great stuff while having so much fun at the same time and for me one of the most important things is that my

005daughter is happy and she is she is so happy going to school every day so happy to see her friends and so happy to see her amazing amazing teacher and as a parent for me that's all i can ask for so thank you for bringing this program to east rockaway so thank you mrs castro we appreciate your comments um so as i said before it is a uh new york state early childhood initiative that's focused on the educational development of four-year-olds um you know giving four-year-olds the opportunity many families send their children to pre-k but it's at at quite a cost as we all know prices have gone up and it is expensive and not all families can afford to go to pre-k although many many families in these rockaway community do attend pre-kindergarten and

006it is something that we track we look at that when our kindergarten students come in how many of them have gone to pre-kindergarten and there is a big difference in the level of development in students who have attended pre-k and those that have not our program is a full day program that uh promotes language skills early literacy skills cognitive physical social and emotional skills so it gives kids really the whole gamut of being with one another learning how to function in a classroom and you know we saw during covid that when our kindergarten class came in not having had pre-k because many of them uh you really can't do pre-k remotely it was difficult enough to do school-age children remotely and so the behavior and the skill level of our students was um it was

007a challenge and so um we know that pre-k absolutely does make a difference we hope that by the end of the year first year in the program students will exceed the criteria that's established for their age and they will be ready to enter into kindergarten very well prepared so our program we received the funding very late last year it was approved in the new york state budget and by the time everything got rolling that was the budget was approved in april and then our budget was approved and i will explain why we waited until then we didn't launch our lottery and i'll explain that until june and so districts have the opportunity to either run their program themselves or run it through what's called a community-based organization and we chose to do that for several

008reasons we get five thousand four hundred dollars per student to run uh upk and we were given um 26 spots for pre-kindergarten so that would mean it was too much for one class but it was um to run two classes at 13 students each would have been very very difficult in the amount of money that we received it was about 144 mrs creo and so to run to to hire two teachers to hire two teaching assistants because the programs do come with very very specific guidelines that we must follow new york state regulations in order to run the program it has to meet specific criteria it would have the funding that we received from the state would not have covered the costs had we run the program ourselves hiring teachers hiring teaching assistants purchasing all

009the equipment so um we chose the option of going out for an rfp and scope applied and they were selected and scope educational services is a non-profit organization that really supports school districts across long island in many many different ways you may know that our after care program at our elementary schools is run by scope and we have a lot of confidence in them we've had a wonderful relationship they're very supportive responsible and they also run preschools and i think it's over 30 different districts so we knew that they had a tried and true model um that and again based on our relationships with scope we felt that it was the best way to go it was also the most economical way to go so for this you know that there are um there may

010be three-year-old programs and four-year-old programs the funding for this program was only for four-year-old uh children who would turn four by december first of the year that they would be entering pre-k would be eligible um it is like i said funded by money in the grant from new york state and students must be selected by a lottery uh this year we had um over 50 we had i think 56 uh families apply for basically uh 30 spots that we had so unfortunately we did have to turn some families away there is a lot of talk at the state level federal level that there will be increased funding for universal pre-kindergarten in the coming years so we would look forward to that that might create a little bit of a space challenge for elementary schools so

011it is something that we have to plan for the future moving forward is if we were to get more funding we we would never turn down funding um but we would have a challenge in terms of where to house the classes districts also have the option of outsourcing the program in a prior district that i was in we actually they call it flow through the money to a an existing preschool and then we would conduct the same lottery but the students would attend um an established preschool within the boundaries of the school district for various reasons we chose not to do that we really wanted the program in our own school we wanted the kids to have the full experience so that they could acclimate and then transition seamlessly into kindergarten so there were options

012we felt at this time um the way we ran the program was the best and i think um i think it's turned out to be so again i i to go back to the 26 numbers um the 26 spots so to speak that we had it would have resulted in one class of 13 in each of our schools that wasn't economically feasible for scope and so we negotiated with them that if the district funded four spots we would go up to 15 that were fully funded so we have 26 that are funded by the state grant and the district out of our own budget funds four spots so that we could run a viable program through scope uh we then um because the classes are kept at 18 with one teacher and one teaching assistant

013we negotiated with scope that in order to reach the number of 18 we would open up three spots uh for self-pay by parents and we did do that and parents were very happy because it was economical uh the cost is five thousand four hundred dollars a year five hundred forty dollars a month and that is more economical than most full day preschools um the program does run from nine until two so uh even for some half day programs um that's that's definitely a bargain so we were very pleased that the board agreed and the budget was able to support those additional spots and that's what we have now is one class at reim and one class at center avenue each with 18 students if a student does leave the program during the year someone moves

014or for whatever reason someone drops out of the program we then go back to the lottery list we're obligated to keep that list for the whole entire year and this year we did have someone maybe one or two students move and then we were able to open it up and invite the next two students who are on the list to participate in the program uh free of charge so again it is we do have 30 spots that are fully funded so it's it's a wonderful gift to our community and something that this community deserves uh the program runs from monday through friday it follows the school calendar it's actually we have 180 days per year so during some two of our superintendents conference days there are classes so this coming friday we have superintendents conference

015day for k-12 students are off but the preschool students will come in because that's a requirement of the grant that they attend as we said it's a five-hour instructional program lunch is provided free of charge to all students and scope for the cost of running the program they provide two snacks for students during the day they also provided all of the materials the only thing we had to provide to open the classrooms were the furniture was the furniture so you'll see some pictures the classes are rich and um very active and there's fabulous materials and lots of opportunities for free play as well as learning uh and social emotional development so um we really i think um got a great opportunity by um partnering with scope so let's hear mrs tavermina who is a rheem

016avenue parent sorry hi i'm ashley tavermina my son russell attends the universal pre-k program at rheme avenue school the pre-k program has not only encouraged my son academically but socially and emotionally as well he wakes up eager and excited for school every day and i attribute that to the terrific support he receives from his teachers and the positive environment at raymond avenue school i could not have asked for a better program to prepare my son for kindergarten and for that i am truly grateful i like that we want happy and grateful families here so it's a win-win um the curriculum is based on many people may not know this but we know we have standards for learning there are pre-k standards for learning and the program does follow those it's a balance of academic as

017well as social emotional learning behavioral learning which is very important uh we don't want an overly academic program for four-year-olds because they're not ready for that but we certainly want readiness skills so there's music movement purposeful play hands-on activities that are integrated throughout the day instruction is delivered much like our classrooms in the elementary school and in individual to individual students to small and to large groups because that is going to mirror what they will receive when they move into kindergarten and first grade so a lot of the structure and the um the structure of the program really does mirror our early early childhood grades um there is teacher and child guided instruction as you'll see in some of the pictures and uh the instruction is differentiated for learning styles for all children as you

018can imagine uh four-year-olds don't sit and listen to a teacher talking for a long period of time they want to be active and move around so there's a lot of opportunity for that although there is some direct instruction they do learn how to listen to the teacher and follow the rules it was very the first day of school was just um absolutely adorable when i visited um they were kind of scattered all over it was great it was you know what you would expect for four-year-olds coming into a new environment the first time and the teacher is like grabbing them all in to try to get them all together and when i visited again it's it's unbelievable how well-behaved and organized and they understand the routines and they follow the routines and it was really

019beautiful to see how much these children have grown and how happy they are as our parents have said um so these are some of the readiness skills for kindergarten that they do follow so letter and sound recognition is important many kids do come into kindergarten these days knowing their letters and sounds which really helps with literacy development language is critical to literacy and to following directions and all kinds of future skills uh it's really the basis for for learning um and it's thrilling to know that they're doing steam activities also social emotional skills they learn how to share how to get along with one another um how to take turns and those behaviors that are important and of course they work on fine and gross motor skills indoors as well as outdoors this is a

020typical daily schedule i won't read it but as you can see it's a very structured program kids like predictability it's important for them to have a predictable schedule and you know this again is a very structured day but within that time you'll see their center time there's two opportunities for center time and a lot of choice so students can choose what they want to do within the schedule when they're not doing whole group um activities so this is i think one of the center time activities there's a block corner there's a kitchen corner the things that you really want to see in a preschool we don't want it to be overly academic it's so important that they have free play because that develops creativity language skills and independence aside from many other important skills um

