001Welcome to the monthly meeting, our September meeting. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance led by Mr. Plesque >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Roll call. Everyone is present. I would like to ask for an approval of the minutes. I need a motion to accept the minutes of the August 13, 2025 regular monthly meeting. Miss Kelly. Second. Mr. Cullen. All in favor? Mr. Pleski was not present. So, okay. Approval of uh the minutes for I need a motion to accept the minutes of the August 22nd, 2025 special meeting. A motion, Mr. Lunar. Second, Mr. PKI. All in favor? Miss Aragona is abstaining. I'd like to call up Mr. Cunn for the
002art gallery. The Burn Ciderman Gallery is proud to present the first exhibition of the 2025 2026 school year. Over the last three years, it has become a meaningful tradition to begin our gallery season in September by welcoming back an LHS alumni to showcase their work. This tradition not only highlights the incredible accomplishments of our graduates, but also provides our current students with a powerful example of the possibilities and directions their own artistic journeys can take after leaving Limbrookch High School. This year, we are thrilled to welcome back Jolie Orbetta, a proud member of the class of 2021 with her exhibition entitled Play Things 2 Homecoming. Jolie is a visual artist whose work combines two-dimensional media with three-dimensional installation techniques, creating immersive environments that explore heightened fantasies of girlhood and materialism. She recently received her Bachelor
003of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from Sunni Newalts in the spring of 2025, and we are honored to host the second showing of her undergraduate senior thesis right here in the gallery where her own creative journey began. During her time at Limbrook High School, Jolie was deeply involved in the school community, participating in cheerleading, color guard, class night, show choir, and theater. Most notably, she served as president of the GSA and the LHS NHS. She often credits the supportive and inspiring environment of the art department as one of the most influential experiences of her time here at LHS. Her AP portfolio, which focused on clowns, as well as her participation in community events like the night of the pumpkins, foreshadowed her unique creative vision she continues to develop today. Her current exhibition, Play Things
0042, Homecoming, was previously displayed at the Samuel Dorski Museum of Art in Newaltz. This ambitious body of work celebrates the beauty of juvenile excess through oil paintings, pastel drawings, and collage silkcreen prints. Its imagery, ranging from glamorous dolls to grotesque monsters, cartoon food, consumerous holidays, and pop icons, draws from the daydreams of childhood and transforms them into larger than-l life spectacle. Installed as a giant toy display, the work follows the coming of age of a bratty, monstrous child into a tyrannical super villainous diva. Jolie's fascination with immersive commercial art such as store window displays, holiday decorations, and theme parks informs the installation techniques she uses to bring the show to life. We are honored to welcome back Jolie to the LHS to LHS and to share her extraordinary work with our students and community. Thank
005you, >> Jolie. It's so nice to see you here. I remember seeing your artwork in high school and always admiring it and it's so nice. Would you like to say something? >> You don't have to, but we'd we'd invite you to if you'd like to. >> Oh, wow. Hi. Thanks for having me. Um, I didn't prepare anything, so I apologize, but thanks for having me up here. I recognize some of you guys from, you know, when I was at Limbrook and I've, you know, been here all my life. You know, I grew up here, born and raised in Long Island. And, um, I'm very proud to bring this work back. It's definitely, you know, the most magnum opus kind of thing I've ever created. And you know there's a lot of Limbrech students at Newaltz
006and I always like get a lot of um enjoyment from reminiscing about all of the great work we created there and all of the work that we create now because um this faculty and staff was just so important especially you know Mr. Cunn Mr. Senna Mr. Reus you know these people were my champions and always wanted me to succeed. Oh my gosh, I'm getting like emotional. But um yeah, and so just thank you to all of the support who you know, the people who are here and the people who aren't here who believed in me and pushed me to do really great things. So thank you. >> Thank you. At this time, we would like to welcome our new staff to our Limbrook family. Sheila Dempsey, assistant principal in the high school. If you can
007just stand when your name is called. Jamie Cuthin, business teacher at the high school. Bridget Hart Spelain, long-term sub for English at North. Skyler Toddfeld, grade two at Marian Street. Jesseline Dominich, grade four teacher at Marian Street. Alexandra Gruin, grade five teacher at Marian Street. Allison Eert, special education at Marian Street. Anna Haragame, psychologist at West End. Megan Oor Shuda, social worker at West End and not here, but we want to still welcome them. Anthony Melissa, the band teacher at West End, and Robert Casera, a long-term sub for band at Marian Street. Welcome. And you don't have to stay. You're welcome to leave or stay. Up to you. >> You have to listen to me first though for the last times. I just want to say one thing. So, I get to spend three days
008with these people at an orientation and like I miss you guys. Like it was real I really it was we had a really good session. There was just a really good bonding there and I just feel like uh we're we're in really good shape with with the folks that we've hired. So, welcome welcome welcome the I promise this is going to be the last time we embarrass you until the night you're tenured. So, that's it. >> Thank you. You can have a great night. I'm sure you have things to do. At this time, I would like to turn in for report from trustees talking about our building inspections. We'll start with >> I mean I I can I can speak about the uh high school and North Middle School. I was on those inspections. Um,
009every year, um, I don't know why I'm still amazed, but it is really incredible the work that our head custodians and their teams do, um, under the direction of, um, our facilities director. The buildings are impeccably clean. Uh, I know that there were a lot of construction projects taking place here at the high school, new bathrooms, new elevator, and within that first week of, you would never have known all that work happened over the summer. Um, you could eat off the floors. Um, and the most exciting thing for me was seeing the new esports suite in the high school. Um, it's sort of a if you build it, they will come. And it was partially funded with budget, partially funded with grants, but I know when the kids see that, they are going to be
010really excited to spend their afternoons in there. >> And if I could add to that, thank you, Sean. Um, North Middle School, just a shout out to Mike Motherway and his crew. Again, as Sean said, not only could you eat out of the floors, you can eat out of the slop sink in the closet at North. It's that clean. You guys know what I'm talking about. Um, I also got to tour West End and let me tell you, such a special special place. It's obviously one of our elementaryaries, but the murals are what really catch you. The fact that there's no dust anywhere is incredible. But these gorgeous murals that celebrate this beautiful, burgeoning diversity in these young children. They're all over the school. So, you couldn't ask for a more welcoming place to continue
011for those who have been at the kindergarten center or to start for those who are just starting with us. So, thank you to the West End staff and custodial staff. Um, I went to Marian Street and South and again I agree with both of them. Both buildings were so clean. The custodians do a great job. South held over the summer um, summer playground and they had the STEM program so they had kids in and out of the building the entire summer and it still looked amazing. Um, Marian Street, that was actually my first time I actually went to Marian Street. So it was really nice to see and um they completed their door project. So uh they got their new doors which automatically close. Uh the windows are actually like a little smaller for safety.
