001to apply for a um Grant um so the PTSA donated $500 and um this grant was awarded to match that so there'll be $1,000 coming to the Grady school for supplies and books and things like that which is fantastic also um Mr Rogers uh has secured a donation from Home Depot rosale nurseries Sam's Club and the rivertown's give and take to help complete a recent project with the Grady gardening club uh we're also partnering with New York State PT SAA the elord police department and fire department to set up a bik safety event um we are still working on the scheduling for that that'll probably be uh I think we're initially think in May but probably in June somewhere to come on that um and as part of that I think the New York State
002PTSA we'll be bringing some giveaways like helmets and things like that for the [Music] community oh and then the last thing is we are going to look to set up some social events for the community to bring the community together with the year ending um we'll probably have parent social recognizing that Mother's Day and Father's Day are coming up and then in end of the year social that's the update for today thank [Applause] you okay number 12 uh do I have a motion to approve minutes second all in favor I oppos motion carries uh next portion we're going to go to is recognition of the audience but before we do that I'd like to just make sure that we all understand how this works um it's a 20 minute session and it's 3 minutes per
003person and when the timer goes off that's when you have to stop so if you have anything further you want to say in your comments feel free to um send it in email to the board and superintendent um but at that 3 minute Mark we're going to ask you to stop talking and allow one of the other community members get up and speak so it will be a hard stop for 20 minutes so if you don't have an opportunity to speak feel free to also send that email um to the board and to the superintendent to be addressed okay so with that um we're going to open up the audience uh recognition portion of the meeting and um [Music] hello good evening as a resident parent of two Elementary age students a classroom educator and
004building administrator for 21 years I'm here to speak against the elimination of the director of curriculum instruction equity and belonging position this is a position supported by the New York State education department who has created formal guidance to the culturally responsive and sustaining framework for New York state in a district as diverse as ours we need someone to focus on the vertical and horizontal alignment of the curriculum so that the content and skills blend well together from one grade to the next and from one building to the next building while holding in on our students unique identities in today's increasingly complex World fostering an educational environment that celebrates diversity ensuring equity and promotes inclusion is not just important it's essential the director of curriculum diversity and equity and belonging position plays a pivotal role in
005integrating these principles into teaching methods and materials preparing our students to thrive in a diverse society and helping them become well-rounded and pathetic individuals this position also supports our Educators by providing them with the resources and training to address diverse learning needs and create inclusive classroom environments by investing in this role we demonstrate our commitment to a holistic educational experience that values and nurtures all students equally in addition it should be noted that the loss of Miss ptor Proctor who has been a student in this District a parent in this District a teacher in this District an administrator in this District a Community member who still lives in theor proor is fully invested in our students her termination is a tragic loss to our students and families instead instead you are adding have to stop
006for a second can you please the [Applause] can ask the audience to relax okay because this is this is this is her time to speak okay because we're not allowed by state law to mention employees names I'm going to address that you do not mention our employees name in your thing you can say a employee you can address it any way you want but you cannot mention the name and you know that as in education and you should have known that before you got up here according to your credentials correct it shouldn't have been put out of the public it should have been understand the rules thank you can you please put it back to 45 seconds 52 52 45 52 seconds 45 thank you so much instead you are adding a second SRO for
007the cost of $150,000 this is more than the cost of a teacher who spends all day with students Misha high school has over 3,000 students and no SRO you have not provided data or rationale for why this small community needs two school resource officers one of the budget priorities is a more transparent process as we discuss funding there has been no transparency no rationals and no data it is very clear that you do not want to educate our students you want to Poli them and that is unacceptable on behalf of families and students I ask you to reconsider [Applause] good evening president and board superintendent ran I'm R I am resident of Greenberg I'm here in my capacity as co-chair of Greenberg human rights advisory committee um and uh while I heard what superintendent ran
008said de is not some work that should be done in ad um form it does require specialized training and a particularly uh distinct worldview it is a world view and a commitment not limited to but facilitated by a fully paid position within any organization most certainly within a diverse School District like elsort the principles that guide equity and belonging are essential for eliminating barriers and ensuring that every student has what they need when they need it we are deeply saddened by the decision of the to eliminate the position of director of curriculum instruction equity and belonging this decision uh represents a disregard for the needs not only of students of color that make up more than 65% of this District students but all students who struggle to understand the division and attention they see in
