001discuss we are live it is uh 7:25 I am calling this meeting back to order if we could please call the rooll Miss Anderson here Dr Collins miss the sandis bord here miss Fitzgerald here Dr jacobowitz here miss Jordan here miss La here Mr Ryder here Mr Spicer be here we have one action coming out of executive session um Boe 35 a settlement agreement resolved that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools hereby approves the terms of and authorizes the superintendent of schools to sign a stipulation of settlement and general release between the district and employee number 2325 dated October 19th 2023 the stipulation of settlement and general release shall be incorporated by reference within the minutes of this meeting do I have a motion to accept this agreement all
002in favor any opposed the um agreement passes my apologies we didn't pledge do the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to repblic stand one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all we are at our public um go we approval of minutes for September the SE September 16th meeting any discussion all in favor of approving those minutes and opposed the minutes for September 6th are approved minutes from the September 20th meeting any discussion all in favor any opposed the minutes from September 20th are approved we are at our public comment we do have two people signed up good evening everyone for joining us tonight we are about to enter the portion of the meeting where we welcome public comments although state law does not require
003that we hold a P public comment period we feel it is crucial that we hear from our community about their concerns the board is here to listen because we do take your concerns seriously we want to have time to process and research issues 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 the trustees receive it please note that state and federal privacy laws and collective bargaining agreements prevent us from discussing certain topics in this venue the guidelines are posted on the boardroom wall thank you for your respectful adherence to
004the rules and your interest in the continuous Improvement of of our district we ask that you please honor the time limit of 3 minutes the clerk will provide timing reminders Tony it's International lead poisoning prevention week as well as National lead poisoning Prevention Week in 2016 and 2021 the district tested all water Outlets that could be used for cooking or drinking the language on all the documents is clear that the outlets identified to be between 1 and 15 microgram per liter were ignored while anything above was remediated Outlets with results above 15 micrograms in 2021 were not above that level according to the test results in 2016 based on the documentation posted on the District site there are 198 Outlets that tested between 1 and 15 micrograms given everything we know about chemistry plumbing and
005the effect lead has on children districtwide should of the testing water should happen as soon as possible out of order signs might have to be the temporary solution to the poisoning of our community the law is far more complicated than the science and I could give everyone vote I had more than 3 minutes the Kingston School District I grew up when wouldn't budge unless I brought the Thunder of the federal government even then the move would be to use the state government as a shield I have autism spectrum disorder I'm autistic the Kingston School District I grew up in never saw me as anything more than a discipline case that needed to be removed this district is different this District gives me hope hope that I only needed to bring the data my concern and
006a reminder I know the state of New York isn't going to ask you to look at the toxic lead level students and staff in justest until 2026 and the FEDS don't expect a plan until National lead poisoning prevention week 20124 so I'll simply remind you unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot nothing's going to get better it's not I you picture thank you thank you Eric novan hello everybody uh the author of the book jender queer did an interview with the Washington Post September 14th 2023 here is part of what she said gender queer is a comic and in full color but that doesn't mean it's a were children I originally wrote it for my parents and then for older teens who were already asking these questions about themselves I do not recommend
007this book for the kids in July of 2023 the Nea put out the following statement we recommend gender career for teachers we do not recommend it for students I understand you have policy excuse me that parents can block a certain book for their own children however this policy is missing the point the point is parents send their children to your school and trusting that you will not have pornography available to any student in the school if the author says I do not recommend this book for kids and the teachers union says we do not recommend this book for students I believe any and all reasonable people can agree that this book and others like it have no place in our school library thank you any other public comments that moves us into the superintendent report
008thank you Miss Anderson uh first thing we have in our superintendent report is Miss sickles and our Crosby Elementary School report good evening everyone it's great to see you I'm excited to share what Crosby school's been up to and what our plans are for the coming year I'm going to jump right into our sub goal so commitment number one we will continue the work we have started with creating envirment Enon where students want to come to school where they feel engaged loved understood and educated as a whole child commitment number two is improving reading comprehension skills we're going to enhance the story we've started using data as our Highway with built-in stops along the way and I'll explain that as I go along identity in the classroom here are some of the the samples of
009some of the work that's happening um in our identity work in the classroom this connects with our work with Dr Hunter when students are proud of their own identities and recognize the ways they are Unique Individuals they're better able to care about the identities and experiences of others identifying commonalities valuing diversity and developing a respectful curiosity for differences helps children to feel connected to people who are different from them it also helps children to develop a sense of concern and a desire to help identity in literature Multicultural literature serves as a powerful tool in enabling students to gain a better understanding of both their own culture and the culture of others by reading Multicultural books about their own culture children have opportunities to see how others go through experiences similar to their own develop strategies
010to cope with issues in their life and identify themselves with their inherited culture the books offer a valuable opportunity to bring our students languages cultures histories and voices into our classrooms they also provide the opportunity to introduce students to a wide range of diverse stories that reflect different perspectives and experiences both theirs and others We are continuing our work in diversifying our classroom libraries identity and writing the writer's Workshop curriculum includes all about me and who am I activities at the beginning of the school year for kindergarten through fourth grade students it starts the conversation here's an example of a who am I activity for third grade the curriculum expectations are on the left and on the right is the work in action it's a lot of good stuff going on at school social emotional
