001we're good evening everybody Welcome to the August 3rd 2023 regular meeting of the enlarged City School District of Middletown we call that meeting to order at this time I'm going to ask uh first of all uh read uh read our disclaimer this agenda was prepared in advance of tonight's meeting the final agenda for tonight's meeting is subject to change at the time of the meeting any changes will be noted at the time they are made and again after the meeting on the public board minutes which are available on the district's website we call this meeting to order at this time we're going to ask um Mr Freddie Williams if he would lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance after that I'm asking everybody if they remain standing for a few moments of silence please I
002pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all things thank you president Williams the first moment of silence this evening is for Dr Edith Shapiro Edie Shapiro was recognized as an expert in the field of reading on both a local state and National level Dr Shapiro's home school was harder than at the time mechanic sound of course Dr Shapiro worked in the district for 25 years she began her career 1968 in addition to working with children Dr Shapiro also taught college and in-service courses and just to note her husband Leon was a guidance counselor at Middletown High School and interestingly enough one of Dr Shapiro's ideas is again coming into four was that parents
003should read to their children at a very very young age and keep reading with and to their children very dedicated I served on committees with Dr Shapiro just one nicest person you ever want to meet the second moment of silence this evening is first Samuel Quimby Samuel Lambert quinby again I work with Sam for many years and he was a star athlete graduated from Washington High School lettered in four Sports served his Nation as a member of the U.S Navy a very calm type of type of individual if I may read please Sam was well liked and respected friend to the afterlife and education Community throughout the County for his entire life Navy veteran graduated from Orange County Community College the University of Southern Connecticut he also taught at Orange County Community College as well
004as in the district he taught physical education in the district and the final moment of silence this evening not an employee of the district but a big supporter of Education Middletown School District Barbara Bedell work for 46 years for the Middletown Times Herald Record she always spotlighted a very positive events happening in the district for many many years additionally Barbara would um come over and she would teach a class in journalism answer questions about how it was working in a newspaper and also uh many many students learn various writing techniques from Barbara so all these people contributed in one way or the other to not only our educational Community but to the Middletown Community and to the country so please remember them in your thoughts and prayers thank you so much thank you Mr Perino
005I want I want to say this before we go on is even with these moments of silence is that many of us are Middletown icons are passing are passing away and and why death happens every day we never want to get used to it no we never want to get used to it but we do want to make sure that we honor all of those that paved the pathway for us to get to where we do so thank you Mr Perino for always um handling these moments of silence as we remember those that contributed um to where we are now know them know us so thank you um moving on mission of the enlarged City School District of Middletown Mr bison please thank you Pastor pest we strive to provide physically sound educational opportunities in
006a safe environment that continuously support our diverse student population we will enable all students to graduate to reach their full potential to become lifelong Learners and to be competitive productive members of society thank you Mr bison roll call this is Monterey this is Blumenau Carino yep Mr rat yeah Miss tobiason yeah Mr Freddie Williams Pastor Williams here Mr Mitchell Williams yeah thank you um moving on I need a motion to approve the agenda for tonight please a second on that moved and seconded Mrs uh Mrs blumenow seconded by Mr Freddie Williams uh any discussion all in favor all right opposed is so passes uh I need a motion for the approval of the reorganization meeting minutes July 6 2023 please second on that moved moved by uh Mr Mitchell Williams seconded by Mrs Blumenau any
007discussion all in favor opposed it so passes I need a motion for the approval of the regular meeting minutes from July 6 2023 please don't move I heard I heard Mr um uh Mr Estrada and second it by Mr Rhett seconded by Mr rat any discussion all in favor opposed so passes thank you now I need a motion for the approval of the special meetings minutes from July 13 2023. so moved moved by Mr Mitchell Williams seconded by Mrs blumenow uh any discussion all in favor opposed it passes thank you now uh I entertain a motion for the approval of our personnel only board Workshop meeting minutes from July 20th 2023. moved by Mr Rhett seconded by Mrs Blumenau any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes uh thank you uh now I entertain
008a motion for for yes thank you a motion for the approval of the special meetings minutes July 25th 2023. second on that moved by Mr Estrada seconded by Mrs Bloomer now any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes thank you moving on to our action items uh there are uh nothing nothing for the administrative Personnel memorandum tonight so we will move on to action item B I need a motion um please for the approval of personnel memorandum 3B numbers 1 through 17 instructional moved by moved by Mr Perino seconded by Mr Mitchell Williams uh any discussion and just a quick question for the superintendent how's um hiring I know in the past few years because of covet and everything we've had a lot of trouble just the whole country in regards to hiring house
009our hiring going so far this year for the new school year thank you for giving me an opportunity to share about that we've been um really busy hiring and are doing really well right on track there are still some of those positions that are just traditionally hard to fill their specialized area that we're still seeing challenges with some of those would be like um Spanish language Educators so it's not only us struggling with those but districts across the county and the state but we are pretty on track and I'm looking forward to another opportunity to approve Personnel later in the month thank you any other discussion seeing none all in favor aye opposed is so passes uh action item C approval of personnel memorandum 3C numbers one through ten non-instructional may have a motion please
010don't move second moved by Mr Estrada seconded by Mr Mitchell Williams any discussion all in favor all right opposed is so passes thank you moving on to action item D approval of financial memorandum 4D number one through six moved by Mr rat seconded by Mr Estrada any discussion all in favor opposed thank you it passes moving on to uh action item e approval I need a motion for the approval of special services memorandum two e numbers one and two so move second moved moved by Mr Perino I think it was and seconded by Mr Mitchell Williams um discussion all in favor opposed his soul passes need a motion for the approval action item F approval of change orders two F numbers one and two please so moved by Mr Perino seconded by Mrs blumenow any
011discussion yes sir Pastor Williams yeah the change orders pretty well straightforward so I'm on that committee drainage and Grading revisions to the Maple Hill playground removal and disposal of underground Concrete in the courtyard and marking the utility lines which is required actually by law the other change order concerns our newest uh most Innovative project the geothermal project at the twin and install an additional pressure gauge and sensor ports in the manifold of the geothermal piping so that's it this of course is I think we're probably uh the leader in this geothermal as far as educational facilities called one of the leaders I'm looking forward to it yeah absolutely and that's about it for the change orders thank you sir would it be possible for um the superintendent just to leave any concerns in the public
