001Are you ready? >> Everyone here? >> Stephanie. We're missing Stephanie. [Music] >> Evening everyone and welcome to our August board meeting. Um before we begin, we'd like to stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance >> 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. [Music] All right, let me show you something. So, we're doing a true consent agenda. So, we're doing personnel all in one, curriculum all in one, student support in one. So, you have four. All right. Uh, let the record reflect that all board members are present. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the reorganization meeting of July 1st, the regular meeting of July 1st, and the special
002meeting of July 15th? Move. >> Thank you, Miss Battle. Second. >> Who was that? I'm sorry. Uh, thank you, Miss Douglas. All in favor? Motion carries. Do we have any correspondence? Where another one? Yes. Correspondence was given to the board for consideration. >> Thank you. >> The Elmont Union Free School District Board of Education mourns the passing of Mr. Albert Lloyd Harper Jr. Mr. Harper served as our superintendent for 15 years. Prior to his dedicated service to the Elmont Union Free School District, he also served 10 years at Elmont Memorial High School as a teacher, dean, assistant principal, and then a principal. If you were to ask anyone about Mr. Harper, you will undoubtedly hear a story of his guidance, support, and his nurturing spirit. He served with strength, consistency, and a clear love for
003our community. His impact on generations of students and staff will never be forgotten. May his family be surrounded by comforted by God's love and peace. So, please join me in a moment of silence for Mr. Albert Lloyd Harper Jr. [Music] Thank you. >> Regarding the letter of correspondence, if I may, >> is it can we do that on agenda item? I mean on on public comment. >> All right. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Uh there any audience members who would like to speak on agenda items? And remember, agenda items only. All right, I'll turn the meeting over to Mrs. Small for the report of the superintendent. [Music] >> Thank you, Madame President. Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for being here. Uh we're so glad to have so many members um joining us um
004for tonight's meeting. In a few weeks, uh we will be welcoming our students and teachers back to school. it um and it's surprising how quickly this summer is coming to an end. I wanted to take this opportunity tonight um to advise the board and update the board and our community on a few important items that um we wanted to bring to the board's attention and the community. First, I'm going to invite our construction manager, um Mr. Frank Marino, and our architect, Mr. Jason Smith who will give the board an overview of progress of work that has been done in our buildings and is still continuing. Uh Mr. Marino and I had the pleasure or the responsibility today of visiting a few of our buildings. Um I'm having a little mini heart attack because um he
005has assured me that um the buildings will be up and ready for September. And so he will take the opportunity to update the board on the progress of the work that is being done. After Mr. Marino, we will hear from uh Mr. Fernando Di Barlo who will just give the board an overview of the uh district-wide safety plan that will be adopted tonight by the board this evening by the board. Just so the board has some information um prior to acting on on the plan. And the board is also um being asked tonight to adopt a phone policy which is required by New York state law. The law was passed in May of this year and we were required to have that policy adopted by August. Um we have not yet engaged in um a
006consultation process with our stakeholders. We will do so and any uh changes that are needed will be made and brought back to the board. But in in essence, what we are doing with this policy is maintaining what we've always done in our buildings in the sense that our children will be required to keep their cell phones in their backpacks um during the school day. Um and we are um ensuring that if parents uh or students need to communicate with each other during the school day, they will do so through the main office. And we will also track whether or not students are having any disciplinary consequences as a result of the cell phone. And so the board will be asked to make um that approval tonight and then we will engage with our community, our
007parents, our teachers, our administrators and if additional uh changes are needed, we'll make those changes um and bring those changes to the board's attention. So without any further ado, I would like to introduce our architect uh Mr. Jason Smith and Mr. Frank Marino, our construction manager, who will give the board an update on the presentations. >> Are they? >> Yes. [Music] >> Good evening. Um, for those who don't uh know who I am, I'm Frank Marino. I'm the uh school's construction manager. and I'm Jason Smith, uh, studio director, vice president, H2M architects and engineers. >> Okay, we'll go through a slide. Um, so this is the original project timeline that was set in January 2021. And as you could see all the lines, the the bond vote passed in November 2021. There was planned development