011learning and cultural responsive teaching are Incorporated in near pod activities during our learning lab time and that's our computer lab time using many modalities students are exposed to ideas given time to reflect while reading then offer the opportunity to share their thinking with their teachers and their peers these act these activities are a product of oural and and Dei committees with creativity credits given to June trailor our learning lab ta these learning opportunities happen once or twice a month depending on our weekly Focus or monthly themes and they are in addition to the classroom work that happens daily I won't click through this near pod but I do invite you to uh check it out uh this is one of the many near pods that have been created uh for students in grades K through
012four commitment number two we're improving reading comprehension skills we're going to continue to focus on vocabulary and reading comprehension strategies as we build foundational skills so what does that look like going to go on a little journey imagine you're on a train each stop provides an opportunity to reflect and visualize the layers of learning that we are providing our students stop number one is foundational skills foundations is happening in grades K through 2 with Fidelity and grade three is being trained this year this provides students with the tools to decode words they don't know how to read to build their reading fluency and stamina secondly during the summer a districtwide common site word list was created for all students in grades K through 2 to use this consistency provides the foundation for students to become
013fluent in words that they that are not easily decoded and will again help them with the goal of building reading fluency stamina and comprehension stop number two is writer's Workshop writing across content areas will improve vocabulary this will allow teachers to not teach content area subjects in silos but integrate them teaching reading and writing skills during science and social studies lessons additionally including the grade k two common site word list in student writing will help them to not only read the words but use them in their writing as well stop number three the I ready Diagnostics provide a window into the skill strengths and deficits that students possess this allows her small group work to fill in any gaps that students have again providing a solid foundation for improving comprehension and vocabulary acquisition I already
014Prov provides skill-based resources for teachers to use small grade small group instruction and the my path that students access daily provides practice in the newly learned skills to lead them to Mastery stop number four is vocabulary acquisition as we've done in the past we will include our word of the week initiative this year as well these words tie into not only our seal and Dei work but includes academic vocabulary from Ela and Mathematics as well this year we would like to use Mentor text to to have read alouds to link science social studies seal and Dei work this way we are integrating our teaching so that students can make connections all day long and stop number five this year we are adding stop five where we work to integrate or tie together all of the
015work we are doing individually this will allow teachers to fit all of their teaching into a t typical school day I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to be able to work with Dana mcdna who was a retired teacher from the Newberg Central School District Dana was awarded the very prestigious honor of teacher of the year in 2016 she will assist us in connecting and integrating our content area teaching with Ela math andde I work her skill set is just what Crosby needs to help us to reach our goals of improve improving both reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition and our final stop this uh our final stop is graduation the skills that students will acquire will help them to be better in in middle school and high school whether they choose college or career as they
016exit Kingston High School so what does the data say a big thanks to Dr VTO for her help with not only supporting our school with the training and resources for the new curriculum initiatives but for the data that she called from I and New York State Ed she's a huge help um and a a data nerd like I am so let's take a look at the at the data we're focusing on the ELA results a as these are the um the focus for our SE work this year here you can see that if we combine the green bar bars and the yellow bars approximately 70% of Crosby students are on or just below grade level the yellow bar represents students who are one grade level behind because this is the first diagnostic of the year
017and skills and Concepts have not yet been taught students should be in yellow or green the students in red are receiving tier three intervention or special education services 59% represents the Combined District elementary schools compared to Crosby the area circled in black is our Focus for this year all of the goals that we have set for academics this year are based on this reality and this isn't new this is something I already just confirmed that we're continuing to work toward these these deficits we will continue to be diligent about improving vocabulary acquisition with transference and support reporting students with their ability to comprehend both literature and informational texts let's take a look at the New York State assessments here is the New York State Ela assessment results for grade three comparing 2022 and 2023 when
018combining students who receive level three or level four that is proficient or highly proficient we can see that the student scores dropped on last year's assessment we're identifying and working to fill those deficits this year and going forward Dr alv and I will dive deeper into the data to to identify those skill deficits taking a look at grade four in for the ELA New York State assessment students did a great job on this last year combining level three and level four showed that we increased our performance by 21% I attribute this to teaching missing skills test preparation lessons and the hard work of the Crosby faculty uh and staff this assessment was a computer-based testing assessment it was our first Year everyone was very nervous about what it was going to look like and I'm
019really really proud of these results this year grade three will also participate in computer-based testing for their Ela New York State Ela assessment as well I'd like to say a big thank you thank you to Dr fisel for her ongoing support encouragement she is my cheerleader all day every day Dr El aletto for her endless energy helping teachers to feel supported with all the new curriculum improvements and for the data she provides so that I can keep Crosby moving forward to Beth Lewis for providing guidance support and advocacy for our special ed population Crosby PTO for their tireless efforts to support our school and students Mr Reinhardt for always checking in to see how I'm doing and offering support Dr patalino for his tireless leadership and the board of education for supporting all of the
020curricular initiatives and building upgrades and as a building principal I feel very supported in um taken care of and I'm really proud to have my PR with with me here tonight so thank you very much thank you questions or comments from the board Mrs Jordan congratulations there's magic happening in those rooms it's a whole different language that students initially teachers had to learn how to teach teach it because many of the teachers had not been taught that way so it was a curriculum that they really had to learn in order to be able to teach uh and and it's amazing to see how um during writing lessons I can see the kids making connections to foundation work that's happening earlier in the day so that's conversations with teachers and visits to classrooms was kind of