012regarding construction so far too as of August 3rd yes to quell any rumors that might be out there in the community yeah again thank you for that opportunity um we are feeling really confident that we're right on track at this point even despite the Terrible Weather that we had for a two to three week Sprint there on the geothermal project is Right On Target in terms of the number of Wells that are completed to this point in terms of how many we have to complete we've had great progress with the parent Guardian caregiver drop-off Loop that is at the main front side of twin towers as well as the new um bus drop-off Loop that is on the side of Twin Towers it'll move from the bottom of the hill to the side of the
013building and both of those are progressing along nicely we had an opportunity to have Mid-City in and see the progress test their buses to ensure that there'll be no issue use with Bus arrival and the the setup so we are right on track we anticipate Twin Towers opening there is going to be no need to shift the Twin power Scholars to another alternate middle school or create a split schedule for middle schoolers Twin Towers will be open and we'll be ready for the first day of school awesome thank you thank you we've had the discussion all in favor opposed it so passes action item G approval of update to the 2023-2024 Board of Education calendar moved by Mr Freddie Williams seconded by Mr Mitchell Williams any discussion would you would you uh would you mind
014would you mind just um clarifying what that was yeah the update to the board calendar for the Publix information is so that we could align our May meetings with the New York State education Department's required meeting timelines for the school budget thank you very much we've had discussion all in favor opposed it so passes thank you moving on to our board member recognitions and Community updates I don't think there are any particular recognitions tonight so we're going to uh we're just going to go around the table with our board member uh updates uh I'll start I'll start um with uh Mr Estrada tonight mine will be quick I just want to um make a shout out to all of the employees who have stepped up to the plate to work during the summer whether it
015be buildings and grounds or student Support also the Middletown summer basketball league which is every Tuesday continues to do great things out in monhagen bringing in people from other areas of the County as well as Rockland County coming in in Dutchess County and it's gone very well and I know I know mitchen and Freddie might be talking about their basketball camps as well during their round table but I'm hearing great things and I give kudos to the district for providing summer stuff for our students to do throughout July and August I think it's a testament to how great of a community we have that's it strata Mr Williams um yeah just a piggy bank off like what Ed was saying um just want to uh commend all the coaches and counselors uh the basketball league
016that has been done by Jim Kelly excellent job the basketball league also to NYS with Fox and Everton the basketball camps by building Legends that's John John Merchant basketball camp YMCA Kevin doralis Parks and Rec and YMCA camps and all the School District programs um so if I left anybody out please uh my apologies but I just see all the kids just getting involved with so much things this summer here in Middletown and it's I think it's just great um just the socializing and just the encouraging and just the competition um so if you're not doing anything please go out because we have a lot of things going on here in Middletown definitely one Middletown uh the Educators um even the people that's the kids that are going to summer school and supporting them and
017encouragement from them that are working real hard during the summer you know so I'm just I feel really good about what's going on here in Middletown this summer and I just want to encourage everybody thank you sir Mrs Blumenau thank you Mr red I just want to reiterate the programs around the city um it's been very active we had some really good opportunities for kids to get out and just enjoy themselves on one program I was involved in called love our city I hosted that program it was um supported by Garcia's um as well as Second Baptist Church and a couple other organizations um oars which was a gentleman Roland Smith as well as Pam Hilton her program is God's hearts for women but it was a great opportunity for people to get out you
018know we had a barbecue we had blow-up machines for the kids to play we had give outs you know um as well as backpacks and things of that nature um yeah entertainment as well and so um again that was a it was great being a part of that also um again I was involved with um I stopped by a couple of the sports programs around the city um Middletown school um basketball program that's hosted by um Freddie among among others it was really good to be a part of that and support them with that as well there was quite a few things going on I also was um part of the fair took the family out to the fair so a lot of community things so a lot of kids out there as well and
019um let me see I had something else well of course we all support quite a few of us supported the um um uh night out um yeah night out um for um against Crime and that was also well attended a lot of people out a lot of energy and again you know the city's really bubbling and what's important is the ideal and opportunity to have Community opportunities where the kids can get out as well as their parents and they can mingle together and talk in a peaceful and um um productive environment thank you thank you Mr rat Mr perrino you know could you put that do we have that announcement on the program on the 19th that we can put up on the screen see well while we're doing that the Elks Club august 19
0202023 of course this year from 9 to 12 there's going to be a distribution it's right up there distribution of uh school supplies and a free breakfast the point is that the the school supplies the first 100 students will receive school supplies and it's not limited only to Elementary but elementary middle school and high school students so that's August 19th free breakfast now the students must be accompanied their children must be accompanied by an adult and one backpack per individual so it's a good great program so come on up Saturday August 19th enjoy your breakfast and maybe get a backpack so good enough the other announcement I have a little bit of time I want to give a shout out to Alderman Kleiner and Middletown historian Peter lascaris they met with Middletown High School instructors
021Rachel Khan's Brittany tresh and uh uh student MHS Junior Santiago Martinez who is completing a project on Middletown history in order to obtain the Seal of civil Readiness it was a very very productive afternoon and just to mention a seal of Civic Readiness it's a formal recognition from New York state that a student has attained obtained obtained a level of proficiency in terms of Civic knowledge Civic skills and Civic experience so this is the first year that the project was in effect and I I believe last summer I recommended that to Mrs creedon and she most definitely initiated that and it was really a good experience for that student and learning a little bit about Middletown history and with a goal of to obtain this state designated seal so I don't want to start anything
022else right now because I don't have that much time so I'm done then thank you John Mr bison thank you Pastor I just want to say we hear a lot about our security and our buildings and grounds staff this evening I had a little setback in that I lost a stone out of a ring that was my mom's I had no intentions that I would ever find it however Paul Norton one of our staff found the stone holy cow yeah all I can say to Paul is that from the bottom of my heart I am internally grateful because there was a lot of sentimental value with that ring so thank you thank you thank you it just shows what we have in this district and how compassionate and understanding they can be so thank you
023and it's a little it's not a big stone at all so it's real diligence that's looking that's good I say again thank you and I'll I'll see Paul on this side but thank you thank you thank you Mr bison Mr Freddie Williams thank you uh I want to give a special thanks to the Middletown Athletics uh superintendent creedon in the district of Middletown for in reference to the Middletown New Sports basketball league that we have going on at monhagen Middle School um we have over about 140 kids involved in the district uh we have 12 teams volunteer coaches it's it's come together organically and we're truly grateful of myself Everton Brown Mitchell Williams um we're heading the ship with the league um and we learned a lot from The Varsity League that was started by
