001liberty and justice for all I need a motion to approve the minutes of the August 25th meeting first second discussion all in favor all right post okay except the claims report financial and treasures report you need a motion I make a motion second all in favor aye aye I forgot the discussion okay audience and Communications anybody want to speak on anything that's on the agenda no okay thank you okay superintendent's report okay um so Mrs Brennan and Mr Smith are going to give report on on the opening of their buildings so they get all the fun stuff tonight they'll give a presentation to the board on how the the start of the year is going uh some other items we just want to update the board on uh myself and Mr galagi and Tom Kelly
002met with John Grillo our district architect this morning um looking at two different things one we wanted to review and go over the progress on the stem wing and where we are in that process and review some different things and then we were also looking at the main entrance of the high school um uh again we were looking at the main entrance of the high school we were looking to enhance um Security in in that area as far as putting Security in an area that can see out the front doors of the building to see what's coming but then also still be in tune with what's going on in the hallways um and to be the front line and so we looked at some different options uh he's going to get back to me with
003some height prices and we'll look at how we may proceed with that as far as the stem Wing the planning is is the time is on the correct timeline um you know we expressed our concerns making sure that everything falls in line uh he said that we should be ready to go late May early June he's very confident in that um with the submissions to the state and then uh getting the contractors on board we are meeting next week with the teachers and some vendors to discuss furniture and equipment for that space as well so that stuff can get ordered all of that stuff is backed up uh and could take long to get those items in so we want to get in front of that sooner rather than later there's been some concerns at
004the Laurel School with the pre-k program in regards to parking drop off and pick up they have a bunch of additional employees this year it was a struggle we had last year we we addressed it but with the additional staff providers that they have on board now it's providing a challenge again and and when you go there in the morning and you look at it it's certainly not a situation I'm comfortable with as far as the volume of traffic the lack of organization and then the to pull into that lot you know when you know the front of that building folks coming in from the East side again they're at a high rate of speed there on 25A and when they're pulling in again not wanting to get rearended they're coming into that parking lot
005at a high rate of speed it also has a very wide entrance to it which allows for that so some of the different solutions we are looking at is change the direction and the flow of traffic in the front of that building it's it's a one-way going from east to west we may want to reverse that I think it'll naturally slow down the rate of speed in which cars are entering the parking lot we're all also possibly looking to utilize property off of Aldrich Lane because it kind of elbows in and potentially using some of that space on Aldrich Lane for staff parking or a drop-off area uh and then also potentially staggering start times to to break up the flow so those are all different things we're looking at the next steps for us
006as a district is I'll be reaching out to Dan Goodwin the highway supervisor for South hole town and I want to bring him on board uh in the in the conversation as well um so we are looking at uh you know rectifying that uh enl parent night was at Cutchogue East last night um very very well attended it's last night was probably the most well not probably was the most well attended enl parent night that we had um so the enl teaches they it was it was an open house for the families of our English language Learners this event allowed the parents and Guardians to receive specific information about the requirements of New York State our programming and then the different supports that are available for our families in the district um so all of
007our open houses at cut your geese this month we provided parents with iPad utilizing the Microsoft translator app I got to see this in action I haven't to see now he's pretty sharp I was told um so the parents were able to read and hear the presentation as it's being given it immediately translates for those parents uh this also allowed the parents to communicate back with staff effortlessly and also with one another so it was used for Spanish Mandarin and Ukrainian last night so they were able to do you know address the needs of all three of those different languages within one presentation um in addition our enl teachers and bilingual staff our neighborhood liaison Rafael Maurice was there again to inform the families of our food pantry and then any of our other in-district
008Outreach we were also joined by Our Community Partners the magic Laurel Library the Cutchogue library and cast and we want to thank them for partnering up with us and and helping with that Outreach to these families uh late last week uh I had this stage one of our security and safety audit with the Suffolk County Sheriff's department so I met with two deputies from the sheriff's department as well as two officers from South old police department and we spent the morning touring all of our facilities uh here at kachog um I cut you at East and then here at the Junior Senior High School um it was it was more in depth than than I was expecting um we really took our time it was about four hours and we walked every aspect of our