021as i said center time so the teacher uses the the the new line or the smart board kids know where they need to go i think there's some self choice here as to what they where you know what they can pick they like to do but there's also um you know there are those kids who go to the block corner every single day so we want to differentiate for them and encourage them to try some of the other skills and so it's a combination of working independently or working in small groups and working on choice activities as well as teacher directed activities or i should say assigned activities this is something that clearly is an important part of everything of every grade in our school district and that is parent involvement and of course especially

022at the younger grades parents are a very important part of the team and these are some of the opportunities for parents to be to engage with the program and we hope that next year with kovid being over um or i shouldn't say over i guess wishful thinking but at least we're moving forward we hope that we'll be able to um continue to open our doors and have greater family engagement in our schools especially in the younger grades uh but these are some of the activities that um if they didn't all happen this year will be happening and definitely will be happening next year so uh again progress reports are distributed twice a year just like in kindergarten and and moving up it's important that families know uh how their kids are doing so feedback is

023given um meetings are held there are newsletters um every classroom that has a cell phone uh with scope number so although it is run by scope it's obviously housed in our building but they take a lot of responsibility for communication with the families because um they're little whoops they're they're little guys and um if there is is something that the parent needs to uh that the teacher needs to get in touch with for the for the child if the child is not feeling well that communication happens immediately by the teacher um with the phone that's provided by scope and i think that's important uh the teachers are also cpr and and first aid certified which is important as well so it's really a self-contained program classes are very conscious about allergies as we are in

024our school so this is great to hear for us because uh we have really increased our awareness of allergies throughout our district and scope supports that as well they follow the same security procedures that we do so anyone who is picked up early they must be a listed adult and they must show id so safety and security is aligned with our just our district expectations and we now have mrs heel hi my name is christine and my son attends rheem avenue the upk program and his teacher miss jones are absolutely fantastic it's clear the program supports a good balance of academic social and behavioral learning we're confident that logan is already prepared for kindergarten in the fall and it's great to see him so excited about learning he comes home every day having had a

025great day at raym avenue thank you mrs hill and i have one more parent um we love to see dad's commenting so um hi my name is vince and my son goes to raymond avenue having two older girls at raim as well who never went through a pre-k program made our decision to send our son to one a little difficult you know while we knew he was ready for school we selfishly wanted to keep him home prior to his first you know his last year before kindergarten but when the opportunity arose to put him in a program at a school that our two girls love we jumped at the chance and i have to tell you we're so happy we did our son wakes up every morning eager to learn eager to go to school

026comes home with a giant smile on his face and a story to tell us about everything that's happened throughout the day i mean loves his teachers he's made such great friendships at such an early age already it makes us that much more comfortable sending him to kindergarten next year knowing his experience there is going to be that much more fulfilling the only negative i could say is i wish this was available for you know our two older girls i really think they would have loved it too but thanks for the great job you're doing and we look forward to continuing this program for many other kids in the future as i know they'll probably have just as a great experience as our son did too thank you mr roth so you get a picture of

027how the parents are viewing the program obviously we haven't had any concerns expressed at least to me um and we had parents who were very willing to share what their experiences were and as i said you can see the smiling faces of our students i think uh kindergarten first day kindergarten will be a little bit different next year because we have um i think we have about 40 we have about 60 students registered registration is a little bit low for kindergarten we will have more coming rolling in but you can see that more than half of our kindergarten students already have had the experience of going to school every day in our buildings and that's amazing we do hope that will continue we would love to be able to provide i know you would love

028for us to be able to provide pre-k for every single student in in the school district and we hope that is the direction that the state is going in of course the program is dependent upon the funding coming this year from the state the budget has not been voted on yet but we we expect that it will be forthcoming we have accounted for the additional spots in our budget and as i said those additional three spots in each of our schools will be open to parents who were included in the lot in the lottery but unfortunately did not get a free spot and um so with that i would like to invite our principals up just to say a few words and to introduce our teachers who are here with us tonight because we really

029admire the job that they've done they've come in so can i i have our teachers come up as well mrs jones uh miss jones and miss kellogg thank you so we are really grateful for the pre-k program i'm mrs kelly from center avenue miss kellogg is our pre-k teacher and we have to say that the relationships that not only miss kellogg has made with our teachers is going to support us with our transition into kindergarten we look forward to the opportunity for her to work with our kindergarten teachers at the end of our school year to really support the students moving up next school year but the most i guess the most special part is watching our students walk through the building they all they do is walk say hi to our security bob and

030everyone here they know everyone's name they say hi to everyone they're so comfortable and that's the most important thing is that they're comfortable they feel welcome and that's all we can ask for so we look forward to the continuing relationships and the team building that we have having our pre-k with us so thank you miss kellogg for your dedication [Applause] i'd have to say that rave avenue we have the same experience i met with my kindergarten team this morning because we're getting ready for orientation and screening and when i told them you know we're gonna have a chance to actually talk to miss jones who was our pre-k teacher they were so excited one of them said i was outside of her classroom and i had heard her kids saying ah apple b fat so

031they were so excited that we're going to get half of our kindergarteners we have 39 right now coming in more than half of them will be students who've already been in our building and i think for me as a principal the most important part of having these very little children who i don't usually do the real little ones but what's been really exciting about having them here is every day they're excited to come on to the blacktop they're excited to come into the building the connections and the relationships that they're making being able to educate children it starts with being able to connect to them and being able to form a really strong and solid relationship they're already developing those they're excited to see their friends they're excited to see mr jerry in the morning

032they're excited to see me and getting to know the younger siblings of my students is also fun because i can see my older students in a different light if they're excited to see their siblings in the school so universal pre-k has been great for us we're really looking forward to that continuity of them coming into the big kids school already knowing what it takes to be a solid rain avenue star so we look forward to many more years of universal pre-k at our school [Applause] thank you thank you very much thank you so much you should really give them another round of applause i will tell you i remember nine years starting here walking into the building um starting new in the job and they really came and hit the ground running um and i

033i give these teachers so much credit for what they've done and if like i said it was like herding cats on the first day if you remember mrs jones i was there at the and then you're like they were all over the place and to see how far they've come is it's just unbelievable so kudos to both of you and thank you and your your assistants as well um who are not here with us tonight so what are our next steps um obviously we always want to do more we always want to grow and and continue um moving forward in in a positive direction and so we hope that we can build in some collaborative activities with other classes obviously at the beginning of the year kovid made that difficult uh scope did follow some

034very very uh uh stringent guidelines for uh the upk classes and they you know followed the guidelines that they had established which um was part of you know our agreement with them which was fine um but as we move forward next year we would like to buddy up our students with some of some older students possibly for story time and different kinds of activities where they can have an opportunity to interact with their older peers siblings day in all kinds of different things that we can plan for and i know our teachers are excited as well um greater parent engagement again we hope we invite all of our upk parents to join the pta just to plug it's important that you're you're part of our pta and part of our school community and community engagement

035and start up bringing your kids to all of the different events that we uh will be hosting now that we're we're back on track um and this is really important greater opportunities for meaningful curriculum alignment with our district program so we have a unique opportunity even though scope has a curriculum and they provide all the resources and materials we can augment and we can use some of the programs that we have and maybe push them down if if they're age appropriate uh to the um to the upk class i know i heard today that um one of our teachers is interested in in starting to use thinking maps so how great is that because we know we use that k-12 well we'll be using it pre-k-12 so we're very happy to support that and provide

036training and integration of of different curriculum initiatives where appropriate in addition we always monitor our students our student progress we do get a lot of data not that we give standardized tests to uh pre-k students but we track our students as i said before we know which students went to pre-k and which students did not and as i said we do see a difference and starting in kindergarten we do administer um standardized assessments and we start to track their progress and so it will be interesting to see how these students fare on the kindergarten screening because we will still need to screen them as opposed to children who've gone to other preschools maybe half day preschool maybe a three day preschool and i would imagine that that these students based on what i've seen and

037the strong curriculum and the strong instruction and structure of the program will fare very well when they get into kindergarten and that's great for our kids they will have a head start and we'll follow these students as they move up into kindergarten and first grade just to see are there any differences in the achievement of these students who have had this rich program um because hopefully if if the funding does not come through it always could be a program that if the district were able to fund we could down the road possibly um fund more seats for upk and of course that would be you know something we would have to look very carefully at because you know a lot of parents ask me well why don't you have a upk program why does mineola