008periods. there was filing with the state and then there was a construction period. So the construction period on our original timeline was from January I think we started January 22nd 2024 to March 2027 and that's when all the paperwork and all the work will be completed. So here's a rundown of the um projects that were included in the bond. So, we had new security entrance entrances and video cameras that has been completed. We opened the um security booths last year. There's heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems. They're approximately 85% complete in all the schools. Um new fire alarm systems, right now they're about 65% completed. Removal of asbestous containing materials, it's about 85% completed. New LED lighting systems are 90% complete. New ceilings, painting, and wallboards are approximately 87% complete. And the new student restrooms
009that were part of the bond are completed. And then they were used uh last school year. So, here's a detail of how many classrooms that we have to go in and redo and and gyms, cafeterias, uh libraries, and offices. So you could see um the percentages of those classrooms done. And when when we say they're done, they're 90% done because we have to wait until we get the new electricity to start turning on the systems. So we So we redid all the classrooms. Now we have to go back in there just for a few weeks and take out the window wall. We're going to take out the heating systems, the existing heating systems, take out the mill work, abate any anything that's behind the mill work, and put back new mill work. So, it's a
010lot quicker. There was a twoe periods in each phase. Right now, we're at five weeks for the other work. So, most of that is done. You can see a lot of 100%, but again, it's not 100% complete. It's 90% complete. So, so in yellow are the rooms that are not done. So, this is Dutch Broadway. The whole first floor is done. Like I said, I don't want to keep repeating it. It's 90% done. It's only the main lobby that we have to take down the ceiling. This is the second floor. So, the second floor, there's classrooms that Broadway is the biggest school. So, those classrooms in yellow still have to be done. And we're going to work through the year. So our schedule I think brings this school to the end of next summer. Oh,
011that's Clara Carlson also. Those are the classrooms that have to be done. That's the lower level. This is the first floor. All the classrooms are done. And the third floor, half of it's done. Uh Gotham Avenue, all the classrooms are done. All by the end of the summer, all the spaces will be done. cafeteria, gym, main offices, Steuart Mana, the whole school is done. All the heating and air conditioning systems are installed. We actually took out the heating system um thinking that we would get electric by uh July. Uh PSNG has been backed up. So now we're promised by the end of this week. It will take us a good 2 to 3 weeks to get the systems operating because they have to be commissioned. So the manufacturer has to come in and they have
012to start the equipment and then they commission it. Um but we're ready to go except for electric terrace the same way. All the classrooms are done by the end of the summer. All the main offices will be done. Uh most of the asbesus abatement is done. So that school uh again is 90% completed. Uh we're waiting for uh word on when the u PSNG is going to give us electric. That's all in terrace. That's the second floor. It's all done. And where you see the green highlighted uh window wall areas, that's where we have to go in there and take out the furniture, take out the heating equipment, put new case work back, mostly shelving. Co avenue. So, uh that's the lower floor. Th those rooms still have to be done. Um the first floor,
013everything is done but the library. Um so, all those systems are ready to go. We do have we just uh received the electric in Co Avenue. I think it was last week. They delivered the transformer but then they didn't give us the power for a few more days. Now we have the power. Now we'll start uh commissioning the units and they'll start coming on one by one. That's co Avenue. So the whole first uh that's the second floor is done again except for the outside walls. So this is um an overview of the funding. So the taxpayers approved uh the bond which was 52 million. Uh they had school budget uh authorizations previously of 9 million. So the taxpayers approved $61 million for this project. So up to date up to um818 the school district
014spent $46 million which is about 75% of the cost. So there's always retainage. So the payments are less than what's completed because we hold out until the end. There's a retainage on all the contractors. And as of today there is no cost over and above the uh taxpayers approved funds or any contract. So, we're doing pretty good like that, but I don't know. I don't want to speak too much about that. Tomorrow, something will happen. So, as of now, it's it's nothing, which is is kind of rare. >> Yeah, I know. That's why I don't want to say too much. >> Okay, so the these are just progress pictures. Uh they're pretty typical of what you've seen over the last year and a half because it's the same thing. It's a dedicated outdoor air system.
