001One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you everyone. So is unable to be here this evening. So I will be in as your MC and I don't so bear with me this meeting. It's going to go quick. Um where do you want to start? So, um, tonight we have sort of two mini presentations. The first one I'm going to kick off, um, this is a presentation on the district's focus on wellness. And I was lucky enough to be able to participate in the wellness committee for the district this year. But what I'm summarizing tonight is the work of our whole team and especially our PBS folks who are here tonight. I'm going to address um, two components of wellness in our district. on prevention and intervention. I'll speak
002about the prevention aspect and Dr. Pat will speak about the intervention aspect. So just as a little background you know I think in the world that we all live in there's definitely increased focus on wellness. There's a great saying by the side in Africa when they greet each other they don't say hello they say and how are the children and the response to that is all the children are well. What a great great way to say that the reflection of the success of a community is based on the health of the children and the people most vulnerable. So this increased focus on wellness here is really a result of a few things. I think in general we live in an anxious age. We hear that all the time. There's certainly been an increase in mental
003health issues um globally and our district is doing different. What is different and something we're proud of here is that we have long had a focus on the whole child. Making sure that we focus on children who grow in health and mind and body. And so it kind of goes along with that that we really have a focus on wellness and maybe articulate wellness um in a more concrete way than we had in past years. So the question we've asked ourselves this year on health wellness committee is what can we do to add to our continuum of supports and as I said to you there's two kind of um angles to this first prevention and skills development. I think that's the one that's schools then the second is intervention. But batch of skills development kind
004of goes, you know, all of the things that we do to develop healthy mindsets to have beautiful school environments that are joyful and supportive places where children feel really belong. And the connection between physical and mental wellness, which is certainly something new was not that way when I was growing up. And then the intervention consists of two different types in school support and external support through our partners. And we're really trying to delineate those two things a little more clearly because they've gotten mixed together a lot over the past few years and I think there's good reason to kind of delineate what that looks like and Dr. So in terms of our prevention, I won't read this all to you, but we do many many things in partnerships with the PTA in terms of staff
005development. We have a dedicated wellness committee that plans things like wellness fairs. We have beautiful instructional programs and PE and health programs. We do yoga and mindfulness programs to younger grades. And we've really kind of looked at this as a whole district. How do we help students develop healthy mindsets and really be successful and feel like they belong to a community? We do that also through cultivating a positive school environment. There's some examples there, but there are many, many ways that we look to do that so that our kids feel like they're in a place that's joyful and that's helping them to become independent adults. We make lots of connections between physical and mental wellness. We have a great great school nutrition program, a farm to table initiative. Um, Mr. Swan has a student advisory
006board now at every school. They came up with a cute name for them. Snacks. There are taste testers who decide if things go on the menu or not. Um, we have beautiful robust athletic programs. Um, our kindergarten program is actually famous around the state on garden and focus on nature and play. And we really intentionally build things that help cultivate that mind body connection in students even at a very young age. Dr. Vicachi and let you talk a little bit about our the two levels of intervention. So in terms of our intervention within um our you can uh define it as both inschool interventions and the external supports as well in school beyond um the teachers, the teaching assistants, the cafeteria staff, all the people that connect with our students. When our students need more
007support from from the school, they can seek out our school counselors, our psychologists, our social workers, even our nurses. They frequent visits from students and they're also getting additional supports, more specific supports from those individuals. It's meant to be shortterm. It's meant to be specific. And then if they need more long-term support, more specific support, that's when we go and we move towards the external. Schools are meant to be school related issues. How do I help assist uh children to be able to make it through their day to develop skills to be able to manage their day? Anything that is long-term, that's when we start to talk about an external support for our students. And some of those um external supports are referral sources. So, we have a um relationship with Northwell. We've have established
008that relationship that is an external support. While it's in our buildings, it's now an external support. It was meant to be able to hand off families to more supportive services outside of the school, more intensive supports. We have had a relationship with REACH as well. That's an external support. That's a referral source as well. They have many supports for families and that would also be a referral. So that's more long-term uh more intensive support. And then of course there are private practitioners, mental health um supports, clinical social workers, clinical psychologists, mental health professionals, the list goes on. And that would be private therapy, private supports. And our team really has worked with families to try and utilize their insurance carriers because not every insurance has um you know that specific um criteria. Uh so we
009try to work with families to connect them to therapists that were um supporting either through insurance skills if it is an out of pocket expense but that's more external. So, um, in our PPS budget tonight and in our budget presentations in the past few weeks, we've already talked about some additions to preventative supports, additional sports teams, additional programming um, that help with cultivating that positive school environment and providing some of the additional resources um, in the preventative side. Tonight, we're also going to talk about, you mentioned this, we'd like to propose for next year that we create um, a a wellness center at our high school. And again, don't yell at me for the pretty picture. It's I like playing with AI. It probably won't look like that. But we want to have a space
010at the building at the high school that becomes kind of a hub for wellness programming, preventative wellness programming at the high school. We envision that place as being, you know, filled with things that can help students if they're having an anxious moment, if they just need a space to, you know, take a breath, relax, calm themselves down, um, and do, you know, some breathing exercises or some of the mindfulness techniques that they've been taught. We also though, and and it'll be supervised by a staff member, we also want that place to become a hub of wellness activities at the high school and even for the district. Um, when we talked about this with the high school team, Andy Smith, our new principal, said, "Well, it's like a wellness movement." And I love that kind of
011idea that, you know, we want to make it cool for kids to think about wellness and talk about wellness. The members of the wellness committee who advocated for this a few weeks ago even addressed that when they were here that it's not always regarded as cool, but we want our kids to look at that and say, you know, this is pretty cool. We envision programs like um a wellness walk around the pond. We have a beautiful pathway around the pond. We could easily put some signage there and make it like more of a meditative space. We'd like to bring in our outside partners to have them do workshops on specific areas, intervention areas, um education areas rather that you know students and parents even might be interested in. We see those things as happening after