038have upk for all well many districts do um fund their own programs they build it into the budget um you know we've just not been able to do that so maybe this is um we hope that more funding will come forward that would be the best case scenario but we we can see the value in this and it may be something that the board and the next superintendent and business of our and mrs griot may want to consider uh as we um as the district moves forward to expand it on our own because it was it was really hard having the lottery and watching some sad faces um who whose family families did not get a free spot uh for this coming year but um that concludes my presentation does the board have any questions

039or comments you mean placing them we would hope that our teachers will return next year um we we love the job that they're doing and of course when we are planning begin planning for next year we would hope that they would stay on um yes oh yes any other questions comments audience any questions from the community okay well thank you again um to our features with kellogg and miss jones and to our principals for doing such a great job supporting this program we superintendent louise i have to thank you for that presentation um that's something we've needed in this community for quite some time and i think that it's unbelievable and i'm proud that you brought that to us last year as a possibility and i think that watching it grow will be tremendous for

040the youngest community members so thank you so much thank you it was definitely on my bucket list for the district so i'm pleased that before i leave um you were able to implement it thank you okay so moving on we're going to move down to item number three 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 mrs ruiz or superintendent matters

041involving curriculum and instruction should be addressed to mr d tommaso and matters involving budget and facilities should be directed to mrs crea if you need technological assistance or have issues with a device please reach out to mr fisk anyone who is attending in person if you would like to make any comments on agenda items please complete a common court at this time are there any comments regarding to agenda items okay moving on to item number four approval of minutes are there any questions regarding the minutes from last month's meeting no questions can i have a motion to approve minutes so moved by mr mcnally second second second by mr lopez all in favor aye opposed abstain so moved moving on to item number five acknowledgement of monthly reports and correspondence we a received the monthly

042financial reports and correspondence we received an email from a monitor regarding a mask issue we received emails from seven community members regarding masks in schools and a letter to governor hoco from the board of ed prior to the lifting of the mass mandate an email from a community member in regard to rock robbery spectators prior to the lifting of the mask mandate an invitation from kiwanis to an event on march 21st for police appreciation honoring ncpdpo jennifer akron an email from a community member regarding vaccines and covert testing 11 emails from community members for the displaying of a political flag at sportsnight an email from the erta an email from mr shafer an email from the ersa an email from a parent regarding the high school mock regents exams and an email promoting an interactive

043leadership conference offered on long island you have any questions no no no just thank you for sharing those with us okay i'd now like to turn this over to superintendent release for recommendations thank you mrs o'hagan tonight we recommend that the board accept with regret the resignation for the purpose of retirement of frank katita from his foreign language teacher position effective june 30th 2022 also recommending that the board accept with regret the resignation of antonella keene for the purpose of retirement from her 10-month senior typist clerk position effective june 30th 2022 recommending that the board accept the following resignations tiffany denom world language teacher effective march 20th 2022 and madison bredinski permanent substitute teacher effective march 2nd 2022 also recommending that the board uh accept the resignation of elementary teacher christina ranieri effective april 13

0442022 so recommending the board approve a change to the effective date of rebecca pagan rodriguez's resignation for the purpose of retirement to october 12 2022 recommending the board approve the fmla leave of absence for rebecca pagan rodriguez from her foreign language teacher position effective february 28 through april 29 2022 recommending the board approve the request of caitlin kovarsky for a 12-week fmla leave of absence from her enl teacher position effective march 11 through june 13 2022 and thereafter a child rearing leave of absence through june 30th 2022 also recommending the board approve the request of kelly cavasso for a personal medical leave for of absence from her art teacher position effective march 15 through april 24 2022 recommending the board approve the appointment of jacqueline breitfeller to the position of short-term substitute art teacher effective

045march 15 through april 13th recommending the board approve the appointment of brandon tompkin to the position of permanent substitute teacher effective march 23rd through june 30th also recommend the board approve the appointment of priscilla prince stitzman of sitzman i'm sorry to the position of permanent substitute teacher effective march 23rd through june 30th 2022 recommend that the board approve the revised east rockaway high school club advisor assignments for the 2021-22 school year at the stipend salary established by the east rockaway teachers association and recommend that the board approve the following proctor assignments effective may 2nd through june 24th at the supervision salary rate established by the east rockaway teachers association contract and that is elizabeth stack and mary orzano also recommend the board approve the appointment of yeagel edinger to the position of supervising groundskeeper effective

046upon civil service approval and recommending that the board approve the appointment of carol hernandez to the position of part-time senior typist clerk 12 months effective march 7th 2022 at the uh step 12 annual salary set forth in the east rockaway secretary's association agreement thank you superintendent please are there any questions from the board regarding the recommendations made by the superintendent no can i have a motion to approve item six letters a through n so moved so moved by mr d matteo second second second by mr kilgus all in favor aye opposed i've seen so so moved moving on to item number seven other items a approve the corrected 2022-23 school district calendar b approve the following resolution rather than read the entire resolution in summary this is a resolution to adopt the revised return to

047learn plan to reflect that we are now mass optional c approve the following resolution to authorize the expenditure for the capital reserve fund for technology replacement 2 proposition whereas the board of education of the east rockaway union pre-school district has determined that there is a need to undertake certain technology upgrades to commence during the 22-23 school year as described in the outline contained in the 2022-23 budget proposal on file and available for public inspection in the office of the district clerk this proposition will be voted on by the community when they vote for the district budget item d approve the following resolution and proposition for establishing a new capital reserve fund for building improvements and repairs three whereas the board of education of the east rockaway union free school district has determined that there is

048a need to create a new capital reserve fund to cover in whole or in part the cost of future capital improvements renovations and or alterations of school district facilities and property and whereas the board desires that propositions be presented to the voters of the school district authorizing the establishment of capital reserve funds for said purposes so this is a resolution to establish a new capital reserve fund and this proposition will also be voted on by the community when they vote for the budget item e a proven approve the notice of budget hearing and annual district election of the east rockaway ufsd and the publication of such notice as required by law in the oceanside rocket center east rockaway tribune and the limb rookie away herald f approve the following resolution be it hereby resolve that

049the board of education of the east rockaway ufsd authorizes and appoints the following individuals to serve in the capacity of election poll workers in connection with the may 17 2022 annual school district meeting and election at the salary set forth for the non-contractual salary schedule for the 2021-22 school year mg approved the following resolution whereas on april 21st 2020 the board of education accepted proposals for the service providers listed below pursuant to a cooperative request for proposal for special education related services for the 2020 2021 school year in accordance with the applicable provisions of the general municipal law and authorized the district to enter into formal agreements with said service providers for their respective services for the 20 20 21 school year and whereas the rfp authorizes the board of education to renew its agreements

050with service providers for additional one-year periods upon the existing terms and conditions including price provided that in the event that the service provider incurs additional expenses that require a price increase in subsequent years the service provider may request an annual increase not to exceed the district's allowable growth factor for the school year now therefore be it resolved that the board of education authorizes the district to renew its existing agreements with the providers indicated below for the 2022-23 school year in accordance with the terms of the rfp and this resolution and authorizes the board president to execute such renewal agreements item h approve the following resolution be it resolved at the board of education of the east rockaway union free school district hereby approves the terms and conditions of the memorandum of agreement dated march 22nd

0512022 between the board of education of the east rockaway union free school district and the east rockaway custodial unit regarding the creation of the new job title of supervising groundskeeper are there any questions on items seven a through h okay can i have a motion to approve item seven a through h so moved by mr mcnally second second second by mr volpis all in favor aye opposed abstain moving on to item seven i approve the renewal license agreement with scope educational services for the after-school child care program for the 2022-23 school year and authorized the president of the board of education to execute the agreements on behalf of the east rockaways board of education jay approved the terms and conditions of the letter of engagement between cbiz valuation group llc and the east rockaway union

