001Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >>
002Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Good evening. Do I have a motion to convene the October 29th regular meeting of the Levittown Board of Education? Maryanne, do I have a second? Uh, Phyllis. All in favor? Seven. Uh, may I have a motion to move to executive session for the purpose of discussing district security and seek advice from council? James, may I have a second? Mike, all in favor? Everybody's all in favor of it. So, thank you. Uh, we will return at 7:30 and we'll recite the
003pledge of allegiance when we return to open the regular meeting again. Thank you. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N.
004Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. We want Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat.
005Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, [music] [music] hey, hey. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat.
006Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Uh, Oh yeah. Are we ready? >> Thank you everybody for your patience with us. Um um as a as a reminder, anyone who's planning to speak at our public be heard tonight, you must sign up prior to the start of the meeting, which we're about to start. Okay. I would like to welcome you to the October October 29th meeting of the Levittown Board of Education. May I have a motion to reconvene the meeting, Jimmy? Uh, do I have a second? Mike, all in favor? We have one, two, three. >> No, I didn't. >> Uh, please all rise for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and
007to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice for all. >> May we please have a moment of silence to remember all those uh serving our country at home and overseas. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh just so please note that the student liaison Sarah Leakono and Ethan Ballayo are not here this evening. Okay. So reports. >> Great. Thank you, President Lang. Uh so uh tonight uh we begin the uh the process of uh talking about and and analyzing and discussing uh the state of the district. And so we broke this uh presentation up into two because in the past it's gotten very long. Uh so tonight is never as long as mine from back in the day of 60 slides. But um tonight Dr. Zerianis, our deputy superintendent is
008going to uh discuss with the board of education the state of the district in regards to our elementary program. uh she did print out a copy for you in case you wanted to write on it. So that's in a the green folder that's at your desk or at your table. Um and um so without any further ado, Dr. Zerianis. >> Thank you, Superintendent Win. >> Good evening, members of the board of education, Superintendent Winch, district colleagues, and of course members of the Levittown community. It is truly a privilege to share the state of the district report with you tonight. part one which will be focusing on our elementary schools as well as some new K to2 initiatives in professional learning. Coming to this presentation four years after joining the district, I can't believe how quickly
009those four years passed. I feel an incredible sense of pride presenting tonight. A testament to the effective collaboration of our board of education, our superintendent, our outstanding leadership team, and our dedicated elementary staff. I want to give a very special shout out to Michelle Kelly whose hard work and commitment has been instrumental in so many of these accomplishments and for her helping me practice and get ready for tonight. No matter how long you've been doing this, it is always good to practice um beforehand. So, thank you Michelle. And I also want to thank John Towers and Dr. Keniki for their support in preparing this presentation and of course all of our elementary principles for helping us to advance these initiatives. Thank you all for your continued dedication to our students. It truly takes a team
010to move a district forward. So, we're going to begin with some elementary data. And of course, at any point, if you have questions, please just interrupt me. As previously stated, this presentation will focus on our elementary data. We will look particularly through the lens of I Ready, review new district initiatives, and discuss the strategies that we have implemented to enhance our academic performance. This evening, we will review how these efforts are driving student achievement and supporting our commitment to helping every student reach success at LPS. We will begin with an overview of our I already performance data. As you can see on this slide, Levittown students outperformed New York State averages in both math and reading on the spring of 2025 benchmark. In math, Levittown achieved 64% proficiency, which is significantly higher than the New
011York State average of 47%. In reading, our students scored 67% proficiency, again, surpassing the state average of 50%. These results are a powerful testament to the hard work of our students and the focused aligned work of our entire K5 instructional staff. On the next few slides, we will review our proficiency data in more detail. Proficiency, of course, is the student performance at or above grade level. It is important to note and we've talked about this in previous years that I Ready uh data is criterion referenced uh with criteria being grade level standards and we don't look at cohort comparisons from year to year. It I does not suggest doing that. So we won't be comparing like last year's third grade cohort um to this year's fourth grade cohort. Looking at our math data, we see
012strong and steady improvement. It was important for me to make sure that we shared the data from as far back as spring of 2022. Um, and as you kind of look across at our grade levels, we can see the growth um, at every level. So, looking at math, we do see some strong and steady improvement. The overall K5 average has risen, if you look at the bottom column there, or I should say going across, from 66% in spring of 2022 to 75% in spring of 2025. This 9-point increase is reflected in remarkable gains at several several grade levels. You'll notice a 14point jump in grade 1, right, from 64% to 78%. I hope all my math is accurate. Math is not my first love. Sorry, Mr. Towers. And a for book love. It not ma.
013I'm gonna start a math love campaign just to make myself better at it. And a 14 point jump um in grade two from 62% to 76%. I mean, these are significant gains when we talk about um statistical gains in and we're always looking like 4% 5% in a given year. Um but we're seeing some pretty significant growth uh with a lot of emphasis in our early primary grades. Our kindergarten program continues to be a high achieving anchor um of our math program moving from um moving to 85% uh proficient this year. And if we look back all the way in spring of 2022, we were at 78%. So um moving in the right direction. Obviously, we are also seeing solid proficiency in grade three at 70%, grade four um at 72%. >> Dr. Z, can
014I ask you a question? Sure. Just for my own clarification. I don't want to. >> Yeah. >> Um so it doesn't suggest using proficiency data for cohort analysis, but so this is one group of kindergarteners in 2002, right? Then this is the same type of assessment for the next year, kindergarten. So we're not following the K and then the one and the two, right? So, I just wanted to make sure that's correct. And so, um, is there and you you probably will go into it, but so this is obviously excellent that right the the, um, we're, you know, moving up with our numbers and moving in the right direction. Thank you, >> Dwinch, but so are there what are the specifics that we're doing to do that? >> Is that like future? Okay, because it's
015so exciting and I'm going to talk about that. >> Um, but I just wanted to glad you asked. The future slide does have that. >> It's like I knew it was going to happen which I didn't know. as per the suggestion of superintendent winch. that I include that knowing that would probably be >> but no I just want thank you for clarifying that it's it's not following the kids like hey K want >> no it's it's it's new cohort uh new group of kids every single year but um you know we have continued to set and and I tells us that what we're really looking and hoping for is about that 80% overall proficiency um one of the the internal sort of goals that we set for ourselves was to get our um passing our
016proficiency percentages back to precoid levels Um and we are on the right path. Most of our grade levels now um that would have been our 2019 2020 data. Um most of our grade levels are moving um past that at this point. So we've kind of um regained some of those deficits that were created in the post-pandemic time period. And overall, as you can see in math, we're at that 75% goal. So we're going to continue to move toward that overall 80% proficiency. But it gives us a kind of a benchmark um for what we were trying to accomplish. You're welcome. on the next few slides um or on this next slide I should say we're going to review our proficiency data um for um reading. So overall the data shows a similar story for overall
017growth. Our K5 average has increased from 67% in spring of 2022 to 74% in spring of 2025. But the most significant improvements are seen in the early grades. Our K2 average has climbed 10 percentage points from 72% to 82% in the last few years. This progress can be directly attributed to the district's targeted focus on K2 literacy with the introduction of explicit and systematic instructional programs like foundations, Hegar, Geodess, and of course our literacy program into reading. Our kindergarten program has been a particular standout, rising from 84% which was already positive to an outstanding 93% proficiency um over the last four years. While we see more modest growth in grades three through four since 2022, the overall trend is positive and reflects the success of these early intervention strategies in building a solid foundation for
018literacy. We will continue to take a close look at our fifth grade program to ensure our curriculum and instruction are well aligned to support student success. While it is common to see lower proficiency levels in the upper elementary grades across the state and nation. So, we did take a look um at fifth grade trends across the state and across the nation. And fifth grade um is usually statistically lower um than some of the other grades. We're not just going along with that. We recognize that this is an opportunity for continued growth. So, our team does remain committed to strengthening our fifth grade outcomes through ongoing curriculum refinement and targeted support. And I will talk about some of what we're doing uh in the next few slides before I move on to um growth data. Any