012school as well. And finally, we want to connect um to our inschool supports, our intervention partners, and also to our outside supports in a more seamless process. So, our social worker psychologist may cycle through this um center as well. But again, we see this more on the preventative side, not the intervention side. Some additional possibilities. I talked about this a little bit. love love to create, excuse me, wellness walks and calming spaces. Even in our other buildings, I know a lot of our elementary classrooms when I go into them, they have a beautiful little calming space in the corner with a bean bag chair and a fidget toy or something that if if a child is having a moment, they can kind of use to um to calm themselves down. We see things like potentially
013mini classes in yoga, ta chi, art, music therapy, things that people would like to engage in that support overall wellbeing. We are our um PTA is working with members of our wellness committee um this year to present a book talk on the anxious generation um leading up to the mental health forum which the PTA has sponsored for years. We think this is a great model and we maybe see this happening more frequently um in coming years. And if you haven't seen the flyer for this, scan that QR code and sign up really and the book if you haven't read it is really really meaningful. We've already expanded our community gardening. again that connection physical and mental wellness. Um, and we're expanding our farm-to-table initiative with some hydroponics which we actually hope to get in place
014this year. For those of you who don't know, we cannot grow things in the ground and serve them in our cafeteria because there are such um stringent rules around potential soil contamination for school cafeterias. In your house, you can do that. But in a hydroponic garden, because there's no pesticides, no potential runoff, nothing that can contaminate those plants, we can serve those that produce in our cafeteria. And apparently, I did not know this, but hydroponic gardens produce like 40 times their yield of your own backyard garden. So, and and they're, you know, unbelievably cool. Besides, so having students grow their own food and then I saw a school in Suffach County that did this and the kids were having lettuce parties. um little tiny kids again trying to stress that connection to overall wellness for
015our kids and making them to school again. Um Dr. Vachi will discuss the proposed additions to interventions. So um proposing that we um add an additional uh psychologist as a district-wide position uh for the department. The intent there is to to look at what the needs are across the district and assign that individual to help support the buildings that are um seeing uh an overflow of assessments and meetings and so forth because then that puts a strain on uh whether or not the PPS staff can then be actively involved with interventions with students. So I'm asking for additional position. Um, as well as that, uh, we're taking a look at building more of our community partnerships to help facilitate, um, connections with therapists. I know that many families are struggling with finding providers outside and
016that is going to take some uh some time with the team to try and figure out an approach to creating um some referral sources and lists so that we can help give families that if not doing it on a onetoone basis would be a referral source and guidance document of sorts that they can uh use when they need it. Um, in addition to that, last year we came across um what's called the counselor app. Um, and at that time it sounded a little bizarre. I'm not going to lie. Um, had a little bit of concern over using something like that. Um, after all, you know, an app and and thinking about counseling through an app was very foreign. Um, but this year, um, we took a look at Dr. Galler and I as the representatives
017who created that app to get further information regarding it. Um it's actually pretty cool. Um if you move to the next slide, I'll help my visual. Thank you. Um, one of the things that uh the um the uh developer I guess of the app was sharing with us is that the the people who are working for them had their own experiences either themselves or with their families uh with regards to finding or seeking uh mental help and with that um had you know shared with us which we all have spoken about statistically across the nation. what we're facing with especially with our youth in terms of the crisis that is occurring uh in the mental health world. And so a couple of the areas that they found to be um preventing people from seeking the
018help was that there is a cost um and that people don't have the ability very often or some people don't have the ability to have to pay out of pocket or or to even sustain the cost. Um some were it was an inconvenience because even with uh what was available for them some would have to travel many distances to access that uh support because within the area that they lived in or live in uh there wasn't enough resources. So that was also one of the problems in seeking help. And then we've talked about it um and there still exists a stigma uh around speaking about and even seeking uh mental health supports. It doesn't matter what you're seeking it for to talk about your feelings over anything. Specifically, even anxiety, depression, or if you have
019a diagnosis, there is a stigma attached to that. And slowly, I can say slowly students are speaking more. They're asking for help more and more than they've ever seen it before. But there still exists even within a family uh some uncomfortability with discussing or letting people know within their own community even that they're struggling themselves or that their children are struggling with what could be a mental health issue. So um these the company the person who developed the app um those are some of the reasons why um they developed it um especially with the growing nature of people needing help. They feel or they believe that the first step is talking about it right talking about what it is that you're experiencing and then who are you talking about it with? if you're not speaking
020about it with your family, they have developed what is called um the the counselor app and it basically is designed so that any point in time that if you have the app, you can reach out to a licensed mental health professional. What I mean by that is you could be a licensed clinical social worker, could be a licensed psychologist, but the person is licensed to and trained to be able to support you. And um within that application, not only does it allow you to reach out to someone immediately, but you can also reach out and schedule a different time or appointment if that is what you prefer to do. It also links you to the same counselor should you want to be linked to that same uh counselor. There is a mechanisms built into the
021application uh within the for example within our school system where if um in fact the the student is engaging with that clinician and they find that they need or they're ready to transition back to the school uh to have school supportive services. there is a mechanism built into that that has to do with the connection how you set it up for uh for the students within or whoever it is that you're setting it up for. So it will match you um in addition to that with a counselor based on what you describe as your need or why it is you want to chat what you want to chat about. Um uh they also made a point of saying that um there is a very kind of a smooth handoff. First of all, parents have to
022give permission for their students to engage with this at all and that there is a smooth handoff that it gets to the point where they think that this child needs actual parent. This is this is meant to be short-term reach out first step. Um and that was the concern that we both had that we were happy to see that they thought about that. The other thing I think that um first part is really important that you know these are people who are available outside of most traditional hours and then the second one that 88% of the students who utilize this app have never reached out for mental health support before. So we see it as something we'd like to pilot next year middle school and high school. um and get some feedback on. But again,
023just another possible ad for our kids to get support. Now, um I spoke with that before the second part of our presentation tonight. I think if it's okay with the board, we'll go right into it then we can answer since it's really the PPS presentation and we can do that. So, Mr. Thank you Dr. We'll just do presentation and then we'll begin. So this evening we're going to talk about special education program our special education program of pupil personnel services. So what we're proposing next year, which is the budget, special education is a large function. It's an A2250, which is where you'll find it in the line by line budget. This is the description. Special education, our proposed budget of about 22 million what our adopted budget, our actual budget is for the current year.