012Um some of the classrooms had uh two doors to enter or exit and they closed one door for safety and they did an incredible job. You wouldn't even know that there was once a second door in the classroom. Um, they also did some work outside. They repointed some of the brick and they powerwashed and it looked beautiful. So, to agree with both Shannon and Sean, the custodians really do such an excellent job. And Mr. Zeta, thank you. Everybody does such a good job. >> Yeah. I mean, not not specific to any one school, but you know, year after year we go and we see these schools, and it really is the these aren't new buildings. These are pretty old buildings in this district. And Mr. Seda's team and staff really just do an incredible job
013job. By the end of August, they all look like the schools are 10 years old. They don't look like 50, 60, 70, 100 year old buildings. So, you know, again, hats off to Mr. Seda and his team. The the other thing I think that's really awesome, especially at the elementary level, is you see these buildings and they're so welcoming and positive and upbeat. You see that you can actually feel like that great vibe of an elementary school. We do a really good job at that. I think I think it's cool and it extends to the middle school and the high school, but you really it's pronounced at the elementary school level. So, yeah, I think it's awesome. >> I'm sorry. I just wanted to add one thing that I forgot to say. For years, I
014had always heard how Marian Street's cafeteria was just low ceilings and tight and felt like a basement. So, I was really excited to see it. And I have to tell you, it's so nice. The ceilings are high. There's windows. So, for anybody who has once had kids at Marian Street and you're thinking of that old dingy cafeteria, that does not exist anymore. And it looks beautiful now. Thank you. And again, I just want to reiterate, thank you to all of the staff who made the buildings look as beautiful as they do and shiny that you could eat off the floors, which is great. So, in July at our reorganization meeting, um the board members volunteered for the following committees. The audit committee is Mrs. Kelly, Mr. Cullen, and Mr. Lunar. The policy committee is Mr.
015Lunar, Miss Aragona, and Mr. Murray. Facilities is myself, Mr. Murray, and Mr. Pleski. The Bosey's budget rep is Dan Cullen. The compact shared decision-making, Miss Aragona. PTA liaison is as well, Miss Aragona. Our legislative reps are Mr. Cullen and Mrs. Kelly. Our adult ed rep is Mrs. Kelly. And the teacher center rep is myself. The PTA liaison, Miss Aragona. Um, so if anybody has anything to report on any of those committees today. >> Okay. Still early. I I do. >> Perfect. Um, as uh PTA liaison, I just, you know, I'm speaking on behalf of the Limbber Council of PTAs. Would like everybody to join them for their second annual Fly with the Owls Scholarship 5K and fun run. The date is Sunday, October 12th. Uh it starts at North Middle School and goes within the
016streets on the north side of town. At 8 a.m. there's a fun run for kids uh prek and up. And then at 8:30 is the 5K. Um after the race there'll be food trucks and DJ. Um you could if you register by September 22nd, you get um the early bird special. There are flyers in the back. You could also ask anybody um PTA rep at your home school. They'll also have flyers. All the money that they raise goes to scholarships for the seniors. Last year they were able to award over $20,000 in scholarships because of this. Um it's an absolute great event. Um this year the race is certified. So if you are a runner, I know that's important. Um and if you don't want to run, but you want to donate, you could do
017that as well. You could be a sponsor as well. And if none of that works and you just want to go to the route and cheer on your fellow community members, that's great also. So any information, you could find it on social media or you could ask um a local rep in your school or find the flyer in the back. >> Thank you, Miss Aragona. Um over the summer, our student board rep started with us and we're so excited to have him here. So, if you have a report this month, >> yes, September 4th was the first day of school for students across the Lindberg School District, and the new cell phone policy officially took effect. Students are no longer allowed to use their personal devices during the school day on campus. At the high
018school, at the high school, the policy is off to a great start. During the first two days of school, only eight cell phones were taken from students, and the high school administration is very happy with how the policy is going so far. Additionally, students at the high school are now required to scan their ID cards whenever entering the building. This policy is for the purpose of safety. On August 28th and 29th, I personally had the privilege of attending the Bosei student leadership conserium where I met student board members and from other Southshore districts and participated in team building activities. I also learned about school budgeting, board of education laws, and took part in a Q&A session with some former board of education members and for and a former student board member. I look forward to
019applying the skills I learned during this two-day workshop to my work in Limbrook. On August 30th, the Limbrook Key Club raised $6,000 through a car wash for a student and her family who are facing a difficult time. And one final note, high school picture day will be on September 11th and 12th. >> Thank you so much. Does anyone have anything else they'd like to report? >> Okay, thank you. I'd like to turn it over to Dr. Lynch for old business. So, I was reporting on the cell phone ban, but I think Jackson did a better job of that. Uh, it just is an interesting thing. So, I talked to a bunch of other uh superintendents around Long Island this week. And, uh, the the general consensus is we all would have lost that bet. We
020all thought this was going to be something like horrible. And for the most part, um, again, it's only September. Uh, but, uh, so far it's been off to a good start. And as Jackson said, um, minimal confiscation at the at the high school, but it's, uh, working. And then of course the other schools were kind of already but even the I'm just looking at the elementary principal the the the whole I you had told me about you know the the smart watches that are you know are a thing at elementary school kids are just understanding yeah I got to go put it in my bag and I can have it after school. So that's going it's going off. Yep. >> Now for new business. >> Yep. Um, our board goals at our annual retreat in
021July, the board decided on the goals for the upcoming school year. Our goal one, profile of the owl. So, we're to use the profile of the owl's findings to enhance its professional development plan and begin to integrate the findings into curriculum and instruction. Our goal two, multi-tered system of supports or referred to as MTSS framework. It's the to execute stage two installation the capacity building of New York State's MTSS framework and goal three shared decisionmaking reboot. So we're going to re-evaluate its existing compact shared decision-making structures and initiate training to prepare for an updated implementation of the district shared decision-making plan. Do any board members have any comments about the goals? Okay. Can I have a motion to accept the board goals for the 20252026 resolution 259 G1? Mrs. Aragona. Second, Mr. Lunar. All in
022favor? >> Okay. So, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Lynch now to expand upon our B board goals and the shared decision- making, please. >> Great. Thank you very much, Mrs. Denino. So as we are uh have started to work on these three goals, I think it's good at the beginning of the year to just kind of talk about what these goals really mean uh in practicality. So uh this is the proportion adopted by the board of regents over the summer. So these are the six general areas that New York State has adopted as what all students in New York State should know, be able to do and be like. So uh they they've talked and and what we've done as you all know we had two years of our own process and