052free school district for valuation of land and buildings for the 2021-22 school year and authorized the assistant superintendent for finance and operations to execute the letter of engagement on behalf of the east rockaway board of education okay approve the affordable care act administration agreement between the east rockaway union free school district and seneca consulting group incorporated for administrative services related to the affordable care act for the 2022-23 school year and authorized the assistant superintendent for finance and operations to execute the agreement on behalf of the east rockaway board of education l approve the award of the bid dated march 3rd 2022 between dell transportation corporation and east rockaway ufsd for transportation services to sequoia high school and authorized the assistant superintendent for finance and operations to execute the resulting contract on behalf of the east

053rockaway board of education m approve the health and welfare agreement between east rockwood ufsd and rockwell center ufsd for the health and welfare services for the 2021-22 school year and authorized the superintendent and the president of the board of education to execute the agreement on behalf of the east rockaway board of education and approve the parking saw lease agreement between the east rockaway ufsd and rolling river day school and camp for the use of parking stalls located at the east rockaway junior senior high school for the period may 21 2022 through october 22nd 2022 and authorize the assistant superintendent for finance and operations to execute the agreement on behalf of behalf of the east dracula board of education oh approve the following resolution be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent the president

054of the board of education is authorized to establish the richard j maher school spirit award to be awarded to one student who embodies east rockaway high school spirit and who will be continuing their education in the teaching field pink approve the purchase of the following textbook college physics a strategic approach q declare obsolete for the purpose of disposal the items listed on the following forms you have numbers 1 through 10. r approved the following donations one hack attack pitching machine valued at three thousand eight hundred and forty eight dollars from chris harmous jones class of 1976 for the baseball program two from the raym avenue pta a curriculum enhancement grant in the sum of fifty dollars for classroom supplies three from center avenue pta a curriculum enhancement grant and the sum of seventy 76 for

055classroom supplies via curriculum enhancement grant in the sum of 500 towards a fifth grade class trip see curriculum enhancing grant in the sum of 50 and 72 cents for classroom supplies a curriculum enhancement grant in the sum of 35.98 for classroom supplies for the music room a curriculum enhancement grant and some of 50 for classroom supplies a curriculum enhancement grant and sum of 51.75 for classroom supplies and a curriculum enhancement grant and sum of for a fourth grade class trip to old bethpage are there any questions and item number seven i do r nope no can i have a motion to approve item seven i through r so moved so moved by mr kellegas second second second by mr d matteo all in favor aye opposed abstain so moved moving on to item number eight

056approval of csc cpsc recommendations which were emailed home are there any questions from the board no no can i have a motion to approve item 8 cse and recommendations so moved by mr mcnally second second second by mr lopez all in favor aye opposed abstain so moved moving on to item number nine budget transfers upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board of education approves the following budget transfers one through three are there any questions from the board can we go to the budget transfers no no can i have a motion to approve item number nine so moved so moved by mr mateo second second second by mr kilgus all in favor all right opposed obscene so moved okay moving on to item number 10 policy matters there are no policies up for adoption this

057evening there are 11 policies up for review the next policy meeting will be held i believe i just got the date of april 7th um i'm pretty sure that's what's on the calendar so april 7th will be the next date for policy and now we are moving on to reports okay i am going to start with a president's report tonight so first i want to update the community on the superintendent search an invitation was sent to all stakeholder group leaders to form a district advisory committee the second round of screenings commenced on thursday march 4th and eight applicants were screened on tuesday march 8th the board met with mr letterer to discuss the screenings and to plan for the next round of interviews the board interviewed four applicants on march 16th three candidates will move

058on to be interviewed by the district advisory committee on march 29th and the board will then review stakeholder input and let's have some general remarks so due to the nature of the last board meeting there were a couple of individuals that should have been recognized by the board at the end of the evening congratulations to carol hernandez on your retirement and to jennifer isik on receiving tenure this is an exciting time in both of your lives and we wish you much luck as you move forward in your journeys last month mr kennedy also presented on thinking maps and he explained in detail how this initiative is being used to further enhance the critical thinking and learning taking place in the district i have always been impressed with this particular initiative as both a parent and

059a teacher thank you again for sharing with us how thinking maps continue to benefit the students this evening superintendent ruiz presented on the universal pre-k program seeing the excitement and the love for school on our youngest learners or in our youngest learners is incredible and we look forward to the continued growth of this program in the east rockaway schools we have two very important events coming up in the district the first is safety and social media forum that will take place on thursday march 31st at 6 pm here in the auditorium and i believe there are flyers down here for anybody that would like dinner will be served at 5 pm babysitting will be available and there will be prizes for both kids and adults this is an opportune time for parents to accompany their

060children and to hear from numerous individuals about the misuse of social media platforms the ramifications and the implications of improper usage this is something that should not be taken lightly as we have seen time and again it is very easy to press a button in post kids growing up in the digital age do not fully understand how these posts follow them throughout life i urge you all to attend the safety and social media forum next thursday the second event the grand opening of the athletic complex will take place on saturday april 2nd the day will begin with the education foundation's 5k run walk there will be a softball game in the morning and a baseball game in the afternoon with various events for all ages throughout the day thank you to mr gregory and your

061committee for working so hard to make this day special i would like to transition now to the budget vote and trust the election first a big thank you goes to mrs crea for all of your hard work and expertise you do a tremendous job ensuring the district is in excellent financial standing not only for the upcoming school year but planning long term as well you are transparent in all you do and explain each and every component to the board and the community each month whenever we have questions or need clarification you are always there with the answers we appreciate all that you continue to do this year's budget vote and trustee election will take place on tuesday may 17th there are two seats up this term myself and mr mcnally for those interested in running

062for the board nomination packets are available in the district clerk's office candidates for the board of education run at large you must file your petition with the district clerk no later than 5 pm on monday april 18th this information can also be found on the district website under the boe tab thank you [Music] thank you miss o'hagan so our strategic planning committee uh met um in february we held our second meeting and we will meet again this thursday uh march 24th at 6 p.m in this building if anybody would still like to join we would be more than welcome we'd more than welcome uh some additional members uh we have we have divided up into four subcommittees um the board had decided earlier on um actually two years ago when we started planning for our

063new five-year plan that we would keep the four focus areas because they were still appropriate and relevant so we do have the four subcommittees of achievement innovation connection and um i'm sorry achievement innovation connection and i always the opportunity um always leave one out and we are about to to really start to get the work of developing the goals underway uh we did review a survey that was distributed to the committee um that was the first step we also have the results of our student survey that mr schaefer arranged for for all of our secondary students and that will be reviewed this coming thursday as well as a staff survey which was put out this week we will have a family survey which will go out on monday and so hopefully with all of that

064feedback the committee will have gone through all of that and taken that into account we're going to be evaluating the current goals with the administration's recommendations as to which goals we believe should uh remain and need to you know continued focus possibly tweak some of them in a little bit different way check some of them off our list and then develop some new areas of focus and we hope to have a final draft of the plan by june um in the area of achievement raim and center avenue teachers continue to work with our literacy consultant on the balanced literacy framework with our new reading program wonders to guide literacy instruction across all of the grades raim and center avenue fourth and sixth grade students were recognized for their academic accomplishments on the star honor roll

065as well congratulations to connor kelly keira o'neil julia pasanisi katie mcmahon and maddie prusha on becoming deca state medalists and this means they finished in the top 10 of the state so congratulations and congratulations to our faculty advisor um is that um who who is our faculty advisors in mr shape ms horvath well congratulations to her as well it's not easy um our team has certainly um done a great job this year and congratulations to our individual students the high school is proud to announce this year's valedictorian is madeline prucha and salutatorian is jason miller we are so proud of their accomplishments and look forward to honoring them at our junit june board of education meeting our website uh features their pictures and a summary of their impressive resumes and we're waiting to hear where

066these students will be choosing to go to college in the area of opportunity our upk lottery was held on february 17th and as i said before 56 families submitted their names for the lottery and 30 free spots were awarded there are six parent pay direct pay spots that will be offered to interested families um and obviously the program has grown in popularity and we are thrilled to be planning for our second year uh central avenue student council worked together to create a banner in preparation of the opening day of the athletic complex so this will be an all-encompassing event for all of our schools to participate rame avenue first graders celebrated the 120th day of school with a rocking through the 120 day celebration in order to better prepare students for state testing the high