009buildings and my vision for it was it was going to be just a focus on school security and it really it dealt with safety and different aspects if there were fuse boxes that didn't have a lock on it um so we really went up and down they gave us a nice list of things to work on they were very impressed with the infrastructure that we have in place and our policies and procedures um but again as we walked around some of our policies and procedures weren't being followed so the things you you put in place are you know was only as good as you're acting them out so that was step one at the building level we've made some corrections um addressing some of the different things that they highlighted for us and in the
010next week or so they will be showing up on campus unannounced and plain clothes and they will be trying to do some penetration testing they'll also be coming at night and they'll be looking at our lighting um and and again our evening security as well and and how well our facilities are protected so that's the next stage and then we'll be meeting with them and uh you know looking at their recommendations as well yeah uh speaking of Suffolk County they did have a ransomware attack uh where a lot of their systems are down one of the systems that are down is uh when a fire alarm goes off in a building how it automatically alerts Suffolk County and they alert our local fire departments that system is down so uh last week last weekend and
011last week we had people on firewatch in each of our buildings God forbid there's a fire in one of our buildings we would have to call 9-1-1 so we had uh some of our grounds people in a custodial staff in the buildings 24 7. uh you know just in case they did that we were able to work with Johnson's controls and they have now hardwired us back into the system because their hardwired system is still working it was their Wi-Fi system uh that was not working so we've made that move with Johnson Controls it was a minimal cost it was under a thousand dollars to hook up each building and once Suffolk County gets straightened out we now have that as a backup so that is money well spent on Saturday I went up to
012Saratoga and participated in the New York State School superintendence Conference that went from Sunday through Tuesday it was an interesting experience and it was really great to uh to work with and communicate with superintendents from all over New York State a lot of us you know facing the same challenges um you know the the theme of it was Together We rise and it was kind of you know coming about talking about coming out of covid addressing the social emotional needs of our students the hiring the challenges that all school districts are having with hiring individuals for different positions um so the keynote was Dana Mortensen of world Savvy her presentation was on education in a changing World diversity and globalism kind of preparing our students for those different aspects and our changing communities some we're
013experiencing here on Long Island but also throughout the state I was unable to go to some different trains throughout the two days there was a menu of different things to go to so I spent time with other early career superintendents with round table problem solving discussions where we would share some of the challenges again that was people in their second and third year of the superintendency I went to another session out with the old and in with the new um trying to promote from within um you know how do again some of the districts and we're all Upstate New York are having a harder time finding teachers than than we are here you know we're struggling in other areas but the emphasis was on encouraging certain teachers to get multiple certifications um you know they
014have an enrollment crisis Upstate just like we do here on Long Island um and it was interesting because a lot of things they were recommending are things that I think we've done well here as a district encouraging teachers if they're the low man in the department and you know they're the first to get access maybe getting a different certification in an area that we know has grown enl has been one of them special ed has been one of them you know so really trying to hold on to your staff we hire we spend a lot of resources and training our staff and we want to hold on to them we don't want to lose them so that was a big focus of that conversation and also administrative positions as well looking to do that um
015another session I went to was recruiting in the 21st century with a diversity equity and inclusion lens so this was a session a main focus of this session was on Administration and the lack of females on a lot of administrative teams and districts that they're very male habit um I felt good in looking at our administrative team here at Madison we're more females than males on our administrative team here uh but it was it was talking about you know different areas you know as our uh communities becoming more diverse the efforts we can make to to track for more diverse candidates which is a challenge all over the place but they did have good conversations about well the diverse children you have within your communities are you encouraging to go into education um was a
016big piece of that conversation um and then optimizing the future of rural schools um myself and the superintendent from Southold and the Montauk superintendent were the only Long Island superintendents in that session uh but you know it was again a lot of it had to do with um you know our our communities there's not a lot of children um you know the two presenters were in school districts near uh the Finger Lakes Region and both of those school districts had 1400 students and 1300 students several years ago they're now down to 700 and 800 students so it's a similar enrollment problem that we have but the causes of the enrollment problem were different you know they're in areas where industry is left and um so the jobs are not there to attract young families and
