001[Music] thank you good evening welcome to limerick board of education regular monthly meeting april 20th we always begin with the salute to flag mr yaker if you could lead us liberty all are in attendance except for mrs hanson may have a motion to accept the minutes of the march 10th 2021 regular meeting mr pulesky second mr yaker all in favor i need a motion to accept the minutes of the march 17 2021 virtual work session this is danino second mr pascal all in favor and finally a motion to accept a minute to the april 7th 2021 work session mr yaker ii mrs marcus all in favor uh we're now going to move over to the art gallery this month's art gallery show entitled senior spotlight featuring artists from our senior portfolio preparation class if you
002could play the video please so sure on a personal mr paschoff were you sitting this time mr kunsan here was soliciting ideas for his uh art i pushed heavily for the birdhouses again which we have not had in many years but i still have i still have mine so mr guns if you're listening not saying that's a dictate from the board but we'd be very happy to see those oh sherry bows we can line the tennis courts [Music] spiderman gallery proudly presents the portfolio senior spotlight show featuring the various artistic approaches explored by our senior portfolio preparation class students at this level are given the free variety of different materials and approaches of their own choosing under the guidance and mentorship of art teacher mr tom cena students this year have created exceptional work using
003everything from traditional graphite and paint to more sophisticated mediums including acoustic wax collage and digital approaches despite the inherent challenges of a hands-on class during this new normal environment this year's group has already surpassed half a million dollars in art town scholarships and continued to be accepted into the top fine art programs in the nation take a moment to enjoy the class of 2021's final swan song as many embark next year on to continued success in college-level art programs after experiencing one of the strongest high school foundations anywhere in the country [Music] thank you mr cons thank you for that video we also tonight would like to welcome some new staff if adriana shafer could please stand up our new director of fine and performing arts congratulations and welcome lorraine drossie if you could please
004stand up reading teacher at marion street welcome we have some other additions that are not here tonight philly bellicia teaching assistant at wedley park shannon mcgovern long-term substitute elementary teacher at west end stuart ratzkin long-term substitute band teacher waverly park and marion street catherine scandifio long-term substitute elementary teacher at west end and deborah sobera personal clerk at the administration building welcome moving on to presentations dr bjork this evening we have a few presentations the the first being the annual new york state pta reflections contest every year we participate in the reflections uh competition and even though during the the covid uh period the submissions may have been low throughout the state there was still participation and we're very grateful for that and it gave our students an outlet um to work towards something this year's
005theme for the new york state pta reflections contest was i matter because um and i think that's really a powerful message for our students to learn and we have one student from south middle school who won a state award of merit which is a great honor at the state level and it was for actually a musical composition that was done on the english horn that was entitled we all manner so i'd like to recognize eric riley for winning the award of merit for the new york state pta reflections competition congratulations eric lynch when is wavy park being done when are the courts being done next summer 22 if the vote is approved next now in the sports world we did have a team that won several state recognitions as well our girls basketball team we
006have two new york state all-academic students camilla barry kyla nembach we have new york state scholar athletes kayla schweitzer and leanna sullivan and actually the entire team was a new york state all-academic team none of the students could be here this evening but we do want to recognize them because that's quite an accomplishment to be recognized at the state level so congratulations to the girls [Applause] we also have virtual enterprise our virtual enterprise team at the high school they do a bank of jobs selling their cell themselves and the work that they're doing and they were recognized internationally as as the top traders um in the in the virtual enterprise world so i just wanted to give a shout out to to everyone i've actually sent my panera cookie cards because it's a large group
007of students so they did get some type of recognition but i did want to give a shout out because the virtual enterprise team is a top performer internationally so congratulations to everyone there and and lastly if you participated in a special uh program that our student government association district-wide uh put together a light up the sky the sga supported the pta scholarship fundraising and on march 11th anyone who bought a luminary and put it out uh on on their doorstep or wherever to light the sky the sga did very well and we thank you for supporting uh their efforts and this evening we actually have a presentation so i'm going to turn it over to the sga if um miss bose and are you bringing anyone else up i think mrs kirby and couple of
008students you can you can go to the podium and i think is miss pignotaro here or someone from pta mrs o'donovan want to come up max don't show them show us just turn it on push the button up toward you good evening the lhs sga and the waverly park student council are thrilled to be here this evening to present monies raised from the limbrick lights the sky fundraiser to the limber council of ptas for the class of 2021 scholarships the sga worked to create a partnership with both waverly park and west end student councils after the sga worked with the lhs alum jeff scalar on learning about the six pillars of positive leadership we put together six different presentations and shared the importance of these pillars with the members of the student council councils via
