001[applause] Please stand and join us in the pledge before we begin our concert. >> Salute. >> Pledge. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. You may be seated. >> Good evening. My name is Mrs. Wallfall and I'm the principal here at the Clar H. Carlson School. Welcome to our annual holiday concert for our December board of education meeting. We have this concert every year with the new group of sixth graders from all six schools. They practice in their school with their music teacher, select group of sixth graders, and then they come together for one rehearsal. They came last week as a group practice uh in the auditorium downstairs in the gym
002put everything together to present to you a wonderful holiday concert with the various music selections. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Tillis who's going to introduce the chorus. >> Good evening everybody. I'm Andrew Tillis. I am the music coordinator and one of the music teachers here. Um, I'm very pleased to introduce the all district chorus. These students are some of our most dedicated students in Elmont. Dedicated music students. They worked really, really hard. Yeah, [applause] they worked really hard on this. And this is what professional musicians do. We practice. We have one rehearsal and we have a performance and they sound great. Um, so we will be doing three songs. The first song is going to be Jingle Bell Dash and Mr. Anthony Pino is going to be conducting and uh, Miss Vignon
003Vignona, sorry, is going to be on the piano. Uh the second song is going to be Angels in the Snow conducted by Danielle Dorsonville and accompanied by Aiden Timkco. And the third song is going to be Holidays Are for All of Us conducted by Miss Cheryl Turk and accompanied by Gintubukowskis. So thank you very much everyone for coming out to support music and to support all of our children. Um so happy holidays and enjoy the performance. >> [music] >> Dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh. Hey, for the [music] fields we go, laughing all the way. Bells are about to ring, [music] making spirits bright. What fun it is to ride and sing a slayighing song [music] tonight. As we are dash, jle bell, jle all the way. Oh, what fun it is
004to ride in a one-horse open sleigh. Hey, jelle j [music] all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride a [singing] one-horse open sleigh. Crashing through [music] the snow in a one-horse open sleigh. For the [singing] fields we love to go, we're laughing [music] on the way. The bells are about to ring [singing] a link to make our spirits bright. [music] What fun it is to ride and sing a [singing] slayighing song tonight. Dashing. The snow is falling, dashing. The trees are falling, [music] dashing. It's a flurry dashing. But don't you worry. Dashing. The bells are ringing, dashing. And we are singing, dashing, and tingling, [music and singing] dashing through the snow. Dashing, dashing, dashing, bouncing, dashing all the way. Oh, [music and singing] what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open
005sleigh. Hey, dashing, bells, jing, bells, jashing [music] all the way. Oh, [singing] what fun it is to ride a one-horse open sleigh. Oh, what fun it is to ride a onehorse open. [applause] >> [music] [music] >> I waited. So [singing] long for a snow fall. [music] Each morning there's a frosty sheet. [music] But as each day goes by, there's nothing but blue [singing] sky and still [music] no snow to be seen. Oh yes, it's [singing] a little bit [music] chilly. Chilly. The wind really knows how to blow. I won't blow the thing I've waited [music and singing] all season to do requires a little bit [music and singing] of snow. I dream of waking angels in the snow. [singing and music] Angels in the snow. Angels in the snow. Angels [music and singing] in the
006snow. First I lay down on [music] the frozen ground and feel the snow below. [singing] Feel the snow below. [music] I dream of making angels. [singing] Angels in the snow. [music] [music] I know that every [singing] single snowflake snowflake [music] is perfect and white and rare. White and rare [singing] design [music] so delicate and fine. There's nothing on earth that can compare. [music] I dream of making angels in the star. [music] Angels in the [singing] star. Angels in the [music] snow. Angels [singing] in the snow. First I lie down on [music and singing] the frozen ground and feel the snow below. [music] Through the snow below. [singing] I dream of [music] making angels. Angels in [singing] the snow. Angels in the snow. in the snow. Angels [music and singing] in the snow. Angels in the
007snow. [applause] Sky >> [music] >> holidays [music and singing] are for all of us. No matter who we are, holidays are for all of us. Whether we be near [music] or far, let's spread the cheer and love we have [music] to all the world around and celebrate the peace and joy [music and singing] that all of us have found. Families [singing] come [music] together from the east and from the west. We celebrate the love [music and singing] and peace to all the rest. The egg [music and singing] of Christmas and New Year. All of us [music and singing] need time for peace and be with those hel. Holidays [music and singing] are for all of us. No matter who we are, holidays [music and singing] are for all of us. Whether we be near or
008far, let's spread the cheer and love [music and singing] we have to all the world around. and celebrate [singing] the peace and joy [music] that all of us have found. Children as [singing] well to see what each day you [music] can hear. [music] And we all share holidays now. much joy we have to [music] make the season last. Holidays [music] are for all of us. [singing] No matter who we are, holidays [music] are for all of us. Whether we be near or far, let's spread the cheer and love we [music] have to all the world around. And [singing] celebrate the peace and joy [music] that all of us have found. Holidays [music and singing] are for all of us. No matter who we are, holidays [music and singing] are for all of us. Whether we