021the Catalyst for understanding that all of these initiatives are wonderful I don't want to be taught and learned as in a silo and it's important to connect them all in a way that's cohesive um and I can see it happening so I'm really pleased with with the way things are going and I know third grade is excited as well fourth grade has also um had some opportunities to add phonics into their curriculum um just so that they there's no Gap going into middle school so I'm very happy with the way things are working out thank you Dr CS thank you so much for all the information and the data um and I would Echo what M Jordan said with the integration and also your last comment about cont so important and wonderful that syis in
022the classroom will be so beneficial for all the kids so thank you I do have I have a question about um a practical question about Diagnostics as a parent now in the mail um for my kid you know what happens and so I'm curious from the teacher perspective um they now have a classroom full of students for which they have individual individualized diagnostics for all of these different so can you just sh a little light for us on on the Tactical side of Translating that now for classroom into what the next step everyone's in differentes each seems there's a lot of information there's a lot of information but what it does provide you is who needs what and you can group kids by that skill and then teach that skill in a small group even
023if it's 10 15 minutes you sit with with a group of students that need a specific skill taught you sit with them they teach them you move them on um in your Center work any kind of Center work that you do you focus on the skills that they're missing um and and what what's interesting to knowe too is before we we had all of this data that was so helpful teachers had to figure out that on their own based on what they see based on on the different uh ways to assess kids uh and what they're telling me is that how they would have grouped them is how I already has gred of them so it it it just validates what they already know about their students so what's really great too is that I
024already offers um resources to teach any type of skill that is missing so it's not that they once they figure out what the deficit is that they have to go out and hunt for work to give the kids and work through the the skills with I already offers resources to get that work done so it's it's um it's so powerful and we're just you we're just learning um along with you so um I'm I'm very hopeful and happy that we have this incredible di diagnos diagnostic tool and this curriculum to move kids forward so if I'm understanding youly that's really cool so then it basically someone could respond in a very shortterm to a single issue it's not like gring kids for aod of time grouping is always FL very short term that's right these
025are the common issues weing that's exactly right those groups are fluid so as the the deficit is mastered um they move on to another either another group or another scale but it it it should always be a fluid uh it's not a a you know a year sentence it is you know three weeks and you move on or two weeks you move on or or a one week and we move on um it depends on on where they are and what what the deficits are but it's it's quite it's it's incredible thank you thank you Mr Spicer thank you Miss diol for your presentation I did move through you do your near pod part of your presentation and and I thought using graphic identity Maps is a wonderful way to help children share all the
026unique factors that shape who they are in cultural terms of foods families and celebrations they also learn the cultural areas they all have in common and areas that they don't it's okay I love the part about I celebrate Christmas and and another child says well I don't and and that's okay that they doing all the other celebrations that are there that was wonderful working on the who am I book is empowering and self motivating because for most children they are their favorite subject that's a fact and and it's a topic they experts on so that was very that was very motivating the explanation that the differences between people don't make anyone better or worse is vitally important for our children to hear because at a young age they need to experience the joys of equality
027that that we're all equal and it is a very important it's very important to let children know that everyone feels sad when they are left out or made you feel like they're not part of the group or when someone is meaning disrespectful the meaning everyone feels sad when that happens so that's very important and lastly I thought the whole piece on writing across the content areas gives the children the practice purpose and motivation to write for all reasons more practice more purpose better writers writing is everywhere writing is just not a lesson now we're doing writing that writing is part of everything so well done thank you well done thank you apprciate it any other questions Could you um explain how Dana McDonna came to be working AC cros uh yes I was introduced um
028myself and Kate barardi um are working with her um Stasia introduced her to us um somebody that I believe she worked with in the past um and speaking with her I understood that she had the skill set and the the the what we needed uh at Crosby so I you know I did a little research on her to kind of you know understand and she really did some incredible things in Newberg and I thought I I hope she can help us to to find some of that success at Crosby does she push into classrooms or were the teachers or so she just started with us that's a good question she she just started with us last week and I have her work working with first and second grade individual teachers right now and then we'll
029we'll expand it to the grade level once there's a comfort level and and she's working to help us to integrate using read alouds um initially trying to get us some good Mentor text so that we can build vocabulary and connect it to the um to the content area and for any Dei work and she says that you know she she's got a lot of resources that she's going to bring to to us so she's only had one visit with us she spent the day in a second grade class watched the teacher uh teach science and then she watched the teacher teach a writing lesson and then she's going to come back tomorrow to help to integrate the two great nice to hear thank you nice presentation thank you and we do have some District updates
030I think Mr thank you missles it's hard to be questioned by the former principal of Crosby I know that happened to you um uh yeah a few more updates the superintendent report just first of all I want to say thank you to the high school and uh The Faculty staff and Leadership there for it was a really great weekend um a lot of things were going on last weekend with high school level we had uh we had our pep rally on Friday was something I don't think we've had a pep rally since I've been here um but we because we were at Rond down from the game they had a pep rally on Friday which went really well very well organized the kids were great um we got to Crown our homecoming king and queen
031was it was a lot of fun it was it was quick but it was but it was really well done Saturday our our football game again a great crowd for coming all the way down to Ronda we had a great crowd there unfortunately we we didn't win the game but I think our our boys gave it their all and played a great first half and had a lot of us really excited for those first you know those first 24 minutes or so but um again just a great effort though and I they represented the kingst city school district very well and on another note we got our revenge this afternoon when our soccer team beat Newberg in this in this section um finals today so we're we're happy to see our semi-final 6 or semi-final