009webex the sga presented six different prepared presentations on empathy civility humility self-awareness meaning purpose and focusing on the positive both the high school sga and elementary student council shared real life experiences and made connections to all six pillars this fabulous collaboration between the high school and elementary school students helped us to put together a successful fundraiser lindbergh lights to sky the students in limbrick saw a need to raise funds for the lhs class of 2021. we knew that because of the pandemic the funds that are normally raised at homecoming would not be a possibility this amazing fundraiser was a success ultimately because of the community we all call home please accept this check of for the lhs class of 2021. the lindbergh council of pta says thank you so much to sga for contributing to
010our scholarship fund this year you guys did an awesome job thank you so much oh go ahead look at her first okay now over here great thank you max can we see the poster shack that let the board see nice job moving along with the program this evening we have three retirements this evening could mary anglorioso please stand up whereas miss marianne glorioso account clerk in the business office of the lindbergh public schools has announced her intention to retire after 18 years of service effective june 29 2021 and whereas miss glorioso's careful eye for detail and profound understanding of the rules and regulations of purchasing and her ability to convey this knowledge to others has earned her the title of the auditor before the audit and whereas this particular talent has directly led to the
011district's six-year streak in obtaining the prestigious certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting and whereas miss glorioso has regularly demonstrated the ability to be a careful steward of the taxpay payers funds by always questioning vendors invoices and pointing out their mistakes to the district's benefit and whereas miss glorioso's intimate knowledge of the medicaid and education billing process has brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue to the district and whereas miss glorioso's deep faith and sense of friendship has been noted and appreciated by all of those who know her for her kindness and willingness to help others in need now therefore be it resolved that the board of education of limbrick union free school district accepts the resignation of miss marianne glorioso for the purposes of retirement effective june 29 2021 and wishes
012her many days of waking to no alarm clock with the ability to spend time with her dear niece and sister and countless hours of reading marianne just sit tight after we do the other retirees then we'll bring everyone up for a picture okay arthur ferrara if you could please stand up whereas mr art ferrara head custodian south middle school in the limb brook union free school district has announced his intention to retire effective june 25th 2021 after 22 years of dedicated service to the students faculty and parents of the lindbergh union free school district and whereas mr art ferrara faithfully supervised the custodial crew at south middle school for over two decades as well as honorably served his co-workers as union president for 15 years he proudly served without hesitation during times of emergency such
013as september 11th superstorm sandy and the covet 19 pandemic and whereas mr art ferrara was always willing to go above and beyond his duties for south middle school whether handling the district sporting events assisting an injured student monitoring the progress of construction projects or simply assisting a staff member with one of the countless problems that arose daily mr ferrara always handled himself with professionalism and with a manner of caring that exemplified his character as an honest and dedicated person his leadership style has proven successful at south middle school as well as among the district-wide custodial unit for 22 years art has received numerous accolades throughout his career and will surely be missed by the south middle school staff and whereas over his 22 years of service to the limebrick union free school district art has
014been a key figure in the negotiation of the union's collective bargaining agreements professionally handled union-related staffing issues and was always willing to assist a co-worker in need whether the issue was personal or professional art was always there for them as one of mr farrar's longtime employees oscar urbana said anybody who know who works with art becomes a better worker because of him and i thank him for that i not only do i call him a boss but i call him a friend i will miss him this is a bittersweet goodbye to a great man who made me better as a worker and as a person and whereas the board of education thanks mr art ferrara for his service to limerick schools and wishes him a happy and healthy retirement with his wife jeanette his five
015children brian tricia kevin diane and danny and his six grandchildren art will be sure to enjoy his retirement years spending time with his family and assisting with babysitting duties with his grandchildren in addition art plans on continuing to serve as a volunteer firefighter with hicksville fire department as he has done for the past 30 years art will donate his knowledge and time to the cradle of aviation museum assisting with aircraft repair and will enjoy attending car shows and working on his mustang now therefore be it resolved that the board of education hereby accepts the resignation of art ferrara for the purposes of retirement and and just to follow up with that on a personal note uh mr ferrara was tremendous when when we were doing uh events for the track and field parents uh organization
