001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, good evening. I need an a motion to approve the minutes of the November 20th meeting. >> I need a motion. >> I need a second. >> A second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Yep. >> I need a motion to accept the financial reports. Approval of the claims report of November 2025, the treasur's report of September, October, and November, and the financial statements of December 2025. >> Make a motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Audience communication. Anybody in the audience want to come up and talk? >> Okay. Superintendent report. >> Okay. I'm going to read this one off my
002phone because I left my copy in the office. Um, but uh again, I want to congratulate the music department on some excellent concerts. Hopefully, you're able to take some in over the last two weeks. Um, it seems like they're just getting better and better. I think the the model we have with the the looping um from the elementary school into the high school with the instructor is certainly working for us and paying off. They uh really some very nice concerts. Um, congratulations to MCTA. I think that was a record-breaking turkey trap, Brian. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, >> yeah, >> it's great. >> Yeah. So, excellent event there. Um, and then just really both the buildings right now, the spirit, the holiday spirit in uh throughout the district is is beaming, whether it's the decorations
003in the hallways or the concert decorations that we uh had here that Mr. Burke had that the tech kids build. Um, but just you're feeling it all over. The teachers are getting in on the fun and they have all kinds of activities. Um, so it's it's really been uh a crazy but very fun last couple weeks um leading into the uh the holiday break. Um I'm very happy uh every year we have the opportunity to nominate uh three folks from the the district or community for the annual scope awards. and um the administrative team traditionally comes together and we kind of nominate and discuss and have friendly debate over who we're going to nominate. But uh this year um uh the three nominations are Dan O Sullivan who's a special ed teacher in sixth grade
004um takes on a lot of the lead work for that grade level and is just a leader throughout the building. Um Tom Kelly. Um I don't think that needs much of an explanation as you look at our buildings and grounds and the condition of our buildings. What an excellent job he does. And Christine Zoeski who uh keeps Mr. Burke on the rails and uh is is really the the the driving force behind the building and um so it'll be fun to recognize them uh with their families at the scope dinner. uh had the opportunity last Thursday to attend uh the NJRTC annual inspection. Um it happens every year and it's where the unit comes together. Uh naval commander comes out and watches them perform all of their drills. Um it's it's certainly a sight to
005see. Uh kudos to them and uh the commanders and everyone involved. It's it's really probably one of the funner things uh I get or more impressive things I get to see during the course of the year. I wanted to remind you that the Longwood Regional Legislative Breakfast is going to be on February 1st. Lisa's given you information in regards to that. Um, please let us know by January 5th if you'd like to attend. Um, it it's a good uh networking event and is usually pretty interesting. Um, on January 21st, we are um will be hosting an active shooter training. Um this was set up we we did the training for the teachers association two years ago. Um but because of scheduling and uh just the time we weren't able to uh provide the training for
006our CSEA employees and so they've been asking for that and we've coordinated Greg has set that up and that'll be happening uh January 21st at 3:30 at Cutog East. um is open to all of our CSEA employees and and those that that are working. And then we're also opening up to any of our other employees that would like to attend if they're teachers that weren't here um when we did it. Um it'll be open to everybody and that's being provided uh by the Suffach County Sheriff's Office in conjunction with South PD. Um and then on uh Wednesday, uh Mrs. Finnegan and myself uh took a visit to Hampton Bay's High School to see um they're doing a CTE program, early childhood education, and it's a two-year program that they provide for their students similar to
007what we're doing with the Boseies program. And uh the students walk out of that program um with a teachers TA certification. Um and then they're also if they're 18, they're utilizing them for summer school. uh those those people and it's um in talking to the kids that were in the program, it it was great for a couple different reasons. There were kids that gravitated towards it because they were new to the district, didn't have friends, and it's changed the direction that they wanted to go in and they they want to pursue education. Um to there was a kid that thought they wanted to pursue education and after doing this maybe this isn't for me. So maybe save them a year or two of college, you know, going in the wrong direction. But um it's something
008that we're looking at and would like to try to bring into the district here. They work with just kids there. They they do the program with uh in the preK with just kids. Um and I saw Tammy today and I I spoke to her about it. She's very familiar and hopefully we can get that going. Um the superintendent from Greenport was with us as well. She was looking at another program they have. So we are looking to expand what we did. Um, and I want to thank the board for supporting us getting the uh the carpentry program off the ground and that's really set us up as a as a model to to expand those type that type of programming for kids in different pathways. Um, and uh the building related stuff. I'm going to
009kick it off to Brooke um to cover both cut east and the high school happenings. Good evening everyone. Um, so we have our student report for today which is kind of a just going to take it off a glimpse into our December from the high school all the way down to Kukis and the things the students have been up to. So the student council recent updates we had our annual turkey bowl which took place before Thanksgiving break. The blue team won. But it's important to note it's more than just a flag football game. It's kind of a culmination of the whole building and we kind of all got to connect before break and there was kindness pledge stations and gratitude stations. And then holiday spirit week is in full swing both here and down at
010Kutchug East. We have some nice pictures of all the students and their holiday cheer. Then we have the toy drive again here and at Kochug East. It just ended today, but it looks like it's been a big success and we've been able to generate a lot of toys for those in need in the holiday season. And then a bit of a sad club update. We have the upper classmen who completed the annual mental health training at Kajuk West. It consists of workshops and public speaking trainings. And then after this training, all the students will pop into grade levels 7 through 12 and give presentations on the importance of mental health. And then the senior people who got trained, students will then give a assembly to the seniors about college in the spring and the juniors
011around May during AP exam season about handling stress. And then best buddies recent updates, we had our Mount High School students invited by Special Olympics New York to participate in the Suffach County United Youth Summit at Southampton High School. This was really great because we got to connect with other chapters. And then also an important thing is Matt's Best Buddies chapter does Topgolf Unified. So it was a nice way to kick off the season. And then we also had Best Buddies annual Big Apple circus trip. And this is always a fun trip every year because allows us to get out in the city and see the circus and just kind of connect as a chapter. We had our Leo's Cup holiday party this past Sunday. Usually the meetings are geared towards giving back to the
012community since it's not as much school related. Um, but this was more kind of a celebration of all the hard work we've done this year, but we did make cookies, we decorated them, and we distributed them to those in need in the community who might not normally get as much love during the holiday season. And then a mata talk update, which is our school newspaper. We just uh are working on getting the December issue out right now and we've been having them rolling out in a monthly basis. In the new year, we're trying to get it from four pages to eight pages to kind of take it up a notch. And then recent sports updates. It's important to note that the season's just started, but we have cheer, basketball, cross country, and wrestling. Everyone's doing
013really great. And then we have a cheer competition this Saturday at Longwood and a boys basketball game home tomorrow evening. Then National Honor Society updates. We just worked on a project where we did we all individual people in the chapter wrote cards to sick children in hospitals with plushies and then we gave those to all the children in need. And then we just finished our candy cane fundraiser and that was a nice way to spread some holiday cheer. And then we had all our holiday concerts. And then when you walked into holiday concerts, you saw the beautiful poinsetta tree, the manora and the Kwanza tree. And then select also has been caroling all holiday season long at the cast annual festival and the annual Kutchok historical society Christmas tree lighting and manura lighting. And then
014we had as Mr. Petra touched upon our AMI. It was led by our battalion commander Holly Ventllo with the help of the entire unit. It's always a great kind of culmination of all the success the unit has had all year long. And then I had the privilege today of meeting some students from Kachuk East via Zoom. Renie and Glenn Glenn Amirati and we discussed some things happening down at Kachuk East. So we have the Frosty Fair this week which is the holiday shop and then Deck the Halls where each grade decorates individual hallways. I remember sixth grade was New York City. So I thought that was kind of a fun holiday festive thing. and then holiday concerts and then they had the third grade writing celebration where each student wrote a writing piece of how
015they want to change the world and then they all came together to sing about it and then upcoming country east events we have little mermaid in January and a bit of a senior college update seniors are starting to hear back from early decision early action schools and then some of our athletes have already committed and then yeah all the students from our school are getting into great schools which is nice to see and everyone is getting tremendous to support her amazing guidance counselors minus Mr. Lynch. He's been a great help to me in this stressful process. But yeah, and that is all. Happy holidays, everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you, Brooke. >> Brooke, I got to ask you, is there any club or organization that we have that you are not part of? You're in
016every picture. You're cheerleading. You're in every organization, honor society, you're you're doing it all. I sometimes say, "Is that Brooke? Is that Brooke? Is that Brooke?" >> There's only one of her, too. So, it's impressive. Before we do move on, um I do want to draw to your attention. I meant to do it uh during my report, but you've received a draft of next year's calendar. Um I've sat with the MCTA and the CSEA units and and reviewed with them. It's a little bit of a different calendar this year because uh Labor Day is so late. It's not until um the 6th of September. So, we are looking at coming back, bringing students back prior to um uh Labor Day on September 2nd. So, it'll still be in September. Uh but it uh it'll be
017before Labor Day, which is something we've not done before. Um and then the other thing I want to draw your attention to because you may be hearing about it is um uh Junth uh June 19th is on a Saturday and um so we don't have to take off the 18th but the state hasn't scheduled any regs on that day and the feeling is that that would definitely be a loss of an instructional day at least here at the secondary level and that that would be one of the days that we take off and then there's rumblings that the state might change its mind and tell you you have to take it off. So, I just want to be proactive. This is what we've proposed and it'll be on the J uh agenda in January. So,
018take a look. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh we have an athletic update, physical education and security department update, and we have Mr. Wormouth to do it. >> How we doing, Greg? Did we win that wrestling match? >> Yeah, we did. Okay. 48. >> All right. Great. Those wrestling. Well, >> thank you um for the opportunity to be here tonight to give an update, a recap on the fall sports season. Um some security updates um to go along with that. So, I'd like to start with just sharing that. Um this fall, we had another very successful sports season. Um we had 297 student athletes competing this fall. All eight of our varsity sports teams um will receive they qualified and will receive the New York
019State Scholar Athlete Team Award, which means all of those varsity teams cumulatively had a n a GPA of 90 or higher. So, we've been continuing to be on that trend of all of our varsity teams doing that. And um it's certainly something that we're we're very pleased with and excited about to have that continue. Um, I said eight because we did not run a varsity football team this year for the first time in in many years. Uh, we did not have enough participation to put a varsity football team out on the field. We did run a JV and a junior high football, a JV football team. Um, unfortunately in the sport of football, uh, seniors cannot participate at the JV level. It's it's one it's the only sport in New York State where they can't.