017then housing is also an issue they're not in an area where um you know older people are moving down to Florida or moving out of state and there's there's housing openings there's there's not a lot of housing openings and when there are they're being brought up by people that are investing in that Community for Airbnb and things like that um one of the presenters here was a professor at Cornell and you know he was saying you know the billions of dollars in New York state that we're spending on education to invest in our future you know in our children and in the state and really all those children were spending all this money on um they're not becoming an asset to New York state they're becoming an asset to Texas to Florida um to some
018different areas of the country where where these people are moving it's because they're going after the jobs and so you know he was pushing on school leaders to push on the politicians the change policy to attract the industry back into the state of New York create those jobs so um that you know their communities can continue to flush um they also there was a huge emphasis on Regional High Schools um you know valuing the local elementary schools but in the areas that are seeing such decreased enrollment to continue to be able to provide opportunities for our students that we really need to think differently and Regional High Schools is one of the ways you know that you can do it so it was interesting conversation it was great to be able to sit with other
019superintendents from around the state and just share whether it was informal conversation or informal conversation about some different things so I appreciate the district supporting me going up to that conference um and then I want to just give a quick ARP rescue plan uh funds update again as we've mentioned we are going to continue with the programs that we put in place last year into the summer with those funds that's our plan this year uh but we are open to other ideas whether it be from the board or the community so if there's anyone from the community that wants to give us some input or you know make some recommendations uh the email address for that is community muffsd.com so that's my quick update and I'm now going to turn it over to miss Brennan
020thank you so I'd like to thank the Board of Education and Mr petrotti for the opportunity tonight to share with you the beginning of our school year at Cutchogue East we welcomed back our returning students as well as our new kindergartners and our now full day upk students students fell right back into the groove of things and it's been really exciting to see how much they've grown over the summer uh they've been enjoying up until today the really nice weather that we've been having this September um sometimes it's a little warm in the classrooms but they've been enjoying the the weather outside um at recess and any Outdoor Learning opportunities our walking path is in so that's been a great addition to catchogue East our bus dismissal this year was very smooth I think within
021the first week of school we were a minute earlier than last year's dismissed so when we were rolling our buses so I was very happy to see that we've had our bus drills for the fall and I'd also like to mention that Mr Jose Torres had arranged for us to have our Spanish-speaking students our newcomers really who don't understand the English you know they needed some support when they were doing the English bus drills so he did a bus drill in Spanish for them on a separate day which was really great to see the kids were very happy excited to have someone that could explain to them about bus safety so that was really important to ensure everyone's safety so I just wanted to send my appreciation to him for that we've had three of
022our open house events so far K2 and 3-4 as well as as Mr patretty spoke about our enl night last night we were excited to have everyone back in person again this year but not we didn't have to limit families so we were able to see more families and um at our open house events we were also able to have tables set up for our PTA where they were able to share some of the things that they're doing with for fundraising in the school and to support our students the cut dog new Suffolk library in the matatech lab Laurel library was also present as well as Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts at each of our open houses um I'd also like to thank Kelly uraro and Lisa hinch and the technology department for setting up
023the Microsoft translator for our families each open house was greatly enhanced because as we spoke families who speak English who speak Spanish Ukraine and Mandarin were able to hear exactly what we were saying um in their home language through the use of an iPad and earbuds our translators were also on hand at night each night facilitating the use of the iPads and ensuring that families were set up and able to use the Microsoft translator app it was really a game changer for everyone last night is Mr petretti mentioned we hosted our enl night we had guests from cast catchogue new Suffolk library and maditech Laurel library and I wanted to extend my appreciation to Mrs Finnegan and the enl department Amanda McHugh Kayla flowers Teresa McNaughton James Ridgely Mary Grace benelich and Rafael Morales for
