001good evening everyone we'd like to welcome you to the November 3rd 2022 regular meeting of the enlarged City School District of Middletown I'm going to call the meeting to order at this time and I'm going to ask Mr Kevin Gomez to read to lead us excuse me in the Pledge of Allegiance would everyone please rise [Music] I pledge 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 Mr Perino are there any moments of Silence thankfully know thank you I'd like to ask Mr krasenzo please to read the mission statement of the enlarged City School District we strive to provide fiscally sound educational opportunities in a safe environment that continuously supports our diverse student population we
002will enable all students to graduate to reach their full potential to become lifelong Learners and to be competitive productive members of society thank you Michelle would you please read more Shari would you please read um the Roll Call Mrs blumenow here Mr crescenzo Mr Gomez here Mrs Houston Mr Perino Miss tobiason yeah Mr Freddie Williams Pastor Williams Mr Mitchell Williams yeah may I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented moved by Mr Perino seconded by Mr Freddie Williams is there any discussion hearing none all in favor passes eight one I need an approval for the me uh the regular minutes from the October 20th 2022 as presented I need a motion so move move by Mr perrino I need a second second by Mr Mitch Williams any discussion on the minutes all in
003favor aye any opposed motion passes unanimously may I have a motion to approve the administrative Personnel memorandum 9A 1 through 3 as presented so move second move by Mr John Perino seconded by Mr Freddie Williams any discussion hearing none all in favor aye any opposed motion passes unanimously at this time [Applause] at this time Mrs creedon would you like to go okay fine thank you I need a motion to approve the instructional Personnel memorandum 9B 1 through 16 as presented so move second on out move by Mr Mitch Williams seconded by Mr John Perino any discussion hearing none all in favor aye opposed passes unanimously may I have a motion to approve the non-instructional Personnel memorandum 9C 1 through 8 as presented second move by Mr Mitchell Williams seconded by Mr John Perino any discussion
004hearing none all in favor any opposed motion passes unanimously you want to wait further for introductions until I finish all of the agenda items I need a motion to approve the financial memorandum nine day one through six as presented seconded by Mrs blumenal do I have um any discussion hearing none all in favor any opposed motion passes unanimously I need an approval of spec special service memorandum 9e 1 through 2. so move by Mr John Perino seconded by Mr Freddie Williams is there any discussion hearing nine all in favor aye any opposed motion passes unanimously I need a motion for a change order to approve a change order 9f number one as presented I need the motion second motion by Mr Perino seconded by uh Mr Mitch Williams any discussion Mr Bart do you have
005anything that you would like to add for the change order I would like to note that this is a credit change order it's a line of work that was removed from the project so we're receiving money back on this project anyone have any discussion on it then all in favor all right any opposed motion passes unanimously I need a motion to apply to approve the Strategic plan as presented moved by Mrs blumen all seconded by Mr Mitch Williams any discussion on the strategic plan hearing none all in favor any opposed motion passes unanimously I need letter H I need an approval to amend the Board of Education schedule of meeting calendars so moved move like Mr Gomez seconded by Mr Perino discussion I for the discussion item and please correct me Mrs creedon if I'm
006wrong this is to meet with the necessity of approving the bossy vote in coming spring is that correct any discussion or question with regard to that decision hearing none all in favor aye any opposed motion passes unanimously I need an approval of the financial statement management letter extracurricular audit and the cap as presented I moved by Mr Mitch Williams I need a second second second by Mrs bluminol any discussion hearing none all in favor any opposed motion passes uh as unanimously here that's 8-1 I haven't been doing my counting there for you well eight zero yes see I still mixed it up I you I can't win I'm sorry I just keep saying unanimous or okay and just for everyone's um and I think most people know it Mr Preen always makes a point that
007the Board of Education receives all of these documents on the Friday preceding our board meeting so we have ample time to review the documents and ask any necessary questions now would you like to do the introductions yeah I'm going to call to um the podium Mrs Julie Dominguez post assistant director of special services special education good evening is this on yeah Middletown Community um as Mrs Green said I'm Julie Dominguez post the assistant director of special education and I am super excited this evening and so very proud to be here to introduce our new director of special education here in the Middletown School District Mrs Nicole tagney um Mrs Nicole taggedy is a familiar face to many as she has worked in the Middletown school district for at least the past six years in various
008capacities including assistant principal at Maple Hill Annex at Truman Moon where she was very valued in making sure and setting up systems and protocols and procedures in the school district in that school also instructional leader for elementary of special education she's a leader that is knowledgeable caring and supportive Mrs tagner's passion for special education started at a very young age and has only increased as her career has grown during her time here in Middletown Mrs tagney has worked hard to develop strong relationships with Scholars Educators administrators and Families Mrs tagney is a truly dedicated and strong advocate for our Scholars she will go above and beyond to make sure that they have everything inside and outside of the classroom she is passionate about ensuring equity and access for our Scholars uh most recently during interviews