023so we need to use that as our framework to get to our own set of what we think the profile of the owl is is what we're calling it locally. So I'm now very happy to unveil our official infographic. I just want everyone to look. The only reason I'm actually putting this up there is just how ugly, you know, is our our alumni artist isn't even in the room anymore to say, you know, that's just a pretty boring document. So, here's your profile of the owl. So, we have it down into four major quadrants, what we are calling the four pillars of the profile of the owl. And this language and what we're talking about, while it does align very closely to the portrait of the graduate for New York State, these words came from
024you. This is the community input. So, I went on a little bit of a a tear on superintendent's conference day. I I want to go back for a slide. I hate this concept. a portrait of a graduate says to me, "Yeah, you know, by 12th grade, it's okay if they're they're going to be all these things. We're not using the framework of a portrait of a graduate. We're doing the profile of the owl because we want every kid in in this district, not by 12th grade, but the second they step into one of our classrooms, they're working on all four of these things." And we're all becoming the portrait of the owl, the profile of the owl. So we could say, you know, the fourth grader is measured up against what it means to be
025a fourth grade owl. And the 12th grader is measured up to be what? A 12th grade owl. So it is even if a kid is only with us for a week, they should have a full experience of our four pillars. Creative and critical thinking, real life skills, global citizenship, and social emotional learning. So we've been talking about these for two years. Now we're stepping into action. This is the infographic that is going to appear in every classroom in this district to say to the community this is what we mean by creative and critical thinking, real life skills, social emotional learning and global citizenship. So on superintendent's conference day, we went through each one of these uh these competencies and we talked about what the students should be doing to be looking like this. Uh I'm
026going to talk a little bit I'm going to talk about superintendent's conference day later but we we spoke we've been speaking a lot about AI and and and some of the anks that we're all having about AI and I will say the only answer to AI is to build better humans and these four quadrants are everything the kids need to think they need to be prepared to live in life they need to feel and be healthy and they need to participate in in uh in civic life. So those are our four pillars and what I think we start we have started the last two years but from this point on everything we do in this district needs to be measured against these four pillars. I know what is always said in this district. It's the
027way it's always been. Something that we always say here is, "Ah, it's Lindbrook. It's 1955. It's always going to be that way." Today, I challenge this community to stop thinking like that. This is the challenge of the kids today. Read a great article. We are trapping kids in our nostalgia. So, I want kids to have an experience of Baldwin, Long Island in 1982 because that was awesome. Do you hear what I just said? Kids should be just like I was in Baldwin, Long Island in 1982. I don't want that for Jackson. When you look at him in the eye, that's not what he's not going to be prepared for the world. So, when we take a look at everything we're doing, we should be challenging ourselves. As I said on that first quadrant on superintendent
028conference today, every little brain needs to be working at every moment in our classrooms. That's creative and critical thinking. Real life skills our kids I see I'm I hate to point out Dr. T, but I'm going to have to point them out. Some of the things that he's teaching in VE, you shake people's hands, you look them in the eye, good morning, how are you? It's great to see you. Those are real life skills. Financial literacy. We had to hire another business teacher this summer because we had so many requests for for business classes to to be partaking in that in that financial literacy. Those are the real world skills we're talking about. And if it's art, that's a real world skill. If it's music, that's a real world skill. Not every kid needs to
029go to college. Some kids need to go to trade. Some kids need to just become uh something else that they're going to follow their passion. That's the challenge of today. It can't be same old same old anymore. So the work begins. It's going to take time, but this is what we're about from this moment on. That's the challenge. And because of that, the other two goals kind of stem from it. So the second goal is mishi mishi mushy mash. We're going to talk about very technical MTSS, and that's a very educational uh framework, but here's what it really means. It's about what services do we give kids so that they can be successful. Back in the old days, back when I was a young teacher, we had something called response to intervention and it was
030all about academics. Then we realized that social emotional learning and readiness to learn and preparedness to learn is just as important. So with this MTSS goal, we're in stage two of it, so we started it last year. The state will tell you it's a four-year process. We're in year two. We have to look what do all kids get when it comes to basic literacy skills, basic numeracy skills, basic social emotional skills. Then as we go up the tiers, what do some kids need with a little more intervention? And then finally, what do kids need who need the most intervention? We also need a data house to to put all that information. That's the work of this year. The work of this year is to all that stuff is happening here and all of that stuff
031has been happening here for 30 years. It's now systematizing it and say here's what we do here and um we're going to be having lots of conversations about this. This is mostly an internal thing but we had some great conversations with PTA school and community about what should all athletes have in social emotional learning. So that's kind of what that you I realized I was talking about this last year and I didn't necessarily hit at home what it actually means. So that's what that second goal really is. Then I'm very excited about this third goal also coming from our PTA partners. Uh there is an education law 100.11. It has been on the books since 1992 and uh we had a commissioner at that time. Uh Tom Soil was a visionary and and Tom Soil
032had a vision of what education in New York State should be and he started something called the compact for learning and it was a covenant between the state of New York and its children. No one talks like that anymore but that I was I was a brand new teacher and I got really excited by that stuff. So when part of his vision is there's no good having just teachers talk to teachers, parents talk to parents and we all go off into our corners and and talk about not talk about education. Shared decisionmaking is the community coming together and saying together what is the best thing for children? I'm going to admit something here. Once upon a time, I was a teacher and I would be in a faculty room and I may have said things