016he would always help me out with that and my mother to this day still asks for him because he would always give her a cup of coffee or or whatever she needed when she was at the desk sometimes even just a friendly person to talk to so i appreciate that and so does she thank you art robert bona please stand up whereas mr robert bavona member of the maintenance staff in the lindbergh school district has announced his intention to retire effective june 25th 2021 after 20 years of dedicated service to the administration faculty and staff of the lindbergh union free school district and whereas mr pavone served the district with dedication and pride and was always eager to help with the task at hand whereas mr pavone's commitment was unwavering during his 20-year span with
017the lindbergh school district he proudly served without hesitation during times of emergency such as superstorm sandy and the kova 19 pandemic whereas mr robert pavone was always willing to go above and beyond the call of duty with his work ethic bob always made sure to complete the each job with the utmost perfection whereas the board of education wishes to thank bob avonna for his service to limerick schools and wishes him a happy and healthy retirement with his wife arlene his children lauren greg and his pride and joy his granddaughter bob will be sure to enjoy his retirement years with his family and friends now therefore be it resolved that the board of education hereby accepts the resignation of mr robert pavone for the purposes of retirement and wishes him all the best in his future
018endeavors congratulations if those retirees could come up please laughs can you move over from the camera [Applause] thank you at this time is typically and customary for the new staff and retirees to take their leave of the meeting and enjoy their evening so took that hint pretty easily where is she good to see you good to see you you look relaxed congratulations now it looks like a regular board meeting reports from trustee trustees anybody here by anything mr pascov to the homecoming football game unfortunately we lost and it wasn't the traditional homecoming that we've had because there weren't that many people there but hopefully next year homecoming will will bring a bigger crowd at the end of the pandemic and uh and a football win i also attended the homecoming game and went to a
019middle school football game and it's really nice to be able to attend these games now and start to see people and feel somewhat of a sense of normalcy and see people in the community um and i'm also enjoying my new seat and i was really impressed by the gallery presentation tonight the artwork that was presented is just unbelievable and i just every time it i see new artwork i think i can't be more impressed than the time before and i am i also went to homecoming and um you know again while it wasn't the full amount of community members that we usually have it was still nice to see the families of the football players and the kick line and cheerleading senior parents and you know earlier that morning i had been to the memorial
020service for roseanne strife so you know my heart goes out to the strife family but it just it hit me that we live in such a nice community that you know there's an outpouring of people when sad things happen and then there's also an outpouring of people you know at times like homecoming and for celebration so it's it's nice to live in this community because of that feeling and i also was at the middle school football game uh yesterday and i uh echo rob and leslie's sentiments that it's nice to be able to be out in the community a little bit and you know see people after having you know been inside for so long just one one other thing that i um attended uh not a school related issue but this was uh the
021presentation by the uh group that's planning on developing the old feather factory they plan on putting 210 units there about 30 of which would be two bedrooms which could affect the district most will be one bedrooms and studio apartments it will be luxury you know pretty much luxury i consider it luxury when a studio goes for two thousand dollars a month i consider that somewhat luxury um in addition they are seeking a pilot and i asked them specifically about the pilot and they were very um they couldn't commit to what the schedule would be they said they were going to do the right thing and not start the pilot much lower but it really depends on the schedule because for 20 years we could get really shocked by the amount of money we lost pilots
022cost the village well pilots cost the district about two million dollars a year and where does that money come from it comes from the taxpayer so i think that's something that we need to uh to look at very carefully when they make a formal proposal seeing nothing else from trustees we have no old business under new business dr burek the kindergarten center so unfortunately this calendar year has brought some sadness to limbrick schools we've actually lost quite a few retirees and you've heard uh the resolutions being uh announced at each more board meeting there are unfortunately there are additional uh resolutions that are going to be shared later on but one of the people who we lost was dr john byra and we had done his resolution at the previous monthly board meeting for those
023of you who don't know dr byro was the assistant superintendent of schools but before that he was also an english teacher a guidance counselor principal of the high school and he was the first principal of our kindergarten center and anyone who has gone through the kindergarten center had children go through the kindergarten center just know how special a place that building is and the staff and the culture that was created in that building and it really emanated from dr byra's tutelage um that that so many have learned fro from him um and i i think one of the statements i had said is those of us who did work for him are truly better off and we're better educators because we had his wisdom guide us i have a personal connection as we're alumni of