067school is administering a mock regents exams this week teachers will use the data from the exams to modify instruction and set the schedule for academies for better student success in june that data will be very important to identify areas that our students need further focus the high school launched its mentoring program on this program students are matched with an east rockaway high school faculty member who will meet with students to provide support to complete missing assignments provide organizational strategies and ultimately create a plan for success relationships uh for those students students in miss pisano's culinary one and two classes attended a live taping of the rachel ray show on march 9th the show included several recipes that students will try out later in the year in their classrooms uh look out for east rockaway in

068the audience on july 4th so please set your vcrs i don't know how many of you will be watching rachel ray on july 4th but you can certainly dvr it uh school counselors brought 11 students to visit barry tech for taste of tech this visit highlights all of the opportunities available at vari tech barry tech for our students and we're excited to offer 12 new students spots in the cte program next year bringing the total number up to 23. i'm not sure if that's 23 we're at okay so thank you also to mrs creo uh you were hearing more about that for continuing to support and grow that program uh the vision for our cte program was to create enough spots so that every deserving student who can go and wants to go and is

069appropriate and will benefit from the program is able to attend and so we've continued to increase those numbers to meet the needs of our students and again it's such an important opportunity for the students that choose that pathway and many do choose that pathway and also go on to college as well in the area of innovation innovation center avenue kindergarten students worked with miss mani using kid pic to create digital images to match student writing about the text the bad seed by jory john uh through the read aloud and creation of digital images the students were able to understand that it is never too late to change your behavior after even even after others still judge you um rheem avenue fifth graders work with mrs healy to create game characters programmed to perform specific movements

070and sounds using coding strategy in our steam program students in mrs horvath's career in financial management class played spent a game that allows participants to experience what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck important life skill for sure high school students in ap biology and science research recently attended cold spring harbor lab where they completed a hands-on bacterial transformation lab samples were taken back to the high school campus where they were grown in a school incubator and then studied using black light in addition they also had the opportunity to tour the cold spring harbor national lab museum in the area of connection center and raym avenue held its person parent in person i'm sorry parent-teacher conferences focused on helping students to build unidentified strengths to support opportunities for growth rheem graham students learned about the

071tradition of irish bagpiping with a special presentation and mini parade led by mr joseph byra and that is an annual event you can see a wonderful picture on our website so thank you please to your husband mrs byra on behalf of our district for providing that the high school school counseling department met with juniors to discuss post-secondary planning process this allowed students to ask questions view a college search using super match and naviance and familiarize themselves with the material in the school counseling google classroom and of course the 86th annual rock rivalry concluded on friday evening um in person with a full auditorium it was wonderful the class of 2022 won their second straight cup um and this tradition uh returned in its true form this year including live entrance performances uh the murals the

072stands um sports night it was really wonderful and we congratulate all of our students for their hard work it's really unbelievable each year i am in awe of what our students can produce i know uh mr fisk it was his first um rock rivalry and and he was raving about how amazing it is because you really can't describe it until you've seen it so it's great to see people's first reactions students in advisory are participating in the annual design and sports night t-shirt contest in preparation for middle school sports night in may the winning design will be distributed to all students in the coming weeks and on friday may 18th homeland security officer o'neal provided a presentation for our 7th and 8th grade students on the importance of reporting suspicious activity the presentation highlighted the

073potential consequences of making a threat to a school in a school or to a school and the potential results of inappropriate social media posts and private chats messages involving threats of violence so again this is part of our ongoing efforts to help our students to learn how to use uh social media appropriately and keep themselves and our school community safe students in grades 9 10 and 11 participated in a virtual session entitled creating an inclusive culture we're all responsible with our consultant nancy kaplan dr kaplan is working with students teachers and administrators to implement the district's diversity equity and inclusivity policy and initiative i'm just a shout out to the center and rheem avenue ptas for their continued support in providing curriculum enhancement grants for our teachers and i would just like to echo what

074mrs o'hagan just shared about our social media forum um we don't we don't really get um as great a turnout as we would like uh when we run events so i really really implore that you consider coming uh next thursday night i know everybody uh has been kind of cooped up with kovid so it's a great opportunity to just socialize um before the presentation um at five o'clock join us for dinner in the cafeteria it'll be great to see one another to talk to visit um and not doesn't have to be about social media during dinner and then stay for the presentation at six o'clock we do have an esteemed panel um dr vera foyer from northwell health she is the lead psychiatrist in our behavioral health clinic um we'll be speaking on the effects

075of social media well the effects on student mental health of social media she shared with us it's her most um important topic for her because uh we have seen so much uh damage to students self-esteem and social emotional well-being through inappropriate use of social media and the um the scars are really long-lasting um so we will learn a lot i'm sure from her we also have um assistant district attorney uh skinnell scheduled to join us as we do the fourth precinct officers we also have our altera security consultants who will talk about the impact as well on school districts when social media threats are made or inappropriate uses made and i think one of the most important things we're going to share with you is how do we handle um these threats because we often

076hear um you're not telling us enough we want to know more we want to know what happened to the kid and so we really we tell you that those things are confidential but this is an opportunity to explain to you what our procedure is so that you know how hard we work behind the scenes to thoroughly investigate and evaluate every single incident that might be a potential threat or harm to any of our students and it does keep our administrators very busy and unfortunately they should be spending their time on other um things such as learning and improving outcomes for our students but oftentimes these investigations can take hours and days and so for so many reasons this forum is so important we want you to know what we know we want to share it

077with you and start a dialogue the title of this evening is parents as partners in promoting internet safety this is something that takes a community it will take a village for this problem to be addressed for us to work together um families and the school district to help our students to use social media appropriately it's not going away phones are not going anywhere every kid has one they're using it but we have to help them to understand how the deleterious effects that misuse of social media can have on them particularly from a practical sense how will it affect them in their future their digital footprint in their jobs in applying to colleges um these things are are out there forever um also what are the criminal um and what is the possible criminal implications um

078and and again we want parents to know that not all of the posts that um we see and some of them are vile and awful and disturbing and upsetting but they are not illegal and that's a problem we can't do anything about it the police sometimes can't do anything about it and you will hear their frustration and our frustration when that happens because um they really um a lot of it is um related to free speech and we respect that in our country but again we don't want to see our children and our community hurt by this kind of inappropriate language as many of you have seen recently on some of the more serious posts now this is something that we've had planned for quite a while because it has been an issue for us

079for quite a while we were waiting until we could hold this in person because we feel that a live forum and a panel will be much more powerful than being at home uh we have a padlet padlet set up where uh questions can be posted comments can be posted we've asked you if you've wanted to make either anonymously or through videos your own views known and that will be shared and we really want this to be the start of a dialogue with our community so this will be the first of other planned events we did receive feedback a few years ago that when we did the team formula many of our families enjoyed uh sitting in kind of a world cafe um environment where you spoke to one another and i think that's what's really

080important because this is your community and we have to work together as parents um to help our kids to stay safe so we hope that this will just be the first um and before the year ends possibly hold um another um more informal dialogue with families um later in in may uh we will have um as mrs um o'hagan said we know it's hard to come out so we're enticing you with raffles donated by our pta um and the board myself anybody interested in donating a raffle basket we're going to have also giveaways for our students and we will have extra credit um kids will be given homework passes in the elementary school if their parents attend and uh they will be given a ticket for points to use on a future exam at the

081secondary level so yes we are bribing you and your kids we want you here um and it works um we've heard that when we did this once before it actually worked so they i imagine they can keep those tickets and use them when they need them the um the points on the test will be providing babysitting um and uh it is most appropriate for children in grade five um and up with their families but we want all families to come k through 12 and we will have babysitting for uh pre-k through grade four so if you um have difficulty getting a sitter please feel free to bring your children along but we do need an rsvp the rsvp is uh there's a link on the forum that was sent out um we will post it

082um the link is live on our website right right so you can uh rsvp we want to make sure we have enough food and we have enough coverage for babysitting so please i'm begging you come on out um and make this a success i don't want to be embarrassed by having a district attorney here and the uh and dr foyer are not having an audience i'm kidding but it is important and it's for the safety of your children so um that concludes um my report and i'm going to turn it over now to mrs creo who's going to give you an update on the monday well thank you mr reese and good evening everyone a third budget work session was held on tuesday march 8th this the discussions included a four-year review of expenditures including