015So that's all the duck work through the classrooms up the shafts and that will supply conditioned air and clean air into the classrooms constantly. And then um so there's two pieces of equipment that will be in the classroom. There'll be a ceiling cassette which will have heating and air conditioning and there'll be the what we call DOAZ systems, dedicated outdoor air systems. So and that's in every room. So that's probably the biggest part of the job is to run all that duck work through the buildings. And when we were developing the bond um since we're doing that, we're changing the ceilings and the lightings because they have to come down. So that's Alden Terrace, Clar Carlson typical. You know, there's a lot of this year, this summer, we did most of the carers because in
016the corridors, we run all the main electric goes through the car. A lot of stuff goes through the main corridors. So this year we took on a lot of lot of carers in in every school and we'll be finished by I think we have one cor left in the whole district. Um, but we should be finished all the others by the end of this summer, which is in a week and a half. Co Avenue, same thing. You see the um all the duck work. So, Co Avenue is an old school 1928. Um, um, Clark Carlson's 1928. So, they're tough schools to get the refrigeration, piping, and the dozing because they're plaster, they're wood. So it really takes a lot to get that duck work through up to the roof. Um so that's all done. Dutchboard
017way um Dutchwood way is again uh all the carders were done this year. Um do the systems you could see that we had see that's like a shaft. So that that duct work in the middle goes from the basement to the roof and that's in every building. Gotham Avenue, same thing. most mostly hall mostly carers. All the classrooms were finished before school ended. But you could see you could see the electrical piping all those pipes and sometimes there's 8 12 pipes in the corridors that run hundreds of feet and they're going to service the panels the new panels that service the new air conditioning. Steward Mana. Um, Stuart Mana is the smallest school. Um, but it is it's kind of finished as soon as we get electric and we're promised we were promised for the
018last two months, but they promised us that it they would have it by this Friday, which is critical because we actually took out the heating system there. So, there is no heating. So, we're hoping that that happens. And um so we come when we were promised in June, July and then the last one was August 1st. So we had to make a decision and our decision that school was the furthest away. So we said let's do it. I mean we're going to have electric. That's what's happening. So we also started the capital projects this year. So um the capital projects were there was three playgrounds. So this is Steward Mana, Clara Carlson, and Alden Terrace. Um, we also, so that was capital. We also took down the modules at Gotham Avenue. Do you have that?
019>> We have that. >> Oh, you don't have that? Okay. So, we took down the modules at Co Avenue. Uh, we paved I mean Gotham Avenue. We paved the back of it and today we soldered the rest so there wouldn't be a be muddy for the kids that go out there and play. Um we also ordered um we also gave the purchase order for all the security doors in every school. So all the classroom doors and office doors are going to be changed um and have the ballistic glass uh card access. Um, but these doors cannot be cut when they come in. So, every door, and there's over 400 doors, have to be measured. Each one of them have to be measured because if they come in and they're the wrong size, you can't just
020cut it. Just the hinges are set, the doorork knob said. So, they're in that process now. I think they're about halfway done measuring. And as soon as they put that order in, the doors take about 12 weeks to get. So, I think we'll be starting in like October to start putting in the doors, and we'll be in every school. So, I think they could do between eight and 10 doors a night. And after they put the security doors in, the um the alarm company will start doing the card access systems in in they'll start programming it, hooking it up to the network. So, that will start. Um other capital projects that we had, we uh added drainage in the CO Avenue parking lot because the drainage always over uh flooded every rain and they had
021to pump it out. That's where the kids play. So we added uh drywalls there. That's complete. We had a section of the main sewer, the interior main sewer at Gotham Avenue was rotted out. So we changed that. That was part of capital. Um, what else is capital? >> Oh, so starting next week, we're going to pave the parking lot at Stewart Mana, the bus lot. We're going to pave the olden Terrace parking lot and we're going to finish the east driveway in um in Dutchboard Way. And I think that's >> window operator >> and the window operators. So at Dutch Way, the window operators in the gym, they failed many years ago. they can't open or close the windows. So, we're getting operators. Um hopefully that's not needed. This year going to have a new
022uh rooftop air conditioning, heating, ventilation system. So, I don't think they're going to be opening the windows that much, but at least it's there to open. Uh the only other projects are that are funded are the Co Avenue kitchen and the Co Avenue kitchen, we could only do that during the summer, so we just got the permit. it was a little too late to go out to bid and do the kitchen because the kitchen equipment will take like four to five months to get the serving counters and all that equipment. So, we are planning to go out to bid soon and we're going to uh plan to do the work next summer. And I think right now that's that's it with the capital funded projects. So, these projects were funded in the 2223 budget and
023the 2324 budget. So, we're we're getting to spend that. >> I have one question. >> Okay. >> So, I heard you say uh you took out the heating elements out of Stewart Man. Yes. That's the only school that >> Yes. >> Right. And we're already in mid August. So, uh PSC and G sounds like they failed to keep their commitments for the last 3 months. So, as we turn to October, what's plan B? Do we have a plan B? >> Well, I think we have to do plan B after this Friday. But the only thing that you could do, the only thing possible that you could do is get a generator there. That's that is going to cause a lot of problems. First of all, it's noisy. It's costly. >> What? >> Yeah. Where's that
024cost going to come from? >> Um I would say so we have allowances in the in the bond and um we didn't spend it all. So I'm assuming that if it comes down to that, that's where it will come from. >> And how soon will the board be prized in debt if it turns that way? Well, they promised uh the school district that we would get the electric by Friday. So, Friday Friday, we're going to see what happens, but we only have one representative. So, the school districts have one representative in PSNG, and that person represents all the school districts in NO County. So, you could only really go to him to help you. You could talk to the planners, you could talk to politicians, you talk to anybody. He's the one pushing the buttons.
