Board of Education Regular Session - March 25, 2025

001welcome to the March 25th 2025 regular session of the Board of Education this is Joe CIO president of the Board of Education speaking thank you for attending in person to through Zoom please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance of this meeting has been provided to the public and each member of the Board of Education pursuant to the crime it's of law Tina will you please take attendance president presid presid Pres present present at this time a motion to accept the agenda for March 25th 2025 regular session as presented so move all in favor I at this time I'm GNA head over to Dr SAR for student recognition thank you Mr celo so good evening everyone and uh thank you all for being here this evening and uh you know we begin tonight's meeting just really

002recognizing our students is probably the best part of our uh Board of Education meetings and um you know so we have several uh student groups that we would like to acknowledge this evening and I'd like us to start off with the valedictorian and the salutatorian recognition so it's an honor truly an honor to recognize two outstanding uh members of the class of 2025 our valedictorian Jeffrey Lee and our salutatorian Hunter Maguire and I'll say uh a few things about them and I would like them to come up uh here as well so Jeffrey Lee he holds a GPA uh of 12.83% fair and this uh math fair and and National Spanish exams and he's deeply involved in school activities serving as president of both Aviation and geography clubs and as vice president of the math

003team and Science Olympiad Jeffrey is also a gifted pianist and active in his uh Church community and he's he'll be attending Carnegie melon University this fall pursuing a degree in engineering you want to come up Jeffrey come on now maybe there we go and then we also have Hunter Maguire who's our salutatorian and he has a g uh GPA of 10272 has taken 13 AP courses he's the editor editor and chief of inkp and co-editor and chief of echo his literary work has received multiple Scholastic art and writing Awards he serves as co-president of the Science Olympiad president of environment Environ and is a Garcia summer scholar Hunter has also been recognized by our English and science departments and recently presented at the 2024 materials research Society conference he plans to double major in English

004and science come on up Hunter [Music] so we're incredibly proud of both Jeffrey and Hunter and look forward to all they will accomplish in the years ahead congratulations to you and your families again okay so moving on we also want this evening to recognize Amy xia where is Amy Amy here there's Amy come [Music] on and maybe Dr Gordon if you want to come up with Dr Foley I think you're both here as well okay so so we're really thrilled to recognize Amy this evening she's a finalist uh in the prestigious regeneron science Talent search Amy completed uh competed in Washington DC earlier this month representing Garden City with distinction she's she's again here with her mentors Dr Gordon Dr Foley who are up there and um you know this is such an incredible uh

005achievement for her and her if I could just uh her her research was on exploring citen as a therapeutic Target for cancer treatment through a clinical pharmacologic and metabolic lens very very impressive Amy and we also want to recognize our students as part of the Challenger basketball team all right so we're proud to welcome several of our our members of the of the basketball team this evening and this is an inclusive program that features hello how you doing do hey Bron how are you doing buddy you're good okay good good good all right here we go you gonna get a picture take it here we go let's get a nice picture here Jack all right Bron get in there congratulations congratulations no you go first so just a little bit about the program this is

006inclusive program really features our student athletes from both the middle and high school and provides meaningful opportunities to compete with neighboring districts and I want to thank our teachers here Danielle Goodwin who here Travis uh Cal is here and also Carrie papis and we really appreciate all the work that you do with this program it's probably one of our best games that we uh we we see our kids come to and um you know and our students that are part of the program um we have Gavin sense Jack Sutcliffe who was here Connor Fitzgerald Michael sack Logan Parker Alex dicki Ryan schwarner Matt McCoy Brendan Ryan Anthony agripinaa and Jack trero and um you know I know Anthony grego is here uh he also helped Mr Ramirez really MC these events so we're really really

007proud of all of our students thank you again for uh being here but we also want to share a quick video as you um you know last week was World Down syndrome day and we have um Brendan Ryan along with his teacher Miss mnik who's here um we created this beautiful video on world uh on down syndrome day and I is I have [Music] have but I have extra extra is as time [Music] each in their way when I was only 6 months old my parents took me to a nam you know very popular is become a teacher so I can am it I musicing outside and spending time my friends and everyone is me in own way and that make the work next time you meet someone or any other to kind and Miss

008Bing do you want to come up now you work really hard with this creating this wonderful video Bron thank you so much video was wonderful yeah think we've recognized all of our students this evening so if if anybody wants to leave they can because we're going to go to our budget presentation after this especially our students not you guys all saying but I think our students want to stay St thank you thank you for coming appreciate you coming yes they were in your building wow nice all right so our next item on the agenda um is we're to move to the next agenda on on our list which is the buz budget presentation I'll hand it over to miss decapua who can or oh Dr s will start and then Mrs decapia will pick it

009up from there all right so um this is our third budget presentation and as you recall our first one was on the we gave you an overview of the budget and we also went over the you know the state aid and revenues the second Workshop was on our administrative and capital costs and this one is on instruction part one and the next one after this will be instruction part two so you know we're really pleased of to have my colleagues here our principals are here um and and and Dr Bowman the lead are discussion this evening around our our really the heart of what we do is teaching and learning which is instruction um you know part one so I'm going to go over some things uh as a recap and then I'll turn it

010over to them again we always start with our mission and vision statement you've seen this plenty of times and we really Stay True to this when we develop our budget so uh for this evening you will you know we'll give you again the overview our principles will give give you an update on their status the priorities for this school year and what the focus will be for next school year and then um Mr decapia will go over all the codes and then we'll go over what's on the ballot and address any questions that you may have so this this here you've seen this before but there is a slight change if you look at the budget to budget there's an increase the last time when we met and I think we had mentioned this it

011was the budget to budget was at a 2.5% inre that of 2.82 and that's because of our insurance the liability insurance and we had discussed that there may be an increase in that so that's where th those numbers are up a little bit but our tax maximum allowable tax remains at 2.42% um so again we've gone through the administration the capital and now we're at the program and you can see bulk of our budget is with our program which is what you'll hear this even and then at the next uh at the next meeting um which is on April 8th so what I'd like to do is um oh well let me go over this real quickly these are just the budget the numbers that you saw the charts and these are uh pie chart

012in numbers here and you see the little bit of that increase in here and these are the major codes so now I'd like to turn it over to Dr Bowman who will go over our prior District priorities for this last year or this current year and then talk about for next year and then followed by our principles sure thank you Dr Sinha so uh one of the focus areas this year was um our curriculum articulation design work we are in our fourth year of that work um and every year we focus on something specific this year we did introduce storyboarding um but we also focused on assessments and interdisciplinary connections we worked to integrate literacy skills into the content areas and updated assessment practices to include these shifts we added the correlating checklists and rubrics

013to reflect these shifts as well and have begun these shifts as we move towards the state's portrait of a graduate work as well um in terms of the culture of data this is our second full year using the linkit system um we've continued to build our culture of data using Link's data management system not only with administrators but with teachers as well and we've seen that expand throughout the K12 Continuum um I've seen firsthand most recently this morning how linkit supports our mtss process across grade levels and helps teachers to Target learning gaps for individual students as well as on a more Global level helps us to inform decision-making around professional development needs um in each of the grade level levels and across discipline areas when it comes to science from kindergarten to fifth grade

