KCSD Board of Education Meeting 6/3/2026

001Okay. It is 5 minutes past 7. The board has returned from executive session to begin the uh public sess session of our meeting. If we could please call the role. >> Mr. Spicer >> here. Mr. Collins here, Miss Anderson >> here, >> Mr. Ryder >> here, >> Miss Corome >> here, >> Mr. Lamb >> here, >> Miss Karns >> here, >> Miss Jordan >> here, >> Miss Collier >> here, >> Mr. J. >> And if we could stand for the >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If we could please remain standing for a moment of silence. We recently lost um a former Kingston High School teacher. Thank you. We have two actions coming

002out of executive session. BOE47 approval of settlement documents. Be it resolved that the board authorizes its president [clears throat] to sign settlement documents with plaintiff John Doe one and the district's insurer CNA as presented to the board at this meeting to resolve pending litigation in case of John Doe and John Doe 2 versus Dedricch and the Kingston City School District Olter County Supreme Court index number 2020 1189 regarding Dondo one as presented to the board at this meeting. A copy of said document shall be incorporated by reference within the minutes of this meeting. >> So move second. >> All in favor of BOE47. >> Any opposed? BOE 47 is approved. BOE48 confidential statement agreement and claim release. Whereas the Kingston City School District is required to issue payments resulting from a court-ordered legal settlement. And

003whereas Dr. Paul J. Patalino, superintendent of schools, has authorized the court ordered payment and the funds of such liabilities have been acrewed in the liability reserve. And now therefore, be it resolved that the board of education of the city school district of Kingston, New York, hereby authorizes and directs the treasurer to amend the 202526 budget in the amount of $500,000 by increasing the appropriations and revenues and reducing the liability reserve accordingly. >> Second. >> All in favor of BOE48. >> Any opposed? EO EOE48 is approved. We have um three sets of minutes to approve. Two special meetings and one regular meeting. So beginning with the minutes from the special meeting on May 1st. >> So move. >> Any discussion on the minutes from May 1st? All in favor? >> Any opposed? The minutes from May

0041st >> the minutes from May 1st are approved. >> The minutes from the regular meeting on May 6th. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion on the minutes from May 6th. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> And one of and the minutes from the special meeting on May 15th. >> So move. >> Second. Any discussion on the minutes from May 15th? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Minutes from May 15th are approved. That brings us to our public comment session. Good evening everyone. We are about to enter the portion of the meeting where we welcome public comments. Although state law does not require that we hold a public comment period, we feel it is crucial that we hear from our community about their concerns. The board is here to listen. Your concerns

005and questions may be addressed at a future meeting of the board or you may be contacted by the appropriate staff member or administrator. If you have prepared a written statement and do not have the opportunity to present it, please leave it with the clerk of the board who will see that the trustees receive it. Each speaker will have three minutes and this public comment period will not exceed 30 minutes in total. It is important to note that state and federal privacy laws and collective bargaining agreements prevent us from discussing certain topics in this venue, including specific employees or students and pending grievances or negotiations. Any speaker who does not adhere to those posted these posted guidelines will forfeit the remainder of their time. Thank you for your adherence to the rules and your interest in

006the continuous improvement of our district. Cherylyn Bulbert. >> Hi everyone. My name is Charlene Wolford. I have lived in the community since 1989 and I am a 1996 graduate of Kingston High School. I am also a mom of a seventh grade student at Miller Middle School. I've been a school counselor in the Kingston school district for 20 years, including the past 15 at Bailey and prior work at Miller Middle School and Kingston High School. Thank you for the opportunity to speak about the role of the middle school counselor. If you ask most people about the toughest years of their youth, many will say middle school. At Bailey and Miller, we serve students ages 9 to 14. Mental growth at this age is intense, and as a result, students experience rapidly shifting emotions, which can impact

007their behavior and decisions. No one changes more than they do in this part of their life. Students need consistent adults who provide them with healthy strategies to manage anxiety, deal with stress, learning co learn coping mechanisms, and build resilience. Our work goes far beyond making schedules. One of our greatest strengths is the cohort model. We stay with our students for all four years, building relationships with them and their families during a critical period of development. Reducing from four counselors to three would make that model unsustainable. Every day we support students with concerns like anxiety, grief, peer conflict, attendance, and family challenges. We support students develop help students develop healthy relationships, navigate social pressures, and resolve conflicts before they escalate. We're present in classrooms, hallways, lunch, and recess, making sure no student feels invisible or alone.

008We also connect families to resources like food, clothing, and school supplies. We also respond to more serious concerns including suicidal thoughts, abuse, substance use, bullying, and safety issues. We investigate alerts related to self harm or danger, meet with students, communicate with families, and coordinate with staff to ensure appropriate support. We collaborate closely with teachers, administrators, and outside partners such as therapists, community organizations, and hospitals. Teachers rely on us when they see warning signs, whether it's a in emotional distress, signs of self harm, or concerning behavior in class or in classroom discussions. We are active members of 504 and IEP teams, advocating for student needs and helping coordinate services. We also we also communicate daily with families, offering reassurance and partnership as we support their children through these challenging years. For many families, counselors are the

009first connection to middle school. We meet students before they arrive, visit elementary schools, host transitions, and guide families through orientation. And even in middle school, we begin preparing students for the future, exploring careers, building goals, supporting opportunities like scholarships. Just this week, I worked with eighth grade with eighth graders applying for Sunni Olter President's Challenge Scholarship, helping with essays, and interview preparation. Middle school counselors are a critical system during one of the most formative periods of a child's life. reducing these positions would directly impact our ability to meet students academics and emotional needs. I really appreciate your time and our commitment to our students. Thank you. >> Megan Williams. >> Hi everybody. My name is Megan Williams. I'm a parent and a school counselor in the district. I was a counselor at Kingston High School

010for 14 years and this is my second year at JW. I feel I'm uniquely positioned to speak about the need to maintain four counselors at the middle level. Our department has had two positions abolished at the May 15th meeting. That is 11% of our department. The plan, as we understand it, though it has not been explicitly discussed, is to pull two counselors, one from each middle, to KHS to replace those that were excess. We all know that Kingston is in a position where it's having to reimagine many things. We are asking the district to reimagine this plan. By reducing our counselors at the middle level to three, JWB counselors will carry case load of 308 students and Miller at 275. While that is below our contractual maximum of 350, it is above the recommended case

011load by ASA recommendation at 250. If Kingston High School were to have six counselors and maintain their ENL counselor, their case load would be roughly 278. Remembering that each cohort team has a dedicated social worker, psychologist, and assistant principal. At the middle level, two grades share a social worker and a psychologist and an assistant principal, but currently each grade has a dedicated school counselor. Additionally, the possibility to reimagine utilizing the ENL counselor and the current school counselor on special assignment as CS chair to fill two positions at the high school would allow for maintenance at the middle level of one counselor for each grade. If the district moving fifth grade back to the elementary schools in the next few years that was mentioned in previous board meeting. There will also be counselors retiring and perhaps

012these two things would align allowing for a less disruptive transition to the three middle level counselors. I have seen firsthand the value of school counselors at the middle level from both sides. Now school counselors are often first three mental health support they will encounter in their life. We are a tier one, two, and three provider. Students who receive the support they need while in middle school are far more likely to reach graduation successfully than those who do not. Students who learn how to access their school counselor and the support that we provide at the middle level with better awareness. I have seen that play out in real time. It is our goal as a district to set students up to be successful. I implore you to truly consider the impact of reducing support services in