009be near or far, let's spread the cheer and love we had [music] to all the world [singing] around and cate the peace and joy that [music and singing] all of us have found. Holidays [music] are for all of [singing] us, no matter who we are. Holidays are for all of us, no matter [music] who we [music and singing] are. >> [music] [applause and cheering] >> You know, [applause] right there. [cheering] Not only are they the all district chorus, but they are also the class of 2026. [cheering] >> A special thank you to our music teachers in our department. They came together so nicely to put this together along with our school administration, our teachers, our board of education, and our district staff. And a special thank you to our families that take the time to
010bring them to the rehearsals, listen to the songs at home, encourage them to practice. I know each of the buildings have concerts this week and next week for the holiday. So, you got one today and I'm sure you have one coming up shortly with the band, orchestra, and chorus at your home school. We're going to get ready to transition from our students to our board of education meeting. Parents, I'm going to tell you where you can find your children. We ask that you please wait, stay seated until we can get them off of the stage and then I'll show you tell you which room you can go to. So, as the children begin to exit, let's give them one more round of applause, please. [applause] [applause] >> And we appreciate you waiting so the hallway
011does not get crowded and the students can get to their rooms. [applause] >> Great job, boys and girls. Thank you. You sound marvelous. everyone and welcome to our regular board of education meeting for December. Uh district clerk, please please let the record reflect that all board members are present except Mr. Khan. May I have a motion to approve the meeting the approve the minutes of the regular meeting of November 18th? >> Move. >> Thank you, Miss Battle. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Dr. Massie. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. Thank you. Do we have any correspondence? All correspondence has been given to the board for consideration. Thank you. All right. So, good evening and again welcome to the December board meeting. I want to open tonight's meeting with a word of gratitude.
012Last week at the Emanuel Baptist Church, the sermon was h on to have an attitude of gratitude. So, I want to offer my sincere gratitude to all of our incredible staff with us. Thank you all for everything that you do for our students every day and their families. Your hard work does make a difference and we see it. Tonight, we'll be sharing student achievement results and everyone should take pride in those accomplishments because they belong to all of us. Whether you're work you work in a classroom, an office, a bus, a cafeteria, or anywhere between our eight properties, you've contributed to our students. So, my message tonight is simply thank you for the role you play in our district success and helping our children learn. As we move into the holidays, I hope you all
013enjoy the time with your families and remember your EF EUSD family appreciates you always. Thank you again and let's get started. Um, may I have the report of the Swanica Central High School District? >> Good evening everyone. So, as we enter the heart of the holiday season, we extend warm greetings to the vibrant Elmont community. Our scholars and staff have been immersed in learning, leadership, and creativity this fall, and they're proud to share just a few highlights from across across our high schools. Elmont High School continues to be a hub of academic and creative excellence. Three of our fall sports teams earned Nassau County honors with standout athletes recognized in soccer and in volleyball. Six out of our eight fall teams were designated as scholar athlete teams. A powerful testament to our student athletes dedication
014on and off the field. In the arts, our choir will perform at both the Belmont Village and the Elmont treelighting, bringing music and holiday cheer to the community. The school's cultural awareness continues to shine with model UN SA SAD and and AP African-American studies students attending a Quanza celebration at Farmingdale State College. Upcoming winter concerts and art art ex exhibitions are sure to showcase the talents of our junior and senior high school students. At Swanica High School, students have demonstrated academic strength and civil civic engagement. Business teacher Miss Feta was awarded the gold star certificate from WISE, reflecting a 92% pass rate across seven financial literacy classes. Students have excelled in visual arts, completed college level intensives, and taken home awards in athletics and essay contests. Community service remained a focus with successful Thanksgiving food
015drives, holiday card making for veterans, and festive decorating at the plush uh home society. The school also celebrated cultural heritage through a multilingual music and dance event reinforcing the power of student voice and diversity. Floral Park High School continues to foster student achievement through the arts, academics, and service. Our counseling center hosted college admissions events and a student centered mini mic podcast on gratitude. The PAL's Thanksgiving feast welcomed alumni and families, while the Leo's Club led both a blood drive and popup thrift shop to promote sustainability. The drama club's production of the Brothers of Grim Spectacular and the Fuettes first showcase added to the season's festive energy. The school's virtual enterprise team earned gold for their excellence and entrepreneurship. We are grateful for our continued partnership with the Elmont Union Free School District and look
016forward to a new year of collaboration, achievement, and shared success. Wishing you and your families a safe, joyful, and restorative holiday season. >> Thank you, Dr. Massie. I'll now turn the meeting over to Mrs. Small for the report of the superintendent. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. I want to start this evening by thanking our music staff and our administrators for their work in preparing our students for tonight's uh performance. Again, I want to thank them for their hard work. Um what you see here today is a testament to the hard work and the dedication of our teachers, staff, and administrators in our school district. And so big thank you. I also want to wish each and every one of you a very happy holiday season. Um this will