033like this. Well, why don't they just why don't they just if only we could and I was talking to myself and a bunch of other teachers and you know what happened? Zippo conver similar conversations would have amongst parents administrators. Everyone says why don't they? Why don't they? Why don't they? Tom Sobel's vision is, and he's long dead now, um get everyone in a room facing each other and respectfully discuss what's best for kids. And it can't just be faculty alone or teachers alone or administrators alone. If it's going to impact everyone in the community, everyone needs to talk about it. So when we talk about something class night, you know who has a big say in class night? Mr. Bill, our custodian. Shouldn't he be in the room when that discussion is happening? You know
034how has a big ide a big say in cell phones? Jackson Bowler, shouldn't students be in the room when those conversations are having? That's what Mr. Dr. Soil's vision was and that's what we had here. So I have read some of those founding documents from the '90s that were put together by mi Mr. Metaf and and Dr. Byra and these are beautiful documents but somehow we got away from that original mission. It's time to bring it back. It started with that school and community where they asked the simple question what's the deal with compact? What's what's it all about? Compact is our version of shared decision-m and now we want to reboot it. We want it to become alive again. We wanted to be a place where we talk about what's best for students so
035that students have success and there are some key you know it's always about you know what should be in the budget what supplies should we be buying that's part of shared decision-m but what we want to specifically put into the message these days is how do we talk about belonging diversity equity and inclusion the culturally responsive and sustaining education that New York uh mandates that our children have that needs to be talked about at the big table with everyone with all stakeholders present so that kids feel like they belong here. We need to talk about the profile of the owl on a big level. What does that mean for an entire building? So each uh each building has its own committee and is going to talk about that. And finally, I love the this word,
036it reinvites the stakeholders. You always been stakeholders. Now you're at the table talking about big things. One of the requirements of this law is that we have to provide training for the shared decision-making committees uh every year. So we have enlisted the uh the resources of a of a of Dr. Lori Kerner. She has already made some presences. She's been at uh we had a I'm proud to say a combined middle school one. So both North and South compact met together and were trained by Dr. Kerner. Uh Dr. Kerner was at Waverly last night, I think at West End today, is coming to the high school tomorrow and will uh Marian Street next week. Yep. So, and then kindergarten center at the end. So, uh we'll be and she'll be talking about what's called consensusbased
037decisionmaking. If it's going to be a real decision that we can actually act upon, let's not just talk about it. Let's reach consensus. Here's what a life of administrator is. parent comes up with a good idea. Now I got to go to another room and talk to Mr. Kersenberg and see what what's going to happen with the teachers. Oh, the teachers are going to say this about it. Now I got to go back to the parents and talk about that. Oh, let's see if we're going to have the students agree with that. And it's a colossal waste of time. Whereas if you get everybody in a room and they're looking at each other and at that meeting a teacher says, "Good idea, but did you ever think about this?" It might be now we're having
038a conversation. So this is an invitation to a conversation and to me this is the sustaining mechanism by which the profile of the owl will come to life and can culturally change the district. Big challenge. I think we're up to it. So that's kind of uh that third bold goal and we it it's going to hang around for a while. Change takes time, but again, I think we're up to it. >> Thank you, Dr. Lynch. Just to be clear, for the shared decision-making teams in each building, they consist of parents, students. >> Thank you, Mrs. Denino. That's why we have a president. I brought my cheat sheet. Uh so so uh every committee has a principal or and assistant principles uh parents um pupil personnel staff, social workers, psychologist, teachers, par profofessionals who are aids
039in our assistants, the building secretary, the custodian and when appropriate a student. So you try to get everybody who would be affected by the decision in the room discussing the decision. So that's kind of where that's going. Thank you for bringing that up. >> Thank you. >> Wait, I'm sorry. Can I ask one question? Um, I've noticed we have like our compact meetings on the calendar. Is that something are are only people on the committee attending those meetings or are people allowed to maybe not voice but kind of be in the room? >> Excellent thing. Yeah. So, the reason why they're on the calendar is because so right now we are governed under what's called open meetings law. the board board can only meet if it's properly posted and if we allow people to come
040and see what we're doing. Compact shared decision-m the law says has the same set of rules. So while there is a committee that is going to be talking, it's on the calendar because anyone can come in the room and watch what compact is doing and that at the end of compact there's something called just like tonight a privilege of the floor. The president has to control privilege of the floor because there are some things we can't we can never talk about kids. Okay? Someone may come to that microphone and talk about a kid. President has to say we can't talk about that. That can happen at at at compact. But everything else, there's probably not going to be an answer that day, but maybe compact will say, "Oh, you know what? That came from the
041floor. We should probably be looking at that." So that it it's governed by law. Very different than many other meetings. Uh I'd like to go back to the profile of the owl and um I'd like to just ask that you know each month uh Dr. Lynch does a report to the board and I would love if that report focuses on one or more of those pillars each month and and what you're reporting to us can kind of just you know be basically an update on any or all of those pillars so that you know we know the progress we're making. Excellent. We'll we will >> and I don't know if there's any way kind of how we have students, you know, and we award them things, but if we could see real live examples of
042how, you know, students are fitting into this profile throughout the year, that would be great. >> And and lots more to follow on that. So, I happen to know that every compact committee, every shared decision-making committee will be looking at how does that work in their real schools. And I think that is when we have, you know, one thing I love about this I, you know, my favorite part of the meeting is I hate the September meeting because none of them are here like we're not giving out any t-shirts. We're not doing anything. Well, we had an alumnest. So that's that's beautiful. Um, but yeah, that would So what are the really it's tied to this is here's how it's happening. >> Anyone have Okay, thank you. So the New York State School Board's virtual
043annual meeting will be held on October 16th. Each district is entitled to a delegate who will vote on proposed resolutions and bylaw amendments. Would anyone like to be our delegate? Mr. Murray. Perfect. Thank you. Um NASA Boseies also will hold a public referendum on Thursday, October 16th, asking voters to consider a plan that includes the purchase of a school, the sale of vacant property, and capital improvements to enhance safety and accessibility at two existing facilities. If approved, these projects will be funded using proceeds from the sale of the vacant property and or the Nassau Boseis capital fund which was created for facility improvements. No additional cost will be incurred by local taxpayers or the 56 component school districts. Um details of this can be found at nasaboseis.org. Dr. Lynch, I'd like to turn it back