024the same college and um we share our motto of fight the good fight and and he did fight the good fight all the way through and he always fought for the students for the staff of the limburg schools and and his heart has been here um even post-retirement uh he came back he actually came back to the board meeting where i was appointed in this position and that was many years after his retirement so um the fact that he had such a a powerful influence on the kindergarten center the board has uh agreed to name the courtyard area the area where all of the students come they come off the bus they gather there's the flagpole they do the pledge of allegiance and they they chant a model that dr byra wrote so we're going
025to rename that courtyard area the dr john byra kindergarten center courtyard so i thank the board for that i think it's very well deserved and um the family is involved with this the kindergarten teachers are actually raising money to help uh pay for the sign um just because they wanted to do that it was just the right thing to do and the nice thing to do so i i thank them for that and we're going to make a nice um courtyard area and we'll have a ceremony and invite the family thank you dr barrett earlier this month each of our buildings was inspected can fire inspector mr given herbs please come up and advise us good evening uh i inspect the completed annual fire inspections on march 23rd accompanied by mr jim sater all the
026schools passed with flying colors there was no issues your staff did a wonderful job the paperwork was issued for filing with the state education department for your certificate of occupancies and next year's inspection will be in the january february time frame thank you very much any questions on the board thank you mister thank you regarding the boces budget vote mr pascoff um you are our boces budget representative um do you recommend us voting in favor of the nasties budget i do yes we get we it's costly uh but we get a lot of benefits from it that we wouldn't be able to get otherwise by just a show of hands who's in support of the boces budget all right that's unanimous also there are three people running for three spots for the nasty boces board
027we have to do by a show of hands for each person if we're in favor starting with susan bergtrom by show of hands it's unanimous how about martin k good old marty here we go and michael why nick get michael jumping right in there perfect that's unanimous um moving on to superintendent report dr bjork thank you and just one more follow-up with dr byra the family um thanks so much of the limbrick schools that later on the board will be adopting a resolution actually starting a scholarship in the uh name of dr byras so we're grateful to the family and you'll approve that later on and uh dr byra's legacy will live on for years okay it's time for a covet update for april at this point nearly every student whose family chose to return
028to in-person learning has done so we welcome freshmen next week all reports indicate that the return to school went well and it was obvious that the students were happy to be back in the buildings and with more people in school i just want to encourage all to remain vigilant in our collective fight to prevent the spread of covet masks are still very important and are required we are in the home stretch for this school year and can't let our guard down so let's hang in there limbrook as you know the department of health did send out updated guidance as it pertains to schools this past friday's bulletin contained a brief listing of the protocols and i'm happy to say that our committee work this year had already recommended most of the items so we were
029ahead of the guidance as we returned more students back this guidance will also be used to plan for next year now i do just want to point out because some people may be questioning the fact that we're still using barriers in in the classroom so i just want to publicly make the statement that when we sent out the survey and we gave the families the parameters barriers were included in that and it really would be disingenuous of us to to pull that away just because the cdc then thought better of the guidance that they required us to have um to consider in the fall so we weren't going to turn our backs on the um full disclosure of all the parameters that we gave families so just to finish out this year we're going to
030keep them but for for next year we won't be implementing the barriers for next year but once again we are going to be starting a phase 5 of the task force to do our official planning for next year and of course as we expect the guidance it will morph and we will continue to be flexible as the modifications are made we do not know at this point if remote learning will be a required option to offer next school year however we are hopeful that families will wish to return to school next year the in-person learning is just so important just to put everyone at ease through all of the contact tracing exercises we conducted this year we can actually say we have recognized zero cases of covert 19 transmission in our schools so our safety
031protocols have worked we will continue to monitor them for the remainder of this year as the distancing in the classrooms has changed however the most important factor in mitigating the spread as i just mentioned is wearing the masks so we remain vigilant on the mask wearing protocols our goal is really that all families feel comfortable returning their children to in-person learning in the fall it's just so important for the kids to be here and speaking of the end of the year guidance was also issued to help inform decisions about graduations and large events based on the venue and capacity it's important to note that the larger the crowd proof of a negative covet 19 test and or vaccination will be required principles are working on plans for the end of the year events and with
