001Okay, it is 7:31. We have returned from executive session. If we could please call the role. >> Miss Anderson >> here. >> Dr. Collins >> here. >> Miss Corsones >> here. >> Dr. Bernaby >> here. >> Mr. Fitzpatrick >> here. Mr. Lamb >> here, >> Miss Karns >> here, >> Mr. Ryder >> here, >> Mr. Spicer >> here. >> What about our students? >> And our student board members, Miss Collier >> here >> and Mr. Jen >> here. >> And if we could rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I um would like to welcome our two student um members of the board. They
002will have an opportunity to speak a little bit later in the agenda. So, we look forward to working with them and hearing from them. We have two actions coming out of executive session. Um, BOE20. Be it resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools sus suspends employee number 4806 with pay through October 8th, 2025 during the pendency of an investigation and during all times when the employees would otherwise be entitled to pay. >> So second. >> All in favor? I >> B E 20 is approved. Ber 21. Be it resolved that the superintendent is hereby authorized to direct a comprehensive medical examination and evaluation including psychiatric and/or psychological examination and evaluation if necessary of employee number 92405 in accordance with the provisions of section 913 of the education law.
003And be it further resolved that the board hereby directs that employee number submit their medical records if any to the extent and for the time as determined by the examining physician to the board designate designated physicians at or before such examination evaluation. >> So move second. >> All in favor of BOE21. >> BOE 21 is approved. That um brings us to the approval of the minutes from the September 10th meeting. >> I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from September 10th. >> Any discussion? Discussion. Mr. the um some of the dates at the end in the announcements were recorded as voting for the last >> I'm sorry. >> Can you speak up Mr. Fitzpatrick? Uh the last thing in the minutes u the vote oh the vote to return that >> okay any something
004else that you had >> oh the um yeah the I think the legislative action thing was correct the teaching and learning was the 15th the 24th and I think the announcement that Mr. >> It is the fourth. We can change the dates. >> So I make a motion to approve Sorry. Dr. >> I will make a motion to approve the minutes with those amendments. >> All in favor of approving the minutes as amended. >> Any opposed? And you have those changes. necessary. That brings us to um public participation. I'm assuming we have some speakers. 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
005community about their concerns. The board is here to listen. Your concerns and 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 all 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 these posted guidelines will forfeit the remainder of their time. Thank you
006for your adherence to the rules and your interest in the continuous improvement of our district. Our first speaker, >> Carrie Downey. >> Good evening. My name is Carrie Downey. I'm a Kingston resident and community member, and I'm here to express my desire that our district do everything within its power to support our immigrant students and families. This is about making sure we have know your rights trainings for all faculty and staff and time set aside to strategize for dealing with the stresses of ICE. The board should ensure there is sufficient for school counselors. We need multilingual family support staff including mental health supports and all communication should be multilingual um Spanish catchy and um all the languages um spoken in our district. The board should pass a meaningful resolution and share this out clearly to
007the entire community. For example, what are the specific policies regarding ICE? If ICE officers should come to our schools, they should not be allowed inside school property to access a student except when required by law due to a judicial warrant that is first verified and confirmed by superintendent and school district attorney. It's a community responsibility to keep our immigrant students and families safe. Thank you for your time and for your service on the board. Thank you, >> Richardis. >> Hi, my name is Richard Pummis. I'm a 30-year resident here of uh of Kingston. Um, I'm a uh a former business owner uh here for a long time business and you know I I I I endorse what uh the previous speaker said uh very much. I remember a lot of the um I I I've
008been through a lot of what has been uh in the past uh attempts to um to to bring community together to recognize underserved people in the community. I remember when there was the big fight over the homeless uh shelter in Kingston um that ended up in being the Thomas Street shelter. I uh I see this now of course with with the immigrant situation and how very much important it is both economically and um uh as well as uh uh uh communitywise to to to build to to to keep together what we have and and to keep out the divisiveness that our current administration national administration is sowing among us. Thank you, >> Elaine Mesler. >> So, um I'm back again this time. >> Um I'm not sure if Can you guys hear me? Yes. >>
009Yes. >> Okay. >> First, I just want to thank you for doing this. I know you don't have to and I truly appreciate it. So, having been a principal in a private school in Manhattan and a private school in Woodstock, I do appreciate the incredible pressures that you are under. Whether it's about diversity, whether it's about finances, I get it. Um it and in these difficult times it only makes the pressures greater and I understand that too and I know that we are not a community um that sees things in the same way and there are very different politics within within this community within all of the different school districts. But I do believe that we all all of us whether administrator, teacher, parents, students, we have a responsibility to keep our kids safe. I
010mean that's what this is all about. Whether you agree with immigration, you don't agree with immigration, these are children. Um, so I want to talk about four areas and I'll do this pretty quickly. The first is policy. So I'm part of to rapid response which is the new organization that you had mentioned last time. We recommend that the district establish and share clear and known policies for protecting kids and their families while on the school grounds. drop off time, dismissal, after school activities, and kids playing on the fields after school. And I understand how difficult that is, especially the kids playing on the school grounds after school for outreach and fam and support of families. I think based on the number of immigrants in the Kingston schools, I would imagine that you would need to
011hire more multilingual school counselors, including mental health and family support staff to help students and families and that people are offered traumainformed training for teachers, staff, students, and families. The next is student safety. I I would imagine that bus drivers already receive training, but it made me wonder about the people who are the substitute bus drivers and how much training have they received and what to do if ICE or other federal agencies are following them or if they're actually stopped by ICE. I mean, I don't know how many of you have interacted with ICE communication recommend that all written materials to be accurately translated into all of the languages that is spoken within the district with with edited grammar and vocabulary and that live interpretation be available here too. I mean, I'm very aware we're
012all speaking in English. Um but it at back to school nights and other critical events. So thank you >> Darren Jackson. >> Hi. I'm also a member of the rapid response. I'm also a local res right down the road. I hope to have children here one day and raise them in the school district. them to be safe. I want them to socialize with our kids but also feel safe. It's important that we all grow up with a great education. We shouldn't ever have to worry about safety of our children. The families too are just worried about their children. They want to be able to leave them in care with people that they believe to be trustworthy professionals. And I understand you guys do a lot. You have done a lot. I think you could also
013reach out to the community. I'm sure there's lots of people here in this room right now be willing to help with anything that you're willing to try to achieve to make sure the kids are safe. >> Thank you. And that's all that is there. There anyone else in the audience who would like to address the board? >> Bill Campbell from the Freeman and I've known most of you for multiple years now. So I know you guys really care about actually being heard by the people who arrive here. But when you speak in a very low tone, you don't project. And really, you know, with the exception of Mark, who really does project very well, um I really do understand, you know, the need to have more of a casual approach, which we all hope happens
014with our elected bodies, but the um open meetings law really does require that you guys be heard, be able to be heard by the audience. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Anna Jacobs. Um, I'm back round two. Um, I did sign up. I'm not sure why my name's not on there. Um, I am here as um a community member of the Kingston School District, um, a parent, and um, a member of Olter Rapid Response. Um, we know that some some forward motion um since being here at the last school board meeting has happened. Uh, and I just want to thank Superintendent uh Padalina for that work um and the board. Um, and we ask that you continue to push and move forward in the interests of students and families in the
015Kingston school district and our community at large. um you know the all students have a constitutional right to education. We all know that. Not everyone's going to get that in this moment. Historically, not everyone has gotten that. But the times now are critical. It's a very dangerous time in our nation. People are understandably terrified and students especially in the immigrant community um and families are faced with a very hard decision. Do they take the risk of sending their kids to a school where they're not certain if they will get there safely, if they will return home safely, or m what might happen during the school day. Um, and so I just really want to implore the board to continue supporting the family with resources um, with language justice, making sure that all materials are um,
016when translated digitally can be comprehended. I've heard from native Spanish speakers that sometimes the translations are unclear. um that some of the information that goes home in backpacks is only in English. Obviously, we need everyone to understand um you know how how uh to like what's going on with the school generally and then specifically in relationship to how the school is protecting students and families against ICE. We also want to make sure that staff, all staff, janitorial staff, cafeteria staff, teachers, school bus drivers have know your rights training. Um, and the other information around policy and practices that they need. Um, and we want to find ways to work for you all to work with community- based organizations like us so we can continue to resource the community um, and do everything we can to
017keep learning loss from happening and that the appropriate supports be in place when students cannot attend. Thank you very much. Have a lovely evening. >> That concludes our public comment and Dr. Catalina, we are at the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Miss Anderson. Um, first thing for superintendent report will be principal, Miss Fitzgerald, and her team who will give us the Bailey um school update. >> Good evening everybody. >> I don't think this is on, but you can usually hear me, right? >> It's on. >> Okay. Yeah. So, um, those of you who have seen my presentations before, they run a little longer than usual. I'm doing my best, Dr. Tatino. I promise. So, first of all, I want to introduce my fantastic staff. This is Miss Herdia. She is the AP for grades seven
018and eight this year. And this is Mr. Marketti. He is the AP for grades five and six. And you all know me. I'm Deborah Fitzgerald. and I'm the principal and I have all the grades. So, we're going to jump right in. Those of you who do not know Bailey's demographic data, I'm not going to read this to you, but here is a snapshot of what we have at Bailey. As you can see, we are very diverse and I think that that's what makes us so special. All right, we're going to jump right into I'm going to speed talk. Okay. Um, we're gonna jump right to our instructional and non-instructional key strategies that um we built into our step our step which is the school comprehensive education plan. So, instructional key strategies, we have two of
019them. We felt after reviewing all of our data, um, we discovered that the two places that we need to work at is in our wind block and in our math extension block. So um through our wind block what happens is the teachers um observe students the students do diagnostics so all of the teachers are aware of what our students need. They are put into we're going to talk about reading groups specifically. They are put into reading groups and they are getting the instruction that they need. not what every student needs, but what they need. This constantly changes. So, a student might be in one group for a couple of weeks um and we feel that they have met their goals, they're going to move on to another group. So, they're getting exactly what they need.