017be the last meeting before the holiday season. So I want to wish you and your families a very happy and healthy holiday season. Today uh about uh 24 of our students had a treat where they were treated to shop with a cop at the Greenacres Mall. um they got to go to the mall to uh buy things from their holiday wish list uh for their family members and for themselves. I want to thank um our staff members who accompanied our students. And I also want to thank members of the Nassau County Police Department and their community affairs department for their continued partnership and support in the work they do with our students throughout the course of the school year and for um helping us to engage in this worthwhile community event at uh the Green
018Acres um mall. Um this um um today as Mr. Capers um said earlier, we're going to have our data presentation for our from our director of curriculum and instruction. And as you see from the wonderful performance of our students, great things are happening in our building each and every day. And behind every data point, I want to remind you that there's a student behind each data point. And we are proud of the work that our teachers have done. We're proud of the work of our administrators. We are proud of the work of our staff members and most importantly we are proud of the work of our students and proud of the work of our parents as partners in the education of our students. And so without further delay, it's my pleasure to present to you
019our director of curriculum and instruction, Miss Pam Stides. [applause] Good evening. [clears throat] >> We're good. Yeah. Thank you. So, good evening. um our Elmont Board of Education, Superintendent Mr. Small, Elmont staff members and community members. I'm gonna It's a little high. Um so this evening we're going to review our district's data. We're also going to uh discuss our performance goals and also our action plan. So this is our agenda for the evening. We're going to look at the uh data points of our Elmont subgroups by grade level, our historical absenteeism rates, our uh test refusals or optouts, the New York State test results for ELA, math and science, as well as our test results compared to New York State and also the region which is Nassau County. We're also going to look at our
020New York State English as a second language achievement test which is also known as NISETLAT. We're then going to look at the goals in response to that data. Our district level, building level, and grade level goals. And then we're going to look at our action plan, setting those goals into action. Our district professional development plan, our data-driven programs and instruction, and also how we monitor progress. So the first set of de data that we're looking at is our Elmont subgroups by grade levels. So uh we're looking at three different subgroups. First of all, the English uh language learners. These are students that are identified by the New York State identification test for English language learners, which is the nicotel. When when students first enter our school district, this is the um and they're coming either
021from another country or they're speaking another language or they're identified on our home language questionnaire or by a teacher speaking another language. The ENL staff will give them the nicotel and it determines if they are an ENL student. The second group is our economically disadvantaged students. This is determined by the submission of the household income eligibility form which is submitted on a district level or it's by direct certification through federal uh programs such as the supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP or Medicaid eligibility. And the third group that we're looking at is special education students. And those are students that have an IEP or an individual education program plan. So if you look across the bottom, you see our key uh it's all of the grade levels from kindergarten through 6th grade and the total
022number in that grade level. Please be reminded that this is data from the 2425 school year. Um so in grade K for example, there's 399 students with it which is just about 400 students. In grades one, two, three, and four, we have just about 450 students. In grade five, there's about 500 students. And in grade six, 450 students. So, if we look at our first um uh subgroup of English language learners, you see that across the grade levels, it's just about from 40 students up to about 90 students. And the peak, the highest is in second grade and then it declines into sixth. and that shows that we're exiting our students from the ENL program. You can see our biggest uh subgroup is the economically disadvantaged ranging from about 230 students to about 310 students
023per grade level. And the last uh subgroup is special education. We have about 60 students to about 85 students per grade level. So, next we're looking at our historical absenteeism rates. Um, just to let you know, according to New York State, uh, the, uh, chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of school days in an academic year. And that includes all absenteeism. So, excused, unexcused, and suspensions, it's 10% or more days. We have just about 180 days per school year. So, that's 18 days or more is considered chronic absenteeism. So you'll see on the bottom row is that more than 10% or that chronic absenteeism, so 18 days or more. The top row is 5% or less, which is 9 days or less. If we take a look all the way to the
024right at our 2425 school year, you can see that our chronic absenteeism rate is at 22%. And then our less than 5% absenteeism is at 46%. Which is what we want. We want our our students uh in school in that less than 5% most of our students there. We encourage our students to come to school every single day. Our building administrators and our SEAL team, the social workers, the school counselors are work hard to motivate students and to support families to make sure that they're in school. When they're in school, they're learning, they're making progress and reaching their best potential. So, that's important to us, this absenteeism rate. What our district goal is is to decrease our chronic absenteeism rate by two to 7% which would put us below 20% somewhere between 15 and 20%.