044over to you for your superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mrs. Denino. Uh before I begin tonight, I just want to uh take a moment to pause. A very good friend of this district passed away this week. A very famous good friend of this district. Uh so Joseph McNeel was one of the Greensboro 4. He was one of the original uh civil rights protesters um who in in Greensboro, North Carolina sat at a Woolworth counter in 1960 and forced integration of that of that counter. Uh he lived in Hemstead. Uh, and every year Terry for ever he would come to Marian Street School and he would talk to the kids. So this and when it's one of those things when I saw his obituary in the New New York Times and like this is a guy
045you've met you're like holy crap that Joseph Joseph O'Neal had a full page article in the New York Times and the children of Marian Street got to talk to that man every single year. So, he has passed now a civil rights giant and uh just I just a nod to a moment of silence or whatever. Just I think it's a we we we as a district cannot let that go by without uh acknowledging that um superintendent conference days. So, uh they made me work this year. Um thanks Jerry. Um uh we actually had a uh we part of the profile of the owl is last year we realized that the profile of the owl goes nowhere unless we change our professional development. So we started a teacherrun professional development committee and basically I signed up
046for one of those things that says hey whatever they want to do we're going to do. Uh so they came up and they said, "You know what? Can you talk twice?" Because elementary teachers have one way that they view the beginning of the year and secondary teachers have another way of the way they look at the year. So they asked for two different superintendent conference days. Uh and we did that. Uh so I got to give my talk twice. Uh one day the elementary teachers participated in professional development and then did their building work the second day. Uh then the secondary teachers did exactly reverse. So that was and I'm very proud uh I think all of our safe to say all of our professional development was led by our own teachers. We didn't have
047a single outsider. Um so we were talking about uh you know the writing revolution which is our comprehensive uh way to uh K12 across interdisciplinary talk about the systematic teaching of writing all taught by Lindbrook teachers. Uh and then at the secondary level teachers involved in professional you I'm stealing your show. uh professional learning communities where they're going to explore topics that can improve instruction tied to the profile of the owl. Um and uh and that was their day there. So, um I liked it. You know, I I think the feedback has been fairly positive. It's still superintendent conference day. I understand that. Uh the coffee was still probably too cold and uh no, not at all, Terry. The coffee was awesome. Uh uh uh so that was that was great. Um I apol so
048the new website I've been promising this for a very long time um but uh what so we started a migration to the new website over the summer little bit of disappointing the the company that we were working with they did they moved all our stuff but it just didn't look very Lindbrook and also like all when the principles came back from summer vacation they're like this is missing that is missing this is missing so we did a judgment call all on me um to not launch for the beginning of the year because my thought was if we launch for the beginning of the year and you're looking for a health form and I got this new website up there and you can't find that health form there's going to be a lot of angry parents
049so what we decided to wait till Rashashana so we'll launch on the 22nd 23rd um it does take a while for the DNS to populate so it takes a good 48 hours for a site to fully roll over so if we launch it the night of the 22nd early 23rd um we should be all set to go by the time we return on that. So, that is uh that is an update there. Uh emergency evacuation day is a 100 p.m. dismissal. I will be sending a parent link out uh to remind you about that. Uh that is when we test, you know, kids go home at 1:00, but we are doing a lot of internal drills at that point. Uh so we're testing our reunification. We're testing our accounting for all persons. It's an important
050day from our perspective, but practically to you, you have to pick up your kid at 1:00. Sophia, that would be there. Uh, and then I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Blechas for the curriculum update. >> Thank you, Dr. Lynch. Uh, the Limbrook Professional Development Committee was composed of a bunch of, uh, different stakeholders throughout the district. They collaborated in May to design a comprehensive PD plan that was aligned with the profile of the owl. It was emphasized in communication, problem solving, and SEAL. The committee consulted experts from NASA Boseis and uh we had a university partner actually with NYIT and we formed subcommittees for elementary schools, secondary schools and support staff to tailor the PD offerings accordingly. The elementary PD was centered around the writing revolution. As Dr. Lynch said, it's a researchbased
051writing approach that was integrated across different subject areas to enhance comprehension in student communication. And I think that uh a lot of times we think of writing as a independent exercise but in Lindbrook we are really focusing on the fact that writing is a form of showing your comprehension. Um secondary PD was focused on professional learning communities where teachers were able to collaborate to analyze student work, share strategies, plan instruction. I have to say I thought we did a pretty good job of coming up with topics for superintendent conference day for the uh teachers to work on and we left a few what we called wild card rooms for teachers to come up with their own ideas and the amount of stuff that our staff came up with organically and started grouping and really trying
052to drive our instruction. It was kind of awesome to watch and as Dr. Lynch said all of this was run by our teachers. um the other things that happened you know throughout the year we are also having our typical department meetings but what we're doing with those we're trying to complement what's happening with the PLC's so we're going to try to address some of our curriculum alignment and our instructional priorities during that time our support staff they had their own PD that's emphasizing through the ruler program and the uh school links which again if anybody's had a student who um is going to college they've become more aware of school links school links is used in regard you know in replace of Naviance but it also has a lot of other features that help with
053career planning and for kids that are going in all different directions and all that's being done within the FTSS framework that uh Dr. Lynch had spoken about earlier the um universal seal screener tools like the mood meter which I know a lot of our elementary school students are very well verssed in. We're trying to make sure that is introduced uh districtwide and that we're doing training that's going to be embedded in our faculty meetings throughout the year. I would be um you know it would be a travesty if I didn't say all these things. So I'm going to say this very quickly. I gave all my thank yous like an award ceremony here. But uh I'd like to thank all the facilitators, the presenters and the Lindbrook teacher center because you know they're the ones