032their ptas and more details about those events are really best learned from the building level once we get past the end of the year we have summer we will be running our summer playground program this year while last year we ran a very limited capacity program this year we are going to expand it while still implementing safety protocols and this year the program will be the full six-week session but we will limit the number of campers to approximately 200 per campus cognizant of the economic impact that covet has had the cost will remain the same as it was during the 2019 summer session we will speak briefly about some of the revenue changes within the budget we presented back in february we're going to do that in a short while but i do want to
033mention that additional federal money has been allocated to all districts in the form of grants we are currently planning for appropriate uses of that money for expenditures over the next two years one such use would be to support some type of a summer learning program this year we are going to take a look at the needs and offerings that we can support and once more details are known information will be forthcoming so please be on the lookout for that additional information shortly in addition to dealing with covert 19 this year and setting guidelines for learning in the covet era the new york state education department has also been developing an initiative to advance diversity equity and inclusion in all schools new york state education department issued a statement that reads after a year of turmoil
034and heartbreak it is natural to wish for a return to normal but for far too many new yorkers the old normal is a place where people are traumatized daily by events circumstances and the chronic lack of opportunities said chancellor lester young jr he continues to state i recognize that the scope of our diversity equity and inclusion framework is daunting but we cannot allow this opportunity for change to pass us by we must seize this moment to redefine what is normal and possible for our students the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated long-standing inequities that exist throughout every facet of our society people of color economically disadvantaged people and especially women have been impacted hardest of all said commissioner betty arosa a statement was also issued that condemns the acts of bigotry xenophobia and racism that are
035surging in new york and across the nation with a spike in hateful rhetoric and violence directed at asian americans and pacific islanders as you know folks we and limburg have been working on our approach to create a more diverse and inclusive environment for our students additional diverse literature selections will be offered to students as dr bileckus previously reported our diversity council continues to explore professional development opportunities and resources to support a culturally responsive classroom we are committed to teaching our students about empathy acceptance and continue to work towards being recognized as buildings where there is no place for hate by the anti-defamation league it is important that this work take place inside our buildings as well as outside as the adage states it takes a village so if we work collectively to guide our children
036to be respectful and appreciate that our diversity is a strength of ours in all things we use our strengths to make ourselves better people so i ask for your continued support as the district works toward those goals the next item on my report is the asbo international certificate of financial reporting and actually in miss glorioso's resolution it was stated we are six years in a row we've been recognized for our transparency in our financial reporting so i thank the entire business office under the direction of dr lynch for earning that recognition for our district so congratulations and then i also just mentioned about some change in revenue with the state aid as you know in february dr lynch presented a budget that had a tax levy of one point eight eight percent increase that one
037point eight eight percent is the maximum allowable levy that we are able to to raise in taxes to support our educational program since then the state finalized the budget and additional monies came forth our way so we were able to take a look at our revenues and we made some adjustments one of them being the summer playground so i just nicely uh announced that summer playground we were going to keep the costs at the same as 2019. had we not gotten that we received that additional state aid the cost of that program actually would have increased significantly in order to maintain that program to accommodate the less number of campers so we used some of the state aid to offset that we also in our long-term planning we've been using a lot of reserve money
038over the past years to balance our budget so we took the opportunity knowing that after this gift of the state aid and the federal funds that are coming our way there is going to be a financial cliff shortly probably in two to three years three to four years that we're going to see that cliff so it behooves us to also take a look at some of the reserves that we use use less of the reserves and use the additional state money to offset that so this way we have more money in the reserves to continue us continue on our path when that financial cliff uh hits us so it will not be a dramatic impact on on the taxpayers so that's the long range planning what you see right now um if you can show