024Jim Kelly initially it was last year right yes and um so that was that's amazing it's an amazing program and then we thought you know maybe something for the younger kids to kind of get to that point build up to that point so it's been great uh our first initial year um like I said everybody involved from the parents and kids and volunteer coaches and the security buildings and grounds everybody's like uh bought in and it's an amazing uh program it's it's been a blessing we're coming up on our last week this uh coming Monday and Wednesday um so I'll have some pictures and videos to percent of of our next board meeting and also um I want to give information on the it takes a village back to school barbecue uh September 9th we
025are at Davidge Park from 1 pm to 5 P.M uh I want to thank um myself and Mitchell uh initiated the Texas Village uh barbecue and this is 2021. now we're in 2013 third one um we want to thank the City of Middletown the City of Middletown Police Department uh Middletown School District uh Mid-City Transit Parks and Recreation and there's a lot of layers to it a lot of hands are are helping this lift um and we're just super grateful um also next meeting I'll have a visual flyer of the event and all the activities a lot of activities last year we had close to 3 000 people um as opposed to the first year 2021 we had about 500. so you see it's growing uh intensely and and that's no there's no irony in
026that with all the Helping Hands that are coming forth so we're very excited about that um so I have some material on that um also the next meeting and um all the programs throughout the district are great amazing um I'm excited for my son a little little more then he's excited for the uh The Accelerated math program uh camp that starts on the 14th of uh of um August and I got that call early in the morning and he got the email and it was like one of the most exciting calls I've had right sports are one thing but when you uh when you're in the classroom and you're in accelerated programs and that we offer that a lot of districts don't even offer that you know I mean so that was that was a
027great thing so the programs throughout the district are amazing I'm just very excited about the the uh where we're at in the district and the direction we're going so that's it thank you thank you sir thank you sir uh well firstly I want to um uh Mr Rhett mentioned mentioned the night out against Crime which is a national event many municipalities all over the country uh come together on that particular night that first Tuesday in August uh for uh this event that is family orientated I had the uh privilege of stopping in again on Middletown and then after being in Middletown we took some time and went over to the town of Walk Hill and was there with them there's so many families in both places so many different groups and uh so many different
028supports that were out there many agencies that were out there providing support information for families that are in need families that need counseling families whatever it is Food Bank everything Recaps so many different wonderful resources that we have in this area without at these particular events they were visited by many of our local local elected officials the uh County legislators town and Village of course town and Village boards boards but also our County supervisor and as well as uh our state senator and and others that were there so it was a it was a wonderful show and a wonderful opportunity to come out and celebrate and be with family be with people be with the people that is in your community so I I and I enjoy those events because I think that the one
029thing that we we so often forget is that we're all we're all in this same boat together and uh and so we have to learn how to uh celebrate together um so many of the wonderful accomplishments and still be able to deal with some of the challenges that we have um but I'm finding that when we can focus on uh focus on the wonderful accomplishments um it makes it easier for us to work together in order to face the challenges that we have to face um outside of that there's some um uh some really good things the next meeting myself um Mr rat Mr Estrada will be doing a presentation about the uh the league convention uh leadership leadership in uh education um nisba convention or conference that we went to on last week Friday
030and Saturday uh I was there an extra day because I also happened to be privileged to sit on the uh diversity equity and inclusion committee for New York State School boards Association and there's so many other things that are coming down the line so at the next meeting we'll be making a report to the board and to the community about that particular conference but good news coming out of that was um on uh Thursday morning Thursday morning as I was going down to the lobby I ran into Regent Wills who is our area Regent who was here in Middletown just a few weeks ago and had a wonderful conversation with her went back to my room and got a call from uh commissioner Betty Rosa and commissioner Rosa asked me if I could come down
031and just hang out and talk to her for a little while we had the opportunity to talk and to chat and she is so impressed with Middletown uh that they have determined that they would like to come to Middletown for first Bell on the first day of school in Middletown uh so we're excited it would be commissioner Rosa her staff um uh Chancellor uh the the chancellor of the Board of Regents uh some others and there's a possibility that we will with possibility that we will also be hearing from the governor uh being here too so it's a big exciting day and a big exciting opportunity for Middletown um the superintendent and her staff will be working out the logistics on all of that because it will be a a challenge to work out the
032logistics but those are the things that's happening for Middletown we are we we Middletown is on the map Middletown is on the map so thank you that's all that's all um I have to say about that uh moving on uh public participation opportunity to address public participation is limited to four minutes per speaker an individual is not permitted to give their time to another individual uh is there uh is there anybody tonight that would like to address the board we'll see none will move on um if there are any letters the letters um uh are will are being are posted to uh board Docs so uh thank you moving on now uh to our superintendent's updates I turn you into the hand of our superintendent Mrs Amy quedon thank you so much president Williams um
033before we dive into um the special presentation that we have this evening for our board and school Community I just want to take a quick minute to acknowledge the incredible programming that took place um last night at Presidential Park put together by um the really talented curriculum instruction team which includes administrators and Educators from a variety of levels across the district last night they put on a program that just over 90 families had registered to attend there were six different presentations families arrived had an opportunity to experience a healthy balance between something sweet and some local fruit enjoy a snack young people had an opportunity to come with their families and watch a movie and then the adults got to cycle through six different presentations all of the presentations were available in English and in
034Spanish and covered topics like healthy meals and what it looks like for young people to participate in our no-cost pre-fuel and refuel meal system inside the district communication tools and resources for families so provided bits of information about how we communicate with families and how we are seeking to hear from our families grading and assessments next-gen standards and what instruction in our classrooms looks like a special section on life skills for our Scholars and a section on dental hygiene and the connection between dental health and academics so it was a really robust evening it went from 6 until 8 30 and again all of the presentations from last night are available if you didn't get a chance to pre-register for the event available online in English and Spanish there is a second offering of the