025Our next data is the refusals or what you might know as the opt out rates. Um, so if you look here, um, in 2025, we had an opt- out rate in ELA of 41% and an opt- out rate in math of 37%. As a district, we do encourage our students to take the test. We encourage parents to allow their children to take the test. We tell our students, you know, you're you're ready, your brains are ready, take the test, and do your very best. So, now we're going to get into our New York State um data and we're going to be talking about proficiency levels. On all of the next slides, you're going to see proficiency. And when we talk about proficiency, we mean all of the students that received a level three or a
026level four combined on the state tests and that's your proficiency level. So, you can see that this is historical uh data. uh 2022 23 school year is in blue, 2324 school year is in orange and 2425 school year is in green. So if you look for example in third grade you can see that the students scores uh proficiency levels in grade three have gone from 55% to 61% to 64%. So an insight historically all grade grade levels have made overall gains in their ELA proficiency levels. Another piece of insight is that grades three, four, and five are at proficiency levels at approximately 65%. As a district, our performance goal is that we would like our our students to increase the percent of their them achieving proficiency in all grade levels by 3 to 5%. Our
027next set of data here is we're looking at those subgroups that we looked at before. We're looking at how they performed on the New York State ELA. Um, you can see across the bottom all of the students in the grade level are in blue, our English language learners are in purple, special education in green, and economically disadvantaged in orange. So, one of the things that really um stands out in this is a very uh positive insight is that that economically disadvantaged uh subgroup is performing very close to our grade level proficiency levels. And that's a good thing when you think back to that slide. That's one of our biggest subgroups and they're performing very well. That's a good a good thing with the data. Uh as a performance goal, we're going to continue to support
028that subgroup, all of our subgroups. And also one of the subgroups we can target is the commanding level ELLL. Those are the students that we want to see um improving performance and moving closer to district proficiency levels. And our last piece of data with our New York State ELA exam is um how we compare to New York State proficiency levels as well as region and the region is Nassau County. So in this one again we'll take third grade as an example. Uh our school district performed at 64% the state performed at 54% and the region performed at 65%. You can see that we're within one uh percentage point of the region for that one. in third grade. So our insight all grade levels performed above New York State proficiency level. Um all grades performed at
029or within 4% of region proficiency level. And again if we look at our goal of increasing proficiency level by 3 to 5%. If we do that then our district level can be at or above our region level which is a great goal for us. We're going to look at all of the same data points now for New York State math. Um so once again you'll see historically um grades four and grade six are performing consistently at approximately 70% uh proficiency. Historically grades three and five are performing at approximately 65% proficiency. And again, our performance goal is to increase the percent of students achieving prof proficiency in all grade levels by 3 to 5%. We see very similar data here with our subgroups to the ELA data. Our economically disadvantaged students are performing very close to
030district levels. Um, we want to support all of our subgroups, make sure that the that economically uh disadvantaged group continues to perform well and also again to target our commanding level ELELLL students to improve their performance and reach district levels as well. And last with New York State, it's compared again to uh I'm sorry, New York State math test compared to New York State and the region. Um our insight all grade levels once again are performing above New York State proficiency level. Grades four and grade six are approaching regional proficiency levels and our performance goal is to increase our proficiency by 3 to 5%. So now we're going to take a look at our grade five New York State uh science test. Uh this is a very new test. They've only administered it for two
031years. Uh prior to this it was grade four and grade eight. Now it's grade five and grade eight. So for our fifth grade text test actually there's um some new parts to it as well. In there's four sciencemandated statem mandated science labs that need to be completed. Two in fourth grade and two in fifth grade. And then in fifth grade in the spring they take a computer-based multiplechoice test. And this is showing the proficiency levels for that um state test that's given in the spring. So you can see that in the 2023 24 school year, our fifth graders performed at 44%. [music] Their proficiency level went up to 51% in the 24-25 school year. You can also see that we are above state levels in both years and that we are approaching the regional level
