BOE Meeting - June 11th, 2025 - Lynbrook Public Schools

001And now the end is near. And so I face my final girl. Actually sound pretty good actually doing that. That sound better than I thought. All right, everyone be quiet. Mr. Pressure, keep singing. S pressure, if you can take control of the room, please. I'd like to start the meeting. You're the only one talking, Mr. Pressure. Good evening. Welcome to the June 11th, 2025 meeting aluminum board of education. If we could all please stand for the flag. Mr. Pleski will lead us in the pledge. America for all. Oh my god. Roll call. Terry, everyone is present. Mr. Murray is not here this evening. Want to begin by thanking the community for doing as they always do. We passed the budget this year at 73% uh as we always do, consistently high. We always appreciate the

002support. Just another example what of a great supportive community we have. Also, congratulations to Mr. Lunar and being reelected and to our newest board manual Daniel Cloon. Uh, may I have a motion to accept the minutes of the May 7th meeting? Mrs. Aragona. Second, Mr. Luna. May I have a motion to accept the minutes? All in favor? Sorry, Terry. May I have a motion to accept the minutes of the May 20th budget results meeting? Mrs. Dino second. M. Kelly. All in favor? Uh, Mr. Lyn, Dr. Lynch, presentations. So, for the first time as superintendent, I'm going to now violate Robert's rules of orders. and Robert rules of orders means I can only speak when this man acknowledges me and it has to be something on the agenda. The man sitting next to me to the

003left tonight after 18 years of service on the Lindbrook Board of Education, 10 of which were as president, is attending his last meeting on the Lindbrook Board of Education to say that Mr. Belmont's presidency was consequential uh would be an understatement uh as far as uh as I'm sure some of the other board members will be talking about the the uh his leadership through COVID and some of the other items that we faced. Uh uh this just this kid from Lindbrook did pretty okay. So I'm now going to ask uh Mrs. Denino if she'd like to lead the way. Thank you. So tonight we recognize and thank Billy Belmont for his 18 years of dedicated service to the Lindberch Board of Education. 10 of those years as board president. Billy has always led with one

004clear priority, putting our students first. Whether it was navigating challenges and advocating for our schools or offering a witty remark when we needed a laugh, Billy brought passion, commitment, and just the right amount of snark. Let's be honest, he never missed an opportunity to throw in a political jab, especially when it came to government overreach. That's classic Billy. A proud Limbrook native, Billy has never hesitated to step up for the community he grew up in. Whether it meant serving on the board or volunteering as a coach for the football team, he did it all because he cares deeply about this town and its future. Many of us remember that it was Dr. B who first encouraged Billy to run for the board. 18 years later, we're grateful he did. Billy, while we'll miss your voice

005at this table, we know you'll finally have more time to enjoy your favorite ice cream, burnt brownies, and dominate the pickle ball court. Thank you for everything. Lindre is better because of you. First, I'll be talking on behalf of Shawn Murray. He is very upset he couldn't be here, but he did write a little something. What can I say about Billy Belmont? I know Billy likes and respects you when he gives you a hard time. So, I knew that I was on his good side when the teasing and challenging began. And the challenging was what made Billy such a great board member and even better board president. He never argued for argument's sake. He argued to help you to help make sure you'd seen every side of an issue before making a decision. He looked

006for the holes in your reasoning and made you a better board member by doing so. I know that Billy dislikes the spotlight as much as he loves his soapbox. But I have to say that after these four years of working with Billy, the soapbox was always and only about the kids in Limbrook. Everything he said on this day, even if it seemed political or personal, was about the kids. every decision he made and every argument he has was to ensure we as a board were f focused on making this school community better for the students. He firmly believes and I agree that our community knows what's best for our children and that local control is the most important right that we have as a school board. So thank you Billy for your mentorship, your toutelage

007and for the time and passion you gave to your fellow board members and the students of Lindbrook. You have created a legacy and set a very high expectations for the rest of us and your successors to to aspire to. You will be miss uh Mr. Belmont came to my house about 5 years ago during the COVID crisis and in a moment of weakness he convinced me to run for the school board and I've been debating whether or not I did the right thing ever since. Uh, so am I. No, it's it's been an honor to serve and it's really been an honor to serve with Billy. He's actually sensational at this. The meetings that he runs, nor the school boards run meetings like this. I've seen him handle every situation, both with grace and inappropriate

008comments at the same time, which is hard to do. You know, uh he he's actually really good at getting the point across. He's really good at sticking up for your kids and he's always putting limber first no matter what. Uh it's been an honor to serve with you, Bill, and um thank you for convincing me to do this and uh good luck, man. So, I've only had the pleasure of serving on the board with Billy for three years. Um and I have to say, um I've learned an incredible amount from Billy. First of all, you know, like Pat said, there is nobody in the world who runs a meeting, a board meeting or any other type of meeting the way Billy does. It's a true gift. I've been in meetings in rooms with Fortune 500

009CEOs. They don't hold a candle to Billy in the way they run a meeting. So, you know, we've all gotten really spoiled in this community because Billy's been on the board for a really long time. He's been on the board longer than I've been in the district. And I don't remember a time when he wasn't leading these meetings, even when I had little kids in the school. And gonna be an impossible act to follow for whoever fills that chair next. And you know, it's a true compliment. Uh Billy also loves this district probably more than anybody I know. Um you know, we we see Billy on stage and he's arguing and he's making points and yeah, a lot of lot of sarcastic zingers and political comments, but every one of those zingers comments, remarks, they're

010all coming from a place of truly loving this district. He really looks out for this district and wants to protect it from every single possible problem that could come down the road, whether it's local or Alby's, you know, overreaching uh overarching influence. So, I I think, you know, Billy, from from myself and I think the whole community, we really appreciate you and, you know, couldn't be, you know, luckier to have had you for such a long time on this board. You get two words. Thank you. I spoke for Sean, but now I want to speak for myself. Um, I want to thank you for all your years of service. 18 years is an incredibly long time. You know, doing this job isn't always easy. I think if I remember correctly, somebody described it as the

011colonoscopy of public service. You have been an incredible mentor and a friend. You've definitely taught me a lot about what it means to be a good board member. Most importantly, you've taught me over and over again how important it is to care about what pe to care a lot about what people have to say, but to not care about what people have to say about me. And you know this comes this job comes with criticism and sometimes you have to always stay focused and I think you remind people to do that often and as a parent in the district and as a board member. Thank you. All I know is that makes me feel old. That's all I got out of that. Um, I guess I have to say something. So, I agree with everything

012they said. I think it's very accurate. Ask not what your district can do for you, but what you can do for your district. So, um, I'm just I love Lindbrook. I've been a part of this for a very long time. Dr. Bobino, for those of you that didn't know him, was an extraordinary man. He was just the heart and soul of this place. And as soon as I moved back home, he had convinced me to get actively involved, which I did. Um, I I think we are one of the best districts on Long Island. I think the fact that our budget passes every year with such a high percentage indicates that I think COVID, as difficult as it was, we managed that very well. We got through that. We continue to add programs to our

013district. Our kids continue to excel with whatever their plans are after high school, whether they start a job, where they go to the military, where they go into further education. It's just a great place to be. You know, one of the I I can see multiple people in this room who I grew up with in Limbrook, who I graduated with, who come back to live here, who come back to teach here, and that just tells you what a great place it is to grow up in a town, to go out and go to school and work, and then decide to come back there. That's the greatest example of knowing what a great place it is. So, I'm proud of where we are. I think the district's in a great place. This board, this administration, things

014have been very smooth since co. It's going well. And please don't make me come back. So, we know you didn't want a gift, but we know you would like a basket full of Limbrook. [Applause] So, I just want to put my final word from a a personal perspective. Uh, Bill, you're the last person on this board that was in the room when I was hired in 2009 as a director of technology. Um, and just on a pure personal level, I thank you for all that you've taught me. Uh, so we have a we have a word on Saturday mornings at my house. When the phone rings, I look up and I say Belmont and uh sometimes it's snark and sometimes it's jokes and uh but all times it is um a lesson and a lesson

015to be learned and about how again as the board member said how local government is supposed to act. uh though this is the why do people you say how the criticism runs hot because this is the degree of government you can get to good luck go get to Albany here are the people that are held accountable to you and yes the way you have uh and I hope we never stop this when we were at the worst time of COVID while other boards were shutting it down Mr. Belmont ramped it up and he said they paid for that microphone and we're going to sit here until 3 in the morning and he didn't care which side of the political aisle you came from. You got to speak your word at that until you spoken out

016and I think that's the unity uh that got us through that and I think that is an example that I think this board and this administration will take for the future. So thank you Mr. Belmont. [Applause] All right, now we get to the fun stuff. So, now we're going to talk we're going to honor a whole bunch of students tonight. So, uh, Pathways to Independence is an award, uh, from CEO, which is a, uh, an agencies that supports students in attaining vocational skills. So, one of the students uh from Lindbrook, Miss uh Carali Germaine, is receiving a $500 award to celebrate growth, resilience, and future potential in an as an alternatively assessed student pursuing employment. And this is what it's about when it's real world skills. And this is why we are so owl proud

017of Carali. So, we have a t-shirt for you, Carali. I saw her before. [Applause] The Roger Ree Award is for and his outstanding performer in a musical and it proudly recognizes exceptional talent and achievement in high school musical theater across the New York City area. As I said to the board, um so as I've admitted from this microphone, I'm not a sports guy, but I am a theater guy. This is a big deal. I don't know how else to say it. This is a really big deal. Uh and so one of our very own, Mr. Jack Segley, has won that award. He now goes on to represent the greater New York City area at the Jimmy Awards. And we wish you all the best of luck. And Jack, from my heart, I'm going to miss

018seeing you on that stage cuz you have for the hours of enjoyment you have given me. I thank you. [Applause] So, we had a finalist in the Nassau County Library Association's Freedom to Read Essay Contest, Miss Juanita Martinez. Is she here? [Applause] So what Wanita did was she did an artistic reflection on the book by Gabrielle Garcia Marquez, 100 years of solitude. She will be honored at an awards presentation on Thursday, June 5th. Elise Compliano. [Applause] But the secret is we never say no to the students. It was a little hard. Good night for everyone. Um, I'm very pleased and happy to be here. I I came as a student in last year as in ninth grade and I'm very I'm very h thankful for the high school for all the people that has been

019here helping me also as a as a second language student my first language is spa is Spanish and today I'm very excited because today is my birthday and I'm celebrating the life and everyone everyone's the faces. Um, and this is my last year here, so this is also a way to say to all of you thank you. [Applause] I'm sorry. It's okay. To all the people that work here, for the students, for the teachers, for my family, and for my friends, for being so sweet and kind to everyone. And enjoy every day because every day is special. And thank you very much for everything. Thank you, Anita. And yes, we need to congratulate the girls varsity lacrosse team for becoming conference champions. And I think they're here to take a coach. You're gonna bring up

020for a pick. One more. I know I had this here somewhere. Terry, this has happened to me before. I know it's here. It's humid. Okay. And this is another one of my favorites. So, we have two students from South who are only two of 23 students in New York State who received the very prestigious first class national NCT promising young writers competition. and they are Miss Christy Luna Pedroso and Audrey Shoen. So before I come over, so I don't know people probably have guessed this about me. The one thing I always wanted to be I, you know, I wanted to be a writer, but my mother wouldn't let me. That's a long story. I need some therapy. You all know what that's about, right? Uh these stories which I got to read which I have

021here right now are so good. Um so the prompt was where are you from and uh so Audrey did a great story called where is home and it was a little uh kind of Joyce Carol Oatsy and it was the idea that what I thought it was was like an emerging artist seeing herself and then freeing herself. I'm sorry got the Did I get the theme right? All right. And that's what I saw and and just the language use was just just incredible. And then uh um you know, you made me cry. So I I have to admit. So again, young girls coming up with an idea of a German Shepherd dog that was abandoned in Berlin at the height of World War II and who is walking through wartorrn Berlin looking for his former

022master. It was just incredible. And again, I cannot for both of you the the the extraordinary use of language and syntax and diction. Um, these are so professionally written and I can see why NCTTE did it. And uh, all I'm going to say at the end of the story, the dog breasted. And we're going to take a pick now. [Applause] Thank you. Okay. So, now I'm going to put it back to Mr. Belmont. Moving along with the meeting, we have one new staff member this evening. Although she is a gal from Lindbrook, she decided not to wear the t-shirt tonight. We'd like to welcome our new assistant principal and former graduate at the high school, Shield Dempsey. Please stand up. We do this by I'm going do it by motion. May I have a motion