025and he hasn't really been helpful. >> President him or her chamber. >> We we've have emails probably every other day to PSNG. Um and they're promising us Friday. >> So just to recap, you're waiting for transformers at Balden Cover and Stewart. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Dutch. Did you say Dutch? We only have power at Gotham Avenue and Co Avenue as now. We just got it last week at Gotham Avenue. >> Any other questions? >> Questions? >> Thank you, sir. Thank you. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. Uh, for those of you that don't know me, my name is Fernando Dearollo. I am the district's director of technology, but I have been on the health and safety committee for the district for 18 years. So, I want to thank the members of the board and
026Mr. Small for giving me this opportunity to talk about our safety procedures in the plan. Welcome to everybody here in person. The last time I checked, there are about 40 people watching us from home. So, hello everybody from home. Um, so I'm going to start here. So my first what my first slide what I wanted everyone to understand is why is it that school districts do what we need to do for example why do we have to form a district-wide safety committee why do we have to develop emergency response plans why do we have to execute and practice mock drills all of that comes from mandates and there are three important components that come from legislation that's called project now is an acronym that stands for safe schools against violence in education now this came
027out in July of 2000. And unfortunately, this came as a result or a consequence of the year before where there was the tragic Coline shooting uh in the high school in Colorado, which everyone is well aware of. But from that tragic day, the New York State Education Department said, "Okay, now public schools in the state must develop safety plans. They must have safety teams that meet and we must do different safety drills to make sure that in the event of an emergency like a Coline, we are ready. So, I wanted to just give everyone an idea of who our district-wide safety committee team members are. Um, again, this is all through project. So, I broke it up between internal and external. So, our internal members, people that are um, you know, part of the district
028would be our board of education president, our superintendent of schools, our inter school PTA president because there needs to be a parent voice on the committee. All of our central office and building administrators come. We have seal staff, so social emotional learning staff. We have a psychologist, a social worker, and a nurse that joins us for these meetings. We have our association presidents that join us from EDA, from the teacher aids, and from the clericals. And we also have food service and transportation representatives on the board. Now, if you look at the external members, obviously, we need to have our emergency responders join us for these meetings. So, for example, we have the Department of Homeland Security. Um, we also invite the third and fifth precinct, POP. Now, for those of you that don't know,
029POP stands for problem orientated police. And what they are, they are specific police officers that are liaison between the school districts and that precinct. Now, it would be remiss of me not to honor Sergeant Grim, who is here. Sergeant Grim Serge Sergeant Grim, just so you know, uh, has a special place in my heart. He was a fifth precinct officer for a long time. knew our schools. He would come into the schools, help us with the lockdowns. They would know him by name. So, the fact that you're here is is heartfelt. So, thank you for being here. [Applause] Thank you. So, just to continue, we have the fire department who comes. We have a NICER representative. Nicer stands for New York State Insurance Reciprocal. This is the gentleman or this is the insurance company that
030covers the district for liabilities. And what this gentleman does is brings valuable information to our committee because he keeps us up to date with legal issues, liabilities, riskrevention for students and staff. Um, so we also have Anesso Bose's health and safety consultant. Uh, many of you know her. Her name is Terry Emanuel. Um, she's in district on Tuesdays and she really is an important person to me because she makes sure that our compliance plans are up to date. She helps me and goes out and does the safety drills with the schools. So, she's a very valuable person and helps me out a lot. We also have our allied district-wide security supervisor, Brandon Saxs. So, Brandon Saxs is the supervisor of all the different guards that we have in the schools. So, Brandon is literally checking
031into each school and he's checks in every single day. Checks in with the principles, with the APS. He'll check in with the guards and Brandon is really like like our eyes and ears out in the district. Um so as you can see from the amount of people I mean there's a large amount of people and the breadth of that is is um is supposed to be like that because from this committee you're supposed to get cover a variety of departments and and have a lot of voices. Um just to let you know when we have our committee meetings we have about 25 to 30 people. Um just to let you know for example these team members it's not a static group. This can change from year to year. Okay for example uh Mrs. Natoli Mary