0326 so we did get revenge on Newberg today um but again thank you to to the K faculty and staff for putting that together and Dr Sor and her team for keeping things just really um light safe and fun oh one full Fan Fair I'm sorry and on on Sunday F we got a full week at f f our band scored 87.2 five which I think is the highest they've ever scored at the 12 Fant there highest this year highest this year highest this year I think it's the highest they've ever scored at fall at fall so congratulations to our tiger marching band largest marching band in New York state I was like to say that uh updates on playgrounds obviously we're we're working with our uh testing company so we will have testing done
033this week um and hopefully have results back next week um regarding the the surfacing so we are again continuing we're not complete with all of our um construction of all of the sites but we're still mov moving forward and hopeing that September that October 30th is still a possibility Dylan says maybe maybe not but we're we're working towards it and again we'll have that testing and we'll report out on the testing um obviously we did the lead testing but people wanted more wanted know more than lead so we want to put it all together in one in one um communication with people know where we are and what we need to do that's coms can you describe do you know yet what the testing protocol structure is like how many I don't I don't know
034exactly but I can find out I mean I know that Mike and his team are working on a protocol to do you know to what they're doing but I think they're starting in certain places and then maybe just move throughout starting like as in one place one place it's done because I mean there's several that aren't done yet so some places that are already complete I'm just wondering if very seriously the thought of like um testing as extremely like as thoroughly as possible even though c a lot now knowing that it would a lot of we had really widespread yeah I think we can look at testing every playground I mean that's not something that's unreasonable and multiple samp something well that's that's standard practice like the lead like the lead I mean there's claims
035that we didn't test thoroughly for lead there were four samples taken from one playground on that and that one test so it's not as if they're just taking little piece somewhere doing that they have standard protocols these are professional people that do this for a living it's not it's not me doing it you know kind of on side so when the communication comes out about that so we're holding off on the web communication so that we can communicate about the other materials also yeah we want to put this all into one communication not not kind of put it out in DPS ands I think that the the um process and the procedures use are going to be important also so hopefully the communication will I mean and this is this is one of those things
036I mean you know for the seven page email we received last night I can I have seven pages of of counter to that that we can find you know you're looking at what the EPA and the CDC say and there's so there's a lot of so we're going to do our own testing and we'll come our we'll have that conclusion in the board have that discussion on what we want to do based on the results of that testing just some quick calendar reminders for everyone parents at home as well as board members um KY weight parent conferences are the 26th we have a half day for students K through 8 on the 27th our emergency go home drill is important that parents know this at 112 it's 15 minutes early dismissal in every one of
037the schools so that will be on the 2nd and our superintendent's conference day is on Election Day 117 so that will be a full day off for students deep Stadium update uh Mr Ryder and I met with the mayor and the construction manager at City Hall on the 16th uh it looks like um they're on they're still on schedule right now uh the concession stand has been demolished and crushed and the hill off the side is being leveled to to um the same level as the field to provide a practice area the uh I think I told this where the light posts have been demolished brought down the scoreboard is down um the seats on the bleachers have been taken off and the the concrete there is all being resurfaced and and shored up for
038the new for the new seating they are gutting the inside the walk rooms bathrooms Etc and doing the they're going to do the esus abatement in there I think they're looking to close it up before winter so they can get in there and do do that work um track the track has been has been removed as well the the turf will stay all winter long because it's going to be there to protect the under uh the things that are there underneath the drainage systems and things under because those will not be those don't need to be replaced so that that will stay there on so we won't see that Turf come off until the spring when the weather is better but they're moving along if you go over there there's a lot of piles I
039know Miss serson goes over there walk so she probably sees them there's a lot of piles of rubble um interesting things that they're doing a lot of it's being crushed and used locally or crushed and used on site so it's not filling landfills or anything like that so they have a a local uh business who's taking some of it and bringing it to use on their farm and we a lot of it's going back into the site to use as foundation and that type of thing some really big boulders yeah that have been Dugout and surpris all rock yeah I believe it's boices right that's yeah they're Trucking it out and crushing it and using it on their farm for things so it's a you know L going on and we've got to look at
040the very large scheduling sheet um and we're right about where we should be ring would it be possible to like this is just my head visually to get some we have our pictures but like maybe during pictures that we can just share with people because it's interesting I think to see this Boulders know where just to see it visually it's like probably like mindboggling to see our Stadium it is even even though it was a month ago when I went over there it was it just looks very different with the light post down and the concession stand down and the track gone so it's very it's it's strange you can can't to see it so yeah we'll get some pictures taken and I'll share them that's a good idea I mean there are to that
041point there are businesses that just that time lapse photography and I know we're like coming in like a month and a half late but it might be worth you know they're not generally very expensive maybe the next M up with the city we could ask them to consider because they are really great you see the entire project and like on a website I know the city has I think they said right a stadium um construction project website yeah they do and if they attach it I mean you can almost have live cameras there yeah that's what we did at Kingston High School we did a time lapse remember we did that time lapse Kingston High School from the de demolition to the to the rebuild so yeah um we can look into that uh did
042want to say that we were able to secure some more prek funding on top of the EPK uh what we're doing with that money is not expanding our our footprint as far as uh serving four-year-olds but we are increasing the per student um allotment we give to our community- based organizations um it's in our best interest to make sure that they stay viable and we are so we haven't really moved their money in probably as long as I've been here so we have increased the that for them because really we're at the point where we have enough money for every four-year-old in Kingston City school so this is an opportunity for us to reduce some of those reduce some of the burden on our local cbos and and again it's in our best interest to