009their communities and who will no longer have the benefit of programming designed to create safe spaces to celebrate and explore racial and cultural differences such spaces have been shown to improve empathy and compassion two primary characteristics heralded as essential to healthy Youth Development and have been adopted by schools across the country as part of their social economic excuse me social emotional learning curriculum pardon me a little nervous the vote by this board to eliminate a deib position leaves a visible whole in the school's curriculum and sends a demoralizing message to students faculty and concerned families who hail from historically marginalized communities that they don't matter and and creates tension and mistrust between the board and the community he was elected to serve most of whom desire a fair and inclusive school system where all students
010can develop their academic skills a sense of personal agency and civic responsibility shielded from the impacts of policies and practices that limit their access we therefore invite the board to examine its motivations for this decision with an interest in revealing any hidden bias that may have guided it the students at elmburg deserve a [Music] excuse me we uh we therefore invite the board to examine its motivations for this decision with an interest in revealing any hidden bias that may have guided it conscious or unconscious the St students of elmford deserve a school board that represents the interest of every student and is willing to provide the culturally respons of Education that the New York State Department of Education recommends to every District in the state thank you good evening I'm Janice Griffith with the White
011Plain freeor NAACP and I am here to let you know that the NAACP feels that it is a travesty to minimize the importance of the Dei role to place it on the back end of another person's position is an injustice to the students in this community the NAACP is advocating for following the New York State education department protocol in addition to providing Equitable uh funds to access Services providing culturally responsive individuals to educate children of diverse backgrounds and special needs or to encourage a sense of belonging and true dignity for all students especially allowing allocations in the areas of mental health to prevent suicide training this that is not part of the training that police safety officers are able to provide police do not belong in our schools and research shows that there is confrontational
012responses to violence with their presence this is not a job that can be done by police in our schools this needs to have its own individual person uh a Dei full-time leader furthermore this push back on New York State's education diversity equity and inclusion directive causes us to question the expend expenditures and allocations of funds over the years that were necessary to follow title 1X this type of training was lacking until the Dei officer provided this essential service how can the taxpayers in any way begin to trust school boards and superintendent with making decisions to protect our children from Abus by punitive actions by police we are encouraging transparency to correct mistakes of the past the NAACP strongly encourages the school board of ellport follow the New York State education department Dei policy framework for
013culturally responsive sustaining curricula by putting the needs of the children first in addition to standing for teaching truth and honesty history to correct the missteps of the past and they prepare students for living in a society today thank you my name is shanal Nichols and I'm a resident here from alart one of my um neighbors wanted me to address you with these questions what was the basis of the elimination how were these things measured did the position have the proper resources to be executed to its full extent you're creating the exact same position but changing the diversity piece to technology please explain how it benefits the district that was from her and for me how do you allow things that come about within the community and want us to trust you the last time I
014was here you stated you did not want to have another assistant principal you did not want to have another principal in another school but yet you want to get two people to come in or share Dixon and Brady to do the same thing if we're talking about all of this and we're trying to make it better with the fund that we have are we just removing people that you don't like and placing people that you want and done thank you thank you good afternoon members of the board and the audience I'm going to ask that if you are not in support of the board's decision to eliminate the Dei position please stand wow that you said last year you stood at the board and you say that we should listen to our community we that
015here we have stated it over the last CLE coup of months we have stated it over the last couple of weeks so the question is are you going to follow the words that you stated and listen to the community look who's standing in this audience right now the community is speaking is the board listening nothing nothing good evening my name is first I want to ask how of this board meeting is is on Zoom for everybody people that aren't here or aren't able to be here to have access to what's going on no we're not right but but I'm asking the question why not it's [Music] 2024 at the last meeting it was stated that two positions was going to be collapsed but yet tonight only one is being collapsed is this because we're targeting
016and because it's intentional and it's because racism I'll go that we're not supposed to say names but we already know everybody who we're talking about in this building tonight we all know everybody from elsort know that she's a dedicated teacher she was a dedic dedicated teacher mother student faculty member for over 24 years so if you dedicate yourself your give heart sweat Blood and Tears to something for 24 years and we're just going to abolish it give it to somebody else the piggy back to give it to somebody else it doesn't make sense to me that is racism that's showing racism and it shouldn't be tolerated in our community everyone knows that it was a plan from the beginning from the people that are running on the board to get rid of her so this