019questions on this? Oh, you know, this is my night. >> I know. I'm go go for it. >> Okay. What um what programs are we using in the fourth and the fifth grade? I know you mentioned foundations heard in the lower grades. >> Yes. Uh inter readading is our um primary reading program and then we'll use uh like morphine magic which we talked about um at the curriculum adoption um last year for budget which is really focusing on morphology and uh vocabulary uh instruction looking at root words. Obviously we're we're not using programs like he or foundations only from an intervention perspective for a limited group of kids who might need it. You're welcome. And of course in our AIS program, there's a variety of programs that we use. >> Yes. >> Even at the
020fourth and fifth grade for our AIS program, are we using heard or foundations if these kids are at >> No, I wouldn't I wouldn't suspect that we would unless they're reading significantly below grade level um as far as um perhaps maybe students with IEPs, but we use programs like Read 180 um and other things. system get that but we've been using them with fidelity and these are still the scores at at fourth and fifth especially fifth grade >> yes but our adoption of those programs we wouldn't yet see reflected in the fourth and fifth grade data I would imagine the um because we adopted uh he geodess >> no but I'm talking about read 180 and this is >> oh yes yes this is um and we have looked at our subgroup data um to
021take a look at uh our our special education performance and that has been an area that we are um taking a look at to make sure that the needs of our ENL students as well as our special education students through the subgroup data uh is allowing us to make sure we're providing the appropriate interventions. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> This graph provides a clear visual of our journey since 2022. You can see the steady climb in both reading, which is the orange line, um and math, the blue line. And I want to draw your attention to the pronounced acceleration in proficiency for both subjects from spring 2024 to spring 2025. So even in a year, how far we've gone. This affirms that our district-wide strategies, some of which I will elaborate as Miss
022Lang requested in a moment, um are really having a measurable impact. So I think that is a is a really positive visual of the data we all just looked at in the chart form, but it provides a visual to see um the continued accelerated growth. Woohoo. Look at that. All in the upper quadrant. Lots to celebrate, right? Look at that. Um that's a celebration right there in itself. um to see every single elementary grade in the in the growth category performing at high performance and high growth. So even though we may feel as I said um not great maybe about our fifth grade proficiency levels, students are moving and we hope to continue to push them along the continuum. So, as we as I said at last year's presentation, looking at student growth data is
023just as important as our proficiency data, sometimes more so, um, because proficiency tells us where students are in relation to the standard. And then the growth data shows how they're advancing over time, regardless of where they started. So, these scatter plots really compare student performance with student growth. And the goal for every single grade level and every single student is to be in that top right quadrant which is labeled high performance high growth. So as you can see in a moment I'll I'll flip to woohoo for both. No one wants to ooh with me. All right. Thank you. Thank you. As you can see for both mathematics and reading all of our elementary grade levels represented by the number dots plotted on the axis here are firmly planted in that top right quadrant. This is
024excellent news for the district. It means that on average, our students are not only performing above the national median, but they are also demonstrating high growth from fall to spring. So, I think this is a big celebration. Last year at this time when I presented um both of the scatter plots, we had various grade levels in different quadrants. So, just to flip back to math for a moment, it's great to see all of our grade levels. I will present this again um when I do the secondary state of the district. Oh, I thought he was saying no. When I present the secondary state of the district in November, um we'll take a look at the scatter plot for grades uh six and seven. So, we did eliminate them from this chart. Uh just so we
025could see elementary only. >> Beth, at the risk of sounding ignorant here, how do I get into that high performance, high growth? What's the metrics that gets me there? >> Yeah. Uh so, the the benchmark is given three times a year. Uh so it's measured the students uh performance on that benchmark. There's a starting point and then a determination of how much growth a student has to get from fall to spring in order to reach certain grade level accomplishments. So how far did they move from the fall to January and then January through June? So, if they performed well, but had a significant um even if they didn't necessarily perform at grade level, but let's say they're a fourth grade student who started in a third grade um zone, but by the end of the
026year moved closer to grade level competency, they're going to demonstrate in the high performance, high growth area. >> And exactly what does the 120 mean? >> I'm sorry, which which number >> on the column on the left side? What does the 120 mean as opposed to the 140? much um that is how much they have to um by the spring they have to uh get to that 100% mark um or 100 points in growth. So by January they have to reach the 50 percentile mark and then by um the spring the 100 percentile mark >> and how how do you get a point to uh you said they have to reach 100 point what constitutes a point >> yeah I don't know if I I it's a benchmark assessment Michelle 100%. >> So, so each
027student each student has their own base number. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Their own starting point. >> Yeah. Thank you, Michelle. >> Is this the first time we've been in that quadrant? >> All of our grade levels in the last few years. Yes. So, it was exciting. As soon as we saw the I would say right as soon as we saw the um uh we were we were excited. We noticed like this was a nice shift and it was we've always had a lot of grade levels in there but not all of them simultaneously. >> I think that's worth a clap. >> Yeah. >> Now that I know what it means. >> Wow. Okay. That's fine. [clears throat] >> Oh, sorry. Bless you. >> All right. I'll keep going though. [laughter] Yeah. Hey, as Miss
028Lang this contributing factors to increased proficiency. So, as Miss Lang um asked, what are we doing? And you know, we've been talking at this table who we've been talking in a lot of meetings. We've I've come to you at uh budget time asking for funding for certain things. Um we've done a lot. Um but I have to be honest, right? It's not about programs. It's often about people. It's the people who are working in our schools every day. It's the people around this table. It's our principles and directors sitting in the audience. It's their willingness to put in whatever it takes to work together and uh move the data. So, because moving the data represents our kids performing better, right? So, um it's really a a real testament to the people who work in this
029district. So, what is really driving the success? Uh first uh as I said uh I think we've implemented stronger literacy programs. Our inter readading program doesn't mean they're perfect. Doesn't mean we don't um have things we want to change or wish was different with our inter reading program. Um but that was certainly uh you know a starting point. The foundations heard and geodess I was in a first grade classroom today. Um and the I went to read to kids and um the kids all said to me after like we're going to be doing our heardy now. We have to get our heard. I mean it was just unbelievable. They were excited about it and the teacher was laughing and said um they're very used to doing heardty at this time. So my reading interrupted their
030heard um but kudos to gardeners uh kudos to first grade teachers there. Um so the heerty has been really really uh successful. The geodess that was something we um were able to purchase through um the remaining money in the grants uh postcoid that is usually a very unaffordable program. it's tied to foundations. Um, but it is upwards of $500,000 for a district of this size and we were able to do that all through grant funding and that has made a tremendous difference. Um, so Geodess has been great and then the introduction of morphine magic uh in grades three through five. So um those are our stronger programs. Our instructional coaches again supported by this board. Um we implemented several years ago two instructional coaches. um we hope in time to be able to add more
031because they are such a value ad but they are supporting teachers and our new initiatives every single day and that has absolutely made a difference. They are in buildings, they are modeling lessons, they are doing coaching cycles, they are helping teachers plan, they are delivering professional development. They've been a real contribution to the positive um growth that we've seen in both ELA and math. Um, obviously our ongoing professional development. Stop in this building on any given day and you'll see this room full of teachers engaging in some type of professional development aligned to our district goals. I think I had talked last year or begun to talk about um the shift in our data meetings at the elementary school. And this was a big lift, a heavy lift for our principles um especially in buildings
032without assistant principles or in buildings with um you know as large as like a school like East Broadway or Abbeby where our principles multiple times a year are meeting following uh the administration of these tests with every single teacher to discuss their data personally. That is a lot of time but it is a lot of time well spent. And those personalized meetings have allowed the teachers and the administrators to really focus on student progress and instructional planning. And I think that is one major shift that we've undergone that has like I said taken a lot of work but really has paid dividends. So really kudos to the team for taking that on. Um, obviously our collaboration in addition to adding individual data meetings, I added um central office administration meetings where I'm meeting with all
033the principles multiple times a year for them to review their building data with me and um the directors um Michelle Kelly and John Tower so we can all sit in a room and figure out how to move a building, how to move a grade level, how to move a specific teacher, but we're all in partnership in this effort and I think that has been uh really important. And then of course our continued effort to make sure that the curriculum is consistent and our instructional practices are consistent. We do not walk into six different buildings where six different things are happening. I've always used the phrase for a very long time that we never want our families to feel like where they landed is an accident of geography. um they are in the Levittown school district
