Board of Education Regular Session -October 22, 2024

001good good evening welcome to the October 22nd 2024 Board of Education meeting uh this is Joseph Siler president of Board of Education speaking thank you for attending in person or through Zoom please arise for the Pledge of Allegiance do notice of today's meeting has been provided to the public and each members of the Board of Education pursuant to the requirements of law Tina will you please take attendance present present present present present may I have a motion to accept the agenda for October 22nd 2024 regular session as presented moved all in favor I Dr Zan would you like to do the recognitions yes thank you so much um so first we wanted to recognize and welcome Julia farelli um who uh drew the cover of the district calendar that you see on the uh the

002um screens it's just beautiful every year we have uh students who submit and this one was unanimously picked and it's beautiful so um you know we want to thank where's Julia come on up Julia yeah and um you know we really want to thank you for sharing your your beautiful artwork with us and again this was something you know the administrators they all vote for this like who's going to be you know who C whose uh work is going to be on the calendar so we're really really proud of you and thank you for you know submitting this I don't know Joe do you guys want to get a picture for Julia [Music] congratulations and I have a couple more recognitions so uh last week was school board recognition week and I'd like to extend

003our appreciation to our board of education for all that you do for our students and staff and our larger Community here in Garden City and it's much more than these meetings that you attend there's a lot of work that happens behind the scenes to ensure that we are providing by our mission and vision of our school district and and you're championing for public education so thank you all for what you do thank you I also want to uh recognize our building principles October is National School principal recognition month and I'd like to thank all of our principles for their hard work and Leadership to support our schools students and staff and we're very fortunate with our School leaders that we do have in our school district so thank you to Mr Stein grer who's here

004Mr Samuelson Mr hardigan miss hand Dr viskovich Miss VOD and Miss odone thank you for your leadership and just a uh two other major ones that you've seen in the newspapers but in our um in terms of our outstanding achievements in our particularly our high school and again our students they stay here from kindergarten all the way up so when we say the recognitions for high school really is U throughout all of our buildings so um we had nine academically talented High School seniors nominated as semifinalists for National Merit Scholarship and they have a a chance to continue in that competition and we also had 10 Garden City High School seniors who have been recognized as comendant students for um after taking the PSAT uh exams and that's over 34,000 students Nationwide are recognized with

005this award for U really exceptional academic promise so congratulations to our students will bring them in at some point to recognize them here uh at the board meeting and one other uh actually a couple more if I'm going on a I'm on a roll with these accolades so our our high school um was again this was a second year in a row they received the Platinum award which is the highest award um that you could um receive through the AP College Board um the school High School honor honor role it's called and this is based on college readiness and the number of AP courses our students take so this is again the highest honor so uh congratulations to our students and our and our and our administrators again for um having this recognition for two

006years in a row um and two other teachers that I would like to recognize one is U Miss Katie yonak she's a third grade teacher at Stewart school who was honored on October 8th at the fourth congressional district teacher award and this award is given to teachers who make a real difference and students actually nominate their teachers so miss oniac um she received this she was of course U very surprised but um she has made a real difference here in our Garden City schools and we're we're really proud of her and then Miss Lauren lavel our technology and uh signed staff developer was also recognized as the Nassau County Association of school technologist award recipient by Nassau bosis and the Nassau Association of school Technologies so this is again two really wonderful accolades for our

007teachers yeah those are my recognitions we have other report there's other aspects of my report but I think at this time we're going to go to n rocki Smith right have our Auditors speak briefly they hiding oh there he is sorry good evening everyone good evening to the Board of Education my name is Christopher angada I'm a partner at the firm nakaki Smith and I'm with everyone this evening to present the results of the fiscal 2024 audit of the Garden City unit Free School District our firm was retained by the district as I said to perform an audit of the financial statements additionally we also performed a single audit of the federal award programs administered by the district as well as a audit of the extra classroom activity funds of the district performed on the

008cash base of accounting with respect to the conduct of the audit I'd just like to commend the district on a timely and satisfactory closing of its books and Records our field work commenced during the summer this year uh and we received excellent uh cooperation and attention from the the district's business office uh we did meet with the audit Committee of the board of education on October 1st where we went through the financial statements and the audit process in great detail which allowed the district to file its fincial statements by the requisite deadline of October 15th our firm renders four opinions on the district's financial statements all were cleaner on modified meaning that the financial statements of the district present present fairly in all material respects in accordance with Professional Standards just some commentary on the

009financial position and activity of the district for 2024 the general fund saw a positive change in its fund balance for the fiscal year um and the general fund fund balance uh the general fund uh operations reflected positively compared to the uh the budget for the fiscal year the general fund fund balance amounts were all within reasonable and legal Limits The District had about 99.5 million in capital assets net a depreciation which increased approximately $7.2 million from the current year uh the current year Capital project expenditures were about $10.5 million relating to the various projects uh throughout the course of the district during 2024 the district reduced uh its long-term indebtness by about $2.6 million uh related to its principal payments on its debt obligations the uh other post-employment benefit obligations liability on the district's uh

010full cruel financial statements so districtwide financial statements total about $38 million uh or increased about $38 million to about $247.9 million due to changes in actual assumptions and the total proportionate share of the net pension liabilities related to the teachers retirement system and the employe retirement system was about $8.2 million down from 12.9 million in 2023 uh really just due to the fund stat funded status of the plans as well as the market conditions as part of our audit we do contemplate issuing management letter presenting any findings or recommendations on approving the county procedures and internal controls of the district I am happy to report to the board this evening that we did not site the district for any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies and in internal controls uh we had no compliance findings or

011question cost with uh relation to our single audit procedures and we had no current year uh current year or PRI year recommendations to offer us part of our audit uh procedures this year um and that really concludes my prepared comments for this evening but I'd be happy to turn the meeting back over to uh to the board for any questions you may have thank you board have any questions I know I sat in the audit committee so and Kristen did as well so no questions from us appreciate the work and I'd like to thank Mrs decapo and her staff for doing a great job uh this year as usual thank you everyone have a good evening thank thank you for m capap I guess you're doing the treasures report next evening this is the treasures

012report for august24 we had a cash balance of the beginning of the month of 51 m969 1953 we had receipts in August totaling 2,613 648 we had dispersements of 4,873 133 leaving us with a closing balance of 49,7 10,468 thank you Dr son will you do your superintendent report next sure thank you I have a you know a couple of things that I wanted to give uh the Board of Education update on one is we had talked about at the last meeting to give an update on the seventh grade class size so have Mr Samuelson Dr fan and Mr marah here to give that update you want to come up here yeah microphone so you know before Mr Samuelson starts you know um what we wanted to give you an update based on some of

013the questions that were asked at the last board meeting and um you know Mr Samuelson and his team they work very closely with the with the seventh grade um teachers and um so he you know so he he has spoke we have actually met with them on Friday with the entire seventh grade um the team and then including some of our students seventh grade students so Mr Samuelson will give an update on that in addition to that um last year we had started if you recall we had talked about looking at Middle School scheduling so we started that process last year if you recall Miss Barbara who was here part-time she had done some of the work with uh a consultant Mr uh Michael reic and then uh Dr Bowman has taken that over and

014um you we've had two meetings so far with um Michael reic the consultant talking about the looking at scheduling and that scheduling would involve um again class sizes is is one of the topics but really looking at the schedule and if it meets the current needs of our students um you you know um now and for the future so I want to turn it over to you Mr Samuelson thank you Dr sonan thank you uh to the board for allowing me to speak this evening to share some insights and updates related to uh class sizes particularly in our seventh grade um I will start off by saying that I absolutely I think we all do acknowledge the concerns raised by members of the community um I listen very carefully to the feedback that we got