035event which will take place this coming Tuesday August 8th at 6 pm at Presidential Park I promise you if you didn't get a chance to pre-register and attend last night it's not something that you want to miss even if you can't stay for the whole two hours come and attend as many sessions as you can I promise you won't be disappointed so another quick update as we are pleased to have been invited by the run for downtown committee to join their event and so we're partnering with them on August 19th to host the first ever sensory component of the run for downtown events so it'll be a great opportunity for our Middletown team to be present at a long-standing event in this community that's so well respected and enjoyed we get to be a little
036part of it host a walk for our young people and their families and have a sensory station set up so if you are around on August 19th please feel free to drop down and join us at that special event and all of the funds raised go to projects that are put on by the run for downtown committee inside the city so really great event and so now we're going to get to tonight's presentation I want to acknowledge that we have with us tonight Mrs Elizabeth bowler and Mrs Tiffany Hall and they're joined here tonight by their families which I think is so incredibly special because sometimes we forget that our administrators are people outside of these buildings and we get to meet their young people and it's also really special for their young people to
037see their moms in roles that are making a difference in this community and in public education so I love that they're here joining us and celebrating um you know their expertise in this area so thank you Mrs Buller and Mrs Hall for being ready to share with the community tonight how we are going to dig in and make our mark on foundational literacy skills in the upcoming Academic Year is probably running to get to get you guys here he comes oh give her one of those mics we could have done that grass you didn't have to run all the way upstairs for that sorry okay yeah we got it all right all right so reading research showeds that there are two processes happening in your brain simultaneously to create skilled reading these are comprehension and
038word recognition reading roots it's okay so our goal is to create a durable foundation and strengthen the Rope so we're looking at word recognition and for our Scholars to be successful across disciplines while reflecting on our instructional programming we noticed that there was a need for more explicit systematic instruction and work recognition therefore we are implementing hegarty and Foundations okay so just breaking down as we look at the three components phonological awareness we know is about how we manipulate sounds in a nutshell and when we look at decoding we're really looking at how we apply these sounds so just I like to look at decoding as letters teaming up to make a word and finally we have site work recognition which is how fast a scholar can basically recall a word it's usually around eight
039tenths of a second so now as we look at what are these programs so foundations is a multi-sensory and systematic phonic spelling and writing handwriting program and what I love most about it is that it affects all modalities all modalities so Scholars have that ability to work with the manipulatives with the Hands-On and tactile tiles and see it visually and recall so the other program is hegarty and that is a multi-sensory and a systematic phonological and phonemic awareness program what we love about this program is that it it spiraled everyday lessons that incorporate a kinesthetic approach so we're going to give you a small little video of Foundations and what it looks like in the classroom Xbox th thumb sink okay so that was just a small glimpse of what it entails so what you
040actually just saw was a little portion it's one of um a piece of Foundations where you saw the keywords on a card and the keywords are helping the scholars with the connection to those letters and sounds and so they're practicing that and making sure that the sounds are are said correctly so next that we wanted to talk about is our Five-Year Plan we actually started the implementation this year Mrs sedoma share that with you at the beginning of the year regarding our AIS and special education programs implementing foundations and just words through our tier two programming so we got to see some really great results with that we incorporated this summer as our reading intervention plan for our elementary Scholars and with that next year we will be now implementing it as our core programs
041for pre-k through first grade for foundations and then for a pre-k through second grade we're going to implement hegarty in the upper grades for three through five bridge the gap is a hegarty program and it's an intervention program for phonemic awareness and phonological awareness that we will be um giving to our AIS Scholars and our kids who are in need of that skill the following year we will then be bringing in to our second grade core program is foundations as well as our third grade Wilson Wilson is a tier three program regarding word recognition program and so this is a program that if we're seeing our Scholars struggling still with these skills that they would then go into this program for 2025-26 school year we will now be incorporating for agree three foundations as well
042as fourth grade and fifth grade Wilson and in 2026-27 we'll be breathing and happy smiling we will be in full implementation thanks Liz so some of our summer work that we started involved training teachers actually looking through the programs and at the end of August we're going to give teachers the opportunity to kind of like dive a little deeper and preview the program and we're really excited and looking forward to this school year we are doing is building on a long history of um targeted literacy instruction that Middletown has developed and what we're not doing is taking all that we've worked for and discarding that but instead thinking about what we know and have learned over the years of implementation and what we have seen as a result of the pandemic and school closures and
043where our young people are at and helping to identify what exactly they need just like when we do a capital Improvement project it's all contingent upon a solid foundation or base for any of the projects and literacy development is no different and so this program's Target is to really build up that base so that our Scholars can spiral through literacy development in a way that is going to be effective and that they'll feel success with so this is not you know taking what we've done and just washing it away but we're continuing to build on it if we stayed doing exactly what we have been doing right that means we haven't learned anything so we're changing with what we know instruction looks like now and how resources have changed over time are there any questions
044by any board members Mr Strutt yeah first of all I'm going to have to have my wife check my deodorant because I seem to have made all board members leave this side of the tape of the table for some reason and you're downwind so anyway thank you for the presentation um just a couple of questions um I saw that on both on the foundations and hegarty that it includes the Pre-K as the starting point and I know that um as just about every school district in the state we Outsource a lot of our Pre-K education how are the vendors that provide us with our Pre-K involved in this process is on hello I'm now like thinking it's not on sorry um so our upk programs work very closely with us throughout the year we have
045actually every month we have professional development but their faculty meetings that we meet with the staff and then we actually about four possibly five times depending on that year we will meet with all of the teachers all day long and provide them professional development and so knowing that um we've actually started some of the professional development with them at the end of last year and we will be continuing that throughout we also go into all of the schools us as the instructional leaders team and we do observations and walkthroughs in those buildings as well to all of our teachers so that would be another support system that we would give them we have actually gone into the buildings as well as our ptosis to provide special uh you know professional development for them so we
046can provide those throughout the year so that is one special piece to our upk program I feel that we have a very close connection with all of our sites and we work hand in hand with some other I shouldn't say that in some places that's they feel is very special to us that we really give them that Hands-On approach and um I have two other small questions um one of the things that we've discussed as even in just a couple months that Curtis and I have been on the board with our other board members is um you know the the village approach to including our parents at home so is there any part of these programs that are teachable moments for our parents or our Guardians back home that they can use these um these