024You see a very small variance, very small, under 6%. And I'll explain why that is the case. We've included occupational physical therapists in this slide item. This staff members were formally included in the grant and now we're pro proposing to place the new assistant director and the new psychologist that were just mentioned in this grant. So took some staff out, put in the budget, switched it with some staff that you'll see in a moment who now will include in the grant. And now there's room for this assist new assistant director and the psychologist inclusion of speech teachers. These are the codes where you'll find them. So if you look at online by line budget, you'll see those line items increased because they were formerly in the grant in the current year. Funding for reach counseling
025services has been eliminated. It was in this line item. So if you take a look again line by line, it'll be posted online for those of you who want to look at it. We just completed a first draft of it. Um, so you'll be able to see that online tomorrow and then you'll be able to actually look at those specific line items to understand why we have those changes. Also, in the 2025 26 special education program proposed budget, we include funding for students who currently attend programs in public schools in other districts. Those are that's in our current budget. But you take a look at next year's budget, you'll see that's been eliminated. That's because we're not projecting any students to attend these schools next year. Current students have completed the program that are in
026those schools. So you see a savings there. That helps to explain why our budget to budget for special education is relatively flat considering the enormity of that special education function. So you see a decrease here because those students who were there will no longer be attending their next year. We may have one or two that we don't know about, but at least we don't know of any at this point. Again, another decrease in out of district school placements. This is where that is in the line by line based on the fact that we have certain agreements sometimes with students. Those students um at the close of the year will no longer be in those steps. That's a decrease in that code. We do have an increase of three additional students projected to attend Mount Public
027School. This is where you'll find that. Again, some decreases, some increases, but if you take a look at the different line items, that's how it all all plays out. And that helps explain again why you see a relatively flat budget to budget. We also expect a decrease in projected bies placements somewhat offset by an increase in expected related services. Right? So sometimes the different types of services our students receive, we anticipate an increase or a decrease depending on what type of related services based on the specific needs of those students, but overall a decrease in both these placements, which is the main driver in that code. We're also expecting a reduction of one special education teacher at Long Beach High School based on a change of needs. So that's the function 2250. We have a
028few other codes and what we call pupil personnel services. Now I'm going to talk about the main drivers here. You see some increases, some decreases. First is the increase in contractual nurses in this line item 825400 which explains why our health services function increases by about 7.27%. Basically no major difference here for psychological services because that additional psychologist as a reminder that we talked about is going to be covered in one of our grants. Social work services you see a decrease here. It's not that we're decreasing social work services. It's just that now some of those social workers we plan to put in one of our grants based on some eligibility for those social workers to be put in the grant. So a decrease here in terms of what we're putting in the budget, not
029necessarily a decrease in FTEES or in our actual social work or social work services is just a shift one year to the next and what's in the grant and what's not in the grant. And then our PPS office again very small increase basically based on the different salary schedule for next year and I've covered that all the points already. This was our April 8th presentation. the next meeting, which is the Wednesday after the break. Usually we have meetings on Tuesday, but because we're off to Monday, we are having our board meeting on Wednesday, April 23rd, that's when we're going to have budget adoption. So, we'll talk a little bit about revenue. Hopefully, we'll have some state aid numbers. We still don't have a final state budget. So, we really don't know exactly what our state
030is going to be next year yet. Maybe we'll have some information about budget adoption. If not, then we're just going to um work with what we have. The budget vote trustee election is May 20th and the budget hearing is always the week before and May 13th, which is an opportunity for anyone to come up and talk about the budget that the board adopted prior to the community voting on the budget by May 20th. I just want to thank Sabrina and her team for their help in preparing this presentation that you see here this evening. Um, and that's it for your board questions and comments. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Dr. Wellness Center. Um, we'll take questions and comments from Yeah, I have a question. Um, first off, Michael, thank you for your presentation and Sabrina,
031I have a question for you regarding the app because I find that really interesting. just could you describe the process how a a kid who is maybe in need of this service how would they navigate this where would they begin who would they go to to advise them and then get the process started specifically for that the application so if if we roll it out uh next year um then the students will all have access on a phone and most students will have their phone because it's only what I understand it's only um an app for a phone And at that point, I envision that there'll be um material for families for students to educate them on the app and how to access it, how to, you know, once it's on on their phone, what
032it is they'll need to do in order to get that counselor chat going because it's a chat feature. So, I'm assuming that it includes getting the parental correct agreement. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, thank you for your presentation. Um, Sabrina, just to add on to um what Miss Elsie said, I know it's an app. So, is it a any AI in that at all or is or guaranteed it's going to be a real person who will be texting the students? Yes, we asked the question. And in school, will we will the students see, hey, this is the app? Will there be some type of presentation? kids in the school so they start to feel comfortable with it automatically. Yes. I know that it is easier for students at times to reach out via text than
033it is to somebody. You said something important. Well, you said a lot of things earlier that were important. So, get me wrong, but you you do you are right where we have to change the stigma in our community, not just in Long Beach, but in Long Island, that it's okay not to be okay. And it's not going to be an easy feat. And and I'm glad that we're starting slowly with the middle school and the high school, but children also who are younger tend to have these issues. What are we? And I know we're doing the wonderful things with the nature, which I think is a great way to start um getting them outside, caring adults, making them feel unity, but what about fourth graders and fifth graders? because the stat statistics show that students
034are feeling these very difficult feelings the ages of nine and 10. So we have actually talked a lot about that with um the leadership of the PTA lately. Um at that age what we really need to do is provide parents with with um resources. And I've heard over and over again from parents and I know it even from my own family that if you are a parent who who knows that your child needs help, you may not know where to look for that help. Even people who are educated may not know which is the organization that's best for my child. Did they take my insurance? How do how do I make an appointment? Is there a waiting list? So, and that's something, you know, we put on there that we'd like to better facilitate that.