013the middle school. We have lost our attendance social worker and are sharing other supports levels. Students deserve to keep their school. Thank you, >> Erica Bern. Um, I'm so glad to be with you all today. Uh, two things on my mind this morning. Actually, I wrote this this morning. The first is that we're in Pride Month. Um, the LGBTQIA plus community knows how to celebrate and experience joy, but right now our country and our community is really suffering at the hands of federal and I would just say cultural um, push back and violence. And so now is the time to begin to really reexamine the cultures in our schools. What does it mean to truly welcome nonbinary students. What is the culture? Not not changing the box of the laws and the requirements by the

014state, but actually digging in deeply to make sure every teacher, every staff member, and every student has the educational materials. And frankly, um has has the ability to ask questions about things they don't understand so that our um some of our most vulnerable students um continue to thrive. I'll say that um we know this to be true from when the civil rights movement brought us um changes in how we uh think about racial equity. The movement itself um required continued work and we still don't see racial equity happening um in our country and so the same is going to be true that those check the boxes just don't work. So I'm looking forward to Dr. Collins's um June 15th meeting um where we will start to explore what's already being done but with the loss

015of Dr. Collins on the board for next year I'm concerned and I'm looking forward to um finding out who will own that piece of the puzzle. The second thing I'll just say is that um I've brought to this the attention of this Many times communications um a lot of times people think about communications as a nice to have but communications is actually about power and decision making. So when we call for a difference a different communication style with our community including me now um what we're asking for is for uh the board and the administration to consider new processes where in something like the budget and the loss of our beloved guidance counselors which by the way is an equity issue. It'll impact our queer students. It'll impact our students of color. impact our students

016with disabilities, but where those issues, the genius idea that just came where somebody was able to solve something because we actually asked the people closest to the problem to help us solve the to help us solve it as opposed to a top down solution can actually be had. So my request to the board that next year um especially for new board members who haven't yet joined our board and for you know a returning board member is to consider a process starting in September for us to think about what is the budget um process that we are looking for. How do we bring teachers, staff, guidance counselors, social workers into that process from the get-go. But not only that, our community members, the people closest to the problem or closest to the solutions. And I understand

017that changing how we communicate is about shifting power and how decisions get made. And that's scary for a board and it's scary for administration. But I know you're brave enough to do it. So I'm asking you to do it. If you don't invite us, we will invite you. [applause] >> Gorman. My name is Meredith and I have two students in the district. I'd like to speak again tonight about community concerns regarding educational technology in our schools. Over the last decade, edtech has become one of the largest investments made by school districts around the country. As we're all aware, KCSD has made many such investments in tech as well. Students are issued onetoone devices. Instruction is delivered through digital platforms and assignments, assessments, communication, and classroom management. Increasingly rely on software and online systems. Yet, despite

018how deeply these tools are embedded in our schools, to my knowledge, there has never been a comprehensive public review of our district's educational technology program. We should be able to answer six basic questions. One, what are we spending? The diversity of spending on software contracts and renewals, cyber security and devices should be clearly broken out as line items, especially given the recent conflict in our community over the district budget. Two, what and how many products are being used? Three, what data is being collected and why? Four, what safeguards are in place and are they sufficient? Five, what evidence shows these tools are improving educational outcomes? And six, how are those benefits weighed against financial costs? exposure, privacy concerns, and safety risks. If a vendor claims its product improves learning, the district should be able to

019demonstrate it. If a platform collects student data, families should know exactly what is being collected and why. If we're spending taxpayer dollars on technology, taxpayers should be able to see the results. Transparency on this issue should not require request from concerned families. Tonight, I'm respectfully requesting that the board direct administration to conduct a comprehensive review of all educational technology used in the district and to make the findings publicly available. The review should identify every platform in use, its cost, purpose, the student data it collects, evidence of its effectiveness, and whether it remains necessary as well as dollars spent on cyber security. Educational technology has fundamentally changed the student experience. Parents, taxpayers, teachers, and this board should expect the same transparency and accountability we would demand of any other major district initiative. Thank you for your

020time and your continued service to the district. >> Kelly Darling Good evening. I'm here tonight to support my fellow school. I am a school counselor at Miller Middle School. As my colleagues have shared, we are facing the loss of one school counselor in each of the middle school buildings. We would like to to rethink that decision. As my colleague has shared, it would be detrimental to our students to lose a school counselor in most of our buildings. We are the front line for our students. We interface with our students every day. Most of our students need us. We are their trusted individual. They come to us to share what is going on inside our school building, what is going on at home. We are their person. You out of our building to reallocate them to

021the hospital. We will have increases to our case which will make it almost impossible to give our undivided direct attention to everyone that we already see throughout the day. We have in the past two years we have lost an attendant social worker. So we are now tasked with taking on the attendance needs in our building. We are now interfacing with Tuler County probation. We are having to do um I'm sorry. Yes, we are pinsition with our persons in need of supervision. That was not on our prior because we had social workers to do that. Our dedicated social workers per each grade level are now being tapped with having to do the billing for Medicaid. So we always have them at our disposal. Um, so our day is incumbent with having to do more and if

022you take another person from our department, we are we are losing that individualized attention with our students. So we ask you to rethink this decision and not take person out of our buildings because we need that. Our students need them. Our families need them. Our communities need them because we work with our partners every day and our students need that. So thank you. I have Andrea Hi, I'm Dr. I am a parent of a third grader at Edson and I told you so little um I wanted to start by echoing some of the things that Dr. B said. I want to thank Kathy Collins or Dr. for ensuring that posted curriculum and materials will be discussed in the last meeting. Thank you so much. I'm also concerned that her will not trans transed by lack

023of knowledge within the classroom. Um that just shows that even if he's being who are ident really really really important especially with everything that's going on attempts to eradicate Um I you know I was not fully aware of the middle school counselor issue but I will say that transm The other concern that I have relates to the recent layoffs. Um it recently came to my attention that one of the teachers is the fourth grade teacher language program at Edson that program will be going into fourth grade next year and I do not know what that will look like rumors about possible plans. Um, I'm also reaching out to the school for some answers, but I um I just resigned to, you know, really encourage the board to be thinking about their strategies for where they're

024making the cuts and why they're making the cuts. Um, dual language teachers without understanded and um mostly disheartening to hear that just by the second cohort it may not be fulfilling it promise to the families signed up for it. I for Is there anyone else that would like to address the board? >> Thank you so much. Thank you for letting New York also district. Um so I ran on the promise of transparency and that all voices would be heard and I was uh sent this right before I arrived here. So that's why I'm going to read it. Uh hi the school counseling department has some serious concerns about the redistribution of counselors. The high school will be fully staff again with school counselors while the middle level will be one counselor short in each building.