047pointers at home instead of just inside the classroom yes absolutely that's a great question so parents do have the opportunity there's an at-home aspect for foundations and Hagerty where they can extend the learning outside of the classroom we also discuss preparing professional development around doing at home activities and different types of enrichment that can extend the learning besides the core instruction that occurs in the classroom so we definitely have that and Foundations as a within the programming and then my last question Mr Perino's favorite is always about accountability of programs when we introduce them and being able to track our successes with them I see the five-year rollout what is in your in your head um the bars in each year that you want to see the district and the students show where we can
048as a board start seeing results that you know as bad as it's not it's not as easy as just getting results each year but at least for us to understand as a board how you're going to hold the programs accountable for results I can start it so definitely through uh progress monitoring we're going to do that in the classrooms at grade levels and also ongoing assessments so we're going to build and strengthen that foundation and extend that as we continue like the trajectory of the program and being consistent in how we progress monitor how we convene how we look at data and how we really gear our instruction around supporting the needs of our Scholars this is about that which makes Middletown so unique and it's really special that the board has given us this
049opportunity to test this theory of action is that the biggest factor for academic Improvement is what's happening in the classroom and so this board um you know took a chance on our planning and has put in place Mrs bowler is the instructional leader at Maple Hill Elementary Maple Hill Annex um Mrs Hall is at William Carter and Mrs Holbrook who isn't here this evening but is part of this team is at Presidential Park and so what that enables that team to do is to get a really close eye on the instructional practices that are happening inside classrooms each day and take a little bit of that stress off of the building leader only so that they're focusing on operations and instruction and that team's focus is only instruction so that we're sure that we're maximizing
050the impact of every instructional moment that we have with our young people so that there's Fidelity of implementation right they can do all the professional development they want and we can Implement a great program but if when the classroom doors closed there is infidelity of implementation we lose a little bit of traction so we want to make sure that we get opportunities to amplify our incredible Educators and support them with making sure that what's happening in the classroom is meeting um you know the expectations of the programs as well yeah is your mic on yeah but I I really um like the layout to have here The Five-Year Plan um you can see um one of the particular um literacy um shifts which is um that staircase to of complexity you know you can see
051that there's going to be some growth in that you can and the kids can recognize their growth because they feel like they're developing more readability as they move on um also I see you kind of touched on the fact that you'll be doing beginning mid-year and year assessments to monitor that as well so that's really fantastic uh my question is um what are some of the other shifts you see that might um add to this as they progress beyond your Five-Year Plan so for us we're hoping that we when we've really looked at our assessments and when we really looked at our data with our Scholars we were seeing that word recognition is a really really big need right when you're looking at National Data Trends you typically see that you know 90 percent of
052older failures in Reading from middle school in high school is because of what word recognition and when we really started looking we started to see that we had struggles for many different reasons covet is definitely one with the fact that kids were going to school every other day um but we even recognized that beforehand that there are needs for word recognition and so what we will see here and we deeply believe that with this research-based programs that we are bringing in that we will see our Scholars each year becoming more and more confident yeah confident with their reading with that you're having we're walking into the summer school rooms and you're hearing kids talking about diphthongs and like it's so exciting and why uh you know this sound makes this and this and they're really
053being thoughtful about our language with that from there once we are starting to see so we're going to have strong decoders or word recognition right Scholars with that we can forget with when you looked earlier that there's a whole piece around comprehension and so we will from pre-k all the way up which we've already invested as you have known as the board in many of our books and and having those Rich discussions with our Scholars um but that is a place that we would be focusing a little bit more on um knowing okay so our Scholars who hopefully through these programs and the fact that we're having tier one tier two and tier three meaning going deeper into intervention in these programs by our fifth year we would have tackled the word recognition so we
054would start really starting to think about our interventions around comprehension for those Scholars who are struggling awesome thank you Mr Mr Freddie Williams good evening um pertaining to the video what grade level was that that was a kindergarten class that's awesome I watched I watched in the you could hear a pin drop in between the engagement and that's super impressive so I think you guys are doing a excellent job with it with this program I see great a lot of great things coming out of it um yeah I was I was really taken back by that because seeing kids that age you know being so quiet and so engaged yeah was super impressive so that's awesome that's excellent thank you thank you thank you Mr Perino Mr Estrada said what I was going to say
055I I think to make this literacy program any of the programs successful you have to involve the parents in in a moment of silence this evening of Dr Shapiro always said that parents must be involved and parents should read with and to their children and I also think we have to in involve uh members of the community as a matter of fact my colleague Mitch Williams wrote a a email saying perhaps a committee should be formed involving members of the community to promote literacy and I would hope that we are working with thrall Library the children's library is very good did we Supply any book lists this year to throw yeah and have we checked on that or the students picking up on that because when I go in there the children's room uh looks
056like it's full fell so I we're making uh progress in that end and we all you're doing by the way thank you again for the presentation uh when do you expect to see a increase in our state test scores all right right um absolutely thank you for that comment on Sabrina that was just beating around the bush before but you got right to the point you got to the bottom line here Eddie so of course with all programs we have to give uh time for implementation and we are expecting that as we build this foundational skills and we tighten that rope to make skill reading um a success for our Scholars that we will see the trajectory over the years and across grade bands where we are moving into extending comprehension analyzing literature and again
057once we have that strong basis we definitely will see the success of our Scholars and we would be you know excited um to have an opportunity to share out um the portfolio of items that we look at to determine proficiency for our young people in Reading um we have made tremendous strides in what we know about kids what we know they need and how they need to be assessed and the state is such a large organization that they can oftentimes make shifts as quickly as smaller academic institutions can so while we've changed with what we know needs to be assessed about reading it doesn't mean that the state has shifted in that same manner so we use the New York State assessment as one component but not the driving component that is oftentimes data that