034whether their child goes to East Broadway um Lee Road or you know North Side or Abbey wherever it might be the curriculum how it's delivered and the instructional practices that are used should be universal. There should not be separations between buildings and I think that philosophy too continues uh to help our teachers grow. Any questions on that? >> I have a question. Sure. Where's the shock face everybody? Um, Geodess is the one that you said you're using in the upper grades. >> No, Geodess is aligned to foundations. They're readers that um match up to the skills in foundations. So, they're beautiful. The kids love them. Um, they're engaging and they're really are aligned to help uh support the skills that are being done through foundations. >> Are they physical books? Because um you said we
035>> Yes, they are physical books and then we have, you know, printable rights, but they're not in color. They're black and white. So, it was the, you know, actually purchasing the sets for teachers. I really do think that PO and Michelle like upward of5,000. So my question is, do we need another $500,000 for them or was this like a one time? >> I mean 500,000 >> like in if we open a section we'll buy now they now that we have it in our district and most of our classrooms have it if we have to we you know we always put a replacement cycle in the budget we did it this year if a new section opens up to buy one is not it was just really outfitting the entire district K12 um you know with
036it. You're welcome. I just wanted to say I think it's a huge upgrade that we've been working on the last couple of years about the collaboration between building principles director and central office administrating building data and realizing that it's a total group effort with principles and directors being instructional leaders I think that really moves the school forward and makes a huge difference. I agree and I have to say that the vulnerabil and I don't know if vulnerability is the right word but the openness on the part of the principles like there is no I'm not sending out data to the principles and and you know um redacting like the other school like everyone is sort of seeing the data talking about it uh we're doing learning walks at the elementary school where they're visiting each
037other's buildings and and kind of looking at like how how can we all grow how can we all get better together um and that again is a testament to them because we we're able to have the open dialogue it's not we're not trying to, you know, no one's looking for their feelings to be protected. It's all about how can we grow. So, I think that's really important. It makes me really proud to be on this team. >> And then I just want to highlight um some additional initiatives that we have this year um that are also and and I put that in, you know, supported by the instructional coaches. I can't um say that enough. Um but we have we've imple uh implemented last year you might remember Lee Road came and did a presentation
038on our new uh 3 through5 social studies curriculum from NASA Boseis. Um after implementing that this year we have implemented the new curriculum and we actually have teachers in this district who are part of the writing team with Boseies. They just presented uh last week at LIICSS um the social studies conference uh on Long Island to talk about the work of of the social studies curriculum and how pivotal Levittown staff has been in designing it and this is a big upgrade. Um most districts had used Putin Boseies which was never um ever well done and it was really the only resource that was out there and this new social studies curriculum is a lot stronger. Our coaches have been doing a lot of the professional development to help implement that this year and a lot
039of positive feedback from our teachers overall on the upgrade from what Boseies previously had. Um we have moved to um common science assessments in grade five. They're a line two. We did not have common science assessment and Michelle Kelly and Kevin McDermott talked about when kids are feeding into our two uh middle schools in sixth grade. They were coming perhaps sometimes with some you know disperate um you know lessons that might have been taught in in the absence of a consistent benchmark or a consistent assessment. Sometimes instruction might vary and then kids are not coming into sixth grade all the time with the same experiences. So they work together with teachers, a lot of professional development. Uh starting having this conversation last spring and we're using the online platform inner orbits which is like a
040platform that really um will do the online testing. It gives the teachers a lot of really good data and they're going multiple times a year now and they'll be able to look at that data and help inform their instruction. So I think that's a really a step up with our science instruction and kind of creates a vision that is more like our ELA and math program. I think it's going to strengthen where our students are in science once they hit middle school. Um, district, we established district-wide mandated writing pieces. Obviously, there are mandated um uh genres and text types for process writing that are in the next generation standards and our program into reading uh guided what those uh process writing pieces were. But we felt like we had gotten to a point where we
041really needed to mandate there's not as much time as we would all like to do every single uh process writing task that comes with a curriculum. So we felt like again in the spirit of alignment in the spirit of calibration in the spirit of all six schools doing the same thing and making sure that we weren't leaning into teacher preference about which process writing pieces. Everybody loves the personal narrative. We all um as as English people and writing teachers love the personal narrative, but students need to have experiences in all genres and all text types. So um we put a mandated um calendar into place this year. We've done a lot of staff development and that way we can also support teachers with the instructional coaches and our building principles and our directors as they're
042moving through the same writing pieces at the same time. So it helps the professional development perspective also. Um, a major focus continues to be um protected time for reading. Uh, one of the things um that Miss Lang had pointed out and I I didn't have it till this slide, but what are we doing in fourth and fifth grade to help raise some of that proficiency is we're doing a lot of work around interactive readalouds. Uh we last spring interactive readalouds were chosen by a committee of teachers led by Michelle uh to select appropriate readalouds to go with all of our inter readading units and lessons were then written to support the teachers in delivering those interactive readalouds this year. There is a distinction between the readalouds that I sat in a room today and read
043to a group of first graders and what an interactive readaloud is. A interactive readaloud is very specific. It is aimed at building vocabulary and comprehension and literacy skills. And we're doing a lot of work to elevate the amount, the number, the frequency, and the quality of our interactive readalouds in grades four and five. As you're reading the book, you're going to have pause points. You're going to think aloud. If you're working on a particular skill, like let's say your particular skill is main idea for the week, you're going to make sure that you are pointing out to students. you're going to stop and pause where you might see evidence in the text that could support the development of a main idea. So, it's yes to enjoy the story, but it's not just to enjoy the
044story. Like when I read today, it was like I read in my character voices and you know, it's to enjoy the story. This is more about building the skills. And we're we're doing that in an effort to kind of raise some of that proficiency uh the I Ready scores you saw for fourth and fifth grade. But our coaches, Michelle, everyone did a beautiful job developing these and creating it uh uniform in the district protected time to read. I'll talk a little bit more about that. I talked to you all about it last year, but we are building right now this year. We're focusing on building the book love time into our elementary classes wherever teachers can fit it in and starting to build the system for that. We don't have too many requirements this year.
045But we want to just make sure that we're building stamina, that our students are moving um and getting up to 20 uninterrupted minutes. They are not there yet in all grades, but that is the goal this year. So, we're building that protected time to read uh into our classrooms. Obviously, a continued focus on developing our classroom libraries. the last few years I've come to you at budget time or in other presentations to talk about what we've done uh in grades three through five but we are focusing on our second grade classroom libraries this year with a focus when I come back to you at budget time next year's focus will be K and one we do have a lot of K teachers already asking when are they uh in the line to get a bunch
046of brand new books so uh K and one uh we we started in reverse purposefully because it was our K12 teachers that were being introduced to Hegerty foundations geodess there so much going on with the adoption of the new literacy programs four years ago that we just felt like they have enough materials, enough things to figure out, let's do it in reverse. But they're obviously ready uh because they're asking. Another great source of pride this year that I think is going to be really beneficial by the time our data um is presented at the end of the year or we're able to see where our students land at the end of this year is our restructure uh restructuring of our professional development hours. teachers have in the contract a certain number of professional development hours
047that they need to do that is over and above their faculty meetings um or department grade level meetings. In the past few years, even when I first got here, I continued that um we were using those for group um data meetings in the morning at our buildings. And when we made that shift to the individual data meetings held by the principles, we no longer needed to allocate time to those um outside of the school day data meetings. So we reallocated all of those hours this year led by our instructional coaches to focus on professional development that is directly tied to some of these initiatives that you saw. So we just finished our first cycle. I believe it was a a really successful um in feedback from hearing from principles etc. But we did it all
048on writing. Our coaches went building to building, met with all the grade levels and did a a standout uh professional development session on process writing. So we're able to take those hours and make them more meaningful. And then um I'm going to talk a little bit more about Magic School. Uh we you did uh grant us the ability to put a teacher on special assignment this year in addition to our instructional coaches Britney Cerrone. Um and we adopted Magic School as our AI platform last year. And let me just click to the next slide. Uh we have had a somewhat or I should say a very successful somewhat is not the right word. Um it is only the end of October. We began this year, we we're thinking of the implementation in two phases. Phase