039this slide i'm going to turn it over to dr lynch um to explain exactly because these are the same two slides that he presented in february but we just want to for full transparency share the changes with with you now yeah thank you dr barak so i get to do the boring legal stuff so just to inform the board where we're at here so under the advice of council you adopted a a budget an expenditure budget back in march the expenditures are not going to change so the budget is adopted what is going to change is our revenue projections as as presented to the community back in february that will require us a tonight disclosing those changes in revenue uh and then most importantly uh tomorrow i will be submitting to the state education department
040a revised property tax report card which will have the new revenue projections in place and then on may 5th which is the legal hearing for the budget these will be in place so the uh it's all about what dr barak was saying full transparency to the voters to know what they're voting on so let's take a look at this in in specifics so uh there was a big deal made of this in newsday and everyone i'm sure saw that the district saw along with uh other districts on long island a drastic increase in in state aid uh some of it was uh was not usable for the budget if i put it that way so there was money for a universal pre-k there was money that's coming through federal grant uh none of that could
041really be used to to do anything for this year's budget however approximately one million of it could so uh with that in mind here's how the the revenue you're going to see that done is you'll see the state aid going up from 11.8 million to 12.7 million and then we'll look at the other points where that that increase in revenue can create decreases and one of them i think very important so dr burak talked about the summer playground uh decrease uh so that is now estimated at 90 000 uh you'll see that interest based on our lived experience we see that interest is just uh we were it was phenomenal for the last couple of years the budget has been doing very well on interest at one point uh we were projecting two years ago
042four hundred thousand dollars worth of interest we're now not even comfortable with a forty thousand dollar projection so that's going to be uh lowered two to thirty thousand and then as dr burek said uh we're going to uh decrease the use of reserves so that uh we keep some of that money uh in the bank so for for other times that uh that winner can be needed in emergencies so as you can see uh there will be an increase in the revenue on this side and then caleb you could just go to the other side this will have a in a with with the board's uh advice and and permission uh we have uh are proposing to decrease the initially proposed levy so back in february we presented a levy of uh uh 72 million
043five hundred sixty six thousand eight hundred ninety nine dollars that was a one point eight eight percent uh we are going to be able to use uh almost 000 of that savings to now present a new levy of 71 million nine hundred twenty-two thousand four hundred sixty-nine dollars an increase of zero point nine eight percent less than a one percent increase uh on the tax levy and that's what we will be putting out to uh to the voters this year that will be uh our lowest levy in five years and i think the first time we've ever gone under the cap uh in in since it has been initiated so uh this is the first level of that uh this is the public disclosure of this and any uh questions from the board this is
044kind of the time for that okay thank you kayla you can bring down the slide thank you all thank you dr lynch that's good news for the community i'd like to turn it over to dr bolekas now for the curriculum update in all of our regents classes in both the middle school and the high school we will be administering departmentally developed final exams that will account for 10 percent of students overall course averages for the four courses in which the readings exams must be offered namely ela algebra 1 earth science and living environment students can choose between taking the aforementioned final or the regents to count as the 10 percent factored into their overall course averages students will not be permitted to sit for both exams so they do need to make a choice all
045students who do not take the regents exam will receive an e for exemption on their official transcript and those who do sit for the regents exams can choose after their tests have been graded between having their scores appear or having the same e on their transcripts please note that regardless of their transcript decisions anybody who sits for the readings exams their region scores will be factored into their course grades so basically uh the bottom line is children will have a choice for what that final ten percent is in their grade they can choose between our own uh develop final or the actual regents exams thank you thank you dr balekas and capital projects update dr lynch as you can see uh the the high school is coming along nicely however it is going to impact
046real life very shortly for those of you in the high school you should have received last friday a an update from mr anus that on may 3rd they'll be beginning sewer work outside the front here and they're going to be ripping up the whole front so therefore the students will be unable to go into the traditional uh covet entrance over by the library the main entrance will now be moved around to the carpenter avenue uh mr rainus will be giving more details as he gets closer to the date we're hoping walk through with mr sata and the technology crew just the other day uh it looks like a building uh actually we saw tile work going up in the bathrooms today so uh we're very hopeful that we'll be right on schedule so that's the
047big capital project and then as far as the little capital projects uh we had a bid opening last week for the uh for the atlantic avenue boiler and the board will be awarding that at the may 5th meeting thank you and that's my report so dr lynch in after the construction is done that's when we'll be clear cleaning up the i guess the courtyard area and the field and the back corner which used to be the tennis court is that where the pickleball courts are going that is where the project owl adventure will be going mr belmont i tried misty acre but it's still an uphill battle anything else from the board at this time we will move to public comment if anybody would like to address the board please come to the microphone identify