058we get far after we need to put in place supports to help instruction continue to move forward so we rely more heavily on our district assessments which are standard across the district project as well as formative and summative assessments across each of the quarters and then I also just wanted to add that we also do the board allows us to support the bookmobile that drives around town all summer long and provides books to our young people so in addition to our partnership with Royal Library we actually use the bookmobile which is a partnership with Parks and Rec to deliver books to kids at parks guess who initiated that a couple decades ago I wonder who I wonder who and and just a little plug of this summer we started our first reading around the world
059world program where we look at uh books of different diverse backgrounds and the students engage in a nice intimate setting and being really reflective and intentional about the book selection we really enjoyed that experience with the scholars we had Scholars really open up about traditional cultural things and they were able to have a nice treat reflective to the culture that they read about so that was a wonderful experience thank you you're welcome Mr Mr Mitch Williams yeah I just wanted to commend you on that um presentation it's very thorough um also commend you just on the on an energy that you seem to have around us because that's important yes you know you have an energy like no we're going to win yes and I like that you know as a coach that's that's important
060um it's you identify identify the needs and then put the goals and put the objectives and those smart goals specific measurable attainable realistic and time-bound I'm paying attention stuff like that so it's intentional and that's what it's about and like when Miss Perino was just talking about as far as myself and a lot of people in the community we would just like to add on in any way that we can because we all want to win right right as we are one Middletown and we all want to win so whatever I could do as far as my part I want to I want to be be involved and I'm about to action I'm going to talk about it we're going to get busy that's all I got to say thank you for that well I
061you know the thing about going last is is that everyone always asks the good questions already I was looking I looked at you I looked at you and I I was like Paula you want to go ahead Paula go ahead foreign one of the things I wanted to agree with Mr Estrada on um is the connection that we have with our Pre-K our Pre-K programs because it is such a great opportunity to start our kids early and just get into those programs where yeah our pre-ks are you know three but a lot of them have these toddler programs and are using some of the some of the tools even earlier um can you talk about the support from the actual program that you get um because I think that for me when we invest in
062a program for our for our students um the connection from the the Publishers the who you know the implementers who are selling us this program and giving us this the tools what kind of support and ongoing support do you get that's the question having it turning on Tiffany has to keep reminding me to turn this on so so we actually have been trained with BOCES for foundations will both foundations Wilson program has worked with BOCES and so we've had a number of trainings with our BOCES and they'll come in to support us hegarty as well has PD through them which we have as the instructional team have taken both programs which is also part of viscose of coven and they have just become Advanced because of that they had to do a lot um through
063the computer right that they have both of them like this hub for all of the teachers that we have invested in that they can all the teachers can actually look at the different lessons and have different resources right to like they can write foundations a key person information and they'll write them back and so they do have a lot of support that we can use a benefit we also have is because all of our AIS teachers were trained last year as well as us um that there they can be a supportive tool to the teachers and as Mrs creden said that's our role too but we have constant contacts like we can call and they'll be there for us so that is a really great benefit yeah it's not just a one and done yeah
064I was just going to ask there's the package do it it's ongoing yeah hands hand-holding if you know and I just wanted to add that the fun Hub has been a definitely a resourceful tool because teachers are able to go in look at a daily like explicit lesson and really look and assign specific at home activities for the scholar so I feel like that's really like looking making a true diagnostic looking at data and saying okay this is what this particular scholar needs and that again extends to what you ask about the at-home resources that's great and it's user friendly and very much there's some you you come so far you know and and almost in a very short time because of technology and how we have the um the tools to get that to
065get that information that for teachers who are using something that's already proven um it's it's so helpful because you know um for teachers just every day to you know come up with new and and it's important I'm for us to have creative teachers who are also giving feedback and I assume that there's room for feedback um but to have those tools in place um and then it's proven and it's going to work uh that is um that's great right thank you so much yes sir yeah you kind of touched on this but again are there um ongoing workshops or trainings for parents so that they can help their children at home and in some way shape or capacity yeah so that's actually um something that we discussed with Mrs Sweetie regarding throughout the year we
066will be providing support to parents we'll be having workshops with the parents because we know that we're one family right we're going to be way more successful when we're all connected and so we'll be giving supporting tools that parents could do at home right even like the sample of the cards that they can do in teaching them on different strategies so absolutely that is something that we discussed that will happen next year thank you very much Tuesday is our second installment of the Family Academy so join us at 6 pm at Presidential Park because they went into not Foundation specifically but they teed up families in terms of what to expect how do I progress monitor how do I sign up for Infinite Campus what is instruction in my classroom look like what are healthy
067eating choices right so that is exactly what we want to do by providing multiple opportunities for our families to get inside our schools and see our programming and experience it themselves awesome thank you so I just I just want to say again I would say I was saying that um the thing about going last is that all the questions that you had in your mind everyone else asked so most of my questions have been have been answered um but what I what I so appreciate about um this program and what you all are doing is is that to coach Mitch's point is that it is it is so intentional um in in uh in the way that it's moving and it's providing it's providing uh uh Rich outcomes at the end of everything um Mrs
068blumenow just says something that really kind of resonated with me specially based and I'm not going to say a whole lot about it because we're going to give our our presentation about the league convention um at the next board meeting um but about the changing of teaching and I think that one of the things with covet is that not only did it change teaching but it changed the way that people receive um it changed the way that Society itself operates and so Middletown has been really good over the years of being ahead of the Curve and uh you know we've been really good at being proactive and Innovative in the things that we do and not waiting um for just the guidelines that that the state brings down to to what you said a little
069bit earlier and that's not just with this but that's with everything everything that we do uh having been and having having been a part of the the whole preschool uh scene I understand the need um for um early word recognition you know I understand the need for that especially coming into this time and and what you have now with the with these young people these Scholars that are coming in especially as preschoolers and kindergarteners you have you have such a a fresh and clean slate of of children that are so hungry to learn and to clean and it takes individuals like yourself and so much of our staff that are passionate about the work that they're doing in order to make a program like this work you can't just put this together and not have
