001[Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause]
002Heat. Heat. N. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat.
003Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Just that this and then this. Yeah. All right. Hello everybody. Do I have a motion uh to convene the July 29th special meeting of the Levittown Board of Education? Maryanne, do I have a second? Phyllis, all in favor? How many are we? Five. 5 0. Um, may I have a motion to move to into executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel? Phyllis, do I have a second? Jimmy, all in favor? I. Five. I. We will return at 6 uh 30. Please note that we will recite the pledge of allegiance when we return to open
004the regular meeting. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat.
005[Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Good evening everyone. Thank you for all joining us tonight. I would like to welcome you to the July 29th special meeting of the Lovetown Board of Education. May I have a motion to reconvene the meeting? Phyllis, do I have a second? Mike. Uh, all
006in favor? be five now. 5 Z. Um, and please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Okay. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay. May we please have a moment of silence to remember all those serving our country at home and overseas. Thank you. Please note that Peggy Morangi and Jen Msine are excused from this meeting. Okay. We will now move to our public be heard period of the special meeting. There is no one. We're going to move on. Thank you. Superintendent. Uh thank you uh President Lang. Uh so uh tonight we uh are called to together to uh adopt a uh policy regarding internet enabled devices. As you may remember um
007New York State adopted legislation during the budget process that um bans internet enabled devices including cell phones, smartwatches and anything that connects to the internet. um but the students may not have it at their at their disposal during the school hours bell-to-bell. And so uh part of that um legislation required us to meet with stakeholders. We've been meeting with students and with staff members, teachers, administrators, parents, and of course with our board about a policy um and how we would store phones during the day. And during all of those deliberations, we have um come up with a policy that um has students leave their phones in lockers uh during the day. Um the policy that we have here does go through um basically all the the legal definitions from the state. Um but it does
008cover the everywhere on the school property from bell to bell. So they can still be used before school and after school um school trips, things like that. Um but um that's what the policy does. Uh just as a comment that the state prohibits the use of suspension um as a consequence if the student simply has their phone in school. Um but there are variety of other consequences primarily taking the phone um and then uh giving it back afterwards at the end of the school day. Um the policy um the state would like the policy adopted by August 1st. We don't have a meeting until August 13th. Um, so what I am recommending to the board is for us to wave our first and second read and and um just vote to adopt the policy tonight.
009Uh, the policy has been vetted by our attorneys, uh, Keenan Bean. Um and like I said, it has been uh seen by groups that we've talked to and um we will develop regulations uh district regulations to make sure we're very specific about um how uh the you know consequences will follow and how we're going to be doing reporting because a part of this process is for us to post online annually and submit to the the uh governor's office uh a listing of all of the um violations of the policy. you would you would set um I don't know if anybody has any questions before the board discusses this. Anybody have questions? Mike, Mr. Papus? Yes. My concerns are actually regarding the staff um and the exact wording of the law about removal of someone else's
010property without their permission. Um and will they be covered? uh because taking a cell phone or any object out of somebody's hands against their will uh without the authority to do so specifically written in the law is a theft of property which is a robbery forcibly removing property from a person and I'd like to see how the teachers and our staff or administrators are protected. Uh I I haven't read the full coverage of this law and I don't know if our attorneys have discussed that with us. So I'm not against this policy. I I don't think cell phones should be in kids hands during schools, but I don't want to see a teacher or become a the case, you know, that go statewide. Good good look on that. Good thought. Thank you, folks. Good thought
011on that. Yeah, I never even thought of that piece. So, what I'll do is I'll reach out to uh Miss Berlin, our council, and ask her to provide the board maybe with some follow-up information about um the implications on staff in regards to taking a phone. My assumption would be that um I don't know that a a a staff member would physically try to remove a phone from a student's possession. Really would be a request and then if denied then that would be insubordination. But I'll get some clarification from the if the property is on the desk and the teacher takes it that becomes a lararseny and if the phone's over $1,000 it's a felony. So there's a lot of uh and like I said, I don't believe the children should be using their phones
012during uh educational sessions unless the teacher says, "I want you to look up a certain thing on your phone or your or whatever device you might have." They don't really belong in school in my opinion. But very concerned about uh liability on part of our staff. Yeah, I I think that that's a great point. Uh my assumption would be that because we do have this policy in place now that it wouldn't it probably wouldn't be considered theft if like it's out on the desk and I'm like hey listen we need to take this now and give it to the office. I agree but our policy doesn't doesn't clarify you know override state law. Yeah. So is that is that part of the policy or is that part of the procedure and the practice of the