048yourself as living in or out of district and present your comments or questions it might still be on the there back we've been waiting a long time for it long overdue but they're there our children particularly mine love science science is very important he wants to be a doctor he has not had a lab in over a year it is unacceptable the kids taking chemistry so much of chemistry you learn and what you you know how the chemicals interact together they've not been able to do that all year if you can have cooking after school as an after-school activity the kids should be able to have labs it's time doctor valencia i know that there's been a uh mix depending on the classrooms and what's been going on i know that some of the labs
049instead of the traditional way of uh delivering where you'd sit with a lab partner and work on things that there have been a lot of demonstrations in those classes which you know demonstrate the uh science being taught but that is something that we are going to continue to monitor now especially when the new cdc guidance is allowing for more sharing of materials so thank you there's two months left you don't do it now and and it's a bigger concern a couple years ago dr burrick you might remember my son didn't have a spanish teacher for 67 days and i reminded everyone over and over again now that we haven't done labs for a year my concern is when he walks into ap chem teachers going to teach the curriculum as if they did everything in
050regular chemistry because that's the same thing that happened last year when he walked into spanish and didn't have it for 67 days how are you going to make up all the labs that they didn't learn and how is that ap chem teacher going to remember when my son may get her in two years not next year that he missed all of that because a lot of teachers tend to teach similar curriculum every year and then that that's not fair to the students yeah the labs aren't much different though when a demonstration occurs versus the child does it hands-on you know it's not like they're missing the content or the material you know instead of them necessarily mixing the things within the beaker the teacher is doing that on the screen so everybody can see and
051witness it so they're still learning the same science they're still exposed to the same materials so it's very different than not having a teacher in a classroom out of bad science research as of now there's some materials they're still waiting for the whole reason they take science research is to do the research to learn about it have their experiments here we are my son still doesn't have all the materials if he doesn't start his experiment he's never going to finish it as far as the science research is uh concerned i think those are best addressed by the classroom teacher okay my next concern is academically what is the district doing to ensure equality between the kids that are in the classroom and the kids that are home this year it has not been done um
052in the way in my opinion that it should have been there are exams where kids at home the only kids that are getting hundreds are the kids at home and certain material that's on those tests was never covered in the classroom kids are finding it online there needs to be a better way to ensure that the kids at home have the same standards and i know it's difficult i'm not saying it's it's easy but other districts are managing to do it so there's greater equality i'm not sure exactly what you're alluding to but i do think again those are questions that should be posed to individual teachers as far as their assessments are concerned those are controlled by the teachers in the courses i do know that similar to other school districts we have made
053adjustments in how we're assessing this year and people are trying to do their best given the circumstances that yes you do have certain kids that are taking every exam at home we did have for a long time half of the kids taking an exam at home and half in person so there have been plenty of challenges with that but i do think that you know each of the teachers and within the departments have tried to adjust their assessments according to what they perceive the needs to be i mean i've had numerous conversations with teachers and with mr arenas it shouldn't be that there's an exam and only the kids at home get a hundred that's a problem there are smart kids my son takes all honors they're smart kids on both sides whether you're in
054or out there should be equality and there should be a way whether it's implementing better systems to stop the cheating which you know i've had conversations with mr venus other districts are doing it other districts have a higher to return school number of students and that's because the kids know that there's no advantage to being home i implore you to do that there's kids like mine that have high goals they want to go ivy league there's plenty of kids like him it's not fair and it should be yeah i will say though there is a much more vast distribution of scores than i think most people are perceiving and again i think those are things that you know need to be discussed by individuals with their teachers because i do hear a lot that there
055are significant advantages to being home and such but the numbers don't necessarily tell the same story we could agree to disagree on that because the kids all talk about it and i've had these conversations with mr rainus he was surprised when i told him there was cheating so i think it really needs to be evaluated um my next question unrelated well kind of related but a little bit um class rank how come lindbergh got rid of it i'm asking because my son is starting recruiting and many schools ask about class rank and i was told we don't have it anymore we don't do it yeah that was uh done away with uh before uh i was superintendent yeah that was a board decision years ago you know basically the board of education decided that publishing