025The result will be three counselors for four grade levels. Currently, there are 200 plus students in each grade. If we lose a counselor from each building, our case loads will rise to over 300 students for council. There will be even more [clears throat] at Bailey. I'm concerned about how my colleagues and I will be able to service our students. Despite what some may think, school counselors touch every part of facilitators to students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community agencies. A large portion of our students and their families are in need of advocacy with all. I just wanted you to have some information and some insight into the situation. So, thank you for reading. Thank you for listening. [applause] That brings us to our superintendence report. >> Thank you, Mansion. We will start up with Mr. Sheber

026and our report from Miller Middle School. >> Good evening everybody. Thank you for the opportunity to share a little school. This is the first But thanks for the time. So first off, um we just wanted to share how proud we are to be as culturally rich as we are. We're a very diverse school that spent a lot of time over the last 10 years and all. Just speak a little more to demographic data. We 111 students about 14% of our graduation 26% of the students currently have and we are title one school 50% of our school is below we did um we have are still uh a school in our state uh they kind of shifted the post and nomenclature agend So while we have a CSI school for the building we have changed the

027designation even though CSI tends to represent all all groups we were notified over the summer that we are no longer in that group because all our groups are making with the exception of the multi-ra group. Normally that would be a TSI but we actually shifted the new picture and we are now CSI not quite sure what that means but it does what it means is that off we continue to maintain. [clears throat] So these are our three strategies. Strategy one was the first two are instructional strategies. Strategy one is to strengthen tier one instruction through explicit student centered teaching practices. was to enhance [clears throat] specially designed instruction specifically for special education classes to ensure that the teaching is reflective of the individual student. And then the third strategy to really lean into social emotional

028learning program in grades five and six to develop a unified approach to our social emotional learning um tying in with MTSS and you know support the work of the team and the story practice. Uh we have some help which is lovely. Um some of the help we had this year first we contacted a woman by the name of Patty Davis and she helped us design instruction work. There were nine visits where she was in the building all day. She spent her days split between working with special class special education teachers doing also having reflective conversations about what she was seeing giving them tips and coming back and visiting and seeing that I did those walks with her as members of my team. It was really great process. She was actually part of the team that

029was with us for the past two years by way of different posties signed by the state after she retired. We kept her on to the district as a consultant to continue that focus. Um we also worked directly with Ivan and part of the benefits of being CSI benefits is that the state provides a good amount of grant money to support that need to do. So we were able to leverage that grant money towards providing inhouse embedded trainers. They also went through coaching cycles directly with their teachers going through review processes that they had seen and they observed teachers and then providing moder to produce higher fun. So that was really kind of a great thing. We did the same thing with the CKA trainers. We had them in as well as piloting at levels but

030you know employing the grade six level and again real one and done kind of situation. had a chance to try out the concepts, work with an expert and ensure that we're doing and then lastly we had some help as we also had some we we participated with the New York State Education District Systems instructional improvement program. We're one of four schools in the district participated in that. Um there were a number of visits to either New York, Halton, New York, Brooklyn, New York. We hosted a session here in Kingston where people from those areas to us. Um and we really focused a lot on on looking at what instruction looks like and what students need. Now we talked a lot about model one being the more traditional um to use stage on stage where learning

031is from the teacher down to more of a model to expression of learning where students are engaged in learning developing understandings through the facilitation of teaching. So it's more of a a collaborative learning method. Um one of the books that um that that was inspired by is called thinking classrooms. That book has a very math orientation to it but the ideas there can be expanded to all the discipline and that's really what um the trainers in this program are helping us throughout the year. We talked about developing lessons as recipes and testing out those recipes and sharing those recipes data. We had teachers keeping data on each of the new techniques they started and tried. We really providing more time for our students teachers sometimes to answer quickly or rely on the first two responses

032in the classroom really allowing kids to engage longer before them. Um things like teacher press is also an response but then bouncing further responses and getting other students in the class to to feed into how they again processed throughout all that as well. Uh the template asked for a lot of data. So here comes the data portion of the evening. Um this is our already math data. When we started working on these slides we were still in the midst of the math window. So I couldn't put together the work done yet. Um so we're showing growth. I mean not maybe not as fast as we'd like to see but you can see from the fall to the winter there is um you know 14 from 14% on grade level in the fall to 23% decrease

033in grade level. The next slide shows the same thing just isolating grades five and six. So again, we're seeing rises from grade level and above from 12% to 21% in fifth grade and from 12% to 25% in the sixth grade. The sixth grade has been our star last two years. Um they really have we're still trying to hit the hardware what's happening there. Um we're really really proud of the work that's happening in those grades. Um seventh and eighth grade advanced growth. Um again each grade has some growth. eth grade things kind of temper out a little bit. Um, but we're going to continue to work on developing our tier one skills so we can bring this even further along. Uh, same with reading, we're seeing growth from 23% to 28% in the spring. This

034is a full spring model. Again, the low grade dropped. Uh, grades five went from 17% to 26%. The low grade level dropped by 10% as well. Uh, sixth grade, we saw this to grade and reading similar as well. Another measure we use to test the growth of our students along their reading is two measures that Dr. Hbert has helped us to facilitate and that is an oral fluency test. We saw that our fifth graders went from a 27% proficiency in the fall to a 44% proficor to have a administrative intern this Mr. Thomas and M Thomas was in charge of our testing this year. >> So this is our computer based testing data from last year. Uh we have not received the data this year but as you guys can see here we are working

035towards growth again. Our sixth grade is our all star there having good amount of growth hitting that level four that we were hoping for. Our are still working towards getting up to the growth levels they would like us to see. Um as far as regions testing last year um our earth and space science regions uh if you look at these bars level three, four and five are going to be what we are hoping to see. Um the red, yellow and greens indicate the level of that. So we have the low level three, the high sorry middle level three and the high alter three. Um but we are seeing success in our for our eighth grade students uh last year uh in both earth and space science as well as in our uh life science biology

036regions uh which we will talk about again about our students taking uh later this month. As for algebra, um last year we had two classes talking to the teachers um and we had great um results and um >> yeah, not just great results any as far as reach opportunities this year. Um we have 213 eighth grade students. We have 21% of our grade 44 students taking algebra this year. Uh we also have in our life like science biology 12% of the grade so 25 students there um and earth space science we have 21% of the grade I apologize I made that there uh but we have uh 11% there and 24 students um but again students to choose which science they get to go to. So we're seeing consistency there with at least um 23%

03722% of our students in that range. Uh it's further broke down and we see it is it lines very well with our school population uh diversity overall. Um so we do see some positives in the different students uh that are taking these programs. There is also an algebra prep class as part of our resource allocation in New York last year where we're looking to increase uh participation in our classes creating an algebra prep class that ran in the spring. We had 13 students in that program and we're hopeful to get them program next year. Last I just want to also magnify our proportionality. As far as other credit opportunities, um our eighth grade is really having opportunity to get those high school credits before they're getting um 61% of our eighth grade students are having

038the opportunities uh for high school credit in the CTuh areas. the high school keyboarding is we have 30% of our students taking that as well as 31% leadership food prep. Uh when we get into the arts we have 32% of our eighth graders uh getting or having opportunity to get credits in high school there as well. students in CR and 29 in grade and then again in music we have 32% of our eighth graders having the opportunity for credit there as well broken down with symphonic band 13 students are 6% orchestra uh at 24 students and course at 32 so in addition to entering the high school with credits and getting a head start um it gives them not just the credit the opportunity to take upper level classes age and explor And this year

039um I had the opportunity to uh co- facilitate the state uh computer based testing um with and our great team at Miller. Uh we saw very low opt out rates um overall we had the highest participation over in over 10 years. We had 4% opt out for our ELA test, 6% for math, and 4% for science. Um, unfortunately, there weren't any. So, while we tried to make up as many as we could, uh, we weren't able to get everyone done before the window closed. So, unfortunately, uh, participation is uh, still lower, but still at the same point higher than it's been uh, in the last 10 years. >> Just for comparison purposes, when I started my position in middle school, 47% Mr. Rosa is our assistant principal for grades seven today. So take over as

040attendance our average daily attendance is 92% kids come to school unfortunately are students who are chronically absent state absent we do our best to address that through interventions to support work but then Someone is a problem. Um so our lunchion records do seem rather high. Want to point that record was actually 179 students 21% of our students responses. I will point out while that is the highest we'll see our discipline that is not exclusionary response. students are not just eating with their friends. Unfortunately in ISS they do miss class but we're proud of the system that we built that even when a student is in ISS we have certified teachers every day working with them and providing instruction. still rather severe things in that we can still provide instruction. Our counselors can still provide support.