020So, um, a few of our our senior athletes who were part of that program were unable to participate this this fall in that sport. There is some conversations out there looking forward for next year of an alternative football league that we may be able to get into as well as a possibility of an eight-man football schedule where eight eight players on the field at a time instead of 11. So, that's um exploring that in in Suffet County in section 11. I say that only as it's it's it's a possibility to come. I'm not sure it will be approved in section 11 or Suffach County to do so, but we are exploring all of those options for some of the smaller schools that are struggling with participation in the sport of football like us. On um
021November 12th, Brooke gave a little shout out to that. on on on November 12th, we had the the most students we've we've ever ever had at one particular time in an early signing, an early signing to sign as collegiate athletes and and dedicate themselves to a school of higher learning to participate in athletics. We had seven students, six of which were female lacrosse players and we had one baseball player that will be um that will be receiving some athletic scholarship money to attend the institutions and and participate at the higher level. >> Greg, excuse my ignorance when it comes to this, but how how do the the people from the colleges learn about our students like >> it? So through high school athletics, right? But then the travel programs are are are huge. So the
022showcases in which our student athletes or any any student athlete throughout the country will attend. There are different showcases through our travel programs. Not our travel programs but the travel scene. Um those college showcases that is sometimes open or invite only. Um, a lot of times through your travel club, the better travel club you are on, the more publicity you are going to to get. This point in time, the travel is is it's remarkable of how you can track a student athlete around the country and the recognition that they can get. There's ratings. Everything is done now on a metric system. It's it's I don't even have to see you anymore. I can see your statistics and your metrics. So, it's all data and it's all numbers. It's I don't have to see that kid
023play anymore. I can see their numbers and I'll take them right off of them off of the statistics and numbers on a sheet >> and it's it's pretty advanced. Everything is based on numbers right now. >> Thank you. >> So, what happens to the athlete who doesn't do travel team but they're exceptional here? what like >> you're there still rec you can still get recognized out of your out of your high school sports program and for sure we definitely we have kids that do throughout the state of New York and throughout um the country they'll get recognized um and and it's it's when you're a standout athlete people know who you are >> right they know and the word of mouth and then we're pushing kids who are sending and pushing video all the time
024they're sending their own stats they're pushing video every kid has their own Instagram page. Every kid has a YouTube channel and they're pushing that right to the NCAA coaches who are filtering that stuff all day long in the offseason. They're looking at that stuff. >> So, um it's it's a different way. It's you have to have that if you you have to push that info. Um social your social media page has to get followers and you have to keep pushing. >> So, it's um it's a different world in this in Don't get me started because then we'll go into the college portal and then I'll tell you >> yes >> other things that you um so it goes on and on. Um, some of the highlights from the from this season are the boys soccer
025team had one of the most exciting playoff games I've seen in history of being here and of course it was our battle against center Merches in the first round of the playoffs and the game goes uh 80 minutes of regular time and then it goes two 10 minute or 15 minute overtime period. So, and then it's still one I believe it was 1-1 or 22, I can't think right now. And then we end up in penalty kicks and and It was it was deflating, but it was exhilarating at the same time. We lost in penalty kicks to move on. Um, but >> probably the best like battle I've seen on the side. That was a good one. >> It was It was really incredible. It was It was outstanding. >> Um, but um, you know,
026we did not move on in that sport. Coach Alex Sinclair, JV coach. Um he received a coach of the year award for for our league. Um he's a first time JV coach for us and and that was that was great. He did a really nice job there. The girls volleyball team once again made it to the Suffach County Championship. Lost against a really good team at Bayport Bluepoint. Miss Pickering um our varsity coach and our JV coach Jeff Howser both received um coach of the year awards at the varsity level and the JV level. So, you know, our coaches are recognized as as high achieving, very good and strong coaches. That's encouraging and certainly positive for us to take back in the sport of cross country. Rachel Kubitz and junior Marlo Calammore. Rachel's a freshman,
027by the way, and and Marlo's a junior. They both competed at the New York State Cross Country Championship on November 15th. That was up at Queensberry, New York. It was a little bit cold up there. The conditions were frozen in the morning. They warmed up. It got sloppy in the afternoon. So, it definitely takes a toll on the course the later you go. But the two of them each PR, they had their that had their own personal best um for for the season. Uh Rachel came in with a 21 um 21 minute 15 second 5K. Marlo finished 17 minute 19 second 5K in those races. each of them competing very well. Uh Marlo finished in the in the in the top 50% of of that as well as Rachel did. So we were we were
028in the mix. It was it was a great season by our cross country in the sport of golf. Now this was this was something that's never happened in in the history of Matuck in golf. Michael Buckley and Sam Porterero qualified for the county tournament and Sam advanced to the championship day. Okay. So, the county tournament, you play in a county tournament, but when your scores either qualify, you can qualify you for the state qualifier, which if you get through that, then you're on the state team, right? Sam made it. Michael did not Michael got knocked out on the in in the counties, but Sam made it to the championship round where he shot a 74. came into the 18th hole, two under bar and double bogey the 18th, but he's still he finished fifth uh
029uh in that tournament. He's part of the New York State tournament team from Suffach County for first time ever we're going to have a golfer in the state championship. So that's pretty cool. He's going to go up to Rochester in uh June. So he's got to wait till the spring June 5th through the 8th. It's a three round tournament where he's going to grind it out up there and he's going to see if he can bring, you know, bring home some hardware on there. We've never had anybody make it there before. And Sam is only sophomore. If you if hopefully you've seen um I got to give a shout out to Miss Tiff. Um, if you saw the video that the sports broadcasting um, class put together with the highlights of the fall sports season,
030they did a really cool job and kind of really highlighted a lot of cool stuff that we did this this fall. Um, it was great. Um, I got to mention that Charlie Carter um is a co-president right now of the Suffach County Athletic Council and has and he's representing Suffach County athletes as part of the New York State Athlete Athletic Council. So, a lot of words put together, but um this committee explores a lot of different topics from student athletes um sending information to to us as athletic directors and to the state level about what it is that they feel is important in high school athletics that would want to bring light to. So they're they're bringing up topics like mental health, communication, sportsmanship, school pride, time management, college recruiting, model programs, fundraising, and a
031lot of different more a lot of different other ideas. Um because Charlie is the co-president, um I asked Charlie to nominate three of three other people to um from our school to attend a leadership conference tomorrow. um three other athletes. And it was it was I I was so proud when I said, "Charlie, I want you to nominate three other bring three other kids with us." And he said, "Uh, Mr. Norman, I really want to bring my sister." >> And I just thought like that was so cool. >> Like so Anna Carter, Charlie Carter, Liam Springer, and Mason Callaher will be going with me tomorrow morning. We're going to go to the town hall, town of Brook Haven. We have a leadership conference for student athletes there from uh 8:30 to 1:00 and um with
032guest speakers, there's breakout sessions. There's some major league athletes that are there, college coaches. We're going to go over the college recruiting process with them. Um I'm on a panel of ads where they're going to ask us different questions back and forth about high school sports and and it should be just a really great day to share information. Um, there's going to be about 150 student athletes across Suffach County to be there and we should have a very good time at that and bring some good stuff back. I know Charlie's excited to bring some stuff back to Mad. The winter sports season has kicked off. Um, we have 132 student athletes at the high school level right now. Another 76 in our first early winter junior high season. I anticipate that being about the same
033for the next ear the late winter junior high season. And um as of today, unfortunately, we did have to drop our JB girls basketball team due to lack of numbers. We're low in numbers at the beginning of the season, a little bit low. We sustained several injuries. Our last bigger injury was a season ender for for a student athlete last night which took us from um five at five on that when we had six and then we had five and now we have four. So we we're taking those student athletes that are left we're bringing them up. Everybody's going to be a part of the varsity program and part of the girls basketball program at that level. All right. So we did have to drop the our our um our schedule. We've played uh four,