014this year our primary and elementary teachers worked very closely with our curriculum coordinator of science Joanna rasich to bring the mystery science kits into their classrooms the children are loving the authentic Hands-On learning experiences and are learning how to think like scientists for example our kindergarten students have played Boulder bounce when learning about pushes and pulls where they had to design a system that would protect Tiny Town from a bouncing ball Boulder I was able to witness a mold terrarium which I will never forget where students conducted an investigation to determine how different factors affect decomposition they loved it they loved it um when thinking about digital fluency uh I'm sorry I skipped Project Lead the Way and steam uh this year a new Project Lead the Way course was introduced at the middle school

015as part of students technology uh experience it was called design and modeling through that steam experience students were able to develop different products using um media such as wood all the way through 3D printing and we're looking forward to improve continuing that work in the future but steam wasn't something that was just focused on at the middle school it's a K12 initiative and in our elementary schools even we had steam carts that were brought around developed by Miss Lindsay and made sure that all of our students had these Hands-On learning experiences with steam when I look at digital fluency uh it's been one of our priorities especially with the New York State computer science and digital fluency standards that were implemented this school year we've emphasized empowering teachers by initiatives such as creating summer curriculum

016with elementary teachers around the standards focusing on digital citizenship as well as Innovation and we've also been leveraging our library media special to help support this work across grade levels in buildings you will hear more about that from Mrs Maguire at our next instructional uh meeting when we talk about Innovative learning spaces um across the district we've made sure that we are capitalizing on the landmarks that we have on the geography that we have and so we focused on designing learning spaces that meet students needs nurture their creativity and support different learning styles of students on the primary and Elementary level Mr and Miss viskovich will speak more to that and on the secondary level uh Mr samels and Mr Stein grer will speak as well to the initiatives that they are leading when we

017talk about professional learning oh I skipped literacy okay so while we aren't explicitly saying numeracy when we talk about literacy of course numeracy and literacy are priorities in our district always have been and always will be um this year we are making sure that the goal was literacy across curricular areas in grades K through 12 we've invested resources and professional development around these goals and will continue the work moving forward some examples of that include foundations being ex expanded to include our third graders um teachers have engaged in professional development as they've implemented this this is something that is um very much a higher level learning of students in foundations and not all districts provide that for their kids um um we've added content area text sets to our student to our grades three through

018five classrooms that align with social studies and science topics um these text sets are designed to build students background knowledge and expand their content specific vocabulary looking ahead to next year we're excited to expand the range of these text sets to introduce them to our K2 classrooms as well we are continuing to add more highquality decodable texts in our K1 classrooms and make sure that they're aligned with the explicitly taught skills through our foundation's resource we've provided professional development focused on evidence-based science of reading practices and integrated the big six literacy skills and competencies and our literacy coach has provided ongoing support to teachers across the primary and Elementary buildings facilitating professional development modeling instructional routines pushing into classrooms and meeting individually with teachers throughout the year this support included rining refining curriculum using data

019informed practices to drive instruction and providing and organizing resources such as the quotable text to strengthen teaching and learning speaking of professional learning in all of our curriculum areas teachers are learning from one another um we've embedded professional learning in what we do every single day for example outside of that on the primary and Elementary levels we focus on implementation of Mystery Science and literacy teachers engaged in learning experiences that furthered their knowledge around the crosscutting concept of science planning authentic Hands-On experiences as I discussed before think mold terrarium um and integrating literacy skills into their practices thereby increasing the efficiency and effect effectiveness of instructional time targeted literacy professional development took place across grade levels throughout the year to support teachers literacy instruction as well on the secondary level professional development was provided in

020all content areas and is embedded into our practices throughout the year our World language teachers continued their curriculum articulation design work and science focused on incorporating shifts in instructional strategies to address the changes that the Next Generation learning standards bring this includes a focus on phenomenon based learning as well as changes to investigations and lab practices as well as preparation to ensure that our students will be prepared for the new Regents exams that will be administered in June 2026 earth science will become Earth and space sciences and living environment will become biology each with the Regent's exam that reflects the Next Generation learning standards last but not least we have a new assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction this year uh that's my office last year we had the pleasure of having Judy Barbara who

021helped the districts by supporting curriculum and instruction part-time um and she really did leave me with a lot of resources and materials that helped me as I stepped into my new role however I have to say that everybody up here has played an integral role in making sure that I knew not only who everyone was but what happens when and how and I couldn't have done any of the work that gets done out of my office without these people as well as my curriculum coordinators um they are actually the lifeline I've learned a lot throughout the course of the year and I will continue to learn because that's what we do in education um I'm finding ways that we can make this very excellent District even better I've worked on my entry plan throughout the

022year which I will present to the board and the community at a later meeting and we will continue the goals and move forward moving on to next year moving forward uh we will as you know we are in the midst of a literacy review and one of our goals next year will be to address the recommendations from this literacy review um so far we are making good Pro progress in that review our teachers have completed surveys we have also um started making plans for the appointments for our focus groups our parent survey has gone out and the end of this week and beginning of next week our students in grades 3 through nine will have the opportunity to tell us their thoughts around literacy instruction in our classrooms um and so a lot of that

023work will be addressed in our next year next we will be ensuring the alignment of our prek to 12 skills and competencies as defined by the Blue Ribbon commission and the portrait of a graduate um those those uh items the Blue Ribbon commission and the portrait of a graduate bring with them changes that will make different the high school experience of our students but also and more importantly will make different The prek to2 Experience um we will do a separate presentation in the coming months on this work once the foundations of our instructional work will in however will integrate the skills and competencies that have been identified will review and fine where necessary um but we also want to make sure that we are using and um integrating the knowledge skills and habits of mind

024that the students will need to be successful beyond our schools those include not only academic preparation but also critical thinking collaboration communication and civic responsibility once again we will focus on a curriculum articulation design work next year it's ongoing and will continue next year our Focus next year will be on authentic assess assment or performance-based assessments and that is tied directly to the portrait of a graduate and the work of the Blue Ribbon commission um we will continue our work on storyboarding which will is a good way for us to communicate with our families what's happening in our classrooms story boards are clear ways for parents to understand for example what does it mean to be a second grade student what will our second graders learn throughout the course of the year um they provide

025an Avenue for parents to have conversations with their children about what's going on in school but also provide opportunities for support and help really to help with the communication between school and home um we will be developing curriculum related to the B Bond product projects pardon me um you'll hear more about this from Mr sein grer there's a lot going on at the high school uh for example with the development of our business center we also have the opportunity to look at our curriculum in physics and art as the learning spaces for those departments are also being updated and so we'll be evaluating the needs of those disciplines as well as obviously the business department throughout the course of the school year in order to identify our priorities we are looking to update our Elementary