023to adopt resolution 256 C34 appointing Miss Dempsey as of July 1st? Mr. Dino second. Miss Aragon. All in favor? Congratulations. [Applause] Also, talking about new additions, we're going to go a little bit out of order. Um, as of last year, um, the government came up with a decision for us, one of the more positive things I ever do to have an exofficio student board member, which would help us conduct our meetings. So, we'd like to introduce you to the first student member of our board. If Jackson Bowler can come on up. Jackson was among a very strong group of candidates. We look forward to him serving with us. [Applause] And while and just so you know officially he will be sworn in on our July 1st meeting. So, while it may appear that this room

024is full for me, it is not. We have many staff members receiving tenure tonight. One of the most special gifts you get as a teacher. We did have a reception for them before the meeting, but I would like to give their public acknowledgement now, and we'll call their names and ask them to stand up, please. Starting with the administrators. Stacy Deir Johnson, please stand up. Lee Murray, Adriana Schaefer, Matthew Serosce, [Applause] at Marian Street. Natalie Sherry, [Applause] Jenna Crims, Diana Leone, [Applause] Katherine O'Brien. [Applause] And not in attendance tonight, Maria Panero and Anna Upton [Applause] at North. Carolyn Fischer [Applause] Lorraine Trrowy, James Wolf, [Music] and Carolyn Kosa [Applause] [Music] at South. Jennifer Wiznooki [Applause] definitely getting old at the high school. Jennifer Marinoli, [Applause] even though this gentleman's pickle ball game is lacking, Andrew

025Rosenberg. [Applause] Oh, wait. There's one more. Congrats, Dave. Dave Yaker. Congratulations to all of you, but we will not make it official. We will now vote to adopt the tenure resolution on these teachers. May I have a motion to put tenure resolutions 256 C16 through 256 C33 on a consent agenda? Mr. Plesi, second Kelly, all in favor. May I have a motion to accept the consent agenda for tenure? Mrs. Denino, second, Mr. Lunar, all in favor. Congratulations. Not here. I'm okay with that. If those tenure recipients could please come up for the Photograph. Class photo. Class photo. Before we move on with the meeting, taking into account how hot it is in here and that people are anxious to go celebrate, we will take a 60-second break so our tenure families and people can go

026celebrate and then we will get on with the meeting. As usual, Mr. Pressure, we'd love to get on with the meeting. [Music] Who's got the retirement due to who they give? Are you moving on with the meeting? We have two retirements this evening. Neither one that was able to attend, but we will read their resolutions. Mrs. Denino, if you could begin. Sure. Whereas Mr. Christopher Brower, a devoted cleaner in the Limbrech Union Free School District, has announced his intention to retire effective July 30th, 2025. following an impressive 31 years of dedicated service to the Limch public schools. And whereas Mr. Brower began his career at Lindrech High School in the winter of 1994 and quickly distinguished himself through his strong work ethic and commitment to excellence. And whereas while serving the school community full-time, Mr.

027Bower also selflessly volunteered as a firefighter in Hulet, demonstrating his deep commitment to public service and the greater community. And whereas in the aftermath of the tragic events that struck New York, former facilities director Mr. Alan Scott wrote in a letter dated September 18th, 2001, "You are a hero and your bravery is obvious and commendable, recognizing Mr. Brower's courage and actions. And whereas the board of education wishes to express its sincere appreciation for Mr. Brower's extraordinary dedication and service to the district. And whereas the board also extends its warmest wishes to Mr. Brower for a long, happy, and healthy retirement, as he looks forward to spending more time with his wife, Tara, and children, William and Elizabeth, in their new home in Tennessee. And now, therefore, be it resolved that the board of education hereby

028accepts the resignation of Mr. Christopher Brower for purposes of retirement effective July 30th, 2025. [Applause] Mr. I think you have one. Uh we have a retirement resolution for Mrs. Maryanne Plaza, moderate West End. Whereas Maryanne Plaza, beloved member of the West End elementary school community is retiring after 27 years of dedicated service and her impact on students, staff, and families will be felt for years to come. And whereas Mrs. Plaz is full of life and energy and brought that spirit wherever she went from uh her time supervising lunch duties to supporting students and families at the front door. Her presence made West End a bright and joyful place to work and learn. And whereas Mrs. Plaz has been a nurturing and energetic presence in the school. Known for her unwavering commitment to the well-being of

029our students and her active participation in the daily lives, often seen engaging uh in games during recess or sharing warm words of encouragement and bringing a sense of fun to West End, including the unforgettable moment where she celebrated her 60th birthday by flipping on a playground. Borat true reflection, not sure what that means, sorry. of a vibrant spirit and deep connection to to childhood. And whereas Mrs. Plaz has brought the fun and flare to West End with a love of scratchoff lottery tickets to which she regularly donates and her fond memories of dodgeball from her days at Valley Memorial and Central High School. Her strong presence, confidence in every decision, and fierce advocacy for students have made her a role model and a beloved caretaker to all. And whereas Mrs. Pla's ability to see through

030the lens of a child, her strength of character and her boundless energy have made her an irreplaceable part of the West End family. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Limick Union field school district extends its deepest appreciation to Maryanne Plaz for her years of outstanding service, heartfelt care, and vibrant spirit and wishes her a retirement full of joy. is surrounded by her husband John, daughters Dominique and Danielle, proud graduates of West End, three grandsons, great food, exciting travels, and many winning scratchoffs. The board district of education hereby accepts the resignation of Mrs. Mary Plaz for the purposes of retirement effective June 27th, 2025. Moving on with report from trustees. Uh Mrs. Argoner, anything on policy committee? Yes. So we have a first reading of extreme heat condition days. Education law requires

031district to adopt a policy addressing student and employee health and safety on days of high heat. Um also code of conduct review. Uh first reading will be addressed under new business by Dr. Lynch and the use of personal cellular phones by students that has been rescended and it will be replaced by a new policy students and personal electronic devices to be adopted in July. Mr. Lunar on PTA Vism. So for PTA we have one announcement. Um, the PTA Council Fly with the Owl Scholarship 5K fund run will be October 12th, Sunday. So, everyone mark their calendars. And in addition, we just want to thank the PTA for all of their support during the school year um for all the scholarship they've raised and given out and announced. Um, you know, for those who don't know,

032the PTA really works tirelessly. It's 12 months out of the year, not just during the school year, and they give out a ton of scholarships. We had our scholarships award um presentation uh last week and there were a ton of PTA scholarships given out and they really help a lot of kids. So congrats to them and I just want to thank them for everything they do. New business Dr. Lynch. So the uh as Mrs. Aragona indicated the code of conduct review committee met uh that is a committee that is uh raised of multiple of stakeholders. So, there were administrators there, there were teachers there, there were parents there, and there were students there. Uh, and we did a line by line review as is required by law every year. Uh, I have to say, uh,

033with Jackson, I see say see you're still here. So, we had two students on the review committee and I'm going to tell you that they found something in the code of conduct that after all of our readings, we had never seen. Uh so there is a line in the code of conduct which is about the of when we would notify a pins petition a person in need of supervision and the current code of conduct says we would only do it in the case of marijuana possession. The students said so I can have cocaine and we're like oh maybe we should take a look at that. and we took a look that there was actually and actually addressed it with council and we're like, you know, I think uh there's there's a there's a reason why

034it says that because marijuana is not a controlled substance, but we just added control substance. So, you'll see that in the uh in the thing and thank you to our student board members uh for that uh great catch. Uh the other thing that we're adding is that uh we're adding the authorization for student searches uh under my direction that we would we can extend that to other administrators. Uh what we're finding is that if we had a need to s if it were something where we had to evacuate the building and in order to get 700 kids back in, we would need to search bags, we need more people able to do those searches. So the code of conduct now authorizes me to authorize other administrative staff or other staff that I deem fit under

035my supervision. So that was a another one. Uh and then the other thing that we're we are looking at is that we've made a a uh change to uh uh the it's just an addition. We're adding uh to the rights of the police to come into the building and what those rules are. We are adding uh additionally it's a technical reason. We're adding law enforcement and peace officers because they're all underneath the same uh basic set of rules. So those are the major changes that you'll see in the code of conduct. Uh and we will uh have a first read on that. uh and that uh tonight's the first read and then we'll adopt in uh in July. So that brings us to the wonderful discussion about the new uh we although we're calling it

036the cell phone uh policy. Uh the state has now asked us to address it as all internet enabled devices. So there is now a law on the books that obliges this board and every board in New York State to adopt a policy that bans the use of all internet enabled devices from K to 12 from the beginning of the school day to the end of the school day everywhere on school grounds. That's the law. That's not the board making this decision. It is the government of the state of New York that has now declared that kids can't have them and use them during the course of the school day. What does this include? Certainly the smartphone, but people have to understand the reason they're referring to it as internet enabled devices is because it also

037includes smart watches. So, we know at first when we thought this policy was coming out, we thought it was going to be a high school problem. We actually have an elementary problem because a lot of kids are wearing uh smart watches and that is not permitted like let me say this one more time by law. So what the board doesn't have a lot of room on this one. Okay. They can't suddenly declare a policy that says hey you know what we're going to let the kids use it. What this board needs to to come to uh really some decisions on. So what's happening right now just so you know procedurally what's happening tonight. I'm going to lead the board in a conversation of questions that they need to give guidance on and they are given

038guidance to uh Mrs. Aragona, Mr. Luna and Mr. Murray who is not here who are their policy committee. That policy committee will then take the results of this discussion and put it into the policy. In addition, I met with stakeholders groups. I met with PT Super PTA this morning, which is kind of like the representatives of all our PTAs and we discussed it there. uh the principles have been discussing it at their their compact meetings. Uh so all of that discussion has to all be distilled into one policy. Uh so the questions that I have for the board, if we can go uh a little bit in order given that cell phones are not permitted anywhere on a school ground and being that we uh have an open campus at Lindbrook High School, which means

039that students are leaving this building two and three times a day to go up to Angelina's, to go over to to Savino's, to go down to Beckman's to go home. kids go home for lunch and then they and then they walk back. Uh while the So there is one way that we could handle this and that would be we collect cell phones at the beginning of the day and we never give them back and therefore they do not have them when they are wandering around town. You could tell am I leading the board by for like you know you could tell sometimes how you answer questions. So I I guess the question is if we needed to come up with storage solutions because that's the language of the law where they would need to store

040them during the day so that they are not seen or heard. For example, if they were in their lockers that none of our kids use or if they were inside their bags turned off and unable to be used and we see them we have to do something. is that what would the board's position be on uh where that storage phys decision? I I just would like to say that the belltobell is on school grounds and I correct think, you know, I speak as a parent and listening to other people that when our students leave this campus, they should for surely have access and it could become a logistical nightmare for the teachers and administration to have to monitor every student putting it at the front door or whatever we would come up with. So I

041don't Yeah, I mean I'll I'll second what Mr. Denino said. I I think we, you know, I look at this from the perspective of a board member and as a parent. As a parent who has a kid in the high school now and next year we'll have a ninth grader in the high school. I don't want my son wandering around the town on his lunch break without a cell phone. God forbid. Look, we don't live in we don't live in 1952 anymore. We don't live in an ideal world. There are bad people out there who may do harm to our kids. If my kid runs into one of those people, I want him to have the ability to call someone and get help. To me, sending kids, if you're going to take phones during the

042day and take them all day where the kids can't have them, then we have to close the campus. That's how I look at it. It's a health and safety issue. Nobody's talking ever about closing the campus. So, the point is, if we have an open campus, the kids need to have the cell phones when they're not in school. The policy only applies to on school grounds. So, we'd actually be going above what is already a draconian and over-the-top mandate state control policy as it is. So, I I think I feel strongly the kids need to have them when they leave. Um, when we talk about storage, I think you said where do we store them? The lockers, nobody uses them. We have to be realistic. The kids don't use their lockers. Um, the lockers can

043be broken into. These cell phones are between $800 to $1,500 a cell phone. That's the reality of the world we live in. And so I think you want the kids to have the phones on them but turned off. We can comply with the law, but when a kid's going out to lunch, they shouldn't have to first circle back to their locker, get their phone, and then go out. You're already cutting a short period shorter. So to me, the law permits them to be in the kids' backpack and turned off. That's fully compliant with the law. We should have that and so the kids can have them when they leave campus and come back on. Um, so I I'll speak as a board member, as a community member, and as a teacher. Uh, the thing I'll