034five, five games so far, but we just can't maintain. Um some security updates. Um since the opening of school, um we have been able to maintain compliance in our drills to include our fire drills, lockown drills, evacuation, and early early release. Um, we have had an audit on our lockdown system to make sure that the program is communicating and working the way that it's actually designed to. And without telling you exactly how that works, I'm going to tell you I can assure you that's it's effective and efficient and all the systems are connected and working and communicating together the way that we expect. Um our emergency action plans for each of our facilities as they relate to athletics was something that missed. Um our trainer Emma Foscalino and I have been working on and they
035were completed this week. So we have an independent emergency action plan center for every facility in which athletics is involved. Um currently I'll be sharing those with the coaches. Um we we had them we've updated them. We've made them a little more robust. Um put a little more effort and emphasis on certain different things. We have AED units this spring. They're being wired over the winter and in the spring they'll be located permanently in our outdoor spaces. Um there'll be one permanently underneath the the scoreboard on the track. There'll be one um at Kutch West where we utilize that facility for lacrosse and soccer out by that'll be um set up by our irrigation panel electric there and then they'll be worn off the back of all yeast and that's part of another program that
036we're ready to roll out too. And so I'm happy to say that our cardiac emergency response plan, better known as Deja's law, part of the new state regulations, um Emma and I file completed. We we finished that today. that's ready to present to the administrators, the rest administrative team like to present it to you as board members, maybe even our policy meeting or something just to roll it out, show it to you, go over it, and then um bring that team together to know exactly what their responsibilities might be in that. But part of that de law was to have those AEDs located in those areas even if we're not using even if it was outside organizations were using. So they'll be located for anyone who ever needs on our campuses in those spaces. We've
037recently had a radio our radio an audit on a radio communication system. Um, and we'll be working with each of our buildings, the high school and the elementary school and our vendor to review our radio assignments, our use, our efficiencies, and our overall cost of that system to make sure that we have a good handle on it. It's it's a big cost that we play for our radio communication. We want to make sure that we're using it effectively and efficiently and that we're not wasteful or or if we need more, then we'll go into that. We have to take a look at those things. Um, as Mr. Trading center and just reiterate that there is an actor shooter training set up in January 21st with the Department of Homeland Security and that's going to be
038held down at Coach Aug East in the afternoon. And then our security personnel since the start of school, our security staff has increased from the beginning of the year in both our full-time and part-time capacities. We've built a nice relationship right now with the Riverhead Town Police Department and we are getting more and more active duty police officers to come here and seek some some opportunity for some part-time employment. That's where we've gotten some of our our part- timers who have recently joined us and I think we may end up with receiving more. It's we we have so many things that need to be covered all the time that um the more the marrier really because It just gives us that many more opportunities to for coverages. Um, we currently have five full-timers that cover
039our day and sometimes our e into our evening shifts. We have 12 part- timerrs currently um that cover the responsibilities of after school, weekends, and special events. Um, of our 12 part- timerrs, six currently are active duty. four are retired PD who are recently retired or have been retired in in in the recent five to 10 years. And one of one of our um our part- timerrs is um active emergency responder. It's a nice addition to our mix. And then um our Mr. Pauly out there, I don't know if there's any more anybody anyone any more knowledgeable of our internal buildings than he might be. So, I think we have a good mix of um great employees on our security center and that's it. If anybody has any questions, >> I have a question. >>
040Yeah. One of the meetings that um I believe it was the PTA, one of the things that might that came up was the the fact that people walk on the track >> during the school day and use the tennis court during the school day. Um, I kind of have mixed feelings myself about that, but I was wondering if we've addressed that in any way. >> Um, I guess I'd have to ask the same question. Is there a direct I'm in favor of whichever direction. I have my own personal feelings, but if there's a direct response from the board of education on that, then we'll certainly put it out and and make sure we go either way >> because it's it's it's traditionally it's something that we've allowed. I know that Greg and security have addressed
041with certain individuals if it didn't feel right, didn't look right, >> um or if there was something big going on out there. Um I know that they do interact with the people that do use it and it's it's really on a judgment based situation right now. We do not have a policy in regards to that. Have there been a significant number of issues over the years or is it just kind of the oneoff and maybe a gym teacher ask someone to you know move off the track while they're doing something is that >> that's yeah we would >> and they're pretty compliant when that happens I would assume >> we've we've been fortunate to have a nice working relationship with the community members who have used it in the past. there has been oneoffs >>
042and and you don't know when the one-off is going to be something else. >> So, do you have security that's overseeing that area? >> So, what happens is when it's identified, all right, we'll send somebody out. So when the guys are doing their outdoor tour or we get a radio call from a PE teacher or something during the day or or however that is identified, there's somebody there, we send somebody right out immediately or while they're on their tour, they'll go and check in and then if it's you've been by this school how many times I could tell you the same five people who are every morning going to use that track for the last 15 years. Right? There's the hard part. I I agree. >> So, but in whichever directive or or approach we
043want to take on it, we surely will follow up on that. >> But if if and if we are going to make a change on that, that's something that we should do prior to the end of the the uh the budget season because there will be budgetary implications with gates and and things of that nature as well. >> Signs. >> Yeah. >> Sean, can the timing or Greg, can the timing of these people using it be changed so it wouldn't it affect the school district? Well, certainly our campus is going to be open when our students are not participating or using that facility. So, right and and so that is but during campus hours of use then you can close it and then certainly it would be open again when we're not in session or
044not in use. So, um, you can specify hours for sure >> and you know, if it was 7 in the morning till 5:30 or 6:00 at night or or something in in different areas, you could put those limitations on for sure because you're not going to close it completely forever. It's it's only while we're using or here. >> Yeah, >> I think it's good that the the public >> uses >> can use it. >> Yeah, me too. Mhm. I >> I think we all feel that way. >> It's just a question of whether timing would be any better or not. I And I don't know. >> Um >> you know what, Doug? We're going to add it to the the policy agenda and take a look at it. >> Yep. >> Now, do we have
045people using the walking path down at Kog East as well outside of No. >> No. We don't have anyone accessing Kachog East. >> And just by the design, you know, it's it's easier to to kind of cord off and and I I >> we wouldn't let somebody use Kachogi. I just know policy or not, right? >> We would shut that down. Um but again, it's a different feel here because it's very easy campus to use. >> Yeah, >> it's a track. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um now we're up to special education and guidance department. Who wants to go first? I guess special education. I was going to let Brian go first, but whatever. I think he Okay, thank you. I just want to thank you all for affording us this opportunity
046to present to you this evening. Tonight, Lisa and I are sharing an overview of the special education department and how we meet the needs of students across the district. This presentation reflects both our current data and our philosophy, which is meeting students where they are while planning intentionally for intentionally for growth and independence. We'll walk through services from early childhood through high school and highlight strengths, outcomes, and ongoing areas of focus. Okay. So, first understanding the difference between a disability and section 504. I want to say that our work is grounded in ensuring that all students regardless of ability have access to meaningful instruction and supports. Special education is not a place. It's a continuum of services designed to support students in the least restrictive environment. Collaboration among families, educators, and related service providers is
047essential to this work. When we look at students with disabilities, they are students who are classified under the idea and have qualifying disability that impacts their educational performance. These students require specialized instruction and have an indivi individualized education program or an IEP. IEPs are highly individualized and may include special classes, integrated co-eing classes, related services, and instructional supports. Sorry. Section 504 protects students whose disabilities substantially substantially limit a major life activity but who do not require specialized instruction. So these students often receive accommodations, not special education to ensure equal access to learning or to level the playing field. Examples include extended time, preferential seating, or organizational supports. So, the key takeaway or the key distinction between an IEP and a 504, um, a helpful way to think about it is that IEPs provide specialized instruction