032Natoli was the principal of Covert Avenue in 2425. Mrs. Nati retired. Miss Allison Gun was appointed. Now Mrs. Gun will join us for the 2526 safety team. Okay. Um our district-wide committee teams, we meet four times a year. Um we're going to meet in October, in January, in April, and in June. And the kind of things that we discuss is, for example, we talk about plan reviews. The plan that we're bringing forth to the board for draft and for adoption tonight is a plan that we looked at during our June meeting of 2025 of this year. Um we also talk about um general safety concerns throughout the district, general security protocols, and we discuss real life events and emergencies and use them as tabletops. Now, for those of you that don't know what a tabletop
033exercise is, it's an invaluable resource because tabletops are whatif scenarios. So the purpose of a tabletop is to talk about a chaotic emergency among a safety team but in a calm neutral environment right so you want to say well you know sometimes we'll we'll talk about a real life event that happened in another school district and we'll say hey if that happened to us how would we deal with that situation and that's what a tabletop exercise is mandated drills this is component number two from project safe so New York state says that every public school building must do mandated drills. Now, there are some are the mandated and some are recommended. I'm going to briefly go over them. Lockdown drills. A lockdown is the intense drill where the threat is inside the building. This is
034where our staff and our kids hover in the corner, the door gets locked, uh the lights come off, and all teaching stops immediately because there's a threat inside the building. New York State requires us to do four of those a year. Fire drills, everyone knows this is a timed evacuation from the building of the staff and students. Um, and we have to do eight of those a years. Bus drills, we have to do four a year. So, our transportation staff four times a year goes out to the schools with a fleet of buses and they actually bring the kids up on the buses, show them how to enter the buses safely, how to exit. They go over the emergency windows and exit. We have to do four a year. Early dismissal drill. This is the
035one that most of you know that we do the day before the Thanksgiving recess where the kids leave 15 minutes early. The purpose of an early dismissal drill is you're testing two things. So, you're testing your communication platform to make sure that in the event that we have to dismiss early that our parents know that they have to pick them up. And we're also testing our transportation response that in the event that we have to get our kids home who are busers that our transportation department can come to the schools and pick them up. So, that one we do one a year. Recommended drills are evacuation drills. Recommended. Not every school building in New York State does evacuation drills. I can tell you because I talk with colleagues and they say, "Oh, we never do
036an evacuation drill in Elmont." However, we feel that it's so important that our staff and students know how to evacuate the building and walk towards their reunification site. Even though it's recommended, we internally mandate that our schools do one. So, what do we do every time when we go around in the fall and start the school year, all the principles pick a day in the fall before it gets too cold and we practice an evacuation drill. Reunification drill also recommended, but we started doing these and we're going to start mandating them. So, what's the purpose of a reunification drill? A reunification drill is when the staff and students have to leave the building because there's an unsafe condition and they cannot return. So, think of a fire. Think of um think of a gas leak
037or maybe there might be structural damage. There's something going on in the building that the kids and the staff have to leave and they can't come back. So, where do they go? They have to reunify to another location to meet with their parents. So, let me give you an example. Clara Carlson is a school close by. If something were to happen at Clara Carlson and the kids and the staff had to evacuate, they would go up Belmont Boulevard and go straight into the Elmont Public Library. Once they get to the Elmont Public Library, everyone gets settled. That's when we would notify parents to let them know that whatever emergency there was at Clarin, but your children are safe at the library to come and pick them up. Um, lockout drill. Remember what I said about
038lockdown? Lockdown threat inside, lockout outside. Okay, so this might be, for example, Sergeant Grim. Sergeant Grim used to call the police. Paul used to call the school district and say, "Hey, Fernando, heads up. We're looking for an armed perpetrator who just robbed the 7-Eleven by Clara Carlson. Go into lock out." Okay, so that means that the perpetrator is outside. They're still looking for someone. No one comes in and out of the building. Okay, so that's a lockout. [Music] Okay. So, the comprehensive district safety plan, just to let you know, this is the third component, and this is what the board is going to adopt um this evening. So, the district-wide safety plan is a public document. Okay? Um it's reviewed and assessed by the district-wide committee members on an annual basis. Like I said, we
039look at it in June and we also review when we first meet in in October. What the plan does, it establishes clear protocols for responding to different types of events. So natural disasters, think about supertorm Sandy, okay? Or violence, think about Coline, health crisis, CO 19, or any other types of emergencies. Could be bomb threat or whatever else. But there's all protocols in that plan um to address those procedures, to address those emergencies. The plan ensures compliance with state laws, but also with district policy, and it promotes a positive learning environment. A safe school climate enhances student engagement, academic performance, and staff morale. So, it's like the old saying, if a child or student does not feel safe in school, they feel threatened or dangered, they cannot learn. So, it's our job as a school