015from the board and from the community members at the the previous uh board meeting uh and that feedback is obviously it's helpful it's pointed and allows us to more fully understand the community's concerns and ultimately I'm always grateful for the feedback and the willingness to share uh parents willingness to share their thinking uh we certainly agree that class size is an important factor in helping each of our students to achieve their goals and I will say at the outset that I and of course the district are committed to providing quality instruction to all members of our learning community and continue to provide a positive safe and engaging learning uh environment for all tonight uh I'll speak some bit a bit more into our current status share some of the media plans to support our seventh

016grade and um I'll add a bit about our long-term planning uh I'll start off by speaking a bit about our current class sizes um currently we have just under 400 sth graders uh which is in contrast to the sixth grade which has 323 and e8th grade which has 315 uh uh so that's approximately a third larger uh we have 26 four sections in the seventh grade that are currently running over 30 or over uh some of these class sizes are consistent with our history accelerated math and accelerated science uh tend to be larger uh and the reason for that is because uh we've always had a philosophy that allows families and students to opt in to the accelerated classes sometimes with the um recommendation of teachers and sometimes um without the recommendation of teachers but

017we feel like it's important that students have the ability especially at this age where they grow rapidly and they develop executive functioning skills rapidly they deserve the ability to take a chance and and push themselves uh this year uh our opt out our opt in excuse me our opt-in numbers are larger than typical uh typically we run at about 55% students in the accelerated track this year we're close to 66% uh which we view as a positive thing we we like our students striving and pushing themselves but um but that size of accelerated class did have an impact on our thinking and ends up um we end up creating additional sections of accelerated Math and Science to accommodate that large number um in general and by the way certainly pause me and ask questions as

018I go um for reference our sixth and eth grade classes uh this year are smaller uh than our seventh grade classes are on average and I know that you know average class size isn't the the best data point but for your reference um this year Sixth and eth grade classes tend to average around 27 students per class um but and I'll say it again at the onset you know we always strive to review our structures our systems our Pro our procedures to make certain that our students are getting the quality education to which they're entitled and when we work on the master schedule uh which we do starting in the winter and rolling through the spring we think about a variety of variables uh that need that need to be considered and some of those

019are um we think about the broader master schedule uh that attention that we pay to seventh grade can't come at the expense of sixth or eighth grade uh we have to assure ourselves that state mandates are met with respect to uh Encore classes PE Health technology and the like uh we need to make sure that all of our classes are accessible to all of our Learners we don't want to create a system where students based on their specific learning needs can't access a class and we certainly want to make certain that all of our students have access to music and art and Creative Learning opportunities which for many are places that really spark joy and and a love for learning uh aside from that we think about making sure that we have access to uh

020Support classes where necessary we have a very strong mtss process which does throughout the year from time to time identify students who would benefit from a pull out support class we want to make sure those classes are accessible and we also want to make sure that our course offerings in terms of electives uh are representative of student interest and voice we offered four new electives this year uh and we ran three of them because student voice responded to it students wanted those classes and we ran them uh we wanted to make sure they were accessible some other things that we have to consider When developing a master schedule is teacher availability uh which means uh certainly understanding and monitoring the teacher contract and providing additionally for productive collaborative time uh for teachers both on team

021and on Department um and speaking of team this was another consideration when we spoke to the teachers at the end of last year and based on all the feedback that we get from families and students the teaming model that we hold in the middle school is something that everyone seems to feel a real positive benefit to our students it allows students to feel nurtured supported by a variety of teachers in different disciplines it allows teachers to uh use a variety of different tier one interventions and share their successes with each other to help support students uh it provides truly a global resource for all of our Learners um and then the other thing that we considered when we looked at the large class size was the possibility of bringing on new staff um but we

022also had to consider the challenges that come with what would amount to being very short-term High so in the end When developing the master schedule for this year we considered we considered a variety of of models we considered what we're calling a super team uh which in short is a cluster in which the teachers teach only their core area five times as opposed to four sections of their core and a support or elective we considered multiple super teams we considered doing away entirely with the team model uh we talked about bringing in teachers from other buildings buildings uh certainly the the high school was happy to partner with us uh to help find Solutions if we if we needed them and each of the ideas that we talked about and we worked through uh Mr

023Mah diligently developed a number of different models had positives and they had drawbacks um and ultimately what we look to do was find a balance that held um supportive and thoughtful class sizes with our desire to make sure that we could provide meaningful supports exciting engaging electives and to maintain our teaming structure which again is something that we think is really the the the Keystone of our of our community of Learners um but again uh we take feedback from the community very seriously and while I've I've received a few outreaches from families and actually I think I spoke with Mrs papis a few weeks ago on this topic uh we wanted to assure ourselves that we were getting a complete picture and so to that end Dr s and I met with the entire seventh

024grade teaching team as well as a representative group of students from the uh from the current super team um and we learned a lot of things and we learn I I'll share with you the big threads uh teachers shared that like they do every year they love their students they are committed to doing right by them they take great pride in their successes uh they're very much attached to their Learners the teachers are committed to the team model uh and they are desirous of more time to collaborate with each other and within their departments as well um and they feel the weight of the large number of papers to Mark um and the large quantity of meaningful feedback to deliver uh and ultimately because they are who they are our teachers want to make sure

025that they can meaningfully connect with each of their Learners routinely and in a supportive fashion students uh shared a lot of uh interesting feedback as well our new seventh graders enjoy the challenge and rigor of seventh grade uh they do appreciate and feel that need for connections with teachers uh they would like to see less homework uh not all of them some of them really enjoyed having uh the time to practice uh but that was a thread um and uniformly the teach the students Express their appreciation for communication strategies that teachers use to keep them updated and specifically they were talking about uh the technology in Google Classroom uh and things like that um and they also appreciated the the the math lab offering is a popular one for our students um and they're grateful

026for the extra help sessions and homework club that allows them to get extra support when they need it uh reflecting on our process I can share there were certainly opportunities where the district um made available to us resources uh the model that we arrived upon uh did not drive a need for us to access them although it did require require overages um although even still those overages are consistent numerically with what we typically look for um and I'll be honest transparently there were other options that we considered and that we didn't go with um and we understand that the choices that we made have created concerns for parents and we want to make sure that we can address those uh so uh I will share transparently that while it's very early in the year when

027we look to see how things are going uh we use a variety of metrics at all times to think about how are we doing and I'll just share a couple of interesting points with you um this year our mtss referrals are down by 50% from last year uh last year at this time in the school year we had received 14 referrals this year we're at six which says to me is an indicator of successful tier one teaching strategies in the classroom uh our student attendance demonstrates Improvement our disciplinary referrals are down uh we will administer NWA remainder of this week for ELA next week will be math and following that will be the Desa Administration So within the next three weeks we'll have a variety of new data points that give us some insight in

028how things are going I'll share that parent feedback has been positive and you know Dr Fano Mr marah and I visit classrooms every day and what I can tell you in sixth grade and in seventh grade and in eighth grade our students are working hard they're collaborating with each other they're pushing themselves and they are growing and I expect that when we do get our NWA data in the coming weeks that that data will support that um but again absolutely validating the concerns in the community we've been um discussing and implementing a number of solutions I'll share some short-term Solutions and then some long-term Solutions as well so in the immediate uh we've been able to bring on three English licensed teacher assistants support class class sizes these are uh Tas who are actually licensed