044say is obviously cell phones are an issue with this generation. And to me, you know, the cell phones being out in their face as often as they are is something that's turning a generation of kids into, you know, people with anxiety issues and other things that really can be fixed with a little less screen time in my opinion. With that being said, most parents want their kids to have access to cell phones for the for the, you know, idea of safety and communication. But, and I'm guilty of it myself. There have been times I've sent my kids a text when I knew they were sitting in class, and that's inappropriate, but I've done it. And uh it it's something that I shouldn't do, but you know, sometimes that's how things work. My concern is and

045and I like the idea of limiting cell phone use. All right. I I don't think this governor has any idea how to implement this, and most school districts don't as well. Um the kids need access to their cell phones when they're off campus. I agree with that completely. But with that being said, how are we going to enforce this? We've been told by the state we are not allowed to suspend kids if they continually take their cell phones out. So what kind of punitive, you know, uh, characteristics or situations are we going to apply if, you know, these kids are habitually breaking the rule? And on top of that, who are we going to ask to enforce it? Like as a teacher, I don't I don't want to deal with that. I got enough to

046worry about getting kids to pass AP exams and reason exams. I don't want to count, you know, how many times a kid didn't have their or had their cell phone out when it should have been put away. So there there's a lot we need to discuss. And and in all honesty, there's no way this is going to work if we don't get help from the parents. If if if you know, bad parenting like I exhibited when when I text my kids during the day is something that has to go away. And I'll be hypocr and I won't be hypocritical where I say it wasn't me. I it was me. It was my wife. was most of my family. We we've done it. But with that being said, you know, if the parents don't go old

047school here and start backing the administration with this, this was never going to work. It's it's not going to ever be something we can do. You know, parents have to hold their kids accountable if the kids got a a phone out in class. That's just the bottom line, you know, and teachers need to be uniform with this. We can't have some teachers that are all in to the letter of the law and other teachers that ah no big deal. It's got to be uniform and we have to figure out a way to make it uniform. I don't know the best method, but I do know we need to come up with a method. In my mind, you know, whatever the punitive, you know, order is for the habitual offenders. It should be published. It should

048be open to the community. They should know prior to the school year when this happens the first time, this is what's going to happen. what happens the second, the third, the fourth, this is the the the order of how your kids are going to be disciplined. We can't suspend them, but there are other things we can do to convince them that having that cell phone out in class is not the right thing. So, I don't know. Good luck. I just want to bring up I went to a listened to a panel upstate of a school in Albany that had already implemented this the bellto bell this year and the students were speaking on this panel about the change that they see in their school about the socialization and how much even fighting in school has

049stopped because if there's a fight in school often it's videotaped or things like that but in a school that has you know those issues it's really decreased increase those issues. Students are talking to each other more. They're collaborating with each other. I I was surprised really and walked away, you know, in awe of, wow, you know, it's not just the teachers who are seeing the difference, but the students are after a while appreciating the difference that it's making. They said they're talking to people that they never spoke to before. So, I really walked away from that conference. And there was also law enforcement at that conference. And you know, as a mom, I think in an emergency, I would want my child to have the their phone, but the um officers that spoke there said,

050"We need students in an emergency situation to give their undivided attention to what's happening, not turn on their phone that could, god forbid, ping or alert someone where they are or start calling because they need to hear every direction." So, it was really eye opening going to this conference. Um I don't know if we're going to get into it, but there are definitely some exceptions. So not just Yeah. So I should bring those up before the board's attention. So there are definite uh so there are exceptions that if a child needs the use of a cell phone to monitor their health. So for example, there are kids that monitor their blood uh sugar that way. They are an exception. Uh kids who use it for translation, that is an exception. Kids who can prove that

051they are the primary caretaker in their home. So maybe there's a sick parent. Uh, and there's one more exception I get. And oh, and of course by law, according to a kid's IEP, um, that's another reason for it. There is something in the law that also allows teachers to allow its use in class, but there's a little bit different from what it used to be. It has to be they have to ask administrative kind of they have to let the administr in the old days it was like, "All right, kids, take out your cell phones. I know you'll all have them. Take a picture." Now it has to be almost a planned activity. Next week I'll be having the kids use the cell phones. All right, makes sense to me. Teachers cleared it through the

052administrator. Now it's not the wild west that Mr. Pleski was talking about it. It's now really and by the way the policy puts the onus not on a teacher but on the administration. It is really the administration. Now granted we need cooperation from teachers and parents but uh that those those are some very good points. Uh Mrs. Dino I mean look I don't think anybody would dispute that we have an epidemic with cell phone use with kids. I mean I see it in my own house. I have more fights with my kids about just look up and put away your phones for five minutes than I do about any other topic. Um, you know, it is a problem. I think the intent of this is actually in the right place. I think the problem with

053this policy is a it's I want to steal Billy's uh thunder on this. It's a complete infringement on local control. I think it is absurd that the governor is mandating one-sizefits-all approach from Albany for each district. there are different districts that have different problems and you guys elect us to be your representatives to come up with policies that work for your kids in this district. So I I philosophically oppose to the way it's mandated. I think there are other problems with this policy such as kids may want to sit in a lunchroom during during their lunch instead of walking outside. There are kids who don't have a lot of friends and the phone is their only outlet to people to speak to. Kids call their parents at lunch if they're having you know social issues.

054I think there's a million in one problems with this, but we as a board, sorry, we as a board can't change the law. It is what it is. We're stuck with this. Um, so I think the the ambit or the real issue that we have before us is how to how to implement in implement it in a way that works for the kids. And I think that's what we're trying to kind of go up and back with right now. So to to piggyback on that, uh, now comes the sticky wicket at say is what does enforcement look like? Uh, so in a perfect day, this is what will happen in all of our schools. The children will come in and they will have a smartphone on or they will have their watch on or they'll

055have a phone and everyone knows because the kids know the rules. They will take off their smartphone, their smartwatch. They will put it in their bag. They will put they will turn off their phone. They will put it in a bag. It will go in the elementary schools. It goes into the back closet where it's nice and safe. As we've been doing for middle schools in all these years, it goes into the locker and there it's nice and safe. And yes, and at Lindrook High School, everyone puts it in their bag, it's off, and we never hear it ring for the entire day. And we live in a perfect world. Now, the next question is going to be, what happens when, god forbid, teenagers without fully developed uh frontal loes decide to check their their

056uh messages in the middle of the day. So now we have told the kids, I can't see it. When I see it, what are we going to do? So we did vet this with PTA with super PTA today and there was a remarkable consensus in the room that what uh that if we are going to allow the key is if it were truly stored away the kids wouldn't be tempted to read their messages but because it's right in their bag the recommendation is to do more stringent enforcement so that we get the kids early to understand you know what you're not going to have it at lunch. So the recommendation from Super PTA was that we we see it, we confiscate it, we store it safely in the office, we call mom and dad, and

057mom and dad has to come and and pick it up and restore it to the to the child. And then if we do that for a couple of weeks, eventually a kid now who doesn't I don't have it at Savinos and it's my own fault that I don't have it at Savinos. Maybe they'll start to learn, you know what, I I'm not going to take the risk and and read it. So, uh that's the board can decide on enforcement. What level of enforcement is that an acceptable policy to you or where do you see that coming down? Um, my only worry about parents having to come pick up the cell phone is all parents work different schedules and I I almost find it a little unreasonable that somebody's parent might get home at 3:34 and

058then somebody else's parent could be a nurse and a fireman and they work 300 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. and their kid can't get their cell phone the next day. Also my fear I am not a teacher but I am a parent and I know sometimes parents can get angry and I have a feeling in the first like beginning of school this is going to be a problem and kids are not going to get used to this and if you're confiscating 50 60 phones and you're calling 50 60 parents to come pick up their phone and they're yelling and screaming and they're mad because they're busy and I can't make it there. eventually you might give up on calling the parents. So I I can understand having a parent be a pickup. I don't necessarily think

059it should be the first offense, but again as like I don't know how you monitor that first offense, second offense, but I just don't know if we'll get the results that we want from it being your first offense. Yeah. I mean, this is an issue that it is tough. You have to have it have some teeth. We're stuck with it. We have to enforce it. Let's not turn it into a free-for-all. I have a real concern about confiscating and making the parents come get it because, and I get it, you're inconveniencing the parents, so maybe the parents will crack down on their kids, but Tara raised a good example. We all work different hours, right? Some of us are fortunate to have flexible hours, work from home, have a stay-at-home parent. There are kids who

060have parents who work noon to 900 p.m. Both parents work those hours. that kid does not get his cell phone back at night. So, we're having a disperate impact. The kids who are lucky enough to have a stay-at-home parent get their phone back at 3:30. The kids who don't are not getting their phones back. My other concern is that when we confiscate it, if that day the parent doesn't get the phone call, right? Parents in a meeting, parents in a uh at a yoga class, who knows what the parents doing, but they don't get the phone call. That kid, I'm I'm thinking at the high school level, but it could also be the middle school level, has to now make his way home, okay, without his cell phone. And that raises all the all the

061concerns I had before. I like the idea of confiscation, but why can't we confiscate and have the kid have to come pick it up from the principal's office at the end of the day? It's look, for a kid, going to the principal's office is scary. Even for a high school kid who may be a little insolent, it's scary. And certainly for the, you know, there's other increasing offenses that we could do as second offense, third offense, fourth offense. I get it. It's tough to monitor. But I do have a real issue with confis and and I'm not a fan. I I I have a flexible schedule. My wife has a flexible schedule. If my kid takes it out, we can get there in in 10 minutes, but a lot of people can't. And it does

062raise a concern for me that I'd rather see us confiscated, have the kid take get the phone at the end of the day. Maybe the kid has to write a letter the next day and turn it in or he does, you know, we have increasing consequences. But just taking the phone and and potentially storing that phone overnight, that causes a concern for me. So, so the one thing I know did come up at PTA to that we could also extend it to everyone goes on to power school every year and updates their emergency contacts. I'm looking at you some parents who haven't done it in 5 years, but that's just another story. Uh but but when you have a current list of five people that you have given permission to pick up your child, should

063that person not have the permission to pick up a cell phone at that point? that that that's a default that if there's the parent, there's the the grandparent, there's the neighbor, and those people now may be more accessible. That was a that was an idea coming out of the room. It it's true. It's just it does become not every kid has that support network, right? We have kids who come from lower income populations. We have undocumented kids in this district. We have kids who have all varying backgrounds. And I do think there's no way that every kid in our district has five people and one of them will be able to come. That's my real I really do have a concern. And maybe the person you can get a hold of but says I can't

064get there till 4:30. But now little Johnny has lacrosse practice and he's at South and he's got to get to North immediately. Now little Johnny's at North without a phone and it's it's logistical nightmares. That's my concern. We don't live in 1950. We live in 2025. Cell phones are a part of what we do. I if I didn't have my cell phone for 20 minutes, I think I'd be twitching right now because I couldn't reach people. So to take out the parents ability to reach the kid and the kids' ability to reach the parents after school, it just creates so many concerns for me in a logistical and safety manner. I also think there's going to be a learning curve for our students who are used not used to such strict cell phone rules. So

065if we say that they're going to immediately first offense, I think that the front office is going to be awfully busy the first week of school next year and that's putting a burden on them that they don't need. So I don't think that should be the immediate response. I do remember that that was a consequence at some point. I have friends who have definitely been here and picked up cell phones. So that has happened over the years, but I I don't think, you know, that we can come right out of the gate in September with that being the immediate consequence. I'm going to respectfully disagree with the both of you. I think we need to set the line and tow the line from day one. I understand Andy what you're saying that we do have

066some children in different and more difficult circumstances, but I also think that's where that two-way communication happens and families have to be willing to let the schools know when there's a situation like that. But at the end of the day, if we're going to ask our teachers to enforce this uniformly, if we're going to set the rules, then I think we need to set them and hold them. And I do think confiscating the phone and having an adult pick it up is the proper way to go. But but it is about it. It's about uniformity. And my issue is, look, practically speaking, probably 10% of the kids in the school have parents working in this school. So it's not uniform those for them the parents just grab the phone on the way out of out

067of work for other kids who you know the parents are fully working the grandparents are at home with babies taking care of them maybe someone can't get here. So my issue is with the uniformity is that if we do it the way we're talking about and yes it's in theory it is it's it's a uniform law that has a disparit impact. It's not a by applying it uniformly, you're actually going to have an an ununiform impact on kids and that's the concern. And I just I worry about a kid not having his phone and making his way home and then the kid doesn't have his phone for the whole night. That's that's really see we have people whose phones have gone off in the middle of this meeting. And and now look, again, I think