026report cards um as a district this has been on our plate for years Dr sinow is waiting for someone to be in the curriculum and instruction office full-time and I introduced that person earlier uh so now that we're beginning that work we are getting a committee together so that we can really take a close look at our report cards ensure that they're aligned with the Next Generation learning standards and make and really work to make sure that they communicate what we are seeing as far as learning from our students and the growth that they're making next we plan to leverage AI tools to enhance student- centered teaching and learning as well as operational efficiency while maintaining ethical and responsible implementation as we look ahead to the 25 26 school year one of our Focus areas

027is the strategic use of AI it's a powerful tool to enhance what we already do well we will be incorporating practices that prepare our students to effectively and appropriately use AI additionally for example teaching students how to engineer prompts that will generate useful responses as well as developing students understanding of when and how to use AI appropriately and deepening their understanding of the ethical use of AI are among our goals in terms of how we plan to use it you'll hear more about how our um AI will be looking here next year again when Mrs Lauren Maguire presents an instruction too um what I've come to learn in my first year here is that we are typically ahead of the curve and how we are using and leveraging AI is no different next year we

028will be having some new leadership in our district we will be supporting a new Middle School principal a new high school assistant principal a new assistant director of PPS and a coordinator for social studies in World languages uh we are in the midst of the hiring process but as a district these are positions that are very very important and they are folks who we will look to support and make sure that they have everything that they need to succeed in service of our students at this time I'm going to turn it over to Chris har Chris hardigan I don't know who Chris harrian is um and oh Suzanne viskovich who will share what they've been working on this year in K to 5 after that they will uh hand it over to Carrie Han and

029Melanie oone who will talk about our priorities for next year and then we'll follow the same pattern on the Middle School level where we'll talk about our priorities from this year and then our priorities from next for next year and Mr Stein grer will finish it off by doing the same for the high school uh leading us off at the elementary level Miss visich Dr viskovich thank you Dr Bowman okay as we review the priorities for this school year you'll see a strong connection to the district priorities that Dr Bowman shared and many of our priorities remain a focus for more than one school year with the emphasis shifting slightly each year as you'll see when Mrs odone and Mrs Han share next year's priorities on the K5 level we partner with our district coordinators

030throughout the school year to support our work so for our CAD or curriculum articulation and design developing interdisciplinary science units for K5 aligned with literacy throughout this school year our curriculum articulation and design work placed a strong emphasis as Dr rowman shared on interdisciplinary connections to enhance student learning at the K5 level we collaborated closely with our literacy director Lauren cman and our science coordinator Joanna rosich to align science with reading and writing ensuring that our students could strengthen their background knowledge build oral language skills using content specific vocabulary and apply these skills in their writing in meaningful ways for example students engage in non-fiction writing pieces centered on science topics aligned with curriculum this approach allowed them to deepen their understanding of scientific Concepts and content area vocabulary while developing their writing skills in

031an authentic and integrated way illustrative math refining instruction through data driven decisionmaking this year our grades K through two are in year three of implementation of our illustrative math resource and grades 3 through five are in year two of implementation for this year our K5 math professional development Focus was on using our data to build fact fluency and to refine curriculum instruction and and assessments in K1 we used our data to develop targeted supports for students using math centers focused on fluency we incorporated what I need or win Center time in kindergarten and first grade where students work with our math coach our speech teacher and classroom teacher in small groups on targeted instruction specifically in mathematics we looked at student fluency data to develop fluency plans where the math coach Incorporated specific centers to

032meet student needs also during wi time we provide enrichment for students where Stu small group of students who have already achieved their fluency goals go further important to note is that last year a primary school first grade team from Locust won second place in the New York State first in math or fim competition and all of our primary first grade classes just competed last week so we are hopeful to have another winner this year we also used our data to refine curriculum instruction and assessments by examining our state and local data at the K5 level to see what standards and Concepts our students need more time and more practice in developing and for our new teachers to Garden City our math coaches work closely with them so they understand our approach to mathematics literacy enhancement

033Advan ancing professional learning in the science of reading with a focus on the big six skills as Dr Bowman mentioned our ongoing professional learning remain focused on the comprehensive approach to literacy with an emphasis on the big six skills and competencies that underpin the science of reading literacy briefs which came out last year oral language phonological awareness phonics fluency vocabulary and comprehension to support this work we implemented professional learning led by literacy director Lauren cman and literacy coach Destiny bradic focused on integrated text sets and science and social studies strategically embedded within interactive read alouds and close reading instructional structures the implementation of level three foundations in grade three addressing complex phonics principles morphology and encoding skills to support students in becoming more proficient readers and writers ERS our teachers explored how to deepen students

034understanding of word structure by applying morphological awareness to reading and writing reinforce encoding skills through structured word workk and fluency building activities and integrate these phonics principles into daily literacy instruction to support reading comprehension and written expression making explicit connections between foundations and word workk to build fluency through and coding and to strengthen writing instruction by integrating interdisciplinary content for example we in examined how to incorporate decodable texts interactive read alouds and close reading strategies to develop content area vocabulary that students could then apply in their writing by fostering these connections we're reinforcing literacy skills while deepening student engagement in meaningful content-rich learning experiences which brings us to our K5 science and I'll turn it over to Mr hardan thank you Dr V for an elementary update on science Dr Bowman has shared with you

035already that we had purchased new mystery science kits with a focused on phenomenon based lessons Emily Kang a professor from ad Ali has been working closely with the district and Joanna rasich to support that shift in science this year we supported um all K5 in this area through professional development and the S these sessions focused on building the teacher uh capacity through inquiry learning the professional development was helpful is it brought teachers together to increase their collaboration around Elementary science the their kits are very helpful but in those PD sessions we're also relying heavily on our teacher feedback to make sure we're making any adjustments as we see fit one of them has been for all grades 2 to five to review the grade five Science assessment that led us to some of the curriculum

036articulation work that Dr V said about the connection between literacy and science one of the most exciting takeaways of course right from the students is that they're asking a lot more questions questions uh questions about everything as Dr bone shared with you earlier about the terrarium but also they are not memorizing parts of plants anymore they are designing parts of plants and models and testing all of that um and they're showing the their thinking through that design process so it's been really helpful to see and our kids love it the the new learning spaces that we have in the district I think it's just important just to highlight the two photos that are up here now one of them is a new library and the other one is a new Courtyard Dr V and I

037all year have collaborated to create opportunities for students to meaningfully engaged with these spaces the focus is not just being in the space but really leveraging to leveraging the space to enhance some student learning we teach for the future so uh we want to have spaces that look like the future so many students participated in the design and the development of these when we were designing the Stratford Courtyard we brought in students to the design process and the natural wood that you see them sitting on is a recommendation that they wanted um they wanted natural seating they wanted it to look like a forest uh so that was really neat from them also we had some chess tables out there which was actually not at the design table even with our Architects until there we

038had some seating for them but the kids wanted some chess tables out there and a huge shout out to the PTA who is running the chess club during our lunch periods out there which has been great for our kids um they're really proud when you talk to the kids about those spaces they like being there but right now they were part of the design process so they're really proud to be in those places also um all of our teachers are focusing on the courtyards because those are the the newest ones that we have this plan has been going on for four years most recently I saw an mtss math class out there using our multi-sensory approach to math with math and movements and they're practicing their fluency outside uh we surveyed the students 95% of