032as well. Um, what are we would like again for our New York State grade 5 test is to increase proficiency 3 to 5%. And finally, our last piece of data here is that we're looking at at our New York State English as a second language achievement test or NISET slat that our ENL students take every year uh in the spring. Um, just as a little note, those performance levels descriptors that you see across the top, entering, emerging, transitioning, expanding, and commanding, those identify the range of knowledge and skills that the students should demonstrate at that specific level. They help our ENL students and also our classroom teachers know what skills um and to work on with the students at that level to increase their English language proficiency in reading, writing, listening and speaking. So if
033we take a look all the way to the right side of the of the chart, you can see that we had 420 total students last year who took the nicit slat exam and 85 of them uh exited out of the program. We had the privilege at our last board of education meeting to honor those students uh and their families were there as well. We also acknowledged the ENL teachers and the um and the staff members all the staff members of that great accomplishment. So what you're seeing there is 85 exited the program. That's 20% of our student students exited and 50% of the students moved up in levels. Um, so what we would like to see as our performance goal, increase the percent of ELLL students exiting the program by 3 to 5% so that
034we're at about 23 to 25% exiting. And we would like to see uh to increase the percent of ELLL students moving up in levels so that we're just at around 53 to 55% of um moving up in levels. So we looked at all of our uh district data. Now, we're going to get into um the goals that we're setting in response to that data. So, all in on all of the previous slides, you saw some of our performance goals. They're compiled on this de um uh slide here for our district level goals. Again, we want to increase New York State uh um in ELA, math, and science by 3 to 5%. We would um we would like to um increase our percentage of students exiting and moving up in levels in our ENL program. We
035would like our district uh chronic absenteeism rate to decrease by 2 to 7% to put it in that 15 to 20% um range. And the last goal that you see up there is not necessarily a quantifiable goal. It's more of a vision. Um Mr. Small has set a vision for our district. Uh he has said this many times. It's what six schools, one district, one mission. And this is really something as district staff members, building staff members, and all of our teaching staff too that we work together to provide equitable programming and uphold high expectations for all buildings across the district. And that's very important. So just as we are looking at our district data and uh setting district goals, we do the same thing at at the building level and at the grade level.
036So here you can see that our district administration team uh held data review meetings with each of the building principles. And at those data review meetings, the principles presented their own building level data by grade. They established smart goals for each grade level. and they presented action plans for the school year. So, just to let you know, smart goals are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. So, those are those smart goals, and they put them into action plans. So, I put one example here on the bottom. Um, it's from a a larger action plan document. The document has all of the schools data and the grade levels data. It has the sparkles and it also has the action plan. So, here is an example of a smart goal uh on one of
037the grade levels. Um it says according to the New York State ELA assessment administered in April 2026, this is a goal. Um 65% of third grade students will be able to determine a theme or central idea and explain how it's supported by key details. So, you can see that that's a very specific SMART goal and it also involves a standard. It's a standardbased goal. So, we're going to talk a little bit about how the grade levels came to those standardbased goals. So, each grade level team uh works together to set very um their standardbased goals with further item analysis. They use reports such as the gap report and the WASA report. So, just to let you know a little bit about those two reports. The gap report shows the gap on for each question and
038each related standard. It shows the gap between the district or the school uh between the district or school and between the region. So for example on one of the questions you can see about um finding determining the meaning of unknown words. Our district performed at 9% above the region. At a question related to theme or central message, we performed below the region. So that's where that that smart goal for third grade came from from this gap report. We can even do further item analysis where we look at the WASA report. That's the wrong answer summary analysis. So again for each question and standard you can see it tells the report tells what the correct answer is. The correct answer is uh C or three. and our our students, 35% of our students chose C, but
03953% of them chose answer number one, A. And so that's a really important place again for our teachers to look at. They would print out the state test. They would look very carefully at that question, at that passage, at the answer choice, and to see where the misconceptions come in and to plan their instruction very carefully to address those misconceptions. So these are two reports that we use to do even further data analysis and to really target those standard specific goals. So we talked about our data, we set our goals in response to that data. Now it's what are we how are we going to set those goals into action? What are we going to do to to really uh you know work on on set on achieving those goals? So, one important part of