009I had a teacher come to me and say what an impact Mrs tagney has had on her educational career she says she is so grateful for Mrs tagany that she has helped her shape the educator that she is today and is always someone that she can rely on and she knows supports her I'm looking forward to collaborating with Mrs tackney and the team as we continue to develop build and support our department Scholars families and District we look forward to building lasting and strong relationships with all we know it's a lot of hard work ahead of us but we're an extremely amazing team of dedicated Educators that are willing to take on the work and look forward to the growth noches special is Elemental Especial temprana is idea is presenting Mrs Nicole thank you all
010right thank you Miss Dominguez post um so good evening president Tobias and vice president Mr Williams Board of Education miss creden Mr Doma and the Middletown City Community I want to first take a moment to thank you all for providing me with this opportunity to continue to grow and support the Middletown Community and specifically the special services department it is truly an honor and one that I do not take lightly it is my pleasure and privilege to be able to continue to work with our dedicated talented and hard-working Scholars families and staff here in Middletown has been my second home for the past several years it is such a special place to work an amazing place to be a part of I'm so lucky to be a part of this community and I just want
011to take a moment to celebrate and recognize our most important members of our community our Scholars who overcome obstacles take on new challenges achieve New Heights every day and motivate us sir you are why we all do what we do I am truly passionate about supporting and ensuring that all of our Scholars our students with disabilities both in and out of District feel success Joy inclusion and excitement in their education and Beyond during my time here as an assistant principal at the Maple Hill Annex at Truman Moon elementary school as well as as an IL for the special education department I have had the pleasure of working alongside the most amazing administrators special services clerical teams building clerical teams teachers related service providers nursing staff Food Service staff members custodial staff security and the list
012goes on and on who are phenomenal in what they do who they are and how they show up every day each and every day to make a positive impact on our Scholars day who have welcomed me into their teams and taught me so much during my time here in Middletown I appreciate all that you do and I know that it is not always easy and I look forward to dedicating time to team with and support you in all that you do and speaking of teams and celebrating teams I would be remiss not to celebrate my amazing team Miss Dominguez post and Miss Felicia chanella who are here tonight who are equally collaborative hard-working and dedicated to our Scholars and of course my amazing family who I love so much who's over there trying to keep
013the baby quiet before bedtime so to close you know I again thank you president tobiason vice president Williams board of education is Creed and missedoma Central Administration for this opportunity it is a pleasure to have been able to learn and grow here in Middletown with all the amazing teams that I've had to work with and I am sincerely grateful for your support and look forward to continuing to team with you and our amazing School Community We Are One Middletown thank you foreign Mente isosos [Music] community motivanto restaurant is education [Music] tamien durantes principal isios relations services foreign Familia restaurant Williams is UN foreign thank you and I see the midi blue so thank you moving on board member recognitions and Community updates I will start with Mrs blumenal Mr cruzenzo Mr Gomez thank you madam
014president I I just want to First share with the community that on Tuesday November 1st 2022 the Middletown common Council passed a unanimous resolution supporting our Fair funding committee resolution uh asking for that the state of New York or the state legislature established an independent annual budget line for school safety so that the every year we'll have guaranteed funds that will be provided to school districts throughout our state to imp for expenditures pertaining to Public Safety I believe it is important that we be not reactionary when it comes to school safety not wait for some tragedy but be preventive to always keep our guard for our most precious our children and those who serve in our school districts very grateful on behalf of our midi Community to all the members of the common Council legislative
015committee chair The Honorable Paul Johnson our mayor mayor Joseph M DeStefano has always been a a cheer number one cheerleader for safety in our school district and I think this is a great move and I'm hopeful that in fact I'll wax out of our clerk could reach out to with the blessing of our leadership to uh supervisor George channel so we can see the same in the town of wall kill I think that will send an even stronger a strong message to Albany that this is a common sense initiative and it would benefit all our counties of the state and all the children that attend our schools thank you Mr Gomez pastor Mr Mitch Williams Mr perrino I saved the best for last you know the first announcement it goes along with what Mr Mike
016Mr Perino place the first announcement goes with what Mr Gomez was saying about safety student safety is the it could start earlier now and lay later a note to the students and parents please wear some reflective tape on your clothes or wear a vest it's very difficult sometimes for motorists to see students who are dressed in dark clothing walking along the sidewalks and into the road so that's just be aware of that motorists please try to slow down a little bit uh another announcement presidential Fall Festival it's this coming Friday 5 30 to 8 o'clock and there's Raffles there's uh there's exhibits uh games vendors and so on so it should be a nice time um the third announcement we won't be back until after Veterans Day so please without the veterans we probably would