020And um it's basically the same thing with our math extension program. We are constantly, and I'll just show you this. We are constantly looking at data. We've got our monthly data meetings. We review our I Ready data which we just finished. We conduct data chats with our students. Um we're adjusting our small groups constantly based on the students trends basically what they need. Classroom teachers, this is a great opportunity because the classroom teachers get to collaborate with our ENL teachers and our special ed teachers. So everybody is included in all this and the big thing is we have our students set their I Ready goals. Our non-instructional key strategies. I again have two of them. One is our AVID binders. Why are you picking AVID binders for seventh grade? Because um I worked as the
021AP in the scholar academy at the high school when uh way back when, not going to age myself. Um, and we thought that ninth grade was the year that we lose our kids. That's when they, you know, don't want to be in school anymore. They know that, you know, dropping out is right around the corner if they're not interested. So, we created the academy because we wanted to catch them. Well, now since I've been in the middle school, I think it was the first or the second year, I quickly realized it's not ninth grade that we're losing our students. It's seventh grade that we're losing our students. And that is a huge transition going from sixth grade to seventh grade. That's elementary to secondary. The kids have so many more responsibilities that we as adults
022probably think, what's the big deal? But what we have done is we had a workshop in the summer with all of our seventh grade teachers. Um we got together, we created this AVID binder. I shouldn't say we created it because it's been around for the longest time. Um but our goal is to create executive functionings. We want to improve our seventh grade executive functioning skills. So our teachers had a say on how we're going to create these binders. Every teacher has a a a specific um tab in the students back in the student's binder. So the teachers get to decide okay this is the kind of paper I want paper maybe one math teacher wants graph paper uh maybe another teacher wants a spiral notebook. We've made sure that we have given everything that the
023student needs in order to be successful in seventh grade. Um, these are some of the things that we did over the summer with these binders. As I said, we met with all the seventh grade uh teachers. In August, we determined what contents needed to be in the binders. Um, we built the binders for the students. So, they were there the first day in their classes. We determine systems and processes in case students lose their binders, in case the binders break, and we guide students in setting and reflecting on academic and social goals. One of the great things about this is that the teachers are checking on a weekly basis the students binder. What we are going to be doing is we're going to actually take our seventh graders and Mr. As you think you remember,
024we have got the um work study program at Bailey. So, kids have to take fill out applications and do interviewing and things like that. This is going to be another job for our seventh graders. So, some of our seventh graders could be the people that are checking the binders and making sure that all of the kids are um organized, have what they have, what they need in their binders. Um we also have um in addition to our extended program. We also have a couple of teachers that are going to be working with students who still need help with their organization working with those binders. All right, our set process. The other second instructional um non-instructional strategy is our student ambassadors. Bailey, one thing that I've always been proud of is that Bailey has had a
025voice, but each increase that. So, as you know, we had our BLT junior. This year, we are going to um change it a little bit and we're making it student ambassadors. We're going to have four to six students per grade level. Um all the students, again, if they are interested, they're going to be filling out applications, going for an interview, so they can become student ambassador. What happens when they become a student ambassador? We're going to create descriptions um on what an a student ambassador does. We're going to identify an advisor, which would be um one of the uh staff members. There's going to be a meeting schedule, a monthly meeting schedule for the the program. We're actually creating a video. We're in the process right now of creating a video to promote the ambassador
026club to all of our um stakeholders in our building. So, we want all of our subgroups to make sure that they are being represented. We're going to share information about the ambassador program during the beginning of the pool. They just had their presence their assemblies today. They've been talking about it. Um we have an agenda. We have agenda topics for the ambassador meetings and we want our ambassadors to come back and talk to the kids about academic social issues and successes and concerns for the students for our school and they're going to come back. They're going to report it back to us and then we work as a team to make B a beautiful better place for all students and staff. So, some of the things that we have going on with New York State,
027I just got back from a conference um last week up in Albany. So, some of that is in here. So, um New York State is supporting us with a few initiatives. One of them is an elevated coach. We took one of my best teachers, Kristen Ju, extraordinaire. She is um she is our ele our elevated coach. What she does is she goes to our teachers in the building and um they come to her and they say, "You know, Kristen, I really would love to do this kind of project. I want to be able to reach our students by doing this. I just don't know how to do it. I've always wanted to do this project, but I've been afraid be helpful if I had another um second a second set of hands, another brain to
028talk to. So, um to to talk things out. So, that is what my elevator coach does. The district instructional coach, which we have, we have Jackie Man. We also have Marin Maleri. Outstanding. Um so, Jackie is helping us with our reading piece. Marin is helping us with our math piece principal coaching opportunities. Excuse me. I even get an opportunity to have a coach. Her name is wonderful. Angela Prince. Um do you know her? >> No. >> I just love how much you love. >> She's amazing. She is my person. Um so I've got that opportunity. And then we've got the thinking classrooms which is something that I went to last week to talk about. And the amazing thing is that Marin Maleri has already been doing this with our math classes. So a thinking classroom,
029see that picture right there? That's exactly what it is. We're so used to, you know, having our kids, you know, turn, talk, share. What we need them to do is we need them to get up and talk and think. That's exactly what they're doing. They're up there. They're a problem together. It's what we call a thinking classroom resource allocation review. This is something that um we started last year. We are working with our central office to um make sure that every school is getting exactly what they need. Um and that's what I'm going to say about that. All right. Professional development in action. Last year we had CKLA. That is a an ELA program that grade five implemented. Well, I should say they piloted last year. We are um full-blown this year. We had implementation
030training in March on our superintendent conference day. And then um next month we actually have somebody coming from CKLA which is also known as Amplify. Um they will be coming in and they are going to be working with our teachers handson. So we're going to be doing learning walks with the teachers. They're going to model they're going to be co-eing with um with our teachers. And then after all of that is said and done, they're going to debrief with the teachers so they can review everything and check everything. that they've been doing for grades six through eight. Amplify also amplify own. So amplify we are piloting in grades 6 through 8. Again we had training in May. We are doing a virtual checkin on the 29th. We have upcoming trainings based on needs. These are
031what teachers have asked for. They're coming in on the 28th of October and again on December 9th to help our teachers. If this pilot moves forward, they will present that to the board of ed. I'd like to thank Melissa and your team for everything that you really have done with this program um is making a difference. We can actually see um with our new reading block, it is making a difference. It really is. culturally responsive practices in the classroom. All right. Um, for the last couple of years, I've been working with Dr. Jess Leblanc. He is a consultant for us. He has come into our building. He is supporting our teachers um in helping them create inclusive and equitable classrooms. All right. The teachers again get to volunteer to work with him. And I've got
032a list. I've got a willingness to work with him. What does this do? What does he do? Um, he's helping our teachers, you know, see the culture and the identity reflected positively in our classroom. He's getting the teachers to listen and learn to correctly pronounce students names and show respect to their customs. Um, they they foster mutual respect, empathy, um, building trusting relationships with their students. students are getting an equal opportunity to have their voices heard and the teachers get to value students identities. This is another um tool that we use for um professional development. This is tier uh teacher peer visitation. So we have got so many great teachers at B that uh we want to share that knowledge and guess what? It's great. So, what the teachers do, they come to one of
033us and they say, "You know what? I'd really love to see Mr. Lamb. I didn't even see you over there. Um, you were awfully quiet." That's what it is. Um, but what they do is they go and they come to me and they say, "Miss Smith, you know, I really would love to see Mrs. Smith's um CKLA lesson um on this." They'll come to me and I'll say, "You know what? You got a third period. Looks like you might have a class. Let me see if I can get somebody to cover you or let me go in and cover your class." So that way the teachers get to see each other in action and they're learning from each other. How amazing is that? >> Many teachers also have signs on their classroom doors >> that
034say, you know, you're welcome. Come in. These are the times I'm teaching. So they don't they can bypass this step and walk down a hall see a classroom that they want to go and observe and they know so they have that there and I think it's also important because then students see that as well I think it's important for students to know that their teachers do collaborate they do talk and they do take each other's advice seriously so >> and the benefits obviously we're creating new ideas for our teachers we're giving them new techniques strategies. We're building trust. We're building community. Um, it's aligning with our teaching practices. It's also creating consistency and it's encouraging reflection, which isn't that what we really want because we want our staff to reflect. All right. Now, I'm going
035to turn it over to our Ready Guru. Here you go, Mr. C. >> I'm going to make up all the extra time. We're going incredibly quick with this so bear with me for this. I wanted to just focus for our I Ready data and a couple of key points. And what you have in front of you on the screen is the cohort tracking between last fall and this fall. So we have class of 32, class of 31, and class of 30. So those are our current sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. Red represents the number of students who were two or more grade levels behind at the start of the year. Yellow represents one grade level behind and green represents on or above grade level. Now having said that, this is being taken at the
036beginning of the school year. In fact, we finished ours last week. So the first full week of school, our students are taking this. They are new sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. So the expectation is that they would be in the yellow category. They've just started the grade. It makes sense that they wouldn't be masters of that content yet. Having said that, we are still seeing some some tremendous growth there. From year on year, these cohorts are holding steady and we're seeing improvement. We're shifting towards being one grade line where they should be. And we're hovering around half of our students who are already at or above grade level at the beginning of the school year. And and I think that's a huge piece of that. Incredibly important. This one is reading math is even higher.