029teachers uh they happen to carry an English license um and we can use them to create breakout groups to do small group instruction to provide feedback or inversely to teach the larger group so that the uh classroom teacher can provide that feedback in small groups they can partner with teacher in any course uh even though their expertise may be in English uh and then we can also use them to support access for teachers to department and uh team meeting time this was an area of concern for teachers they wanted to make sure they had that time to collaborate uh and the T are basically the key to that we can still allow that to occur uh we also you know as we do every year our teachers are constantly rethinking reconsidering and developing new teaching

030strategies certainly for our seventh grade teachers um in some of our larger classes uh there is a value in think thinking about other mechanisms they can use I think the TA is fundamental to that but we're also seeing our teachers use a variety of learning spaces in the building the learning comments has never been so popular and the library is um also a place where many classes have gone to do their learning uh plus the the teachers have very strong Partnerships with their curriculum coordinators who are consistent supports and guides and helping to Define and identify uh new teaching strategies what I can tell you is that for the remainder of the school year we will commit to continue to speaking to our students in both formal and informal settings and the same with teachers

031so that we can make course Corrections where they may be necessary and I'll share as a final thought on the shortterm piece um as I always do parents are encourage reach out to me with any questions or concerns we try to be very responsive and while our answers may not always be the answers parents are looking for they're always thoughtful and they're based on what we are all driving to do which to support our students to help them achieve Dr s i just referenc it a moment ago uh but for long-term considerations we are um kneee in in the work with Master scheduling uh thank you to Dr Bowman U and and Dr Sena for supporting this work uh we're working with Mike reic who's a master scheduling Guru to review our master schedule to

032identify opportunities for improvement to make sure that any accommodations we make for next year keep class size at the for front and that we are able to uh make sure we have access to supports for students where they may be necessary you can uh be certain that we will continue to provide Dr senha with updates and in so doing provide the board with updates as well maybe you kind of hit it with the last point but I guess I would encourage you to provide updates as you're going through and doing your examinations and if you see any trends that are suboptimal or deteriorating with you know obviously Dr s I'm sure you'll be aware but if you can make the board aware and if you need more resources that you obviously flag it early um

033appreciate you coming and and speaking on the topic obviously was concern of the community concern of the board um so obviously the data will speak for itself as you're reviewing it it seems so far it's going well but if you see any material changes please uh don't hesitate to highlight the do c on the board you can be certain that I will Mr samerson thank you very much much for um providing a very detailed overview of how um you know all the thinking that went into the planning for this year and um this is something that we've spoken about and I appreciate you taking the time to meet with other members of the community around this issue um it is something that I um you know I am concerned about I feel like class size

034as an educator myself I feel that class size is um extremely important for um in a smaller class size allows a teacher to really give that attention that they need um to their students and um I guess my impression is that our classes seem overall large so um the trend something that I've noticed from the data is that um over since 2122 we had zero classes at at or above 30 and then 22 23 was 14 then 23 24 is 30 and then 2425 is 42 so we're definitely trending in a direction where the number of sections that are at or above 30 is increasing over the years so um I would just um appreciate like you had mentioned that we're going to keep a close eye on this and um and I think that

035we need to do what we need to do whatever that might be so that we can make those classes smaller than at or above 30 and change that trajectory um is there anything short of adding additional staff that would solve this problem for the seventh grade cohort moving into eighth grade are you talking about for the rest of this school year for next year not for this school year but in preparation for next year I mean in my opinion I know that adding additional staff is seen as a short-term solution but when I look at the classes they seem overall large so even if they're not at or above 30 when I'm looking at the other sections they're 29 or 28 so my feeling is the addition of additional staff I'm wondering if they still

036could be useful within the building to keeping those other classes smaller so I guess I don't see them as such a short-term solution um so our work with the master schedule for next year is going to be really focused on a number of things but the big one is going to be making sure the class sizes are more manageable um and so what I know is that if it comes to a time where we need to have a conversation of additional staff I feel very comfortable reaching out to Dr sonan miss m Laughin to have that conversation um at at this time i' would like to see where the master scheduling process goes we will complete that process before we need to finalize Staffing so that we will have the opportunity if that process yields

037an outcome where we need to have that conversation I'm very comfortable and easy reaching out Dr Z that on that topic so is there is the possibility that work with that scheduling Consultants could decrease class size in and of itself possibly without the additional staff but there could be the possibility of needing additional staff you'll find that out in your work with the consultant yes so both of those are possibilities one possibility is that we do a new master schedule that does not require the addition of new staff and which accomplishes the goal of raising class of decreasing class sizes the other possibility is that we review our master schedule and identify that we need to consider new Staffing in which case I have no concerns about reaching out Dr s wonderful thank you Mr

038just um address that also is you know as we get into this process there's a timeline for the process to be completed by and if there's additional Staffing needed that's part of our budgetary conversation that we'll have in you know with the board and in public when we discuss Staffing for the middle school any other question L sorry um thanks Matt you know and I hope and I appreciate that you feel comfortable coming to us for more Personnel but I just want to reiterate everybody should feel comfortable coming to us for more Personnel if that's if that's the only issue if that's the only way to solve this problem next year please come to us thank you no further questions thank you Mr sandon certainly okay I also wanted to provide an update to the

039board regarding um you know one of the things that have been asked about is the occupational therapy and the physical therapy supports for our school so we do have um our interim director of PPS Miss Barbara Nelson and our assistant director of PPS miss viona here that if you can provide an update that would be great around the Staffing for uh OT particularly M PT do you want to come up here um and as you're giving that uh up if it would be great if you can also provide an update with the um a short update on the special education advisory committee with the communication plan that the about with the website sure um so with regards to um the OT and the PT uh we are currently um finalizing our um our numbers with

040regards to students um who had missed Services um reaching out to individual families to ensure that those who would like those Services made up are made up um we're being very creative in our planning um we've reached out to alternate agencies that really are working with us um to provide those Services whether they be um during the school day and or after school um as well as alternate sites um so really um brainstorming and problem solving trying to get all those um Services made up um we've made up quite a great deal of them I think currently right now um our services are about half of what we um missed if not a little bit less um overall that we need to make up continually um how about with the Staffing are we fully staffed

041at this time yes so right now we are completely staffed all of our buildings are covered um in order to ensure that all mandated services for this school year um will be given as per individual IEPs and um you know there was another question because last year had presented with uh the board board with a plan for looking at um because currently all of our services are through agencies and to see how we can move forward with having in District uh Personnel to provide the services particularly for continuity and that that plan that we had shared with you were moving forward with that and there's uh you know different layers to that because it has to be um you know we're working with our Teachers Association closely to get that going miss mlin um and

042Miss vaona um there working towards that and we're hoping to get that to you um hopefully in December at some point okay and do you want to also talk about the special education advisory because you've done quite a bit of work in that area sure sure so we've updated the website to really include a lot of the oh sure I'm sorry sorry can you hear me now okay um we've um revamped uh the website to include a lot of the information that came out of that advice committee uh specifically we've created um some information that's very accessible to parents to really talk about the csse process uh how to gain information there's a Q&A for each of the different phases that we talked about during that um advisory committee um within that we've also included

043um resources um we're going to be building um bigger and better so when you do click on the special ed is right on the website now there's an immediate link and then through there there will be what's called buttons that then you can access all of this information uh we'll also be following up with a meet and greet in uh November um I don't remember the date off hand um but we will have a meet and greet where we can have um conversation uh really from parents really open dialogue um kind of start that conversation being new here um I know some names I know some faces but really getting to know them so it'll be a really great opportunity for myself and uh Miss Nelson to uh get to know everybody um so look