040district to make sure that kids feel safe and cared for so that they have the ability to learn. Um, so now I'm going to talk a little bit about amendments in the safety plan. So from year to year, the state mandate amend the state may mandate an amendment to the district-wide plan that the that the committee has to consider. So just to let everyone know and the board know the template for the safety plan, it's pretty much the same every year. There are very few changes. Most of the time it's only like the committee members. However, there are times depending if there's something going on um that the state will require you to put in an amendment, an insert into this plan. The biggest example that I wanted to give everyone was CO 19. So,
041for the 2122 school year, every school district in New York State had to put in a pandemic plan amendment. That pandemic plan amendment uh included contact tracing, what kind of personal protective equipment we were going to give our staff so they can work safely, and it also had the remote learning plan uh for those children and students who opted to stay home virtually for the 21-22 school year. What was the district's plan to provide them an iPad, to provide them Wi-Fi, and to give them a structured remote plan so they can they can uh study and learn from home? That was all part of the amendment for the 21-22 plan. The key amendment plan that the I wanted to let the board know for this year is called Dea's law. Now, unfortunately, Dea Sanders was
042a little 12-year-old girl who lost her life due uh due to cardiac arrest while playing basketball at her school. Governor Hokll signed DEA's law into law July 24th, 2025, which is literally 3 weeks ago. Um the incorporation of the cardiac arrest plan, which I'll get into in a little bit, um is set for January 20th, 2026. What that means is obviously the governor knows that the schools, the school districts in New York State by law have to adopt a policy by September 1st, but she's saying we're going to give you the first half of the year to get the plan together and insert it by January 20th of next year. So what does the DEA's law talk about? The law requires um public schools to incorporate a cardiac emergency response plan to make sure that
043our all our AEDs are clearly marked and written documentation to be inserted into the plan that the board is adopting this evening. Um this plan must outline procedures and designate personnel to respond to cardiac arrest or similar life-threatening emergencies occurring on school grounds or at school sponsored events. And obviously, you know, you think about when our kids are there during the day. Obviously, our nurses are trained, certified, professional staff that use AED and obviously would be aware to recognize if a staff member or student was in cardiac arrest. Finally, this is my last slide. Again, this is a public document and going back to compliance. Okay. Um, the law says that the board must do a first reading in July, which they did for the reorganization meeting, and then the law says that after that
044there has to be a 30-day public review and comment period. So, what we did as a district is right the next day on July 2nd, we put it up on the website. We put it in three different places for complete transparency. We put it under announcements, we put it under quick links, and we also put it on the board of education homepage so that people can find it. The law says that if any community member has any questions, concerns, comments regarding the plan that there has to be a contact that they would email. So that email would be me. And I wanted to publicly report to the board that in I know it's a 30-day, but from July 2nd to August 19th, it's 50 days. But there's been no comment, question, or concern that I've
045received regarding the plan. So I wanted to let you know there no open items or any feedback we have to give back to. Okay. Um, I just wanted to show you that when they clicked on the link, it would send them to our safety plan, [Music] which is right here. Like I said, it's a 60-page plan, but when they clicked on the link, um, it would take them to the safety plan to review. Um before I take any questions or anything uh from the board, um I just wanted to emphasize not only if you're a parent here or if you're a parent watching us from home, I just want to emphasize that this school district does a lot to make sure that we're protecting and keeping your kids safe. Trust me when I tell you,
046I've been working here a long time. And when your kids are in our care and in our buildings, we take care of it and protect them as if they were our own. I think in the last couple of years, the school district has come a really long way in security improvements and enhancements. If you think about the security vestibules that we the state-of-the-art security vestibules, we have the allied guards with the monitors. We have installed over 180 external and internal cameras in the buildings. And as Mr. Marino mentioned and as Mr. Small mentioned when he did his budget presentations, we're installing the big security initiative for this year are the interior security doors. So just so everyone understands, when a principal hits the lockdown button, let's say the threat's inside, they hit the button. Right