024their Outreach efforts we had about 50 people or 30 families in attendance last night there was Smiles all around and a lot of appreciation a lot of the children were there with them and I think we even had some children some students from The High School Junior High School president as well um so um the presentation from our staff was very impressive um and was very appreciated as I said Cass provided a presentation that was also informative and helpful to so many of our families I want to express my gratitude to these Community organizations cast in both public libraries for coming to our events and supporting so many of our families sharing more about our students and staff at the beginning of the year you'll notice I think pictures tell a story a little bit
025better than words so I'll share a video with you and and you'll notice in the video some of our new flexible seating and which were options for our meeting areas in our classrooms and you'll also notice our third grade new flexible seating desks which I know I can speak on behalf of our students and teachers that they're really appreciative of the support that we had from the board of education for being able to put that those new desks in place for third grade so without further ado that you watch the pictures foreign good evening everyone there is a lot of positive energy this month with the return to school maybe it's returning without a mask on maybe it's the warm weather that recharges everyone I think Marco Calise summed it up when he welcomed back
026the District staff on the first conference day Marco said the past few years have been difficult but we overcame the challenges and are looking forward to a great year I agree you definitely can feel that you can sense that when you walk the building especially after school you can see we are operating at full speed extra help clubs Athletics the junior high play the building is full of activity we big we began the month with some fantastic news College Board informed us that 42 MHS students received AP scholar designations these designations are based on their AP exams completed last spring of the 42 students 14 received the designation of AP scholar with honors and 12 received the designation of AP scholar with distinction we want to say congratulations to the students the families and the
027teachers for achieving this honor much like East we hosted our back to school night last Thursday evening if you happen to drive by last Thursday evening you saw a lot of cars the family turnout was tremendous it really did return to the pre-covered levels in keeping with tradition we also had our club fair in the cafeteria during the back to school night open house was early this year so not all clubs have had meetings yet and were completely organized and ready for that so to get a better advertisement of what we do we have video production students that are currently working on a video that highlights the various clubs I would expect that Marco police will be showing that video in one of his board updates in a future meeting and this is going to
028be a video that we can then use at orientations we can use it in class meetings and we can even show it when we have new registrants coming into the district and it really highlights some of the things that we're doing tonight I do have a brief video for you this video was created by Victoria whitsack and Annelise Durkin these are two of our TV production seniors and this video gives you a sense of the return to schools here um okay um those are the new lockers hello nice I'm super excited for coming it's always good to thank your community together and have a lot of great games I'm really excited to see what we've got us here and see that everybody hi I'm here [Music] a 10th grade classes so thank you Victoria and
029Annelise for for producing that video they worked a lot they put in a lot of work on that video to capture the return to school and we truly truly appreciate their effort September is Hispanic Heritage Month Rafael moraz in the cultural connections Club have been working to highlight Hispanic heritage on September 15th students read the announcements in Spanish and music was played in between periods Raphael has been working with Christine zaweski to place messages on the giant TV screen in the lobby and cultural connections arranged for authentic Guatemalan food to be brought in and shared with students and staff we also have some upcoming events that we'd like to mention in early October our seventh graders will have their traditional trip to camp camp quinnipet out on Shelter Island Megan Collins along with Corey Dolson
030have also organized an eighth grade trip that's to Adventure Park that's the zip lining and rope climbing course this is something that Ms Collins started a few years ago and we'd like to continue that tradition that will also take place in early October Ms neidiger has invited Sheriff Toulon to speak it to speak here with MHS students that's going to be on November 2nd Sheriff Toulon was the keynote speaker at the valkatorian luncheon in may he gives a very powerful inspirational message to the students and we are looking forward to having him here Brian Lynch and the guidance Department have organized a college fair for MHS students this will take place a week from today during the morning representatives from more than 70 colleges will be here to meet with our students we want to
031thank Mr Lynch for all the work required to make this happen and finally next week is also the Tucker bowl and homecoming our homecoming games will be contested Friday evening under the lights the girls soccer team will play Southampton starting at 4 30 in the boys soccer team will follow with their game against Southall it is hard to believe we are only back 15 days a lot of things have happened in a short amount of time and it's it's been fantastic thank you thank you thank you okay um the district-wide school safety plan we have a second reading on that and we'll have a final reading um Second and final reading of the two the 2022-23 district-wide school safety plan um and now I need the Board of Education committee reports Mr Haas okay audit