040our action plan is our district level professional development plan. Professional development is so important because it not only is training our teachers, but it's also giving them the time to work together as a team to look at data to look at what standards they need to uh address to uh plan very intentional instruction and look at how they're going to uh monitor uh progress. So, that's a very important time. We used our last superintendence conference day to do that actually across grade levels and we did that in three through six. We actually printed out the gap report, the WA was report and the state tests and we did that work with our three through six teachers across the district. Uh we also have weekly uh professional development and trainings every Wednesday and they're facilitated either
041by our building level administrators or instructional uh coaches. We have six instructional coaches who are work across every building of the of the district. They provide workshops. They model lessons. They coach teachers. They are very very valuable members of our professional development team. Uh the building administrators hold grade level meetings and individual teacher meetings. So just as we do this work on a district level, building level, grade level, we even do this work on an individual teacher level to look at where we have to um really look at our our instruction and for any teacher that might need support in a certain area. We provide mentors and intervisitations. And also another part of our professional development is reaching out to our parents with parent workshops and family events offering guidance on how to best support
042learning at home. So another part of the action plan is of course our instruction, our data-driven program and our instructions. So our teachers are trained to plan and to implement um whole class mini lessons that are again they are standardsbased and have a very clear objective. Research shows that very clear direct instruction has the most impact on student achievement. So that's an important part of our language arts programs, those whole class lessons. Once the whole class lesson is complete, the teacher will then divide the the class up into small groups for small group instruction where in both reading and math and writing and they provide targeted extension for kids that can be extended and pushed or reinforcement for students that might need that um that uh help and support. Um, also our language arts program
043formalizes the use of instructional supports such as anchor charts and writing rubrics. You can see some examples up here of some anchor charts. Anchor charts are wonderful for lessons because they document the teaching point that the lesson uh during that whole class lesson and they also act at a as a great reference for students when they're sitting and working independently. Our upper grades are embedding daily New York State test preparation. uh throughout from the beginning of the year, they'll do one question during due now. And this is an important time for our kids because it's getting them used to the passages, the uh wording of the questions, the exposure to the academic vocabulary, so they embed it throughout the school year from the beginning towards testing time. As a school district, we conduct AM and
044PM tutorial sessions. And also too, we have summer curriculum writing projects. Uh this past summer, some of the programs that were focused on by the team were writing benchmark assessments, math review packets, and a scope and sequence for our new science and social studies program. And finally, we look at our data. We set our goals. We plan very intentional instruction. And it's so important then to look at how are we going to monitor the progress of our students, right? We want to make sure that they're making the gains that we want to see. So, how do we do that? We use ver uh different data points um such as reading passages, writing benchmarks, our go math math chapter tests, uh foundations assessments, core phonics survey, FMP running records, all sorts of uh throughout the school
045year at different times, different data points that we collect and we use. Um we also use digital platforms such as datamate which uh ELA benchmarks are given on that as computer-based tests as well as our go math chapter tests are given computer-based in the upper grade levels. We have program where it's a place where students have a skill-based program where it gives them practice maybe during a literacy center they might use the program and the program gives them skills to practice on their level and just above their level to really promote growth. We have the elevation platform which is used by our ENL uh teachers to help track the progress of our ELELLL uh students and also typing.com. Our uh upper grade our two through fifth grade second grade through fifth grade uh classes have
046once a week uh typing program uh instruction and practice so that they can work on their keyboarding skills. So that's how we monitor progress. It's how the cycle of data-driven instruction is completed once again and starts again with the data. So that is our for the evening. You can go to the next slide, Mr. Dart. Thank you. Um so our Elmont district goal is to impact achievement for all of our students as six schools, one district with one mission. Thank you so much to our board of education, to our community members for your attention this evening and for your consistent support. Have a very good evening. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you, Mrs. Titus, for that great presentation. And again, thank you to our teachers, our administrators, for each and every one of you for