017not be here this evening thank you veteran when you see them thank them for their service and the final announcement the Elks pancake breakfast this Sunday November 6 from 8 to 12. there's going to be bake sales Raffles and the money from all of these events they get poured back for the most part into the community um the all-you-can-eat Rose you're going to get charged twice because you because of the last time you were there you took a little bit more than you should but anyway the price is ten dollars for adults and eights for eight dollars for children and you can't eat uh all that you can eat so um there that is uh do you want me to talk about the annual inspection and jokes that was to be your comment sir go
018ahead okay thank you the ngootc annual inspection was held this Tuesday we have 107 Cadets in the ngootc corps uh they were reviewed by uh manager area Ford Commander Williams a number of our administrators was there including the superintendent and retired lieutenant Camille Adamo of the Navy the ngootc is an integral part of our program this was a 35th inspection of the ngootc corps the members of the corps they practiced in the evening they conducted several simulated passing review drills Mr Purina always has to have a photo sorry they included well they wanted me in there they include a uniform inspection and the they were reviewed by Commander Williams who is right there Commander Miller a very interesting individual I had a long talk with him he's a Submarina he has a master's degree he's
019in charge of area four and he's handled a recruitment budget of 15 million dollars um he believes in the core he had many complementary things to say about the cadets and I might add that 20 Cadets received an overall uniform grade of outstanding so we're making progress and it's amazing to me the parents the whole section of the bleachers were filled so thank you parents some of them had to take off from work for the uh for the event and in addition in addition to that uh I'm just amazed how uh Chief slingerling Kyle slangelin who was one of my first students when I came out of the service uh Chief slingolin and master sergeant Willard was able to put on that demonstration took a lot of dedication on their part and the cadets they
020had a practice as I mentioned in the evening in such a short time because usually this this passing view is held in the spring but happened to be held now and they were just outstanding and by the way an outstanding designation enables uh our unit our commander and so on to make recommendations for scholarships for the service academies and it's just a good thing to have we've never been without one so let's hope we get the uh distinguished rating this year so good I'm I'm almost out of time so I'll talk about the veterans staying down maybe up my Round Table okay four minutes thank you Mr Freddie Williams I skipped all the my apologies um good evening I would like to acknowledge the uh all the full sports teams in our district uh the
021student athletes and the coaches uh for their time and energy and uh being a coach and dealing with kids for over 20 years it's uh it's definitely challenging at times but uh all the sports teams they did a great job um I would like to highlight the D1 and D2 uh little guys the tackle football teams who had undefeated Seasons uh as they head into the playoffs this weekend and also our varsity football team which I think they should play at Monroe 2 p.m this Saturday so uh if you can get out there I think we also have a link uh Mr Witt to the game if you can't make it so uh just in full support of these guys and and ladies they're doing a great job and coaches so modified modified was undefeated
022too modified that's I didn't write that down thank you my brother modified also with undefeated season I've seen a bunch of those guys uh yesterday at monhagen um excellent job all coaches and kids um just wanted to highlight that and acknowledge them did I miss anyone okay we will move on to the public participation two reminders number one please sign in um I fail to remind folks please sign in and number two as I've said before public participation is limited to four minutes per speaker and an individual is not permitted to give their time away to another individual if they haven't used their four minutes is there anyone that wishes to address the board good evening to the board take this please my name is Pamela Rollins and I stand here tonight as a comp
023as a concerned parent grandparent and citizen of the City of Middletown my concern this evening is about our damp children and one in particular I'm here come here because I'm on your behalf come one in particular Mia Williams I want to I need somebody to help me understand why it took 24 hours before her parents were notified of an incident that could have taken place with this artistic non-verbal child I need help with this because her daughter isn't the first child that's being mishandled in school from Mondays through Friday I get to see it as teachers come to the bus and take children off of the bus and I look at how tall the teachers are and how little these people are and because we have long legs and they have short legs you're dragging
024them along and how in the evening teachers and aides instead of passing that child off to a monitor like they're supposed to will literally put that child on the bus in the aisle or on the first step and walk away my concern is for the children you leave a child standing on the first step they could fall hit the head on the concrete or they could try and get off the bus and run away so I need somebody to help me understand what's taking place with our dab children as a concerned grandmother as a concerned pairing as a concerned citizen as I stand here with this young lady I see it every day I've been taking care of special needs children up to the age of 23. and what I see in the evenings are