068I hear what you're saying. We do want to try to enforce it uniformly, but by by confiscation, we inherently are not uniform because for all the kids whose parents work in this building, they're going to get their phone back at 3:15. For all the kids whose parents are working full-time and can't get there, they're not getting their phone back till the next day, maybe. It's it's not uniform. That's that's one of my issues with this with the way with confiscation. I think you could still be uniform and still be very harsh in the in the responsibility in the way you do it. Your phone's confiscated. I don't care if it's before lunch. If you don't want, you know, if you can't go to Senos, then you're going to sit in the cafeteria, right? You can

069confiscate phones. I just think they should be given back at the end of the day because it makes it harder for parents. That's my real issue with it is the confiscation extending beyond the school day. And again, there's other con there's other consequences certainly we could have. You could have lunch detention. You could have all sorts of things on your second, third, fourth offense, but coming out of the box and taking a kid's phone and he may not have it for a night and a half, it's ignoring the social realities of the world we're in. You take a kid's phone and he doesn't have it that night, you're really doing some impact, some damage to that kid. I mean, he misses out on these kids even use the phones to to do homework. They're texting

070them, Snapchatting each other all all night. Hey, how's this? Can you look at this assignment? Can you send me this? We're now taking that away from the kid beyond school hours. That's my only concern is for the kid who can't get their phone back at 3:15. I do think too, which like I forget because I use my my cell phone very different than my kids use their phone. I Google, I have email. My kids are paying for anything like through their phone. Like they don't have they never carry cash on them. I send them money through their phone. um they I'm sure there are other ways. I'm not sure. I could just really think of the Apple Pay, but if we're keeping a kid's phone and my fear, what if there is something after school

071that we don't know about and they needed to pay for something or about some kids Uber to practices, they Uber to their jobs, they wouldn't have the ability. Yes. Like we're taking that ability away from them and I just I'm It's a line. I So can I I'm just u Jackson would you gonna like one of my jobs is to count votes. So that's what I'm actually doing up here. I'm actually finding where the consensus is going. So now I'm hearing that you're moving towards a consensus but do are you seeing never getting the parent involved or is that part of an escalation path? I personally think part of I personally think it's part of an escalation. I mean, I think there needs to be a hard line and they need to be taken, you

072know, that day right away. There needs to be strict enforcement. Um, whether we call the per parent on the first defense, I'm okay with calling them and letting them know that this was but not keeping the phone beyond them walking out the door because even when, you know, I said I know people that happened, but that was years ago. You know, they weren't using their phone for Uber, they weren't using it for lunch. I I think that it gets us into a sticky situation. I I I think that's a good a good way of looking at it. We involve the parents early. It could the parents could be notified at the first the first time it happens. And they should be because if we're just taking it and giving it back, the parents may never

073know. Little Johnny's not going to come home and say to his mom, "Hey, guess what happened? I got in trouble today. If if we don't tell them, they're not finding out." So, I like the idea of getting the parents involved early and I like the idea of some escalation along the way. I just think that taking the phone after school hours is is to me it's a non-starter for me at least in the way I look at it and Leslie you raised a good point Miss Dino I should say um but we're beyond that uh I I think Miss Denino raised a really good point that there are kids who take Uber home from school or to practice or for our seniors to internships and jobs right after school. Okay. And yes, the kids shouldn't

074be a knucklehead and not follow the policy. I get it and they're bringing it on themselves, but like like we've said, they don't have fully formed frontal loes, so they're not always going to make the right decision and they should be punished appropriately, but I just worry about overpunishing and having these more severe impacts by having the the phone after school. So, what the the one concern I would have that I'd like you to address is uh now applying it uniformly. You've now have to create a structure where the administration is packing who's been warned, who hasn't been warned, and you're going to have to have power school do this. You're going to have to have something in that regard because we could get into the situation was did he get a warning or didn't

075he get a warning? And then all of a sudden the parents saying, "Well, that is the warning. That wasn't the warning." And one of the reasons that we were kind of I think I can speak for the administrators is that keeping it simple was one of their goals. Let's just keep it simple and it's and it's a uniformly applied rule. So that's and I think that was kind of where Super PTA was at also. But that's I mean as a teacher I know that anytime I speak to a parent it's documented, right? So I don't think that that's that big of an ask. I mean, just putting a tally mark next to the name, like I had to call about a cell phone, I I think then you can keep an a pretty easy record.

076It's not really increasing anyone's work that much to just keep a little, but you know, having them to have their parents come in right off the bat, but and then they'll be able to see if there's a repeat offender and then that's a conversation the administrator can have with that parent at that time. The one thing I will say is nothing is worse for a school culture than implementing rules that you don't enforce. That's like death the death nail to school culture. It it's it's 100% not something we want to do. It's it's 100% sends a bad me bad message. You know many times I've seen people say, "Hey Johnny, don't do that. You're not getting ice cream." Hey, Johnny, don't do that. You're not getting ice cream. Johnny does it and 10 minutes later

077I see Johnny eating ice cream. So Johnny didn't learn anything. And I'm pretty sure our kids won't learn anything if we implement these rules and don't enforce them. With that being said, you know, are we in a position to hold on to these phones after the school day? Now, Mr. Luna came up with about 75 scenarios that might happen if you don't have a cell phone. My my contention is, oh well, don't have your cell phone out. And the majority of those I have no sympathy for, you know. But with that being said, once little Johnny's home in the safety of of his own house with his family, we're fine. We can provide safety for our students in this building. They don't need cell phones in this building, you know. And for me personally, the

078the 20 minutes they're getting home, because we don't provide busing, we know that for many students. The 20 minutes they're getting home, most parents, I think, in the community would feel safer with the ability to get in touch with them. I don't care if they have a cell phone when they go home. If the parents doing the right job, the kid should lose a cell phone for the night because he had it out in school. But with that being said, you know, everybody parents their own way. I I don't think keeping cell phones initially past the time we send these kids out into the wild is a good idea. Now, if the kid has collected his cell phone at 245 times already, maybe the sixth time that's the option, you know, like there has to

079be a a a progression to that. How you're going to do that, I I don't know. I mean, maybe P school can alert parents that their cell phones would were confiscated like they do with absences. Maybe that is that something we can do. I I don't know. But there has to be something punitive. It has to be followed through, you know, often. And parents have to know about the consequences. And every single time a cell phone is taken from a kid, a parent should know. Whether or not they come and pick it up, I don't know. But the parent should know. Yeah. Look, and I think I'm well, first of all, let me break for a second. I have to read a statement. Uh, Mr. Murray's not here, and he asked me to read a

080statement, and this was so much fun discussing it, I forgot to do that. So, I have to read Mr. Murray's statement. Um, and Mr. Murray's a member of the policy committee as well. So, this is Mr. Murray speaking, not me. I apologize that I'm not here in person to participate in this discussion, but I do want to share my perspective as a member of the policy committee, a parent, and a public school educator. Clearly, this new law limits the flexibility with which school districts can address student uh possession of electronic devices. I agree that cell phones in schools can detract from learning and exacerbate some forms of harassment and bullying. I think students will be better off for not having their cell phones in class, in the halls, in the cafeteria, or elsewhere in the

081building during the day. At the same time, I know the importance that families place on being able to communicate with their children, especially in light of our open campus and robust afterchool activity offerings. Students need to be able to contact home after the school day ends and have to feel safe and secure when going out to lunch or walking home. I think the proposed policy language that we've developed balances those competing and valid interests. There will be consequences for students having the cell phones out when they should not. And after the first offense, those consequences will necessarily inconvenience the parents. But we also know kids make mistakes. So the consequences for a first offense will focus on being a learning experience. At the same time, the students have options for appropriately storing their cell phones

082that allow them to fully experience the open campus and contact home after school. From my perspective, the most important thing is that parents understand that we were compelled to create this policy within relatively narrow guidelines, and we will seek their support next year as we implement and enforce the policy. Finally, I want to thank my fellow policy committee members, the school administration, and the parents who contributed to making this policy work as best as it can for the Limbrook community. This ends Mr. Murray's speech, and we could all go back to our robust discussion. We also have to keep in mind, it's not just cell phones, right? It's any device that is notable device school. So and I just have a question when when we make this policy and we come and the consequence it's

083the same consequence across all the schools. Well that that is we can not necessarily so I believe and council I think it's three you can go elementary middle and high. I think that it does allow you to differentiate. Okay. So I have a question on actually it's regarding what Mr. Murray said. So he mentioned that parents want the ability to communicate with their children. The schools partner with the families and our job is to educate the children. So why can't the parents communicate with the children to follow the rules? I appreciate that kids are kids, but if we're going to set rules and then there's no consequence, then what's the point? But I I don't think anybody's talking about no consequence. I think we're just trying to have a con consequence that is realistic and

084doesn't have impacts beyond what we're what the school day is. So, I agree. Look, 100% I'm with you. We have to have consequences if we want our rules to be followed. I think it's just a matter of setting the right consequence. And the consequence that takes the phone away after school hours is is my concern. It's a safety concern and it's it goes way beyond what we're supposed to be doing. We're in charge of the kids till 3:00 or 3:15 or 2:40 or whatever time they get out. Taking away something that's theirs that goes beyond the school day, I just I think it creates too many concerns. That's just my own view on it. And I do think there I agree there needs to be a consequence the first time. So that phone if somebody

085sees their phone out day one that phone is taken and brought to the office and those parents are getting a phone call. So that is their first consequence. Right. And right we're talking about consequences here that are far in excess of some of the other consequences for other things. We of you know we have tons of consequences that we could impose on kids. Lunch detention um after school detention um or early morning detention. You can't participate in some event. There's a lot of ways that we could have consequences that still lets the kid go home with their cell phone at the end of the day. So before we keep going on that and you can go get let's try to land this plane a little bit here. So we got to get some consensus to

086give this. So one we have to figure out that we're going to have a policy. The first thing is it doesn't appear that by the way just for those that pay attention like to vote when the governor rolled this out which was ridiculous that she did it but she said she was putting $13 million towards it. I'm just curious Dr. Lynch, how much of that 13 million did you get? Zero of those dollars. Yeah, thanks. Great idea. So, I'm going to stay off the soap box as he said. It's a great line. So, we agree. So, we're going to have to have a policy. So, we know that's going to happen. I think it's important that we get the different administration levels to weigh in. What may be the right way to handle it in

087the high school may not be the same at North South and at the elementary school. So, you'll obviously get feedback from them how to do it. Do we have a consensus that right now to start with we don't believe in the beginning of this that the phone should be taken into the office? Right. So we agree there has to be a consequence. Are we comfortable with the fact that we think it should be taken into the office just now kept overnight at the end of the day? They could take it. The kid just has to pick it up from whether it's Mr. Sros's office or but there's there's a consensus that at this time there's no escalation level of degree that would want us at this time for the kid to leave the school without

088his phone. I would say for the first offense. Yeah. I would add a different view on that. Well, so and I'll I'll go with what my fellow board members are saying. If we want to say first offense, oh, you're the only voice. You'd have no choice anyway. I know. But I'd also like a cap on it. If we say Sep the last Friday in September, that's it. All holds are off. No more first offenses. Everyone is now comfortable that this is the rule. And I do think that it has to be steeper. The kids, if the kids can get it at the end of the school day after their sixth offense, that's absurd. No, I agree. It shouldn't be six offenses. Six offenses. I mean, I kind of like three strikes, you're out, but I

089even think that could be too too many. But I think that the parents need to be firmly told the first offense that this is the time. This is a learning curve. and you know but there might be a child who has that learning curve in May and takes it out and makes a mistake. So I don't really like limiting it but I think you do need to draw a hard line eventually and say this is what's going to happen going forward and you know make arrangements because someone will need to come here. Let's let's let the administ let's at the high school either Mr. Brasher or Mr. Serosu because it's great that we have opinions, but I think what happens at the high school will be much more impactful and significant than what takes place

090at the elementary school and and potentially the middle school, but it would be interesting if Mr. Sosi and Mr. Brusher, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but that's why you get paid the big bucks. My concern would be congratulations on your tenure, Matt. Earn your money, brother. You should have left five minutes ago. Earn that money. So, if you can address one, you know, there's a lot of comments being made by board members on the fact that this could be an eight time repeater and so forth. And I know we've had some experiences with it. So, you know, what's the comfort level in one? What's the comfort level in keeping a phone from a kid overnight and how necessary do you think that might be under this new policy and the consequences?