041Our psychologist can still very comps 138 records 69 students% of our students OSS I didn't provide the longitudinal numbers but each of those are significantly previous work. We also did some of which doesn't make it to East a lot of point out system it's really the hard work and to manage things without having to do want to brag a little bit um you know we have an annual event of science night out We had over a thousand attendees this year. The theme this year was blooms. We had everything from marching bands, petting stations, robots, seedlings, the wayfinder group, which you may have heard about live role play. They took over half the yard with some epic battles. There was animals, animals, all kinds of amazing science things. We collaborated. Um we have Kingston Kingston marching

042band as represented by the former Miller students marching through time for Mustang Mustang. Um it's great time. It's really what it started as a family engagement opportunity 10 years ago and it's grown into a whole thing of itself and stepped all over. [laughter] >> Um good evening happy to be here. Um just as we address the academic needs in our building we're excited to share that we addressing culturally responsive um needs also and sometimes we have to have to choose over and we do that in a really good way. Miller exemplifies tolerance and acceptance in community engaging in cultural practices that highlight diversity. For Women's History Month as well as for Black History Month, we did we did kind of like a trivia um and I kind of stole the idea from someone on Instagram

043where the principal does a trivia question and the first question in gets like a prize. So, we decided to turn that over. We decided to turn that over and bring it to Miller and we in honor of black history and women's month is that each classroom was given a new person to learn about every day listen carefully um and then on Friday it was and the first class called get um also in addition to that to highlight the literacy that we're pushing in in our building our library did a wonderful job of creating literacy display for both women's history month and black history month encouraging students to check out books that were more aligned with that initiative in addition to that We do have um celebration regarding Hispanic heritage month. Um students embrace learning by

044um about different cultural Hispanic backgrounds. Um by sharing their practice of where they came from. Um they were able to share like their games. There's something called lotto games. So here that's actually very common in South America where they're playing lot. It's not not the lottery. It's completely completely different and it is not gambling. here. Um, but they were able to share their games and their things that they naturally would have had in their home in their native. Um, don't forget about the other dance every single fall as a community. We learned that with this time is very hard for South American cultures where it's just not about Halloween, it's about me and there's a lot of significance behind it. So, we did try to highlight that again this year. Um students were taught about

045altars and bringing gifts to the altars to commemorate the family members that have passed. Um and so it's pretty much what we did in those respective spaces. Even though this is happening in small moments of snapshots, I do want to share that Miller is very very very um diverse in the fact that we engage in several languages. For example, in this class whenever she presents, she presents in Arabic, she present Chinese, she in Spanish. Um so we're making that ing all of the faces in our classroom. Um, and here's just some visuals. So, this was our little dance. And outside of Frank's classroom, we also had um what we call heroes of the culture of Hispanic Hispanic culture and every single person was learnent. And this is where um I'm super proud to talk about

046shifting our practice. Um we are continuing our work on social emotional learning not only for students but for staff. Um our matrix is our foundation for our school building. So this is collectively made by a team. Um and we have that posted everywhere in the building. Um we believe that this is what brings us together. Um and in addition to that we over to creating first five as a daily resource that provides teachers with teens, clothes and mindfulness. So one of the examples you'll see on the bottom um it's like taking one through four from calm to intent. How are you feeling? And this is something that's done in the first five minutes of class allowing teachers to have a checkin um before they engage in that academic conversation. And lastly, um the the team

047had an opportunity to create a space for character strong. Um it is a digital based platform, but what I love about this class, it is not for students who look at a computer. It is student facing. So the teacher is doing all the work. Kids have nothing in front of them and we're having conversation. So this program helps for students to identify, create, and solidify foundational character traits that allow them to be successful in the class. So when we're thinking about what does it mean when we say we inspire, we educate, graduate, what do our students look like? They're students that persevere, that have grit, that can be hard. So we're excited to brag a little more. Um, one of our students, Lizzie O'Neal, I have her permission to use her name, um, and um,

048was a varsity athlete at the middle school level. Uh, they went to the sectional championships for the first time this year. She also participates in the junior Olympic flag football team and is the first student that I know that has just gotten an NIL. Maybe others, but again, middle school student that just got an NIL. For those who don't know that means name image like this in other words she can make money off of who she is and her prowess. We also have Alex today who I think you think to life as he applied the highly boy scouts and I just wanted to also brag that the two as well as Benny are former Again, thank you all for making that opportunity for us and providing us to do the things that we do and

049questions. >> Questions, comments from the board. >> This is kind of um first I really appreciate the groundedness and the authenticity that you bring to school. I think when you talk about statistical data about it and you are growed in that I think celebrating successes too early and rapidly um can be inauthentic. So I really admire and acknowledge that you set reasonable to goals and you're working together for that. Um I heard a lot from many students about the wonderful communication that's done with the students directly um about not opting on testing and why that's important. And I that you showed many instances in which students are engaged in that individual agency to kind of bring that responsibility to the forefront. I my question is about the 26% of students with an IEP. My understanding

050is that that is above the national average um and that seems like a tremendous uh impact and influence that they that may have in the pressures of delivery of services within the school. what kind of collaboration and what kind of work amongst each cohort is done to make sure that those students be met. >> Um well from a from a curriculum standpoint we've been working closely with Dr. Williams to ensure that there's some special departments and then as we la students across those first two academic goals were kind of the same goal just one was specific to the special population. That's how much we cared enough to make sure that one of our goals was to focus on that. >> And then my second and last question is in terms of trends and middle school

051ages. Um we evaluate things as a board and kind of look at the distinctive differences between each grade band. Um what kind of challenges are you seeing in the middle school? You know, one of my platforms was mental health and that was really import as a as a member of this board and I'm just curious if you can reflect on some of the things you're seeing um that we should be aware of. >> I would say that um my time as an administrator back in 1999 and you know the world has changed the world is changing and kids do need a lot more used to be watched my role as an English teacher when I was in the classologist even if that's not our title that's the work we're doing for any reason they're just

052coming less prepared less able to read less able to to negotiate real conversations that aren't encourage them typing and it's the work that our counselors do that really helps to support them. Um you know these are this is why we had to make that kids really haven't been as ready to schools to ensure consistency of approach. >> Thank you Dr. Collins. Thank you, Mr. She and team. That was amazing. Lots of great information there. Um, and a lot of good work being done. I I actually just had a question. I really appreciated that you had um put up the numbers for how many students are getting high school credits and what classes and that's really helpful and it's been a goal for us to to get more students um have to have access to those

053courses, but also the equitability of subjects which you highlighted. So, thank you very much for that and the hard work that's gone into that. I actually just had a a very small question around you said there 20 21% of students were enrolled in algebra this year. Um I think is that right? Okay. Um, and I know that one of the district goals is to increase out readiness. And I just wondered if you had any recollection of how many were enrolled last year, like one person. >> Um, right around the same number there. >> Okay. So that number yet is not yet increase. Well, thank you so much. And the test completion rate increase is incredible and impressive. And so is your science. >> I just want to piggy back on something Dr. Collins said. I

054didn't see voice 1A. Is that not being offered it? >> It's being offered. Um, there's only three kids. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Spicer. And then Sophia, >> I I just want to How does that work? Three in the class. How does that work? >> How does that work with such a small student? >> Well, they're also in the car. So, you can't be can't be also in students to take it for credit. So we still have those. >> So it's an optional opportunity. >> It's an opportunity to be recommended as well as >> Mr. Spicer. [clears throat] >> I wanted to support your efforts in in disagregating all your data by race. If you're going to target and support our children uh for for support, you have to know exactly who they are. So,