054that really helped at superintendent conference day and I know that many of them are going to be assuming roles throughout the year as well. So I'd like to thank them for all their efforts and I have to say and this is something I've said at the very beginning of conference day the collective power of our professional staff working toward the betterment of the Limbrook student experience cannot be emphasized enough. So thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Bleus. And now a food program update. Mr. press. >> Um there's a lot here, so you might want to settle in for a little bit. I just wanted to really give a comprehensive update on the on the >> It's going perfectly, I understand. >> So, um at the at the regular uh August board meeting, the board uh
055uh uh awarded a bid for district food service management uh services to Aramark, a company that many of you are probably familiar with. They were the food service management company uh two years ago. um uh fairly late in the season to actually appoint uh a new food service management company when you're making a switch. Um but Aramark hit the ground running and they were like, "Ah, we've done this in we've been appointed three days before the start of school before." Um so they hit the ground running and they've honestly haven't stopped running um since then. Um the new New York State Universal free meals program uh has been incredibly popular here in Lynbrook. Um the numbers are in some cases double and triple what we've uh what we did last year. Um so that has
056come u with its challenges. Uh in addition to that we launched elementary breakfast this year. We did not have that before. Um I will acknowledge I've done it on parents square as well. We have had a number of challenges with the program to start the year. Uh particularly with the breakfast program. Uh I have been working very closely with the elementary uh principles and our new food service director who again is phenomenal. I'm surprised she's still not here um because she's been working very diligently. I get emails from her at like 10 o'clock at night with new menus and things like that. um and our elementary principles who deserve a special shout out because um they have been in the cafeterias serving food um moving kids along and making uh making sure that program actually
057functions and that all the kids that come in eat. Um we we definitely acknowledge they may not have gotten what they pre-ordered. That is part of the problem. Uh that has been one of our biggest challenges pre-ordering system that we set up for the lunch program. Um that works relatively well with the lunch program when the kids come down with their class at designated times. Oh, this is, you know, Mr. Smith's class. Um when 100 kids come for breakfast, uh doesn't work so much. So, we have um made a change starting Monday. Um we are getting rid of the pre-ordering for breakfast. Um the parents seem to all be in favor of that. So, now the kids can just come walk through the line, pick what they want, um and go. Um, we kind of
058piloted that already. Um, so we've been doing the pre-ordering for this week, but we've just kind of tossed that out the window because it just it wasn't working. The kids weren't getting through the line. Um, so we piloted it a couple of times and it's it's the transformation at Marian Street was unbelievable from yesterday to today. Um, I was at Marian Street both days. Um, I have been in the in the schools every day since the first day of school. um just trying to see what the programs look like so that we can work to find solutions um to the problems. So um again starting Monday uh elementary breakfast at Marian Street West End Waverly Park, no pre-ordering. We have to maintain the pre-ordering for the kindergarten center um at least for now because the
059meals actually are being delivered to the classrooms. Um and so we need to know um you know what those kids ordered so that we can get it to the classrooms. um the pre-ordering and again this is also for the for the folks at home. Um we have set up for the breakfast to order two days in advance. I will explain why that is and why we need that. We don't have kitchens in our elementary schools. The all of the food for the elementary schools, breakfast and lunch is prepared either at our middle schools or for the kindergarten center. It's prepared at the high school because breakfast is in the morning. We need to have that food delivered there the day before, which means we need to have those orders in a couple of days in
060advance because they do the food prep the day before the meal is served. So, we do need um the the KC parents to continue to order the breakfast. That's been one of the challenges is um our our meal ordering system does not allow us to cut off orders. So parents can still go in and continue to order food. Um but that food's already been um prepared from the list a couple of days before. So um we are maintaining pre-ordering at lunch for all the elementary schools for now. Um again, Aramark doesn't want to do it. Um and again, we should have listened to them from the beginning because breakfast would have started off a lot um smoother that way. Um lunches just need to be pre-ordered in advance. We've been asking parents to pre-order by
061Sunday for the week ahead. Um so if we can continue to do that again, at least for now until we can get our wrap our hands around um getting rid of the pre-ordering at lunch. So please I we just ask that you please continue to pre-order um the lunches. Um we've gotten a bunch of feedback from parents. I know there's no nutrition information that's again tied into um some of the the software that we're using. it doesn't really interact with Aramark. We have they are working on a solution. We should have nutrition information um for all the meals posted by the end of next week and hopefully before the end of next week. Um, you know, we're only 5 days into the start of the school year. I do appreciate um especially the the uh
062patience of the elementary principles once again uh and of the parents um because I know your kids are not always getting what they ordered for their meals but they are eating which is what we've been focused on just making sure um that every kid uh is fed. Um we do have some high a lot of high hopes for the rest of the year once we can get our mark fully staffed. Uh and the part of the plan is to get that milk ordering back at the elementary schools which the parents have been asking for um for two years, the alle cart milk um and a bunch of other options for alocart um at the elementary schools. So uh again we thank you for your patience um as we work through some of these challenges. Um
063but I do think the program is going to be incredibly successful. We're we're moving meals like nobody's business, especially as compared to to last year. So, our staff has been a little a lot of our staff returned. Um, and a lot of them are like, "What is going on here? This is like it's a whole new world because now they're not just doing prepping lunches. Um, they're prepping two lunches at two to three times what they were doing last year and they're doing breakfast as well. So, um, so there's growing pains, but um, I we're going to get through this. So, thank you. >> I just had one question with that. I I understand the nutritional information is kind of on delay, but are is allergy information available for the parents? >> Allergy information is
064uh is available on the on the websites. Yeah. >> And Mr. Press, if I could ask a question on that too. So, first, thank you to you and the principles. I know you you've all gone so far beyond your job descriptions trying to make this work. I know it's been a transition. My question is regarding the pre-ordering. If we do away with the pre-ordering, how does that impact, and this may be a Dr. Burman question, too, but how does that impact the elementary drop offs and ensuring that we have appropriate staffing in our building? >> So, I was actually going to mention that because I know we had tied uh the pre-ordering with it. So, once again, our principles are awesome. They have created an alternate attendance system. >> Thank you guys. You're the best.