032and finance met last week first thing we did was we went over some of the Reserve balance movements with Charlie as he's getting himself familiar with all of our records status of the external audit is currently finishing up the audit needs to be filed with the state by October 1st we might miss that date by a little bit there were a couple of issues that create a snag for the external Auditors but we're working through those and we should be getting a filed shortly internal audit is on schedule for the middle of October there's a meeting scheduled to go over with the internal Auditors to figure out what we're going to be looking at and in all likelihood it's going to be payroll they're also going to be looking at some of the responsibilities job
033responsibilities that go along with that uh the Lipa pilot payments that we received last year from South hole um that was the majority of the payments that we were supposed to receive but there is a smaller amount that we're supposed to receive from Riverhead Riverhead town is having some issues with LIPA and um our legal counsel has advised us to stay out of that disagreement and we're waiting for Riverhead to resolve it so that we can receive the the other payment uh ERS for 23.24 the rate is increasing from 11.6 percent to 13.1 percent um a lot of that is because of what's going on with um the markets um and that's something that the state establishes for us yeah and um so we have no input with respect to that but that's what we
034need to work with uh for next year that's it okay building safety and grounds Mr Cooper's not here mustache do you want to read those uh yes okay oh no I don't I don't have one thank you thank you Mr Huff all right buildings and grounds uh met last week also we discussed the status of the roof restoration the project came in under budget which is excellent which allows us to have some excess funds to continue with some of the additional roof work that needs to be done that's positive in the sense that that's that much less we have to do as we move into next year's capital projects uh the high school track the repair has been done um sprayed has been no it's supposed to be lined the end of October it's sprayed
035and restored and then yeah in a couple weeks they're going to put paint the new line there's no new lines this is a really nice job with it the repairs came out really well if you saw what was happening before the work was done you can see a mass Improvement which is excellent um Mr petratty already responded on the stem Wing um Jim wall padding um was that installed yet I know well not yet in the next couple weeks there's a couple of weeks okay um for uh you explained the firewatch uh the Laurel playground for just kids um just kids rent our place over at Laurel um they are great tenants they've done a lot over there and sometimes they're a little over zealous and uh they put in a a playground which is
036excellent but we are working with them to make sure that proper procedures are followed next time and keep us in the loop um so those conversations are continuing to happen tennis courts we did some repairs um the heavy rains a few weeks ago caused some wide cracks to appear those have been taken care of and look good so far we'll see you tomorrow yes we'll see you tomorrow with these heavy rains um the other thing I want to add is we did discuss um you know at every meeting we discussed The Five-Year Plan and make sure that things are staying on target making sure that our plans are and such where we don't miss any deadlines that we need to do but also to discuss um which actually also fell into what in finance what
037items we might be able to include in budget so as the budget process starts in a few months buildings and grounds will be in close contact with that process to make sure that all of our five-year plans stay the course so that's my report thank you cultural awareness respect and empathy the care committee Karen yes we're scheduled our first meeting for November 9th okay thank you curriculum technology and health that's me so on the high school the ACT will no longer be given here as there is um lack of participation and colleges are not using the act as often as they used to when Mr Smith talked about the AP Scholars one of the things that we notice is our AP Capstone students had great results we will have a they'll be a parent meeting
038for this year's students that are taking that class um in the near future if it hasn't already happened it happened at back to school okay it happened at back to school night and do we have good enrollment in that class again yes it's down a little bit from what it was last year but it's still above what we had originally anticipated it would be and any reason for the slight um lowering of partly there's an enrollment decrease in the classes okay um the current class I think is the last big class on its way out so okay you have lower numbers there's a new um food pantry club with Rafael Morales we get a lot of requests from November on but may and November not too many um everything's donations and snack bags are still