048while 504 plans provide access through accommodations. Not all students with challenges need special education services, and it's important that we match supports to the actual needs of the students. This distinction helps ensure appropriate identification and compliance with state and federal regulations. So now we look at who we serve. So in our district, we currently have 1767 students with disabilities um and 70 students with 504 accommodation plans. Our staffing includes special education teachers, teaching assistants, and our related service providers. And you'll see the numbers reflected up there. And this staffing model allows us to deliver individualized services while maintaining strong inclusion practices. So when we look at our journey from early intervention to postchool readiness, our work begins very early with strong collaboration through CPS-see to ensure early identification and smooth transitions. In district, we offer
049the full continuum of services from related services only to special classes and vocational programming. For students whose needs cannot be met in district, we maintain strong relationships with out of district partners to ensure continuity. So let's talk about our little little guys, the early childhood special education piece. Preschool special education services are governed by New York State Education Law 4410 and involve collaboration across multiple agencies. Families are central partners in this process alongside educators, medical providers, and service coordinators. Our goal is to is early support which reduces barriers and builds foundational skills. Looking at our numbers for the 2025 school year, we're serving 15 CPSC students across a variety of settings. services range from itinerant related services to integrated and special classes and placements are often determined based on student need and may occur within
050our UPK program um community preschools or homebased settings. So if you look at we have eight students who are receiving related services only. So that could be speech and language, OT, PT. Um and we have two students who are in special class in an integrated setting which is the way the preschools name it but it's essentially an ICT classroom. And then we have five students who are in a special class. And I believe we have seven of these 15 students will be transitioning to kindergarten next year. Okay. So let's move into elementary special education and our collaborative model. So elementary services rely on a strong team approach that includes families, general education teachers, special educators, and related service providers. Behavioral consultants and guidance counselors help address social, emotional, and behavioral needs. And we use this
051collaborative structure to support both academic growth and overall well-being. So, if you look at I think my secretary Kathy Best called them uh Easter eggs earlier or was it Tina Smith called them Easter eggs? So, we have these Easter eggs up here and they're all of our supports that we have for our students in our uh elementary school in Katavis. Currently, we have um we offer the integrated co-eing classrooms, the special classes and the related surve service only supports. Um we have eight integrated classrooms right now. We have actually two sections in the fourth grade and we service 42 students through this model. Our special class, we have a few special classes. So we have two 1211 special classes and that's for grades 3, four and 5, six and combined there's eight students there and
052then we have a 611 um kindergarten first grade special class and we have four students in there and one of those students we actually tuition in from another district. We also have a private school within our district where we um ha we are required to provide services for the students that require special education services in that school. And so um in the private school there's three students who receive resource room services and five students who um have related services only. >> Meredith, are those our students that we're servicing? >> Um some of them are, but it's any student that is uh tuitioned into that uh private school. We are in charge of their services. So they could be a student from Greenport. So we're in charge of providing the students with the special education services
053that they need and that's anywhere from an initial referral, you know, doing the eval, we do the evaluations, we provide the services and then if they're not a student who lives in our district, we're able to bill back that district for those services. >> And Meredith, when you say 1211 or 611, I know what that means, but could you like >> Sure. That's the studenttoteer ratio. So, in a special class 1211, you could have no more than 12 students in that class. And then there's usually one teacher and one teaching assistant. Sometimes there are more teaching assistants in that class based on student need. When you look at our special class 611 and I think in a future slide I named it a 613 because we do have so much support in there, but it's
054a 611 classroom. So, it's no more than six students um and one teacher and one teaching assistant. Um, and the ratio really dictates the students need. So the smaller the ratio, the higher the needs of the students. And then um just to note, we have one student um in our elementary system, we have one student who is out of district and then we have one student who is tuitioning into district so it evens out, Charlie. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Okay. Um All right. So see, I named it the 613 class because I'm just thinking about the supports that are in there. But an elementary spotlight that we have is our this 613 class opened up this year and I am I could not be more proud of the work that is happening in that
055classroom. We were able to obtain a teacher um from upstate who came down who had a lot of experience in teaching students with the needs that are in the classroom. It is just I wish people could go visit it but they can't. But you know it's it's just an amazing place. The students are learning and growing so quickly. Um so in our 613 special class um this class supports students with highly intensive needs particularly in communication, sensory regulation and daily living skills. The students often rely on augmentative and alternative communication systems um you know PEX systems, speech generating devices and visual supports. There's consistent modeling, repetition and opportunities for functional communication throughout the day. The students benefit from explicit instruction and social engagement. They're supported peer they have supported peer interactions, structured routines and adult
056facilitation to build um reciprocal communication and social awareness. The students also require individual behavioral support plans, proactive strategies, predictable routines, and close adult supervision to ensure safety and promote positive behavior. The staffing ratio allows for the individualized instruction and continuous supervision. Um, another spotlight is that, you know, we've had a Best Buddies club at the high junior senior high school for years and we were finally able to this year um bring it down to the elementary school. So, there's a new Best Buddies Club. Um, and this really exemplifies the district's commitment to inclusion by fostering meaning meaningful peer relationships and promoting acceptance across the school community. So, we're really excited about that club. They're doing a great job. Okay. And now I'm going to turn it over to um Lisa Harper. She is our high
057school coordinator of special education and she's going to walk you through secondary special education. >> Thank you, Meredith. So, I am so excited to be here tonight. Thank you so much for having me. I think we have a very unique um model here at the junior senior high school. Our students come in uh into seventh grade and they are with us until they graduate. So we have the opportunity to really get to know them, know their needs, um help them become independent to whatever level that may be. So I love seeing seventh graders um and we follow them through until they graduate and it is so so meaningful to us as a faculty and staff. Um and I think a lot of districts up island don't have that unique feature. Um, so like the elementary
058school, we have, you know, all of the same services here at the junior senior high school. We focus on collaboration um and individualized planning supports um are ever changing as the student is evolving with that independence in mind. As a student matures, you know, we want the student to become um uh a great self- advocate. uh we incorporate transition planning from you know the seventh grade up through uh the 12th grade. So we have a lot of the same uh supports. So in the junior high specifically we have um several models. We service 35 IEP students in grades seven and eight. We have integrated co-eing classrooms. We have 17 classrooms. Now, that's a little bit different than the elementary school because these are, you know, your ICT science, your ICT English, your ICT math, your
059ICT social studies, etc. We also have ICT Spanish. So, these are all the sections that we have at the junior high and we service 24 students in our ICT model. We also have um special classes which is our 151 class 15 students to one teacher. We have four of those. Those are your core content areas, English, science, social studies, and math. We have seven students that we service. Um in that program, we also have a special class life skills. We have um one student in there in the junior high and he's in there for half a day. He's split between there and some uh other special classes. We also have, you know, that private school that Meredith was uh speaking about in district. We have one student in the junior high uh that gets resource
060room over there and two students with related services only. One student is out of district uh from our junior high and one is tuitioned in junior high spotlight. Um we offer so many clubs here grades 7 through 12 and all of them are very very inclusive. This is just a short list of things that we offer in the junior high. The cooking club is so so popular among all students that it runs two days um because there are so many kids wanting to sign up. Uh the interact club, Tucker Times newspaper, we have special education students that are writing for the newspaper and getting their work published in our paper. They are on student council. They participate in gaming club and best buddies. We just have so many things that everyone is just um included.