091Um, I think overnight would be would be difficult. Um, uh, but we truthfully we have some parents who would be supportive of that. Um, through the discussion I'm thinking back to like 2015 2016 when the cell current cell phone policy was more enforced than it is right now. We've certainly gotten lenient over the years as cell phones have become a bigger part of students you know daily lives even their education with power school on phones and all those kind of things. In 2015 16ish around then um we uh we were far more strict and cell phones would be taken parents would have to come after school and get it. Now after school is sometimes 3:00 parents who work sometimes 6:00. Um but I do notice those days when we were when we were stricter with

092the enforcement that um because students desperately wanted them after school there was more compliance than there is right now. No, I understand that part, but what do you think would be the realistic nature under this new policy? And to your point, what you said about parents, and I don't want to get into the soap box about that, that we're not here to parent where people can't do it at home. As you know, they use us to be the strong arm because they want to be their kids' friends and don't let them know the rules, which goes to your point, Miss Kelly, about the fact that parents need to let them know the rules and they need to enforcement in both ways. But how realistic is it under this new rule and its enforcement that you

093think you would have multiple indiv one individual being a multiple offender to that that the point where you're going to have to tell a kid you know two three four times about the phone issue based on your experience to the point where we would need to escalate it to something that would not be a preference of the administration on how to handle the uh discipline. I think if it's enforced uniformly consistently from the beginning uh the number of students who would reach three four or more times would be relatively small but um there's going to be a little bit of a grace period uh with uh with this change um kids are very used to um you know being able to have access to it but I think starting in September the enforcement has to

094be very consistent um you know communicating with families constantly and if we do that part Well, the first few weeks of school, I don't picture at least a large number of students going to and to your point, it would be better if the governor was knew anything about children education to realize the goal in life is to not take things away from people. It's to give it to them and teach them how to manage it. That's the skill of an academic institution. Not to say you can't have it. It's to teach you how to utilize it with it. But again, that doesn't work into the uh the castle she lives in. So, understanding what Mr. Sorosi is telling us now and again our policy could have language in it that gives and I understand council

095it has language that can give them the ability if they so choose at some point on a redep a repeat offender to go to that exit. You know the idea is to create a policy that allows them the discipline option if they want it. So we could keep it with it goes to the office and they pick it up and then at some point if they deem it appropriate to take it to keep it to call a parent it doesn't have to be stipulated as a requirement. It could be one of the options they have at an escalation. If it becomes a um an issue of insubordination then it's less about the phone and and more about a student not following any rule that we have. Correct. And I think you you have as we

096know the consistency of that whether it's the phone or other things that students have. So that's consistent. So I think that addresses a lot of our issues and I think it addresses yours miss one question. Did the policy itself change or was it sort of a gradual evolution where because I know and I see Mr. Brusher back there, my son got his phone taken and my question to Mr. Brussia was can you keep it till the last day of school and he said to me it's May 3rd. I'm wondering when that changed. So to answer your question, it's actually a little bit of both. The policy did change slightly. Uh the part that was added to it, at least in my time in the building, was that the cafeteria became allowed by policy. Um in

097practice, that's where uh it's not policy, but hallways um sometimes, you know, in instruction, library, places like that, it it we've certainly been more relaxed um over the last number of years. So, a little bit of both. Other than texting or phone calls, can the students use their schoolisssued devices for whatever technology educational technology needs they have in the building? Yes. Okay. That's I mean I think I think following what Billy said, I think Billy had a good point about escalation and about we do need to give some flexibility to the school to be able to have the ability to take away, you know, to to to elevate it to a parent level. We shouldn't take that away from the administration. I think what those of us who are really pushing back against taking away

098the phone till the parent comes on a first or second or third offense is is just we shouldn't be doing it right out of the box. Kids should have a couple of chances. It's still a consequence to take the phone and get a note home from Mr. Sosi. I know if my kid was to get a note home from Mr. Sosi, that's a pretty big consequence. I'm going to punish him at home anyway. So, it's not like we're not having consequences. It's not like we're not enforcing it. I just think that talking you Billy's idea about a a gradual escalation before we start doing anything more than taking it for the day is the right way to handle that gradual escalation. We don't have to as board members micromanage it. We just have to allow

099them to have the the idea. I think it's wonderful to allow the administration to take that. So I think again to to land this puppy. I think the idea is we want the policy has to be in place because that's what we were told to do. The policy be will indicate that the phones could be taken away. Right now, I believe our sense is that if it's identified, it will be told and however the however each building want to implement getting it to the office. It'll stay in the office. However the administration, each level decides to to inform the parents of that action being done. They'll also then decide how to give it back at the end of the day. Whether they want that with a note or robocall, we don't have to micromanage that.

100That the administration, Mr. Rosie can handle. And then the escalation could be at some point as the policy committee works on it if you want to to keep Miss Kelly happy after x number of times they can then have the option to or we can give them the option in the policy right away. It doesn't have to be a decision at any time you want like Mr. Sor said if you believe it is necessary to keep that phone overnight for whatever reason you decide as the administrator and the educators then they can do that. We just have to give it to them. So I think I don't know if we could take say keep it overnight. I think we could say keep it and the parent has to pick it up. I don't think we're

101let's not get into the weeds. Let's try to get there. We just got have to have enough now to have a consensus to give it to the policy committee. Is that good? Can we go? Goodbye, Sie. Okay. I just want to So, so it is possible for a phone to be confiscated and held until the parent gets it. It just your objection would be not at one or two early in the process. It would have to come later in the process. But why would we just give that to Why don't we just give it to Why make a decision? I don't want to decide that like if the child's really insubordinate the first time that they take the phone then you know I might change my mind as an administrator. I I think that there

102is some flexibility, right? If the child if if a teacher takes the phone and says, "You're not getting this back till the end of the day. It's your first offense." And the student turns around and says to the teacher, "F you. It's my phone. I'm allowed." And now we're talking way more than a cell phone. We're talking insubordination. First of all, under the code of conduct, that kid's going to get suspended for a significant amount of time anyway. So, there's already consequences. But you know I I I don't think we need to iron out every possibility and every eventuality. But what I So what I am asking for is that the administration has the ability. That's the key. Correct. Because once you preclude it, they don't have it. Correct. Once you say it's amongst many

103possibilities, we know how to do that. Correct. As long as it's not on first. I think we got it. I think I'm looking at a couple of principles. I think I'm getting consensus there. I think if Postman has to do that, we got bigger issues. Mrs. Mrs. post taking that watch and yeah and I do think you know to to your point like uh you know are we going to take a first graders you know I think age appropriateness is right I don't think we have to micromanage what our administration's doing so you she forces on us we'll make a policy we'll put the boundaries in place and we'll allow our staff to do like they've always done to make the right decision what needs to be done you good I think we're good okay

104and then we'll come up with language at policy committee that kind of reflects that yeah moving along with our meeting. Who knows where we are now. June is always a long one. Just want to let you know. The uh Well, thank you, Governor. The uh Oh, we're going on to So, we're moving on to districtwide safety plan public hearing. Mr. Press, you got about two minutes. Two two minutes. Well, I would be remiss if I didn't give Mr. Belmont one of his a nice PowerPoint presentation cuz I know he loves them. So, so I'll try not to drag this one on too long, but two minutes. All right. Um, so we are here tonight to present um the district-wide school safety plan. Uh this is uh it's a requirement of the law that we present

105this um to the public and then we open up a uh comment period of 30 days uh so the the public can um share with us any comments uh or any suggested changes or improvements that they want uh and then the board will come back and adopt the final plan uh at the August meeting. So um the plan itself um it's a very comprehensive document uh it contains a lot of information a lot of plans a lot of protocols uh and resources and things of that nature um that help us uh you know identify u threats and hazards and then provides us with um plans and protocols to respond to those uh to those threats. Um this plan is this is the district-wide plan. This works in conjunction with building level plans. Um we don't

106present the building level plans. There's a lot of confidential information in those plans. Um but the board will adopt those as well. We just um uh we just don't present those in public. Uh the plan gets reviewed by the district-wide school um safety the health health and safety committee. Um the committee is um appointed every August by the board of education. Uh so the committee was appointed last August for this year. The committee for next year will be appointed this August. There's 36 members on the committee. It's a wide range uh of representatives. Um there's board of ed um administrators. All the school principles are in there. Um directors of facilities, health guidance and technology. uh we have union representation. So it's a broad range of PE people uh including PTA uh students and we

107even have a rep from our insurance um carrier on there. So the committee um we reviewed that the plan and approved it in May and we'll talk about the timeline a little bit uh in another slide. Um really not many changes to the plan this year. There were changes that became um requirements uh for 2526. Uh they were required by legislation that was actually passed last year. Um but in anticipation that those require that the legislation would pass. We incorporated all of those changes into the 2425 plan. So they're included. They're required for 2526, but we've already had them in there. Um so no real changes in the plan um this year. The changes that really were coming into effect had to do a lot with uh traumainformed drills, giving advanced notification to parents that

108drills were coming up so that they could um address any be prepared to address any issues that children may have as a result of those drills. Uh there was some terminology changes. So where you've heard the term lockout before, the uh the the term has been changed to secure lockout. So that'll take a little bit of getting used to hearing that. Um but uh but nothing really substantive other than that. Uh here's our timeline. So as I mentioned the the safety committee approved the draft plan May 16th. Um this is the required hearing public hearing June 11th. Um the board will establish the 30-day public comment period uh at the July meeting, the reorg meeting and then adopt the plan um in August along with the building level plans uh and then also appointing the

109district-wide safety team and then we get all this stuff done and we submit to the state um by uh by October. The plan will be published on the website um so you can go take a look at that. It is up on the um with the agenda for the meeting tonight as well. So, you can take a look at that. Um have fun. It's a very very lengthy um plan. So, give yourself a nice couple of hours. Uh maybe out on the back porch on a nice Saturday or Sunday or both. Um give that a look and uh you can share any comments with us and we will look to incorporate those into the plan. Um, and so with that, I'll open to any questions from the board. I just want to say thank you.

110I did read it. Um, it will take you a few hours. It very comprehensive. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. At this time, if anyone has a question regarding the school safety plan, you can come to the podium. You could address that issue now. There will be time in a few minutes to discuss other issues. Okay. This concludes the school safety hearing. Thank you very much. I know how much work goes into doing that. Now open the regular meeting. Uh you know I should say something before we do the superintendent report. I think Terry, you're going to be the only one I really miss. I thought about that because you know all those compliments I got that everybody said I was doing the truth is you you run this district. Dr. Lynch and I know that.

111So, I realize that as as I look over all the stuff you do, it looks like I'm up here just doing this fully and I'm not. Like everything is prepared for me by her and she's done that for me since day one. So, you are I'm going to come visit you and get those brownies, but appreciate you. Yeah, Dr. Lynch. Thank you, Mr. Belmont. So, the superintendent's report. So, our final report of the year on the board goals. Uh so the first one has been our implementation of the profile of the owl and we've been talking for the last couple of meetings about the establishment of the professional development committee. Um we're going to have our work cut out for us. What I am so happy is that uh we put next year's plan in

112the hands of teachers. Uh if for those of you that know I think that is the only way we get buy in. It's the only way we make the profile of the owl real. And um I met with them very shortly. I was barely in the room. I what's called charge the committee and then I leave the room and they develop a plan and I've seen the plan for next year. Uh and I think it's a good solid plan. So uh I they have actually planned out superintendent conference day. I I see some of them shaking their head because they're in the audience. You're making me work. That's all I hear. I'm going to have to give two speeches instead of one, which means I got to prepare a little bit more. uh ju that's

113just a great idea that I just think the board should know that that they the special commit uh professional development committee said you know the animal that's called the elementary teacher and the animal that is the secondary teacher are very different from each other. They're even concentrating on very different goals. So whereas the elementary teachers are all about the full implementation of the writing revolution. They want to spend the whole year looking at that, gathering in professional learning communities to make those embedded in lessons. So that's going to be the first kickoff. And there's a philosophical difference. So um they they want I can't remember which way it was. They want to see me first. Is that the the elementary want to have the traditional? So, so there'll be the traditional first speech I give

114and uh let's go and then the secondary people is going to be very naturally um focused per discipline. You know, it gets much more customized at the at the uh they'll also be they'll also be concentrating on communication and higher order thinking skills, but it's embedded within content areas. And so they'll be having me speak on day two um to that. So, it's going to be an interesting uh idea. And then what they have also begun to do, they'll be gathered very soon into the beginning of the next year once we get past superintendent conference day. We know we have our professional development program and they are now starting to plan all those days. So I thank Dr. Bleus. I thank Mrs. Curran. I thank Mr. McDermott for uh their leadership and I thank all