039being provided to all the classes in catchogue East we um we have the art the response to intervention is being scheduled RTI is determined by multiple measures such as star assessments teacher anecdotes and Francis and panel most students identified receive 8 to 12 weeks of intervention unless otherwise needed they were going to be parent workshops um that are being planned for October 11th teachers are being secured for each grade level with writer's workshop being this year's focus last year it was math the workshops will help parents to support their children at home and the South Hill Police Department offices will also present info on their role and cyber bullying district-wide the next superintendent's day will focus on cses and you know the importance of them how they run what we need to do when we're
040there which are meetings and by the way CSE stands for commit Committee of special education so enl scheduling is in progress our EML population has increased and now includes Mandarin and Ukrainian um District registration used to be centralized now their registration is both in the high school and catchogue East um Suffolk County like Mr Petrelli said had a ransomware attack so we have emergency Personnel on it on on at night um and I think oh upk update um the homeless and migrant update counts upk 30 students enrolled in the full day program there is room for 33 and a half and a few more families have applied migrant students we have 25 in the district and there are 33 homeless students enrolled and that's Iraq Sean the ransomware attack at Suffolk County it affected our
041fire you know awareness anything else that we need to deal with that we're dealing with manually or any other way no not not as as far as uh Summit County there's well that's not true I've learned today we're trying to pull off a list we're trying to hire traditional security guards and so we're trying to put the list from some mechanic they can't even provide us with the list so nobody in summer County right now can hire any civil servants we can hire or we we can't get the list from civil service and that's the only way we can hire yeah and what are they doing about they have to they have to rectify that um very soon yeah um but they're not even able to from what I understand they're not even able to
042print paychecks for their employees right now they got did pretty bad okay thank you um I just had a couple questions about curriculum have we received the state scores from last year we have can we get an update right and we just got notification today they're embargoed when we get them um so we just got uh information that uh you know we can now release that information so we'll be releasing it to parents and then um in a couple months uh Mrs Brennan will be doing a presentation on the results okay thank you anybody out okay negotiations and personnel um let's see we received a letter of retirement intent from Miss Mahoney for next September we have an additional lunch monitor being approved this evening on the agenda due to Staffing there were postings for
043a 0.6 enl and substitute teachers certified teacher or those in a certification program which will help us maybe get some more um substitutes which we're always looking for there's going to be a posting for a security guard too to obtain candidates and the goal is to make our guards security too provisionally and now I need policy and legislative Outreach okay the policy and legislative committee did not meet this okay um I need a motion to accept donation of one thousand dollars from the Tanga kids brand program to support the purchase of books at ketchug East Elementary and if I'm not mistaken was screened responsible for getting my friends so thank you Mrs Green and thank you thank you I make a motion I need a second thank you all in favor sorry I'm having trouble
044moving up the the ranks here okay Personnel items a through bear with me I have to add something again a through you I need a motion to accept Personnel items a through you promotion a second any discussion okay all in favor all right okay opposed letter V be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby appoints Jennifer Solomon to a probationary position of assistant principal of the kachak East Elementary School at the initial base salary of 125 000 provided the standards of the district have been met the tenure date for this position will be October 12 2026. I need a motion I make a motion I need a second I'll second any discussion all in favor aye opposed okay now I need a motion to accept letter w I make a motion second any discussion
045all in favor okay um resolution items a through I I need emotion I make a motion I need a second a second discussion through I I do um we have 24 Chromebooks here if there's nobody that could use them are they they're beyond repair at this point in time okay and the computers as well there's no families that could use them all in favor all right okay now we're up to audience communication anything from the community anybody who wants to speak that is not on the agenda May came up please state your name and tell us why you're visiting today hello folks how are you my name is Denise guys from Attica um so let me ask you why do you guys have an executive session like before every meeting like it seems to some
046of us that you have like the meeting before the meeting to discuss things instead of at the meeting there are some things an executive session that were not permitted to discuss publicly for example an illegal any Personnel issues things like that we're not allowed to speak about so we usually have them before song and so those are the only things generally those are the only things you discussed the meeting the rest of the things everything else is transparents everything else okay so what are the encouraging what what are the current enroll Ed numbers in high school do we know approximately so building the building number is 587. um the actual breakdown of the classes no but I mean like to the high school how many are in the whole High School and and what are