061Moving on to the high school, um we have a few more of um classes that we service our students. We have 56 IEP students in grades 9 through 12. We have two resource rooms here at the high school. We have 12 ICT co-eing models. Uh we have seven classes um special class. So for example we have social studies 910, social studies 11, English 910, English 1112 etc. So we have seven of those. We have um a special class life skills that's also four classes and we have two and a half students. So that other student that I was talking about earlier um he's in there half the day. We also have our awesome vocational program that Caroline Wills runs. Uh that's a full day program and we have four students uh that are in there
062full-time. We have four students that are out of district and we have one student that's tuitioned in here at the high school. Some spotlight uh from the high school. Our regent's exam scores for students with disabilities is outstanding. our US history regent exam 94% of students with disabilities earned regions credit 90% of earth science 80% of living environment 82% of English and 90% of global so those are just our special ed students and they're getting that region's credit for graduation I'm noticing after the many years that I've been here that many more students with disabilities are challenging themselves elves and taking those upper level courses than ever before. They're like, "Yeah, I'm going to try AP comp. I'm going to try seminar. I'm going to try, you know, physics." Um, and they're very successful. So,
063this past spring, um, in May, we gave 41 advanced placement exams, um, taken by our IEP and 504 students. So that number is combined 41 tests and 80% of those exams resulted in a three or higher which means that hopefully they got college credit for that. So just outstanding. >> Thank you. >> So we're we're trying to sustain excellence through continuous improvement. So as you can see here we have um we maintain strong graduation rates and low dropout rates. So I would say like if we looked at the last five years we had 90 to 100% graduation rates of students with disabilities. Um the district demonstrates high inclusion rates and no disproportionality by race or disability. We remain focused on compliance data integrity. Um but we are closely monitoring our English language learners um for
064our classification rates. Right now I think we're at 12% um of CLA rate of students with that are English language learners that are classified whereas if you look at special ed as a whole at 16 or 17%. um you know and then like we're we're const we're always looking for and recruiting teaching assistants um and we are trying the ones when we do have um teaching assistants applying to the district and and being with us you know we are professionally developing them and trying to you know maintain them um maintain them and like and have them you know feel that they are getting the development that they need. Um so I think that that's everything. And so now I'm going to open it up to questions. >> No questions. She's looking at me. >> Pat.
065Okay. No question. >> This is what I want to say. I just want to say I I was an inclusion teacher for many years. And I have to I don't know about other districts, but I know in this district special ed's a really hard job. Teaching is difficult, but special ed is a rare breed. So please thank everybody for everything you do. the IP writing alone would put me over the edge. So, um, but thank you. >> Ladies, how many students uh tuition into our programs? >> Um, so I think currently, what were the numbers? Was it one, two, three? Three are currently tuitioning in. >> And how many students do we have tuition out? >> Tuition out. So, it's six. Six. and we don't have the facilities to take care of those that tuition
066out or >> um we we definitely try to keep kids in district for as long as we possibly can. We really believe in that. Um but there are times where the students needs are greater than what we can provide for them. And you know our goal is really for the students to be educated in in an appropriate setting. Um whether that's in district or out of district. We try to create programs where we can. You know, we looked at the kindergarteners that were coming in this year and we saw that there was a need for the 613 classroom and so we created that classroom to keep kids in district because that's, you know, really what we try to do. >> And for the classes that have like two and a half kids or one kid,
067how does that work? Um I don't like monetarily versus tuitioning them out versus keeping a class that has like one student or two and a half student. How can we maybe like entice more students to tuition in here? >> Mhm. Um >> yes. >> Or combined with other districts. I don't know. Just two and a half students and you have four classes of >> that classroom. It doesn't we don't have the ratio on there, but that classroom and those students have such intense needs that keeping them in district even though they have such intense needs is really the best thing for them. their needs are being met. So, um I know that when you look at class sizes and you say, "Oh my goodness, you only have two kids in there." That you know, um
068>> it's it's for a very very good reason. I promise you. >> No, I'm lacking like combining with other districts. >> So, we are always we we get packets all the time from other districts, but we have to always make sure that when we are taking students in that we can meet their needs. Um there are times where, you know, districts will send us a packet and the students needs are so great that it would be a disservice to the student and and our school community to take the student in. So I am very careful. Um but whenever we do get a packet that comes in, you know, Sean and I review it and if we think it's a go, like we we we do it. >> So >> yeah, and we find those student
069bringing those students in also enhance our programs as well. >> Yeah. >> Um just interesting. I was doing some analysis uh this week and in 2012 to to now our special ed budget has only grown $150,000 and so I went Yeah. which was shocking to me and but when you think about the amount of pro in-house programming that we've developed for our students as well as you know some of the other students from out of district that we've brought in I think that's a big factor in kind of keeping you know that limiting that growth and again we have gotten smaller but our special ed numbers have gone up. >> Now Meredith do you go and look at other places before you decide whether >> oh for the packet or if if a kid can
070sit >> a kid should come or not. Oh, yeah. Yep. So, if we think it's a viable option, then we go and we visit the student in in the in their setting and then sometimes, you know, sometimes another district snatches them up faster than we can get them here or whatever it is or they or another district that's closer to that student's district will take them. Um, but yeah, I I always do that and then we always >> really expensive placement. Charlie and I will go with Meredith >> to go tour the facilities and we've done that. Yeah. You know, we >> and I also visit the out of district placements, too. So, if I have to recommend an out of district placement for a student, you know, and then the goal is always to
071bring the student back to district when they're able to. And we also have students who have out of district placements that move into our district. So, they're already placed out of whatever home district they were, then they move to our district. And then we assume those responsibilities and that's okay. And then we work with the out of district placement to try to eventually get the student back. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else have any other questions? >> Those AP and upper, you know, grade level, the results, you know, is is awesome. I mean, it's something that I'm just I'm real proud of and I it's the testament to our special ed department, all of our teachers, you know. >> Yeah, we do. We have an amazing team and I and I'm I'm so grateful for
072them. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? Okay, Brian, this a guidance presentation. >> Good evening everybody. Nice to see everybody again. Miss Oer Lauren, nice to meet you. >> Nice to meet you. Um when Sean asked me to uh to present tonight on uh some programming for the guidance office um you know I guidance is multifaceted so it's difficult to go over everything that guidance does since I started as a guidance counselor we'll do a Jim McKenna reference uh always plays a part uh since it's always what does guidance do what does guidance do so we basically have three components since I am going last in the lineup tonight. I'll be brief and I will talk to the coach. The coach used to put me lead off. He's in a different building
073now. So now I'm uh I'm at the back of the line, but I will be brief. But if you have questions, feel free. So um before I get into the the college and career piece and and how we program uh for that, I'll touch on some of the uh the other areas academic and social emotional um that we offer to our students in terms of our guidance plan. Um each of the components of the plan really impact each other. Okay, we I believe in the fact that we are school leaders uh through collaboration, through communication and coordination. Those are the three things that really um define the guidance department. We work with all aspects of the school community uh whether that be parents, community members, administrators, teachers, and obviously students, great ones like Brooke. Uh
074so academically counselors work on a range of of topics. Obviously course selection and scheduling that obviously plays into uh the college and career piece but that's an important part. Um transcripts, grades requirements, uh graduation requirements, everchanging graduation requirements, everchanging regent requirements, um and sharing those with students, making sure students are on track for graduation. Diploma types. Uh the next heavy lift that we have coming is the change in these pathways and the diploma types that we uh our students are going to be looking at. Uh honor society information. I'm going to go through um some of the things we do at grade levels and I'll show you where we kind of start sharing that information with students. Leadership and uh community service opportunities. Again, Hobie Rya, I'll mention it when I'm going through the grade
075level opportunities. Boseies. We just recently had our uh our Boseies program for 10th grade students to present the offerings of Boseies. Um then we'll set up a visitation for them to go and see Boseies and then work out scheduling which is not always easy. We're starting to bring in our Boseies program. We have in-house now. Sean mentioned some other programs uh maybe in nearby districts. So we'll incorporate that in as well. We work with credit recovery uh for students. So, um whether that's for coursework credit recovery or uh exam uh recovery. Um we work with students on college credit options for uh courses in the high school for Farmingdale, Stonybrook, and our Suffach early college program. Uh AP course offerings and and AP coordination. Uh I I'll mention it later on. Lisa mentioned it as
076far as uh special education students, but we have over 150 students signed up for this May uh to take AP exams. That's over 400 or around 400 exams that our students will take. Uh I believe it's around 65 it's up to uh exams will be special education exams uh for about 25 special education students. And so those run throughout the normal school day. Uh it's quite an undertaking. They all went to uh digital or what are called hybrid digital tests and and we obviously coordinate uh that program as well. Regions testing. We're a big part of uh administering regions testing uh working with students to make sure they are signed up for regions testing. We have a counselor uh at the high school who is a dedicated ENL support counselor who works with those students
077on the range of issues they have not only academically but social and emotionally as well. And then all of us have case loads that we deal with um work with for special education students and we work with those students on uh their unique circumstances, testing requirements, safety nets, uh different ways that they can go about being successful and graduate and we work pretty closely uh with the special education department uh in that realm. As far as the social emotional piece, I mean um that obviously has become more and more important over the last decade. I remember when the term started to be uh brought into the into the district or into the vernacular. Um so obviously just the regular personal counseling, the one-on-one counseling sessions that we get to have with students, problem solving, decision
078making. Um we're part of uh teams, child study teams, uh crisis counseling teams, mental health teams, all of which um help students or identify students and then we work on plans to assist them. We work with community members um whether that's the uh doing CPS referrals uh local uh counseling agencies we work with to make referrals to them for students who need additional assistance. We work with administration on attendance issues uh working with students who as on an appeal committee when students are being considered to be denied credit. Uh and then um our two of our counselors work as DASA coordinators where they are Mr. Burke knows the DASA process at this point. Student th those coordinators will uh investigate and research uh complaints or um issues between students um or any DASA complaint actually.