035I think we have to look at our resources as a whole and make some kind of a centralized place where parents can go to get that information. And I think I don't know what that's going to look like yet, but and I think we have to include a variety of resources, both the ones we have partnerships with and and private providers who might be willing and able to take on new patients because that's the thing I hear over and over again. I know that my child needs counseling. I don't know where to go. But also too, there's not that many counselors that apply. So like is this counselor app some fifth graders also text? Are we maybe looking to see if parents want to use that counselor app? I think right now it's not available
036for students below. It's just very concerning. Thank you. you finish. Um, you know, there's a lot doc they they you know is like it's a big deal. Two other is beyond your belove your portal or you just broke two others. That's true. Um, I do want to I did want to give a shout out to Mr. Swan for the snacks. I remember a few years ago we had a middle school student who sat here and said that they wanted to have a voice and I I think Mr. Deino Mr. that swan took it. They went with that and they rolled with it and now our students all have a voice and I think that's important. We have a student here. Do you feel that you have a voice as well in what is being served
037in our high school cafeteria? A lot more this year. Yeah. Especially because we have student meetings where we can get signed off for the period. And um and we have the meeting with Mr. Swan and all the students are able to express their their concerns and their needs and their wants for the cafeteria. So, I think it's kind of this year. That's good to know. Thank you. No. Um, I I think that we're I'm very pleased in looking for the new psychologist. I think after looking at over everything, I think it sounds that it would definitely help all of our students. Um, that's it. That's it for me. Doc, may I go, Mrs. B? Yes, you may. Just uh thank you for the presentation, Mr. Devito and Dr. Kashio and her team. Mr. Superintendent, first
038I just wanted to ask how much is in the grant? The grant was referred to in the presentation. How much does come from the grant? The um it fluctuates anywhere from 1.2 I think this district said at one point maybe 1.4 but overall it's about 1.2 million on the 611. 619 is slightly is a lot less actually about 400,000 I think 619. I know this past year we had the uh 611 was just about 1.1 million for the current year and I just if I remember correctly the 619 was about 400. Is there any concern of that money might be intercepted or by Washington? I'm not concerned. You're not concerned. Okay. We shouldn't be concerned any concern with psychologist. Where is he or she going to be housed? Um I don't know where she or
039he's going to be housed. You know um the space is very challenging to find. So I don't know where they will be. I understand. So you won't know the first day of school where the need will be present for this person to be. So if I were to anticipate at the end of this year looking at projections for next year what the uh evaluations look like what the initials happens at the end of this year I'll have a pretty good understanding of where I'll need to um not house the person but what their assignment will be. It's been my understanding or impression for the last decade at least that there's been a great difficulty in finding placements for students who present with special needs or special concerns. How many of those students we have here
040in terms of this? it it's been through no lack of diligence on our uh but the state and the county just hasn't and those I guess I can throw them in as well just haven't provided provided the programs that our our children need our students need so do we have a significant number of those students who are still in search of a program yes we do and what do we do for them so there's a couple of different things that we do sometimes we their schedule where we take a look at um if shortening their day in the district uh makes a difference for them to be able to tolerate and then we support that family with um additional supports outside of their day. Sometimes we have to place the student on homebound instruction. Typically,
041it's when there's a safety issue or there's a concern that we can't um we can't manage their behavior because it's extensive. Uh so we've done that as well. Um but there are shortages of uh schools preschool programs and services and also our elementary and high school. We are struggling with placements and Dr. R if I could add the other thing that we our team has done is create programs in our own district programs that would not have existed here 10 years ago and then we need staff for those programs additional staff. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. I just want to ask or express a concern about the hire of the psychologist. It seems to me that among our staff we seems seem to have a severe shortage of those who are trained in drug
042and alcohol and if in fact in your screening of candidates if you could give that some kind of concern because that too is sort of almost an epidemic and it sort of runs hand in hand with me mental health mental wellness in terms of problems that kids present with particularly kids in secondary school. So I would hope that there'd be some concern looking at that respective qualification. And my last question of concern concerns the wellness center. I'm glad there's a a parent uh consent or a parent involvement in the app. So a high school kid signs up and wants to go to the wellness room. What is the parent informed of that? And if so, when is the parent informed of the students participation in the wellness room? Or is that seen as a curricular
043activity like social studies and math and that there's no need for parental consent or parental? Yeah, I would I would see that as similar to lunch, guidance, social worker. Students don't need permission to go see their guidance counselor. Parents would not necessarily be notified of that either. Um again we see this students would have to sign into the room or have a pass from the teacher. If the student needs additional support and needs to see a counselor regularly that's so if it's a crisis situation the student signs into the wellness role they would be directed to a psychologist would be brought in and that would be a psychologist visit. We don't see this so much as for students in crisis Dr. right? As for students who just maybe aren't comfortable in the giant cafeteria or,
044you know, want a few minutes of quiet during a study wall instead of sitting in a such large room or, you know, are having an anxious moment and need to just, you know, settle themselves down but are not in crisis. I understand that's probably the script, but my script has a kid who wants to cut social studies because there's a test and goes to wellness and then the teacher from social studies calls a parent and says, "Billy wasn't in my social studies class and didn't take the test and but he was in the wellness." So, how are you going to argue against that? So I once again I think it's something that has to be played out but I hope it's not a a resource room for kids who want to cut and get out
045of academic responsibilities to go play part cheesy or bingo or two and I think that's why we need a staff member to supervise it and I'm sure that there are protocols in place that you know that we have in place now in fact in our other okay thank you so couple things first of Well, I want to thank you, Michael. I want to acknowledge um the special ed department because I always think of you guys as the the little engine that could. There's not many of you, but you you really fight a lot of battles for us and and you do tremendous work. So, thank you for all being here, and thank you, Sabrina. Every time you Dr. Every time you present, I always enjoy listening to you. So, I do have a couple questions.