083a budget to budget increase from the current year to next year as well as the actual expenditures for both the 1920 and the 2021 school year allowing for greater transparency in addition we reviewed the boces aid proposed technology projects and a proposal to create a capital reserve fund as part of our long-term continued long-term planning based on the most current information the tax levy cap for east rockaway is 3.99 percent which represents an increase of 1.2 million dollars i'd like to reiterate i say it every time i talk about the budget i will continue to say it this is the tax levy cap which we are required by law to calculate and report i do not foresee the tax levy for the upcoming budget coming anywhere near 3.99 so i tell you it's 3.99 because

084you'll see that in the papers you'll hear that everywhere it certainly will not be the tax levy that will be imposed on our residents i can assure you of that the budget presentation has been posted on the district's website uh please continue to check our website as all future presentations will be posted our next budget work session is scheduled for tuesday april 5th at 7 pm we plan to discuss 22 23 district initiatives three-part budget and the revenues at that time we will have all the necessary information to determine our final budget number and our tax levy we encourage you to join us during these budget work sessions thank you thank you mrs superintendent moving on to item number 12 good and welfare congratulations to megan lebriczy and her husband daniel on the birth of

085their twin boys theo and charlie born march 1st 2022 congratulations to caitlin kovarsky and husband gary on the birth of their daughter vivian ruth born on march 10 congratulations to ryan fisk for earning his doctorate degree on february 28 2022 and condolences to amy weissman canali and family on the passing of her grandmother arlene zickerman condolences to the family of ralph grangenetti former former principal at rheem avenue school on his passing okay moving on to item number 13 public comments we are about to convene into the public comment period of our meaning please be reminded that the meeting is live streamed and being recorded i encourage residents to contact the board at board of education ersd.org and to contact your child's teacher or appropriate administrator with any concerns we believe it is crucial for us

086to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues having said that please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions tonight this is because we take your concerns and questions seriously and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be we will however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time each individual is entitled to three minutes the individual time limit will be enforced so as many members of the public who wish to speak may do so at this time if you have a comment please complete the form

087prior to speaking and comment cards are down at the front desk please make sure you have your name and address on that card as a reminder please do not directly address or speak about individual administrators staff or students personal issues should be addressed privately okay if anybody would like to fill out a common card we have them down in front and first person up is frank pasanesi good evening board administration dr dr ruiz uh thursday march 3rd was sports night rock river sports tonight first time in three years these kids got together had a heck of a good time enjoyed themselves the place was packed with mask optional everybody was comfortable from where i could see there were no issues no questions nothing happened except good fun good sport and my daughter's class won but

088we lost the cup that's besides the point at the end of the uh during the course of the night there was a political flag that was displayed it was brought in by a student not my children it was displayed by multiple students throughout the night not mice not my children it was danced around on the stage as the kids were dancing in between sets and whatever they were doing not by my children at the end of the night when all was said and done and people were leaving the school my kids and my nephews got together with for a picture with this flag during this picture someone jumped over my wife's shoulder to take a picture of that picture to take that picture and post it on a private website private social media site and

089then look to attack my kids for what their names were and who they were affiliated with that is so wrong immoral and outrageous and one of those people who did it is a former member of that set up that deus there that should be embarrassed to ever have sat of that day as a former school board member hiding under a pseudonym under an assumed name on facebook that is embarrassing herself she couldn't even reveal herself and i will not name names because that's violation of this here but anybody doesn't know my kids and my kids compassion doesn't know my kids for everybody in the school they're praised any wicked ex yes my son and my nephew may be a little rambunctious at times but overall they're they're good kids that mean well and care about

090everybody in this community just like i do and just like my whole family does and have for many years as an alumni in this school i'm embarrassed by some of the stuff that goes on here i am proud of a lot of stuff that goes on here i'm proud of rock rivalry and the traditions that it keeps we all had a great time and it's soiled by one or two individuals who want to pick on kids that they throw in easy prey that's all i have to say about this it's been on facebook it's been on in the herald i'm here to speak about it tonight i'm done just discussing this issue i just wanted to share that with the board thank you very much [Applause] next up is michelle gamache [Music] i wish to

091address the incident that occurred during the rock rivalry sports night and the unfortunate aftermath that carried into our community during the days that followed after hearing about the incident from students who attended that evening i was not surprised to read the email from miss ruiz less than 24 hours later while i was relieved to know that the presence of a political flag in the high school gymnasium was perceived by our superintendent to be an inappropriate act of political grandstanding i am deeply disturbed by the response of members of our community which include a member of this board who publicly espoused his approval of this behavior on facebook i am most concerned about a culture that seems to be way more committed to upholding tradition than pushing our community forward specifically a culture propagated by some

092who hold positions of power that reinforce an agenda of resisting progress in the protection and inclusion of all students some of our community members seem to believe that their voices matter more than others this could not have been illustrated any more clearly than it was in the wake of the march 3rd in wake of march 3rd on facebook with community members supporting their children in this act of political grandstanding calling out other community members and using aggressive language intended to instill a sense of fear and intimidation the purpose of the dignity act that no student shall be subjected to harassment or bullying by employees or students on school property or at a school function includes cyber billing cyber bullying and political party as a basis for discrimination and or harassment there is simply no place

093for political campaigning in our public schools it is completely inappropriate as is introducing any platform into a school-sponsored event intended to create division and animus among the students parents and faculty i'm interested in knowing that the laws are explained and understood thoroughly by the people who hold the education safety and well-being of all children in this community in their hands the dignity act is the law and it must be upheld by those elected and hired to serve our school community we need to do better as a community inclusion is not a preference it is our obligation both legally and morally if we remain divided as a community we will fail in pushing this community forward and it will be our children who pay the ultimate price thank you for your time i'm reading this comment

094on behalf of jennifer racinelli east rockaway high school class of 1992 she is currently celebrating her son's 9th birthday thank you thank you very much [Applause] okay keith watching the public comment period last month from home i felt that some of the opinions expressed were uninformed and unfair to accuse the school district board and administration of being indifferent and even hostile toward the mental health of our students demonstrates how unaware you are of the efforts and resources put towards student mental health over the last several years even predating the onset of the pandemic one year ahead of a state requirement to provide k-12 counseling services this district invested in providing this vital service two of our sitting board members mr mcnally mrs o'hagan made student mental health a priority during their campaigns for the board

095with their help the district entered into a partnership with northwell health and five neighboring school districts establishing a first of its kind relationship to provide high quality mental health services for the children and families of east rockaway this couldn't have been achieved without the leadership of mrs ruiz mrs scrio and their staff who provided numerous hours dedicated to researching negotiating reviewing contracts analyzing budgets and crunching numbers to ensure that this board priority could become a sustainable reality supporting mask wearing or against mask wearing we are all exhausted from living through a continuing pandemic tonight i wanted to thank everyone involved in taking such forward-thinking progressive measures to keep our children safe while still providing a high quality education and experiences that our children will remember despite the challenges we've all faced thank you for your

096leadership and service last month's board member comments shared a common message of unity unfortunately one board members telling people who are hurt and offended to get over it and get over yourselves is not the effect of leadership or temperament needed to keep our schools unified his comments on social media demonstrated how little he other either understands or respects the oath he took to uphold the law and constitutions of the state of new york and the united states to dutifully carry out his deci his responsibilities as a board member the board is about to make one of the most important decisions the board gets to make hiring a new superintendent this individual has to be fully knowledgeable about current school law and be willing to guide the board through tough legal matters even when the law

097may differ from their own personal opinion i hope the board will be mindful of this throughout their screening process to assure hiring a school leader who will always be looking out for all of our students best interests thank you thank you mr mash [Applause] the next person up is mark gennacchio thank you so much for your time as a resident parent of a child in east rockaway schools a product of use rockaway schools is rockaway high school class of 1999 and a person whose roots in this community goes back generations i was greatly dismayed to hear about the incident that occurred march 3rd at east rockaway sports night as well as the sussex and discourse in this community surrounding the event i love the superintendent's prompt measured an unequivocal response to the incident political propaganda