044out for that and we'll definitely post it and uh get it out on parents Square as well do you have any questions uh regarding the otpt thank you Miss Bon also I'll continue with my update Mr silia okay so one other area that I wanted to talk about and wanted to show you a little clip our district um we were accepted in the league of innovative schools which is a national network of U really forward-thinking school districts and there are about 150 school districts across 34 states and um so there were a couple of other districts from Long Island that were accepted this year so this affords us the opportunity to collaborate with um you know outside of just Long Island or New York State and looking at Best Practices and things that we can

045bring back um to our district and um and again this membership uh you know again it'll give us the opportunity to um take our district um to the next level hopefully amongst other things that we're doing and um you know um Mr devola Mike devola who is our technology staff developer he uh created this video for the for the application process which I wanted you to take a look at it's a very short video if we can start that in unal of every student our mission is to create a learning environment that not only prepar students for the challenges of today but also equips them with the skills they need to thrive in the rapidly evolving landscape of the 21st century students at Garden City School District we believe that Innovation is the key to

046unlocking the full potential of every student our mission is to create a learning environment that not only prepares students for the challenge es of today but also equips them with the skills they need to thrive in the rapidly evolving landscape of the 21st century students are not simply passively absorbing information they are actively engaged in their own Learning Journey Through the integration of cuttingedge tools like artificial intelligence adaptive software and micro credentials we Empower our students to take ownership of their education they are developing the critical thinking problem solving and creative skills that will serve them well beyond the walls of our schools Innovation is woven into the fabric of everything we do at Garden City our teachers are not just Educators they are facilitators mentors and guides they Leverage The Power of technology to

047personalize instruction we believe that Innovation is the key to crws you'll find flexible learning spaces that encourage collaboration experimentation and exploration but our commitment to Innovation extends far beyond the classroom we recognize that true transformation requires a CommunityWide effort that's why we partner closely with local organizations businesses and families to bridge The digal Divide and that student at Garden City School Educators they are fac facors at Garden City School District we're not just educating for today we're innovating for tomorrow we are reimagining what's possible and creating a future in which every student has the opportunity to reach their full potential so I invite you to join us on this journey of innovation and Discovery together we can create a meeting each student where they are and helping them to grow at their own pace in

048our classrooms you'll find flexible learning spaces that encourage collaboration experimentation and exploration but our commitment to Innovation extends far beyond the classroom we recognize that true transformation requires a CommunityWide effort so we'll you that's why we partner closely with local organizations um this um membership that we have uh into the league of innovative schools um throughout the year and um just a couple more updates we had the one district one book um dis book discussion last week um we we had about 44 parents that joined us and again it was a lively discussion we'll have one more and then we're looking at uh bringing that uh conversation here with the board also um regarding just the the use of Technology within our buildings and I think it'll be and we had a student that participated

049one of our um senior students Alicia Zang she was unbelievable um you know just with she spoke with such Poise and so mature and she gave a lot of good um advice advice to our um to our our parents and we have you know I actually sent out a letter to our families it'll be up on our website I encourage our all of us to use some of the advice that she gave us on how to turn off notifications and how to use the black mode I think Miss mclaughin you've already done that remember you saying that um so um but anyway it's been a lively discussion for us and um the other item is that we had the literacy committee um that met and I know we had um you know miss papis you

050were on the committee Dr Bowman um you had help um you know our co- facilitators run that uh committee meeting I don't know if you wanted to say anything about that um yes I did have the opportunity to attend the um literacy committee meeting and I just wanted to commend um Alice Bowman and um Lauren Maguire and Carrie Han for organizing um it was really it was really great to see such a large group of parents administrators and teachers that are all engaged in the conversation and um I also think it was wonderful that um that anyone who had wanted to participate was invited to attend so um it was very well organized we had time to um meet inside of um small groups and then I thought what was also really helpful was learning

051a little bit more about what resources have been brought into the classrooms already to support some of the work like um the decodable libraries um the heger curriculum to build students phonological awareness um and then some changes to our assessment Suite like um Running Records um we're replacing um the fontas and panel Running Records with some decodable Running Records at those very early levels so um it was great it was wonderful to see such a large group and it's obviously something that our Community really cares deeply about so thank you than you Dr Bowman did you want it to do you want to add anything to it um I'll Echo something that I've said in the past which is that as I gain more and more depth of knowledge of what happens in Garden City

052Schools the more and more impressed I am and I think you hit a lot of the nails on the head when you talk about the specific things that are going on in response to what we're learning about how kids learn how to read and literacy um I also was equally impressed by the number of folks who were able to be participants but not only there active participants who really brought their their um their want their desire to learn more and to be partners with the district um I'm eager to see what our next meeting is going to bring because we gave everybody homework um that was pushed out through Google Docs so that everybody's going to have a chance to really look at the literacy briefs that were published by New York State last January

053so that we have a shared understanding of what they what what they have in them and what the expectations around literacy are for our students also oh sorry just a quick suggestion too I don't know an anticipation anticipation of the next um meeting I wonder if I might be helpful to send to the participants like something they thought um was like a like something they thought went really well and then maybe if they had a suggestion for some like other information that they wanted to um explore like as a committee that might be sure really nice to gather some of that feedback too absolutely we have a scheduled reminder for everyone to complete their homework yes and so we'll include something like that in that questions like what you really like enjoyed and what went

054well and then like what more would you like to learn about or explore absolutely and then just some other items I had was uh really on the agenda um we do have one of our teacher aids from the high school she'll be um leaving us after 10 years and um you know we want to thank her for her service uh here in our district uh you also have the external auditor report on the agenda there's some special education agreements and then there's some SE several donations um The Garden City fronts of Music um is donating a step and repeat for the high school as well as eight sessions of music therapy at Stratford and they're also donating funds to purchase some musical instruments for the at the primary schools and then we also have um

055you'll see on the agenda we're accepting donation for our bench to be placed at uh Homestead in memory of Miss uh Christine Kenny who we lost last year um that'll be at Homestead thank thank you for for all the updates um from the board I guess just a couple of maybe back in up a couple items on the PT I know we spent a fair amount of time talking about this there's a shortage just just to frame it for everybody and myself again there's a shortage it's not necessarily A a money issue it's more of a staffing issue because I know um at least the board is kind of pushed on is this something that can be solved with spending more dollars or offering more dollars but it's really kind of a sounds like a

056little bit of a shortage coupled with an offset of people no longer really like to go on staff time just because it's uh either more flexible for their for their lifestyle or working with these uh agencies provides them something that maybe working full-time doesn't I mean that in fact it was something we had discussed at U we had two uh occupational therapists that started in the beginning of the school year the schedules weren't what they wanted which was they wanted a specific schedule that were that weren't going to meet the needs of our students so the there is a shortage and actually you know you mentioned this they had the you know they had the nisba conference in the city so I participated uh virtually and they they talked about school Staffing shortage in uh

057there was they were talking about 50 52% of schools are underst staffed in healthcare related positions and these are things like School nurses and that we are still looking for School nurses because we have two School nurses because we have agency nurses um it's um you know speech and language pathologist occupational therapist physical therapist and psychologists also so that there is a shortage and it's unfortunate because you know um for our needest students that continuity is so important and with with because of the shortages the occupational therapists they can there's just a there's a high demand and they they're going where you know where they're it suits their schedule so I think it this whole notion last year what we talked about if we bring our folks internally and there's more investment because they're part