046Um sort of along the lines of what Dr. Brian was saying I I do want to understand is there an amount of times a student goes to the wellness center where there's maybe an alarm bell goes off and so and how do we qualify that? How do we qualify whether this is actually a student in crisis that is just not willing to admit it yet? Like, oh, I broke up with my boyfriend. I just need a minute. Then they come the next day. Oh, I have my period. Oh, I missed. So, again, I think where do we know? I think in two ways. First of all, is the child going every day at lunchtime because they just hate a large cafeteria? I wouldn't consider that a crisis moment. They're at lunch if they want. If
047it is a child who's regularly presenting with some anxiety, I think the followup then is to that child's guidance counselor or the social worker and psychologist in the building and they follow up with a call from the parent and a conversation with the child. So, it's that first step. It's you know the child who gets the child there every day certainly is a conversation with the PPS staff and there will be staff that can identify that. So the same staff will be there. So it won't be floating staff. That's why we need to we feel like we need a permanent staff permanent staff member even if the PPS staff then type. Okay, that makes sense to me. And then as far as going a step further with a referral to outside we then so I'm
048I'm I'm understanding that we've kind of eliminated some of the services that we're getting through reach if I ever say correctly. I I don't consider eliminating it but as we discussed with the folks from reach we see what reach is doing is very very valuable for our community absolutely but what we've been seeing over the past you know five to six years is kind of a conflation of inschool counseling and outside therapy even among their own staff I think that even among their own parent community there may not be a clear understanding of what in school counseling is when external therapy is, you know, if you know anything about therapy, it can be very difficult. You don't want to have a child in therapy and then send them back to. So, what we're trying to
049do is just clarify that reaches our external therapy department. They may we're still talking about this. Joe's going to come see me next week. They may even be on site, but outside of the school, that's really Okay. Yeah. So, that that was kind of where I was going with that. So, we're trying to make, if I understand it correctly, for the community too to understand, a delineation between a wellness center where it's a pause for a student to take a breath versus if you're actually having a crisis or need something that requires a session, a one-on-one session, wellness center here, consultation with school PPS staff here, external support here. And it sounds like we were blurring those lines before. and perhaps we were doing more therapy in the school day or that we weren't we
050didn't have such clear ones. Is that my understanding correctly? It is. Okay. Okay. My next question um is about the act. So, and I I I'm trying to remember what my question was, but I know I had a good one. So, just give me a second. Um oh, I think it also was regards to assuming a couple questions. So first of all assuming a parent does not give permission that student how that student will not how do we how do we know that student did not download it and do it anyway and go behind our backs because apps are apps so it won't work on their phone let's say they can't download it. Okay. So the first stage would be a roll out to parents and an explanation of what it is and and our
051recommendation would be every middle school high school parent fills up the paperwork for this app to have their child have access to it. I think for any parent, it's a it's a tool that why not give your kid that toolbox. When you fill out the paperwork, you fill out the parent emergency contact and the contact person in the school. And there's a set of guidelines for when either or both are contacted. and they're they're really on top of any crisis any you know any um indication of suicidal ideation or anything serious. So if there's a suicide if somebody calls and said I'm about to harm myself they will will they immediately will they also notify authorities or okay so and they can locate that child because of the phone so that's a big plus okay
052so that was another question and then my last question I'm sorry to be asking so many but um I think this is really important if a student is accessing that app very frequently along the same lines is there a tracking do we know and then also How? So on the same lines of that, as a district-wide pilot, how do we qualify this is working? Is there something that says a report? We'll get a dashboard with how many times it's been used by, you know, how many different students have used it and we'll get even the parents will get. So we'll be able to see from the data and from what I understand within the um the um company if you will there's also a leaison with the district that to answer question about if they're
053accessing it frequently how would you know that or if they need additional support there is a person assigned to the district that will monitor that and then there's a conversation with the districts I mean I personally see this as a huge benefit and I hope I I hope parents feel that same way. I know there is a tremendous shortage of therapists outside of school. So, if this app can bridge that gap for a family, um I I really hope we roll this out. My my my hope and my ask as a board member is that we really roll this out effectively, widely, and that parents have access to it because it'll only work if they use it. And all too often as a mom, as a kids in the district, and as a board member,
054you know, I I've seen things rolled out sometimes and people don't take hold of it. So that would just be my my biggest challenge. The other the other great advantage is the app itself is in English and in Spanish, but counselors are available in multiple languages assuming they get noticed. That's what you say. Someone speaks Russian, they they need that may not be. Okay. My last question is for you, Michael. So, just to clarify for me and for the public. So, I see, you know, there's that that 17% almost 18% negative and I understand that it is because of moving over the grants, but can you give us a clearer picture? I just want to make sure we're not we're not losing anything. So, if we make everything equal and we put that into the
055grant, we're we're not losing social work services. Correct. Correct. It's no reduction. No reduction reduction and no increase. Yeah. Sometimes year to year um certain positions are put in the grant for different reasons. Um Sabrina and her team felt that for next year there was a a significant reason to put some of the social workers in a grant because of eligibility for that grant and we decided to take other positions that have been in the grant in the past such as speech teachers and some OT's and PTS that have been in the grant to put them in our baseline budget. So it's a bit of shifting around just um to make it seem uh more reasonable for us in terms of the criteria for the grant. Okay. And again just to reiterate what Sina had
056said earlier, the the suggestion of adding an assistant director as a psychologist is to take some of the burden off our direct service providers so that they actually have more time. Yeah. No, they are socialist and psychologist. So in effect, we're giving more time for them to direct your experts. Great. Okay, I think the we're done. So now we can take questions or comments about this. Yes. And I forgot to say this in the beginning. A few meetings ago, we actually approved that instead of having people come up to the podium and say their name and address, people had said to us that because the meetings and posted online that that you can feel comfortable about doing that. Um, so there are, you may have noticed over there public comment form. If you just fill
057that out and hand it to Susanna, when we do public comments, she'll call you up. And you can do it at any time during the meeting. It doesn't have to be in the beginning. And if you didn't do it tonight, it's okay. Do it at the end. You just wanted to roll it out. We could investigate. Just a way to keep people's address. And to be clear, it just has to have your name and your address on there, not your question or it does. Well, it does only because we have a large organiz. Okay. So tonight's agenda only right now from the public. may not go to the mic and just turn it on so you can hear it. State your name and address those of you who may not know Dr. Joseph Smith. I'm
058the executive director of Long Beach. Um, my my address is 54 West Olive Street, Long Beach. Been a resident of this community for over 50 years and I've had three young students who have gone through Long Beach school, graduated from Long Beach High School. So, you know, I have a commitment to this community and commitment to the school district. U, I think the idea of a wellness center is is wonderful. I think is a terrific idea, terrific addition to the resources that will be available. So I support that completely. However, I do have to ask a question that you know I only learned about a week or so ago that the relationship with Long Beach, which has been in place for over 50 years, will be terminated. And I don't quite understand why at a
059time when there is a heightened everybody is knows this there's a heightened need for mental health services the drug and alcohol council majority provides uh and has provided within this district for over 54 years not quite sure why that would be eliminated haven't really understood that I don't know if there are further uh explanations for that, but to me it just doesn't make sense. Just this school year alone so far, we've served over 125 youngsters in Long Beach Middle School and Long Beach High School. We've provided counseling services. We've acted as a bridge to be able to motivate and encourage youngsters and families that need ongoing services to seek those services at our agency or elsewhere. And by the way, our services are offered on a very very modest sliding scale, no charge to youngsters.