037We're seeing even more growth in this which I think is amazing. The biggest takeaways there are the increases in number of students who were two or more grade levels behind. Again, this is at the start of the school year. So in sixth grade, our seventh graders were two or more grade levels behind. Now in seventh grade, they're less. So not only are they not going backwards, they're actually moving forward. are getting closer to being on target at the very beginning of the school year. And there's, you know, several key pieces as to why that's happening. I'll touch on briefly. This is a comparison between the end of last school year and this fall. Again, tracking by cohort. First set of uh data there is from the spring of last year was the final diagnostic of
038the three they take. And you can see that at the end of last school year, our class of 32, we had 26 students on or above grade level. We're starting this school year with the very same students almost 50% on or above grade level. You know, there's a couple of key factors there. Extended school year, summer school opportunities, and so forth. So, we are making some some pretty large strides in that area. And again all all three grade levels of those cores that we can track like this uh improvement across the board. Math again math is a difficult one just due to the sequential nature of math the beginning of the school year. The way math is taught so many of those topics won't be until later on the school year. Yet having said that
039class of 32 at the end of last year 37% on or above grade level we're starting at 51% now. So again, we're seeing a lot of growth and just very quickly I want to touch upon this because I feel it's important and it's what I try to say to all of our faculty and our students. This is happening from a combination of the programs we're doing in classroom I read going to the windb block last year but also because of our programs with the arts PE all of those different things that make our students feel connected feel valued that allows them to do better in these subjects and And I think that that's a huge piece of that and it's a real testament to our faculty and staff that have done this. So that's my
040my brief piece on I Ready. We have our projections really quickly. We have two targets when students do I Ready. They have a projected growth and a stretch goal. Just looking at what my what I Ready in and my path is predicting. Our students in this current day 38% would be proficient in grade level. If we hit our stretch goals 54% I can tell you that last year we had an incredibly large number of students that met their stretch goals. We had a large portion of students 200 to 300% improvement. And the the category with the highest number of students significantly outpacing the stretch book was our L's. And we had L's that went from a kindergarten level in reading to third and fourth grade. And yes, we're still behind, but we're talking about not
041just reading, but learning the language. >> So, I just want to add because I did have this slide in there, but I took it out because I had to make it shorter. Um, but our L teachers said that today um this year was the highest they have ever had students go from what was it? >> Transition. entering to commanding to commanding. We had a huge jump and we are so so proud of that because our L teachers have worked so hard to get our kids moving forward and we're really super proud of that >> and similar to math week we have our reading as well. So we are making a lot of strides obviously there's still you know steps to be made but we are on a very And I think with the the bigger
042influence and push for these newer initiatives, we'll see even more growth. Oh, that's the sorry, this is from the the wind block with our our literacy assessments, number of students assessed. So, just really quick, this this deals with the wind block and so forth that we're doing. We're looking at um around half nearly half of students on or above grade level. And again, we're looking at the beginning of of the school year. So, we're starting off in a good place. And like I said, we are definitely on on target to hit new numbers this year. >> All right. So, this is um a new initiative that we are trying out. We're always looking for new ways for students to connect with the school community, to connect with the adults in the building, um to foster
043a positive learning environment. Okay, so the check and connect, it focuses on academic and behavioral progress, goal setting, and personal growth. Um binder checks for our seventh graders and organizational skills, and that's with the AVID binder system. And it also encourages and um reinforce our students to do the best and be the best that they can but we need them to be connected to the school building. We need them to be connected to the staff. All right. So, how it works? So, each student is paired with a staff member. Um students are recommended either by a fellow teacher or guidance counselor. Um the mentor meets with the students daily or on a schedule um based on the students need or some kids you know they um responsibilities after school and so it would be based
044on their schedule as well during 10th period or any other time agreed upon. So it could be their lunch period that they want to meet with their mentors. Um together they uh review their goals and track the progress and talk through challenges many challenges that they face and sometimes a kid may not feel comfortable speaking with you know an administrator or sometimes they don't even feel comfortable speaking with counselor. They might have connection with teacher instead. Um, the mentors will help students stay organized. Again, binder checks help motivate them and connect them to school resources. All right. The key features are one-on-one mentoring, uh, personalized student centered supports, uh, relationship building, and positive reinforcement, consistent ongoing check-ins tailored to the students needs. All right. So, what to measure? What to check? Okay. So, um, we're
045checking students attendance. So when students are recommended, you know, we want to check their attendance, see how many adjacent is present, absent, ties, behaviors, numbers of discipline referrals, suspensions, late homework, classroom behaviors. We look at those things. Um, and of course, we look at grades and, you know, assignment completion, frequency, and time. And so baseline data before student begins the intervention, we're looking at those things to where they are. And then we're going to do regular monitoring weekly, bi-weekly for checks, monthly and quarterly um for engagement, mentorship, relationship, um quality, and goal progress, midpoint check. So halfway through the program, um we're going to assess whether there needs to be adjustments. Maybe the kid after a month or a quarter of meeting with their mentors, they're totally improving and they're meeting their goals and we
046could tailor it again to the needs. the end of period evaluation at the end of the academic year check and connect cycle to see if there was an overall change. Was there overall change in attendance tardiness um discipline referrals um and then follow up to see you know so for um if this is for fifth grader we're going to follow the kid into sixth grade to see if they're maintaining um the progress and if not we'll start back you know from scratch. All right. So, these are some of the wonderful things that we do at Bailey. We celebrate a lot of heritage months um events. We always for each heritage event, we always place banners because we want all our students to feel like they belong. Um and so there's sometimes we'll have for National
047Hispanic Heritage Month this which is this month and goes to the 15th, we do our annual empanadas. Um and so the kids love that. We had actually Doritos and watching me. They they will eat anything that says empanada in there. And so we do different things for Italian American heritage. We actually had a staff member teach the kids how to make pasta from scratch. They've never had it. It's always been, you know, um dried pasta. So they were happy about that. So these are the other um events that we do celebrate. And so these are some of our annual events. And you can see the annual cupcake wars. And this is serious. I It's it's serious stuff. Um >> there's crying here. >> Yes, there is. And so we've had support from the top as
048you can see. Um yeah, so we've had student judges, we've had judges from, you know, teachers from other buildings. Um and so it's it's serious. All right. So the cooking club, this is another initiative and how we get our students to connect again with their community and connect with the staff in the building. The mission is to inspire students to embrace the culinary arts and to expose them to new culinary opportunities. Some kids may feel like, you know what, I'm not good to go to a four-year college or a two-year college, but I know I like to cook. And so, these opportunities afford them to actually link with those people in that community, and it helps to build pair collaboration. So, this is actually in our building. Um I'm trying to figure out what they
049were making but you know sometimes it's a hot mess in that kitchen but they love it and um so the cooking club again provides opportunities for students to learn how to cook, bake, collaborate, be creative and have fun with their fellow peers and they do have fun. Um they learn different skills and also incorporate their um core subjects which is math, science, communication, management, teamwork, food prep. They have to know how to do that. They can't you know. So, um, and they get to bring the stuff home, right? It's funded by the generosity of the staff, the PTO, and the grants from, um, community foundation of the Hudson Valley and in the past elves. All right. So, they did take a trip to the Culinary Institute of America and they look like they had a
050three course meal, right? So that was in May 2025. The club took 30 students um to the institute um for a guided tour. Yes, they did have a three course meal and at the American Bounty restaurant. Look at them. Um that's water. All right. So this >> Okay. So um this is all what Mr. Ready was talking about. you know that was all part part of our our social emotional learning uh component. One of the other pieces that we have is imi and I just have to say this I have been in the district for a long time. I have done elementary, I have done the high school and I have done middle school and I have seen a lot of mentoring programs come and go. Um we have a mentoring program building and it
051is called II inform motivate and inspire and I am so so proud I I don't even have words to describe how proud I am of the person who has built this from the ground up and that would be my guy here he's homegrown here knows He knows our students. He knows what our kids need. And I'm telling you that we've had them in our building now four years now, four years, three years. Um, and we are still tracking our kids. They are juniors now, our first group, and they are still together, and they are still making great things happen. These are kids that like have gone either way, but they are on the right track because of these guys. Um, so I just have to say one of the best programs that I do in
052my building in our building I should say is inform, motivate and inspire because they do take our eighth grade students boys and girls now and they are their mentors. They take them grade boys are missing lunches on a Friday to meet with their mentors, go over their goals, go over their grades. Once they're not in school, they're meeting at the club. They're calling their mentors and saying, "Oh god, you know, I got this issue." Um, and I'm just going to show you one telling slide. Student feedback. You can't get any better than this. So, this was a a survey that they put out to all of their mentor and all of their mentees. So feel supported by their mentor. One out of five, 73% said that they felt supported by their mentor. Um areas where