043have them continue to take four-year-olds and work with us as partners so this is earlier in the year or over the summer we had gotten an additional so this is on top of that so how many pre slots do we have well we have as pretty much as many as we want we have we we can serve another hundred with the money that we have from um from the EPK Grant so what we're what we're really working on now so we have the 80 we took up or the 40 we took up here but we're really working on as location um we can serve another 100 but we need places for 100 I've been I've been working a little bit with people up at um I park to see if there's some some Synergy there
044because B know has been working with I park as well and they're they're looking at some residential um units there so it may be a good a good thing so I did meet with County Executive and some some people from iark maybe two months ago so I'm goinging to follow up again with them but space is Space is really the issue right now and I think it's a good idea to increase the allotment definitely is definitely a really important service definitely do stud Dr but again I think if we're able to find space and offer a program similar to what we're offering here that 100 will fill up very quickly this this funding is not for threey old it's one for four so when you say space you mean really just space like weal phys
045space because we would be providing the teachers like we're doing here we would look to do this what's that oh yeah oh good thank you yes so we would look to kind of replicate what we're doing here um so that would did but also we we did put out an RFP to invite more Community B based organizations to possibly join in and we do have one group who's very interested that over at CCE so we met with Drew couple weeks ago and him and his he and his team put their stuff together and ready to go do you have a list of who that's going to like can you make sure that that goes theay okay I did already give some athletic updates but I'll give you two more just add to that but boys
046doc once day again going to the section final Thursday 6 o'clock at Goan high school and our our girls or girls field hockey team will play for the section final Thursday at 6:30 at tonic Hills High School um another piece of offseason um information that is our girls basketball bar basketball Steve Garner will be inducted into the New York State High School Basketball Hall of Fame later this year more than 400 wins pretty impressive so we'll invite coach Gardner to a board meeting in the upcoming next next few months we should get some tributes from his former athletes I know a [Laughter] few um so Transportation obviously you know I received the texts like the rest of you do I I received all of them you received them from your school we are still having
047some challenges with with Transportation um Miss carbin and I are meeting with and Miss Boyd are meeting with the principles of the of all the companies that we work with on on the 1st of November to kind of see what we can do to fix some of these issues we continue to work at it but it's um yeah it's you know you all know it's a daily daily lit of checking the text for what's going to be laid or what's not going to be able to run so we're trying to remedy that we did we added money to the budget this year for transportation our original bids for bu our contracts for buses we added significant number of buses to avoid this but the driver situation is still the driver situation it seems to be
048the same runs pretty much over and over again yeah there's a cycle to that right but yes they are 11 and 20 yeah 11 and 20 the pink bus yeah that's Elementary but uh but yeah so we're going to we're going to meet with them and see what we need to do to make this to fix this issue also I know there were some questions from um some board members and actually some community members around our athletic buses so we did I did have Miss Boyd go do some research um you know we do the company that we use is um out although they're out ofs side of New York State they are New York State Department of Transportation certified their drivers are um we have the abstract from the drivers we have all the
049records They are what's called a a satisfactory um transportation company as far as safety and and service is concerned now satisfactory is as high as it gets it's not you know there's not you know that's that's what it is um and again not a record of of poor maintenance not a record of accidents not a record of unlicensed drivers or anything of that nature so um again in in light of what happened in Long Island a few months ago we were we to make sure um because this the athletic buses are outside of our usual contracts we want to do our our research based on questions from the community and the board so we feel pretty confident and I know um Mr Boyd's going to stay on top of it when you say athletic buses
050there extracurricular so they're used for the band and yes yeah I call them the athletic busers but yes they're used for a lot of different extracurriculars but I mean again like this weekend we did use Bernie bus for the band our first student for the band I can't remember which one but we used regular school bus so sometimes it's you know it's different but almost always we're using campin for the Athletics and our athletic shuttles from here to there so one of the things that was up uh was in interest of the members of the Safety Committee were our greeters in every building we call them monitors so we monitors uh starting next week we have monitors in every building we see next week right Mr okay they all offered so we have we have
051people for each position so every now every school will have a monitor with the with the duties of being the greeter in the building we're also continuing to ramp up and get ready for our Raptor technology that's going to go in every building so we're picking around January or maybe for the second semester so again that's it's a pretty simple process it's just something that helps us identify visitors to our building can you can you explain the Raper technology a little bit you walk in and you give your ID M it puts it through it run it runs runs for any issues as well as um as well as provides a p you know a pass sticker some doesn't have a driver's license they can use something else they can use well there's other IDs
052that will be accepted through that and I don't know the M time I have but there are other idas that can go through there so so it accepts a lot of different kinds of identification yeah so what do you saying different issues well if there are criminal records uh custody problems you know those kind of things all we'll go through it runs a scan for you it Flags them and then doesn't allow them to correct then we can say no you can't take this student or enter what the ID are yeah we'll we'll we're going to put out a big campaign of communication around everything around it starting probably December and then it generates for our own use like an automatic the visitors um really happy to say one of the things that we did
053with the one with our arpa money was start moving forward on the one: one and I want to give you an update on that because right now all students K through 12 we have a one: one ratio for Chromebooks to students um our our K through our 5 through 12 have one to one to take home so they have them they have them they bring them home they can do their homework there on those and use them but our k34 one to one but they're one to one in the classroom so every classroom has a set which each student has their own Chromebook in that classroom so we have um been able to accomplish that so I I thank thank uh Mr tomsic and our tech department as well as Dr retto for really spearheading