098whether it be signs posters flags etc does not belong at a school event especially if it hasn't been approved by a school's administration regardless of the views or beliefs the material represents in the aftermath of this incident i can only hope it serves as a teachable moment for our community about the appropriate time and place for personal expression and about the boundaries that should be baked into the public school experience as someone who many members of our school board may remember as an outspoken and often hard-headed student at east racquet high school i would have been horrified if a group photo i was involved with at a school function like sports night were used as political propaganda without my consent i also would have likely been afraid to speak up in the moment against the

099offending students for fear of bullying and physical retaliation that's not an indictment against the east rockaway student body or our community but just a simple statement of fact of what high school life is like for many given how much more heated and divisive our political discourse has gotten in recent years i think it's even more important that we continue to honor board of education policy 1511. given the amount of turmoil tragedy and pain we have all experienced over the past two years as this pandemic wanes and more restrictions are relaxed we should not be tolerant of the idea of using school events as an outlet to court division hostility and strife our community needs to put aside its ideological differences and celebrate these opportunities to come together and unite there are countless ways for our

100children to express themselves and their beliefs both in school and on their personal time whether that's by joining student organizations a sports team a performance group or volunteering after hours for a cause or institution they are passionate about on a closing note i just want to affirm that after graduating from east rockaway high school in 1999 i went on to leave this community for several years starting my family in brooklyn before being drawn back in 2019 to the place where i grew up and where my mother taught at center avenue school for 40 years not a day has gone by where i haven't remarked to my wife who is not a product of each rockaway about how much this community has grown and how much more exceptional the schools and their faculty and administration have

101become let us all continue that excellence in taking and maintaining a stand against behavior meant to be and inappropriately provocative and distracting to our children from the kinds of engagements and connections that have been so precious and rare in recent times thank you thank you next we have dina arnold hi thank you all for coming um i just have being you heard a lot from my brother but i just wanted to say what i felt asking the identities of my boys niece and nephew on a private page is a very cowardly act what right do you have putting them on a private group and asking their identity they weren't committing a crime they were standing side by side smiling holding flag what exactly were they looking to gain by taking their identity my children are

102just like anyone else's children they have dreams wants choices and opinions we as americans have these rights who are you to silence them to the community members that science that singled out my children niece and nephew shame on you you are not teaching equity you continue to stir the pot teach more hatred and disrespect i feel you don't have the best interest of your community if you want to be a hero step away from the keyboard and do something useful and helpful to the people that sat by and watched my children get bullied in this private group shame on you some of you didn't like it when the similar situation happened to your children why'd you allow it to happen to other people's children as for the letter the school sent out how dare you

103not get the facts all the facts in the investigation not once my children asked anything about the events that went on when they were getting beat down right in the middle of it all you weren't even there you should have watched the live feed the flag was visible for everyone to see the entire evening i went to the school here neither of the two gyms are that big if someone has a flag in a room everybody can see it if it wasn't an issue that night then why is it an issue the next day when the parents had something to say about it i myself was grateful for sports night the kids shared something they haven't seen in what two years they learned how to work together and enjoy each other they showed good sportsmanship

104they smiled and had a great time most of the students danced and cheered smiled and screamed was there a trump flag there yeah i'm but i'm sorry if that's all that you okay saw up is dineen salute good evening let's talk about policy i've been in this district for a long time 20 years and i have been reviewing policies for a very long time i'd like to know the specifics maybe not now about the political policy and does that deal with all the schools everything in the school was this flag the only policy that we want removed or the camilla harris flag in rheem avenue school does that count as a political agenda um everything we do in our district is political all the mandates handed down from this albany are political when we were

105told we could not have agenda specific mascot that was political there's also a policy i believe it's still on the books that parents are not allowed to submit pictures of students to the administration and from what we were told the administration do not know if this is true or not requested those pictures from the said group i'd like to know maybe not in this form was that the policy the day that was supposed to be honoring our police officers are wearing blue i want to know who's this decision that was not to do that was that a political policy it is all about dividing the community if there are 11 emails the day of to the board there was 11 emails obtaining to this i'm going to say at least one were from frank and

106dana so that leaves and maybe one for my sister as well so that leaves eight coming from community members probably upset about it the kids had no idea that this was gonna be divisive this is on the parents and maybe if parents all of us learn to keep our mouths shut and work together as a community we can come together instead of calling people racist psycho dumb bullies ignorant um and on and on and on and on we're all every single one of us are guilty of behaving irrationally but this has nothing to do with the children and i thank god they stand for something [Applause] next up is jonathan menezes hi everyone my name is jonathan menezes i have been a resident of east rockaway for 32 years and i graduated the class of

1072007. i've walked these hallways i've sat at those infamous red benches uh i was among greatness great names like uh mrs grace mrs gennacchio mr faulkner miss stender uh miss orzano mr bishop mr yosha mr cimarrelli um i was in mr volps's class many times obviously and i was actually in mrs o'hagan's english class many many years ago [Laughter] just a couple some some of my formative years happened within these walls as a resident and a parent of a child coming to school age i look at what happened during sports night and simply just cringe what where has a district gone since i left many years ago sports night and rock rivalry overall was one of my favorite times within this school it was a time where my classmates and i shared experiences we built

108stuff we built upon each other we came out of our shells and became people i cannot imagine or fathom how my experience would have been tarnished by someone using a political flag during this time the district the administration or those simply in charge that night should have stepped in with sensitivity around the subject and simply spoken to the student it appears there are multiple opportunities to do so judging by the multiple pictures everyone's talking about and even a video posted to the east rockaway high school instagram page where the student was shrouding the flag in the large gym this room has a couple people in it you'll hear varying opinions mine included on this topic you'll hear a few very loud voices who run divisive and toxic facebook pages within this community this situation as

109i'm sure you're all aware has evolved into who is getting the most likes on a comment and hurling insults at your neighbor this is not the spirit of rock rivalry it never was and should meet and should not be expected because i'm sorry it never was and should not be accepted as such we as parents administrators and community members need to ensure that students are given every opportunity and every outlet to express themselves but also make sure that we create a space for all especially be careful around divisive topics like politics plain and simple this all could have been avoided if the district did something whoever was in charge that night did something did anything the school failed these kids in our community thank you before i go just wanted to say um i did

110want to commend the superintendent for her response and letter to our community your leadership will be missed thank you thank you jonathan next up is kevin dennis good evening everyone i'm going to be speaking on behalf of a parent within the community this letter is not mine just want that to be well known so please bear with me uh this letter was originally intended and sent to mr shaffer but i want to share this with the board as well as the community as we know a political flag was draped over the shoulders of a student throughout rock rivalry sports night the same flag was then used in many group photos afterwards the community received a letter from ms ruiz regarding district policy and how this act of political grandstanding was in direct violation with our

111district policy thank you for the immediacy of the response in recognizing the seriousness of this matter in addition to our district policy this act was in violation of new york state's dignity for all students act dasa seeks to provide the state's public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination intimidation taunting harassment and bullying on school property a school bus and or school function grandstanding behavior with the political flag drawing the attention away from a community building event within the school to a divisive political figure was an attack excuse me was an act of intimidation obviously the decision was made to not address the child with his flag during sports night i can't imagine having to make that decision in the interest of keeping family safe i can understand

112why the decision was made to address the child after the evening had ended as we all know the climate and east rockaway communities route with political division and agitated with misinformation i'm thankful that you made a difficult decision to keep the focus on sports night and everyone safe many in the group photo of the 10th and 12th graders are not trump supporters they didn't know a banner would be raised after posing trump supporters in town are using this image to show that the quote unquote kids are fine with it many students in that photo are embarrassed but do not want to be excuse me but do not want to rile these trump supporters this is not right i look to you mr schaefer to lead the school through this difficult moment although a school member

113uh excuse me although a school board member expressed delight for this flag on social media in response to this incident surely the board of education knows the law and that all members must uphold the law thank you so very much for this we need to be better so let's do better thank you good evening and thank you those of you that are volunteering your time for the betterment of my community protecting my tax dollars i am somebody who wrote some of these emails because i sat watching the meeting at home on zoom or whatever you want to call it and was appalled at the division in this community it's sick to my stomach sitting in this room i'm getting sick to my stomach can we not combine on something the good of our children these