039them said they they love learning outside still working on that 5% but I think we'll get there um in the libraries the elementary libraries both at straford and Stuart have have gone under renovation and they've been just tremendous um and I quote they they describe them as magical like that's not our words that's their words that the libraries are magical they look amazing um and the biggest thing about it is like it promotes the collaboration but they really also like the green screen room that we have there which is hosts our live video morning announcements it's a way to bring our our school together um weekly and you know to have some fun with our kids that like to report out what's happening at straford what happened at Stuart and I know the middle school

040does that as well so the last thing about the library Renovations that we've we've gone through is that one we are definitely focusing on the digital fluency standards and we've been supporting that work by making sure our students are are well aware of vetting appropriate resources that's been a big Focus for us and then the second component of that is that kids like to take out books like they they love taking out books so um we've kept up with the collection it's up it's been updated the books have been updated which sounds like a small thing but it really is a huge undertaking because the the novels that kids are are interested in have changed and we have a lot of new tech sets and um when you when you talk to our students they

041you know they they want more uh which is awesome because they everything's changing really quick so we want to make sure that we have the most engaging texts and titles for them in that Library okay that covers science that covers the Innovative spaces and then we will talk a little bit about enrichment and Quest and then I'll wrap up with link it and data surprise surprise um so we're in uh the third year of updating the the our Quest program and we continue to look for ways to enhance this for all students we have partnered with Dr kogan Who is a specialist from adelfi and gifted and talented and we've also partnered with Liu their input has been ongoing and it's been helpful as we expand our offerings this year we began in Richmond for

042all in grade three earlier so we started in September and those last were aligned with the mystery science but also developed to build critical thinking one example is a water cycle unit that they created on their own but the biggest takeaway for enrichment for all is yes the impact on our students but also it is it serves a double purpose because our Stu our teachers attend the session which is led by Taylor mcdal who's doing a fantastic job with it but our teachers are there and they are learning it's like by Design they're getting professional development on how to support students for enrichment for all so it's a it's a model that we have seen some excitement about for third grade and the enrichment model is something we're going to continue to look at and

043ways to expand and then finally linkit this is as Dr Bowman shared with you our second full year of implementing linkit and we've seen sort really really big shift in the culture of data that we've created as a result of using linkit um teachers are becoming more increasingly empowered to make data data driven instructional decisions that support growth uh very anecdotally what we're learning and we're hearing and I've talked to the other principles about this is a a desire for more from the teachers so what that means is that they're coming to us for seeking more information from linkit um ways in which they can use the data ways in which they want can progress monitor it so we're really starting to see that shift in our teachers and a big shout out to them

044because um it's been an adjustment to get to know and learn the platform as I shared with you at the student achievement report but they're finding it to be a very valuable tool because of um you know it's multifaceted use and then as we kind of move into the next phase of linkit we're really excited to identify Trends all the time we'll have more historical data on our cids as they move from the kindergarten level all the way up to the high school and as we are just another way of refining it for next year we're also looking at ways that we could just enhance the assessment tools that Lincoln has to offer but also just take a look at the integration of inter intervention manager for Progress monitoring and some further enhancements to our

045data pods and uh that wrap wraps up the updates for the K5 Elementary and I'll turn it over to Carrie H to give a status uh excuse me not status a K5 priorities for next sco year thank you Mr hardigan I'm gonna start off with the K to one so there are several K toi priorities next year that will be a continuation of our current work allowing us to deepen our practices refine our instructional approaches and build on the strong Foundation that we've already established so as Mr hardigan just shared we've made a great progress with our data work this year so next year we will continue us utilizing linkit by incorporating some assessments into the platform this will allow us to look at student data more critically next year our Focus will also be

046on enhancing our instructional practices and support strategies through the use of student math data in Lincoln so to achieve this we will prioritize building fact fluency and strengthening tier one classroom supports by developing toolkits to assist teachers and improving students proficiency with addition and subtraction story problems also we will continue to build teacher capacity in interpreting student data with the use of linkit using linkit as a support to the work that is happening in the classroom so as we continue to build a strong culture of data teachers will use linkit to analyze math data with a particular emphasis on fluency to inform instruction and promote student growth for the second part for foundational skills as we prepare for the upcoming school year we seek to enhance our what I need which is often called win

047time for our kindergarten and first grade students that we began this year that Dr viskovich spoke about earlier so this push in time facilitated by our primary math coach and primary speech language pathologist provides targeted interventions and small group instruction in both math and literacy so during this win time students rotate through small group stations and they engage in math centers that primarily focus on early numeracy skills aligned with the illustrative math resource this structured approach ensures that our young Learners build a strong foundation in mathematical Concepts and in literacy a systematic framework is implemented that aligns with both the hity and the foundation's resources ensuring that all literacy activities are cohesive and effective our reading and writing interventions commence early in the school year emphasizing phonological awareness as an important stepping stone as students

048progress they transition to decoding using decodable texts foring their confidence and competence in both decoding and encoding and for the third Billet for report cards in addition as Dr Bowman shared earlier we will be refining our current report cards to align with the Next Generation New York State learning standards this has been an ongoing effort this year with Dr Bowman leading the work by collecting and reviewing report cards from neighboring districts and also across New York state to continually move this work forward we will be forming a committee with parents involved to thoughtfully guide the revisions ensuring the updated report cards accurately reflect the standards and provide meaningful clear and consistent information about student progress and achievement so we're hopeful that this collaborative process will ensure that the report cards serve as a valuable communication

049tool between school and home as we continue with the curriculum articulation design work we intend to focus on refining our units to include purposeful integration of content area and literacy we will be identifying which literacy rubrics and checklists align with all of our science and social studies units we'll also be looking at how we're assessing students understanding integrating more authentic performance-based ass assessments our literacy professional development next year will support this curriculum articulation design work our goal is to provide teachers in grades 3 through five with text sets on additional topics while introducing text sets into the K2 classrooms teachers use these texts in conjunction with the science and social studies units to build background knowledge and vocabulary through close reading our teachers will continue to participate in professional development coaching cycles and Inter visitations

050to ensure that they have time to review student work and data together while sharing bre best practices and resources we will also be exploring recommendations from the literacy review and our districtwide literacy committee after a very successful year of third grade in Richmond for all will be looking to bring similar opportunities to our first and second grade classrooms all students benefit from these enrichment opportunities which provide Hands-On learning experiences linked to the science and social studies curriculum as Mr hardigan shared Miss McDowell and the elementary administrators have had opportunities to collaborate with Dr Esther kogan from adelfa University and members from the Long Island University Center for gifted youth to enhance our practices here in City we look forward to continued collaboration and making new connections as we develop and refine our enrichment curriculum to

051meet the needs of our students now I'm going to hand it over to Mr samelson to review the priorities from this year thank you Miss hand and thank you everyone for allowing me to speak this evening about the exciting things we've been doing at the Middle School uh I'll start off by talking a bit about our self program uh for those of you who have older children you'll recall that for a few years we ran an SS program in seventh grade science uh this year we shifted to self which stands for the children's environmental literacy Foundation it's a partnership with the local bosies and provides our students with opportunities to work directly with working scientists who are studying the efficacy and impacts of things like wind turbines off the coast of Long Island we're learning