025not good and not just with the teachers and the aides but with the bus drivers because I took a picture of my own driver this evening the sonar and he has nine speeding violations from Monday to today last week it was 12. so my thought this evening was not even having to discuss it with my husband do I need to resign my position so I can talk to these parents because can you imagine superintendent Creed and what it would look like at this room was full of parents from special needs children they entrust us with their children we entrust you with our children and I personally feel like because I've had little Mia on my bus I've been her Monitor and the first thing she does when she gets on the bus is take her
026shoes off and that's it I want to know why it took so long to reach out to these parents and I want to understand when the letter went out to the parents from Mrs uh to buy your sin what stuck out for me was in addition we urge you to immediately return your daughter to school you urge them to immediately return their daughter to a place that they deem unsafe thank you is there anyone else that would like to address the board foreign s former District employee with this and large city school district of Middletown I'm here tonight similarly to be an advocate not just for my daughter but for the non-verbal children of this District it's no secret that I'm no longer here anymore it's no secret that it is a public lawsuit matter
027but what I need the community and especially this nine-member board to understand all that has been experienced in the last 365 days my husband and I made the choice to compartmentalize to take our professional journey and the experiences that we had here towards the end of our time here and put that aside and put Faith and not just the mission and vision of this District but in the teaching staff that I work very intimately with on the math side and some on other content areas to still send our children to this District it would have been our hope that that same ability lied in the members of this administrative team put your personal feelings aside and allow our tax paying dollars which provide you with your salary and an ability and an oath to be
028held accountable to your duties to do right by children irregardless of who the parents are and so what were our requests a safety plan a transition plan our daughter has been home over a month now we have not gotten a call an email a text a Class Dojo a pigeon carrier message nothing from the building principle four of you have children here in the district imagine them not being able to speak and something happens to them and the building principle will not communicate with you I very much subscribe to the notion it takes a village but if we're going to be selective about when it applies that's what I take issue with because I had intended and was transparent about showing up with the same Village the same valued community members Mrs creedon to a
029parent meeting at my request and so Mr bison when you wrote and you said that Mrs creedon offered a meeting and that you hope that we take her offer I don't know if you're aware but I had to send seven emails before I got a response about honoring that request and upon learning that I wanted to bring members of the village with me not to manufacture chaos but to really sit around the table and talk about a solution that opportunity was denied um do you understand the resolve it takes to even come here to speak tonight knowing that I'm looking at the faces of the people who terminated me to Advocate that you please do right by my daughter I want her back in school getting her services but I would like to sit with
030people who work in the building and in the classroom so that there's an accountability level and an understanding that does not require a game of telephone foreign the protocols that's all the parents asked for and we still do not have either till this date thank you good evening Miss Tobias and board um as Yaya stated you guys are aware the incidents that have happened that have taken place the press conference I'm an advocate I've been advocating from Middletown all the way up to Liberty down to the Bronx for parents and I think I want to clear the air on something we're not here to tear down anyone that sits up here when it comes to our dap kids um we acknowledge that there's some issues maybe the magnitude of children that we're getting that are
031dapped that are coming up here maybe the district can't handle it maybe it's too much maybe we just don't no you know maybe it is too much for the teachers we don't have the proper training there's whatever the case may be but you're a part of our village when it comes to educating our children and all we want is the transparency that if something happens to our child you know um and the best example I can give you as a non-verbal child have you ever seen a movie where they drug someone and they're wide awake and they can feel everything that somebody's doing to them they can hear everything and they can't do anything about it it's almost to the equivalent of what a a non-verbal child feels just being a that parent it's hard
032for us to put our kids out there we worry about people bullying them laughing at them mistreating them and when we send them to a safe place what we think is a safe place and it turns out not to be a safe place we're not saying that Jews are bad administrators or bad teachers we're saying that we want you to listen to us and let us work with you to work through these issues the shortcomings the holes whatever it may be because even though you might have a degree in working with special needs children you'll never have the degree that I have I live this I breathe this every day and that's why when we come to you when we say the things that we say and we push for the things that we push