047now, what a teacher has to do is go into his or her pocket or his or her desk. They have to look for keys, go through the outside of the lock, lock the door, and then worry about her his or her kids in the corner. What the interior security doors will do because they'll have lockdown capability. As soon as the principal hits that button, if the door is already locked, boom, it locks automatically. On the other hand, if the door is open and the lock down button is hit, as soon as the teacher closes his or her door, the door will automatically lock. As Sergeant Crim will tell you, the police always tells us, in the event of an emergency, your highest and most valuable asset is time. So, if we can save our teachers
04815, 20, 30 seconds from looking for their keys and having their doors lock automatically, then that's what we're going to do. But again, it's just another sign that we're trying to move forward and doing everything possible to keep your children safe. So, thank you. [Music] All right, [Music] you ready? Okay. Thank you to Mr. Darollo and to Mr. Marino and Mr. Smith for that presentation. Now we will get into the action items for the board. >> Okay. My thing keeps logging up. >> All right. >> Okay. Right. I seek a motion to approve personnel agenda items 4.1 through 4.2. >> May I have a motion? I have a motion to approve personnel items 4.1 through 4.2. Thank you, Miss Battle. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Palmer. All in favor? >> Motion carries. >>
049Members of the board, I think we have a few members of uh the faculty who are joining our staff. We'd like to congratulate them. If you may please stand and be recognized. [Applause] Thank you. Welcome. We're happy to have you. We're looking forward to working with you um this upcoming year. Curriculum items. I seek a motion to approve curriculum agenda items 5.1 through 5.3. >> May I have a motion to approve curriculum curriculum items 5.1 through 5.3? >> Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Douglas. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. >> I seek a motion to approve support services agenda item 6.1. >> May I have a motion to approve support services item 6.1? >> Move. >> Thank you, Miss Battle. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Dr.
050Willow Massie. All in favor? >> Motion carries. I seek a motion to approve business agenda items 7.1 through 7.6. >> May I have a motion to approve business agenda items 7.1 through 7.6? >> Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Battle. All in favor? >> Motion carries. >> This end ends my report. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do we have any committee reports orformational uh items? >> If you look at the committee report, the last meeting we had spoken about um selection of members for district committees. >> Okay. >> If we um want to do that um maybe [Music] >> we hadn't discussed that. >> Okay. So we could do discuss that later. >> We'll table that for next. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, wait. Yeah, we should. Yep. Okay. So,
051we'll table that for next meeting. Do we have any old business? All right. Any new business? >> Yes. >> Are we tableing 8.1? >> Yes. The appointment of committee members. >> We just need a motion to table. >> May I have a motion to table the appointment of committee members for the following committees? Health and safety, facilities, and policy committee. Move. >> Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Second. Thank you, Dr. Willer Massie. All in favor? >> Motion carries. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak? My iPad is not loading. >> Yeah. >> Hi, Mr. Smith. How are you? >> There we go. >> John Smith. You all know me. I'm sure I do. >> I just want to say uh the new playground equipment at Carlson looks really nice. >> And uh
052It's being utilized very well right now. If you go by there at 6:00 at night, you'll probably find about 30 >> people there >> on the playground. And uh they were a little shocked when they came and they saw the other equipment in a pile of rubble. And uh they were like, "Whoa, what happened here?" But the new equipment looks very good. >> So, thank you. >> It was long waited for >> and uh let's hope they enjoy it. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. And one other question. >> Sure. >> And it reclaims us to the grounds of the schools. >> Yes. >> Uh as far as I know is the water authority is not under a water shortage. Why are grass burning? We have sprinklers in schools. I know in Carlson in the
053back they have a sprinkler system. I don't know about the front but uh it looks terrible. Co avenue's got is burning up and everything. And uh we should be watering the sprinklers go on timers. They should be on at like 4:00 in the morning. >> So we need to do something about that. >> I would double check to see. I I know last year at Covert Avenue the sprinklers were broken and we paired to repair repair them. So from my understanding they're still in working condition. I will just double check to make sure that um there's a schedule to turn them on. uh at Gotham Avenue uh that building does not have sprinkler system in the front of the building and we are getting estimates to install okay um sprinklers at Gotham Avenue >> right
054but I mean when you know it's an appearance when people first come up to the building and you see you know it's all brown and all that >> yes sir that's a conversation we've had with the board about um a plan moving forward about how do we we're doing a lot of work inside the buildings in terms of the construction project but how do we also will continue to make sure we are maintaining the exteriors of the building. So, we we are having conversations about that and we will um hopefully have u additional staffing as well um to maintain the grounds um going forward. >> Okay. I just wanted to bring it to your attention. I want to say on today's news day there is an article about water shortage and and what's happening on