058of a school system and they're getting other benefits that we're hoping that that's going to be better for us thank you and I know um just EO we've talked about this I mean you experienc this it seems like the state in general is you know I I remember you quoting some stats I don't want to bungle them but it doesn't seem like the city has enough there's not enough people in PT andot in the state to cover the city let alone kind of the surrounding districts um so first first Albany is changing the certification process so the OTS are going to have to be uh basically licensed doctors that increase is happening I believe in 26 or 27 um speaking with the Citywide director of um related Services she had shared that if she was

059to take every OT in the St and this was two years ago if she was to take every OT in the state doesn't matter what setting she wouldn't be able to service all of the kids in the doe that's a pretty staggering fact um and this is what we're up against so this as much as I'm we're we're again we're working in Partnership where're we're trying to create um a situation where people I think as Dr SAR said to make them part of a community here to really entice them because I can tell you I spend the better part of my de day dealing with this every single day and it's it's not good maybe just um picking up on one thing we didn't talk about but I I know it's out there and we

060as a board have talked about with you uh the recent regionalization um I don't if you want to call it mandate or emergency regulation whatever it is I think it's um it's a it's a requirement that they're trying to couch as something that will be good for the district I think our view preliminary view is it won't be good for the district and you know I I I'll speak for the board unless anybody wants to disagree which I don't think you do that uh it seems like the first step in in the State trying to figure a way to pull assets across school districts uh and use use resources that would I think be the detriment of our school district so we're working with gerso and gerso to um write a letter Dr sna has

061uh in communication with the appropriate folks across I think both nisba uh and other relevant um state agencies to kind of communicate you know our concerns around uh the questions being asked and trying to figure out what the ultimate goal is but I did want to flag that I don't know if you want to add anything on that or not but it is um you know extensive work that the district is required to uh put together to give to the state and um you know it was sort of thrust Upon Us in a very quick way to get this this done and the understanding of it is still I think people are still struggling and grappling with it so we have shared concerns with um with um appropriate authorities and we'll keep the board apprised

062and um you know um dug Spencer he is working on the letter on behalf of the board kind of running away with this idea of regionalization um re regionalization is not reorganization and nothing can happen without the community voting on it and nice at approving it and so while there may be talk of pooling I don't think anyone knows yet but at the end of the day nothing actually can happen in terms of money because all this is legislated and you can't force people to Cross School Districts without a lot of bumpers that have been put in place um there is a pardon me there is an informational um webinar taking place next Tuesday uh um virtually Kristen and I are going to attend and uh we'll report uh what we heard uh from uh

063from the meeting but um I can tell you that this is defin I have I know people in on boards and this is definite talk are there any other uh anything else from any other members of the board other items this time the administration no um at this time it's open for Citizens questions and comments so if you could come forward name and address and feel free to ask your question Rich Caro me Brook Road um how doing John so the the otpt just a hypothetical um if we wanted to hire somebody staff-wise tomorrow could we do it can I answer that no not tomorrow um what I had shared with the board earlier is we're we're hoping to have an agreement in place by I would say roughly December and then after that we

064would be able to an agreement meaning there's an employment a process of going through collective bargaining and going through that whole process so that's where we're where we are at this time so when I had asked you this several times I never receive that answer and to me that's a problem just right off the bat um so first there would have to be a collective bargaining contractual unit created correct it'll be within a unit right so that's not in place yet and your timeline to maybe put that in place is around December it will be in place place by then okay and then from there is there any thought us with timeline and trying to um attract and retain the talent actually start interviewing people because what some of us are hearing is that people

065are being hired I understand there's a shortage it's a Statewide problem you know we we could we could talk about the issues and the excuses but there are from what I understand people being hired at the district level and I don't know what's going into that equation I would guess that some com ation of money and benefits like you know anything else so you know the question to me becomes what are we doing um to retain that type of talent regardless of um some of the externalities that you mentioned and you know when when I come to the board and when I come to you Dr Cena and I have to ask you three or four times I don't get a straight answer you have to understand how frustrating that becomes I appreciate what you're

066saying tonight so thank you for that um and we'll see we'll keep an eye on it thank you good evening my name is Mary Beth I a proud parent of four school age girls raging from ages 14 to 7 I wanted to take this opportunity tonight to speak to the Garden City Community as a whole before I begin I would like to thank the board of ed for their recent written correspondents and Dr Sinha and the new assistant director of PPS Miss viona for taking the time out of their busy schedule to meet with me a couple weeks ago in person I also thank you for your patience in advance as this evening I will be discussing a few topics of importance to many of us here in Garden City first topic is special education

067as I mentioned I'm the mother of four children one of whom was very sick as a baby went undiagnosed with celiac disease for many many months until Cohen's Hospital picked it up as one of their earliest cases they had ever seen and it caused major complications in her development which led to the need for services since she was young it has been a journey and I continue to learn and grow as a student of the special ed world as a mom and a parent of a child with special needs with a finance and Wall Street background like many in this community and ultimately a career change into a math and business general education teacher at first I new very little regarding ins and outs and special ed these were unchartered waters for me and the

068unknown was quite overwhelming at times what would I face as a special ed parent on occasion it was all very consuming and sometimes still is my daughter is now 12 and is a student in the district EI cpsc csse testing IEPs modifications accommodations all these words became part of my world earlier this month when I sat across the table from Dr s part of the message I strongly expressed to her was that my experience as a special ed mom early in the process did not feel partnered with the district in the way that I had hoped from the administrative level my knowledge and education of special education came from Friends neighbors colleagues the admin in the district did not feel like a partner in my Voyage rather they felt like the opposition it felt like

069a fight being prepared and having to know my rights as a parent and Advocate being ready to lawyer up or drop names like squa the special education quality assurance program in the state of New York for people to really listen I was baffled as to why it felt like the people at the admin table weren't on my side fighting for my daughter alongside me luckily once we entered at the building level it was different my daughter had superheroes alongside her in the super in the school buildings Mrs Elizabeth Wills Mrs Kimberly babjack are literally Angels sent from God currently Mrs Deborah Stone and Miss Joel lesie scabelly have been great additions to her Village her amazing teams including teachers and service providers and her former principal Mrs hand are amazing people and treat my daughter

070like family her team at Stewart were also a huge help to me and continue to be part of my Village recently however there was a hiccup after a long very long and thorough CSD meeting in the spring somehow my daughter's IEP was out of compliance in three areas at the start of the school year within the first week was it miscommunication from the top town was it human clerical error or were there whole in the transition process between the lack of a complete extended summer program for my daughter and the start of the school year being a bit off off the mark under the prior head of PPS Janine valz I just wasn't super impressed once again building level Personnel jumped in team members stepped up held an emergency meeting with me and helped my

071daughter get her schedule and IEP back in line one might ask why am I even sharing this story on record to the community I'm not 100% in the know of all things related to special ed but I can consider myself pretty informed but what if I wasn't coached by friends and colleagues but what if I didn't know what questions to ask what if I wasn't an outgoing person who felt comfortable enough to share my story then what where would I be today with my Village of people where would I be today without my Village of people who help me along the way where would my daughter be at that moment I said to myself if things can slip through the cracks for a child with an informed parent what might it look like for a

072parent not so much in the know with new Personnel in PPS they're here tonight this is the perfect time for a call to action a new beginning I just felt like I needed to speak up have a meeting maybe I can help a fellow member of the community if I share my story I thought to myself we have to do better we have to be better we're Garden City the place where the trees that line up on Stewart and strapford avenues and by the high school currently look like they're straight out of a painting we are Garden City the place where people move into town for a sense of community great education great curriculars like Athletics the Arts music We Are Garden City strong so why can't we also be great at special ed Dr