047so how many are in the elementary school um 450 and what what is the difference from last year to this year is there a great difference or I'm uh this building's down about 25. okay so I mean that's not I grew we graduated 109 in the incoming seventh grade was 76 I believe is the number interesting and what is the graduating class this year how many are in that it's slightly over a hundred interesting and what was last year left 109. okay yeah so the classes are just progressively getting small yes yes what's the what's the um kindergarten this year the kindergarten this year is at 48 as of today wow interesting so um how much um did the track repair cost um one Channel I want to make sure I get you the correct
048number because we're still paying that off correct a bond the bond for that yes yeah yeah okay so do just in general how many like I think they said and I don't remember how many years like for before the track needs like recoding and repair they told us when we put it in that it was going to be about 10 years right and how long did it wait 10 years it did it so it did last 10 years okay okay that's good what um so how many students which I thought was very interesting that you now have Spanish Mandarin in Ukraine how many students have increased it because I don't remember ever hearing Mandarin or Ukraine so that's new this year Well we did get some folks because of the conflict in Ukraine but it
049numbers I think it's one family right now yeah um and then there's one family uh that speaks and so how many more families then now speak Spanish those numbers are fluid almost day by day and just a bug we are it's where 30 something percent of our families are students are coming from and that's just increasing so that's just increasing yeah like from year to year that's just that's just been increasing do we encourage those families to learn to speak English and I I'm not I don't have a problem like with the with the computer so I think that's great but do we encourage those families to learn and speak English or are we do we just sort of cater to that and I don't mean to sound like a negative but do we try
050to bring those families in to learn to speak English or is that something that we just don't do we're not presently teaching any Families how to speak English we're concentrating not servicing the students that are with us and the students and so we hope the students are teaching you know like teaching their families and stuff at home I just find that huge that like I think over the years it went from trying to bring people in to sort of trying to when people come in we try to go to them instead of them coming you know and learning to speak English and stuff like that so I was just wondering if that's something we ever thought about just it all right I just didn't know if that was something that we could we could do
051so um and I would like to uh like to say too so we had our all class reunion against the again this year and we ended up raising over two thousand dollars for scholarships so we're very excited so instead of giving 750 000 scholarships like we have been we're going to be giving the next two years over a thousand dollars foreign give me a couple days notice and you know a couple more days notice and it would be an event I'd like to we love Michael but he's a little impetuous so you know what you know we're working on that but thank you very much some things never change anybody else want to come up uh you gotta wait Leroy um hi Tanya well um welcome back everybody uh great open house the vibe of
052the seventh grade families that I associate with they were ecstatic and so excited for their kids to be here um I like my kids video thank you you can see her in the reflection which was kind of cool um but she's behind the scenes kind of girl so that's great um question we a few of our lunch monitors rescinded I know we were looking for them over the summer did we do like an exit interview to find out like why like how can we keep lunch monitors I know the hours are like a weird hour for most people but I know it was a working mom they might be convenient for them a lot of our lunch monitors if you look at the agendas you'd see where they were received they were also appointed as
053teachers assistants so we're so Meredith stole all of them I know you stole Lauren and she's so ecstatic to be there and she's going to be great at her position so that's great um so how do we go about getting more lunch monitors then have you reached out to like the the South Old mother's club to maybe get the kids that the parents that have now have like little guys in the all-day upk which is a bonus or starting school and maybe those moms would want to do it I don't know because they're so new to the district I don't know if they know like how to get in on that um we've posted on our social media outlets in the local paper but that's I would say reach out to George Colombo and ask
054her if she would post on the south of my Host Club website as a former president that was one of the things we know as our kids aged out and got to school parents were looking for like a little part-time something and it would be fun to hang out with your kid so and that we know they like kids if they're in the softball modest Club all right thank you thank you good evening my name is Leroy heiliger I'm a 56th year resident of Mattituck and I have uh just two topics that I'd briefly like to discuss before the board the first topic as a student with the newly formed diversity committee here at the school I'd like to take this opportunity on behalf of the South Old Town in our buyers task force to