055thank you uh for that. I want to thank you for your efforts in combining in combating attendance issues. Students with a 90% or higher attendance rate have a future graduation rate of 91% or higher. So, over the years, we've learned the exact connection between attendance rates and graduation rates. You can't teach children who aren't here. So, thank you for all your efforts in that. Matters. >> Yes, it does. Yes, it does. I want to thank you for your cultural responsive practices. They're vital. Now, learning what makes any other culture special makes us all special. And it also makes our children the future citizens of the world that they are. Kingston is part of Paris now. So, thank you for that. I want to thank you for your social emotional program. Learning together is not possible

056if our children don't learn how to live and feel safe together. And then the last thing I want to say for all the former high school principles in the room, we love when we hear stats about children taking and passing regions exams at the middle school level, walking in the door with regions underneath their belt. So, thank you so much for that and thank you so much for your presentation uh to you and and the whole staff. Thank you. >> Other comments or questions? Thank you very much, MR. MR. PARKER, who is our director of safety and prevention who will talk about districtwide safety plan. Good evening all and welcome to the 26 27 districtwide safety review. I'm Parker safety city schools who's our safety advisor for the district. This is the time when we

057present the plan to the board and community and make it available for a 30-day period. Tonight will be presented in three sections. project safe uh districtwide and building level safety plans and how the plans work together. We at KCSD strive to be a space where students, staff and visitors feel free to express themselves, seek understanding and build meaningful relationships. It should be a place where individuals can discover who they are without fear of judgment or preconceived notions. A place of both victories and setbacks, achievements and A place where mistakes are part of the journey and forgiveness is part of the culture. Above all, it should be a place that feels safe and is safe emotionally, intellectually, physically. To create an educational space that provides all of this requires components, physical safety, behavioral supports, and a

058positive. A welldesigned districtwide safety plan proactive that supports this. What What is a district safety plan? What is it? What is it purpose? The requirement of creating a district wide safety plan in school began in 2000. New York State was commonly safe schools comes from safe schools against violence and education act often called project safe. It was an act school violence and promote safer and more effective learning. To do this, New York State lawmakers wanted a comprehensive statewide approach to prevention and response. One of the most important components of the safe act is a legal requirement that every school district create safety plans. Education law 2801- requires every district to create a comprehensive districtwide safety plan and a level response plan for each school within that district. The district wide safety plan applies to the

059entire district and focuses on prevention intervention strategies and coordination with police and emergency responders and builds policies for threats and incidents. It covers FEMA's five preparedness missions of prevention, mitigation, protection, response and recovery in its entirety. The district wide safety plan goes beyond simply preventing emergencies. It's fundamentally about creating a positive school climate and environment where students and staff feel safe, supported, and ready to learn. Who is responsible for the districtwide safety plan? The districtwide safety team. The team is led by the board, superintendent or designate. This team is made up of representatives of the school board, teachers, administrators, parent organization, community members, bus drivers, monitors, school safety personnel and law enforcement reps. Who has access to the districtwide safety plan? Parents and guardians, staff and students, community members, board of education. Districts are required

060to make the plan available to the public for review adopted by a public board meeting and allow a public comment period for adoption. Districtwide safety plan is the big picture. We look at safety goals in the district and state requirements from the bird's eye view and support the building teams by guidance information resources. What the district plan doesn't it doesn't prevention of all incidents. It reduces risk improves response but no plan prevent emergencies like accidents, violence and natural disasters. It doesn't operate dayto-day supervision. It doesn't replace staff duties like hallway monitoring student supervision or behavioral management. Those are main building responsibilities. Most importantly, district doesn't replace individual school safety plans. Each school still needs its own building emergency response plan with sight specific action plans to deal with emergencies in an individual school. It provides

061stepbystep response procedures by outlining what staff and students should do in emergencies like lockown and evacuations. Its roles and responsibilities such as the incident commander and response team members and identifies what who does what during an incident. It includes entry and exit routes, safe areas, reunification sites, locations of hazards or critical infrastructure accounts for students with disabilities and program needs. provides critical information to police, fire, EMS, including building maps, access points, contact personnel and serves as the foundation of required safety drills, staff training and preparedness activities. Who's responsible for the building plan? Building level response planning team which is led by principal building level team is also responsible for designating the building emergency response team and post response team. The emergency response team is activated and responds to crises such as medical emergency and lockout.

062It's made up of nurses teachers and federal staff. While post response team comes to play after the event has ended. They support admin response team members and school with emotional support and mental health assistance. membership is made up of mental health professionals, counselors and crisis team members who has access to the building level response plan. Due to the sensitive nature of the information of the building level plan, they are not publicly accessible. Building level response plans are need to know documents shared only with those who must prepare for, respond to, and manage emergencies in that specific school. What building level emergency response plans don't do? They don't cover every respon every possible scenario perfectly. They provide structure, but emergencies are unpredictable and staff must still make judgments. They don't function without training and practice. Written

063planning alone is ineffective if staff or trained drills are not conducted correctly and they don't eliminate the need for real time decision. The principal or incident commander may modified procedures to respond to evolving conditions. How do they work together? Districtwide safety plan establishes overall practices, expectations, and procedures. It defines standards for prevention, communication, and response across all schools and is the framework. Building level plans translate those district policies into specific actionable steps tailored to each school's layout population and needs. It is the specific specific action district and consistency plans. Together they create a cohesive comprehensive safety system that ensures every school is aligned with the district expectations and prepared [clears throat] to respond effectively to its unique environment. The district supports strong a stronghold community approach to safety through consistent collaboration and planning. This includes

064monthly meetings with emergency responders, law enforcement, local agencies to coordinate training, share information and strengthen preparedness. We actively participate in the county preparedness task force, countywide school safety team work with Duchess County to enhance regional school safety efforts. Additionally, our 46 member districtwide safety committee plays a critical role in driving agreements including the implementation of monitor monitoring expanded surveillance systems, enhanced communications tools and uses specialized safety consultants. The district the district prioritizes prevention protection and mitigation through strong collaboration responders and layered security systems. These include access control systems, enhanced cyber security, expanded survey, and an upgraded lockown system. Additional efforts include developing threat assessment teams, supporting a regional critical incident stress management team, maintaining an anonymous reporting system and program, ensuring all security staff monitors are out of highly trained New York State is a

065response in adolescent district. response the district response and recovery through comprehensive drills including lockown evacuation bus drills shelter drills CPR staff are trained in command threat assessment emergency response communication systems with local police and emergency services have a highly regarded 25 member critical stress incident stress team and strong partnerships with community organizations further support Together, these efforts build a system that promotes safety, prep school. In closing, our commitment to create safe, supportive, and prepared environment for every student, staff member, visitor through strong partnerships, proactive planning continu very cohesive report. And uh the only question I have is is there um you think a place where we might have resources for parents in terms of prevention in terms of um I know that there are you you reach out and you have a lot of community

066partnerships and I wondered if there's any written information in terms of I know that the sheriff has locks available to to people if they own guns or you know that kind of thing. Is that appropriate for us to think about in terms of helping the community understand what they can do for prevention as a family? >> Uh yes most definit Right. Such a crucial component of education. Thank you, >> Mr. Spencer. >> It's unfortunate that what you do, Mr. Park, has become such an outsized uh important component of school districts. Now, it's the times we live in. I did want to say you have established an outstanding security culture throughout the entire district. I know because I've accidentally shown up the building without my ID [laughter] and even though almost nobody knows why I'm going