013policy? Yeah, I I I I don't know like like um Mr. Pavis is mentioning about, you know, state law and and when state law trumps policy. Um so I don't I don't think it would be something that would be in our policy per se, but I do think we probably could get some clarification from our attorneys just about um when we're developing the regulation for right because so we adopt policies and then administration develops regulations to carry out the policy, right? So, we have to make sure that whatever is in the regulation to carry this out complies with any sort of state and federal laws so that it isn't that we're putting staff in a kind of precarious situation where they may do something that they think is okay and it turns out well, you
014know, you really shouldn't have taken it off the desk like that. So, I think it's a it is a great point, but I do think that that would probably something that would be covered under our regulations as opposed to like the policy wouldn't usually get that specific about when there's a phone, these are the steps that we follow. That would really be in the regulation. But before we develop that because that that once again is something that we're just working on now because it comes after the policy. We'll get the guidance from the attorneys by the end of this week. The procedure correct information procedure. The policy we approve the procedure then comes into play and the procedure should not put any of our staff at risk. Correct. Any other questions for and if it
015does if if we can't develop a process where uh removal of the phone from the person either on a person's desk or from their person exactly you know um can we say we don't want this policy then or we don't want I mean the board always could come back and at the next meeting and resend the policy if the board so chooses. I mean the thing with the August 1 deadline is like we don't this is not really an issue for us until September. Um so it's it's a little bit early for us to have to do this but yeah I mean the if we get response from the attorneys and it the board is uncomfortable with that then the board can change the policy you know before school starts with that I I would
016tend to go with it. Yeah. But I still like to see our policy for the removal procedures. Just to give clarification because people may be wondering why we're having a special meeting is that the the state wants the policy adopted by August 1st. And while we our next meeting is until August 13th, there is a grant that all schools are getting to try to comply with this literally not an unfunded mandate. Um though the funding is very small. Uh the district is set to receive $37,000 um for this. And one of the things we did recognize in developing is that since COVID lockers have not necessarily been as used as they once were. And so not all students use lockers. And so we don't necessarily have the same number of locks that we once had.
017We can use the grant to purchase locks for our lockers. So we might as well use the grant funds to purchase locks so that it doesn't fall upon our our taxpayers. Um and so kind of come together quickly to do this so that we're in compliance with the grant requirements. If a student puts a lock in their locker and we supply that lock and someone breaks into it, do we have any liability in that situation? We do not. Even if it's our lockers with with things that students bring in. Okay. Correct. You can bring in jewelry. You brought in a diamond ring and it's in the locker. The school doesn't has no liability for that. Okay. Do I need a motion to wave something? Um, yeah. I guess I guess let's first do a motion.
018It's not on here, but let's I have a motion to wave the first and second read of the policy. Do I have a motion to wave the first and second read of the policy? Jimmy, do I have a second? Maryann, all in favor? Five. And then now we're ready. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept item five? Uh, 4.1 on the agenda, Phyllis. Do I have a second? Marian, all in favor? Okay. 5. Wonderful. Well, thank you. Um I have a few ad hoc items. Just do it. Um is the first read on here of the heat policy. Um it's maximum temperature that that's what the state also put in place in regards to rooms not not having students in rooms that are 88 degrees or warmer. That's really not an issue for us
019anymore that we put air conditioning in all the classrooms. All of the classrooms. In all of the classrooms. Yes. This board put air conditioning in all the classrooms. Um and so we don't have to adopt it tonight because first of all there's no August 1 deadline for that. Um but you know we probably should follow our regular process. So that's just on here. It's just about that if this gets to 88 degrees we have to move the students or cancel school. Um and so um obviously it will have some effect in that our gymnasiums are not air conditioned. So on a very very hot day if the gymnasium was being used um we do we did recently install fan large fans multiple large fans in all gyms. Um but theoretically there could be a time
020where the gym is over 80 degrees and we have to move kids but that would be it. Uh and then the other thing last thing for the board to discuss really is about the uh delegate to the New York State School Boards Association. We uh typically in our August meeting appoint someone to be a delegate which would occur at the August 13th meeting, but we should have a conversation uh just about who the board wants to designate as that individual. This is the person that's going to uh basically support or or not support different positions of NISBA. Um this upcoming school year, I would like to nominate Jimmy Moran. I'll second. All right. All in favor? Five. That was a tough go there, Mr. Congratulations. I I just to let you people know, I emailed
021or texted Todd. I'm like, "Has anybody expressed the insurance?" He did. You I think he got nervous. No, I've been doing the last whatever 10 years or something. That's all I got. You know what's really amazing that um they come out with this policy and has to be adopted by August 1st, but we can't get our state aid on time by the wrong deadline. That is amazing. Yeah. Um that's funny. Uh, may I have a motion to adjourn the special meeting? Phyllis, a second. Mike, all in favor? Five against? Nobody. Okay, motion journal so quickly.