054that effort and getting that out into our schools we're excited about the possibilities and the potential of that um that program and last uh just a reminder that we'll be putting something out tomorrow proposition one which is is on the ballot on November 7th is the proposition about small City Schools debt limit and I think you've heard me talk about this before um small City schools have a debt limit of 5% of the total tax base in your community where every other school district in the state has 10% um and just it's it's an archaic law that's been on the books forever um since most of these schools were were put in place and and there used to be a time when most of these schools had very different rules than other schools and these
055were kind of the things that went along with those different rules but those different rules are gone and these stay and up stay on the books for whatever reason um so we're asking the voters to come out and you know give the um change the constitution in New York state to change that and it's not us looking to borrow more money it has no impact on taxpayers it's not increase in taxes it's just the opportunity for us to do more work in our buildings and it's actually kind of um counterintuitive that the small City schools have a lower threshold when we're the ones with the old buildings that need the most work um so we are I really we' we've been promoting this at small City schools for probably 10 years we've been looking for
056this opportunity to get it on the ballot and hopefully get this changed so I encourage everyone to don't skip past proposition one because you just just yes flip over the B great for report thank you that moves us into uh um committee reports from the Board of Education beginning with the policy committee I'm sorry it should be F you polies probably I think probably so looking at um policy number 8414 Al Dr D second all in favor any discussion before we any discussion all in favor any opposed so policy 8414 .5 is passed any discussion all in favor opposed and so policy 4772 is revised [Laughter] poliy any discussion I just want to thank the community and the polic committe for their patience and perseverance in trying to really track something that was useful and
057for all the people who gave us feedback I want to particularly thank for really getting to all the people in the buildings that we felt really we wanted to hear from but whoever helped and the students I just if I could just going to say similar what Jordan said you know the the secondary principles M Bonville Miss CET who work to get the those focus groups together and make sure that we heard the voice of the students as well as the the parent my my parent group that that we met in the spring and having their feedback from that from that document um was important and I think it was a really I mean it was took a long time but um but I think it you know it's something it's it's one of those
058things it's one of our polities that really affects our students in the buildings every day and they that's one of their concerns every day so I think that we took the time that we reached out to as many people as we could and heard what everything we could um about it and and again most importantly getting the students voice because that they're they're the people who were really having this who live this right so um thank you m Jordan and for the policy committee for that work yes we do all in favor any opposed and so policy passes any discussion all in favor any opposed and so policy 2382 also passes thank you our next committee report is the facilities committee and I feel like I'm going to be echoing the superintendent on several of
059these topics so I will hopefully it's not too redundant um the facilities committee met on October 18th um we had many many people in attendance I won't go through them all um our first topic was playground surfaces um with the test from bosis for lead and the announcement that additional testing would be conducted by Michael rock at Quest environmental uh progress has been made on PR playground installation at all schools except the middle schools the parent company of the playground equipment has been cooperative and assisting with contractors four schools still need playground surfacing to be poured um and the temperature must be above 40° for the soft surfaces to be poured the capital Improvement um update ksq presented a PowerPoint on the phase one projects that is window replacement at Edson and Bailey um new
060windows and sing upgrades will make buildings look like new then they had some photos projected photos that they look really sharp um Edson window replacement will have red trim and red fascia ramps and rails at the entrance will remain sidewalks will be replaced um at Bailey to reflect the um emphasis on the Arts in the district Bailey Windows Replacements and the trim will have a piano key design which looked really neat as well um uh I just lost my place here um the the pause for their their mascots will be on the on the walls and there will be a new vest vestibule door into the office um to for security purposes phase one timeline um the plan has been submitted to S bids are expected to be out in the New Year work to
061begin late spring and summer phase two plans for Edson and Bailey will include site based focus groups um to collect data and um have good interaction with the staff uh Dr pedalino reported that research to maximize State a is ongoing this is a repeat the rules for small City schools are archaic attention must be given to the debt limit each building construction changes may be made in the plan if funding shifts are required ksq um introduced us to an individual named John Edwards to discuss geothermal um as he said a lot but I think for our purposes the um two factors are to be considered for schools that would be eligible for geothermal um they would need major mechanical upgrades and have enough land surrounding the facility um there are three schools that qualify chamers
062Crosby and Graves the inflation reduction act um has allocated major money for geothermal projects um ksq will continue to explore the viability um of geothermal heating systems and the financial benefits to the district de automation will be in the district this week to develop installation plans for security and infrastructure and the energy performance work continues weatherization has been completed um LED lighting retrofit is almost done control valve retrofitting is ongoing work will continue through early winter deep Stadium my think we've had a pretty good um update on that um do I meetings monthly meetings with these Mr Ryder will represent the board Dr P Pina will also attend project is on schedule um Turf will be the last phase of the project and Building Inspections you haven't been hounded for Building Inspections because um we
063are approaching this a little differently principles were given the building report summaries from last year that indicate which conditions will be addressed in the capital project principles will review the reports and identify any gaps or new issues to the superintendent and then we will um make a decision whether we need to inspect those buildings as needed um nor probably will be disappointed don't tell her she probably watching we did um extend an invitation to invite a Community member to the committee we have four responses the um they they're due back by October 31st we'll make a decision in the December meeting we are not meeting in November our next meeting is December 6th thank you any questions and that brings us to teaching and learning Dr cins okay so the teaching and learning committee met
064October 2 and after approving our minutes from June meeting um we first addressed the tnl charter and approved some new changes that were approved unanimously those three changes where that we changed set of pronouns from Shi to they um but more substantive perhaps is that now the tnl committee will also includ anual sort of the reporting body for annual reports on the diversity of acsd faculty and staff so this is in line with both super goals um we also altered the committee composition in our Charter to include other faculty and staff as needed so teachers could potentially participate given the topic and the time um we spent a lot of time then really addressing curriculum initiatives some of which we've heard about tonight and actually a lot this year um dos Bello and Alto presented