052about how scientists learn about data collection and data analysis and we're giving some very careful thought to sustainability uh for a healthy environment we're also pleased to share that later this year in June we will H we will host our first annual science Symposium where students will students will present their scientific research to their peers and families um are you allowed to call a first year thing a first annual it's presumptuous but it's going to be it's great uh uh We've also cons continued our our work with curriculum articulation this year and the focus has been on uh aligning our assessments with the goals identified in our unit planners H and again you as we look to become stronger data analysts part of that is making sure that the assessments we use are harvestable that

053they give us information that we can pull and use to make insightful and uh educationally sound decisions about our students and and our cohorts uh this year we've also continued to expand our teacher skills with our new spaces including our learning Commons and Library our steam class and our maker spaces have really taken root in our library and students have had a wonderful experience collaborating with each other to solve Mrs wenger's weekly problems uh our library maintains its full Library functionality too and our students do enjoy their access and ability like they do with the younger levels to to borrow books and to read read books of their own choosing our students also benefit from news for recording studio which is a site of our morning messenger where every day we put out a Daily

054News Bulletin as well as multiple uh podcasts and just recently we've started using that Bas and Technology to jumpstart our new Trojan watch YouTube page where Middle School families can go to see videos related to the things we're doing at school uh our first video is up and it relates to January's GC cares Aon it's a great watch and wonderful opportunity to see our kids doing wonderful community service work uh in the building we've also seeing a great increase in the frequency and depth of use of our learning Commons uh if you came by today you'd see teachers working in tandem to deliver interdisciplinary lessons our students taking advantage of the the landscape the the architecture and spaces of the room to collaborate and build with each other uh our Rube Goldberg course takes Place

055almost entirely in that learning comments it's a great space for kids to spread out make their ideas come to life and really work together in a in a in a nice positive way some other things that this year uh included we doubled our math lab this year uh and that was just because the interest was so high last year we had great participation from our students uh we offer it now twice a week at each grade level students can come in at 7:20 to get support in timely math topics uh and you know if you're coming day before a test it's going to be busy but um it's pretty busy anyway but days before a test it's it's really busy um our our new Mo our new sorry our new clubs uh our maker space

056club and our morning messenger Club continued to be uh very popular we're also piloting an ASL Club this year uh just in the last few weeks which has been very positive as well this year also saw a series of new electives uh we run our theater arts class uh with Mrs aguillo we run our cs102 class with Miss Dillis Mrs metzdorf leads our rub Goldberg class and we've expanded our technology a class and turned it into a pltw course called design and modeling we're par particularly excited about the design modeling course as Dr bman referred to earlier it's an opportunity for students to blend their imagination their understanding of computer rated design uh with an eye toward actually manifesting U something physical out of what they've been thinking about it also provides a really nice

057entry point for students who are interested in engineering and who want to pursue pltw at the high school level that doves Tales very nicely um but perhaps maybe most importantly this year we've developed a great skill with linkit uh the teachers are using the information therein to make database decisions uh for students and for our cohorts and we're really moving towards a more digitally fluent ENT assessment model we're really proud of our developing analysis skills and when I asked um will our link trainer which GC principal was the best data analysis he said I was the balest uh yeah baldest pretty good um uh and then moving on to next year next year it's um with um mixed emotions that will turn towards onboarding a new leader in the building um I would just say

058these last four years have been some of the best of my life I loved working with these children and these professionals with your families with this uh Administration team with this board um and now I consider it my job for the next several months to make sure the transition is a smooth one for our new building leader uh additionally uh with respect to curricul curriculum uh design we're going to be focusing uh really carefully on science and World Language again as Dr Bowman shared uh we are moving towards new Assessments in uh Earth and space Sciences in June of 2026 and New York State continues to help us evolve our understandings of World Language standards and we'll be helping our teachers to push towards an Act full model that it really values speaking and listening

059um as well as writing and reading puts an emphasis on developing fluency uh in in a seven-year time span the seven years being Middle School and High School uh the building will also take necessary time to carefully scrutinize and review our current master schedule to make a recommendation for the years to come we are working currently on next year's master and we are focusing on a number of things but certainly class size is a driving Focus for us we're doing what we can to make sure that these our class sizes are more comfortable we will also continue to review our elective offerings at the middle school to make sure they're in line with the New York State portrait of a graduate we want to make sure our courses are helping to develop Global Citizens critical

060thinkers uh Innovative and literate members of our community students who are culturally and socially competent and of course students who communicate and collaborate well we're going to ask ourselves that agree to which our current offerings speak to those goals and where we can make improvements we'll be looking to make those adjustments uh next year we're also going to look to continue to refine and develop our pltw curriculum this is our our year one that we're currently finishing uh we've learned a lot about the program and we want to make some revisions and enhancements and we're also looking you know at the potential to broaden our offerings with pltw in the years to come perhaps to include uh green uh green architecture and then finally with respect to link it um you know we've done a

061really good job this year of getting our teachers ready to harness and analyze data uh but there's a lot more that link you can do including being a place where we can store local assessments and actually Implement local assessments and next year's work is going to be to develop proficiency skill and comfort amongst our teachers so that we can have a more broad portfolio of student achievement that includes more than the the 3 through eight exam the nw8 and a few local exams really excited about what's coming and uh really grateful for the opportunity to speak to you tonight thank you Mr Stan grer thank you good evening everyone thanks for having me uh a lot of what I'm going to speak about has been touched on upon by everyone from Dr Bowman to Dr

062samelson here and everyone in between uh absolutely promotion for you um but there are some uh very specific High School items that I'll speak about but uh you know looking at the high school priorities this year and our status uh the curriculum work again with World languages and science uh that is specifically because of the standards changes uh the ngls and the actual standards in in the world languages uh that carries right up 9th grade through 12th grade in all all of the different languages and as you've heard uh Earth and space science and then biology they'll fall in line as well over the next few years so we continue to work on our curriculums it's a lot more Hands-On uh work and we'll talk about that for next year as well uh professional development

063uh this year at the high school we we've done some more Project Lead the Way training um in engineering and cyber security which is our brand new course so now we offer four courses four full year program in engineering including our Aerospace uh class which is very popular again and then this year the cyber security is brand new that's in our computer science uh portion of the the school so we'll see how that goes uh Beyond this year uh that's a one-year class uh link it uh as you've heard we continue to explore how we can use that in a variety of ways we do have our big standardized exams that are on there our AP exams our region exams um but we're starting to explore this year how to do more local assessments that

064can be connected to those as well uh we've always been data driven in the decisions we make at the high school uh our curriculums are you know either National or State uh given to us and and hence we receive reports through the data warehouse and through college board that has very specific instructional uh planning reports that we get on a yearly basis so we're we're figuring out how to tie all all those in with linol uh this year we saw an expansion in find and Performing Arts specifically our Orchestra we added a second Orchestra for many many years we've had one Orchestra with about 50 students in it uh this year we had two orchestras for the first time uh Mr albani is our Orchestra teacher he's here at the high school full full-time and