033we're pushing to give you the knowledge because as I said that the last event that I spoke at you know um it's awareness it's acceptance but you can't have both of those things if you don't have knowledge and none of those things will come forth if you don't take action so all we're asking for is if you don't know you don't know we need more training we need more training whatever it may be but I think it would behoove you to listen to the parents more when it comes to our special needs kids because we know what it's like when we at home get frustrated putting our kids shoes on 25 times or we're trying to communicate to our children so um please don't think when I step to this Podium I'm trying to belittle
034use or tear used down or constantly say that you's are a bad District I live in this District I've been here 15 years and as I told Mr crescenzo the other day when I stand up and I say that I'm midi proud I want to be able to say I'm midi proud and it encompasses all of our children have a good night thank you very much is there anyone else that would like to address the board good evening Mrs Creighton and the large school district all of you I am Bishop James Rollins senior I had the pleasure of attending a phenomenal autism acceptance event a few weeks ago at the town of Wallkill to call attention to autism acceptance and advocacy and not just awareness and I have to tell you that it was extremely
035Timely and then as I came to actually cast my vote for the BOCES project I saw a sign right outside of the district office and I have to say in light of what has taken place it looked more theatrical than it did anything else theatrics of having a poster with the words except adapt advocate #autism advocacy plastered on the front of the district building's ring Hollow to me right now I'm here on behalf of Mia Williams a five-year-old non-verbal autistic child and her parents regarding a terrible incident that occurred on October 6th at Truman Moon the Maple Hill index where her health her welfare most importantly her safety were violated as and as she and at least one other child were abused by a member of the school district staffed who were charged with educating
036and protecting them and I have to tell you that makes me now wonder if this was the first time and the only incident and so as a result I perhaps can get some assistance from our new director for special education Miss tag me in assisting me in securing a redacted version of the incident reports for the past and for the issues with special needs children especially autistic non-verbal children for the past two years this would Encompass one year of the current Administration and one year before that would help me understand perhaps what protocols and guidelines were a prob perhaps in place or not I have to say to you uh that as a member of the clergy in this community I am appalled at the callous and insensitive way that the most vulnerable persons of
037our community especially our special needs children has been trivialized and irresponsibly mishandled rather than prioritized with the greatest sense of urgency by the School District administration which is led by our superintendent and the members of the Board of Education I'm extremely disappointed that the superintendent refused to meet with the parents and emergency contacts of which I am one for little Mia Williams we just wanted to meet to actually come to a solution so that that child would be safe that we would be comfortable if they get if I get a call as her emergency contact I can walk there I literally live down the street from Truman Moon and I can tell you right now community on a nation are judged by how they treat and protect and provide for the most vulnerable in our
038community especially our special needs children and lastly in the last few sections I attended my granddaughters uh meeting with her teachers and something troubled me and perhaps somebody can get me some answers Ms Domo one of you 66 percent of fourth graders do not read at grade level I'd like to know why what happens between the star years of kindergarten and third grade that by the time they get to fourth grade they are not reading at grade level crickets thank you Bishop Charles is there anyone else that would like to address the board thank you foreign good evening my name is still Paul Johnson and I always appreciate the opportunity to appear before you we haven't seen you in a while Dr Johnson all right I'm getting called out I just got here really okay
039this evening I actually want to make Claire representing Cornell property extension which I've done in the past over the last few years uh once again coin Cooperative of Orange County we're one of 52 agencies throughout the state including each County and the five boroughs of the city of New York by personal information I'm completing my second of two three year terms and last year I completed a three-year term as board president our terms are limited by the Constitution as applied to us by the Cornell University we have four different divisions we have family and consumer science we have 4-H we have Agriculture and this evening I would like to bring your attention to the services that we provide through Snap Ed snap Ed is all things nutrition we are unique within the county in that
040Shayna Russo our director represents Seven Counties in the region but she's housed here in Orange County at 18 Seward at the county building we're up on the third floor back in the spring and you're right Mr bison I haven't been here for a while but back in the spring I asked Shane if she could give me a one pager just kind of highlighting some of the things that that we do for you and for other count and for the school districts and you have before you that one pager so what is it that we do well we assist with Grant application for for classroom gardening we have a smart lunchroom movement where each cafeteria in all buildings were evaluated to determine How likely the environment was to support children choosing the healthiest available options we