065information about resar initiatives including the motivations behind them the professional development plans for supporting faculty and staff and how each initiative will be assessed so this is all in the PowerPoint that would email everyone is on the um links to the minutes for the tnl meeting as well for the public so the initiatives that we're discussed can really be grouped by the way that they address particular learning goals of the district so for example first we were talking about ponx and to build stronger foundation in ponx the district is implementing foundations which we heard about the um the roll out has been gradual over the last couple of years but as of the 23 24 school year grades K through three are now using it fast forward is a computer based program that supports Bonet
066development for struggling readers right now the district is using this program for special education students K through 12 um but exploring its potential to also serve our ell students um and finally the I fic which we've heard a lot about already as well um is being used for tier two and three students in grade four um those are grad that between and the timing of our new curricula um we're never exposed to foundations as we Curr giving our current students so the hope is that in a few years we may not even meet this program because supported um Dr shared the professional development calendars for foundations I so those are wonderful to see the longterm planning that's happening there for writing um we've also heard quite a bit um in presentations about writer Workshop so
067that's been rolled out in Kree so far and is projected for grades four and five in the next two years um goals of the program vocab comprehension and is most effective when tied other discipline students are evaluated by unit assessments and student portfolios that will move up with students as they grow to look forward to watching students grow in their writing uh the professional development for Writers Workshop is led by Lindy Barton and for the 2324 Academic Year is focused on gr three and new teachers the I ready classroom is now being used in gr K3 um there's a two-year plan for professional development to support teachers and implementing this program and the professional development again it's organized by topic and date and the links are in the slideshow Library Arc over the next two
068years um the I classroom aligns with the Next Generation standards and we prepare students for the new reg exams which will begin it's also within the programs ccul fora and data in recent years have show that skills area so the changes in these curriculum require a shift in our Diagnostics so the IR Diagnostics are replacing with st test because they Diagnostics includs vocabulary and comprehension and these skills are stressed by foundations fast forward and writers worksh and in 2022 2023 teachers who are piloting I also do star to assn and so they were able to make the comparison of these two different Diagnostics and it's clear that the outcomes were similar for some students but not all so we need to keep this in mind Asar data stud for science GR have new standards in
069curricula but the grades differ with what curricula is used um and social studies teachers have been using resources provided after this very comprehensive presentation there was a brief discussion by the committee um about whether steps were made available for professional development to help facilitate training and um the idea was that yes that should happen and that the two hour delays that we've been having or we' only had one so far occurring to enable the professional development have been successful really on task and enjoying I think gaining a lot from that time and then we talked a little about how to catch up training for the years that did not get tget for writer workshop and um some of the other curricular so particularly grades four five six right now missed um what other our younger
070students are getting it's still a bit unresolved us to have to address that we then moved to nth grade honors um the ELA and the global classes so um Miss Bondo was sharing with us data that that just to remind everyone that the goal was to create more access for honors classes by letting students self- select into the nth grade ELA and honors so this um the slideshow is also available in your board library but the total enrollments Rose dramatically as an example from the 2223 school year 81 total students were in English n and this year there were at the time of the report um 145 students so for Global Studies in the same years the number of students went from 76 last year to 173 this year so this meant that there were
071three sections of each taught last year and now they have five sections of laa and seven sections of um so with this overall increase in numbers where increases in representation of all demographic subgroups kind of across the board not necessarily relative to previous years um but just everyone was increasing in the numbers in these classes um and for the first time we also have integrated sections for ELA and Global Studies so co- instructed to support our students with disabili wonderful news um and just as side not that because students had seven weeks take an exit ramp out of these courses those numbers May shift and may not be exactly time um in that um and administrators are getting feedback from teachers around the time that this meeting happened October so we're looking forward to hearing
072for how it's going from their perspective um and finally we had a diversity summary um by m Armstrong that we had in detail in our board meeting two weeks ago so I'll only just reh highlight to my favorite statistics were that 34 educators of color were HED in years and 33.3% of new hirers can Educators um so following that presentation the committee discussed and commended the purposeful recruitment efforts um and the networking efforts by Miss Armstrong so our next meeting is November questions for Dr Collins thank you very much that moves us into our consent agenda are there any items that board members would like to have pulled from the consent agenda hearing none can I have a motion to accept the consent agenda and a second any discussion all in favor of accepting the
073that agenda any opposed and so the consent agenda passes and that brings us to it brings us to Old business Mrs Jordan um in terms of the um testing Le water we done it but um in of the com I just we can address I'll I'll speak with um Mr Bogard about where we are and what we can do uh Mrs La uh just wanted to know if there's any update on lights on Kingston I met with the county executive um last week um one of the things that so that was that a lot of that was funded through um a grant from the noo Foundation which we don't have again so so the county executive myself and the mayor we're going to Loop the mayor in there to see if we can find a
074way to work together to come up with some of that funding to start it again we are looking at just from a selfish standpoint for not selfish but because the problem that would would come it would be is to wait till March to start um because once basketball season starts that our basketball court and the gym and all that area are used the I mean every night every night so um but I think that gives us some planning time also to to start working at how we going to get the funding how we're going to run it how we're going to do the things that we were doing before um and then get in there for the spring and then when the weather gets good in the spring we can put the lights back on