056that information was not in the best interest of students it caused a lot of stress and a lot of it was arguments over decimal places and such and they did not see that as an educationally uh sound practice and you know that was a board decision years ago if i if i remember correctly it was um that when there were rankings some schools just cut off based on the ranking and didn't look any further at the students grades or their activities or their other you know other involvement that they had so that was the reasoning behind it was you know still having valedictorian and salutatorian but taking away the class ranking so that schools would then be forced to look at the the whole student and you know i can't say for sure but i
057know over the years and this is going back 10 12 years we've had a lot of kids get into a lot of very very competitive schools without the school ranking it's a question that's come up from a bunch of coaches and at least is there a way to find out are you in the top 10 are you in the top 20 without knowing your particular number i'm told that very few people can run that report and i can't even get that information and i think for certain kids it matters based on where they want to go to school and future goals and i don't think that a policy should hold that back i mean that was something that was decided many years ago there was research behind it and i you know as i said
058you know over the years i mean i've been on the board for 13 years now kids have gotten into very competitive schools without having class ranking and there are some kids that may not have gotten in or some kids that situationally there should be a modification if needed i'm not saying exact number but i doubt my son's the only one that and maybe it's a combination of athletics and sports as far as the uh general information is concerned you know what the school district tells the colleges that are looking for that ballpark type of information that you're describing it's all included in the school profile so the colleges do receive a profile of linbruck high school which gives that type of information so if you wanted to see what that looks like i would give
059a call to the guidance department and they can explain that to you okay and then for september plans are to be fully back i would love everyone to be back without the extended time period between classes i would love that absolutely okay thank you seeing nothing else from the community we'll be moving on to donations the board of education gratefully acknowledges and accepts the following donations fencing and paint valued at five hundred dollars from the whole depot corporation to be used to replace the existing fencing in the waverly parks schools 911 garden the wavelength park school pta donated a mural by local artist ron becker valued at approximately thirty eight hundred dollars sadly this evening we also have three sympathy resolutions anastasios garcias whereas the members of the board of education of the lindbergh union
060free school district have learned with sorrow of the recent passing of anastasios also known as tommy skaciaris former custodian for the limburg school district and whereas tommy garcia's served as a custodian for 12 years from 2007 through 2019 at west end elementary school and whereas the board of education is mindful of the contributions made to our district by him during his years of service to our community be resolved that the board of education records its sorrow its sympathy and the esteem in which tommy scorcieris was held and be further resolved that a copy of this resolution be sent to the family of thomas gutierrez with the hope they will find solace and comfort in the rich heritage of good works for which he's remembered and revered mr michael kozlov whereas the members of the board
061of education of the limbruck union free school district have learned with sorrow of the recent passing of michael kozlov former art teacher for the lindbergh school district and whereas michael kozlov served as an art teacher for 37 years from 1964 through 2001 at limb brook high school and whereas the board of education is mindful of the contributions made to our district by michael kozlov during the year his years of service to our community be resolved that the board of education records its sorrow its sympathy and the esteem in which microcosm was held and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be sent to the family of michael cavall with the hope that he will find solace and comfort and the rich heritage of good works which is remembered and revered eleanor martarella
062whereas the members of the board of education of the linbrook union free school district have learned with sorrow of the recent passing of eleanor mortarella former stenographer for the lindbergh school district and whereas eleanor motorella served as a stenographer for 24 years from 1970 through 1994 at lindbrook south middle school and whereas the board of education is mindful of the contributions made to our district by eleanor motorola during the years of service to our community be it resolved that the board of education records its sorrow its sympathy and the esteem in which she was held and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be sent to the family of eleanor mortarella with the hope they will find silas and comfort in the rich heritage of good works for she is remembered and
063revered i'd like to ask for consent agenda on resolutions 2104 c1 through 2104c11 2104 nc2 through 2104 nc 15 and 2104 g1 through 2104g 51. this is danino ii mr paskoff all in favor may have a motion to accept the consent agenda mr yaker second mr poleski all in favor thank you that concludes our meeting everyone get home safe stay safe and stay happy