041provide professional development to Food Service staff we participate in District wellness and school Wellness policies we support breakfast in the classroom and Farms to school initiatives we supported the established Community connections to encourage Middletown to become community eligible for free School meals and we provide information and virtual education opportunities to District families we're able to offer ongoing participation in school Wellness we have direct education in class things K-12 on nutrition and physical activity utilizing evidence-based curricula and we provide a great professional development called Let's Get Physical why classroom activity matters once again I'm presenting this in retrospect but last summer I think we have we hosted our second of a two-day Symposium which was held virtually on lots of topics related to the issues at hand so some of you may know that I'm going
042to bet a dollar that most of you don't as I finish my career with Cornell Co-op I'm always impressed with the fact that we do hundreds of things and very few people know about any of them like many things that happen in the Middletown school districts were sometimes a well-kept secret but as you do we feel we influence dozens of families and hundreds of children in the US services that we provide and as always I appreciate the opportunity to be here before you thank you very much anyone else that would that would moving on Mrs Creighton superintendent creedon foreign good evening buenas noches welcome bienvenido and thank you for joining us this evening my name is Linda Rivera Mi nombre es Linda Rivera director of enl bilingual and World Language programs directora de los programas
043mundiales we wanted to let the community know kiriamos that Spanish access to this presentation will be made available following the Board of Education meeting is thank you for your continued support gracias pursu continue without further Ado Dana hello good evening to the board thank you for allowing us the opportunity to address all of you and the broader School Community we're here tonight with a lot of excitement and a lot of Pride I hope you can tell by our coordination of outfits our district is a very special place because we have so many supporters dedicated to making a difference I have the pleasure of kicking off our presentation tonight my name is Dana Valencia I have participated in this initiative seen through the lens of a parent I am the proud mom of a midi Sixth
044and ninth grader I'm going to allow my colleagues here to introduce themselves I worked with a wonderful team we're going to introduce ourselves they'll State their positions as well and then we're going to jump right into the presentation good evening everyone my name is Barbara Cara I'm the district medical so Middletown School District director of Medical Services of Health Services I will continue on for the rest of the presentation but I'll let everybody has to introduce themselves um my name is Kimel Gill and I'm 10th grade president hi I'm Elisa shriner I'm the 2022 cohort principal at the high school good evening everyone my name is Dr Lynette Williams and I am the executive principal here at Middletown High School hi friends I'm Jen Kinney I am a special education teacher and the senior building
045rep of Middletown High School good evening Julie Dominguez post assistant director of special education hello I'm Paul voigtland I teach mathematics at Twin Towers that's live please there all right thank you with all aspects of the Strategic plan from its development to this presentation tonight the district was intentional about incorporating the voices of our different stakeholder groups feedback from our stakeholder groups was used to determine the priorities goals actions and resources we will use over the next five years our plan will ensure employees board members and stakeholders are all working towards common goals is an effort that will guide fundamental decisions and actions to shape the future of our school district is the slide changing okay so we're going to talk about the process a little bit and what some of these numbers mean so
046there were 28 steering team members and this was composed of Scholars families parents Community leaders Board of Education Educators administrators and the district leaders all who served as the stakeholders in this committee we were LED through a series of 10 planning and design sessions the steering team acted as the decision-making body inclusive of different backgrounds roles and tenures our role was to collaborate and deliver action items outlined in the Strategic plan during the creation of the plan the team was tasked with oversight of the process to ensure it aligned with the needs of the various stakeholders we had the uncomfortable conversations we shared special moments we really felt safe to speak up about our own opinions and provide Insight on the objective of the day and just to be clear when we met this was
047not a 60-minute let's get together and hash this out but these were all day events that we were together collaborating brainstorming strategizing with a common goal for success as a parent it gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of wonderful people that I would have not normally engaged with and I really enjoyed participating in this initiative with the district there were also 23 additional individuals who served on the planning team the planning team played an important role in engaging stakeholders communicating the Strategic plan and in giving and receiving feedback that was very critical not only from the team members but also from the community you may have seen us at different events with surveys and our Tech team was really helpful with that and some QR codes Etc at events uh the individuals in
048this group were divided into teams based on topics priorities or interests to engage the community and to reach more stakeholders this group guided the planning process and made the first line of decisions that will be validated by the steering team so in addition to the school Community being represented on the steering planning and design committee we also provided opportunities for everyone's voice in the community to be heard throughout the planning process we implemented three tiers of stakeholder engagement we utilized surveys for broad data collection we sent surveys to staff as as was just spoken about we set up at community events such as concerts and conferences surveys for the community to take we also sent surveys to our Scholars at all grade levels to hear their voices we also implemented small group discussions to allow