079Our counselors are sort of at the forefront of those both at the elementary school and the high school. And then the mental health curriculum, Brooke mentioned it. Um, our counselors work with the social worker in helping train our student leaders who then turn that around to uh to work with all of our students. Um, so I'll go into the college piece now. Before I do, I have to sort of make sure that everyone's aware of Navviance. Naviance is the program we use to administer uh the college application process. All students have a Naviance uh account. Parents are then invited in uh sophomore and junior years uh to create Naviance accounts as well. We got Naviance I I feel like it was around 2009. Sean was going to um uh principal meetings at the time. I
080was going to guidance coordinator meetings. We were hearing about this program. We decided to bring it in, take all of our paper and and forms and and get it onto a digital platform. And over the years, the program is only sort of improved and and offered more and more options for students. So, it gives students now the option to uh create plans, complete surveys, which I'm going to show you some screenshots. Definitely not as colorful as um as Meredith's presentation, Lisa's presentation, but just some screenshots of the different things that we utilize inside Navios. We also use it administratively from the back end to submit all college documents, transcripts, grade reports, first quarter, mid-year grade reports, teacher recommendations, high school profile, everything gets submitted, tracked, recorded all through the Navian program. So you'll hear me
081reference it throughout here. So before I give you some of those screenshots, I'll just quickly go through grade level um grade level instruction and planning that we do with students. So we get them introduced to Navvian as early as sixth and seventh grade, elementary, middle school counselor uh work to uh introduce them to Navvian and then start them on some surveys, strengths and interest uh surveys, uh multiple intelligence inventories, personality type uh questionnaires, uh and we build off of that. Come eighth grade, the high school counselors actually push into the middle school to start working with students on scheduling. Every time we have a scheduling meeting with students each year, we go through the college uh presentation alerting them to what colleges are looking for from uh strength of schedule to um community service and
082activities, teacher recommendations, all the things important for them to know heading into uh the ninth grade. So we start that in eighth grade. Uh Megan Collins still continues to work with them on some uh some surveys through the home and careers classes and she introduces them into the resume option in there which allows them to track uh some of their activities or begin to track some of their activities. In ninth grade, uh the high school counselors do an orientation for our ninth grade students, introduce them to the high school guidance office, how that works. We continue to do more surveys, the personality survey. Uh we introduce them to the honor society and the requirements that it uh are necessary when they apply in 11th grade uh which in includes GPA, which includes character, leadership, all
083things that they're going to need come 11th grade when they're ready to apply so they're aware of it in nth grade. We have a dedicated test prep program uh called methodized test prep where students have access to um online tools, free tests, uh lessons, they can even subscribe if they wanted to to get individual uh tutoring uh through the methodized program. So we uh basically introduced that to them in nth grade. Most won't use it until at the earliest 10th, more likely 11th and 12th. And sometimes it's better to get results and then start working on it. But we work through that with them. Uh about five years ago, we started the uh the college fair here and we have uh 80 90 I think this year was closer to a hundred schools come in.
084We actually invite every 9th through 12th grade student. We run them through third and fourth period. So it's good for our 9th grade students and uh some of their teachers give them assignments to make sure that they're getting some information, usually some swag uh that they kind of take from some of these reps, but it's a good sort of opening for for our freshmen. In 10th grade, we have another uh group meeting. We start in uh in the fall and students are invited to take the PSAT as 10th grade students. Uh it's basically a practice to a practice test because the real PSAT comes in 11th grade. We continue with some of our surveys, but then we get into some of the career work. We try and tie in some of the uh personality assessments,
085some of the strengths, some of the interest assessments and put those into um into some careerfinding tools. Uh again, I mentioned this earlier, the Hobie and the Rialer. These are leadership uh opportunities for students to go to weekend seminars. Uh we provide them the opportunity to apply for those. And typically for Hobie, we uh send a couple of kids each year. And then RIA, it's a it's a few more. That's more of a local um a local leadership academy. 11th grade is where things really get started uh really get going for the college application process. Again, come the fall, they'll take the PSAT. Those results come back pretty quickly now that everything is digital. So, within a few weeks in January, when we return from uh from break here, we'll start our college meetings. We
086do uh two-day meetings with our juniors to go over the whole college process. We do those group meetings. We continue with some of the career and interest profiler. Then we set up individual meetings. We work with them in Navvian. We create a plan. Some students we give a full list of colleges. Some come to us with a list of colleges. Uh we talk to them about a testing schedule, SATs, ACTs, and and what their schedule might look like. Um they continue to do some other surveys for us that tell us where they might be interested in terms of college. are they looking locationwise, major wise, um size, all of these things to help us guide them uh the best we can. And then we have a parent night in February where we go all over
087all the same stuff that we go over with the the students, we do with the parents uh in February. Come senior year, we're back again um after the summer, we're meeting in groups again with seniors and then individual meetings and again then students are working on SAT and ACT registration. We now have something called SAT school day. The SATs have also gone digital uh like the PSATs allows us those exams are now around two hours. So we can run uh a test date in both the fall and the spring. So the spring for our juniors when they turn into the senior year now they could take a fall test date with us as well. Gives them that option to be comfortable take the test in their school uh and have two opportunities to do that.