053students felt most supported, 89% said academics and 83 said their personal life. You know, our kids got issues back. They need to talk to. They're the guys. Um, what are the what are the what area of the program helped you the most? 70% sorry recorded in school and community checkins. School club sessions. This is where they are all meeting and talking about what they need to do. Motivation. Um, has this program improved your motivation? 68% recorded 22% reported a four. This program is working and I'm so proud of that. I just need to tell you that. And now I want to say thank you to administration. Thank you to the board. Thank you Dr. Thank you to everybody. Time >> 37 minutes. >> It was not [Music] I have some questions. Mr. Lamb, >> actually
054not a question. First of all, the the mentoring program is fabulous and the peer um walk-in uh observation what everyone visitation is something that we pushed for years ago. Um and like teachers walked at that because I didn't want people walking into their classrooms. And I I congratulate you for getting that because that's one of the best ways to help teachers that are struggling or to help teachers reach students that are struggling. Um because not everybody has the same set of tools in their tool box and it really helps and I'm so happy to see that going on. >> She just reached out to me years ago. I want to help you. >> Well, thank you >> Dr. Vernon Bay. >> I just want to again congratulate the imi team. Those data points are just
055extraordinary. So, um just want to again the board wouldn't mind giving another round of applause because that really is extraordinary. >> Dr. Collins, >> I also so impressed with that mentoring program along with all the other work you're continuing to do. I appreciate the work with Dr. Jess Blanc. So, um kudos. I'm so glad that teachers are excited to do that and the check and connect and so all of those efforts I know are felt by all of our students. I really appreciate that. Um I actually had a question. I'm also a huge fan of the peer evaluation walkthroughs, but I think I say that every time you talk about them. Um so it's I still am a fan. Um I'm I had questions a about the binders. I could ask a couple. So I
056was curious about um they seem they seem driven by the goal of improving executive function which is incredibly important. Um I'm wondering what pedagogy exists around it like what are teachers doing to support it or is it just a is it a thing and then on top of that thing um sort of what are the measures of success and how sustainable is it if you're making it. So there's three questions I guess one. >> So the the avid binders um Angela Prince she was one of the ones that recommended um and there's this whole pedigogy um and I apologize Kathy because I don't know the exact one that she picked out but it does fall into place. Um as far as um how do the teachers um they are observing they are observing the students
057and you know are they turning their homeworks in is their binders organized uh things like that. So the teachers are doing it by observation and um talking and and having a conversation. you know, there is like five minutes out of their class once a week, five, 10 minutes out of their class just talking about the binders and and making sure that everything is in place. >> Yes. So, I just want to jump in and say there is also like let's look at our notes again. So they go from math to science. It's the same language. So I've been in a couple classrooms just observations and teachers that's the first thing when they get into class directly to that subject. So again, it's just a common language within the seventh grade community. And so pretty, [Laughter]
058you know, but they're proud of it, you know, like that's not bad. But again, there's that old teachers. There's there's also a I don't want to say mental health per se, but there's a piece to it that removes a lot of the anxiety around it because when when I was still in the classroom and I was teaching ELA, you know, every day my students would come in with a regular notebook and I would talk to them about, you know, problems with a regular notebook and I would, you know, really final experiences where, you know, the first couple days you got your notes, they're looking great and then by like the second week now you got some drawings like I used to draw skulls on everything, cats on everything, you know, your that everyone seems to
059know how to do. Your notebook is full and you're like, well, I need another notebook. So, you put that note notebook somewhere nowhere. You get a brand new notebook and then a month later you need the notes from the first notebook and you don't have it. By having a binder, that paper can be added or removed. You take away some of that anxiety. Where is what did I do with it? How have I seen it? So, that's a big piece of that organizational piece and teaching the students about that. How do you go back and edit what you put in there? Can you stuff out and do that and it removes a lot of the anxiety of oh my god I don't have the other piece is that everyone in seventh grade has the exact
060same thing on your desk so that removes a bit of the feeling different feeling maybe that you don't have something that others have from my own personal experience poverty that's huge because that whole seventh grade classroom they have the exact same tools on their desk they have a district book they have a issue out of a notebook and that's it. There's no there's no things there that can make someone feel like they're lesser. It removes that one barrier. And you know when I talked about the the numbers, these are some of the factors that help to that. If we can pull out some of the things that distract or take away from chance for success, we make it more likely successful. So I think that's >> the other thing is that I want everybody to
061know that this is a pilot. So, we're trying this to see our goal is to improve executive functioning skills and we're really relying on our teachers to help us see if there is an improvement that >> Stephanie and then Mark. >> Um, so I'm loving the middle school energy. I mean, honestly, it feels so great to have you present and share so much passion you do. I love Miller. I love it. Um, I'm loyal, but I appreciate so much of what you do and have wonderful school. Um, so thank you for your preparation. I know what goes into this. I mean, this is like layered on top of your job, which is every day and a lot of work. I'm curious how the um I have a couple things. I'm curious about how the student
062ambassador program, which I just love, um, how that is communicated to other students who may be a little shy or may not know who to go to for that for their own voice. So, what we're doing is we're going to be putting these um videos out in the morning. We have that does our videos for us even though he's leaving us but I still got for a couple more weeks. So he's going to be promoting this uh with a video putting it out in the morning so all the kids can see it. We're going to be out talking about it. We've got student government that's going to be talking about it as well. Um there's going to be because we just um did it today. There's going to be a um health sign on our
063board. >> So that's how >> that's awesome. That's great. My other question is about the uh program and um how you facilitate communication between um all of the teachers with working with that individual student in a timely fashion to monitor the progress that they may be receiving through that experience. >> So I'm like somehow I'm able to multitask and chew and tap my at the same time. And so I created a spreadsheet a share spreadsheet that teachers are able to track their hours with the students working with the guidance counselors to get that recommendation and we have our support teams every week. So we're talking about kids who definitely fall into this category of mentor and then just having a conversation with the kid is voluntary and sometimes the kid may not know that these
064are some opportunities for them to connect with the staff and um you kind of have to sell it to them in a way where it shows that this is how you can move toward success and So if a kid feels like you know what after month I really don't want to give another student the opportunity when I launch the program we had at least 10 teachers um automatically I want to participate I want to participate so that exciting um and again we're this is a pilot we're trying something different before we had checkout that didn't really go too well sheet and you know if they didn't get candy at the end I was like, you won't see them again. >> So, I wanted a different way, you know, they were connected with staff and the
065students always connected with staff at an official way and a way to track this. I love that. I love that so much. And last, I want to see at the cupcake war table. >> Okay, I'm putting in my bid. I want to be on that. >> Don't worry. I'm ready. >> Mr. Ryder, >> thank you for the full and detailed presentation. I actually couldn't think of anything. I, you know, I saw Dr. Padino's reaction at the end, but I couldn't think of anything that that I would have wanted you would have wanted you to cut out. So, so really, thank you. Appreciate it. Um, as a parent of a seventh grader, I want to commend you and your team on the culture learning environment you've set there. And I think you told us about some
066of your innovative approaches and so thank you for being willing to do that. I I do want to advocate when you're looking at continuing the Avid binder program pilot next year. Mine's in orchestra is a soccer player. Luckily, we bought her the biggest backpack. The Avid binder is the only thing that will fit in the biggest backpack. You have a viola. like if there's any way to continue the program but slightly minimize the binders, I think some would some would appreciate it. >> Mark, I will tell you that we did have a smaller binder, but we actually were very lucky because we have a staff member on in the seventh grade actually who is going to be the advisor. um her children go to Hudson and they have used the AID binders forever and um
067she's the one we showed her the binder that we were originally going to get I would encourage people to look at they're massive >> and brands get bigger >> as time goes on Any other comments or question? Uh Ben, >> I would just love to say this is absolutely amazing. I I love like the activities of PBIS, the ambassadors and IMM. I think you guys are like actively facilitating the growth of students through all these programs, through leadership, through just having mentor and mentee. I'm kind of like summing up everything you said, but it's absolutely amazing. And the only question is when do you guys bring this to >> Miller? Well, I would actually I wanted to speak to you because you would be amazing ambassadors to come to our building talk about your experience
068repres >> because that is a huge piece of student voice. You level so it would be amazing not to put too much on you. have a lot of that. But coming back and sharing that and letting the younger students see, wait, I have literally a seat at the table would be huge. And I think it would give us an even greater selection as they get through for other students. So that's a huge piece to get back. If we do that, keep it in one building. It's great, but then we will come back and go to the other school. >> So wait, you're going to need that. I love you. >> Mr. Fitzpatrick. >> Um, I thought the time was perfect. Please don't never edit it more time. >> We would have been here. >> Easy.