049stakeholders to really go more into detail about their thoughts on our district we held multiple sessions for teachers to attend we had Town Halls talk about it Tuesdays for the community and we also created focus groups of Scholars at all grade levels to hear their voices more in depth and finally we also had one-on-one conversations to really allow the stakeholders to go in depth with what they felt we had conversations with our colleagues superintendent creedon had open Office hours for the community and we also held one-on-one interviews with our Scholars from December 2021 through June of 2022 our team used every opportunity we had to assess where we were hear from the voices of our school community and collectively determine where we wanted to be in the next five years this final plan is a
050true reflection of the shared voices and vision so our hope here is that the finished product is really something every stakeholder can see themselves represented in the values the mission the vision priorities and actions and we really ask the community to hold us accountable over the next five years to ensure that our actions really do shape and impact and solidify our Legacy we really want to make sure that we will be progress monitoring throughout the next five years to ensure that we are meeting our Milestones as identified as part of this plan the vision and the mission of the enlarged City School District of Middletown Remains the Same our vision our vision the Middletown School District strives to provide Financial sounds educational opportunities in a safe environment that continues to support our students population our
051mission is to enable all students to graduate to reach their full potential to become lifelong Learners and to be competitive productive members of society and as always we we remain scholar focused as we embarked on this Mission critical journey to support our strategic plan we engaged and leveraged Insight from a variety of spaces and stakeholders including but not limited to focus groups Community engagement opportunities and surveys we did this to help inform our core values the tenets of our core values include collaboration trust growth and Equity these core values will be embedded in every action that we take and every decision that we make for the next five years I am super excited to have been part of the steering and planning committees to help Middletown School District move towards Legacy of Excellence as Middletown
052Legacy makers our job is to support Scholars and each other in discovering and developing our talents and finding ways to contribute positively to our school community and our world it is important to remember that this plan is just the beginning the real work begins when we take these words and put them into action to move our district forward and solidify our Legacy Middletown School community you are Legacy makers foreign so we'd like to take a moment to review the five priorities for each of our actions we will be connected to over the next five years Middletown has always leveraged new ideas and innovative solutions to make a difference over the next five years we will launch new strategic initiatives aligned with the goals of each priority these priorities support the mission and vision of the
053Middletown and large city school district and our values will guide progress toward achieving them our priorities support us in promoting access and inclusion to school community we are responsive and committed to safety the plan is to create learning spaces where everyone is safe Educators and staff are aligned and families and Scholars are included in setting those expectations we are collaborators we are committed to instructional alignment we look to increase instructional support at each campus to create structures for vertical and horizontal alignment across grades subjects and departments to positively impact our scholar achievement and one situation which you'll see this is the new addition of instructional leaders across all grade levels we are amplifiers committed to communication plan is to con to cultivate a culture where families and schools share timely clear consistent information in the
054language of choice and Amplified across most multiple forums communication is the bridge between Scholars families Educators staff and our community we are all about the people we are committed to relationships we dedicate time and space to role model positivity deep in Social connections and focus on relationship building as we strengthen the well-being of our school community foreign we are human centered and committed to learning experiences these experiences are designed with Equitable and personalized experiences discovering and affirming our Scholars strength and focusing on our shared Humanity Scholars of all ages contribute to their learning and to voice what they need to become more self-determined and active members of our community thank you foreign is our District's guide for the next five years to help our teams implement the Strategic plan we have identified individuals at various
055levels within the organization who will have leadership roles for each of the priorities for each of the priorities on the slide in front of you you see that there is a manager in owner a consultant helpers and approvers creating this implementation strategy is a way that we will ensure Fidelity of implementation and it ensures that we don't create a one-size-fits-all top-down approach to our improvement over the next several years we didn't want our stakeholders to have only one voice one opportunity excuse me to voice their opinion and their along this journey we thought it was important that they had multiple opportunities to engage with our teams and provide us with feedback on our progress the implementation strategy also ensures that our initiatives our actions and every decision that we make is aligned to the priorities