115the how many members of the committee are here? It's a couple. Yeah. So thank you for giving your time. Uh and principles, thank you for letting them go during the day. Uh just so you know that's a big deal in school world. The fact that we do it on our dime, you know, we're going to get pull these people out of classrooms because it's just that important. So I'm looking forward to it and I guess I'll do what I'm told. So that's that's great. All right. Uh so the other board goal was was the MTSS plan was the uh was the uh creation of uh a comprehensive social uh emotional learning uh addressing. So, uh, we've been meeting with PTA, school and community all year. You've been hearing some of the things that have come

116out of that work that we've done. Uh, they have been working very closely with our our new, uh, director of guidance and and, uh, school counseling, uh, Mrs. Boyce. And, uh, again, some really great work has come out of there. It's gone into the world of athletics. It's gone into some of the, uh, addressing the staff development for our PPS staff. the PBS staff are the the psychologists, the social workers and the guidance counselors and um just again some really good work that was done there. And then the goal of the communications committee, we hope to have a brand new website for you clearly by the time we start the school year. We hope to see it in draft form in July. And by draft form, it means um those of us up here and

117some of our PTA uh partners are going to hit it a little bit. And I really do hope that it's going to help in our communications a lot more. it's going to be integrated completely with parent square. Um so what you're seeing in parent square can start to appear on the website uh and we can be uh a little you know I think we we pride ourselves in some transparency but this is going to make the transparency more accessible. So I don't think it's necessarily the the transparency it's the accessibility of that of that transparency. So, uh, those three board goals and then, uh, the board will be going away for a retreat in July and, uh, we will be developing the new board goals and we'll be announcing those at the September meeting. So,

118that's uh that. All right. So, the morning drop when he says retreat, it's not as glamorous as it sounds. It's a dinner about 10 minutes down the road. That's the retreat. It It sounds It's not religious at all. I thought it sounded like a vacation in Hawaii. acted like we were going to a spa. Yeah, there they go to George Martin. That's the big secret there. And we sit around a table. Um and and we get to And what's nice about it is we get to really talk about, you know, we set this what's going to go on the next year. And most of it is about how we work together as a team. As those of you have heard, they're the board. I'm the chief executive. And we need to kind of come to

119terms on how the year should run. So that's uh that's what we look forward to at that. Uh so the morning drop off program speaking of communication uh so we had heard uh I really want to thank all the parents that uh came out uh to share their thoughts with us at the community forum that was kind of hastily put together. Um so as you can hear tonight um I think Mrs. Aragon, you said that that meeting everything the board discusses is important, but I do think one thing we can get much better at and this is going to be one of our go spoiler alert, one of the goals for next year is going to be better communication about what's going on at this table because we realize even though we do live stream

120our meetings and even though they are recorded, um sometimes people don't know what's on the agenda. So, what's going to happen is I will start to advertise the work that this board is doing and I will speak to the community several times, you know, maybe once a month, twice, twice a month. So, just so you know what's going on and what's being discussed because this morning drop off program was an evolving issue and we have more evolution that we get to talk about tonight. So, again, thanks for the parents who shared those thoughts. So, now we have the final piece to the puzzle which we did not have a couple of weeks ago. We now know that uh we kind of knew it, but Mr. Press, we were not allowed to kind of speak it.

121There are things that when we get to contracting that I can never say at a microphone, but there's now a public resolution on tonight's agenda. So, what we are going to do is we're bidding out our uh nutrition contract. So, that is that's big news. So, when it comes down to the universal free breakfast program and the universal free lunch program, again, something that came out of Albany, and what you're going to hear me say is free breakfast ain't free. Um, so the the what we need to do is build a program around that. And by coordinating what we're going to do under the new universal free breakfast program, we're also going to be able to open the doors of the elementary schools a little bit earlier than first anticipated. So the last time we

122were here, we were talking about an 820 start for uh the elementary schools. We now can move that back to 810. And the reason we can move that back to 810 is the key was that the district is not permitted to do child care at the expense of the taxpayer. That's very important to understand with this board thinks of and every board of education thinks of the taxpayers aren't the only people here. There is a 94 year old who owns his house that hasn't had a kid in the school since 1975 and is paying those taxes. So what this board is always balancing is the right to an excellent education which is what we need to do and then um the needs of that taxpayer. So what we are able to do now is say

123you know what if we need to start a breakfast program we will be able to start the day earlier serve breakfast uh we would have a uh one of the requirements of the bid is going to be that the company is able to receive pre-orders for breakfast. So now we are going to know which kids are in the building because they'll be pre-ordering breakfast. Kids will can then start to come in. So as always, um music is going to start at 7:40 and they'll be coming in at 7:40. They might grab a breakfast and go to uh to music. I know you don't want the meeting in front of you. They may have to eat a little bit later after that. Um what will happen is that there will be kids that will then be

124arriving sometimes for extra help. There will then be kids that are arriving at 8:10 for for the breakfast program and all of that comes together to to create the new reality. We are still going forward with right at school as our partner handling the early morning drop off because we know that is a need that this community have. There are people that need to have their kids um cared for by 7 a.m. So we create that re we create that uh ability through a partnership with right at school. I can guarantee you now at this point that right at school is on notice. So we know that there are you know I have to say we have had only good feedback through our surveys but we had heard things through anecdotal information from from parents

125uh and we basic it's a we can review we can renew that contract every year. So if we don't like what's going on we put it out for bid a year from now and we uh get someone else on board. So that all happened on that side which is some good news. Then in addition we were able to sit down I I have to give a lot of credit to the villages. So the village of East Rockaway came and visited us uh along with the village of Lindbrook and they sat at the same meeting which was just kind of really wonderful. Uh East Rockaway came, the mayor came along with three members of his staff. The mayor of Lindbrook came along with his chief of police. And what we did was examine in great detail.

126We put up video of what drop off looks at looks like and the idea of okay, can we take what's happening from 7:30 to 8:10 and now compress that from 8:10 to 8:30 and uh we we actually chose very rainy days uh for for for some of the footage that we looked at because we knew more cars were on the road. Um I was at both Marian Street and uh West End uh this week because it was rainy and I wanted to kind of see what was going on and the villages feel confident that we can get uh there there are going to be a couple of tweaks that maybe they uh have to put into they were appreciative that we were given them the heads up uh but they feel that uh that that's

127something that can be accomplished uh wi with the uh with the program there. So that's kind of uh all new information. Uh there will be a new community forum. Uh so it's not really a community forum. Uh it's now kind of follow up on all those questions that people had uh two weeks ago. Um in my I think in in our opinion, we need right at school at the table now. So right at school is going So I don't not that you have to care about what my calendar looks like in May and June, but there literally is no night that is available in May and June because we are out every night. So the the community forum will be held uh via um uh teams. So we will be doing a virtual meeting on

128June 23rd which will give the ability for right at school to answer your questions also. So what I'll be doing is putting out a uh a parent square tomorrow. Uh and in that parent square I'll alert everyone what I'm saying right now so that we can tell people what we're doing. And in that I'm going to put a a a link so that you can submit your questions in advance so that we can maximize their time uh and ask them questions, ask uh us questions. Uh and then in addition, the principles are have put out some pretty detailed I've seen the drafts of them. Uh which doors will be used, where will the buses be landing, where will this happen, where will this where will that go? Uh and those plans will be released. Uh

129uh they some of them want to share it with their shared decision-making committees. So, I think that's very important. So, we'll be u releasing them very soon. So, that's all the news that I have for for the early morning dropup. And any questions from the board? Dr. Lynch, what's the earliest a student can be dropped off with under the new plan? So, you can arrive for music if you have music at 7:40. Okay. Because you're under the supervision of a music teacher. Okay. If you're a non- music kid and the parents want to drop them off, what's the earliest? 8:10. Okay. Is there any service they could pay for that'll be available to come in earlier? Right at school would be available from 7 o'clock to 8:30. They will also be fed a school lunch

130during Right at school time. So if they want to pay, they can come in from 7:00 to 8:30. If they just want to come into school early that day without course, it's 8:10. Correct. Thank you, Dr. Lynch. May I just confirm the students who do come in at 8:10, they will have had to pre-order breakfast so that we will be aware and then is there a mechanism where we'll know who's coming in the building? Correct. That's so so that's exactly how it works because since they are pre-ordering breakfast um it's free. That's the great that's what was that's the good news that the fact that we we don't have to charge for breakfast. The state of New York is giving it free. If it gets pre-ordered, then we know who's in the in the building.

131We know who's on the list. We can then have control. We can produce lists up in hallways so that we know who's uh waiting for a teacher to arrive. And it's a much more controlled environment than we had had. If a student doesn't or pre-order breakfast, can they still come in at 8:10 or do they need to wait to the appropriate drop off time per whatever the building standard is? I know for a fact that right now students who don't pre-order tend to get food anyway. So they could they you know we never we never deny a meal to a kid. However, the problem would be do they have the right meal? Do they have the gluten-free meal? Do they have the the allergy meal? Did you mean were you concerned about them just getting

132into the building? Are you concerned? Um, I know each child is can get the food and we've always done well with that. My concern is if a child doesn't pre-order the breakfast, how do we know they're in the building? That's the pro. So, we we would strongly encourage pre-ordering a breakfast. That's But if the kid shows up and didn't pre-order breakfast, he didn't pre-order breakfast. He's not coming to the early paid program. What time can he get into the building? Well, that would then be 8:20, but we would think with a free meal, people would be pre-ordering and able to get their kid in at 8:10. You does everyone understand how we're working this? It's a function of free breakfast. I just I just want to say thank you because I attended the round table

133and I think you addressed so many concerns that parents had tonight and I I I appreciate it. Yeah. I just want to clarify on June 23rd. Did you say a time? I did not. Okay. 6 p.m. Thank you. That will be in the message tomorrow. Okay. Oh, thank you very much. Okay, so then as of uh so the good news is uh the kindergarten center will also have an early drop off program through right at school, but those hours are not changing at all. So that is a primarily bus program. So kindergarten center is opening up at 8:20. So that so the three elementary schools are different from KC. That's because it is a bus reality. We provide busing to all kids at that point. And then the so and then when it comes to

134the middle school, the only change that will happen at the middle school is we now start at 8 at 7:30. We're going to move that back to 7:40 because that is the 20 same 20 minutes where we will be serving breakfast. Uh we actually looked at a lot of video of both north and south to look at exactly how many kids entered between 7:30 and 7:40. It really wasn't a lot of kids. prime time is 7:40 and is 7:45. So, we probably are going to hit the sweet uh part right there. Thank you team for including that and all of this will go out in a parent square message. Okay, speaking of kindergarten center, um so just so people know how things work, um we are always monitoring enrollment. So, uh, as people may or

135may not know, we were under very difficult budget circumstances this year and through a series of retirements, we were able to, um, not excess any staff. And that was incredibly good news. But to maximize that, we have to do what I called thoughtful rehiring, which means we don't automatically replace people simply because someone's retiring. So what had been happening the last couple of years, we actually had fairly low KC enrollments. So we now know there was a magic number that we needed to to uh to get to and once it hovers around 180, we're no longer comfortable with eight sections at uh the kindergarten center. So tonight, I'd like to ask the board's permission to open a ninth section for the kindergarten center. If that is acceptable, we will start that process rolling tomorrow. Yes.

136Okay. Is that good? Mrs. Postman, Mrs. Postman is happy. I just I wish you all knew how your principles cared. So, Mrs. Postman came in every day, 174, 175, 177. Uh and uh eventually, you know, uh and then what we do know, historically, um Casey has move-ins in the summer, so we also kind of have to be prepared for that. So, we're really happy with the way, you know, it was the fiscally responsible thing to do, but we're we're happy that uh Okay. Okay. And on that, I'm going to throw over to Dr. Blickas. Thank you, Dr. Lynch. I know that a few of you were at our title uh grant meeting this morning. Uh but I just wanted to relate to the entire community just what happens with our federal funding. We receive title

137grants in title one, two, three, and four. Uh what our title 1A grants are for? We qualify when we have a certain number of lowincome families that helps uh determine the funding. and the grant is to help close educational achievement gaps. One of the things that we've heard loud and clear through the profile of the owl was that we need to uh make sure that we have the proper mental health support. So, what we do in our district with our title one funding is support uh extra social workers and psychologists. We also are able to provide some uh extra support for students who may be experiencing homelessness. Um, in title two, we actually do something very similar. Uh, we have a director of social work and guidance who happens to be sitting in the back.