069>> The the binders have the students name like Sharpie on it. So, I assume that that's theirs. Now, >> I I want my job. take that. But for all the ones that you know they don't want it, do you have >> no student that has not complied with the binder? Everybody is following suit. >> Well, so I mean when the the school year ends and they don't want it anymore, like >> who knows, we might move it up to eighth grade. Any other comments or questions? Thank you very much. It was a great report and great start to >> Dr. Palino. >> Thank you, Miss Fitzgerald and team. Um, okay. Just a couple things from the super things for the superintendent report. I know we had we had some people speak at um public comment,
070but I did plan to just give some updates to the board. Um, so last week after last week, we met with our bilingual family workers on uh the 12th and Tuesday of this week, I met with um Kingston rapid response and the UDIN. So, we did have a good conversation there. Um we I have another meeting with the new executive director of UDIN next week. So we we did walk away with some some things we're going to do. First was we're creating a communication tree between them and the school district. So we're we're putting some some administrators kind of so we have some redundancy so we can get reports from them of what's going on um because we don't always get the reports and they seem to be tapped into what's going on. Um so
071establish that communications and um we are looking to set a plan to identify all of our students who do not have emergency contacts. So that was one of the big things that we talked about was if something happens and the student goes home and the house is empty. So one of the things we can find out is how many of our students don't have emergency contacts without without violating any privacy outside of us know us knowing um and then we could drill down and say okay who are these students and how can we encourage our principles to get them to have those emergency contacts so that if there is an issue we have more than one um one family member to to call or trusted adult to call. So we've got a bunch of different
072things going on. Um again we're going to decide to continue the conversations. So, like I said, I'm meeting with the new executive director of UDIN next week. So, and he's also going to work with and I'm bringing Mr. Parker in on that meeting. So, he's going to work with us on some of the other again what I call soft soft spots that we're that we're identifying to help us think about some um strategies around tightening up security in those areas and being watching out for, you know, for our students. So, again, I know several the speakers said things and I know I'm repeating myself. We said what I said last week, you know, people cannot take our students out of the buildings. People do not get access to our students data. Period. It doesn't happen.
073Um it's illegal. We're not going to do it. Our security is to our security is trained. Our administrator is train our administrators are trained. It's not going to happen. You know, we continue to again the best thing to do is always look where you might have weak spots and try to shore those up. So we continue to do that. working with our outside agencies that we talked about last week is the best way is one of the best ways to do that because of our capacity, you know, so collaboratively hopefully we can fill those holes or tighten up those soft spots. So, we're going to continue to work on it and that's where we are. >> Mr. Ryder, >> so I have confidence in our once they're in our building, once they're on the ground
074that you all are doing the right thing. What information do we have? Like, so one of the speakers brought up about know your rights training for school bus drivers. These are contractors. We don't control the employees of these bus companies. Like do we have any information on any kind of training or anything that they go through? >> Yeah. The basic conversation with our bus drivers is are you don't pull over. >> You don't pull over >> and you don't let anyone on your bus >> and you don't let if you are if you're being you know asked to pull over, you drive to the nearest school. That's kind of where we've been. But we are going to open that. Another thing I talked we spoke about at our meeting this week is you know reopening
075that conversation because that was last year's conversation. That was last January's conversation was you you don't pull over. That's it. You that's as far as work that's our property. So you bring it to us and we follow the same protocols we would follow if they were trying to get in the building. But I think we need to reopen that conversation with our contractors. We have seven we have seven transportation contractors. So we have to make sure that we're all on the same page as far as that is concerned. >> Thank you Sophia. >> Dr. Bernab. >> Oh, sorry. >> Dr. Bernaby and then >> um thank you um for that update. Just the one piece also that came out from some of the comments was just about language access. And so um just the recognition
076again that while we do a good job of translation that there seems to be some challenges with the the actual language of the translation and then also this piece on um the catchy speaking community. Um obviously the rules dictate that the top two languages are you know that things need to be um shared out in those top two languages but considering the vulnerability of the catchy speaking community. Um I really want to see how we can partner with some of those partner organizations um get contacts with people who speak both Spanish and Ketchi and English and just figure it out. Um uh you know being at some of the open house and just noticing some of the families being a bit um lost in the sauce and knowing that our job is to make sure
077everyone can feel deeply like acknowledged but also informed about what's going on. And so again, um I'm hoping we can really do those partnerships around the language access as well. And then the only other thing I just wanted to bring up and again thank you for the attention to the buses, um Mr. Ryder. Um I also just wanted to to name that um In addition to making sure that the bus drivers know what's going on, um the other request was the know your rights um training that either would be mandatory using PD and you know paid time for teachers and faculty and all kinds of folks in the building. Um so I assume that we have folks may or may not know that there are trainings out in the community that they can access, but
078the request sounded like it was about um it being mandatory for everyone, all the adults in the building. So just curious about the status of that one too. >> You know what um we have not done that and again we only have so much time right and one of the one of the reasons we haven't prioritized that is our directives to our faculty and staff is to follow our to follow our procedures. It's not, you know, I mean, I'm not saying it's not important for people to know to have that information, but as far as their access to someone trying to gain access to our students in our buildings. I don't want our most of our faculty staff interacting with immigration agents. I want them to come to our security to come to our administrators
079who do have that information and who know what to do with it from there. Someone did ask me that before. What's a teacher going to do? Well, a teacher's going to not engage. So we don't want them to engage with anyone who's coming to our buildings who are trying to trying to take our students. They need to know who to go to. So those are the people who are trained and ready and prepared to deal with that and have and have the access to the resources they need to do, you know. So that that's kind of been our not that it's not important. I I I agree that I think it's important that we maybe we find a way to offer that in some way. Um but we haven't been making that a mandatory training.
080Um, you know, we had eight and a half hours of mandatory training that we that we had to do to start the school year off. It would be great if that was part of that moving forward. Um, but we can we can look at what we can do as far as even if it's just um, you know, something that we make available and also communicate where it is available in our community to our faculty, staff. >> Yeah. I just I just think it's you have to just understand from their demand like why that's important considering we do have such, you know, clear rules and polic the building. So why why that? And so I think once we understand the why behind it, then we can see does it feel like something we need to push
081as mandatory or is it something we can't offer because if it has a specific um function that we're not clear about, which I'm also not clear about, we should just find that out. >> Sophia, >> so I know I'm new to the conversations that are here on the board, but when I was listening to the uh public responses, I just had a question that I wanted to ask. Um, I know there are issues about public sa like safety of students in schools with immigration and ICE and I was wondering how that extended to students with privilege cards because I know ensuring safety upon school grounds is a large issue that we are trying to tackle, but how does that extend to students that are legally not in school but are like on school grounds or
082nearby? How are they how is their safeties protected or is that not >> That's a great question. >> That's an excellent question. It's the same question. It's the same thing that we were talking about before with, you know, students walking to school or students walking to Deep Stadium for the football game or or or anything like that. So, those are those soft spots we have. But, that's a really good question. Think about the the privilege card is you're in the middle of a school day. So, we need to That's a That's a really good question. They're walking across the street to 4:40 and they're still But they're not in our protected zone, right? I think that's a good question. I hope you won't be responsible for us doing away with the privileged person. I don't
083have a lunch in there. >> I'm not surprised that you don't. >> So, I'm sure there'll be some dialogue with the high school staff on that issue. >> Yeah, I think that's a great question. >> It's a really good question. >> You we talk about the parks and stuff, but our all of our kids at Bailey to run their mile, which is a requirement, are off school grounds to get to the stadium to run the mile. >> Well, technically they're still on school grounds and still But we don't own Foresight Park. >> No, we don't own Forsight. >> They have to go through Foresight Park to get to D Stadium. >> Yeah, I think I think that's a question with whether when we're doing things like that, that do we have to send security with
084those students. So, our security guards go and and as we if the um at the safety committee meeting, Mr. uh Parker as well as Mr. Corb were talking about new regulations with the states. We have to have safety plans for every one of our areas. So no matter what our if we're at, you know, field five at Miller or we're at Pet Stadium, we're supposed to have, you know, safety plans there. So if there's a lockdown or a lockout, what are they supposed to be doing? So I think maybe this is an additional piece that should be added to that of what where are we um as far as if there is some type of um attempt to you know to you to get our get our children. >> Yeah. I mean, you know, this
085is an onion. We keep peeling it. We keep peeling it. We keep peeling it and the layers just keep coming. So, we're, you know, and hearing these conversations is good because it reveals more information that we need to like, oh, didn't think of that. Let's let's look at it and see what we can do next. >> Mr. Fitzpatrick, >> so when our students are at the bus stop, the uh our policy to them, they have to follow the rules, whatever. No. >> No. >> You don't have to. >> Our students have to follow the rules. >> Well, yeah, right. Like you got to act like >> Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, there's there's >> But I wouldn't imagine that like when they're walking to school that isn't the same. >> No. So as far
086as student discipline goes, if you're thinking if you're thinking along those along those lines, I mean there's only a we can only take if we have to take disciplinary action on a student walking to school only if there's a nexus to it having an impact in the school. So if a student two students get in a fight at the at the bus stop, well that's going to spill into school probably, right? So we we have the authority there. But if they're if it's not something that's going to make its way into school, we really don't have the the authority to to discipline them for that. So it's it depends on the it depends on the event. >> So my next question is do you have any idea how many well how many students walk to