073Sin has discussed at our meeting on on October uh 10th I look forward to great changes ahead in PPS and I believe culture and positive change begins at the top with you as our leader and superintendent my fellow Garden City community members this new PPS Personnel team at the admin level have assured me that special education is now a priority of the district that there will be a partner in your child's journey and hold your hand and assist you in the learning process let's please welcome this new PPS team and hold them accountable for improvement special ed classroom sizes are large Co has had a large impact on our student body teachers need more resources perhaps they need perhaps they need uh additional training parents need to be educated and in the know the new

074and improved section on the special ed uh District website is a great start it looks really good actually I looked today it's a fabulous tool but we all know that not all parents can learn this detailed and important information froming it online they cannot be 100% left alone I'm excited for this new change at the admin level and I encourage parents to take PPS up on their offer to be a partner the words partner and teamwork are a lot more attractive effective and positive than the words battle and fight there's a spectrum in special ed it ranges from the kid who needs reading support it's the very bright child with dyslexia it's the Fantastic athlete with ADHD or a processing disorder that would help that without the help of his or her teammates and coaching

075staff their disability makes it difficult for them to learn the offense it's the AP level kid who is intelligent and hardworking but just needs a bit of support along the way and it's the non-verbal autistic child in the small classroom each and every example of special ed is individualized and each and every child in this community deserves our best let's work together so that one day very soon this town can be known on the map for how strong our special ed program is along with our atics and beautiful Aesthetics let's establish consistency and end the revolving door in the PPS Department let's continue to fight for the children that can't fight for themselves on topic number two tonight I represent many of uh friends and community members and you spoke about it the regionalization I

076don't have the lawyer background and the legality expertise but what I would like to stress is the idea of the emergency regulation when New York state says that they need prompt action based on this emergency status so I look forward to continuing that communication with the board and the community and Dr Sinha on the regionalization lastly but of great importance is the topic of proposition one proposition one if passed can open the door for men to use women's bathrooms and locker rooms strip away parental rights and the progress women have made on and off the playing field setting women and girls back decades title n was passed in 1972 and the language in this proposition seems to Contra uh contrary to the purpose of this law if you are allowing biological males to play in

077female sports based on gender identity you are discriminating against females on October 11 2024 the New York State Public High School Athletic Association executive director sent a letter to the member sections including our Section 8 to ensure that the members are placing students on inter Scholastic teams that most appropriately align with the students of gender identity as a former Collegiate division one athlete on full scholarship and current female coach and trainer I find this to be discriminatory to female athletes of all levels and I also believe it to be dangerous as the physicality of the biological male is certainly different to different to that of the biological female I hope as a community with a history Ring Sports we will protect our female athletes without opportunity in sport specifically in the game of basketball and

078the opportunity of scholarship I would not be the person I am today thank you for your time and attention board thank you uh Nicholas forano um so I want to talk about re regionalization um and by the way anything I say today's my opinion and no one else is just to be clear um trusty Gaffney respectfully um I do not agree with what you said and um I do think this is a massive issue I think by quelling public concern is not the way to go here I deal with administrative agencies all the time I came up with this quote Law whatever you want to call it the law of bureaucratic momentum it is real once it goes down the tracks very hard to stop now is the time to stop it it's not later

079so what is regionalization I just want to be clear for the community I know the board knows this very well I know the board's doing a great job in uh dealing with the state on it but for the community's purposes what is it so first off the um state says it's based on Equitable education pulling resources in there as well but they are talking about Equitable education the way the school system works is you have the Department of Education and then you have various bosis throughout the state the bosis are supervisory districts for certain school districts Nassau Count's bosis is the largest I believe in the state overseeing 56 nasso County school districts the plan the regionalization plan calls for each Bose's each separate bosis throughout the state to submit a regionalization plan to the

080New York State Commissioner of Education to facilitate Equitable education what that means is the Nasa County bosies who's in charge of 56 Nasa County school districts is going to submit one plan to the Commissioner of uh education in New York state the commissioner then without any disclosed criteria and in her own discretion is then going to determine whether that a plan is approvable or not we don't know what she's going to consider we don't know what's going to be in the plan but we are where we are today we could only assume that that plan will be the worst what what could that worst be 56 nassa County school districts will to some degree be Consolidated including Garden City are there protections against that in the law sure do they know we're going to comply

081with that no because they're going forward this anyway we need to attack this now um this must be fought I understand the board is preparing a letter many other school districts on Long Island are doing the same others are preparing to fight fighting is necessary as I said waiting is not to figure out what they're going to do is not the answer you wait you lose that's how it works with administrative agencies under the law article 78 is how you attack regulations article 78 has a statute limitations of only 120 days from the date a regulation is promulgated this is expected to be finally promulgated in January that gives you until approximately May to sue so we need to get ready this needs to happen now not later the leg the the rul making I

082can tell you violates many many laws in New York state there is an Avenue to sue first off the Department of Education is an administrative agency they're not the New York State Legislature they do not have the authority or the right to make policy decisions in New York state are made by the New York State Legislature that is who needs to do this the reason that is is because the Department of Education is has the obligation to set the educational system in New York state doesn't have to set doesn't have any obligation or right or power to set economics or communities or infrastructure or public services all that could be affected by regionalization plans of course if school district lines are drawn schools are the pillars of communities School District Lines property values Etc they're

083all tied to schools we all know Garden City is what it is because we have wonderful schools right you blur those School District Lines maybe our community changes I'm not willing to stand by and figure out whether that's going to happen or not so I would strongly strongly suggest this board does everything and I I commend you I know many of you person as friends um I've spoken with many of you individually I commend you for what you're doing do as much as you possibly can do not stand down do not wait please I'm begging you in addition i' just like to mention I think uh Mary Beth Kane just spoke about proposition one I completely agree with what you said um and I'll take it a step further in and and for some reason

084this has kind of gone under the under the radar in August of 2024 the United States Supreme Court unanimously how rare is that unanimously affirmed a lower Court's preliminary injunction that said allowing biological males to play in female sports is contrary to Title 9 okay the UN United States Supreme Court said that not only did they stop there they said it is contrary to Title 9 to allow biological males to enter girls bathrooms or use girls locker rooms not only did they stop there they said that it is a violation of freedom of speech for a school district for his school district to require School Personnel to use preferred pronouns violation of freedom of speech that was all unanimously affirmed by the Supreme Court proposition one even if it is passed cannot override Title 9

085and by doing anything contrary to Title 9 it subjects you to three problems number one it subjects you to a lawsuit under Title Nine for any biological female who is discriminated against by competing against a boy biological boy or in a girl's bathroom number two the most problematic of the three is you could have massive massive massive liability if a girl gets injured on a sports field or God forbid even worth worse in a locker room we all know how that could happen um finally the last issue is if you if you violate Title 9 by doing any of these things you are subject to losing title N9 funding so um dovetailing on what Mary Beth said before I I strongly you know would suggest the board looks at all those issues I'm not sure

086if that's been looked at yet but very important stuff thank you very much thank you very much for all you're doing um have a good night hi my name is norel CA one Sunset Lane um I wanted to thank Mary um for saying what she said about special ed and about um you know all the stuff that they're talking about I agree with what they're saying but I also wanted to bring up a couple of things I'm concerned about um one of which is I wanted to thank you all for letting me be part of the literacy committee I don't have something prepared to say I wasn't going to speak tonight but I have to say what I have to say about it I am concerned that um the science of reading and how it's