065>> Yep. They they pivoted immediately. >> And I had one quick question. So the pre-ordering is only on the elementary level, not middle and high school. And have we seen any increase in the high school level of meals being served? >> Um I did get some preliminary numbers there. Um the I didn't write down the high school. I thought I did. Um there's a slight slight uptick. Um that that is when Armark came in, they were like, "Oh, no." Like she's already had ideas about how we're going to increase participation here at the high school. Um so what they there's been a a very large focus on the elementary schools. I think once we get settled in and get fully staffed with them, we'll have some some ideas there as well. But they're looking at
066this. They're like, "Oh, no, no, no. We're going to get kids to eat here." So, >> thank you. I've heard it is free. I think that's the key. It is a free meal. Like it literally is courtesy of the state of New York. Um so take it, you know, that's >> and the feedback about the food has been positive that I've heard as well, which is nice. >> Yeah, it's just, you know, they they came in and you know, we've had for example, elementary pizza has been frozen pizza. They're like, "No, no, no. You need to get new equipment so we can carry because we do fresh pizza." Um, and all of the muffin tops that they've been serving at breakfast, they they're all they bake them all here. So, yeah, it's a it's a
067very noticeable difference on my end um in in the quality. >> That's great. Thank you. >> May I ask one more followup, please? the free and reduced lunch applications while while every student now per New York State receives free breakfast and lunch. >> Could you please speak to the importance of families returning the forms and just from from my own perspective and my own awareness of the program? There are so many more things that tie into >> those forms and approval for families if you are approved. So, if you could maybe mention I know yourself and Miss Boyce certainly does a great job spreading that that word, but if you could just mention that. >> Yeah, sure. I actually had a little paragraph in here, but I thought I was going on too long, so
068I I skipped over that. Um, but that is important and that's been part of the messaging that we've been sending out. Um it's it's important there there are a number of benefits um to the families to the district as well. I did make mention of a number of those in the letter that went out uh over the summer with the summer mailing. Um but the the other part of it the part of it that's also you know important like all the meals are are free. So even if you don't apply um New York State um in order for us to participate in this new free lunch program, the state is only reimbursing us for the kids who are not free and reduced. Um so the kids who are free and reduced, we get reimbursed from
069the federal government. The kids who are not free and reduced, we get we're going to get reimbured from the state. Um but the state has said you have to maximize your participation in the free and reduced lunch program. So, um that is one of the the reasons why we're going to continue to push that. Um but the the uh free and reduced also impacts some of our title grant um monies. Um and from the individual family standpoint, there are a number of benefits that they would get um for qualifying for free and reduce. Um you know, we give them some discounts on certain things. Um summer summer playground um comes at no charge to th those families. some instrument rentals, things like that. Sometimes we get assistance from community chest for families who qualify for
070free and reduced. So, there's a number of um individual benefits in addition to the benefits to the district um and additional monies that we may qualify for depending on uh our level of free and reduced participation. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, sure. >> And then I just have to put a a plea out. We need breakfast and lunch monitors. So, uh, we've hired I think we did bring on a number over the summer. Um, but we still need more. So, if you know somebody who just, you know, wants to work a couple hours, uh, we could certainly use their help. Uh, it's really the job is just making sure that kids are getting fed. So, uh, we would, uh, ask the community for your help. I I think we put it out on Facebook. We
071might have to re-up that again. Uh, so that would be that. And now, Mr. Press, Capital Projects. >> Yeah. Just and just before Capital Projects, to piggyback on what Dr. Lynch just said, um I uh I was on the phone with the re Aramark's regional director um this afternoon because I I our food service director has been working her tail off. Um in part because we don't have all of the staffing that they want to have yet. Um so some of the staffing they need to hire is part-time staffing. So we need some monitors in the morning. I and this is a conversation I had with the regional director. um maybe you know that person could be a monitor for us in the morning and work for Aramark for the rest of the day and
072that could potentially fill out um a full day if or almost a full day. So um if there's anyone out there that is interesting you can contact Dr. Burmy you can contact me too I can put you in touch with Aramark. All right on to capital projects. Um so work is substantially complete on all of the capital projects that happened around the district this summer. Um bathroom renovations here at the high school and over at the um KC the admin side are largely comp complete and all functional. We're just waiting on uh some of the doors to those rooms. They there's there was a little bit of delay in the doors. Uh so they're still waiting to come. Uh the elevator cab replacement here is done. Um it looks great. We wrote it when we
073did our building inspection here of the high school. Um at uh Marian Street and West End, all the classroom doors have been replaced. Uh the stairwell doors have been replaced. Uh and they they look incredible. Um they fit right in. You wouldn't I actually was walking through and Mr. Sad was like that actually that's a new door right there. Um some of the stairwell doors and I was like it just fit right in. I didn't even know um that it was. So, um, additionally, all the classroom doors, uh, will get wireless door locks. Um, almost all of them are in. There were some that we had to return. They weren't, um, working properly, the ones that were delivered. So, we're just waiting on getting those in as well. Um, uh, yeah, and just a sort
074of a side note on that, the week before we did the walkthroughs, I'm walking through West End and I'm like, how where how is this going to get done by next week? And Mr. Sad was like, "It'll get done." And the door guys were like, "No, this is fine. We'll get all this done." And and not only did they get it done, but that place, I mean, West End Marian Street was a it was a mess. You guys didn't really get to see that. The ones who did the walkthrough, >> it was a mess. I was a little worried. Um, but they they got the doors in. The custodial staff at all the buildings was was incredible. I don't know. And I told them, I said, "I don't know how you got these buildings to
075look like they do." um when we did the walkthroughs with with the uh with the board of ed. So um great job all around there. Um brick work repointing at Marian Street in addition to the doors. The repointing was done and uh we had the the building powerwashed. Um so that looks incredible. Looks so much better right now. Um anyone going in the front entrance should notice a difference there. Uh there was renovation of two classrooms and the reconfiguration of office and technology space at West End. Um that is done. Those rooms look great as well. Um, and preliminary work uh that the community approved at the budget vote in May um has also begun and plans are currently being worked up by the district's architect. Um, and just to kind of go back to