060Families that are involved may be charged this life scale based on their ability, but we're committed to providing services for all who need those services. And at a time when the services are needed more than ever, both mental health and substance abuse services, I just don't see the sense in removing that. We've provided that service for 50 years to this district. And one week ago, I learned that that's determinated. Frankly, I find that offensive. I don't think that's by intent, but I don't understand it. We have been at the core of working in the mental health field in this community and in partnership with this school district. And I don't understand why that would be terminated. If it's a matter of money, which I don't think it is, but if it's a matter of money,
061we provided services in this district at no cost for about 40 years of the 54 years. It's only because there was a request from the district to expand the services to five days a week in both the middle school and the high school. at which point the district offered to contribute to the course. And so that contract which has remained at the same level for these last probably 15 years has not gone up by one penny and that's because of our commitments of this district and the youngsters and the families in this district. So frankly I don't understand it. There's a need. Everybody recognizes the need. We have a resource that has worked cooperatively with this district for all this time and provided services for the kids in this district and now it's being terminated.
062It seems illogical and frankly potentially dangerous. Okay. Thank you so much, Joe. Again, I mean, we're gonna discuss this more next week, but we do not see it as terminating the relationship. We we see it as changing the way services delivered both during school and after school. And you're absolutely right, it has nothing to do with money. It has to do with what we're observing in a different world than 15 years ago. and kids who are in crisis and confusion over who is supervising and managing that crisis. We need to delineate in school versus out of school more clearly and we see this as the best way to do it. But you're coming to see me next week. Sabrina can sit with us as well and we can talk about my name is Scott 565
063East Bay Drive. I had two beautiful daughters that went through this district and they're doing very well because of the education that they got. So my question is you've been talking about this conflating uh problem. Are there any studies that show that this is is a problem anywhere else in the world or are you just saying you think that there's an issue? I'm not sure what you're asking. Well, you said you said that there there is this problem between in school and out of school counseling. So we what are you basing that on? Feedback from our mental health professionals. From you our mental health professions in the district. And what are they telling me? That we're doing things in school that belong in external therapy. Okay. So here's my question about that. So what you're
064saying is right now you you're you're we are providing a service for a child and a student to come in and say I'm having a problem. Okay. And you're eliminating three social workers from from the schools. It's not a straight that that that's not true. you're by by putting us out of the school, you're eliminating three social workers that work in a school every day. So you are reducing. So here's my question. Question is very simple. If there is a problem that way and you decide to say these kids have to have cannot get that service in the school anymore. So what you're saying is they should wait till after school. I I I I I really think you have to think about that because in reality, you're going to make a child, a student,
065whatever age, wait till after school to get help. That astounds me. That's not true. But well, well then then tell us how it's going to work. Tell the people how it's going to work. How does it work? If you say you let's say I don't know how many people you have been employed but let's say that you have x number of people that are employed now you have three less we Joe told you what the statistics are I think the contacts are over 500 contacts just in the last year that's how many people we've seriously And I just say to you, you can disagree and I appreciate that, but I'm listening to the people who work in our school buildings who are telling you that this is the best way to go for children. You
066can disagree, but please don't say that we're not doing what's we believe is right. I didn't say you're not doing what you believe is right. I said I think you should think about Okay. Do we have anyone else that wants to make a comment? Hello Karen Axelson 668 Lincoln. Um first thank you for the presentations and um for everybody who makes an effort to speak into the microphone. I know it seems silly in a small room but um when I can't come in person I'm usually watching on the YouTube link and it is very very hard to hear unless you're speaking like right into it. Um so thank you for those who make an effort to do that on the regular. Um I you know had kind of put in my comment request before the
067other two gentlemen got up to speak about re so I think um it is clear to me now that that budget item is out. Um is the counselor app part of the budget? Is that part of the grant? I'm not sure part of the grant. Okay. And then um perhaps I missed it but I was curious about the confidentiality of what those students put in there to the parents and to the teachers. Okay. Um, and my other question about the um, I guess for Mr. Devito for one of the budget items, the nurses were the, you know, the biggest increase and it said something about contract nurses. I didn't quite understand it. So, I wasn't sure if that meant that we're like using agency and that's the reason for the cost and we can't find
068full-time. I was just hoping you could explain it a little bit more. That's correct. And I may have missed that bullet point if I did from the slides. So we have nurses on staff that we pay their they are our employees and then we also need some nursing services on our school buses. So we need to and we contract out for those services. So we needed to make sure that the allocation was correct in our budget for next year for the amount of contract nurses that we're using and it's predominantly out of school buses because all of our other buildings have employee nurses. Okay. because of the nature of the position, it's not possible to fill it with a a full-time person. Well, I think it's because it changes, right? You know, it really just
069depends on the need of of the student whether or not that they need a nurse on the school bus. Where in our school buildings, you know, typically on a regular basis year after year, the board has made the decision to staff uh those buildings with either one or more than one nurse, you know, depending on which building it is where the requirement for a nurse on a school bus is more fluid and it's easier just to as needed use a contract nurse company for that. If I state anything incorrectly, Dr. Marcos, please correct me. I'm I'm just curious because it was a big piece of it and I know you know for my line of work which is very different though we have to consider could we fill it with a part-time person or but
070I know you need the consistency of a nurse of course. Um my last question, but I didn't put it on the comment card um but since part of my time I know kind of everybody is is nodding their heads and saying um you know when they were talking about it it's difficult to place students and I so appreciate that the district offers you know probably more than New York State would require at a minimum for different types of settings for students. Um and everybody's kind of just nodding like yes it's very difficult. So is there any thought on how we can improve upon that improve upon our the ability to place students who are are not currently being placed? I mean that's unfortunately out of our control. That's based on the available availability of external