087being implemented in the school is inconsistent with New York State's briefs New York State science of reading definition and what they intend what the spirit of it is going through all the slides being part of the New York State Department of Ed dyslexia task force being involved in different meetings um and having an inside view of everything and also looking at the new legislation that goes into effect by September 2025 that um Kathy hokel passed that's going to require K to 3 to use structured literacy we don't have that if we're going to do um decodable books through level that's going to take us through barely all of kindergarten and so we're still using TC f&p and Running Records based on guessing so guessing with picture Clues and context clues when we're doing a running

088record after level D because you have multi- slabic words are not being taught with the phonics scope and sequence from Foundations at that point when you look at foundations scope and sequence uh grade two is when they start really getting into all the multi- slabic words but we know we see them in level EF and going forward mixed in um the reason I know all this is because my son is dyslexic he was diagnosed with dyslexia in first grade he had a very difficult time learning how to read at grade level and write at grade level I was actually to told by the special ed Department that my son would never read a grade level or write a grade level that I'd lofty goals if I thought he would well lo and behold he did

089learn to read a grade level he writes a grade level and he's in accelerated classes right now and doing quite well um I have to commend the middle schools doing very very well math and science is superb um in the school very strong social studies very strong the only area that I think is a problem is really the ELA because I think I heard that now TC is in the middle school with Ela and I think it's really created an issue with um meeting the standards when you look at the Next Generation standards for ELA I don't see how they're being met with what is going on in the classroom I don't see Mor morphology being taught syntax you know root wordss affixes um and things that are in the actual nextg standards and that's

090concerning because they need to meet those standards and learn them proficiently in order to be College ready and to be prepared for high school properly so that's just the only area and I just hope that um we can get some maybe some professional development in for science of reading somebody credentialed in it already who's trained in it maybe to um speak about it a little bit more because I'm not sure that the literacy leaders are um have actual credentials in that type of instruction and New York State also has a path forward now where they're going to be credentialing teachers based on science of reading they're changing all of it and the testing to um for licensure for teachers so it's not going to be based on balance literacy anymore they really don't want that

091used and that's what we have in the classrooms so that's you know concerning because that's going to flow into the middle school it's also going to take up resources for special ed resources for reading supports and things that can be mitigated in the younger grades and save the school a lot of money in a lot of time because we're taking resources away from kids that may really need it more especially if it's a teaching um difference thank you hi I'm kin L 167 Rockaway GNA kind of coincidentally piggy back off of that and I just wanted to say I appreciate that we've made this switch to decodables for Running Records at levels a to d for the three benchmarks marks in the school year but I remain concerned that we are still using FN pbas

092for first grade which is a critical year for learning to read if you aren't a strong reader by the end of first grade you will have a hard time ever catching up the class zooms ahead the struggling kid is kind of left behind I am looking for the district to do better in their reading assessments to assess oral reading fluency nonsense words real word reading correct words per minute need to happen along with comprehension I would like the district to confir consider investigating and sharing data on perhaps the star the map to look at comprehension or aadience for our our assessments for all our Learners there are not enough decodables currently in our primary schools if we take a look at a phonemic lesson that the kids are doing during the day and you want

093to focus on what they learn during the day it would be helpful to be able to send home that specific decodable to repeat the lesson and the teachers don't have enough of those decodables currently um I've been told for the last two years that they're coming and they've gotten some and they've talked about it at the literacy meeting there are more but there's not enough um I'd like to use the data that they could get from better structured assessments to drive small group instruction so that they could focus and Aid the teachers to use the knowledge from hegerty from foundations for tier one so that it doesn't become a tier 2 tier three problem the teachers need guid idance and mentorship on how to do this and integrate the science of reading and move away

094from balanced literacy but to do that it takes time obviously you can't just Implement a curriculum and then expect the teachers to know how to do it but that's at the detriment of the years of the kids as the teachers are figuring it out so I'm just hoping that you can partner with us as parents to move forwards in a more structured literacy teaching based method using research assessments and literally literacy teaching program so that we can catch these kids now and give them the help so that it doesn't trickle into the elementary school and the middle school thank you so much hello good evening um Erica buma um I live on St Paul's Crescent and I just wanted to discuss bus issues with you not related to the email that you sent out I

095know that there's a shortage of bus drivers this is a little bit more of a specific issue um specifically my daughter is on bus 33 at Hemlock we live on St Paul's Crescent so we're one of the smaller areas that are Hemlock straford even though we are geographically closer to Homestead um and I have a daughter at Hemlock and a son at straford so um makes it a little bit challenging I'm sure if you're not in the situation you're not aware of it um but she gets off the bus at between 3:40 and 350 every day himl dismisses around 3:00 um she's 6 years old there's also we're the second to last stop there's also a four-year-old on her bus they are not allowed to drink water on the bus so they're sitting on a

096bus for 45 minutes which I understand the water bottles can go flying but it's pretty hot often we're the second last stop someone is sleeping on the bus these kids the other boy at our bus stop is four years old they were running off the bus the other day he's peeing in the bushes she's running home it's just not a great way to end the day honestly and the fact that my son is at straford um I've thought about obviously trying to make them both walkers but it's geographically pretty far I mean as the crow flies you could get there but I've done the drop off at straford in the morning and then gone to Hemlock and it's 18 minutes and that's if you're making decent time um so just something to think about and

097potentially evaluate in the future those of us who are on those last couple blocks from Kensington to St Paul's and have to go all the way to Hemlock because it's a little bit spread out and geographically far from hemlock it's a challenge from the kids and a lot of people on our route do pick up in the afternoon I just don't have that luxury because I have a son at straford and it's just impossible for me to get there and then go get my daughter and his bus drops off at 306 and he's only in third grade so can't be dismissed by himself yet but anyway so it makes some of our lives very very challenging and the kids come off this bus exhausted at 3:45 the first week of school was 4:00 so it's

098just a really really long day when you're four five six years old after sitting at school for seven hours so thank you hi my name is Sarah Hogan um I live on Kenwood Road I have a sixth grader a seventh grader and a fifth graders um I came to the last work session hopeful that some of our feedback would be heard and that there would be some changes made this year on class size um but tonight I'm feeling a little disappointed I wonder how many of us have been in a room with 10 12 year olds by ourselves how about 20 how about 33 and then add the fact that you have to teach them science and math I'm disappointed because I heard a lot of things about what we thought about doing but didn't

099do I also heard about test scores and that those will tell us if this is working and a teacher I argue that whatever those test scores are they could be better if class sizes were reasonable I would also argue that test scores don't measure a lot of the qualities that the video about Garden City talked about do test scores measure our children's ability to innovate collaborate problem solve I challenge you Board of Education members go to the Middle School go into a seventh grade class that has 33 children in a small room please honestly ask yourself is this environment conducive to learning also ask yourself does this meet the standards of the Garden City Community I heard in the video that every student has the opportunity to meet their potential that's a quote I wonder

100if students in classes of 33 students really have the opportunity to meet their own potential good evening Suzanne hes I also have a seventh grader um we I was also here with Sarah last week or two weeks ago um I just have a I thank you Mr Samuelson for your really great brief and all the data that you had collected for us and I do understand last last time we heard about the Tas being added to the English classes I just was wondering why the English classes were picked and not the math and science classes and if possible is there any option for potentially getting Tas and I have to also say that I'm really happy to hear that the Tas are teachers certified teachers um if it's there's a possibility of having even like

101one floating ta for Math and one for science or some extra help as well in the math and science rooms as well sure I mean that's something that uh Mr Samuelson has talked talked about in terms of I think he shared that earlier that it's not just for English it will be for the other areas as well and if we need more support we will be you know we've talked about adding another section of math support because that was something that came from the meetings that we had thank you thank you uh hi my name is Deborah donah I'm on uh Kilburn Road I have an eighth grader a sixth grader and a third grader uh my question is about our math program the current math program because this is now my third child going