070the people that um that have in their heart to do so I've long said this for many years is that I happen to be involved in two of the um two of the careers so to say that are more callings than they are uh careers I happen to you know I happen to be involved in Ministry and involved in education and those are things that can only only be successful with passion so thank you for your passion thank you thank you for your passion and and not just your passion but your compassion because a lot of people have sympathy about certain things but compassion means that you do something about what the issue is and so um thank you for that um and I'm looking forward to um continue um success and and to that
071as well let us know what we can do let us know what we can do um not just as a board but even as individual individual members if it's if it's to sit down and and and read to the kids if it's whatever just let us know because we would love to we would love to be involved in that maybe Mitch gave me the big eyes I don't know what that was about that was I don't know what that was about we'll talk about that later um but uh but really really because again we're one Middletown and and we're one we're one community in one boat so uh Mr Estrada yes sir yeah just uh quick so one thing that uh before um I was lucky enough to get back on the board that sitting
072out there in the audience and and something that has always been at the top of my mind when people talk about Middletown and how much we have low test scores especially at the elementary level and what people need to remember at least on the public side is we you know would we love to see improved test scores day one every school district and every school board member around the state would like to see that but more importantly is we want to see growth we want to know that the programs we're instituting are working in a positive direction that for me that's more important than the test scores and I'll tell you why people need to remember that we are a very unique School District we're a small city school district for a reason that's because
073we typically like our Brethren at Newburgh or Poughkeepsie or whatever we take on the most challenging scholars in the state of New York we have a higher percentage of students with disabilities than most school districts we have a higher percentage of more ell English language Learners than most school districts in definitely in the Hudson Valley so and those who replace each and every year with new challenges and the reason why is because we live in an affordable school district for many parents so they come here and when you have the success that this district has had over the last 20 years in its programs somebody who's coming into this country and they want their child to learn and they're learning because they don't know any English are bound to pick a school district that's proven
074to be successful and word on the street oh bring them there because you know they'll grow there um that happens each and every year so our challenge is it's not like we have um you know these challenged students coming in we teach them and then we're okay no they get replaced by more and more challenging students so it will always be difficult for our district to have the same type of test scores as a Warwick or as a Monroe would bury or what have you because it's just a totally different student demographic so I what I say to people and you know it's a question that we see very often on the candidate forums you know what are you going to do about the test scores at the elementary school level well one of the
075answers to that is we have a 90 percent graduation rate so we're doing something right between the elementary school level when our test scores are done down and at the end of the rainbow when our students are getting ready to graduate if we had a graduation rate that was 50 percent or 40 percent that aligned with those test scores then that means we have a big problem but we're graduating our students and I'd venture to say that if we kept track of the students from that are graduating whether they started in Middletown at the lower elementary school level or whether they just moved in at the last minute in high school or what have you that you'd have two different results there so I'm confident that once they're in the system here that they're getting
076to the uh to the end point which is making sure you're graduating and you have the ability to go on to college and we have a great success story with our graduation rate but that's because we've done ever a lot of things right between the time time they have the low test scores and the time they meet get over to the high school so I we need to remember that it's all about growth each and every single year yeah and all you have to do is get out in your car or put a pair of sneakers on and walk around Middletown to see all of the growth the new homes that are going up um the you know developments that are going up the businesses that are coming to Middletown um the incredible amount of
077resource that the city is putting into the rebirth of that downtown area and you know the school district is not the only component of it but it is one of the things that individuals look to when they make a decision about where they're going to put their Roots down and you know raise their families and so you're absolutely right that um this district is doing incredible things moving things forward and we will always have challenges always have challenges but look around Middletown is a really special place and it feels good to be a part of that team and speaking of teams there are a lot of people although Mrs Hall and Mrs bowler are here this evening I'm representing the group um this work came out of a lot of feedback information sharing and data
078analysis which included administrators from across levels Mrs odoma leading the team and Educators and families so this is the result of all of that um collaboration so we want to make sure that we take time to acknowledge those incredible people and like our Educators that are doing a really great job in classrooms every day of making our kids feel really special so thank you great presentation thank you so much ladies thank you so much uh we're going to move on to our committee reports um policy committee we want to deal with policy committee tonight I'm going to turn you in to the hands of Mrs Blumenau who is the chair of our policy committee thank you past year to update the policy manual from 2021 2022 anyone who's looking for the full policy manual can
079find it on our website under board policies and you can find the you can find the the actual policies but over the next couple of weeks we're over the next couple of meetings we're going to be approving new policies um that we that needed to be updated um through our Erie one BOCES so tonight um we're going to be proving I'm sorry hold on one second okay here we are so first we need um we need an approval to waive the first and second reading of the policies that are recommended by erie1 the Erie one audit are we able to make a motion to waive the first and second on all of them at once or do you have to do them individuals we can do that okay so I'll make that motion a second
080any discussion all right thank you and you all have copies of those policies and updates um marked and so um be it resolved in accordance with the audit of the ecsdm's policies by erie1 BOCES and upon the recommendations of the Board of Education policy committee the full board hereby adopts the following policies with the normal nominal revisions we we have to finish the motion to wave it I'll do a roll oh we have to weave okay yes thank you we finished the motion wave this is yeah Mrs blumenow hi Mr perrino Mrs tobiason Mr Freddie Williams Mr Mitchell Williams hi Pastor Williams here aye Mr Estrada yes Mr Rhett thank you okay great thank you and thank you for keeping us on track on the vote thank you all right um so that being done
081now we're going to approve the policy approve some of the policies that we have reviewed in the policy committee over the past year so now I can read the the um the resolution um so be it resolved in accordance with the audit of the ecsdm's policies by erie1 BOCES and upon the recommendations of the board of education's policy committee the full board hereby adopts the following policies with the nominal revisions recommended by Yuri one BOCES and review by the superintendent of schools the following policies 5676 privacy and security for students data and teacher and principal data 5741 is drug and alcohol testing for school bus drivers 6150 is drug-free workplace 6151 Alcohol Tobacco and drugs and other substances for staff 7320 is Alcohol Tobacco drugs and other substances for students may have a motion second