114are ukraine colors why don't we do something effective with that so we can all get together together instead of fighting the battles you know when we had the discussion over mass who's for mass who's against math and i wrote a letter i wonder what the next division's going to be didn't take me long one day one day and the next division became political there's no space for these divisions in our school system we have children that are following the example of the parents if we don't change something we're going to have a more serious problem than we have i love the idea of this media education because people i don't think realize what you do to people i'm a brave woman coming up here you know what i felt intimidated my legs are shaking because

115i am not with the norm of some family members that i have in this room i'm gonna state my fact because that's what i do see i'm concerned about the children the next generation the generation that's here i'm a product i graduated in the class of 1972. i stayed in this community i'm raising grandchildren in this community i have 10 grandchildren that are in the school or be coming into the school i care i care me caring is not enough something's got to be done so they care and then we'll all be good i don't have a prepared speech i know it's a three minute limit but i'm talking from my heart that something has to be done for the children of this community combining for the good of the community and the children of

116this world because we're a sick community right now so thank you [Applause] lugiano pozo um hello i'm speaking to you on be like um on behalf of being the dignity club president um the events that occurred on sports night was i can tell you with complete honesty and 100 certainty mostly everyone in that room was uncomfortable and as the youngest person in this room i can assure you you do not understand what it is to be like in east rockaway school district as a minority female in the school everyone's asking why was it an issue after the fact well i can tell you for certainty that most of the kids if not your kids um they're afraid and it's because i have been harassed by staff and their children and nothing was done about it

117that staffs um that staff's friends who are also staff have come up to me and told me that was you shouldn't have said that then why was i allowed to be called an illegal narco who should go back to my country east rockaway school has failed me and i can say that i'm glad to be graduating here in three months time that flag the reason why nobody was talking about it that day is because we're scared because half of this school because i see no representation in this crowd or on this board it's embarrassing honestly because my friends from other school districts have come up to me said lucy how is that possible like something like that is happening at your school and i just said well that's just the way it is because in

118kindergarten there was three minority students three there are maybe three kids three black kids in my grade and yes the middle school has become more diverse but the staff has not and their minds haven't changed in dignity club right now we're doing an event to go to advisories and talk about caribbean and afro-hair to spread awareness [Music] let it go let it go and that's because a t the advisor has witnessed in her class comments that are being made to kids of color and people of color and she is not a minority and she's aware of what's going on at school and i just want to say that i am disgusted that half the things go on in the school and the east rockaway school district has failed me and many others because i've been

119going here since kindergarten and nothing has changed during the 2016 elections that i think was the worst year of my life because half the grade half of my grades has said really hurtful things to me and it just needs to be knowledge at this point and i don't care if i hurt anyone in this in this room opinion because i honestly don't care for this school anymore thank you next up is jennifer barbier i'm so sorry i butchered your name every time like i said i had no intentions of speaking um i want to commend you though for this young lady for speaking because that takes a lot of courage to come up here um there has been an unreal amount of drama around this flag issue and like i said it doesn't affect me

120personally but as a member of the community i feel compelled to speak um it is divisive i understand that um but everyone keeps using the phrase grandstanding which by definition is that it's done to impress onlookers i can't say i believe that these children did it to impress other people i'm an educator myself and if there's a policy that it's not allowed it should have been addressed in the moment okay it wasn't but what i'm hearing from someone who's sitting here taking it all in from both sides is that this social media event needs to address the parents as well kids are guilty okay but they're kids we're adults we're setting the example and for parents and i read the post on facebook i saw it it was open to everyone for parents to go

121on a website on facebook and post pictures of children and ask questions and have these issues outright that's not setting the example so if we're questioning why children are doing certain things i think some of us parents need to take a look in the mirror because that event is going to be just as important to the parents because some of some parents in this community unfortunately don't know how to control themselves right it's not appropriate if we're not i don't i'm not a i'm not a detective so i'm not going to be posting pictures of anyone's children i'm going to tell you if my child's picture was posted asking for their name and who they were i would be up in arms so i think that part of that focus a main part of that

122focus needs to be on parents responsibility and and how they act on social media because really our kids learn from us so if our parents are doing it i don't know what to tell you so i hope that that's the main focus of that because it's actually quite disturbing that parents are doing those things as well thank you [Applause] okay that is what we have for our public comments section so moving on to the next item 14 board member comments called mr mcnally um okay a few things i don't want to forget it first um uh universal pre-k program miss kellogg miss jones you guys are doing awesome work it was so nice seeing that presentation tonight and all the wonderful work you're doing so thanks so much it's great um and congrats to the

123seniors on on their second um rock rivalry in a row congrats to everyone in rock rivalry it was so nice to see um normals and see everyone back and it was just great to see uh dr fisk congratulations on your doctor i know that's a lot of hard work very well deserved now when i ran for the school board the main reason that i did it was communication and um i wanted i just felt like i maybe i could help him in having the entire community represented not some of the community and not others but the entire community and um and you know what what's happening nationwide now and in our community shows that you know we need to come together we need to talk about it we don't all agree on everything and that's

124okay we don't have to agree but we need to come together and talk and some of you have heard me say this before if if there's anything we can do if there's anything i can do i did this because i want to represent the community so you can come knock on my door any time call me come to my house and we can discuss it up here tonight we can listen and we can give feedback later but i i sincerely mean this if anyone needs to talk come knock on my door that's why i'm here come and talk to me we can we can talk this out and and i'm hoping if someone else when someone else is up here i can do the same thing and i can go to your house and we

125can discuss it or on the phone or whatever but not everyone is always going to agree that's just the way it is but if we can talk about it if we can just talk and listen to each other maybe we can come to some common it's a difficult one tonight to comment on be very honest with you so i'm really going to keep it real brief because i need time to digest when i see a student come up and say that the school system has failed them i don't know what to say that means that i guess my life life that i've had for 41 years in education i've never had a student come back and say they failed we failed i need time to process i will process that but i will tell you

126one thing tonight is that when we listen to the community that's when the board is effective you don't hear us tonight making comments back because after this meeting i will make a motion to go into executive or uh session and we will speak as a board and we will speak about things that we have to do here in each rockaway i know one thing i don't waste my time i volunteer for the school board to give service back for 25 years that enjoyment it gave to me my children who attend here and i don't want any child leaving the school district with what i just heard tonight i'm actually going to reserve my my statement this evening as well which i usually never do um i agree with most of what was said i will

127say that it was amazing to see the children back at sports night at rock rivalry behaving like children having a good time um the one thing i heard from everybody was unity whether you agree or disagree forget about trump because he's not even the president right now what is important is our children's social emotional well-being and if we put the focus back on what our goals are for our kids in our district then i think we can find a common ground and come together no matter who you are and what you believe or you don't believe reach out to pete's point extend an olive branch you'd be very surprised when you speak to someone that you've never spoken to before the value they can add to your life so with all that being said i'm

128i'm most happy about our children being back to normal and again to pete's point reach out i'd be happy to speak with any one of you thank you i also agree um i ran for this board for every child in this district not just for mine not just for the ones that look like mine for every child in this district so i have comments written as well i think we do need to go to executive session because there's a lot of things that we said tonight that takes a little bit to digest um mrs cooney i'm not just saying it because i know i'm a little kid but we do we have to come together on something i mean rock rivalry and sports night was both great events i was lucky enough to attend both

129sports night minus this flag and again i was there and i did see it and it you know at the time i didn't really think much of it i saw it and you know whatever i'll reserve that but the best part of that night was when every class it's a competitive event and i played in it and you want to win but while the judges were inside every grade was dancing together they had underclass more out there dancing it was a great event for the kids to come together and that one or two with three an act of a couple of kids to bring a flag that they probably don't even know what it means it's just cool and it ruined it for everybody it's really it's a shame and it shows the division which

130is actually good for us because now it shows the division in the neighborhood that we really need to do something about and it's not just us it's everybody so and also this social media event i think it's very important for everyone to be there kids adults we have to do better so thank you i agree i mean you heard from me earlier and everybody what you had to say we were always such a close-knit community we need to go back to that and it starts with the adults we need to do better and we need to remember this is for the kids everything everything we do it's about our children so that being said um i'd like to make motion i'd like to make most of the boy would go into executive session so moved

131what is the grounds for going into executive session discussion of personnel issues that occurred tonight that i heard from the audience thank you okay um i'd like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting at full moved by mr mcnally second second second bye mr d mateo have a good night everybody