088Some students additionally sign up for your your national test dates, your Saturday test dates, the old standard um you know come in on Saturday 8:00 in the morning type test date. Um so they have both of those options. Again the college fair runs throughout for all of these grade levels. Uh we advise students on college recommendations talking to teachers which teachers uh make the best sense for what they're looking for in terms of uh recommendations. Those recommendations are completed in Navviance by the teachers. They're housed in Navvian. When the students are ready to apply, uh the counselor is going to submit those letters of recommendation along with the counselor uh letter to the colleges that the student is applying to. Um we go over deadlines, we set up a schedule for them. uh they work
089on a personal statement or an essay in English class also reviewed by guidance counselors for those students who wish it to be. Um we go through applications some students will sit at our desk and complete the whole application or review every aspect. Other students come in with a completed application and they're ready to submit. And we do financial aid information. Letters go home. Parent squares go home. Um we uh have a financial aid at East End Counselors financial aid night that we recommend to parents as well. And then that edox submission is really uh us submitting all of the college material uh that's required for applications. And then lastly, students who are interested, Greg was up here talking about our student athletes. Those students uh division one and two have to go through the NCA
090clearing house while that entity still exists. And um then from there uh scholarship lists uh we we post a monthly scholarship list starting in October. really come the spring, January, uh through May, a lot of local organizations, this community gives out over a $100,000 to uh our graduates. Sometimes getting a 17 and 18 year old to apply for some of these scholarships is is not that easy, but we tried. And we also post it on our website, which I'm going to show you in a minute, so that parents can access that list as well and push from that side to get the the scholarship applications. So these are just some uh some screenshots. These this is the the surveys and bio page glasses on. Um and so you'll see a lot of the different surveys
091in there that I had already mentioned. The sophomore survey, the ninth grade survey. Uh those are really for students or for counselors to get to know students. So those are the in-house surveys. Those are not available to teachers or anything through Navvian just between the counselor and the student. And so we'll ask about goals. will ask about uh likes and dislikes, coursework that they're interested in. Um, as they get into the junior and senior year, you see the senior autobiography, the junior survey. Those are geared more towards college for us to get information uh from them about what some of their interests are in college. There's a teacher rec survey. Um, teachers who get uh a request and they get a request through Naviance, they would have access to that teacher rec survey as well.
092So that gives them background, lets them do a quality job on teacher recommendations. Um I think that's all I want. Oh, and there is um I should mention there is a uh senior exit survey and a graduation survey. Those are used at the end of the process. The graduation survey tells us uh what schools the student got into. They get a list of all their schools they've applied to. They tell us acceptances, uh deferrals, denials. So this way we can use the stats. I'm going to show you how we do that in a second. And then we have a um a senior exit survey, which is basically some feedback for us as a guidance department. We get information from students about what worked for them, um what didn't work, what they'd like to see more
093of from the guidance office. And these this is just the self-discovery. Uh again, this is mostly just all the stuff I kind of told you about. Z um the assessments uh the interest inventories, the career assessments, the profiler uh that students will work on. At the end, we can kind of it culminates in a career readiness report that we can print out and see how that leads a student um eventually some of them, not all of them to their major that they might be choosing based on uh some of their interests and likes and dislikes and maybe some of the careers that popped up along the way uh on their surveys. This is just a checklist that we use with students. is just in Naviance for them in case it's all the stuff I'm kind
094of mentioning to you uh about how the steps that they take to be prepared to apply uh for colleges and ready to go uh come the fall of their senior year. This is just sort of a conglomeration of testing information from from Navian. And so AP testing, uh, we've actually had some ninth grade students take computer science, so maybe I should update that to 9th through 12th, but mostly 10th through 12th for our AP testing, PSATs 10th and 11th. And then SATs uh, between 11th and 12th. There are still many schools test option, but the SAT is coming back or the standardized test is coming back into the college admissions process. We encourage all students to test and then we can determine whether or not to use those scores based on where they're applying or
095how well they did. Uh but everybody has an individual choice uh better to have a test or two tests uh and results to to make your decision uh afterwards. Okay. And we can encourage them as the methodized test prep um in the bottom left corner. We encourage them to do some sort of test prep. Also, our local libraries uh offer some test prep uh as well. So we usually uh promote those programs um as well. This is the scatteragramgram. This is why we ask students for their data. So all students can access this information on their Naviance account by by off by putting in colleges that they're interested in. And if you could see that little uh blue uh person in the circle up there, that's this current student who had a 93 plus average
096and probably somewhere in the 1300 SAT range. And all those green check marks are students who have statistics who got them into Bingmpington. All the red X's are students who did not get into Bingmpington. So by using this students have access to the data that a guidance counselor would understand that with a 1300 and a 93 you're pretty good shot at getting into Bingmpington. Okay. All depends on the program. Business is is quite competitive there. Engineering as well but still you have access to information. you don't have to rely on the counselor saying, "Oh, this is a target. This is a safety or this is a reach school. You have hard data in front of you." So, we try and get students to uh access this data. And I know that they do. They're actually
097sometimes you have to tell them it's not just about the numbers. There are other things that go into the application process. They can do a bunch of research in Naviance, okay, for every school that they're putting into uh into their list. uh they can get uh information on uh what types of uh academics they offer, major, student life, the admissions costs, average net price, graduation rates, uh and then importantly too an overlap page where they can see if I'm interested in BEu, um what other schools did students from Matatuck apply to who also applied to BEu since I'm interested in maybe applying there. And it helps build the list. Once they build the list, they have this tool where they can see exactly how they're going to apply. Common application is the most common or
098the most prevalent way to apply. Um, they can see what the counselor kind of uh indicates as far as reach possible or likely um schools or reach target and safety schools. They can see deadlines, early action or early decision deadlines and understand what their timeline may be. And then these are just um some stats from the last seven years. We subscribed to something called the national student clearing house. So a few years ago, maybe a decade ago, um the government required colleges to issue students a unique ID number and in order to get federal funding, they had to track these students and then we can subscribe to this program to tell us about our graduates, who's finishing college, what types of colleges are going to. Now, it's not perfect. There is some sort of uh
099sometimes some students missing here. So this chart or this graph is basically a um two-year verse four-year. What percentage of our students are attending two-year and four-year schools? Um and typically, and if you see the total number up there, 78%. I will tell you in the last two and a half decades here, we have run around 85 to 90% of our students have gone on to some two or fouryear schools. Recently, it's no question that based on our demographics that some of those numbers have come down. Now, our numbers last year were probably about 85%. There's also something called summer melt where students tell us they're going to college and by the time September rolls around, they might not go, right? Life happens in terms of uh once high school is over, I try and
100tell students. But we typically run around these numbers. uh we're about uh 60 to 65% 68% of our students attend four-year schools. Somewhere between 15 and 25% attend two-year schools. Mostly the two-year schools tend to be Suffach Community College. I didn't mention we do an on-site admissions day with Suffach Community where they meet with all of our students interested in Suffach in going to Suffach and they do an acceptance on that day. >> Um this is just public versus private. Uh I we're not in the business of telling students uh where to go. Uh many conversations we let students sort of dictate that. Um but I will tell you that every one of the high school counselors does caution students about taking on debt. Uh especially at the undergraduate level. Um so you see that
101you know we have a percentage a higher percentage of students who attend public universities. Sunnis have now made applications free in the last few years. So students can apply up to five uh Sunnis for free saving students you know in the range of $250 to $300. So we do get a number of students applying to some of the Sunnis uh and even this includes some of the public institutions out of state publiclix and we've had a good run of that lately. A lot of our students are looking at some of the large uh southern state universities the Georgia the Alabama uh of the world South Carolina. And then this is an important stat too and I try and kind of um impart this to our students as well. It's not about you know going the
102first year, it's about staying there. Um and so besides these sort of the two-year college COVID years 1920 21 we have a pretty good persistence rate meaning you know about 85 90% um even the four-year colleges we were running like 99 and 98% of our kids attending or going back for for a second year. Um so this is the type of data we try and utilize from this program uh to continuously improve upon what we do. Uh but we have a pretty encompassing college prep program again for every eight and a half nine students out of 10 who are going to utilize it. Um and the other piece of our uh of our program is communication. So even though we have parent square, we have Navian um we have a Google classroom pages, all of