087the high school? the high school. I don't know exactly, but I know about districtwide out of close to 6,000 students, we have more than a thousand kids walk. So that's that's out of all, you know, all all 10 buildings, not including prek because their parents walk most of them. It would >> it would probably be difficult. But do you think organizing like a walking school bus with a high school kids? That sounds like ridiculous, but when you consider that like walking around what brown can be this whole issue that you know might get >> well, especially when you get to the high school level, it's very hard to determine who's taking the bus and who's walking. That's one of the things we talk about with transportation. So I I I you know, I put we
088do our routing and I put Ben on a bus, but Ben has a car, but he never told me or his best friend has a car and never told us, right? So that never gets on that bus, but we've got a seat there for him. So we don't count him as a walker even though he really is. So I say a thousand. You look at our upper or older kids, high school kids. It's probably more. So it's but it's so it's hard to measure how they're getting there, what who's driving them, what their roots are, all those kind of things. I mean that would be a again these we continue to peel the back the layers of the onion. >> When you meet with um with Victor, can you uh That's the sort of thing
089he can gauge interest in. >> Yeah, he did say, you know, and he's got an extensive background as an immigration attorney actually, and he said he's done a lot of training of other groups of of helping with areas like this. So that that's why I wanted to tap into his what he knows. That's why I brought Mr. Parker into the conversation as well so we can hear that that type of information, see what he thinks about that. >> Mr. Lamb, >> it's a huge percentage of our high school that walks. When you think about the section of the city, my neighborhood walks to the high school. The um the area over by the armory walks to the high school. It most of the city walks >> a two mile two mile >> which is frightening
090to me. And and I know it costs money, but I really think we should be addressing getting busing within the city for our kids safety. And and I know that you have spaces that you're counting on kids riding and they don't use it. But in this day and age with what's going on in this country and the world, we should provide transportation for our kids for the safety of our children. No, but we can offer it. What I can tell you is having taught in a district that gave universal busing, our kids rode the buses to school and and I it it solved a lot of problems that were going on within the city of Newberg and by doing that. And I I just think if you offer it, I think the kids will take
091it. They don't They don't walk on cold days. They don't walk on rainy days. They don't walk. And and you can see the attendance fall on on days where the weather is lousy from within the city. >> District updates on you. >> Couple more things. Sorry. Um facilities. I gave I said I won't read it though. I sent through all completion schedule for Bailey and Edson. So, I'm staying on top of that. So, I asked for specific dates when everything would be done. So, I'm I'm glad that was that was provided and I will keep updating this as we as we knock things off. Um, but that was a good thing to get. So, I'm hoping again if you look at this, you'll see by October, mid-occtober, they'll be out and that's our goal to
092get the contractors out of those buildings. I know they're working second shift, but it's still it's still a disruption to the environment in those buildings. So, we're we're I'm pushing on them every day about getting getting this list done, getting it done on the dates they're saying they're done and moving on. Um the I know um Dr. Bernby asked about the the questions that were asked regarding our safety plan. So, I did again I'm looping in Mr. Parker on this and I know you were on the um the safety meeting the other day. So I think that there's I what I want to know from the information I want back from him is where are we now and how can we get to this spot. So basically was looking at a a twice a year
093look at our data around our SRO's. what are we what are we um collecting and how are we going to collect and we've started this process and we're doing it we're doing it but I think looking at getting a little deeper and then reporting these data back to the board and giving giving um strategies around what this what these data are telling us and what we need to do to make things better or maybe you know we say hey wow it's a lot better than we thought whatever is it's going to be informative what we do as far as the district is concerned so um Mr. Parker and I are working on that and we'll be able to report back to the board in a couple weeks. Lastly, and we and this is just for
094your review. I did I did put um draft of superintendent's goals into your packet. Um I won't ask you to act on them this evening. I give them to you for your review. If you have any questions or concerns that you want to talk about now, or if you want to send me an email and just say, "Hey, I noticed this goal. What what does this mean?" or whatever, we can do that. And then I'll put them more formally toward to you all for the next board meeting. >> That was in >> It's in the library. >> Did it go in later than everything? >> It may have. >> I think >> we got an email, but I think I saw it in the library. >> I didn't see either place. >> Okay. We'll talk
095about it next time though. >> It should have been in there. >> Well, >> so I'll make sure that you get them tomorrow. >> That's why I keep >> and you can review a Betty and I get access to those materials. >> Yes, >> some of them but not all. >> Some but not all. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> But you can definitely have access to my top secret. Any other questions? Mr. Fitzpatrick. >> Um, we recently got another email from Kale, the project manager from >> I'm following up on >> you mentioned the buildings Bailey. I have a question about Bailey. >> When they're done, are we going to number those rooms in that building so they make sense? 300 is the basement. 100 and 200 is the middle level and 0 to 99
096is the top level. I mean I don't know common core top down >> um I'll get that on the agenda for the safety committee. They're usually the ones who deal with all the numbering. They did the numbering at the high school and so forth. >> I mean I've never seen anything from the high school remember how that numbering was >> trying to guide parents and what what was it like? >> We were panicked. We were like, "All right, we we ended up doing uh crowd control at the at the middle school >> cuz no one knew where to go and like >> we can work." >> I had never experienced that building before. The number >> any other questions or comments for from Dr. >> Oh, I the uh the green is that um That's
097as far as that's going to go. >> Yeah, I talked to Dr. Pice about that last week and we were both under the impression it was going to go a little it was going to be further than it was. So, we have to look into that. He did actually Dr. Priest did reach out and ask about it. So, I'll I'll I'll follow back up with him. That brings us to our student representative reports for we're not expecting you to make a formal report but we would like you to introduce yourselves and if you have things that are on your mind or in your hearts and you'd like to share we we would love to hear from you. So I don't know Sophia we'll let you go first. >> Hi my name is Sophia Collier. I
098feel really I'm really excited to be here and being able to speak with all of you and help portray more of the ideas of the student and what's going on in our worlds because I know sometimes you guys all have your own lives, everyone here, you all have your jobs and being here. So, it's really I feel like it's a great asset to everybody to be able to have more voices and more input and all of those things to really help amplify and get expression. Um, I know I was just starting, but there's there's been some couple there's been a couple issues that I would like to either get some more clarity on or just bring up for discussion. Um, I know there's been changes with bathroom doors being kept open in the high school
099for vaping and as a like a prohibit like to try to stop it more, but people have been feeling a lack of privacy. There have been reports of students peeking into like the bathrooms and it's been people have just felt unsafe kind of with that kind of atmosphere and it hasn't been a huge deterrent for vaping. I don't think I think people have been vaping in other areas that aren't the bathrooms maybe. Sure. But I think the taking away the feeling of privacy and safety in the bathroom doesn't really make it worth it. So, I feel like that's a good point of consideration. >> Yeah, that's what I got. >> Hi, my name is Benny. I second all the um things that Sophia just said, especially about the new policy regarding open doors. I do
100also want to back and say thank you and give my earnest gratitude for giving us the opportunity to express our opinions and be a voice for the student population not just solely for high school but for all of the buildings from elementary to middle school. And another point that we would want to cover today and that's on our agenda is regarding the new busing policy. We've heard some complaints regarding just people and just especially from people in sports just being able to fit on the buses with this equipment here and all that. And we're very excited to continue doing this work and surveying these people and just understanding the landscape and really what the opinion of the student population is. Um the specific complaint with the buses is that in past years students have had
101access to coach buses in specific for away games or going to practices and that seems to be have just been replaced with regular busing this year and students uh are just curious to why and are either hoping for a resolution to that or just a better explanation. >> Do you want to speak to that? >> Well, I mean I hate to say it but it's a very simple explanation as far as this is money. So, you know, there's only so much of that. Um, and also our coach company that we were working with, we we did reach out to them as far as and they they're they couldn't provide us with some of the information we needed. So, we have to we have to put our our transportation out out to bid. So, and our
102our job is to take them the lowest responsible bidder. Um, responsible means they need to fulfill all the obligations of the bid to let us know exactly everything we need to know so that we know that they're they're safely transporting our students. Um, so if that doesn't happen in that bid process, we kind of eliminate other organizations. But the the truth is it's it really is, you know, it's about money. Um, we spend almost $20 million a year on on student transportation, including including sports. Um, and it just keeps going up. So, we're we're trying our best to continue to provide everything we need to provide. It just it's just a struggle to do it as well as we have in the past or as as nicely as we have in the past, especially with
103the coach buses, but we'll keep we'll keep working on it. >> Mr. Ryder, >> can I just clarify for both of you? It's not I mean, you say it's about money, but it was about the documentation because had the documentation been able to be provided, they would have been lowest responsive responsible bidder and we would have potentially had to coach us. So it was about them not meeting the requirements in the bid. Is that correct? >> Well, the reason we had to go to bid was for the money, you know, is is to get is to get that, you know, is to get them to come to those numbers. Okay. Um, you know, so there was multiple factors, but you know, again, you know, the the I think what Ben was talking about was the
104shuttles in between getting sort of getting to getting from one practice from Kingston High School to Miller, right? It was one of the things where we've been having some struggles there. Um, that that work really wasn't out to bid that much. Um, we knew that this was how we had to do it and we were able to save money by utilizing the bus runs that we currently have. So again, we're going to keep working on it. This is the first year we've done it this way um in a while, but um yeah, so we'll we'll keep But yes, what Mr. Ryder said is true also. There was certain pieces of that bid that needed to be fulfilled that weren't >> I just >> and Mr. Mr. Silverstein hit me with that today. What is this?