065these two courses it's about 100 students uh one of the photos up here up there you can see took their trip to Disney World this year where they performed and they took uh some courses there at the imagination Studios uh it's one of those you know once in a-lifetime trips and we continue to rotate in our music program who's traveling to Disney World each year uh last year was chorus this is Orchestra next year band and then we'll start that rotation over in another few years so everybody uh should get a chance over their four-year time at the high school at least that's our long long-term plan that they'll get to go to Disney uh once in a high school career uh and Mr con seems to uh be our representative and Miss Hower they

066they love going to Florida and uh that's their trip and they can continue to do that uh we also added uh our our art Club this year is a stipended u extracurricular activity many years ago there was a review of the arts program and this was one of one of the recommendations to have Art Club and uh last year or the year before we added the National Art Honor Society as well so two separate programs uh very well attended every month these clubs uh very popular we're very happy and appreciative that we were able to add that this year they do a lot for the school and enhancing um you know just the the feel and the look and um just changes the atmosphere what with uh you know brightening things up every month and

067then finally uh with learning spaces what we've done this year is a Furniture redesign in one specific room that's room 140 that's a classroom it's a social studies classroom each year we're trying to add new furniture we're basically changing the vibe similar to the vibe here in the library with the modern furniture and the and the different style of furniture not just traditional desks where the you know the seats are connected to the the tabletop and they're very rigid and and boring um but they're brighter they're more flexible in what they do uh we do add different elements like uh you know more comfortable seating some high top seating uh it just changes the attitude that students have walking into a classroom um that it it changes the way that they want to be in

068there and if they want to be there they're going to want to learn and their learning is going to be better so we're doing that little by little we've been doing it every year um with different classrooms 167 was a business classroom a few years ago we did a couple English classrooms uh again 140 social studies and we'll look to uh do that again next year uh this year also we added a podcast studio and that's the the photo down there it's hard to see but we have some fancy Lighting in there uh it's originally the room that it's in was the original Studio back in the 50s when they built this building it was the sound control room for the auditorium now we have the soundboard in the back in the balcony but it

069used to be off to the side next time you're in the auditorium look you'll see the little glass window they used to look through there they used to do the announcements from there um the sign on the door still says Studio from decades ago it was never painted over as you walk by there tonight that's where it is uh so we made it a studio again it's for podcasting uh it's also video there's two rooms in there the video video media Club uses it we have green screen we have new lighting and uh a lot of different groups use the podcast studio uh classrooms use it they do book reports uh GC Trojan nation has a podcast they use that for interviews and then the APUSH underground which is advanced placement United States history uh

070they have a podcast they've been running for a couple of years and so they were able to use that as well and all these groups use AI to enhance um technology and the sound quality of the work that they're doing and I'll talk more about AI uh as we go on to the next slide but uh one last thing from the last one we also have the student achievement Showcase in our lobby that's between the gymnasium and the auditorium uh we have different large uh screens in there um the Hall of Fame for athletics is there uh Ed Ramirez did did a great job it's an interactive board uh there's actually another one in the uh cafeteria and it includes individuals and team it's it's a full history of Athletics at Garden City High School

071and we also added uh with Amanda Hower the uh music and art showcase they have a a screen as well um so the shared Lobby between music and arts and the and the athletic program uh and they share the area to enhance uh and show off the student achievement that we have so we're proud of that all right so now on the next slide uh for this year uh speaking of ai ai touches everything in technology and we are at the Forefront um I know earlier in the year uh news day did an article and they came here and they spoke to our students uh most of the AI is led by Margo kma our library media specialist uh she's constantly attending trainings she's constantly offering trainings uh that we do at the high school

072we have a monthly Tech bites meeting that we do at lunchtime uh here in the library all of our teachers are welcome to it and we talk about anything that's technology and art artificial intelligence related like up to-the minute uh technology Mike Deva from the district comes over Lauren LEL is involved and we thank Lauren Maguire for allowing them to come and work with us and we're constantly learning and trying to stay up to date with the newest educational AI programs that we can use um we have another one this week we're going to talk about uh the new Google videos uh we'll talk about padlet uh we'll talk about gbts versus magic school which is the program The District offers um which you know assists teachers and students um there are so many different

073programs that we are learning as teachers and that is allowing us to leverage that learning for our students so that's how we're able to stay um current with what is going on in Ai and I know we're current because with these trainings and I've attended some as well with with Margot and Mike and we go and we watch presenters from Google or you know any other big company and they're showing us what we're showing our own teachers you know the week before the month before we're like oh we did this with our teachers like we know what we're doing and if and if the people that are creating these programs are are presenting it and we're doing the same thing then then we know we're doing all right so we're constantly uh trying to stay

074ahead of it I know there's um a draft policy today as well which which I'm very happy to see that um you know we're working along to keep the AI uh working for us and not against us all right so the bond projects uh spoken about earlier as well so there's a lot of planning that's going to happen this summer we're going to see outdoor work that's done there will be some new art uh art the turf fields artificial turf fields and then I think the foundation of the new uh building will be uh out by the track that's all going to impact inside the building as well over the next couple of years we'll have a new business classroom we'll have a new art classroom we'll have new physics classrooms uh so there's going

075to be a domino effect of where classrooms are moving to in the business classroom we're going to tie in Bloomberg terminals so there's going to be a change in uh coursework that we offer we've been working with the business department uh Mr Bello has been very much involved in our planning and you know what kind of work we're going to uh train for in preparation for that again we don't see those classes starting next year but our but our uh planning will happen uh for the year after uh physics classes we're going to see uh a shift in you know what we're offering technology wise in there and then the the art studio classroom is where the current weight room is so there gaining a larger area and there will be a showcase area as

076well uh where you know there will be visuals from the hallway walking past these classrooms to really show off the work that students are doing uh we do have new leadership as you heard we'll have a new assistant principal which is exciting for us it's always a new opportunity uh we're sad to see Mr pado on his retirement uh but we're happy for the opportunity to have someone new come in and and share our vision for uh moving forward uh and then social studies and World Language coordinator we're excited about um you know we haven't had Our World Language coordinator uh in a while so it's good we have new teachers uh that leadership will help with them with their growth and uh in social studies it's a large Department we look forward to uh

077you know working with the new person there as well uh the cad work again we're going to continue where we were with World Language and science standards those aren't the only two departments where we're doing work ough those are just the two that have the new standards over the next several years we continue to do curriculum work in all of our subject areas uh especially as new units are coming up uh and there's always changes in regions exams you're hearing about portrait of a graduate that's coming that's going to change everything for every department so the curriculum work is is across the board uh we'll see that not just this year but in in all the years to come it never ends with changing with standards and and New York State and and even uh

078you know American we keep saying Act full standards for World Language that's American it's the it's the American um Coalition of of teaching foreign language uh so it's not just New York that's guiding our work um and then we're exploring uh more use of authentic assessments we see that especially in the science classrooms and I know it's hard to see there's some small pictures there but if you if you bring these photos up online uh these are authentic Labs that happen and that's the the ngls standards or are a lot about Hands-On work that the students are doing to do their learning right the traditional classroom um is not what this is about it's not about lecturing it's not about you know students listening and teachers talking it's about what the students are doing and