138Uh, Mrs. Boyce, uh, works with our staff and, uh, makes sure again that they are prepared to address our students, uh, needs both, uh, mental health and any, um, other social emotional needs that they may have. Title three, uh, in order to receive funding directly, you actually need to receive $10,000. We don't typically make that threshold. So we join a consortium with Boseis. What's nice about that consortium is that uh Boseis gives us uh free stuff. So as Dr. Lynch was talking about with translators, you know, we will receive translators for students who need them uh from the consortium. You know, we don't receive one for every student, but they do give us a supply of things like that. They also give us professional opportunity development opportunities for our staff both the general ed and

139the special ed sorry the ENL teachers who are working with the students. Uh title 4 again uh we use that uh towards Mrs. Boyce and that's more for safe and um healthy schools. So again trying to support the mental health needs of our students. Thank you. and capital projects update. Thank you very much. Uh a lot of stuff uh projects getting ready to uh kick off. Uh Marian Street and West End, our door replacement project. Um we've started a little bit of the work, the wiring for the wireless door locks um has started. Um but the project will really get going toward the end of this month. Um we're going to start with uh in the in the after school hours with some of the doors that are um not receiving the wireless locks. So

140some of the uh stairway doors, we'll start that and then um as of June 30th, things will just start rolling. Uh they're going to start over at Marian Street. Uh and when they're done there, they'll work their way down to West End. So, uh, when the teachers and students come back, uh, in September, uh, you'll have brand new classroom doors, uh, stairway doors, and wireless door locks. Um, the high school elevator here, we're replacing the cab of the elevator. That's going to, um, start in earnest again, June 30th, after school uh, is done. Uh, all the equipment is in uh, and the kickoff meeting for that project actually is this Friday. Uh, additionally, the um faculty bathroom projects both here and at the administration building. Um, that kickoff meeting also is Friday. Uh, and that

141work the the demo work will start there uh again June 30th. So once uh once all the the kids are done and out for the summer, we can really get to work there. Um masonry work at Marian Street also ready to start June 30th. So, you'll see over the summer um some lifts and probably other equipment uh along the sides of Marian Street as they um repoint the the the facades there. Um and then just the our in-house staff will do their usual summer work uh classroom renovations throughout the summer. Couple of rooms up at West End. Um and then once they're done with those rooms, they'll start um changing lights and ceiling tiles. here at the high school. We kind of started replacing some of the ceiling tile and lights. Um, and we're just

142going to continue on with that uh with that project. Uh, and that's my update. Great. Thank you, Mr. Press. I did forget a very important thing about the lunch program. We need lunch and breakfast monitors. So, uh, we employment at lindbrookschools.org. If you know someone that just wants to work an hour or two, um, a new retiree, someone who's kind of sitting around the house and like, you know what, I could just use a couple of hours. I don't want to do a full day. Um, we could really use help in the morning getting these programs running because now we're going to be launching this in um, you know, the infrastructure is here at the high school and nobody eats it anyway. But, you know, when we really want to get this, uh, doing this

143right at the middle schools and at the, uh, at the, uh, elementary schools, we could really use help. So, um, we're going to put that out there in an announcement. Also, um, you you probably are thinking of someone right now. Maybe, you know what, that might be something that they want to do. You know, it's it's it's, uh, it'd be greatly gratefully helpful. And then one thing that is not on the agenda, I'm so proud of this one. So we're very lucky to be at Lindbrook at this time. So uh West End is turning 100 this year and that is just a great thing about Yeah, you're allowed to see you're allowed to share about that. Um you know so uh I I'm in SC I love like much like Mr. Belmont um the history

144of I love the history of this community. So the the community school system began right here in this area. So right across from our building was the was the first little school that we had and then they built the new Lindbrook High School in 1909 and that's the kindergarten center. And then in 1922 they built the new high school which we're in right now. Uh not this particular but the original part of this building is the oldest high school in Nasser County. It's still functioning as a high school. And then what happened in the in the farmlands way out there by Hendrickson all the way up there with where there was nothing. There was absolutely oh Mrs. Hansen is here for this. This is great. This is great. And so in 1925 they built the

145first school because uh that's really where um where Pierall's Corners started to become Lindbrook. It's because people started to move out from Brooklyn and they came to Lynn Brookke and good old Lindbrook started its uh its march right there in in 1925 and it produced such great heroes as Salia, Terry Makia, Chief Paladino, I you know the the Moran kids, you know, Aragona kids, you know, there's there's just a a great uh uh a great history there. So, we get to celebrate 100 years of How do you leave out Billy Belmont? I'm so old he can't remember. Uh, and so we will be having a hundred year of learning and growing together, tree planting and time capsule on June 17th at 9:30 a.m. So, the entire community is invited to that and we're just going

146to give that grand old build. And then uh you know just to talk a little bit about our custodial staff, West End families, it's 100 years old. I mean the way Mr. Q keeps that place, it is just so wellmaintained. Uh it just is just hard to believe. And for those of you that want to look a little bit ahead, Marian Street turns 102 years. And that was the order of the district. So that West End was starting to grow and then Marian started to grow. And I'm just telling you right now, I doubt I'll be here in 19 in 2054 for Waverly. I just can't. Uh and I'm definitely not here for the middle schools in in 1961. Uh I don't think I'll I'll be almost 100 at that point. So you don't want

147to do that. So congratulations. Uh congratulations West End. Uh this is an hour proud moment. So all come to that event and uh just a a great time to be in Lindbrook. And for the last time, back to you Mr. Belmont. At this time, we'll have public comment. Anybody wants to address the board, please come to the microphone, indicate your name, state your name, and indicate whether you live in or out of district. Hello, I'm Kelly Fininsel. I was at the meeting a couple of weeks ago. I agree with your comment. I appreciate that. It seems like there has been some traction in answering a lot of the questions from the community. So, thank you. Um, the one that I was most concerned with with the meeting um, a couple weeks ago was about drop

148off safety. I've emailed the board. I emailed our school principal. I emailed you. I appreciate the response. I appreciate that. Seems like there's actually been some data collected on how this happens. So, again, thank you. Um, I'm wondering, you mentioned tweaks in discussions with the villages. I'm wondering what those are or what the documentation is or minutes that are available to the community. I think that I'm interested in what those are and if those meetings are open to the public. So, I know this might be frustrating. So, I'm not going to speak for the villages because that's not fair. So, you know, we're at a meeting where they're doing some planning and I that's I guess would say that's not my story to tell. Um so, because they have to go back and do some

149planning on their owns. So, we had discussions but they have to make that reality. So again, so does the board of ed have a commitment from the villages on when those tweaks will be implemented, i.e. prior to school start. I mean I I can't speak for the villages. They live in a much more so something I learned that was very interesting. They have sets of laws that aren't on us and so they have their own bureaucratic challenges with the county of Nassau and with the town of Hemstead. So that's why I don't want to speak for them. So does the board of education have a date for the next meeting with the villages to follow up? But the board doesn't meet with them. I You're not having a follow-up meeting on the previous meeting? Oh,

150I I'll be I mean, so the greatest thing that happened out of this is I So I've always had a good relationship with the village of Lindbrook. I now have a good relationship with the with the village of East Rockway. I'll be reaching out to them probably within the next week. Absolutely. Okay. So, is it fair to say you'll be able to report maybe something back at the next meeting? I can't speak for the village and I know that's frustrating. I can't at least say we met. Oh, yeah. That I can do. that I can that I promise you I can if there is something that you can share. Can you make a commitment to share? Sure. One of the resounding things we heard from the 40 to 50 parents at the last meeting was

151safety. Safety of kids who are forced to walk to school or choose to walk to school or however you want to say it um is is a huge piece of this. Yeah. Okay. Um the second item that I wanted to ask about um that hasn't been addressed is about inclusivity of the before school program for children with special needs. So the before school program uh there is a level of of uh disability that the before that that a before school program is unable to meet those needs. So those are hard they they will say themselves they have hard conversations that they have to have with with some parents. they do have inclusivity but uh the I don't think they could promise as a third party provider that they could do um service every child with

152special needs needs at that time. Okay. So just I'm going to say something back to you and you tell me if it's accurate. There is not an opportunity for children with special needs at the beforeare program. No there is or is it limited? So it is going it's going to depend on the level of disability. Okay. So for examp I'll I can give an example that's so so we under legal ram we have the ability in very specific circumstances to restrain. We are we have training on how to restrain. There are people in this room who know how to restrain as a uh a four school student a four school program with different lensure. They're never permitted to restrain. Sure. So that's the level of disability that I'm kind of talking about and I can't

153go much deeper than that, but that's that would be an example. So for parents who do have a special needs child or children, what is the pathway to move forward that conversation with right at school for before care? Is that through the board? Is that through? Good. Hi, how are you? So, just to um comment a little bit on what right at school actually does. When a family has a child that does have special needs, the family speaks with those at Write at School, they have presented whether it's 504 plans or IEP plans or any other documentation that's necessary to help support that child. Right at school has a team that reviews the documentation to see what they have available to help support each individual child within the program. There are rare situations where there

154is a child that extends beyond the needs that beyond the um the support that the program can provide, but they're far and few between. They do go out of their way to try to ensure the safety and the correct program for each child, but they do have this team that does review the documentation that's shared by the family for the child. Um, and they do call it their inclusivity team. Okay. So, if I was a parent with a special needs child interested in finding out if my child can get before school care, who would I contact? So, um, the information is online for right at school. So, Kathleen is, uh, the person that we deal with, Rainsbottom, and I can get you her information if you'd like at the end of the meeting, but it

155is already on the district website under the right at school tab. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Hello everybody. My name is Renee Goran. I think a lot of you know me. Um and for those who don't, I'm Renee. Um, the first thing I want to do is I want to thank the board of education, the teachers, the office staff, the custodians, librarians, frankly, everybody within the school district for the excellent care that my two daughters, and I'm going to get upset, so I'm sorry, that my two daughters have received in the district. My youngest graduates this year and it really has been a great experience for both of them and the level of care that they have gotten from the staff at all of the schools from the kindergarten center to the elementary school to

156the middle school to the high school has been top level and I came in with some pretty high expectations. So I'm very happy to say that they've been exceeded and that's fantastic. And the good news is that both my girls are doing very very well. My oldest has completed her junior year of college and she's now working as a nurse at Memorial Sloan Ketering right in Hemstead fully competent, ready and prepared. And Lmber High School did that. She didn't hit a single road bump in college. Not one. And Lmberre High School and the teachers and the staff gave that to her. And my youngest is going to go all the way to South Carolina and make me cry my eyes out. But you know what? She's completely ready to go. She really is. She's confident.

157She's fully prepared to do it. she wants to do it because the staff, the coaches, other parents gave her that confidence and that desire to want to do something. So, I am so grateful to everybody for what you've done for my daughters. I really am. And I'm not homegrown Lindbrook. I think most people know that. I'm from Mamarin and I love Mamarin. And my what I wanted for my girls was Mamaric, which is set really high. But I'll be happy to tell you that Lindbrook has done a very fine job for my girls and I'm grateful for that. Um, the other thing I wanted to say, and this might surprise you, is I wanted to thank you, Mr. Belmont. I know that uh there's been a few times where you and I didn't agree on

158certain issues. And listen, that's what life is. Sometimes you don't agree, but what you have given the district in 18 years, I have great respect for. You have worked very hard. You have always stood up for the children of the school district. You've always done what you thought was the right thing to do. You never backed down. You've always worked very hard, very diligently. You've given a lot of care, a lot of concern, a lot of time, effort, dedication to the district. I've seen it. I appreciate it. I think lots of people appreciate it. But I wanted you to know that I'm grateful for that level of care. And I hope that someone who sits in your seat has that. I am concerned. And don't mistake me to the rest of the board. I think

159I think you all know what you have to live up to. But when you sit in those seats, think about what he would do. And whoever fills his seat, think about what he would do. because he's always done the right thing even when I didn't agree with you. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you for those words and it's great to hear that your daughter is doing so well. Thank you. And the last thing I want to say and I know a lot of the parents left and I'll address it this way because this is where I should go is that the number one and I realize you can't hear me without microphone. The number one thing that you can do for your kids is to be involved, to be here in the room,

160to talk to the teachers. If you see that something is not going right with your child or with another child, you have to speak up. You have to be the one that gets involved. You can't look aside and just say somebody else is going to solve it or tomorrow is going to be a better day. You have to be the one that stands up and makes it better. I've done it. It's not always easy. It's not fun. That's why you're standing at the front of a room and you're frustrated. But it does make a difference for your kids and it makes a difference for all the other kids in the room. And I think that's what makes Lindbrook a great community. That's why I'm glad I'm here because there's a lot of parents here who