102through the elementary school and this is the third math program that we're learning and it's hard for me to keep up and I am fully unimpressed with the illustrative illustrative math um it started in second she was in an actually um she is not a special education student but she was in an ICT class last year and she had multiple um worksheets come home with errors in I I have a couple of the the examples like different word problems that didn't make any sense that you couldn't even answer the question and I'm like if she is coming to me and saying that this is a problem what is the special education student that's next to her that has dyslexia that isn't at reading level that's trying to do this math and I would I spoke

103to the classroom teachers and I was assured that she was doing fine that was not my concern my concern was the program itself and the other students this went through the principal and then finally I spoke with Miss Cardella in the winter and I was told that it had something to do with the repository that the teachers use and that they were working on correcting these sheets which I don't understand because each sheet has the logo of the illustrative math at the top so I'm not sure why we're either shifting blame to the teachers or if it is the teachers that aren't double-checking things that they're sending home then that's a problem too she's now in third grade and I'm we're now on the second worksheet that she's gotten it's the middle of October that

104is wrong that there's errors on it and I don't know where to go at this point I've tried the bottom up so now I'm kind of coming to the top and maybe top down something can be done because it doesn't seem like this program was vetted very well it seems like it's a new program seems like I don't even know what the problems are I don't have an education background so I'm sorry I'm coming at this as a parent and as somebody that's totally confused by why we're rolling things out that my daughter can't do her homework I mean she's sending things back even today she had classwork that you know was them trying to do areas of a rectangle and it was four different areas that you had to figure out and then Circle

105the one that was the area of 12 none of them had an area of 12 and the teacher was like oh well I guess this is wrong H how I don't understand it shouldn't be trick questions and it's not it just seems like it's a bad program we'll reach out to you because we want to I want to get some more specific um uh information from you either myself or Dr Bowman will be in touch with I mean Dr Bowman was my next place but I was like oh there's a board meeting and I have another sheet show I'll just go and bring to everybody's attention we'll be in touch with you good evening I'm Lauren Hooper on whiteall I have three children two are in the district and one will be in a few

106years I was part of the anxious generation discussion we just had and also the p ta all school meeting it was very informative regarding the use of technology and Laura Maguire did an excellent job um setting light on her view of tech in the classroom and its evolving it was really wonderful to hear about the changes that have already been made and the call for Action to reduce the use of Technology such as Chromebooks in the classroom and iPads my question this evening are what measures are being taken to ensure this information is being trickled down specifically to the primary schools and Elementary School administrators and teachers as we discussed on these calls was to enhance socialization as much as possible for these young children and reduce the screen time especially during a time when

107they should be playing and um specifically you know I have been hearing that the iPads are still as a choice for fle free play especially in first grade um sometimes during snack watching show so I'm just wanted to find out when this information is going to be you know communicated to everyone the teachers are aware and how we can reduce that um and have them play or dis socialize as kids should so in terms of um you know I'll address this question briefly is that um you know the uh Elementary all the elementary administrators they've been on the call with us right so they're very well aware we have discussed this and there is uh We've M we've made a concerted effort to minimize that particularly K through five um you know so my question

108specifically is actually at over in the more so in the primary schools um I know they do use their iPad so for free play on Fridays they have an option to either do like building with Lincoln Logs or Legos or arts and crafts but iPad is still a choice so I know my son will gravitate towards the iPad you know I would prefer for him to be playing and socializing with you know his peers instead of using that time um for being on a screen so uh you know I don't know which building U this is have you spoken to the building principal not yet no yeah I would I would encourage you to or let us know what what specific building it is have three primary schools but that is something we are um

109you know we have uh we want to minimize the use in that way right is will there will there be discussions so my question is you know with the administrators to talk about this and primary level yeah they're aware of it absolutely yes we we you know we've discussed this topic you know more than once so but I don't know like I said I need to know more specifics which building and then we can address that okay I'm I'm this specifically for hemlock Hemlock okay okay thank you hi good evening everyone Vicky bchi uh Primrose Court um thank you Mr Samson for the um overview of um the class siiz situation I have three students in District third fifth and seventh um it's a little disheartening to hear um some of the lack of um

110solution short-term Solutions um in terms of like what we're doing to problem solve um I'm an educator working in a District close by uh working in a middle school and um you know some of the comments from my ad administrator's colleagues uh you know just when I share some of the class sizes um with them are you know they're appalled that that you know they they can't they ask of course and what district I live in and then I say you know Garden City and they're pretty shocked to hear that this district has those numbers um you know aside from you know work and things like that my daughter comes home and has said to me very recently that in you know her English class which is 34 35 students she's pretty sure her teach

111doesn't really remember her name um while that may be a bit of an exaggeration you know um it's it's frustrating as a parent knowing that you know I came to move to a district um that I never thought I'd be in this situation where my students are in public school and their sizes are ranging from 30 to 35 students so I wanted to know if there was a specific timeline in terms of moving forward that I understand it's sounding like the you know there's no specific this year there's nothing really more to be done is what I'm hearing in terms of reducing other than the TA situation and maybe moving around those Tas I'm hearing that there's really no other short-term solutions for the remainder of this year but I wanted to know what going

112back to the timeline for um the scheduling like where do we have a plan is there a roll out for that and when when would the community know about those when would have those answers for for next year so uh with the scheduling process and potential other Solutions like new hires and things like that yeah so you know as the scheduling process is moving along and the um you know discussions Mr Samuelson will be communicating that to our Middle School families and we'll have a formal presentation at the Board of Education meeting as well so there's no specific like it's not March April or you know before the budget it needs to be done like goal is to have this done by December because you you're planning for the budget for the next year so

113there is a timeline for this okay to be completed and then my only other concern was that my one of my other students one of my other kids is in fifth grade and their class size at Stuart is is there bit I mean there are eight sections at Stuart currently so what are we doing and preparing them I mean are we gon to am I going to be going through this again in a year or two for my son who's in currently in fifth grade my third grader doesn't have the same issue he has this there's a smaller that's a smaller cohort but we know that there's eight sections at Stuart I'm not certain what's going on at Stratford right now but you clearly have those enrollment numbers and what can we do to prepare

114for that class to anticipate and I know it's a different cert sixth grade is a different certification than 78 so I understand that you know working in a middle school but what can we do and when when can we have feedback when can we know about what's going to be done for that cohort so as um you know Mr Samuelson said earlier with the with the scheduling a big focus of it is uh class size with the master scheduling and with the work that we are doing and remember like when we during the budget time frame that's when we discuss Staffing and we we'll we're we'll talk very openly about sections at that time I just I'm hopeful that we can all come together and and and do better for for our students thank you

115there are another no other uh questions or comments uh appreciate everybody coming up and sharing their thoughts um at this time we're going to move to consent agenda which allows for one motion to approve multiple items on the agenda uh I will ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda and we'll ask board members if they wish to have a discuss or clarification any specific items within the agenda following the discussion the board will then vote on the agenda um does anybody wish to have any items pulled out okay may have a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes business of the board items H1 through H5 Personnel matters i1 through I6 business office matters J1 through j31 and special education matter items K1 through K7 all in favor uh by is there

116any new business from the board no any new business from the administration not at this time future Board of Education meeting announcements there'll be one Tuesday November 12th 2024 uh it's a work session at 8:15 um and then there will be one Monday November 25th 2024 regular session at 8:15 um at this time may have a motion that there being no further business to come before the board that the meeting be Jed move all in favor I