071programs. But what we regularly have conversations about is what can we add to our own repertoire so that we can serve the students in district and district is always what we want. Um and with that's one of the reasons we got permission to do a 40% preschool program because it's a shortage of preschool specialists on Long Island. We're one of the few districts that does that. So that's the kind of thing that we're looking at. We can't necessarily control whether pool seats or other external places. I understand that. Um I specifically like that preschool program. I was wondering if there was anything else in the works or being thought about expansion for sure. That's it. We don't know exactly. Okay. Um, student organizations. How's it going, guys? I'm going to start off by discussing some
072of the upcoming events we have at Long Beach. So, the first one, probably the biggest one before the end of the year is our last blood drive of the year. We're aiming to get 40 to 50 units of blood from the students and we've seen an increase in the amount of kids signing up in this blood drive compared to previous blood drives. So, we're really pushing for that momentum until the final ball drive. Other things we have going on are student fundraisers and local restaurants to hopefully raise funds for student organization next year. Uh, a student who's part of organization has recently been doing a series of bake sales to raise money for a local houseire houseire. And the freshman are hosting a 3v3 basketball game. Um, I'm not sure when the date is, but
073it's to help raise funds for freshman class next year. And this past week, or I think it was last week, we had a leadership forum with student organization and we were asked a series of questions based on the general good or bad state of Long Beach High School. And one question that was really up for debate with the students was the inclusiveness of Long Beach High School. Some said it was really good. Some said they didn't feel included at all. And when asked, when the students who said they didn't feel included, when asked why they didn't participate more or why they didn't feel included, they said that it was really because a lot of the teachers don't show as much participation in high school. And a lot of them said teachers should lead by example.
074Like a lot of the students don't feel connections with their teachers. Like we see a lot of teachers who love to participate. Like for example in class Olympics when I competed in the games I had a couple of my teachers play with me and I thought it was a great day. I was happy by the end of the day. I didn't have any stress. You know it was a great time. But then you have those students who don't have those connections and I had a meeting with Doc Mr. Myers Dr. Smith and lead psychologist Dr. ran the other day and we was just brainstorming ideas for incentives for the teachers to kind of participate more. And one of the things we came up with that I really liked was for big sporting events to have
075the teachers get nominated by the students and walk out with the students jersey as a kind of way to get them more involved. And as they do that event, they might be like, I like this. I'm going to show up for more. And it's just a good way to get the teacher more involved in turn getting the students more involved. And that was great. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing that with us. Okay. Um moving on. I think we're going to go treasurer support right for February of 2025. No action. Nothing necessary. Okay. Approval of minutes for executive session and regular meeting March 20th, 2025. session of April 3rd. Second. Any discussion? No. All right. Moving on. We're going to go to Sorry, we have to vote. My bad. Um, Miss Bely, I
076vote yes. Miss Conley? Yes. Brian and I sorry. Um, presentation of the superintendent. Thank you. I'd like to ask the district clerk to read a walk on resolution. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Long Beach City School District hereby approves the retention of Christopher Morz as choir to conduct investigation into personnel matters at the hourly rate of $250. Motion made second. Any discussion? Okay, we're going to vote um Miss Belie. Yes. Miss M. and I'd ask the board to consider item one, certificated personnel. Motion second. Any discussion? I just wanted to uh recognize Miss Parks. Thank you for many years of service at West School. Certainly going to miss your presence at West. You've been there for a long time and we certainly appreciate all that you did to make the
077kids at West just stand out and to accommodate them. So we appreciate you coming tonight. We appreciate you many years at the service to the children of Long Beach who took the kids of West. So thank you. We wish you every good thing in your retirement. I want to just echo what Doc Ryan just said. um all the years that we've worked together on CTA matters and it's always been a pleasure to work with you. Long Beach will miss you, but I want to welcome you to the greatest club on earth for you, Miss Thank you. And I would just like to thank you so much for your dedication and your caring of our kids. You've been a very special teacher and I'm sure we will always remember you with love and kindness, fondness. Congratulations
078on your well-deserved retirement. I I'd like to know how many years. I've been here for 23, but overall 37. 38. And when did you start teaching? When you were 12. I'm going to need to know your secret of how I retire. You look fabulous. Congratulations. Thank you. Um I'm a little bit surprised. All right, moving on. What are we up to? Voting. Um, Miss Belly, I vote yes. Miss Conwick, yes. Dr. Yes. And I vote yes. Item two, non certificated personnel. Second. Any discussion? Okay. Missing? Yes. Miss Conway? Yes. Yes. And I guess we would consider motion. Any discussion? Missy? Yes. Miss Conway. Yes. Dr. Vote yes. Okay. And I vote yes. All right. Do we have any new and old business from the board of education? May I just can we can we let
079you go first? I can let go first. Okay. I just wanted to ask you uh since the ELA testing began this week in terms of uh it's a concern of mine in terms of uh opt outs certainly been a concern for a number of years the parents who opting out of the test we get any numbers of our students well we have not because there's a bit of a testing debacle statewide today um so the state you may have heard reports that the computer based testing did not work this morning and the state kind of canled it for today. Um so we'll try again tomorrow but I suspect that that may increase our outbound numbers um even for students who had intended to take the test unfortunately but we'll get back to the board. Just
080a concern and maybe I may have forgotten but we were concerned about our opt out on this prior this year. Did we use any intervention to encourage parents or whatever to reconsider in terms of having their children actually take the assessment? Yeah, I know the principles have reached out and tried to, you know, encourage parents to let students sit for the test. I think our numbers, the opt numbers have been steadily going down over the past few years. Um, but again, the public doesn't get help. Thank you. I just want to give a big shout out to the middle school. Um the play this week they was they were wonderful. So hardworking kids that the play was just fantastic. So please Mr. Bis he's my please let them know how much I love watching them
081perform. It was fabulous. Um I also want to say I did see many of our teachers at the guardian game this Saturday. They were really there to help show support for the community and that was really nice to see many of the kids were there and they commented on how great it was to see their teachers just for that. Thank you. Oh, and happy vacation everybody. Miss Belly, you're good. I'm good. Okay. Um, we are up to questions and comments um from the public on any set. Good evening everyone. My name is Alexia 548 East Street here in Long Beach. I'm here on just I'm not involved or anything. I'm just a father of three kids. Two elementary, one in high school. Very proud. I'm very happy of having my kids in this this district.