049one being teacher onboarding, which is this school year, and phase two officially being the student onboarding next year. We are not holding teachers back from onboarding students this year by any means. There are plenty of teachers who didn't need us to um you know, hold them back and and not get students involved, but we didn't want to put undue pressure on staff. that really just needs to get an understanding of how this platform can benefit them. So, we've been doing the teacher onboarding. Britney has been our teacher on special assignment. Um, you can see on the right just some of the things that she has been able um to do. It's like having an instructional coach for tech. And when uh Britney and Todd Connell met with Magic School just a week or so ago,
050they actually commented that they have never seen a district with um such volume of usage, etc. as we are in October already. And they asked what we were doing. And when they found out we had a teacher on special assignment whose focus K to2, she doesn't just work with elementary, they specifically said they've never seen secondary usage like we have here. Um they said that the key was is that the district made the commitment to an internal staff member rather than just bringing like staff developers from Magic School in. Right? I all that like we're all looking like that never works, right? They don't know your district. They don't know your district goals. they don't connect with teachers. Um, so Britney has been able to elevate uh the work of our staff. So, Magic School
051has been another really great resource uh in order to elevate our instruction this year. So, we're excited about that. We thank the board um for putting uh a teacher on special assignment this year in order to make that happen. you will get a a board presentation with students um on I believe it is in February on magic school and how um students or January I can't remember uh which date it is but um I think it's February February right um so uh I'm looking forward to that and you'll get to hear from some of the students on how this is making an impact them in their class any questions before I move on. So, I just want to show some visuals. I talk a lot about Book Love. Um, but what I want to say
052is, um, we talk a lot about branding in this school district and making sure that our brand represents who we are and what we stand for as a district. And for me, um, you know, maybe when I first got here four years ago, people were like, "Oh, that's cute. Book love." Um, it's still cute, but um, it has more substance for me. Uh, it really does represent that we are gathering around a common brand in order to celebrate a love of reading and to emphasize its importance. So, um, you know, today when I went to that first grade classroom and I sat and read to those kids, some of those kids in that classroom were wearing shirts that said book love on it. They're buying into the journey. The classroom teachers are buying in. You
053walk in down, I'm going to show you some photos in a moment. you walk down the hallways of and this is our secondary schools as well. Um you walk down and you see hashtagbooklove and maybe that feels like oh so what's the difference if it says hashtagbooklove or something else. Um it just is that idea that we're all kind of gathering around the idea that we want to build a love of reading for our students in an authentic as you know of a way as possible. So just yes Dr. Z and I were leaving a football game a couple weeks ago. Um, I think it was a division game. We were leaving and it was like it was at night time. It was four or five uh boys came up to her and you were
054there started talking about the book club and stuff and I was mesmeri walk over and talk to her about book love. So to me that was a true demonstration of how this is really um being incorporated into >> that was quite a moment. We were um right you were with us Mr. >> Wench I immediately walked away uh [laughter] when when your fan club showed up because I'm used to it now and so uh it's nothing like being the superintendent of schools and everyone flocks to the deputy superintendent as opposed to the superintendent but all right I'm used to it so it was delightful. It's about reading though. So that's the don't take it personally. It was that was a wonderful moment though. Like fifth grade boys, they're in their football uniforms. They had just
055marched in the uh parade >> and they were all whispering when they saw me like I and uh then they wanted to just >> All right. Don't embellish it too much. You're going to make them feel worse. Let's >> All right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What happened to Ron? >> We already gave you the promotion. >> I know. I know. I know. I'm sorry. So, um as you'll see, you could see the school logo as I move through um in different places. Just to I want to make sure I acknowledge again that it's like it's all of our elementary schools, but just look I mean we have a book love um vending machine there and look at that. I I think I've shared maybe that before, but Dr. Z's book love book of
056the month with that realistic um representation of me. Um you know, let your book love grow. Just looking at our classroom libraries that we're continuing to build and and how beautiful they're looking. But you know um our the libraries that all of you have gone into on the board tours but right those library spaces celebrating um you know how they look so kids have a wonderful place to read. You saw in the board appreciation video um at the last meeting how many of the kids wanted to thank you for the work that you've put into the libraries. Um I'm glad I I saw that when Dr. Z's book suggestions I'm I'm glad the book suggestion was just about a leaf. Um I wasn't you never know what books they that I may suggest but it's
057just the very last leap. Very last leap. So um looking at Summit Lane I mean look taking a look at these classrooms. Um how inviting is that? Again the book love signage in both of those places. Book love corner book love nook. But um taking a look at all those baskets saying book love. But how beautiful. I if I'm a kid in that class, I want to go over to that library, grab a book, sit in that, you know, in that cozy place and just really, you know, read. So, kudos to Summit Lane. Um, Abby Lane, I mean, same thing, just bulletin boards, # booklove with my, you know, uh, book of the month, uh, that I read to the kids. This month's book was Millie Flora saves the saves the night. Um, you know,
058different signage around the building. All of this done by the teachers. like I don't I don't provide any of that. Like they come up with, you know, that's how they choose to decorate. Um but just that we've really put an emphasis on our our libraries and our books looking like a Barnes & Noble, front-facing displays, uh covers being face out to really appeal to kids. Um and making sure that they want to read those books. I mean, look at the Abbey Lane library. Those of you that remember what it looked like before, even when we saw it on the board tour, it was not we're going to be having a ribbon cutting. It was not yet at this stage, but it is absolutely phenomenal. just an really inviting place. Uh beautiful, right? A really inviting
059place for our students. So, um you know, continued book love there. >> Uh this is Lee Road. Uh you know, just again beautiful classroom libraries, the continuation of that branding, the books on display. It's just, you know, East Broadway. I mean, I don't know, you know, what there is even to say just taking a look at the photos. Just yeah, I love that. Right. Read books and be kind. That's great. North side. I mean, look at that. That artwork there that um you know was done, right? The door with and that's to highlight my book love book of the month. So you can see the same book that was in Abby. So I mean they actually are physically altering their spaces and and doing that. Um and look at that classroom library with the beautiful
060furniture there at North Side. So really putting a positive emphasis on on how we celebrate reading in this district and that in of in and of itself is going to raise our proficiency scores. The more kids read with volume, the more kids engage in authentic purposes for reading, they'll develop a love of reading and they will naturally there is no scripted program uh in the upper grades that will do more for kids uh than actually reading with volume. So that is part of uh the mission of book love and certainly um getting our kids to feel like reading is appealing. Thank you. Um so career exploration, this is um one of those things that I continue to say I think I said it to the board when we were at the conference um last week
061that this will this is definitely one of those things that you just know no one else is doing it. It's such an amazing wonderful thing for kids. Bless you. >> Bless you. It's an amazing wonderful thing for kids and we have been able, this was an idea that grew out of a board conference and we were just so lucky and fortunate to have a director of elementary education, fabulous teachers, Britney Cerrone, Jen O'Brien, um, wonderful principles, all of the teachers teaching career exploration that really rolled up their sleeves and said, "Not only are we going to do this, there is no outside program that's going to do this better than we can do it for our own students." the level of creativity, the level of commitment, the hours spent. Um, but this program in year
062two is just um such such a success. So, let me talk a little bit. Last year, I shared with you like when we launched what it looked like. You'll also be getting a board presentation on this from our students talking about um career exploration. I believe that is in January. I might have the dates all mixed up, but I think I have it right. Um but let me talk a little bit about um where we have shifted in the second year. So since its introduction last year, the program has obviously been a major point of pride. We had collected last year extensive teacher and student feedback. Uh Michelle meets with the teachers on a very regular basis even now and just says, "How did that lesson go? How did that unit go? Uh is that
063the right career? Uh did we select the right readaloud? What about this lesson might need tweaking?" So we're collecting that feedback in real time and making those shifts. So, we've really tried to refine it this year. We've really tried to strengthen it. In fact, all of that feedback that we got led us to add more hands-on experiences in the upper grades. You might remember when I presented this last year, it was the lower grades that had remember the kids dressed up as firemen or um as construction workers, dentists, doctors. Uh that was more in the lower grades and the upper grades was do were doing more of the research projects. The upper graded kids wanted to do some of those hands-on experiences as well. So, we did make a shift to the program this year.