067to say who are you and go away so and after a couple of phone calls they let me in the building but but it is and and and school members really appreciate that. No, go away. school members appreciate that. So, I I just want to thank you because it all comes from the top that security has become so serious and we only get one chance to get it wrong. So, and and all these years of our schools being very safe is is a real tribute to the dedication that you and your culture have set in our buildings and keeping us all safe from the tallest to the smallest. Thank you. I have to approach small things. I mean, we know this drives it home. how much money you spend on components came. So pushing to

068make sure that [laughter] >> um Dr. Collins and then Mrs. >> Thank you very much. Um I just had a question about the 30-day comment period. So that starts tomorrow. >> It starts >> start and so we will then usually we have a communication that goes out to everyone in the district to alert them. Is that the plan as well? >> Okay, great. >> This is Mr. more serious more than I have in the Kansas City School District about how well safety is looked at, taken care of, and really focused on sharply. Um, I wanted to ask a question about mitigating some of the bad habits on different campuses. So, one is a shout out to all families and parents who respect the rules and boundaries because it's very difficult to recognize that moment when

069you wait outside the door to buzz yourself in. um and not sort of protocol systems because it's more than just protocol. It's about how the schools flow. But I'm curious about signage and other things that may help break some bad habits including parking and exit lanes or other things that are done regularly and routinely that maybe could be solved by some very physical sign in that simply says no parking here. Um because there's some low hanging fruit I think available to helpate and complnt the incredible work you're doing. And um my last thing, I'm sure you'll answer that, but my last thing is also just really to encourage families to lean into this and to be part of this and to respect the process, how much work goes into it, and to be a partner

070and collaborator on um the way we keep our school safe as a community. First question myself to help them understand the importance of certain things and how families react to signage how they help sometimes don't help and also communication relity but those are the parents that won't child. Um, all I can say is that's just rel One of the things I say to parents many times have children in the school. >> It's like sometimes sleep in the school [laughter] and I say that we have kids here too. My kids >> No, you you covered it all. Thank you, Mr. Can I just add to something Mr. Parker just said? When trustees when we did all of our walkthroughs and we made our list, broken curbs, potholes, signage, all of the things that we found even

071on our own walkthroughs that are safety and security issues, they go right to the top of things that that our school district attends to quickly. So, I want to thank all of you for that, but then also chime in because Mr. Parker spoke to the uh the co confluence uh um between safety and the facilities committee. So I want to thank you for that. >> Other questions or comments. Thank you very much, Mr. PARKER. I'll be just have a few quick things. because I know we have several committee um reports tonight. So, I think most of what I would say the committee chairs will be saying. So, um I do want to remind everyone to go to our website. All of our upcoming spring events are on there. So, I won't list them all out.

072They're all on there and there's a lot going on as you all know. Um just specifically, I want to point out Monday night is our senior awards. So, that's just that's kind of the biggie that's coming up first thing next week. So, um, please go to the website and if you have any questions or concerns or anything, just give me a holler and we can discuss where we are. But, and then last, just last lastly for me, just reminder everybody of our committee meetings coming up. Policy is this Friday morning at 9:30. Uh, teaching and learning is the 15th at 9:30 and our facilities is the 23rd at 9:00 and then our facilities is the 23rd at 3:30 in the afternoon. So, um, I'm glad to now pass it back off because I know they

073said we have a lot of committee reports tonight and that's mostly what I talk about. So, I want you to go for it. >> Um, so that brings us to our student. I don't know if our student have >> Yes. Okay. Um, I'd love to start off by echoing what was said a lot during the public comment period about the role of um, counselors in our district. I want to say as I've gone through this high school, although I didn't go to middle school here, I experienced this high school and I want to just highlight the importance of counselors on youth and of developing people. It's such a hard thing to not have that support system in place and I know that they will still be up in place. There will be still counselors present,

074but I want to warn against straining them too heavily because they help so many people so greatly and have such a strong impact on people's lives. Even if it is just one kid, there are so many students in this district and across not even just in this district, but this is a global issue. students struggle and they don't bring th those struggles to just anyone and sometimes it's just one person and that one person can be that counselor a lot of the time to a lot of people and I think it's really important to understand that so many young people are struggling with these mental health issues and it could be that one person that really makes that difference at the end of the day and I just want to make sure that we recognize

075the huge importance that these roles the role of these counselors have on students and really make sure we make the right decision regarding it. >> I completely agree with Sophia. As a student at Kingston in the Kingston City School District, every time I've had an issue, I've went to counselors and people because I've had a genuine connection and because they are accessible. But as this district and as this board decides to reduce the amount of middle school counselors we have, it stops students from being able to have that same accessibility and having that same connection. And consequently that teachers are developing you a lesson. It teaches them a negative habit that you should turn away from help and that you should bury your emotions until it explodes. Counseling has been a key part of my

076growth over the few years and over all the years I've attended Kingston High School with the Kingston City School District and I advised the school district and the board to reevaluate this decision. >> Thank you guys. >> That brings us to our consent agenda. Good luck tomorrow. >> Are there any items on the consent agenda that trustes would like to have pulled? >> Hearing none. If we could have a motion to accept the consent agenda. >> So move. >> Seconded. >> Any discussion? All in favor on accepting the consent agenda. >> Any opposed? So, our consent agenda is approved. We do have a couple of donations. >> The board of education of the Kingston City School District hereby accepts with grateful appreciation the following generous donations. To Ernest Meyer Elementary School from the Meer PTA,

077a check in the amount of $390 to support the second grade field trip. I'm sure they'll all have a great time. To Harry L. Edson's Elementary School from the Edson School PTA donation of books valued at $198.97. Thank you so much for that work that I know the parents have done to do that. Thank you, Mr. That brings us to our board of education committee report. beginning with teaching and learning. Dr. Collins. >> All right. Um, teaching and learning met. I just realized I didn't write down the dates. May 18th. Now I can. Okay. Um, on May 18th we met um approved minutes from the last meeting and then um talked about several issues presented mostly by Dr. Suty, Dr. Fello, Dr. Um the first thing we did was examine data from elementary and and

078first thing we're talking about discipline and restorative action. So that was our first topic. We examined data from elementary and secondary incidents and the restorative responses over the past four years. These are presented as levels one through four in categories one through four to align with the code of conduct so we could understand what the responses were in relation to the instance. Um and just to mention um a couple of key things when we were looking at these data. It was emphasized in the meeting that it's important to recognize that building a culture of restorative practices involves focusing on restorative community building and positive relationships before incidents occur. And so recognizing that that part of this process is a lens through which or is valuable when you're looking at the data. I think is recognize

079that we're hoping to prevent these incidences. Um so it's not just restorative practice and response. Um and then second to remember when we're looking at the data is that the number of students does not always equal the number of incidents. Right? So one student has multiple incidents. Um, and the number of responses does not mirror the number of incidents necessarily because there may be multiple responses to one incident. Um, so this can make it a little bit challenging to make heads or tales of the long-term data trends, but we we're talking about each of those things as we're looking at the data. Um, so first at the elementary level, data collection has really been a focus of these last two years. That's something that this board really has put some emphasis on and our administration

080has worked hard to get in in place. Um so disciplinary responses are now being reported much more reliably. The major pattern in these data at this point are increasing incidents and increasing use of restorative responses. But these increases are likely honestly just due to the newfound practice of reporting data. So that's um the only thing we're looking at is back a year or two and it's really just um becoming a common practice report at the elementary level. At the middle level relative to last year data show a decrease in the level one, two, and three incidents. Um but this year isn't finished yet. Uh not a strong pattern in the restorative responses per se over those years. But think about it, this could suggest either a for more attention on restorative practices so that we