075the soccer field and we can have good Mor L of program so um we're we're moving forward hope that that will happen thank you the the only item that I have for old business is our board goals Dr tooba witz updated those from our last meeting and I think I it's appropriate that we approve those tonight I don't know if you have any comments no I didn't agree to the comments I think mostly they were from um this is sorry I'm for a second um and so it was really about um engaging more community and um you know those kinds of things so I don't know if everyone had a chance to look at it if there they were in the library library okay thank you for so can I have a motion to accept
076the board goals in a second any discussion all in favor any opposed so the board goals are accepted thank you very much any other old business new business Mrs L just a comment that the parent group will meet on November 1st from 6:00 to 7 o'clock you're in the boardroom and there's several of those can you just give that date and time again it's November 1st 6 o' 6 7 and and we and we have representatives from every building parent reps I don't know the email show that we have yeah Jessica reached out I'll check with her tomorrow and usually we just get RSVPs after she reached out I know um like the GW rep did actually an email from her today so there are people respond are weed to attend no anyone who would
077like to observe we could we could send you the or you can come we we kind of alternate we'll do a live one time and then go to a teams another time so just going but anybody who wants to just let us know and this is live this this one is going to be in person okay any other new business this isn't new business if I could just jump in real quick because I wanted to first of all I I I forgot to say a couple of things during I made a mistake I forgot to say something from my report um I miss I said k through eight for the uh parent teacher com it's not it's K through 4 so I apologize k through eight is in the winter for the second part of
078the second semester I believe and also I forgot to uh thank Dr belel Miss Bonville and Mr Reinhardt for the DLT meeting that we had last Thursday uh and thank all of our parent and community members and teachers and who were part of that so we had a great meeting in the summer oh and board members s Marie and Mr Spicer um had a great meeting over the summer we followed up that with a very good meeting and I appreciate people coming it was like the nicest day of the Fall it was 70 degrees and view to blot people still showed up so um we appreciate that and we're going to meet again in February as we roll towards um you know creating the plan again for next year so we kindbody was really um
079well done and well organized and thank you fine any other new business that leaves us to uh public comment second round Mrs Bowers morning bers Community member I wanted to speak to the issue of the book gender queer I certainly appreciate and respect the speaker who spoke at the beginning of the meeting and his opinion and certainly would never disagree with the idea that it is not appropriate for elementary school children as the author author kobabe has also stated however she states that at 15 the book might be available an appropriate reading for a student and and I think that to ban the book across the board would not allow parents and students of children that age to have access to that book and considering that students have varied reading levels that book may be
080appropriate for a student considering that conversations at home may or may not have taken place around the issues of lgbtq that book may be appropriate for students stud I think that if you look at the pen list of band books it is number one Nationwide as a band book and I would I think if you look at the list if any of you have not looked at it you might and be surprised at some of the books that are on that list those are books that probably many of you have read read in school years ago so I think two things I think I hope this board does not go to the decision to ban books across the board with rare Exceptions there are certainly some but with rare exceptions I think it would be
081a mistake for this community and this school district to blatantly ban books I also as a member of the policy committee was lucky enough to hear the presentation on the library and I think it was really informative to know that there's a protocol in place for parents to opt out of books for their younger children and I think that that's something that may be a presentation a Public Presentation by that person not that I'm trying to suggest what your agenda should be but it might be really educational for the community and the district to hear what's in place to make sure that students do not get books in their hands that may not be appropriate for them but um I think with rare exceptions I think no book should be banned from the school district
082older students and students with better reading levels and maybe students who come from homes where these conversations have taken place can benefit from them thank you thank you Mrs ders Board member announcements Mr Spicer I also wanted to thank Dr Fel and M mville for facilitating our district leadership team meeting this past Thursday my particular breakthrough group discussed progress and continued concerns regarding social emotional support our district is providing it was very enlightening um our very enlightening discussion and I also enjoyed the academic and other issues that the other break groups breakout groups presented so thank you very much very well done I agree thank you it was a good session and it involved the community and that's that's our goal drov band had its B fan this past weekend and we are headed to
083staircase who's coming again for our championships right now we're in second place in our division in in the state was really exciting um and we're hoping for a great outcome congratulations they did a great job yeah was other announcements I would just like to close with one um since our last meeting the ster count ster County School boards Association met Dr jacoba witz and Mrs Jordan myself myself um represented Kingston and we shared it was the the um program for the night was to kind of a show and tell brag about what's going on in your district and we shared the um the diversity work that Angela Armstrong presented to the board the night before um especially the um EOC educators of color and um we got nice positive feedback and there are um Statewide
084ways of trying to showcase the good things that are going on in District so I think we we have a likelihood of of being part of that the other comment is um we're hoping to have uh the legislators meet with board members in January and it's going to be important that we um have a focused conversation so if there are any topics or issues that that you would like to have shared we'll be meeting as an executive committee in order to prepare um for that session in January any other announcements oh donations today the Board of Education of King City School District hereby ex tress with Greatful appreciation the following donation a check donation of $250 and $275 from my PTA ber de meire Elementary School a grant Award of $872 from the connect kids
085field trip Grant to John F Kennedy Elementary School the donation of $59 from hannaher glan for good program to Harry L Edon Elementary School a grant Award of $11,992 from the Community Foundation of the Hudson Valley to Chambers Elementary School and a gr of $5,000 from the Community Foundation of the Hudson Valley to district elementary thank you cont thank you can I have a motion to adjourn and seconded all in favor thank you very much good meeting you Happ