047your consistent support of our students. Thank you to the parents in the room for your support of our students as well. And a big thank you to our students who show up and do their personal best each and every day. We're now going to move into um the action portion of our agenda. Yes, sir. >> Question. >> Do you have a question? Oh, go ahead. >> I just had uh I just limited to one question. Uh what changes contributed positively to the increase in our students achievement? >> Yeah. >> You go on the mic. Thanks. >> I think that there's there's many many things that our district does. Um first of all it's that we are and I have to give big credit to our instructional coaches because they help with this. The teachers are
048really trained to imple to plan very carefully and to implement instruction that's very standardbased and also that clear explicit instruction is so important. So just knowing how to that that it has to be standardbased and using all of the the data that you saw um is very important. Um, and the other thing is tracking progress, right? Making sure that our kids are making the progress that we want to see and that if they're making that progress, then we re raise our goals a little higher. And if they're not making that progress, then we need to shift and and change what we're doing, right? Make those make those adjustments to make sure that we're reaching every child where they are and to help them make that progress. >> Thank you. All right. So I guess I'm
049going to jump in really quickly. I just want to thank um I truly want to thank Mr. Small and the team for this very thorough and clear presentation just around data. It is clear that there is fantastic work that is happening in the district. Um we are continuously just outperforming uh New York State as we saw as well as local schools and districts. Um so shout out really to the team um as we continue to uh celebrate the progress and look at the data. Truly appreciate the uh goals that we've outlined for um just overall grade proficiency and really want to have a keen eye on those subgroups specifically our scholars with disabilities um and just you know take a second look at at possibly um outlining goals to support um those subgroups that subgroup
050in particular as well. But I'm confident with this presentation uh that it will get done and just really keep up the fantastic work. Thank you. [applause] >> We'll have it at public com at at the public comment. Yes, >> it's part of public comment. There'll be questions at public comments. >> Okay. Keep going. >> Okay. We're going to move into the action portion of our meeting. I seek a motion to approve personnel agenda items 5.1 through 5.2. >> May I have a motion to approve personnel items 5.1 through 5.2? >> Move. >> Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Second. Who's the second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Ramos. All in favor? >> I >> Motion carries. >> Very good. I think um in that agenda item, we have appointed an assistant principal to Gotham Avenue School.
051I think Mrs. Erdman is in the building. Could you please stand? [applause] Congratulations. >> Welcome to the family. I seek a motion to approve support services agenda item 7.1. >> May I have a motion to approve support services agenda? We didn't curriculum [clears throat] 6.1. >> Oh, there's nothing in curriculum. No. >> Okay. I'm sorry. May I have a motion to approve support services item 7.1? >> Thank you, Miss Dr. Massie. >> Second. >> Uh, thank you, Miss Douglas. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. Thank you. >> I seek a motion to approve business agenda items 8.1 through 8.5. >> May I have a motion to approve business agenda items 8.1 through 8.5? >> Thank you, Miss Battle. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Ramos. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion
052carries. >> Thank you, Madam President. That ends the superintendent report. >> Thank you. Do we have any committee committee reports orformational items >> regarding committee reports? >> Yes. >> Just would like to say that the policy committee had met for the uh first time December 2nd. Uh there's a couple of policies that we're going to be looking at. The next time we're going to meet is February. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Ramos. And thank you to the policy committee members. Does anyone have any old business? Any new business? Is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak? I ask that you limit your comments to three minutes and please be mindful of our chain of command for communication. Whether it's praise or problem, your [clears throat] first resort should be to contact
053the building principal. And if you are unsuccessful, which I doubt that you will be, you should go next to our superintendent. Anyone looking to speak? And again, please limit your comments to the first three minutes. I mean, two, three minutes. >> Good evening, Chief. >> Good evening, Miss Craig. >> Um, so first of all, I want to make a quick um reference because I received a letter about going over time the last time and I want to state for the record, I did not go over time because my time was interrupted by the attorney. So I think that you should be fair to community members and make sure that if we're interrupted, there should be a pause. The total time I spoke was 3 minutes. So the letter that I received was not justified. Secondly,
054in terms of this presentation, I feel like honestly we're burying information. I know everyone wants to look good, but at the building level, we definitely got breakdowns that showed that at least I could speak for my school, Dutch Broadway, that we some that third grade at least, cuz that's the grade my daughter was in, performed below level of the rest of the district. So, when you present information to make everything look glorious, that's, you know, it's it's it's deceptive. So I'm asking if we can get uh building level presentation the same way so that we know Stewart Manor Covert is different than Dutch and Gotham. All right. And I think that we need to be fair about where our children are. The other thing I wanted to ask about is why we have to keep