105Did he call you too? I I was just wondering if you have um voiced your concerns about the bathroom doors at the high school level either through student council or BLT or >> I've not had the opportunity yet. It's it's been a new concern that's propped up and I'm still organizing when I'm meeting with student councils and things like that, but I will be bringing that up there as Yeah, I mean we're we're glad to hear it, >> but it would be really important to to make sure that your voice is heard where it can most logically be addressed. >> And I know Dr. Williams is jotting down notes on so she'll she'll have that conversation at the at the high school level as well. Um, you know, I think one of the things maybe
106both of you could help us with because we haven't found a solution is the vaping period. Um, you know, there's every time the the fire alarm goes off, like it did what? Monday morning. Monday morning, there are almost two thou there are more than 2,000 people who are put in danger >> every time because you have to evacuate that building, right? So many different things can happen when you evacuate that building. >> So students who go into the bathroom and vape and set up the fire alarm are endangering the welfare of 2,000 individuals in that building. So, your help on how we can solve this problem and I know it's hard because we're up against big advertising who's really coaxing people into doing these things. But, um, you know, that's we'll work with the high
107school administration around the the propping the doors, but you know, our mindset is frequently every time that alarm goes off, 2,000 people are in danger. Now, it seems seems silly, right? You're like, well, it's a fire fire drill. I just go outside. It's not silly. It's, you know, it's it's there's potential danger every time we have to evacuate that building as simple as falling down the stairs. Um, you know, things like that that just everybody in that building if we have to evacuate is in danger. And every time a student does vapes in the bathroom and sets off the alarm, they put those people in danger. And so we need students help to figure out what can we do to convince students that school is not the place to vape. We can't control whether you
108vape or not. The school isn't the place to do it because that is what happens. And we we we're dispatching the fire department. So we're using resources of the city that they need maybe they need to be somewhere else that's actually much more important than this the students vape. So you know now now the whole thing gets now now we're we're keep extending that circle to where we're endangering people. Right. So, it's a it's I understand the privacy thing that obviously we'll work with it, but I think the intentions are this is this is a serious problem we have in the high school and how can we solve it. So, maybe you can help us with that. >> Are we just talking about the new sections because like old the old main and and the
109Salsman building are not designed and don't have doors that can be opened or closed. >> They're open. We're only talking about the the new >> Well, oh, that's a lot of bathroom, >> but the two new the two new wings that are the issue right now. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Dr. Bernab, >> and just briefly, I mean, just one other consideration to add to the bathroom issue is of course we know that our trans and non-binary students already have sensitivities around bathrooms. So just to say that like anything that prevents students from being comfortable enough to use bathrooms is something we really have to pay attention to. So while of course it impacts all students, nobody wants to be like snooped in on in the bathroom, but that can happen with the door
110closed or not. But on top of that, we have um that other consideration. So just to note that as well, >> Mr. Fitzpatrick, >> it's my understanding that students have the right to seek out a Mr. Ryder, >> and just to clarify because I I so this also was on the parents page a couple weeks ago, but all of the stalls have doors. It's just that the door to go into the bathroom, which many bathrooms that we experience in our daily lives don't have doors to them, right? You go to an airport, you go to many other schools, they're all open barrier doors. >> Um, this is just so that everything has working stalls, correctly? >> Yes. Okay, >> understood. But I'm just saying if it is a if it prevents any student from being
111comfortable enough to go into the bathroom, it's a reason enough to deal with it in a quick way. And I'll just say as a member of that community, bathrooms are a huge sensitivity. And I hear I hear about it from parents of kids who are non-binary or trans. Um, And just to say that I understand there are single stalls. I understand that there are actual little stall doors. And if this prevents two kids from going to the bathroom during the day, it it's again it goes against their rights. So we have to just take it seriously. >> I'd also like to ask what are like the disciplinary measures that are taken after someone is caught or someone that act or activates the fire alarm. >> Yeah, I mean there well I guess it comes down
112to two things, you know. So, but basically there there's there's a there's a level three violation which is usually a five-day suspension and and they're referred to as superends hearing which could increase their suspension beyond 5 days. Um, and just having a vape doesn't put you in that situation. But having a vape, using the vape, it's setting off the fire alarm. And I still go back to the same thing. And I know I know the the conversation around the doors is one thing, but our number one issue is that the that that immediate threat of of danger and the safety for our students. Um, so because of that, it becomes it goes to the next level and it usually goes beyond 5 days. Again, we try to we try to put some education in there
113around it as to why and and I know that um being addicted to a vape is a real thing. I mean, you know, it's a real thing. So, we do have our, you know, Sean Bailey, who's our our um our student advocate, but really what he does is, you know, addiction, recovery, alcohol, those kind of things for for students. So, um but yeah, um it's it's severe. >> Mr. Fitzpatrick, >> um I think I've heard a couple times that the fire alarm went off because of vaping. Is that >> Yeah. multiple times so far this year. >> Doesn't seem possible. Like what vaping is is that it's heated up at a temperature that is lower than combustion. There's not when you you know vape there's not >> it's like interrupt. I think it's I know
114last year was a big problem or I heard it was a big problem with hot boxing. So maybe this year is probably another set of that. Yeah. >> Any steam, smoke, anything? Even my dryer when it was backed up set off my fire alarm just a little >> but that and they said Monday morning Monday morning first thing right it was it was right ready to start our first period we had to evacuate the high school because someone was vaping and the other thing is I mean we catch them every time >> so but >> well mostly >> if we can move on to our board of education reports. Um, teaching and learning. Dr. Collins, how's your voice? >> Oh, it's doing all right. Um, but in the spirit of multiple reasons why to be
115sort of I think we're running along, but um, so teaching and learning committee met last month on September 15th. Um, we welcomed our new community member, Mr. and approved our minutes and then revisited our charter as we do every year. Made a couple small changes to that charter. Um and those will be that charter as amended will be posted on the website. Um the meeting was really focused on three topics. We were looking at I Ready data from last spring um curricular initiatives in the district as a whole and hiring data for this year. So I will just be brief because the actual slide deck is in the core packet now. Um so feel free to look at that for more details if you'd like. we were focused on last year's uh P4 I ready
116for the data and so overall looking at all the students um for both reading and math there were in slight increases in the percent of students performing on or above grade level um when students within a grade were compared to the same age across years. So unlike the cohort data that we saw today that miss Gerald's um presentation, we were actually looking at the same group uh different groups of students with the same year just to ask what the fifth graders are doing differently than fifth graders the year before. Um so we see slight increases but um when we looked at the subgroup data breaking it down there's some really um really wonderful and positive signals I think being seen in those data so far. So, in both reading and math, there were improvements um
117in all of our students that are at or above grade level um and a corresponding decrease in those that are below as we would expect. Um but in math, I just want to highlight the biggest jump that we saw in our district um was in the African-American students and our special ed students. So, we did see sizable increases in their perform academic outcomes, which is great. um and a decrease in red areas at so the below gray level um in all of our subgroups. So really promising results there. Um the state data is still embargoed so it can't be the public yet. We will present that at TNL and then ultimately bring that to the board. However, in the meantime, the district administrators had um had access to those data and by comparing I already
118scores, they were able to sort of crosswalk among them and and make some projections for what those New York assessments would tell us. And based on these data, um they were willing to just say the district is heading in the right direction, which would be what we would believe from our ready data. So, it's really we'll look forward to seeing those scores from our administrative and our TNL team. Um when we're talking about state data. Inevitably, testing opt outs comes out as comes up as a topic. And so, we briefly discussed um something that had been discussed at the end of last year as well, but the the district saw fewer refusals in 2025. Um even despite there being some complications on testing day, um in subsequent days, we still saw higher number of students
119taking our exams. Um so, a lot of this is is due to outreach by principles and members of the DT. including parents who were able to communicate importance of testing facil stamina and accurate tracking of our district efforts um to improve learning outcomes across subgroups. This is one of our key tools to know we're being really effective educators. Um grades seven and eight have the highest optout rates and so uh administration is working with middle schools to understand better why and how we can improve those. Uh the region's results are also under embargo so stay tuned for that. Um when we start talking about curriculum initiatives um we are linking that to professional development to better understand how those initiatives are being paired with supports for faculty and staff. Um so the the district is
120undertaking three new curriculum initiatives. Now some of these we've heard quite a bit about I Ready and Ca we've heard about but we're also working with Educate which I'll tell a little bit about based on the discussions in the meeting. So all of the professional development this year is structured around supporting faculty and staff in these three initiatives. In terms of Ire um so last year both middle schools received some form of I Ready coaching and support and this year already prior to the TNL meeting um there had been coaching support at Miller with specialist um GW uh staff were receiving full training um because that group been implementing um I Ready um due to Monasuri and so they all received full training on superintendence day um special education has received extra training in I
121Ready and all grades K3 received some three-hour training on best practices so upcoming there's just lots more I could list all of the opportunities but you can look at the minutes so there are um and in some in fact um principal Fitzgerald spoke of this evening um We talk about the the modeling lessons, co-eing lessons, and those coaching cycles that's happening um at many of our schools in terms of CLA, otherwise known as the core knowledge language arts curriculum. So last year, we heard a lot about the 22 classrooms that we're triing. um this curriculum. So the district actually upon adopting it started um professional development for all K through5 teachers last year in March. And so this year that was just to preempt them and get them ready for this year. Um this year