081could see an increase in those responses. Um however coincident with the decline in the number of incidents data are also consistent with effective prevention. So it could also be much of what Mr. Cher was talking about tonight in terms of um preventing incidents. So at the high school the most notable pattern from the data were dramatic decrease in the level one and two incidents relative to last year. Again not done yet but nonetheless it would be hard to actually compensate for that decrease in the remaining days of the year. Um, and there's been a dramatic and concurrent increase in the restorative responses. So, some real attention to restoative practices happening at the high school level. We then were looking at the in school and the out of school suspension data asking the question specifically are

082disciplines being applied to students equitably regardless of race, ethnicity, ability or socioeconomic status. So, the bottom line is that um the percent of incidents does not mirror the percent of students comprising that subgroup in our district. So there's disproportionality happen in the way in which disciplines being applied. So specifically in ISS and OSS tend to be applied disproportionately to students from historically marginalized groups. Um we discussed that across grade levels up efforts are being made to apply ISS rather than OSS. So kids are still in school. Again Mr. Chber this tonight. Um and just across time and across groups. There were nuances in this in the patterns of change. The slides are in the board library now. They were not until today, but they're there now if you want to look at them and the

083data will be posted up to minutes on the website. But our discussion really focused during this part of the meeting on gaining understanding for what appears to be working in the cases where we have seen improvements over time in terms of less disproportionality um or with particular subgroups. Um And the first step as described by our um cabinet really is in a the most important step potentially is that our district has really taken um thus far is naming the issue. So in practice this means calling it out in the data as we are now and also on the ground when it happening. So to this end there have been steps to increase awareness and collect information. So for example, building leaders have formed focus groups with students at the high school to ensure the inclusion

084of student voices and understand what's happening. Focus groups with faculty and staff and held discussions during faculty meetings. Um the district has a restorative practice leadership team with representatives from all buildings that continue to help support the buildings in restorative and trauma informed practices and efforts continue to be made through the administrative team meetings to align responses to behaviors among administration administrators across grades for example. Um and this serves as a forum also where data and experience informed plans to address disproportionality are generated and discussed. The committee at this time also TNF committee discussed um students with disabilities in this context. Many of our students are classified as having disabilities and comprise more than 60% of in and out of school suspensions. So we discussed the need to ensure that responses align of IEPs. This

085is legally mandated that behaviors addressed in IEPs are responded to appropriately and when repeated incidents occur, plans are made to respond with a proactive program rather than just reactive discipline. We also discussed vaping, which seems to come up in any conversation about discipline these days. Um both the prevention campaign currently underway, but also the need to develop more restorative responses to vaping to minimize disciplinary responses. So a lot of the trends in the data that we appear we are seeing are likely due to um Dr. Alto then presented on I read a couple different aspects of I Ready. So in response to community and board concern about the lawsuit so a little background the group of K through2 California Massachusetts students and families filed a federal class action lawsuit against curriculum associates. That's who makes

086I alleging that the company unlawfully collects insurers data without proper consent. New York State has more stringent education laws than California and Massachusetts and law. Um and arguably the strictest student privacy laws in the USA and I dare say someone said in the world during the meeting I don't know if I go that but but that's what was said. Um two layers of protection exist also for our students right now. Curriculum association associates must adhere to student privacy contracts within our district as well as privacy contracts through facilities. Um these are enforceable by law thanks to law 2d and the TNL team assured us that our student data was not compromised has not been compromised and um or breached in any way. So our conversation then turns from that to screen time in general. We've

087been hearing some um concerns from the community about the amount of time students are spending on screens and this is really framed in the context of an update also on the I Ready initiative. So um this is the math curriculum adopted by the district and just um a reminder for those who um weren't around when we started with IE and CKA we develop uh to to adopt curriculum has to pass through the curriculum council. So the curriculum council is comprised of stakeholders at every different educational staff level of the district. Um they piloted the curriculum before adopting it and have generated substantial professional development and parentmies to educate people about it. Um the curriculum is not completely digital. There seems to be an understanding in general that it is. Um and so in to really

088think about what the curriculum is if it's not really digital. Um the TNL committee was really sharing with us the fact reminding us really that um I already has diagnostics but we have long had digital diagnostics in the district. Um so we talk a lot about the diagnostics I think in an effort for our students to be involved in the goal setting and data interpretation and we're seeing it much more frequently with the parentmmies um but we have always had a diagnostic um I replaced the star which some of you may remember um and that the star didn't directly relate to curriculum or state tech so I ready is seen as an improvement in alignment it's really a paper based curriculum in the has workbooks and it also has um um manipulatives. Sorry, that's manipulatives.

089Um so the workbook and curriculum replace a more peacemail set of materials that were addressing common core math requirements. Um so I Ready provides a consistent curriculum for all of our students. It also has my path which is digital and it's the individ individualized digital component. Um so some of you may remember and some of the other digital options we had prior to my path. So again that's my path is the new version of this that accompanies I writing. Um the diagnostics are given three times a year. So it's not a test. It's really meant to be a show what you know is the phrase that I think our administrators most often use. Um the use the information from the diagnostics to create lesson plan. Um but they also are used for our presentations and

090as a board gives us a sense of how our students are doing response to our initiatives. Um the IA curriculum relies not just on workbooks but also manipulatives and activities and it's actually um paired well with these efforts um as Mr. Shever referred to in his presentation too with a thinking classroom. So problem solving and productive struggle all this pedagogy shifts that we're making in the district. Um the in response to questions and concerns around screen time. So the district subscribes um to an engage enhance and extend model. Um and the idea here extend model. The idea is to emphasize that technology is used to support instruction not leave it. Using technology must have a purpose. Technology is not the reason or the outcome. Learning is the reason and the outcome. Um in some places

091technology can help. And so we were talking about under what situations technology is therefore useful. Um and we're reminded that um we must have some technology per New York State standards. Uh New York State testing is all computer-based. So giving our students some practice on computers has merit. AP exams are digital. Um there's an argument to be made that students need to be prepared to leave school and enter a digital world. Um but really the last and maybe one of the more important components at this point is equitable access to research and learning tools for all students is really one of the reasons why we started the onetoone computer push. Um computers have accommodations for students with disabilities such as speech to text and text to And so there are some assets to computer based

092education that are often not spoken of as loudly. Um devices intend tend to be used in small increments throughout the day. And so the committee um or the the committee discussed data that were put in front of us um from um well the data was collected let's see between February and May and it really was looking at the percentage of time students are spending on screens from kindergarten through fourth grade during the school day. So this is not what's happening at home on their Chromebooks. In fact these students are likely not taking their Chromebooks home. Um, and it ranges from around 23 minutes in kindergarten to a maximum of 40, sorry, 52 minutes in a day on average for the subset of students for whom are that are on computers in fourth grade. Um, last

093but not least, Gary Thompson joined us really quickly to tell us a little bit about how parents can be involved in helping um navigate from the south. And so he reminded us of the Go Guardian app, which is free and this can allow grants to monitor student activity. Um they can look at what websites students are visiting. They can set time limits and they can block sites. And so there's access on our website to go guardian and they really encourage student um parents to be involved because in addition to data on how much time students are spending on Chromebooks during the school day, um you didn't this, but we could acquire the data that they're spitting on their Chromebooks at home and and there it's likely that there's some home use happening that um could