055begging for certain feedback. Last year, I brought up the fact that we don't get feedback in the schools about the um benchmarks, running records, things like that. And yet, we're in another school year and there's no change where we're getting the students are being tested, assessed in English language arts. The parents don't get that information. I hear many comments, parents as equal partners, this and that. In practice, it's not happening. So, I don't know how else to ask, flip, whatever for us to be able to get in real time the performance of our students when they're being assessed in ELA and math especially. Um, I think those were my main things. The presentation threw me off a little bit. Um, I think I I'm going to end it there. Oh, and the other thing I
056wanted to mention really quickly was about um uh the reading program. I'm asking it. If you don't like me, it's okay, but the messenger has nothing to do with it. We should not have had to chase you down for a reading program in 2025. You see, regionally, we're behind with all the pretty numbers. We're still behind the rest of the region. And so we deserve to have the same types of resources and to not have to keep fighting for it. >> Thank you, Miss Kirk. Is there anyone else? >> Hello. >> State your name for the record, sir. >> Yes. Um, my name is David Soy. Um, I'm I have a question about the financial literacy piece as far as in the district. Um just wondering what the logistics looks like a bit more um
057clarity on that. [clears throat] And it also sorry I had a little cold um the the mentorship piece. What does that look like in the district as far as uh with uh male initiatives as far as um mentorship? So that those are my two questions. >> Thank you. No. >> Um, I will be in touch with you, sir. >> Yep. >> Thank you, >> Mrs. Please see the district clerk and give her your contact information and feel better, sir. >> Okay. All right. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Good evening everyone. >> Good evening, Miss Hall. Well, my name is Claudine Hall and I am a lifelong resident of the Elmont community, a proud resident of the Elmont community. And tonight is even extra special because I stand in the
058building where it all began for me. I walked across this very stage in 1978 as a sixth grade graduate. So, I stand here this evening because it is the holiday season and I try to make as many meetings as I possibly can and I've noticed within the last couple of meetings that we've been leaving out of here on a negative note and as you stated in the beginning uh Miss Capers Madame President we are so grateful for so many different things and as most of you know I did have a heart attack in February and I'm just grateful to be alive. But I'm grateful for the Elmont Union Free School District because as I said, I attended Clar H. Carlson and I had a magnificent principal and I was showing them the principal and the
059assistant principal's offices when I was in here. And I'm I'm rambling right now because I'm trying to get my positive thoughts on this district and you guys are doing a marvelous and I mean marvelous job. It takes a lot. You sacrifice being away from your families to come and do the hard work for this district and I applaud each and every one of you. And as far as the building principles, and I know all of them are not here this evening, I applaud you because after seeing this report this evening and to see how well we are doing as a district, I am proud. I am super proud to be a resident and an alumni of the Elmont Union Free School District. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all of you. Thank you for what
060you're doing for this district. I'm very sorry for those who are not satisfied. But the majority of the Elmont community as a community leader, as a proud member of my church, I hear the parents. I see the results. You won. You guys are doing a wonderful, wonderful job. And please, please don't stop what you're doing. Continue to love on our scholars. Continue to protect them. continue to educate them so they can be positive role models when they graduate Carlson and go on to Swanica or Elma or wherever they go and then off to college. Continue. No, don't hear negativity. Stay focused. Reach your goal which is this the betterment of our children. Listen, have a wonderful and a blessed new year. And let's leave out of here this evening on a positive note. Three minutes,
061I'm sorry. On a positive note, God bless all of you. Good night. >> Good night, [applause] >> Miss Hall. [cheering] Miss Hall, uh, you remind me of something. I appreciate it. If I may just, uh, is it all right for me to speak, Tiffany? >> Sure. Uh this evening I attended a Zoom meeting about behavioral management and what I saw in that Zoom meeting was uh amazing as far as being able to reach out to parents with special needs uh kids and give them the steps like everything is very detailed. I'll just leave it at that and you know we appreciate that you know thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Ramos. All right. Our next regularly regular meeting of the board of education will be Tuesday, January 13th at 8:00 p.m. at our Elmont Road
062location. May I have a motion to adjourn our public meeting? Move. >> Thank you, Miss Battle. Second. Thank you, Miss Douglas. All in favor? I. >> Motion carries. Happy holidays, everyone.