055Long Island and the caption is lawn l awenders people who are very much >> yeah that's but that's further out east but uh the uh but uh putting them on timer is it saves a lot too because people forget you put your sprinkler on and then you go watch a baseball game and it's been on for four hours. So, by putting them on timers, it say it saves water that way, too. And if you put them on in the 4 5:00 in the morning before the heat of the sun, it helps the lawn. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Smith. Good seeing you. >> Hello, everyone. Hello. >> My name is Michaela Beaman. I am a Clara H. Carlson parent. Um, I recently learned that we do not have a special education PTA specifically
056focusing on Elmont. Um, and I had a wonderful meeting with our superintendent about it. Um, I've been speaking with some parents and I just wanted to put my plea out to the entire board and also to our audience both in person and virtual um, wherever that camera is. Um u I just wanted to just bring to some of our audienc's attention and also highlight like tonight we have certain things that we've approved well you've approved right page nine has a list of contracts for individuals with saidcar um flow through funds >> right and those are schools that are receiving funding to help our students who are having special needs. Page 10, we have a list of different individuals who are attending private parochial charter schools, but also we have right there in in section D
057places that are receiving special education services for our students. And so if your child if you are invested in special education because you have a child with a 504, this committee is for you. If you are invested because your child has an IEP, this committee is for you. if you are invested because your child is gifted and um is able to accelerate a little higher, right? The special education is for you because here we have a committee that's supposed to be inter school. I spoke with um our superintendent and I'm not just going to advocate for Clara, right? I'm pushing for something across all of our buildings, but I need parents. I need people who are invested in it because I can only represent Claraara. I'd only know Clara. can try to go to the
058others, but that'd be facitious. And also, if you just care about where your money is going, it's for you. It's several pages. So much of our budget goes to special education. So, we should have people being a participant of a committee that talks about, okay, what are we doing with that money? How do we best serve not only our students here, but the ones who are we are paying for them to go to other districts, paying for them to go to other schools? So, I beg and plead, please let me know if you would like to join the committee. Um, my email address is M as in Mary, N is in Nancy Jasmine, MNJ Am I N at Gmail. Otherwise, feel free to across me. I would love to have at least two people per
059school. Um, and we've also gotten the support of the interchool council. So, there's there's all the structure here to help us. We just need the bodies. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Beman. >> Thank you. >> Good seeing you. >> Thank you. Right. >> Anyone else? >> All right. Well, our next regular meeting of the board of education >> before we uh close >> Yes. >> that correspondence, I wanted to uh read. >> So, Jamaica Square Improvement League, uh, a voice for a better community. So, this is a letter of correspondence that we received on August 14, 2025. to Mrs. Small, Fernando Dearollo, and the board of education, Miss Warfall, Mr. Domingo, Miss Buchanan, the Jamaica Square Improvement League would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your generous donation for the 6th
060annual backpack with school supplies giveaway. We were able to distribute 549 backpacks with school supplies to the children of Elmont Union Free School District. This event was a complete success because of your generosity. From the moment you were informed of this event, you jumped right in and began to assist with with assist them with flyers. calls, financial support, packing backpacks, purchasing supplies, distributing, and even crowd control on the day of the event. And because of that, we are thankful. The Elmont community, but especially the Jamaica Square section of Elmont, is truly blessed to have a school district that cares so much for our scholars. We are grateful for your support. With sincere appreciation, the Jamaican Square Improvement League, Miss Claudine E-haw, President. >> Thank you. You caught me off guard and told me what was
061going to be red. But I do owe a bit of gratitude to all of you and that is written from my heart. But because we collected 1,14 backpacks, I'd like to at least donate 120 of them to the school district so that we can begin to give out to the children that uh are new or lost or whatever they need a backpack. So with your permission and we'll speak, I would like to make arrangements where I can donate about another 120 to the school district. I guess it's 20 per school. >> All right. Very good. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Hall. Anyone else? >> All right. Well, our next meeting of the board of education, which will also include our audit committee meeting, will be Tuesday, September 9th, will be at Dutch
062Broadway, and that meeting will begin at 7:30. Please join us. May I have a motion to uh reconvene in executive session for updates from council and discuss personnel matters? >> Move. >> Thank you, Mr. Ramos. Second. >> Thank you, Dr. Willer Massie. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Thank you so much.