122the district has already provided TA training which is terrific. So how to support um staff in our buildings in addition to um our lead teachers. Um and then again there's October, November, January, March there are professional development days devoted to CKLA all throughout the year. So in the discussion around CKLA, we talked a bit about how this curriculum works with ELLL students and we're told the ways in which um ELLL students were um they were being thought the district is being thoughtful about ensuring that ELLL students received both their ELLL instruction as well as all of the benefits of CLA. Um the Miss Bald uh mentioned this evening about um triing a new ELA program for sixth through eighth graders called Amplify ELA. This is related to CLA at the same company. So um one
123teacher in each middle school is testing the south. We'll hear more about that later in the year. The final curriculum tool initiative is called Educ. We have heard less about this I think at the board level so far. Um and committee members actually a short video which I found very helpful during TNL. And in short, um, Educ brings together the academic, the social, emotional, and the behavioral information of all of our students to one place to help inform our guidance counselors and our teachers in making our decisions around interventions and supports as the students are progressing through their academic years. So, it kind of integrates everything that the district is already doing. Um, as you can imagine, it's it's a task to to do that. So, um uh it's right now the program or the
124I guess you call it a program is it the program um >> platform thank you um talks to e school and gathers information that we're already getting but we can also have it collect additional information and so that's being articulated and identified right now. Um so there's a full district roll out predicted for next fall 2026. Um so there we talked about the the professional development to prepare um our district for this. administration has had an overview and has a good understanding of this this platform. Um but further professional be superintendent days and the tech team is working to make connections um to data already you're used to the district but as I said it's a big technical task I think to tie together all the data we collect um we brief report on summer
125reading which was very successful to say that and then um details are in the minutes if you'd like to read and and then our final major category of discuss was around staffing data. So, this was um it was presented that there were 23 teaching positions to be filled this year. 19 were filled by new hires. There's some transfers in there. Um there were 121 interviews for the teaching positions this past summer. Hiring practices were modified to emphasize questions that removed bias and everything was very uniform and centrally located this this year. Um to serve the diverse needs of our students, hiring was focused on with multiple certifications. The we're excited to have highly qualified and diverse pool of applicants and hires. So 27.8% of our new hires are people of color and that bringing now
126in the district our number our percentage to 21% of educators are people of color. Um recognizing that diversity includes many different identities. Um we it was shared that around 44% of new educators represent various marginalized groups as they were selfidentified throughout the process. So that's wonderful work on the part of our recruitment team. So thank you for that. We discussed the importance of retention now that we've become I think um we're excited about our we're excited about our recruitment. So we talked about the importance of retention. Um the district is contining the of color network um which both administration and teachers have reported as being really helpful support network. Um there's a new group started for neurodeiverse educators um and the administration's been asking educators if other groups are desired or needed. So we talked
127a little about the importance of creating a lot about the importance of um creating inclusive school communities. So the district is still working with Dr. Hunter Javon Hunter and Jess Blancas um addressed again by Mrs. Gerald's presentation. And finally, um Dr. Pino reminded us of the importance of recruiting school leaders kind of in house and um brought to our attention that 14 candidates in the Sunni new certificate for advanced study and school leadership. 10 of the 14 are from KCS. So that's wonderful. Uh our next meeting is October 27th. Thank you. questions for Dr. Collins. Thank you, Dr. Collins. Moving on to Mr. Lamb for policy. >> Policy met September 12th at 9:30. Um, we have one policy to present to you for first reading, which is policy 9130, staff student relations. Um, not a
128lot of changes in that policy and that will be Second reading next our next meeting October 3rd at 9:30 is our next policy meeting right here in this room. >> Um Mr. Fitzpatrick then Mr. Lamb or Mr. Ryder. >> Um after going to the back to school night and having so many teachers say oh if your child has any problems tell them to message me on team. Now that I'm reading this policy, it kind of seems like that is that the language not only discourages that, but like for it um in the inappropriate employee behavior includes not when they do a lot of things. And then in the bottom communic personal communication with a student including to phone, email, letters, notes, instant messaging. >> That's not >> unrelated to course. >> Wait, what line are
129you on? >> This is unrelated. >> So 41 says, >> but then the the next one um communicating with students by email um must use email >> addresses. Is that is there more that should be there because Teams. >> Well, I in order to use Teams, you have to have an email address. So each one of the each one of those communication with Teams is connected to the email address of that student. So it is that >> we have policy for >> that. Which one was it? >> No. And it it went back to the lawyers from the Can you send it back to policy committee? >> Yes. >> Policy committee sent it back to the lawyer and it's still in process. >> Dr. Bern, >> any other progress on the request last meeting by
130the community about the board resolution regarding um immigration enforcement that in the last meeting? >> We did discuss that. >> Yes, we gave the direction to Dr. Palino to continue with the um contacts with the community and to review all of our um procedures >> and trainings with staff and I believe that's >> yeah that's part of what we did with the bilingual family workers and we're still working on it. There was a request to develop a draft board resolution specifically um and there was a template that was provided that was insufficient because it wasn't quite um customized and then the idea was that it was going to go back to the board policy committee to review the resolution the template consider it and think about if there were edits to be made to it.
131So that was the my recollection of what we talked about in the last meeting. I haven't done that wrong. >> We sent that um suggestion with the lawyer. We discussed looking at NIST's um >> as opposed to the NEA since NISA is has written a more recent um statement and that was going back to the lawyer and then we were going to but we do policy and not resolutions. Correct. I mean I anybody on the board can write a resolution. >> You we're we're looking at the policy aspect >> during the meeting though I don't again this might be a point of question more than anything else. It was said that the resolution would be brought to the policy committee and for consideration. Now whether it has to be in the policy committee is neither
132here nor there but that's just what we agreed to. We're comparing the what is in the resolution to see what how it meets our policy, but we found that the nice one which is more recent meets our needs more and that's that's what the lawyer is working on as we speak. >> Awesome. Thank you, >> Mr. Fitzpatrick. >> Um it seemed to me that um the outcome of that conversation was that we were going to have the superintendent have meetings and look at what we were doing, what we could be doing, and he was going to provide us with that. >> There was an there was an outcome there. I remember >> there was there was a deliverable that was going to simply be crafted after all of those meetings were conducted and what was
133in the best interest of communication for the safety of those students and the protection of privacy but ultimately we didn't move to activate that resolution as a formal document. >> Right. The goal was for me to get input to see if there were things that through my conversations I thought we should put into a resolution of that type and then it went to the that that conversation didn't happen at policy because those conversations didn't happen I said they happened the afternoon yeah beforehand >> but the other thing is that that the NEA resolution had a policy behind it too. >> So so I think that put us put I think that put people in a in a weird place like is this policy is this resolution which isn't. I think that was kind of how
134it ended up in the policy >> realm. >> Well, you also released your statement after, >> right? I mean, that was me. I mean, speak for the district and that's if the board wants to do their >> So, I would expect that that will be on the agenda for the next policy meeting, >> I would think. >> Oh, and I guess that is in few days, right? >> Next Friday. next week or Friday. >> It's not that Friday. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments for policy? >> That brings us to the consent agenda. Are there any items that that trustees would like to have pulled from the consent agenda? Hearing none. If we could have a motion to accept the consent agenda. >> So move second. >> Any discussion? >>
135All in favor of accepting the consent agenda? >> Any opposed? So our consent agenda is passed. We do have a donation statement that we would like >> our public to know how much we appreciate. Um, the board of education of the Kingston City School District hereby accepts with grateful appreciation the following generous donations to Chambers Elementary School from the Kingston Rotary Board, a donation of learning materials valued at $2,291.39 to support the Math in Motion program. >> Thank you very much. And thank you to uh Kingston Rotary. >> Thank you. That brings us to old business. Let me old business. New business. Board member announcements. Dr. Collins. I just wanted to let those who might be watching um know that board members have been trying to do it at every parent back to school night
136or school back to school night. Um back to school, right? >> That's right. That's right. Um and there are still more to come. So if you have a chat with the board member >> Yes. And I'd just like to add I think principles have been very accommodating in making sure that the uh board members have a space and that that um we're in a place where we can hear from our our parents. So that's been great. >> On that subject, what I what I found amazing was the number of families that are of color of Latino, Hispanic. Um and the complete families were there and what a nice event it was um both at Chambers at Crosby and at Bailey. I mean it was it was a great event for our district. I do have
137one just a reminder that um next Tuesday right the 30th is our board retreat um from 5 to 9 here. U Mrs. Siri indicates that she will maybe have a light dinner for us. So, >> you better have a light dinner. >> I'm taking I'm taking requests. >> Who wants lobster on that lobster? Any other an announcement that hopefully the legislative action committee can be on um October 8th from 5 to 6. We had to bump our meeting a few times because of conflicts with others. So that will be our initial meeting. Okay. Any other announcements? If we could have a Um, anybody to speak from the public? Looks like not [Laughter] >> second. >> All in favor of returning this meeting? >> Any opposed? Thank you all my goal. too.