103the stuff gets posted. Sometimes I complain that I'm putting stuff in four different places, but we continue to put uh information on our guidance website. Um, you know, from just using everything, every document that we send out, we include on the latest guidance, news, and information. Uh, all of our college stuff is on here, the MHS profile, which goes out with every SAT and ACT prep. Uh, our scheduling presentations, which will come up, uh, very quickly in January, scheduling for uh, 26 27. I mentioned the scholarship page uh already so parents can access it. The college credit programs I mentioned to get information on those and how you get your credit and your transcripts from the different colleges and then our guidance plan access to our Google pages as well. And then specifically this is
104our college and career planning page. Again all of the information college board SAT ACT fair test um which is the test a list of optional colleges, uh, financial aid information from Hesk and FAFSA, the PSATs, the National Merit Common App, um, just a host of links, and then all of our documents that we create, course guide for scheduling, our collegebound, which we'll create for our uh, upcoming juniors. But this is just our presentation. I don't know if it's going to load. Yeah, just uh, for our students on the application process itself. So this is what we go through with each of them on some of those two days talking about what colleges are looking for, what are you looking for in a college, typical application and so on. So uh pretty extensive program. It's worked
105well uh for a long time here. Um I'm proud of what we've built especially in the Navvian program and how we utilize it. Um that's about it unless you got any questions. >> I do. >> Sure. >> You know I always do. Um, do you know if students like they go to one school in freshman year and they change? >> Do you have that access also? >> I do. Yeah. And so we can track it. The the the clearing house report doesn't give it to you, but in Navvian I can go student by student and we see each semester that they complete. So I can see if somebody graduates from SUFFK and then goes to another college. I can see if somebody switches. I can see if somebody takes a summer class at a different
106college. But the clearing house doesn't give us the aggregate of all that. We put individually I can go and see and I can see when they get their degree too. >> And my second question has to do with enrollment. Has your scheduling job and I know that's a job. Has that become more difficult since enrollment is >> in a sense? Yeah. Because there's less, you know, less maneuverability. When you have less sections to offer, it's not as you would think it would be maybe easier, but it actually gets harder. And we do a lot of if we looked at all of these AP classes that we're offering, the 15 or so AP classes that we're offering, plus all of the unique special education opportunities that we try and offer, plus the ENL services, plus we're
107still keeping a lot of electives in here, right? We have a lot of what we call singletons, right? So, it it's and so sometimes we get some people who, you know, are kind of they we focus on the academics first. we on core classes and APs then electives but we have to make sure the support periods are in there as well but uh >> we're getting good at it. We're coming up on the end but we're getting good at it. >> So thank you Brian. >> Yeah Brian >> have anything similar for trade schools >> where kids may not want to go to college per se but >> could could do well in trades. >> Yep, we we do. Um I will be that seems to be the future right now or at least the
108the current sort of feeling is that we're going to start kind of moving that way where students are interested. I'm not sure. Right. I I I >> we've encouraged it. I've never been pressured here ever through multiple principles to get students into college A, B, C, or D that look good on the back of the windows. So I'm pretty sort of um Main Street, I think Jim used to call me to reference him again. And I think what's best for the student, if it is a trade school, we work with them. Now, are there a lot of trade schools? I mean, we've sent kids to UTI. Um um he became a NASCAR mechanic, if you remember Danny Lynch. That's true. Right. So, um so we've done it and we've sent students to electrical training schools.
109Most of the times those students are have sort of stopped at Boseies along the way, right? They've taken some uh some Boseies instruction and they work with them as well. Um so we do work with those students. I would say that the majority of our two kids are mostly Suffach kids but um here and there there are some trade school uh students and I would love to know more about having apprenticeships out here. I think that's got to be the future is trying to get some of the local organizations to come and recruit some of our students. I know Ryan Hillsburg has asked me for for students interested in plumbing all the time but um so it's it's here and there. Yeah, >> that's what I was going to ask as well is uh the
110pathways because with the carpentry program and potentially you know other programs that we're looking at when Lorraine and I went to the Boseies, it was it was very interesting. So, but that of course is going to impact your workload because that's totally different than what we're looking at for collegebased. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it is different, but it's not it's still sort of just helping students get to their next station. And so, whether that's a two-year, four-year trade school, um, we kind of work with them on all of that. So, the opportunities are different. Obviously, I'm probably a little bit more well-versed in in four-year and and and two-year college type stuff, but again, if we had access to some more sort of um some people who can kind of give some guidance
111and and get them into apprenticeships and uh and union apprenticeships, that would be uh that would be helpful. >> That's awesome. >> Thank you, Brad. >> My pleasure. Thank you, everybody. Have a good night. >> Safe home. >> Okay, we're up to the board of ed committee reports. curriculum, technology and health. Karen, >> okay, so our committee met and um the first update we had was on the educ. So work is continuing on loading all of the new information on the software. Student pictures are now accessible on that site. We then discussed the midterm exams and added an additional testing day to the schedule as a result as of an increase in the number of regions exams being given. They then talked about the physics regions. So they're making a shift to not offer regions
112in physics because we have the AP physics class offered. So in-class finals will be given. The 2026 2029 New York State instructional technology plan. So this is the district technology plan needs to be submitted to the state every 3 to five years. It includes strategic planning with goals and budgeting aligned with those goals. The plan is reviewed by Boseies before it is submitted to the state. And then the last thing we talked about were the current desktop computers. The classroom desktop computers are from 2015. Anyone who has a computer knows this problem. They're at the end of their life. So the district received a grant that's going to save $4,000 in this year's budget to purchase approximately 200 devices ahead of the anticipated vendor equipment changes and price increases. >> Okay. Thank you, Lauren. >>
113Um, so the audit and finance committee met um we have no confirming purchase orders in terms of claims reports. Um, the district by law um needed to start a Roth 403b program. So that has been approved and added to our system um to help with uh people who are further over towards the end of their career. Uh in terms of the project labor agreements, uh the state is attempting to pass a law that would require uh capital improvements over $1 million um to utilize um union workers statewide. So they're working um on figuring out uh that new aspect. And in terms of the Suffach County Board of Elections, they are pulling back on the services that they offer um school districts. So for this year they have we have figured out how to um cover
114ourselves for the year and next year there might be some extra costs incurred there. >> Okay. Thank you. Um negotiation personnel is me. Uh we had one resignation on the agenda from a special education teacher. We have numerous spring coaching positions and we will be meeting with the administrators um for negotiations tomorrow um to review proposals and meeting schedules. Okay. Donations. I need a a motion to accept the donations. >> You make a motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> Um I always read these. Uh we we got a donation of $11823 from Miss Jill Learner of Pampered Chef to support the class of 2030 for the school year. We got a donation of classroom materials as per the attached list which is not here valued at $1,457.86 from the Matuck Kachchug PTA
115for use at Kutchug East Elementary. And we got a donation for $1,600 from the ladies auxiliary of the Kutchardog fire department to support the Mat Kachchard UFSD food pantry. Um discussion. >> Thank you. >> Um all in favor? >> Okay. Personal I need a motion for personal items, resignations, terminations, leave of absence, and abolitions. >> Make a motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> Any any discussion? All in favor? >> Yep. Um, I need a motion for personnel items, appointments, tenurs, salary changes. >> Make a motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I need a motion for all the resolutions. >> I make a motion. >> A second. >> Wait a second. I didn't finish. >> I need resolutions A through F. Now I need
116a motion. >> I make a motion. >> And now we need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Okay. Got some discussion. Okay. Now we're up to audience communication. Tanya. >> I know I've asked for it before. Hi Tanya from Kutchuk. I know I've asked it for it before, but can we please send out the directions in regards to how you drop your children off snow day on Monday. Um, great. I was happy about the late start, but parents, the guy didn't put the cones down at the road, and parents were turning up like it was some kind of new day. So, can you just remind people that you're not supposed to do that? It's the same no matter what time you're dropping your children off. Uh because I guess maybe new people,
117I don't know, dropping off because of whatever. But it's dangerous. You know, kids are crossing out and now a car is coming up and you're like, "What?" You know, whatever. They don't know to look cuz they're children. Anyway, with that being said, that they're children in this building. When new policies and things that involve our children are being instituted, it would be great if an email or something was sent out to the parents to say, "Hey, we're changing this policy." or hey, we're doing this now because sometimes it affects kids that you might not know about specifically and then it becomes an issue. And the worst thing in the world you want is to pick up your child on a Friday and have them break down in the car and not be happy with this
118place. We want them to be happy when they're here. So if policies or things change, which that's part of life, uh it would be great if you know, hey, we just changed this. That would be really cool. so that parents could know and say, "Hey, well, it changed cuz why?" Because they look to us for the answers. And if we don't know it, I'm going to find you guys and ask you guys the answers because I don't know everything. And together, we're raising a bunch of great humans and they deserve the respect to know why things are changing. So, those are my two things. Happy holidays to everyone. You can go home now. >> Happy holidays to you, too. I need a motion to adjurnn. >> No, >> I need a second. >> Second. >>
119We're all in favor. >> Thank you. And and happy holidays to everybody. Peace.