064Um, so let me show you some of the changes. We added in some of the lower grades, we might have added an additional cluster. And I'll show you what that looks like in a visual in a moment. And then in the upper grades, grades three through five, we reduced the number of clusters so that we could add the hands-on experience. And that has been such a success already this year. And I'll show you what some of those are. And then we still continue in the upper grades to do um the research projects and we embed all of the digital literacy in that as well so that students are learning how to use Google properly doing research presentation skills um etc. I will talk a little bit probably at the secondary presentation but we are spending
065this year expanding our career exploration program into sixth and seventh grade. We are currently working with the family and consumer science department, Pat Burke, Michelle Kelly, um Britney and Jen to uh we're going to pull two clusters out of elementary school. We are going to take the hospitality and tourism cluster and we're going to move that to sixth grade. And we are going to take the management and entrepreneurship cluster and move that to seventh grade family and consumer science. We're in the process of doing um you know having collaborative meetings. We want this program in sixth and seventh grade to look and feel like it does at the elementary school. We do not want a separate program. We want our K to8 continuum for career exploration to be very aligned. And along with that, we
066will be looking hopefully um to add a class at 8th grade that focuses on um less uh careers that we might not explore um all the time through the clusters like perhaps aviation or other things like that. So, we are expanding. We are continuing the brand through middle school. And all of that will lead to what you'll see uh when I present the high school. We already have a bunch of new electives this coming year like um future, we had the of course future teachers. We are adding future health professions next year. Um video game designer. So, a lot of career oriented electives. And this program will bridge right to eighth grade. And then kids will have those variety of options when they hit nth grade to help pursue some of those career paths. So
067that's just a visual to show you the 14 clusters to remind you of what they were and to just show you what I just showed you in the other slide that when hospitality and tourism and management and entrepreneurship comes out and moves to sixth and seventh grade we'll be then moving uh energy and natural resources and advanced manufacturing to grades three and five which will leave all of our K to5 grades with two clusters more time to engage in them uh and then some of those shifting like I said to sixth and seventh grade. So on these, I'll just go quickly through them. You can see um what the clusters I shared some of these with you last year, but those that have a star next to it are the ones that were added this
068year. So public service and safety and healthcare and human services continues in kindergarten, but this year we added a judge um as well as an occupational therapist. Grade one, we added um an entire um cluster energy and natural resources. So, kids are getting to experience what it's like to be a ge geologist. You can see all these I I saw pictures earlier of the kids digging through sand. They're like inspecting rocks with little magnifying glass. So, they're really playing the role. And then a conservation biologist. So, the others we were doing last year, you saw images of the electrician, the carpenter, etc. Grade two, we added advanced manufacturing. So, they are getting firsthand experience with assembly line worker as well as being 3D printers. They all they have these 3D printer pens and they're um
069really designing things and then bringing them to life. What's wonderful is that all of these are tied to wonderful readalouds and then wonderful hands-on activities. So, the kids are actually getting to live the job that they are learning about. >> Question, do we have a 3D printer? >> We do in the district. Yes. >> Because I know the library has one. So, if there was a trip to the library. >> Sure. We could definitely think about that. and how we ended up uh Abby has a 3D printer, but um since we don't have 3D printers in each of our buildings, um Michelle purchased these um which I didn't even know existed, but these 3D printing pens, so the kids are designing things and then they have filaments in them and as they design them and
070draw them, it actually creates what they're drawing. So, um it was a great alternative to actually having to have the full 3D printer. But, I mean, the kids are actually doing the the job that that they're learning about. Um, grade three, you can see, um, we added, uh, the hands-on activities to the left. That's why it has the little hand. So, um, they're getting to try out what it's like. They have these little sculpting kits. They're sculpting. They're animating. The voice actor is wonderful. There's an app that they're using to create like animated characters and they're doing what it would be like to live the life or do the job of a voice actor. And then a video game designer. And then you can see on the right, those are the careers that they're actually
071just researching, learning from each other, presenting on. So they get a little bit of both in the upper grades. Grade four, they're getting to do market research. They're being they're acting they have a lot of scenarios uh that they get to act out in some of these sales rep, a PR specialist, and a customer service representative. Um, and then the ones that on the right you can see the ones that they're actually doing the research on which a lot of these we have electives for right in the high school and and as you move through financial services. This is perfect for grade five because they all go to Commerce Plaza. So the hands-on um has to do with accounting, stock broker, bank teller, and financial planner. So, they're engaged in all of these hands-on activities
072that are teaching them um how to be any of those jobs and then learning about the jobs on the right. I, as I said, um I can't imagine because not only is this designed so brilliantly, but the execution of it is just I mean the hands-on component of this is just absolutely wonderful. So, um we look to continue this uh in our secondary schools next year. Do you have like guest speakers come in and talk to them about? >> We don't at the elementary school only because occasionally we might if it's someone in the building like a school psychologist only because the way this class is scheduled it would require multiple days of that guest speaker because um the kids it's a special so it's not like you know but we have every single school
073has a career day um they all do it a career fair a career day where they um all of these people do come in as guest speakers on that one day. It's like a big schoolwide event. Um, and that will happen throughout the year uh in every single school building. So, we always go show up to the school on that day. The police are there, the fire department's there, military folks, uh, lawyers, um, whoever. We might we try to aim for the careers that the kids are learning about, but we don't always keep it exact because if a parent wants to come in and share, you know, we invite them to come in, but in that way, we have the guest speakers. It's hard to in middle school, it won't be hard to schedule the
074guest speakers. It is hard with the schedule in elementary. The person would have to commit to like multiple days, you know, of coming in. So, any questions on career exploration? Thank you. Yeah, it's wonderful. Mike, you have a >> Sure. Um I was at a conference last year and it was regarding um submarine building and work with companies like um I think general general electric boat and advanced dynamics another company um that they start training in high school with programs that would get a person into that field which is tremendously high pay. >> Do we do anything like that or we have any plans on that? I'm just going to say not we you and I had this conversation right the um and Boseis has also been involved in trying to develop their own programs
075that as a feeder pipeline um that's something that we are looking into as well as with um >> building a relationship with the new technical school that they're going to be building at the former Sears uh if you saw that in the news right so these are definitely things that we are working on trying to see how they fit into >> uh the high school at the secondary level into that program >> um we have a we have a lot of exciting things in hopper for the high school level. Uh like you know that Miss May Miss Adrianus uh talked a lot about something that exposes kids to the aviation field. So we have some things working on in that area. So like we have a lot of good things but this is the elementary
076presentation. So we don't want to like >> Yeah. You'll hear all about Yes. the secondary in November. >> All right. And lastly Oh yeah. Oh I'm sorry. I just wanted to say I remember I think it was only three years ago that we went to that conference and we saw a presentation done by a school district in from San Diego from the superintendent and Todd and I stayed out stayed after and and spoke with the man and then pulled him on the phone and whatever. But to take this from the end of this is three years ago and it's already in full swing up and running with with a great future here is like so commendable with all the other initiatives that the central office and the school administrators are doing. So to be able
077to take it from a theory or a presentation that we saw and operationalize it in such a short period of time is just simply remarkable for today's uh today's day and age in education with everything that you have to deal with. So thank you very much. >> No, you're welcome. And it was a wonderful idea and I we appreciate the board's flexibility and saying we saw this idea. It doesn't have to be exactly because when we looked at that program there was components we didn't want to bring in. Um and when Michelle's like we can write this and do this better than any company can. I don't think she was lying as you can see and it's allowed us to really build it as we go and to make authentic changes in the moment based
078on our feedback where you can't do that with a with a canned program. So it's super exciting and I'm excited about where we're headed for the middle school and you know it builds that bridge. So it's it's a really wonderful initiative and it's so true to success at LPS and success for every student and all of our post our varied post-secary paths which was super exciting. So, I want to share lastly, this is not necessarily only an elementary um but I have a lot packed into the high school presentation. So, I figured I'll I'll throw this at the end of the elementary presentation. It's a district-wide initiative. Um, but it does talk about professional learning and professional development. So, I think as you all know, uh, you know, our vision really is to provide highquality
079professional development that truly supports our teachers growth and aligns with our district goals. So, one of the first ways when I first got here that I talked to to all of you about it and you supported it was through the national board program. And we started a national board cohort here, as you might remember, last December. Um, we quote unquote graduated um our third national board teacher in the district. We have about 15 or 16 teachers in the national board pipeline. And we know that the national board uh process gives teachers intensive and meaningful learning experiences, but we wanted to do more. We've been very selective or moving to a very selective in the last six to eight months about the kinds of coursework that we are now accepting for salary advancement in the district.