161do stand up all the time. And while I know the community is changing, I think that if everybody holds on to that and knows that we're all here to take care of our children, that the community can stay strong and solid. And I know for myself, that's what I want to see. Even though my kids are not in this district anymore, even though they've moved on, I want to do everything I can to keep Lindberg strong. And I hope that you will, too. Thank you. Thank you, Renee. [Applause] Good evening everybody. Uh, my name is Adam Do. I am a resident here in the district of two children. One who's about to graduate out of the kindergarten center and one who is in the second grade of Marian. Uh I am here tonight because I

162was encouraged to by Miss Aragona. Uh so here we are. I would just like to thank you Dr. Lynch for the work that's been put in since the parent meeting two weeks ago uh that resulted in all the work that it sounds like you've put in thus far. Uh I would like to uh remind you and the board that it is a compromise and I think it it it to a great extent is a very fair compromise. Uh there are aspects of it as was previously addressed that I don't think have fully been covered. Um one item that wasn't raised is the issue of having children that need to be in two places at the same time but you're by yourself. You might be a single parent or you might be uh have a spouse

163who's already at work. We spoke earlier. I heard a great deal about the life realities of working parents. So I I haven't yet heard the plan that will be put in place or if there's a timeline to figure it out as to what will be done for parents who say have to be waiting to put their child on a bus for the kindergarten center but also need to take advantage of the free breakfast that way they can drop their child off on time. Um so thank you for uh uh Miss Aragon and Miss Kelly for participating in the meeting. Uh I know that it wasn't fully pleasant at all times. Um but I appreciate the level of discourse that was offered to us um at that point in time. So I will leave with that

164remark that I look forward to hearing what will be done for the parents who have children in multiple schools that have to be in two places at once. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Cece Farre and you might remember me as the girl as the recycling girl from the November BOE meeting. Since then, I've been researching the recycling and trash in our schools, and I wanted to share my results with you so that we can hopefully work together to improve our district's environmental consciousness. I started my research by asking Mr. Seda and all the head custodians what the waste management was like in each school. North Middle School, North Middle School is the most environmentally aware school in Limbbrook. Every single room has a recycling bin at Northf. And I was excited to

165learn that Norf's trash, cardboard, paper, and plastic are all separated at their dumpster. The rest of the schools aren't as environmentally aware. Most of our most of our other head custodians said they combine everything in the same dumpster, even if they do have recycling bins in the school. If you're interested, you can see the detailed information about what each school said on the top left corner of my presentation board. Next to my research, I got sneaky. I bought GPS trackers and put them each in a separate empty water bottle. And then I threw them all away. One tracker bottle went in the trash and one tracker bottle went in the recycling at each of the seven schools in Limbrook. And I also put them in my home trash and recycling so that I could compare

166the results. My home trash was brought to Covent, which is a trash burning facility in Westbury. And my home recycling was brought to Omni, which is a recycling plant that's also in Westberry. At Omni, recycle recyclables are sorted, cleaned, and sent out for reprocessing into new products. Now, let me tell you what happened to our school's trash and recycling. In all of our schools that are handled by Limick Sanitation, everything went to Covent to be incinerated. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Trash and recycling. Mr. some other way. I'm sorry if you're listening to this meeting right now, but all of the recyclables that you worked hard to sort and separate at North Middle School unfortunately just end up getting incinerated with the trash. Marian Street and Waverly Park are managed by East

167Rockaway Sanitation and their trash also goes to Covent to be incinerated. Marian Street's recycling goes to Covent too. South Middle School is managed by the town of Hemstead's sanitation department. The head custodian itself is named Mr. Raul and he sorts through the trash and recycles all 5 cents bottles which end up at Omni Recycling Plant. And the money he gets back from the bottle returns goes right back to the school. Mrs. Ganunan told me that over the past two years they've brought in over $800 for Mr. Raul's bottle returns. The trash itself is the only trash in our school district that doesn't get burned at Covent. Instead, their trash goes to Ohio. And no, I'm not just speaking brain rot brain rot slang right now. I actually mean their trash is shipped to the state

168of Ohio and it's dumped in a landfill there. So, you might be wondering what this all means for our school. Well, unfortunately, it means all the recycling bins that I requested back in November are not doing our planet any good. I do still think we should have recycling bins in our schools because it creates a good habit of environmental awareness for students because in a perfect world, those recyclables would all go to the recycling facility. But right now, unfortunately, our recycling bins aren't helping to make our schools greener. So, how can we make our schools greener? Recently, my mom and dad took me to Costa Rica because I heard it's one of the greenest countries in the world, and I wanted to see how they do things there. While we were there, my family and

169I spent a night on a secluded farm in the middle of the jungle. The owner was an Austrian man, and I asked him about what makes Costa Rica so successful when it comes to environmental awareness. He told me two important things. First, he said, "The Costa Rican people care. They all work together to keep their environment clean and green, and they are all proud of that." This made me think about Mr. about what Mr. Raul does at South Middle School, and I think that we can expand on this idea. I'd like to propose that we have 5 cents bottles for from their school collection bins at each of our school. Families could sign up to collect these bottles from their schools once a month and bring them to a bottle return location and then give

170the money to the principal. I know I can definitely convince my parents to sign to sign up for a few months at West End in North and I think others will sign up to do this for our schools, too. I wanted to test this out. So, I asked my mom to take me to Mc Breen on Sunrise Highway and it was so easy. I gave them my empty soda bottle and they gave me a nickel. When I tracked the bottle that I gave them, I saw it went to Omni Recycling Plant. So, by doing this, we'd be spreading environmental awareness in our dist, helping the earth, and even giving a bit of money to our schools every month. The second thing my new Costa Rican friend taught me about why Costa Rica is so green

171is the word preycling. Precycling is reducing waste by not creating it in the first place. This means using unpackaged and reusable items as much as possible. In our schools right now, every student who orders lunch receives one of these. And for anyone who can't see what I'm holding, it's a plastic bag with a napkin, a plastic spork, and a plastic straw inside. And when I say every student, I mean even the kids who get sandwiches or chicken nuggets or something else that doesn't require a utensil. Everyone gets a plastic bag with a plastic utensil and a plastic straw. I watched loads of these unopened baggies get thrown away every single day. I know I talked about plastic straws in November, but I'm going to say it again. Can we please stop stop giving out plastic

172straws and instead of plastic sporks, would you please consider switching to metal utensils? I know this might seem like a huge ordeal, but I don't think it actually would be. Here's why. I asked Mrs. Murray about how many students get lunch get school lunch at West End each day, and she estimated it's about 100 to 150 students. But most of the lunch options are things that don't require utensils. So this means that most days if we had metal utensils instead of plastic ones, we'd only have a handful of utensils that needed to be washed at the end of the lunch periods. And once or twice a week, we'd maybe have about 100 utensils to wash at the end of the lunch periods. According to my research, the certification the the certification to serve food, which

173our lunch staff is already probably required to have, also covers dishwashing. So, we wouldn't need to hire anyone else to do this. This feels manageable, doesn't it? This is just one idea for what could look like in Limbrook schools. I know that Mr. Press and Dr. Lynch have said they're they're looking for a new food company for our schools. I hope you please Think about our district's sustainability when you create a request for proposals. Eliminating plastic straws and plastic utensils would be a very good place to start. Thank you for listening. Oh my god. [Applause] Yo, she ain't going anywhere. Oh, stay young lady. Got to stay back up there. Now you got to face the fire. It's right here. Right here. How old are you? Nine. Is like the 60 Minutes crew gonna run

174in here behind you in two seconds. Is your lawyer with you? That's unbelievable. That's just in the words of my water. In the words of my daughter, bro. Bro, that's just just I mean the way you speak, the writing, the work you put into that. Nine, you said you like fourth grade. Oh my god. Law school. No. Yeah, you can do anything you want. Change the world from anywhere. But oh my I I really I just It's really I've been doing this a long time. That is so impressive. Really is the whole idea and the concept. I will tell you as you because I remember when you spoke to us the first time just to keep in mind because clearly you're not going to let this go and stay on that plan. And I'm not

175sure how involved our schools have to be and you could work that out with the administrators you talk to. I collect bottles from the community and then when I go to the stations where you drop them off, there are people there almost like a charity that you can give them to. So depending upon whether your plan requires that you give the money back, you could probably expand to one of the other charitable things you were talking about or one of your programs. But that's just so impressive. Dr. Lynch, you're going to have to figure out something, buddy. So, you know what I love about the data you've collected? I'm a little sad um that Mr. some other way does all that work and doing the right the thing is that you and and every day

176I mean we know him we know he is so committed and he goes through all of that for nothing like you know so you know he thinks he's doing the right thing and without your data I don't think any of us because that's beyond us right that that get you know so our employee is doing everything he can do then once it gets beyond us you know so thank you for that data that's what was what's the heric What was the significance of the Heric crafting that you had done? What? Sorry, what? You have the Hit Rockaway Jewish Center on your dumpsters. Um, so Waverly's Waverly because it tracks both. Wavely gets picked up also by there. So they drops their trash. They dropped their trash there. Um, and it was there for a couple

177days and then it went to Omni. But this but this seems inaccurate to me because they were the same sanitation department as Marion and they went to Covent. And when Mr. McDermott dropped um the bottle off, he said that they were really excited about this bottle. So I think they uh recycled that bottle to try and help me with my problem. So we now know so they so they were on to you. They they knew that you were tracking the bottle. Absolutely. That's called the observer effect. Yeah. That's Oh, we know that one. It's amazing. I I think we're all incredibly impressed by you. I think you know I cannot believe that you're 9 years old. I'm not sure I still believe that you're 9 years old, but you should keep doing what you're doing.

178This is incredibly impressive. I've never seen anything like this before. So, thank you. Thank you. I just I'm gonna have to talk to you. So, the other odd thing uh is just sometimes dumb luck matters. So, the the fact that I announce that we're putting that out to that doesn't happen. So, what happens when uh when you put out a new bid, you get to live off that bid for five years. So, most times districts it take it we don't bid except once every five years. So, the fact that you're giving this presentation in an exact year that we've just hired a consultant to put the bid specifications together, I mean, the the timing is is perfect. Um, so that's something that certainly we could talk to Mr. Biggley about. Uh, yeah, actually, they just

179sent me today some of the information about the bid. Uh, and we're going to talk about it with them on Monday. So, yeah. So, you know, the and and yeah, so I think that would be I it's a really long boring document, but I would I think I would like to show it to you. I think you can handle it. So, so I think you know it's um like the state of New York makes us use a prefab bid for something like this. It's got to be a a contract that's according to that and there are choices that we make in it and those are some of the choices that Mr. Press is talking about. So, I think you it Yeah, I think you'd enjoy reading the the contract. Thank you. Thank you. very tough

180act to follow. My name is Allison Amort. I am a mom to three children in the Lindberg School District. I have one entering kindergarten next year, one at first grade and one in second grade. And I just wanted to thank the board for your consideration for adding another section into the Lindark uh kindergarten center. I have the utmost confidence in the leadership in Mrs. Postman um and in the teachers having already had two kids go through it. Um, but as as someone who works as a related service provider in an early childhood center, I absolutely know the difference that class size can make. Um, so I just thank the board for supporting our teachers and also for supporting our students. Thank you. Thank you. All right, moving on with the meeting. I mean, we've never

181had that many positive comments at the mic, so what a good way to move on. Uh that we have a couple of donations this evening. Several actually. Uh the board gratefully acknowledges and accept the following donations. $2,000 from the Spectre family to be used to purchase planters to further complete the outdoor classroom space at the high school. $1,000 donation from the Community Chest Southshore for use by the family of a displaced student who attends the Limber Public Schools. Garden supplies valued at $750 from the Hicks Nursery to be used by the West End Garden Club. a $500 Amazon gift card from the Liber Kindergarten parents club to be used to purchase supplies for the classrooms. And from Edward Camitser, comic books valued at approximately $11,800. I'd like to take a look at those if we

182can, Terry. For the Lindbrook High School Library, we appreciate all those donations. Superintendent's recommendations. May I have a motion to place resolution C1 through C-15, 256 C35 through 256 C39, 256 NC1 through 256 NC5 and 25 I can't see anymore, Terry. 26 G2 and 256 G48 on a consent agenda. Mrs. Denino second, Mrs. Aragon. All in favor? Unanimous. Uh the reorganization regular meeting is July 1st at 6:30 in the Atlantic Avenue business uh building boardroom. Uh everyone enjoy the summer. That's it. Good night. Bomb on out. [Applause]