082thank you any discussion just a quick question on the one regarding bus drivers since we Outsource our transportation do they have to sign anything with the district that they're going to follow the particular policy yeah within their annual contract is an expectation that they follow our policies and procedures and so then we provide resources some to support them with making sure that they understand what those changes are thank you and I had that same question which is why some of these policies were went out to um various administrators and just community so all right very good thank you um so we have us we have a first and a second and no discussion at any other discussion no all right all in favor aye roll call I'll do a roll call Kuma now yes Mr
083perrino Miss tobiason Mr Freddie Williams Mr Mitchell Williams yes Pastor Williams yes Mr Estrada yes Mr rat yes thank you all right so that was the first of many yes so if you have any as these policies are put into our um our and you're going to be uploading them weekly these policies can be found as we revise them and approve them they're found on board docs and they're in a section called policy revisions and they're for the public to view as well yeah and you can get to that you can get to that from the website under board policies correct link to that okay thank you thank you Mrs Blumenau so we we intend on um just for the boys knowledge we intend on doing uh uh moving forward for the next couple of
084meetings at least three to four of these policies that um that the policy committee has been looking over and going back and forth over we did a complete audit and uh so uh we'll be moving forward on on many of these revisions to the policies and updates to the policies in accordance with um with New York state so thank you for all your hard work Mrs blumen I appreciate that thank you to our committee yeah um a round table board board member board member comments um let's start we'll do like we did before we'll start with uh Mr Estrada since he's sitting over there by himself um good and I want to thank everybody for a great thoughtful meeting thank you sir Mr Williams I have nothing but have a good evening all right uh
085Mrs Blumenau Mr Rhett evidence policy um committee and um it was very um rewarding I learned great deal about the numbers the concerns and I'm looking forward to continue to be a part of that committee with those people um in particular that was um Janet Ferreira as well as Linda Rivera they gave a really good presentation it was well represented had members um all numbers we had a principal on that committee as well as some attendance monitor we had a new student who just graduated from high school that was looking to get into the system um as well as social worker so you know it was great to just really look at the policy we um look at the old policy and was looking at the areas of concern to see how that we can
086um improve the policy and update it so um I'll keep you guys abreast on how that's going thank you sir Mr perrino thank you I I'd like to give a a quick shout out to Ed Estrada for bringing up something that I had brought up in the past but it did not go anywhere maybe we can study it this year and that is possibly having a high school student on the board and again this person would not be able to attend executive sessions uh there are different restrictions but maybe we should study that in the near future and if not this year we should get our deduction order and for uh next year the other thing I'd like to do I like to thank a couple of our board members one of the members uh
087I'm sorry uh vegetal Vince served 12 years on the board and uh he accumulated 250 hours of boardsmanship uh he was a a good uh good addition he had some good ideas many good ideas he is also an advocate for youth at the in Family Court Vince holds a master's degree and he special education teacher BOCES for many many years so I want to thank him for that for his service on the board of education and I also want to thank Mr tobiason for a year as a president Mr Tobias in two master's degree she also has a various administrative certificates and again a very dedicated individual to the Youth of Middletown so I just want to thank those two people and I'm done thank you Mr Perino uh Mr Freddie Williams yep I don't
088have much um just I sound repetitive but I'm excited about the uh the state of the district um this is my fourth year coming in um humbled and um excited about getting reelected thank you to the community and uh everyone that voted um just from when I started on the board to where I am now I've gained a lot of knowledge and I want to thank uh the current board members and passport members for uh you know your input and uh your impression on me and I'm looking forward very excited to move forward with the current board um that we have and uh you know keep learning you know never stop learning I appreciate you all thank you thank you sir um uh so I I want to uh address two things tonight real quick
089um Mr Perino thank you for bringing that bringing that up about the student a student um uh representative um I'd like to uh propose to this board that we we take some time to discuss and put together a an ad hoc committee that can research um research the parameters of having um a student a student representative on this board um there's so many different ways that different people do it and I think we could we put a committee together and and work in conjunction with um with our superintendent and administration we can come up with a plan to increase uh student voice I think it's really is really important subject again I won't go into it because about the lead convention but that was one of the major subjects at the leadership in education conference
090that we attended last week and I think that that's something I think all of us have kind of been looking along those directions and I think now is a great opportunity for us to to kind of uh Institute that and make it and make it work for uh Middletown um the second thing I want to address is for our public we're all aware of the um unfortunate resignation of our of Mr crescenzo uh which left a vacancy here at the table um we have uh we have as a board move forward uh with uh opening up to the public and receiving letters of interest uh and uh we've completed the interviews um but I do want to make sure that the public knows um that as as of tonight we have not yet come to
091a final decision um as to how where we're going to go and what we're going to move forward on but that answer will be coming soon and when it does come we will make an announcement about it and uh so I just wanted to make sure that we we uh said something about that tonight that we we as a board are going to move forward in order to fill this seat but we have been deliberating we have been deliberating and so an answer has not yet been reached but soon soon with that being said I don't have anything else tonight thank you guys for a very yes sir just one quick thing I'd like if we can talk about maybe in the future meeting um on board docs at BOCES we utilize the voting option
092yes via the computer and I think that would be really cool for us to try to think about doing yeah and forward and it's pretty efficient too absolutely I think that's I think that's a it's good to look especially technology wise since we're such a technology Rich District it's a good idea to kind of look forward to maybe even for us moving forward and those type of things so absolutely we can have that we can definitely have that conversation and talk about it and see where we go from there um uh if there's if there's nothing else again thank you everybody for um a good meeting thank you for the presentation and our next board meeting our next meeting will be on August the 31st am I right 21st no John I'm right is it
09331st August the 31st is our next regular meeting regular meeting our next regular meeting August the 31st and so um other than that thank you thank you so much bless you um had uh if nothing else I will entertain a motion for a German moved and seconded moved and seconded by the Williams's and thank you uh all in favor aye we are adjourned thank you Paul I apply for