080Um there's a lot a range right out there of quality or lack of quality uh I guess poor quality professional development and we really have been trying to encourage our teachers as much as possible to choose um you know highquality professional development and a lot of times that comes at me having to say we're not going to accept something or not allowing a teacher to engage in a particular professional development opportunity. We were able to do that and the only reason why we've I think been able to do it somewhat successfully is because what we then said to teachers was we're going to provide you with an alternative. If we're not going to allow you to take A, B, or C for whether inservice credit or um you know graduate level credit, here are some
081opportunities uh that we can provide you as a district that you could choose to take instead. And um so I really want to show you this is a real source of pride um for me and I hope for the district. But two of the things that we um sort of rolled out this year which obviously didn't you know start as a a seed idea this year. It started as a seed idea in previous years and in collaborating with members of the board here and of course with um the superintendent just how could we do this better? How can I say no to teachers but then say hey but you're going to have this opportunity. Um and this is what we came up with. So this year was our first year launching a specific district sponsored
082inservice credit catalog. The district has always offered um you know inservice uh courses from time to time. Of course we have our teacher center which is another avenue for teachers to sign up for particular inservice credit. But um the teacher center rightfully so is a a you know organization for teachers by teachers. It's run by the teacher center. Um, I was looking to create a catalog that might have some different options that were taught perhaps by administrators. Um, and we were able, um, I reached out to our administrative team this year, our instructional coaches, our teachers on special assignment, and we were able to offer six different courses. Uh, they range anywhere from one to three inservice credit per course. Uh, it's all in district staff, including teachers and administrators who are teaching it. And
083of course the topics are aligned with our district goals which is super important because we decide what those goals are and this is the professional development uh that aligns with that. So we have one on artificial intelligence. We have several different ones on writing. We have one on differentiation. Uh we have one on the New York State Science Standards and we have one on book love in secondary classrooms. And as of yesterday or whenever 1027 was um we had 91 I won't say teachers because there are some teachers right who might have signed up for the artificial intelligence one and then also the science standards one but as of uh the 27th we have 91 seats reserved in those classes. So um I think that is a measure of success. I think teachers were appreciative
084of the nature of the courses, the expertise that was leading those courses and how those courses were designed. So that is ongoing and those courses will not start. Um for some of them have started, others won't be till the spring. So we might get more enrollment. In fact, our one on artificial intelligence, we started with a cap of 25. I had to up it to a cap of 30 because so many people were requesting it. And I believe when I looked today, it was at 32. So somehow the cap did not hold and teachers were able um to get in, which we we are not going to complain about that. We Yeah, exactly. And they they went right in. So it was okay. And then on the other side, um I think is a real
085testament to the reputation of this district or at least I believe it to be because district uh higher ed universities don't always willfully partner. It is not easy always partnering with higher ed institutions in order to create collaborative partnerships in a um K12 public school. But I set out on a path and uh with Todd's blessing to say like let me reach out to Mallaloy and to Adelfi. Um, one of the things that I kind of gave both Malloy where I am a professor um and Adelfi um sort of um grief about and I did give them grief was that a lot of their offerings are um done in uh an asynchronous format which means that our teachers are taking coursework where they're never really interacting with a teacher. It's all through a self-paced online
086module. To me, those are the kinds of courses I'm not going to approve. Um I did ask the universities if they could broaden their summer cataloges um etc. The answer was no. Um and the answer was no because obviously there are more people in more districts. It's more financially um you know good for them to have those asynchronous courses. But what I do want to credit both universities with saying to me and I do think that's why it's a wonderful partnership is they said well what about if we do something special just for Levittown and that doesn't happen anywhere. And I said okay tell me more. Um and I engaged in those conversations um which have been months and months since last spring in the making. But we finally were able to roll out um
087two different opportunities for our teachers through for graduate credit. So through Mallaloy University we're offering six um we're offering oh I think I wrote six but that is an error and I don't have my glasses on but I think that's what it says. We offer two certification um or microcredential pathways. So we are going to offer all on-site here in the district uh supporting students mental health microcredential. So that is a nine credit program which means it's three distinct classes three credits each for a total of nine credits. Teachers can choose to just take the first three credits, the first six credits or complete the entire nine credits for the micro credential which is like a mini certification. Certifications tend to be like 18 credits. So, it's like a half certification, but it's focused and
088concentrated on one topic. So, we're going to do one on supporting students mental health that will start this spring. Um, and we're going to do one on AI and innovative technology, also nine credits. And take a look at that enrollment. As of 10:27, we had 24 teachers K to 12 sign up to participate on the on-site mental health microcredential and 17 teachers. Um, some of them redundant. they're taking both and some of them independent only wanted mental health only wanted um the AI but the fact that the university said we'll do it on your campus um the professors don't necessarily even live here um they're doing it on our schedule they came to theformational meeting and said to the teachers okay when do you want to start what week works for you and the teachers
089who were on the class like no we have LTI that Monday can we start on this Monday they helped create the schedule together which I think increased the enrollment um which was wonderful. So we have both of those. They are absolutely going to run the all those teachers are being registered as we speak. Um the class that will kick off in um the in January will be over at division in the flex lab and then we will find a location for um our uh AI microcredential which will be taught our mental health one will be taught by Mallaloy University professors. I felt it was important to have outside experts in the field um bring their ideas here to the district. The AI one, I wanted a combination. So the AI one will be taught um
090by a university professor and our teacher on special assignment, Britney Cerrone. Um so that we have a a balance of like what is our district doing with AI. So I think that's also a wonderful partnership. And of course we have our second administrative cohort which will most likely begin in the summer of 20 um 26. We are going to be graduating our very first in December, our very first SPL um school building leader cohort that began a year and a half ago of eight or nine I've lost track um teachers from the district who got to participate here on site uh in a cohort for administration as well for graduate credit. So Mallaloy University has been an amazing partner in numerous ways, but this is an exciting new adventure. And then through Adelfi University, we're
091going fully with certification programs on site here in the university. We put this out just yesterday, so I haven't had a chance to check on any potential enrollment yet, but we are going to be offering on-site an advanced certificate in literacy program that will be taught um by Michelle Kelly and Andrea Ferrari, our assistant principal at um you know uh Abby Lane. They are both certified literacy teachers. So the university wanted someone from our district to do that. A T-OLE advanced certificate and an advanced certificate in technology education. So all three of those which can be completed in a year. All of them will be offered here um on site. And um the rates when I the rates have been very much reduced. For Adelfi they're only charging the Levittown uh cohort $500 a credit.
092Uh and for the Malloy uh all nine credits is only about $2,800 for nine credits. So both universities went to the president um of the university and asked for a special deal for Levittown if we were able to get enough teachers uh to enroll to encourage higher enrollment. So it is a very proud partnership. I think we're doing great things for our teachers on both sides in service and graduate credit to advance the quality of professional development that we are offering them to help our students meet with success. And thank you and that is the end of my presentation. Thank you [applause] questions. I mean I'm speechless so um oh go ahead question as much as as a comment. It it's really so great to see such a positive presentation and the directions that the
093district is going in. So I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to you and your team for um taking this on and and doing it in such a way that you know is really helpful to not just the staff but the students. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Adrian. Yeah, I mean she's saying it better than me because I'm tired, but um I echo that and I I know that it is a group effort. So to the admin team out there, the teachers that are sitting out there, this is um obviously important to come from the leadership as well. Um we wouldn't be able to move forward without it. but especially, you know, the teachers on the ground that are doing all the work and going through professional developments and
094embracing it and working with the students and being vulnerable because there is a huge component to being vulnerable um to be able to say, "Okay, we're going to do this and we're going to do what's best for kids." So, um kudos to all of them out there and working as a team. So, thank you all. Miss Christina. Yeah. I I just want to say one of the uh the biggest um upgrades that I see is that it it we're not doing more. We're doing different innovative work which is very important. Um, and I remember wasn't too long ago either where you and I spoke to other people at Mallaloy because we both work there and so is Todd but at Mallaloy and um wanted to know what where in the society nowadays where are the
095careers that are lacking where they need the help and stuff and you got right on that too and started really you know investigating and now >> we're f even as a board we're focused more as forward thinking and and moving it forward. in much more innovative programs that's going to serve our children when they graduate. You know, >> that conversation that we had is where future health professions came because remember when we had that conversation and they talked about the X-ray technicians and the radiologists, the respiratory therapists that kids don't really know about those. It's always am I going to be a nurse or a doctor or um nothing wrong with that. My daughter's in nursing school, but um we said, okay, a future health professions course could enlighten our students knowing that that's some