082I'm going to read because I don't want to I don't want to forget what I'm saying. So it's 2 minutes. So on behalf of my wife Mar and my own I would like to thank the school district for having the OM project as part of this the school program. I don't know if you know but the district and the schools here did a great job in the the states. So we have all five groups that are going to the to the to the worlds. So that's that's what I want to highlight here in my my speech. We came to Long Beach just a year and a half ago and we are very grateful being part of this community and we feel that having our kids attending the elementary and high schools is a privilege. Our
083four daughter Amelia is part of the O program. We have had the opportunity to attend the parents meetings, rehearsal sessions and comp competitions and is inspiring the greatest spirit created around the project which seeing coaches, parents and and kids working together towards church success. The kids have embraced this challenge with incredible determination and commitment. having rehearsals after school hours or Monday, working late night, making their customs props, preparing the scripts, all tasks that need to be completed to guarantee that success. And today we stand witness to that success coming to life in the most remarkable most remarkable way now representing Long Beach, but in New York State, kids have discovered the strengths in unity, how collaboration fosters creativity, problem solving, and throws. They have learned discipline not as a constraint but as a pathway to
084excellence and self-improvement. We see only positive results from the project. We have seen friendship bloom confidence rise and how their dreams take shape. It's incredible how this this program works for them. We have watched these young minds push beyond their limits achieving milestones thought impossible. And all of this is because the dedication of the incredible students, our passionate co our passionate coaches commitment from parents and every individual who was contributed who has contributed to making this a success. We think is more than just an educational program and is a foundation for the leaders, innovators and change makers of tomorrow. We are witnessing a group of kids that are at the right in the right path of preparing to make big difference in our society and I think we think we need it. Mr. Car and
085everyone here we are talking about health healthy mindset positive school environment and skill development. I think this program as long as well as LA it's another program that my kids the third year the third grade is is in and also my daughter who is in my school this program work very well I know we have and I see you're bringing programs and we appreciate that so I just want to reinforce that this is amazing seeing being there I have two mothers that were there with us part of the of the teams seeing the coation of the team of the people and how they how they what it brings to the kids. It's amazing. So I don't want to take more time. I just want to thank you and I just want to ask more support
086for keep the support for this and try to make it quiet for the for the rest of this. Thank you very much. I just want to say that um you know we were thrilled that four out of our 16 goals. Um, but that created a little bit of a fundraising dilemma because I think you've raised a lot of money to do it, but we're going to um pay for the registration fees. Thank you very much. This is this is basically what I the intention was just please keep in mind to keep the program because it's amazing but I know but thank you very much for I just want to say thank you. I know you said you you don't come here often, you don't speak often, but thank you for for sharing the story and
087and just um bringing it to our attention and and being so um how do I say but um well spoken. It was it was really nice to hear. It was nice to hear how you were um not only highlighting your own children but the other children and also the district as a whole and it is a great program and we know that you guys are your children you guys the teachers are getting a lot out of it. So so thank you for sharing. Thank you for speaking up on their behalf. Um, okay. Anyone else questions and comments from the public or is that good? Moving on. You get up there, you might be able to get 15 grand if you want to speak. [Applause] Um, next up is LDCTA, Carrie Bloom, LBCTA. Uh, first, thank
088you for the presentation. We are very happy to hear about the wellness movement. Anything we could do for student mental health, staff's mental health is awesome and we welcome anything that you'd like to try to do and we're we're here to support that fully. Um, in addition, I would like to say a huge congratulations to one of our own over here, Parks, who has been with us for I think we decided 13 years as our correspondent secretary, and we are very sad to see her go. But like Elsie said, you're going to join an awesome club. Um, so congratulations and thank you everyone. Have a great spring break, too. Good evening, K. Myg 15,000. First of all, I congratulate Miss Parks on retirement. Best of luck in the next chapter. I'd also like to thank
089Mr. Dito, Dr. for Kacio and the special ed team for the presentation seat. Thank you. Group C. Anyone here from group? I don't think so. Um PTA. Um two quick announcements. We've got the PL sale going on currently. So CCPTA is so excited. We've got 12 high school seniors getting scholarships from us because of money we fundraised. needs to keep back going. Plants are gorgeous if you've never purchased one from James Port. Um the palm trees are in the tomato plants. I killed plants and my tomato plant survived last year. So I highly recommend it. Orders are due by April 17th. Um and I know Dr. Gallagher mentioned the book club that we have culminating with the mental forum. Um so it starts at the high school on April 30th. um Anxious Generation. It's a
090great book. So, I'm super excited and I think there's a bunch of moms that are going like there's an audible. So, if you don't enjoy reading, you know, struggling with my my child, there's an audible if you'd like to listen to it. Um but thank you so much and having been a West parent. Congratulations. Okay, I think that's everything, right? Congratulations again. Motion to adjourn. Happy vacation.