017has nothing to do with the district or the funding or more administrators we see what you are doing and we see how you are destroying the people in the district who have only done one thing and that's something that's right for the kids so I think that is something that should be reconsidered hello my name is Briana kums I'm a alumni of this school district as well as a parent in this school district cout proor I'm not supposed to say her name the person who was removed was an educator for me from the time I was a child up until now she was a part of my family in terms of being integral to making this community more conscious of what goes into the curriculum so to say you're going to just remove that cut
018it up into pieces and give it to somebody else give the funding to more policing of our predominantly black and brown school it's very hurtful very hurtful to look at this board and see the demographic of the board honestly does not represent the community which also so I just want to ask you to reconsider and bring her back because she is a person who is the heart of elord she's elport from her very beginning that she is so I can see by the contempt on your faces that maybe my words don't mean that much but to this [Applause] community my name is Kimberly we I am a resident of the district I am a parent in the district and I have volunteered for several years almost fulltime in our library where as you're stating we
019have a shared a librarian that's not a fact and I'm sure that you're aware of that because I worked a two previous superintendents over that issue our district is our high school is currently ranked for 2024 as 59 of 69 high schools in Westchester County our students in 2 through six don't have Library which means they go to high school reading challenged in case you are unaware I'm sure Dr Phillips knows this because she's the only one on the board who is an educator that they want to read they will not read they will start high school at a deficit and that is how we end up as the lowest ranked nonsp specialed School in the county lowest in the county nonsp specializ yes I said it twice and now we are removing our director
020of Cur curriculum and Dei and we are making it a side job for someone else I'm also curious about the relationships of some new hires I'm just going to let you think I'm that I'm not going to say anything else about that wow we're concerned I've never gotten up to speak at a board meeting because I've never been so angry and hurt and felt so betrayed by the bo I'm shaking don't have epilepsy not being funny but I am shaking because I am so angry please act like you care about this dis that you are that you said when you were running were not necessary which is why you requested that the budget not passed so didn't I that you're not ping back on there so please don't act like these are things that you
021are doing for us when you eliminated them and blocked them in the first place thank one more is that what this is okay we're going to move on thank you my name is Village of Resident I do not believe that EI CRP belongs in this school it's Reading Writing arithmetic history science as the K should be learn all this other stuff give to the parents to go and teach their kids and as far let him speak as security for the schools so be quiet police officers are the ones laying their lives on the line for the community for the kids not the teachers not parents it's training police officers that are doing it I'm a retired New York City police officer and I live my life on line for the City of New York for
02220 years what teacher is going to go and stand up and face somebody with an arm G who's going to put their way in harm to protect kids and the families not a teacher not a parent please protect our loved ones in community emergencies that's what belongs here that's thinking of oh it's going to go away look around you with the schools that have actually Shooters where law enforcement are the ones going in there teachers parents running the other way worrying about their kids thank you so I am an educator and I work for newelle and I live in this district and you know my name is Ramon Rosado and um I think that teachers make the world go around we educate we educate children students to ensure that they understand the law thank you
023for your service by the way but it it just blows my mind that I have to come here and you know fight for something and you're absolutely right parents should be teaching their kids but I work two jobs just to provide for my family and I also want to empower every single kid in my classroom the same way that all the teachers in this building do for my daughter but if we do not have approval from you guys as the board and supporting each other we cannot do it and I live in a community where I can't believe that I am the minority and my student who is my daughter is just so lost in this Society or this education system because we cannot provide to her I have to keep on track with the
024special ed department for this District because because it's one person running everything and it's very very very hard and frustrating and I know I look crazy right now cuz I rushed here because I love my daughter and I live here because I thought this District can provide an education to my daughter that would be conclusive and intuitive but if we keep shooting down budgets and eliminating positions what are we telling each other what are we telling our students that we don't care and I don't need an answer for about on item 14 which goes from 1401 to 1404 I have a motion to approve second uh all favor I opposed motion cares superintendent's personal recommendations number 15 which goes 15.01 15.03 I have a motion to approve second all in favor I oppos Mo car
025number 16 new business discussion Mo 1608 I motion to approve second second all in favor I I oppos motion carries i' like to thank everyone for coming tonight and uh with that I'd like to make a motion uh do we have a motion for a ger second favos Mo carries will will you let me know what happened on Thursday I didn't know that I was included so I didn't want to assume I end now oh