094be uh directed toward particular activities and or limited the families for that. Um in closing on the slides, I'd like to just read a closing statement um that is on the slide that was presented to us for the BOE and the community. This was a message from our administrators. Um, educational technology is not about devices. It is about access, readiness, and opportunity. When used with purpose, Chromebooks and digital tools help students build the skills they need to learn, communicate to create, collaborate, and participate responsibly in a digital world. Our responsibility is to ensure that technology use remains thoughtful, age appropriate, instructionally sound, and aligned to student outcomes. We are preparing students not to use technology but to think critically act responsibly and create meaningfully in the world that they are inheriting that came from district

095administrators. So our meeting was adjourned at 11:04 and our next meeting is June 15th that was long but it's >> Mrs. Current and then Mr. >> Dr. Collins thank you so much I look forward to your reports for the record. Um I was pulling along the slides to try some of my questions. The first question being I understand why we examine elementary school um screening time use because of the age but I think increasingly because of mental health concerns and other exposure to technology there is a call to understand how much screen time is being used by middle schoolers. Um, and I think along with that, um, well, first I guess my first question is, is that study done and examined? Um, and is it because it's so fragmented during the day for different purposes

096that it's not related in the same sort of data reporting as is done in elementary schools? >> Probably some of both, but I'm going to go to the panel of experts on this one. That's okay. Photo of friends maybe that fifth grade enough to go home. Um, so we would have to really disagregate the data based on the time frame. Um, but I did do a survey of our our teachers to see, you know, what kind of homework assignments that they were giving could potentially give access to, you know, a digital component. And that was really interesting because if our screen time that our parents are seeing at home, I can It's more than likely not related to school. >> Yeah, I saw that computer use. Um, My next question was in regards to the

097way that we teach children about technology. Um because sometimes I think that we can recreational use of technology at home devices and even with the Chromebook to what how it's being used in school as a tool and I do think that there might be a time and space for some sort of you know presentation or nod to that sort of understanding agreement with students. Um I know there are some students that compensate when they don't have other devices or their devices taken away. their Chromebook and they shift it into a recreational use. But I also know students that use it for study groups and other time that they're spending on the Chromebook for good purposes. Um, but I do think that there is a responsibility um from educators to really express to students what that

098tool is really meant for. Um, and I think that would be an interesting study to evaluate where those numbers actually lie. Parents would be very intrigued by the volume in after school hours >> and digital citizenship is part of the computer science standards. >> Excellent. >> Where in the curriculum is that embedded specifically or is it everywhere in terms of I mean it's a messaging across >> the computer science standards are embedded within our our content driven standards. >> Yes, >> Mr. Spicer and I didn't say that the last meeting. I'm sure I've said it a bunch of times before. First of all, we're really going to miss you. Just an outstandingly professional job and intriguing intriguing meetings. If you're five minutes late, you've missed about 50 hours of content. >> Well, well, I believe

099you are sending my letter up. So, thank you for all that. But like I said, I I must have said this at a number of your meetings. Disproportionality in student suspensions by race or gender or educational classification is a problem. But I applaud this board and our district administration for pursuing and disagregating the data without fear or favor. It's data and we're not going to get any better if we ignore it or we're afraid of it. So I'm very proud of the courage of this district to look at all this data even though it may not reflect very well on us because then we then we create strategic action plans to deal with it. You can't solve a problem you can't identify by name or incident details and it takes courage to look at areas

100that we need to address and this board has it and and you were the leader of that community. So thank you all. Thank you so much. >> Any other questions or comments for Dr. Thank you very much for your dedication FOR >> our next committee report is audit and finance. >> I'm ask and I don't think you're alone because our That's what happened to >> we just met like six days ago. >> So we're going to move audit and finance and facilities to our next meeting. I Dr. P, I don't know if you have anything in facilities that you might think should be shared and >> well I didn't prepare Okay. >> Looks good. >> Well, that is the discus, but you can >> I mean, we we spent most of the time talking about

101some issues at the stadium with with the shot put and the discus. Um, we did receive a quick overview about the process with what's going on with our with our $167 million building project in, you know, >> just kind of as an aside to the shot. But, um, so but we are um, you know, I think Mr. Spicer's report would be more in depth, but you know, we're we're gearing up for summer of construction. Um I did speak to the mayor about the shot put and the and the discus. He's fine with, you know, plans to make a move on that. So, um yeah, we're going to move forward with both those situations, but we're we are I mean, we are definitely gearing up and getting ready to um jump into the building. So, we'll

102have basically four buildings under construction this summer and six and a half next summer. So, we've got a lot of a lot of stuff to go. So, they're they're deploying and they've already started work in some of the buildings. Um, so we're in our um Yeah, that's kind of my not prepared quick report on facilities. >> We're getting ready to rock and roll. Okay, that brings us to old business. Misone. Um, I have all business that I would like to address from a legislative action committee. As I mentioned at the last board meeting, we would like to uh we're proposing to uh revise the agenda um or pardon me the charter of the committee to ensure that it is truly an advisory committee. And I know that Karen put the documents both the uh current

103and the proposed in the board library. I'd like to have this in place. so that we start July 1st, our new year with clear purpose for the committee. So with that, I guess I'll move it. >> Second discussion on the um proposal to um create >> amend the charter for legislative action. >> No discussion. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> I have to say I didn't anything. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> So, our our legislative action will go to an advisory committee based on the new charter. >> Any other old business? New business. I actually have another it's a followup question and I don't know if it's timing but did we have the opportunity to get anything out on our board? >> My plan was to put out Tuesday. >> Are we talking about

104the survey? >> Yes, the >> Yeah, we were we were sketching it out for Tuesday. >> Oh, thank you. >> So that does everyone that's the survey we're sending to the community to ask about some feedback about what they what's on their minds that they might want to share with the board or what's on their kids minds that they might want to share with the board. >> It's just a quick thought exchange for people there. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Board member announcements. Mrs. Current and then Mrs. Jordan. I want to acknowledge all the incredible music students that have participated in various events and activities over the past couple of weeks. Um they really applaud them for not only their work in school and their work as a team but their work

105at home to hone their skills. Um it is not easy. It's not easy to be in jured environment. Um, and um, I think that they've done incredible work and I'm really proud of all of our students um, that have cultivated an interest in music and in instrument. >> Thank you. >> This is Jordan. I was uh fortunate enough to attend the completion celebration for career artmies at I5 87 the first time as a board member and um it was filled with very enthusiastic >> last May 28th >> and um it was just wonderful to see so many city school students there who uh were able to to be we were ready and they were so excited and so enthusiastic and um I'm glad that we have that wonderful partnership with groceries. >> Was that at

106I park or was it at >> No, it wasn't at parkup. >> Yeah, >> isn't there one this Tuesday also? >> There are more. Yes, there are more. >> The children >> the kids run the whole show. >> The students there run everything's presenters. They do the videos. But there are many more Houston kids than anybody else. >> Yes. >> Any other announcements? >> Just a quick word of congratulations and then also wishing well to the teams and athletes that are still participating in their spring sports. like I think we have a doubles tennis team and some track athletes that are still at it. But this last weekend um we had several teams competing in their sectional championships. Um >> I think we were in the section champion for every sport, every spring sport this

107year. >> Both lacrosse teams, flag baseball was like both lacroses, right? So >> it's a similar um compliment. Our music students and our athletes have done a great job this spring. So >> some are the same are the same. >> Good point. >> Uh that brings us to u public comment. Do we have anyone who would like to address the board? Hearing none. I will >> I'll take I'll make a motion to second. >> All in favor? >> I second motion. >> Making the motion. Are you just saying Herb and I sound alike? CUZ THAT'S >> WHO MADE THE MOTION. >> I did. And they