096of the deficit areas for career. >> You're welcome. >> I'm just going to say thank you. Um it it's tremendous. I know it's it was a long presentation, uh but it um it does show you like just a kind of a glimpse at uh all the amazing things that are going on. Uh many of them spearheaded by you individually. um but with the support of everybody that's out there. So, thank you for all of administration and teachers that came out tonight to uh support Dr. Zerionis in regards to her presentation and for everything you do um every day because it's uh like Mr. Moreni mentioned, there's a lot of things going on uh on a day-to-day basis in the school district and then on top of that um all these other things are going on
097uh which really is incredible. So it's it's very it's very proud. Uh the things that other folks are not doing or not able to do um were persistent and uh it it you were usually able to find a way. So I just thank you for the energy that you bring uh and for your passion uh much better than the last guy in that seat. And so um you're doing I'm looking at the I was looking at the growth qu the growth chart and I'm saying yeah that previous guy didn't have them all in that it was it wasn't all in that quadrant for him. But you know Yeah. got just move them down. >> In his defense, it was also co and >> yeah, that I appreciate the slang. I appreciate it. No, honestly, it's
098uh we have a we have a really great team. I'm very proud to be superintendent of this. It's a woohoo. Woohoo. There you go. >> We're up to you, Mr. Win. >> Okay, so comments and reports. Um first of all, I just wanted to wish the best of luck to uh the MacArthur girls soccer varsity uh team that's playing right now uh in Cold Spring Harbor. Uh so good luck to them. I hope they do well. Uh just a quick shout out and a thank you for the members of uh NCPD that are in the back of the room. So many thanks to you for I know there's no issue. You're just here to support and we do appreciate that. Um always great to see you in the community. So uh thank you. Uh on
099that same topic, I just wanted to provide an update. Uh if you were at the board meeting last week, we uh had a very um productive conversation about security and about whether or not the district's moving forward on arm security. Um, at that meeting you may remember that uh district council did say that being that some of the information is is sensitive in regards to the specifics because uh some of the board members had asked for additional details. Uh we have been having the conversation in executive session just to protect those those details. But um please know the district does continue to move forward down this path. And so as we finalize the things that we're planning to do, we will share that out with the community. Um but I just wanted you to know
100that uh that that that continues to take place. Um but for the safety of everybody uh is just not not going to be discussed in public at this time. Um I do uh oh I did want to mention also on uh security is that uh last year you may remember that we talked about introducing the anonymous reporting system Sandy Hook promise. We've been doing a lot of training uh with Sandy Hook Promise since September and now we'll be training the teachers on the program then the students on the program. We do look for a go live date of December 2nd. uh I will be sending out a communication to the families about that uh just so they're aware. So we're very excited to add on that security enhancement. Um besides that I do have some
101responses to probably if you heard questions from last time. So uh let me just get to those. So our uh first one in no particular order uh is to Mr. Mattie Bies. Uh dear Mr. Bies, thank you for taking the time to attend the October 15th regular board of education meeting and for sharing your thoughts during the public be heard portion. We appreciate your continued advocacy uh for students disabilities and your interest in ensuring that everyone has access to the full range of academic opportunities available in our schools. Please be assured that students with disabilities continue to have access to advanced placement and college credit bearing courses in the Levittown School District. The district remains firmly committed to maintaining strong protections and high expectations for all students. Uh this one was to Miss Tina O'Donnell.
102Thank you for sharing the October uh attending the October 15th regular board of education meeting and for sharing your thoughts during the public be heard portion. We truly appreciate your perspective on balancing what is best for students with a financial impact on our community members. Your comments reflect a deep care for both our schools and the families who call the Levittown School District home. Our budget development process begins in January and I encourage you to attend our meetings to see how we work to maintain strong instructional programs while keeping the tax impact on our community as low as possible. We are also grateful for your kind words about our district and your continued commitment to our community regarding your concerns about the arrival and dismissal procedures at Gardner's Avenue Elementary School. We will review these
103matters with the building principal and the coordinator of district security, which we have done, uh to determine if any adjustments may be helpful. Thank you again for your thoughtful participation and ongoing support of the students. Uh Miss Jen Chia Chiro, thank you for attending the October 15th regular board meeting and for sharing your perspective during the public beheard portion. We appreciate your thoughtful comments regarding the difficult decision regarding armed security. As you noted, the district has made significant enhancements to its safety and security protocols over the past years and we value your recognition of those efforts. The board of education appreciates receiving community input on this important topic and will continue to carefully deliberate as it considers any future decisions in this area. Thank you again for your participation and support of the love school
104district. Finally, to Miss Tony Schneider, thank you for taking the time to attend our October 15th regular board of education meeting and sharing your concerns during public be heard. We appreciate your input regarding student transportation eligibility and the arrival and dismissal procedures at Gardener Avenue Elementary School. As you noted, transportation eligibility is determined based on the mileage limits approved by district voters, and we are required to adhere to those guidelines. That said, we understand the concerns you raised about student safety during drop off and pickup. We review these concerns with the building principal and the coordinator of district security to determine if any adjustments or additional supports are needed. Thank you for your thoughtful participation and your ongoing support for our school. Those were the four uh responses heard from the last meeting. And um
105besides that, I think I've answered all uh board of education questions. That concludes my report. Uh so we're up to the board of education comments and reports. We had um quite a few of our members who attended some NISSPA. Um would anybody like to share out? Okay. You want to start, Miss Mar? I'll start and uh Miss Adrian's going to join in with me on this presentation because we both went I'm going to make it very very short. Um just to give you an overview, one of the workshops, most of the workshops that we went on this this time really had to do with mental health. Um this is was a workshop on the promise of upstream prevention uh profound new evidence on reducing youth suicide and the end result is the suicide. But what
106made us really intrigued by this presentation, it's really about uh developing a wellness model instead of a prevention model which takes it from a totally different perspective. Um it's like it's a paradigm shift into what does it mean to create a culture of of of students of people of kids that have a mental health model instead of a preventative model. you know prevent this model is much more proactive where the other one is just trying to solve uh to solve the problem. It says well-being is the goal prevention is the outcome of the goal. The thing here it breaks it down into uh eight eight different um strands. One being mental health which we ourselves have changed to coin as brain health because so much of the research is just saying that nowadays the word
107anxiety is used so prolifically like every you walk through the middle schools ah I have anxiety I have anxiety I have anxiety if you stop and ask a kid well what does that mean they really can't tell you so what the I we saw a presentation and the main crux of this part is is that it's not a mental health problem we have to start training teach uh going through a brain health problem because it's what we're feeding ourselves and what our kids are getting off the phone and we're teaching the the we're telling the brain exactly what's on our phone or with social media and that's what really is causing a lot of the problem and anxiety. So, we're shifting to like a brain health model. The other strands is family support, positive friends,
108uh mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality, and physical health. So it breaks it down into each one of these strands and developing healthy um strategies to be modeled and and it's on based on a peer leader program which was something that we really uh really thought was great here too. So just a summary of this it's a public health paradigm shift for mental health. We didn't reduce smoking, heart disease or um motor vehicle deaths by treating people in crisis. We took a population based upon upstream public health approach. It's time to do the same with mental health. Promoting proact protective factors, addressing root causes, and fostering healthier people and cultures. In order to vent this leading cause of death, we must strengthen the leading cause of life. So, it's totally coming in through a different perspective,
109which we found to be very valuable. Arian, you want to add to that? >> Sure. Yeah. No, that and that was a really great presentation and I think um we walked out of there kind of thinking like, you know, we need to make this a more holistic and um a holistic approach that can you know it's not just about suicide it it's about other things that it will also positively impact um one of the um uh sessions that I went to was partnering to combat child exploitation and the similarities that I found from the session that Miss Moreni was talking about in this one is that it has to do with kind of that upstream uh kind of prevention mentality. Um specific to the child exploitation, um they were just really talking about how, you
110know, there there are 50 there were 50,000 reports this year of either financial extortion, child uh exploitation, uh financial um I said that already, sorry. um compared to only hundreds in the years prior. Um and suicide is part of the issue with it. Um so, you know, they were talking really about when a a student, you know, a young person will send a picture to somebody and then they get financially exploited from that. It's just really important to have these conversations. Um and I don't think we talk about these things enough. I feel like some things are so like kind of taboo to say out loud um or to even bring to the table. So, I really appreciated both both of those um sessions along with the last one that we attended um because it