055thank principal David Smith for establishing the diversity committee here at matatuck high schools last year in May he started it and is now continuing on into the new year the theme they have is diversity being a veteran of 20 years in the military the word diversity to me is great because I've experienced it firsthand during my career the Random House dictionary defines diversity as the state of each and the the state or fact of being diverse different unlikeness variety multiformity a point of difference in times like these when the entire world is experiencing a great change in the Advent of electronic social media climate change the pandemic immigration reform political turmoil on and on we need a breath of fresh air to look within ourselves on how to reach the next generation of our children
056and grandchildren in these famous words of Rodney King why can't we all just get along I feel this is a great start the diversity committee program and reaching out to Manitowoc high school students and as and as a new member I want to contribute my life experiences and observations to a worthy cause such as this diversity committee in the words of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King in his letters from Birmingham Jail he wrote change does not come in on the wings of inevitability it only comes through constant struggle on this note I'd like to submit to the board two of our individuals students who went on to great things oh my goodness I got all these papers mixed up well the first one I think you all know of is Butch Lynch some of you
057may not have ever heard of William Butch Lynch he grew up here in Mattituck he was in my Sunday school class at Unity Baptist Church he went on he left here he went into the military on my part of my program with him he went into the Air Force and after he was in Vietnam did a tour there he came home went to Black University in Virginia on the GI Bill God bless his soul Bill uh after he graduated from the University he moved to Harlem and he started Civil Rights Movement there in Harlem and in New York City he worked on the political campaign for mayor Dinkins and Russ and also Russell Patterson he went on and established a law firm and now he was graduated right here in this school and some of
058you know him he went on to become deputy mayor in New York City he went on to have Nelson Mandela come to the U.N and speak all these accomplishments and when he died in 2013 the newspapers called him they call the rubble genius I'm sorry they called him the rubble genius because he didn't like to get all fancied up and dressed up he was a country boy and he loved Mattituck he loved Mattituck so much that at his funeral he refused before his funeral he refused to be buried at Arlington he said I want to come home to Mattituck matter took where he loved he's buried here in matatuck and the other person well I have bills goodness I have bills all of it about here in Bill the other person I'd like to like
059to call out is a recent graduate of 2011 matatuck high school graduate and you all should know him Javon Javon Booker and it was through this school through what he learned here both of these individuals became outstanding in their field now Javon Booker is on the on the American amputee Soccer Association he's getting ready to go play the world with the World Cup in a Believers in Norway the whole team this team is made up of paraplegics and veterans who lost their legs and their limbs but yet and still they have the integrity and they have the guts to go out there and I just like to let you know that through what you guys do here what you'll teach them is what keeps them going and I'm proud to be part of that even
060my own children and my grandchildren all of my wife's family they all went through this school and I'm proud of every one of them and my grandchildren too they went on and they they're we don't know where they're going to end up or whatever but it's through a program like that that you have introduced then I'm sure we could reach out to these children young the new generation you know I I watched I watched the PBS last night the three episodes of the Holocaust I went I I went through that Holocaust growing up no I mean 1930 to 1945 but I I knew about it because I lived in in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn I had Jewish friends I had Italian friends I had Irish friends we were all immigrants I'm an immigrant myself
061came in here from my parents brought me here for the West Indies Saint Kitts the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton just look at a ten dollar bill so we can achieve and these kids can achieve if you continue on with programs like he has introduced I thank you thank you thank you everyone and on behalf of the second I'm sorry the second part is being with me please the second part is that uh our annual Diana buys task force our annual uh Helen Prince Helen Wright Prince award now uh we usually have we've held it five times but due to the uh pandemic we had the last two years we haven't had it uh this year we're holding it and the nominee is Pauline Smith of the south south of Head Start program the manager of
062the matter took of being the south of Head Start program which is going to be awarded the day after the United Nations World Teachers Day and it's going to be held at 1850 main Bayview road in South hole from 5 to 6 pm and I hope some of you can be there do you know what the date is the date of the event what day uh it's on um October 6th the day after right the United Nations World Teachers Day thank you thank you Dave you were going to say something I on behalf of Leroy on behalf of the committee uh the students and and all the the teachers we are incredibly fortunate to have you and Mr Schultz working with us so thank you so much we really appreciate having you there he just
063said thank you heard that sorry um I need a motion to adjourn a second all in favor aye okay we're adjourned it