076the the building inspections kind of overall, I I have to mirror what the the board members here had said, I need to thank Mr. Seda and his custodial staff at all of the buildings. Um especially the buildings that were in heavy use this summer and the ones that looked like a a bit of a war zone. Um like the high school um South Middle School just had a ton of things going on there as well. Marian Street um you know a lot of a lot of dust when you rip out doors and and replace them. So um just across the district um the Casey the high school here. Um kudos to Mr. Seda and his staff for the work that they did over the summer. And that's it. >> And finally, as we mentioned last
077month, we are using a new platform for agendas and resolutions called Diligent Community. You can find it on our website under the BOE tab, meeting portal. The live stream and recording link will appear at the top of the meeting agenda. We will no longer post to the BOE virtual meetings page or provide copies of meeting materials at the meetings. We encourage everyone to subscribe to receive an email when meeting materials are being posted. Subscribe by clicking on the subscribe box on the meeting portal homepage or scanning the QR code at the back table. The link and QR code are also on our website. I just want to put in one more plug. So, Mrs. Aragon was talking about prof uh the uh fly with the owls. Um you don't have to fly with the owls
078to fly with the owls. I'm a really good walker with the Owls. I proudly say that I came in last place last year and uh there's a great picture. I don't know. You all know that it's it's a rated race. So, actually there's a picture taken and uh I I was half going to, you know, I don't know, run a little bit, but I decided no, you know what? I'm going to come in last. I'm going to be proud I came in last. So, you only have to beat me and that's really easy to do. So, uh it's a fun day. I have to say it is such a fun day. Uh come on out. So, back to you. >> Thank you. At this time, I'd like to open the floor for public comment. Come
079up and state your name. Thank you. >> Good evening, Madame President, members of the school board. Jeff Greenfield, citizen taxpayer 112 Merrick Road, Lindbrook. I'm here first to thank uh all the members of the school board and the school community that participated when we honored Dr. Lynch at the Limbrook Mayor's golf outing. And a special thanks to the district clerk, Terry Moran, who worked with my administrative assistant in uh coordinating that. So, uh it was a a great night. It was a record turnout. First time we ever did two golf courses and we had 250 people at dinner pushing the Inwood staff to the limit, but they did a great job. And uh we're meeting with the mayor and village administrator uh to go over the numbers. It looks like it's going to be a
080record net, not only the record gross we had and we'll report back to the community at a Limbrook meeting after we uh still tallying the numbers and there's a few receivables out there. No payables, only receivables. So uh I came for that. Also I want to give you a Bosey's report. Uh you all knew of my upset when Bosei surprised my two communities where I'm citizen taxpayer Rockville Center and Lindbrook with a million dollar 35% increase for bus transportation. So I decided to uh go express my feelings if you were victims of it like we were as taxpayers to Boseies. It was no easy task attending a Boseies meeting. First, they're not used to the public coming and they post that the meeting starts at 7:30. I get there at 7:25. They're already executive session.
081They started at 6:30 and then they changed the on their website after the fact that they start at a different time. So, we strained that out after the June meeting and I showed up for the July meeting and they start the meeting say, "We'll listen to you, but we're not going to do anything." Not not I said well I'm used to that already in other locations. Uh but it's not a good way to start. So I came here also I I think we got unlist you have a lays on toosis. They need a wakeup call. I'm going to go to the meeting next week on the 18th and ask what we're doing. I gave him the green field plan on transportation and they're electrifying it and the fact that we have a bus garage abandoned
082by um MSBA or the nice bus who who isn't so nice in Rockville Center. Imagine this. They have a a bus garage in Rockville Center empty with cheap Rockville Center rate. They buy electric buses and they're charging them in city at a much higher rate. The schmuck factor at at at at their place is just unbelievable. It's only parallel to Boseis. I I just can't believe this. As a as a taxpayer, they're paying a higher rate. We got CNG gas which qualifies. Also, we have a tremendous installation. Uh $35 million building sitting empty. It can only be used under the I had my staff at the Nassau County Planning Commission research it all. And that building was built with urban mass transit money and can only be used for that purpose. It can't be repurposed
083for anything else. So what would be better than for the Southwest Nassau, I've shared it with Dr. Lynch, I've said shared it with the superintendent Rafal Center to have a uh coordinated effort, an inter municipal agreement, get together with Nassau County and try to put that building to use to save taxpayers money. Not a terrible virtue. So, I'm going to continue on that plight and I'm going to continue to try to get to uh Boseies. Even if you look at the list, Madame President, of where they're holding this election, there's nothing in Southwest Nassau. They don't think we exist here. They just send us bills. All the polling places are Baltimore, can uh Baltimore uh and North America and and Garden City. Nothing down here, but I'm determined. I'm going to Garden City to vote
084in that election. Not too many people vote. I want to welcome the student. Uh I think it's great that the state law permits you to give input to the people that are governing our district. 56 years ago, I attended my first school board meeting trying to give a school board some input. It'll be in my book when I have time to write it. And the president of the school board blew cigar smoke in my face and told me to get lost. They used to smoke in the boardroom. The superintendent school was very embarrassed. He called me in his office the next day. I was 16 years old and I he told me he was embarrassed and anytime I had a problem I could come see him and forget about the school board and I should
085see him. So we continued for the next two years. But I've been going to schoolboard meetings ever since. I never got tenure from Rockville Senator to to to come to the meetings but I'm in my 56th year of going. School board members come and go. Superintendent schools come and go. Jeff Greenfield keeps going to the meeting. >> Thank you all. Have a good night and thank you again. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Seeing no one else at the microphone, I'd like to ask for consent agenda on resolutions 259 C1 through C9, 259, NC1 through NC17, and 258 G2 through G33. May I have a motion, please? Mr. Murray. Second, Mr. Cullen. All in favor? Thank you. May I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? Saragona. Second, Mr. Lunar. All in favor? Thank you.
086We will have a work session on September 25th to discuss curriculum goals and our fiscal outlook. The audit committee will meet before the work session. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Miss Kelly. Second. Miss Aragona. All in favor. Thank you. Have a great night, everybody.