111kind of ties into this whole approach of, you know, an upstream approach to, you know, help from the ground up to help combat these issues. >> And then I just and then the last one that we went to that piggybacks very nice and there was quite a few of us at this last one. Um and it's growing a school-based mental health workforce pipeline. is focused on ways to increase mental health workforce, including new programs in high school, exposing exposing students to these fields. And possibly there seems to be like maybe a new credential or certification that's going to be created that we might look into incorporating into our high schools where they'll take courses for the last two years and be like a mental health what was the word assistant or mental a mental health
112par professional. So, we're we're looking into gleaning more information on this program. I know the uh president of the Nassau SuffK School Board Association, Mike Beck uh Bob Beckio, is really incorporating and starting this in a couple districts right now in Suffach. And it sounds like from the interest that we might be thinking about doing this, well, we are thinking about doing it, but we might implement it or learn more about it the rest of this year and then see what it has for us for next year. So those were three of the workshops that we went to. >> Just a comment on that last one which I thought was was also very nice um is that they they had kind of an already developed program >> that would fit very nicely into our career
113develop a career uh exploration uh program at the high school because it's an area that we're not really doing. So you Dr. Zerian talked about uh future health fields and um this would really be more about future mental health fields and so it was definitely something that not only do we think the outcome would be beneficial but the whole process uh would be great for >> yes >> go ahead Mr. Papus, >> how you doing everybody? I went to a whole bunch of uh conferences as well. Um I went to an open meeting law uh conference which I happy to say that we followed this guidelines perfectly here. Um matter of fact, I was very proud because I heard some people saying things that even I knew you should be discussing out in public that
114it's nice to see that we have a transparent board that not afraid to speak uh on the things we're allowed to speak in public. you'll get all the news that's fit to print and more I guess you know um I also went to uh board transparency and one of them was regarding the websites uh board uh diligent uh board docs >> and how to enhance that so it make things easier to find sometimes you look at it and we keep on enhancing this all the time but sometimes you look at there you try to find something and you simply can't find it and that could be listen if I go on to order tickets from Tickatron. Well, it's not Tickatron anymore, but you know what I mean. I'm dating myself there. Sorry. Ticket. [laughter] I
115really dated myself there. Sorry. Um, but just to find something on any website, it's hard. And on here, you're looking for things for your children, we want to make it easier. And the easier we can make it to find something. and you could solve your problem online. It also eases the burden on the uh administrative staff in this building here trying to get your answer for you through phone calls and back and forth. It's it's just um making things easier for the public. I went to uh let's see I got a whole bunch of stuff down here. My notes I didn't Oh, the cell phone ban um how it came about, what it's doing. um what the exemptions are for it. You can possibly get an exemption for mental anxiety. Um but for the most
116part, the way we have it done in this school district is the way it's supposed to be done, which when it's nice when you're raising your hand and they're asking you, they ask you a question, you answer it properly and they say that's the way you're supposed to be doing. And I found that throughout almost all the uh the conferences I went to that we are doing things the right way. We can make a couple of changes here and there but nothing uh traumatic, nothing that's really needs to be fixed. Smoothing things out would be better way put. That's it. Thank you. >> Jimmy, do you want to report or Okay. All right. Um, board correspondents none. We are moving on to our publicly heard section of the meeting. This is the opportunity for members
117of the community to speak. All questions are directed to the board of education president. Each speaker is limited to three minutes in total and expected to use the microphone clearly state their name and their address. Uh, thank you all. All right. So, Maddie But anyway, I'll I'll begin my remarks. So, good evening everybody. My name is Maddie Bies and I live at 1297 Shaw Place in Seaford. I first of all, I do want to thank Beth for a great presentation tonight. As you know, these administrators work hard and they might be boys and girls today, but they're tomorrow's ladies and gentlemen, as we like to say it. But one thing I do want to have because this is the 13th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. One of the comments I sent to the superintendent two weeks
118ago was the was if there's no other options on the table for the possibility to have a full school day on Christmas Eve, would any if any of the board members would be open to the possibility of that if there's no other options on the table? That's what my concern would be. And the second thing is meal times are important. Buying lunch from school is practically my opinion more healthier than bringing your own lunch from school. But that's another time for another day. One of the things that I'm disappointed with is that we don't have seafood on the menu. The United States Department of Agriculture has has you know commodities [clears throat] for Alaska. Pollock Pollic cod shrimp. Highlininer foods which is has a headquarters in Portsouth, New Hampshire and in Newport News Virginia has
119a plan for that. So I would strongly suggest to Chartwells that we do a pilot program for that for that possibility for that possib for that possibility of having C4. This has not been done since Alan Lean was the district director for Chartwells. That's what I would like to say. And the sec third thing I would recommend is to all of you. Thank you for what you do. And it's really is a blessing. But I do want to get the boards if they're open to the idea. if there's no other options on the table and we god forbid we had another natural dis disaster if they would be open to the possibility not not get definite to having a full school day on Christmas Eve because we have 17 days in December if we have
120the 24th that would be the 18th day and usually only the yes a yes a yes a yes a yes a yes a yes a yes a yes a yes ahas open so with that everybody please have a good night god bless you all and and before I turn back over to chairwoman lang I do want to thank you all very much for attending and I move all the consent agenda items God bless you Oh, thank you. I was planning to go run for the board in 2021 to defeat one of you, but I was unsuccess. Thank you, everybody. >> Thank you, Maddie. >> Okay. I appreciate you very much. We all do. Uh, we're moving on to our schedules. Uh, do I have a motion to accept item 5.1 on the agenda? Phyllis, do
121I have a second? Maryanne, any discussion? >> Uh, scheduled. Um, all in favor? Um, six. Uh, Miss Msina had to leave. Against. Um, tonight on the board schedule, we did approve um an assistant supervisor for transportation. Um, Vic, stand up. Uh, Vic has been with the district since um, November 2015. started with us as a part-time driver and quickly proved his value to the transportation department and in December 2017 he was promoted to full-time dispatcher. Um his we truly value your work, your dedication, your commitment, you know, under um Miss Reeves' supervision. You have truly been an asset um to the department and we are very thrilled to have you on board as our first assistant supervisor for transportation. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> Yes, of course. >> Vic, I'm so happy that it
122was you that they picked. Uh my dad would be very proud of you. >> Welcome. >> I will say Miss Reeves was very excited because we've been doing this since January, I think, of this year. So, it's a long time coming, but uh but congratul uh good luck to you. All right. In the in the future. So, thanks. >> Um, well, welcome. Uh, thank you. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept? Hold on. Look at this. I need glass. Okay. Items 6.2 through 6.8 on the consent agenda. Maryanne, do I have a second? Mike, any discussion? Yeah, I did. Uh, on the agenda tonight, item 6.4, for the memorandum of of understanding for uh Dr. Zerianis. I personally just want to say that this woman is very well deserving of this new title. Um
123I was a guy that I stopped reading after high well maybe not right after high school but I didn't I just lost interest in reading. she came to our district and uh you know she came with this book love thing and uh you know at first I was kind of like apprehensive I you know I didn't talk to her too much about it but uh she actually got me back into reading and I have this this new zest to learn I want to learn more about everything so uh I I just really believe that this uh new deputy superintendent title was welld deserved >> [applause] >> Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. >> I'm going to preface this with uh you don't have to answer this question because I gave it to you really late. There's about
124a thousand lines in the budget. I have questions on two, which means it's 2,000 of a percent [laughter] that he has to know off the top of his head. So, if you don't have it, please email back to me. But I'm looking at the afterchool uh program for teachers and teachers aid, the change in the uh the budget change in it. I think it was 83,000 and 65,000. >> I'll give you a standing ovation if you get this if you answer it today. >> Okay. the the question >> if you is is it why we transferred the money? >> Um I guess the simple answer is business is good. Um so we had a lot of people attend the program, participate in the program. We needed more staff. Uh on the flip side uh we
125also generated more revenue. So, um, on the, uh, on the appropriation side, the additional staff required us to transfer about $150,000 into the afterchool program, but it did in turn generated another, uh, 268,000 above budget. So, uh, net net uh, we were there. So, the reasons for the transfer again, as I first stated, business is good. The program is thriving. >> That's great to hear. And as promised, hold on a second. [laughter] >> Wow. [applause] Thank you, Mike. You're amazing. >> Okay. Uh, all in favor six against zero. Ad hoc. >> Uh, I think this is our policies, correct? So, the um we are policies committee that exists um doing a great job. I mentioned this last time. We did our first read on uh just the most recent batch of policies. Not really any
126um substantive changes. There's really more just some legal updates uh as well as some wording changes and things like that. So that's just on here for the second read. If there's no other questions uh at the next meeting, we will have it on for adoption and then the committee will move on to the next batch of uh next batch of policy. So that's that. >> Okay. May I have a motion to adjourn the regular meeting? Uh Peggy, do I have a second? Mike, all in favor? Six against? None. All right. Meeting adjourned. >> Woohoo.