079our teachers are are right on top of it right we already see that they're offering um this type of work if you go on Instagram and follow the high school and follow our different science teachers uh they're doing amazing work and and they're and they're showcasing it already and finally uh updating our class room environments we're going to continue uh the trend that I spoke about earlier with uh new flexible Furniture in various classrooms and in different areas of the building um keep it up to date and keep it fresh and that's what we're looking to do thank you thank you everybody that was really terrific um you know it's right around this time that I sit back and I say to myself you know it's it's amazing what everyone does and that this is

080part of the budget to discussion because we work really months at this and it goes back and forth and to see it put into place is very dear to me so thank everybody for for the good good work um so what happens is you know we've explained the budget process but early I guess early November is when we start to really get all the forms out and everyone does this and the principles build their codes from the beginning um each year and during our conversations we talk about you know what the needs are what the goals and priorities are for the district and this is really what's behind these numbers that we present here so um you know it's it really comes together and we build it all within the uh you know the revenue

081and make sure that we're within the tax cap but this is what this is how the magic is done but um this is the full budget and Dr Sinha had said earlier uh the total budget for the 2526 school year is now 137 million 76,800 when we we're required to put it into the three-part budget so these two when you see Administration this is where they actually fall the first is the 2010 code which is Dr Bowman's codes and she spoke about that earlier so in the 20110 codes you'll find salary for the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction she has a full-time clerical person in her office um she really oversees a lot of the profession all of the professional development and the uh curriculum development that's done out of there so that's something

082that she budgets for uh staff development and training is done out of here um the code is is is really relatively um moderately increased uh that's really salaries and some conference and travel in the 2020 code is the offices of the principals so this is everything it takes to run the main offices of the principles in each of the buildings so it's the principal salaries all the cler iCal support uh the assistant principles any of the um Administration copers all of that falls into the 2010 2020 code so this is any supplies for the main office and throughout the building um that's all there changes here are basically attributable to salary increases and a little bit on supplies the 2040 codes is related to the curriculum coordinators so those are done also through Dr Bowman's

083office uh the curriculum coordinated salaries Material supplies their conferences and travel supervision of the K12 is all done out of 2040 the change here is also due to salaries and in the 299 this is an expense that we're required to show in the administrative part of the budget so it's the salaries for special education for the director and the assistant director the director of technology and Athletics so their offices and what it takes to run those buildings are in the instructional side but the state has us carve out the salaries and present that in administration so those are just I guess they have all the other administrative codes or administrative salaries in the uh that part of the budget so they have us carve that out too so those are there and the uh the

084increase here is really salaries 2110 is the last pose and that is the largest part of the uh program part of the budget so that has um everything having to do with direct general education so this is most of the codes that the people around this table a budget for so the principles it has everything from all the teacher salaries the teacher um the um the monitors the sub teers textbooks are in here instructional equipment all of the supplies in the classrooms any contractual services including bosies all get paid out of those 2110 codes um increases here are due to salary increases and contractual Services um and that is the end of that so I will hand this off to Dr Sinha and she could finish this up again thank you everyone um I know

085um Dan already spoke of this there's so much work that takes um that goes on behind the scenes to put this uh instruction part one in part two together we have this slide and this really shows uh per pupil allocation with the districts that we typically compare ourselves with and U we get this information through Questar 3 bosis and you can see we're one of the um lower um you know the allocations per pupil ours is one of the lower ones Dan is this from this year um well is that from yeah two years two years or two years but this is how we compile this data every year yes this is the most recent data and we fall you know this year it's it's less sometimes it's it's like we hover in the bottom

086three typically yeah that's where we we've see this and then on our you know the two items that'll be on the ballot is the School District budget on May 20th and and election of two Board of Education trustees our next meeting is uh the work session on April 8th will be dedicated to instructional components part two which will be special education technology and Athletics open it up to the questions got to go one more oh oh yeah you like picture page are there any questions in the community hi my name is Sarah Hogan um I have a fifth grader at Stewart and a seventh grader at the middle school um that thank you for the presentation I have so many questions but I'm just gonna ask one I'm just wondering when the community will be

087made aware of the class siiz projections for next year because because when I came here in September I was told it was too late so I'd like to make sure that I hear what those are ahead of time sure at our next um work session we'll do Staffing as well so on April 8th yeah okay thank you okay there no further questions we can go to Mrs decapia for the treasures report are you I do have another question sorry hi Deborah dangler 142 kill there road I had a question about textbooks um I was looking at the budget and I went back to 2020 2021 and I was looking at Miss decapi breaks it down by schools how much money spent on textbooks and I saw the high school spent 32,592 the Middle School is

08847,800 5 Stewart was 49,1 72 straford was 42593 then I started going forward with the years and I noticed the actual expenses in 2023 2024 for textbooks the high school is 51,5 the middle school is 8,339 um I was wondering is that a typo or it's not a typo but it could be that something I paid for the following year those are actual expenses so the Middle School only spent 8,339 on books textbook I'd have to look I don't have that information okay well it said for the budget this year for 2025 it was approved for 29,185 and next year the proposed budget's 29,8 185 for textbooks for the midle school yes okay well my question is um word knowledge is a essential for reading comprehension and I was hoping to see if um we

089could purchase vocabulary books for the kids of middle school first sixth grade seventh grade eighth grade and I'd love to see it in fourth and fifth grade as well we used to have vocabulary books in fourth through eth grade um and they're no longer given to kids um in sixth grade my older kids had this book and there's 15 chapters there's 20 words in each chapter there's roughly about a 100 synonyms and antonyms so if you cover the entire book in a year it's about 1,800 words now I asked my son it's now the end of March um what vocabulary words he's learned in school this year because I've never seen a vocab test I've never seen um vocab lists i' they didn't have an English midterm with any list of vocab words they had

090to memorize so I was curious what vocab words he learned and he couldn't tell me so I asked his teacher and she said thee way they learn vocabulary is it's an organic process um and that may work for some kids but it doesn't work for all kids and at the end of the day as a parent I want to know what my child's learning in English what words he's learning because vocabulary is essential as Dr V was talking about um and if they have a book the teacher can use the book and then you'll know exactly what they've learned at the end of the year my second request is for a grammar book my older kids had this book it's called um English Reet teaching workbook it's old I had to find it on eBay

091but it's grade level this year one of the issues I had and I spoke about it in December was he was getting below grade level vocabul uh grammar sheets he was getting grade four four grade five sheets and if the teachers had a sixth grade grade level book same with seventh grade same with eighth grade they wouldn't be any issue with whether or not it's grade level or below grade level so I thought that would be really helpful for teachers in the Middle School um to have grammar books um they're very simple they're very easy to use I mean this one is so nice and then they would have a test on each chapter and I could tell what my ch learned and how he was progressing um and my third request was I spoke

092in December about the read aloud that the sixth graders were doing of the book unplugged they the teacher read the book out loud from September he just finished the book in March that was a long time to have to listen to the same book being read out loud and you guys were very nice you provided a classroom copy of the books in January so all the sixth graders got a copy to look at in school but now they started another readal out it's the book A Long Walk to Water and again the kids don't have any books um it's a little frustrating because I got the book for my son and he would prefer to read the book like he looked at this book and like there's a map um an explanation and it's just

093a better experience the joy like my son loves to read and listening to the teacher read a book out loud is is kind of killing the joy um so that's my third request for under textbooks is if all the kids could have books and if the kids could read the book that's the way it used to always be the kids read the books in school this read aloud at the middle school level I just I don't see how it's helping them they have to take a test they take the nweas it's reading the New York state test it's reading so I want to see the kids reading in school because that's what they need to do well on the test and that's actually my next Point um the middle school kids didn't take the NWA

094in the winter um they took it in the fall they took it a month later than when they took it in Stratford but now it's almost the spring so my question is I know we skipped the winter NWA are the kids taking the spring NWA and if they are when they're taking ma do you know why we didn't take it in the winter that practice that this is the second year of that practice um last year the decision was made so that the student because the students are in middle school and they are assessed in different ways the thinking was we would reduce the number of times that the nwaa was administered so that we would be able to maximize instructional time and not over assess the students while we were measuring their growth um

095my other two kids didn't take the NWA but um my child that's a sophomore took it and he took it the three times and I thought it was very beneficial to parents because you could see their growth it's very um sometimes with assessments a teacher may not be giving a lot of Assessments but with the NWA it's a standardized test and then at the bottom I can see his reading level it tells me his lexel number they don't do you know they don't do reading Assessments in the middle school but that test tells a parent whether their reading is improving or not improving and I think it's very helpful if it's given three times a year so maybe next year we could budget for three times it's just a suggestion but I think the data

096helps so we can track them um I was tracking the sixth grade class and I noticed when we entered straford School in second grade um their reading scores on the NWA when they took it in the fall were the highest ever they were at like 89% I mean that was amazing I mean but then when they left strapford we were down in the 60s for reading percent um so that's a drastic difference and I could see that when I tracked it so it's important with the data you have to have the test to track the kids so if we could do the nwaas three times next year that would be helpful for me as a parent to see how my child is progressing that's it thank you any other questions any measures report thank you

097this is the treasurers report for January 2025 we had a cash balance at the beginning of the month of 71,9 59,2 42 we had receipts in January of 3,424 758 we had dispersements of 10 , 37328 leaving us with a closing balance of 65 M 10,721 thank you you go superintendent report we'll actually just go over um some items that are on the agenda so um for um for this evening on the agenda we have several uh retirements and those are uh Vicky Riley from Dana's office she'll be retiring after 24 years of service Diane Doan our English teacher at the high school is on the agenda she's been our teacher here for 18 years Terry King Stuart um special education educator for 28 years and then Deborah Master Mato she's our Stratford school nurse

098she's been here for 15 years and Cynthia guber cedi our Middle School teacher Aid um 20 years so we'll be honoring them later on um in the year but we thank them for their dedic to our students and families here in Garden City and of course we wish them the best in retirement and then resignations um that some of the res resignations that I wanted to make a note of is again Mr samuelon um he'll be leaving us as our Middle School principal and we thank him for his four years of leadership here in the district and wish him the very best as he moves on so thank you Matthew we also have Donna sconi skon scina a treasure and again in Dana's office uh she'll she's been here for five years and we we

099wish her the best but she'll continue here to assist continue to assist us um in that capacity till we find a replacement we also have Erica Miss Erica mesier she was our social studies um teacher at the middle school she'll be leaving us um see for 22 years so we also thank her and wish her the very best as she moves on um and then just uh I know we did the literacy review update did you want to add anything else to that Alice so as I said earlier we have the surveys out we are making plans right now for the next few weeks to schedule our focus groups uh what I didn't mention earlier is that there will be site visits in the middle of May uh where kazda will be in classrooms and

100um seeing our literacy instruction in action all right thank you yeah and Nan did you want to give an update on just the hiring sure thank you uh we're very busy hiring um it's hiring season uh we are on track for appointments for all of the open administrative positions uh the plan is to have them all done by May uh leaving June as the buffer just in case uh we uh will be posting for some teaching positions this week and um you know I'm confident we'll be able to add to our wonderful staff with even more wonderful people so stay tuned thanks Dan and then just a couple of uh dates and um you know tomorrow night is the PTA dinner which is always a great fundraising event um and then we have our PTA

101Reflections that's on March 31st next Monday and then after that we have our spring concerts will start we have our Stewart and Stratford Festival I think this is our third year um so that's exciting us on March 27th um and then the you know what's a wonderful event at the high school is the AP art reception that's also coming up on on April 8th it thank you Dr s does anybody have any report or questions yes do you want me to go policies yeah can you go over the board policies please so there are several policies that are on the agenda and as for U the first reading and there's some new ones and there are some updates as well so we have a policy the title um Title Nine sexual harassment and grievance policy

102that's again to ensure that we're in compliance with the Federal regulations and uh that's an update we also have um this is a new policy which is actually kind of nice for our because we'll have a student as um sitting with us at the with the Board of Education as an ex officio student member this is a new requirement starting July 1 and although they won't be able to vote or engage any confidential discussion they're a great liaison to our student body so we're excited Mr strong grer and I we met with our student government and we have we'll have a student we'll also have an alternate there'll be somebody here which we're excited to have so that's July 1 that's also there for the first reading um and we have our we changed the

103name of acceptable use policy to responsible use policy so miss Maguire has uh worked with our you know our legal councel in updating that policy and that's again it's for to reflect our current technology practices and to ensure safe ethical and educational use of these digital resources we also have uh this is a new policy the extreme heat condition that um that policy really helps us to ensure health and safety of our students and staff during periods of high indoor temperatures so again that's a new one a new policy that's in alignment with the state law we also have uh uh a policy on artificial intelligence that's a new policy and that's again being responsible in the way we're using artificial intelligence to help guide our students staff and families navigating because it's changing so

104rapidly so that's um those are all there for first reading and what we will do is put these policies up on our website as well for Community to take a look at them and if they have any feedback for us on those policies and then goal is um to have them you know have a second reading and adopt the policies thank you thank you Dr at this time to make more efficient use of the meeting time the Board of Education authorizes the use of a consent agenda as part of the meeting agenda consent agenda will allow for one motion to approve multiple items that are identified on the agenda the the president of the board will ask if a member wishes to have a discussion or clarification on a specific item or vote on that

105individual item separately at this time may have a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes business of the board items J1 through j4 personal matters items K1 through K8 business office matter items L1 through l15 and special education matters items M1 through M2 all in favor [Music] I is there any new business before the board no no I'm heing knows all around future B education meetings which was in the deck but Tuesday April 8th 2025 work session 8:15 here at the Garden City High School Wednesday April 23rd regular session 8:15 here at the Garden City High School as well at this time I have a motion that the board moves into executive disc session to discuss a personal item more properly identified in executive session all in favor hi