056and not created in a silo by one individual leader rather all of the decisions that we will make will be guided by the voices of many we also have identified a timeline which is up here on the board in front of you that includes support so that each of the owners and helpers collect data and ensure that each of the actions that the teams are taking are on track or if needed make adjustments we've also included our community and considered the board in this timeline knowing that you'll be eager to hear progress updates along the way so that you can contribute to the success of the district's plan and the work is only just beginning so as you heard superintendent creedon we have a strong plan moving forward for our plan but we also want
057to highlight some things that have already been implemented based upon our discussions in planning for this strategic plan you'll see a bunch over the next few slides I'm only going to highlight a couple on each so for academic growth I want to highlight that the district is being intentional about the assessments that are given to our Scholars and really we're leveraging the data to drive our instructional programming also there are more professional growth opportunities being offered such as the pl the personalized learning Fellowship which I'm a part of and it's really a year-long professional development where we're creating professional learning communities to help us engage our scholars in more personalized learning for responsiveness administrators and student support facilitators are leveraging responsive practices to Monitor and increase scholar attendance so the scholars are in our classrooms
058where they can do the learning also communication has been improved and is now done over multiple platforms I can personally speak to being notified of things happening in the district a lot more than in the past for Humanity time has been designed to connect with Scholars we have reset and refresh days and also we now have a weekly advisory where adults and staff members and teachers in the buildings can really connect with the scholars and there has been a creation of 12 social worker positions across the district to work with Scholars who may need help from social workers for growth the district continues to support employee Wellness by utilizing comprehensive benefit programs wellness events and by purchasing the Calm app for all staff members to use to help them maybe wind down after a stressful
059day or get prepared for the day ahead and for financial responsiveness really the district is increasing the communication and stakeholder Wellness awareness of the budget process which is always a positive thing so as you can see many things have been already implemented and we look forward to much more happening as we continue to move forward with this plan over the next five years I mean you just want to take a quick moment to point out um where you can locate the plan it's a double-sided four-page little booklet and it has an appropriate resting space right on our landing page of the district website so you can see the Strategic plan there and that's also where we will put presentations that we make to the board of education and highlight some of the progress as we
060go along I just also want to take this opportunity to express a sincere amount of gratitude not only to the folks that are behind me this is only a small selection of the teams that have worked over the past many months and you know you may not realize it or recognize it but the voices of the community our Educators our Scholars they were everywhere that we could gain feedback at a concert if you saw a survey you were providing voice to the Strategic plan when we did our culture and climate survey to families last year that was a part of the plan every time you went to a open house event or were in a school and had an opportunity to answer a few questions or provide some feedback to the administrators that became a
061part of the plan so there were really lots of really in your face ways that this was um you know that you knew you were providing voice to the plan and then there were lots of little more subtle ways where we were gaining input from the community I think that it's important to recognize that it doesn't matter if you are in Middletown and you know for here for you just joined us yesterday you've only been here for six hours you've been here for six days or you've been here for six months you had a voice in shaping the final outcome of this plan and I think that that is a really welcomed Way Forward for us I hope that you see this document come to life in many more spaces inside the community and that
062we can continue to make you proud for years to come and I want to thank you very much for giving this small segment of the team the opportunity tonight to share the work that they are so very proud of um so thank you Mrs superintendent creedon I want to thank everyone the community members the staff and the students for the Strategic plan I also want to compliment because I happen to be a member of the community and I think there was another Community member there here and I don't see uh uh the student that was also here that was on that plan yeah she had an another event she had to pop out for before we got up but I think what took me so by surprise as we divided into our groups was the
063openness the ability to listen to the folks concerns and the objectivity that was there for me I know it was a very very eye-opener and a rewarding experience so I'm very appreciative the staff that's out there and the committee that I was on the Safety Committee and and that group we worked diligently not that we worked any more diligently than any other group I don't want anybody to get mad at me there but I mean I think the whole arrangement of the way it was done and the ability to free to speak freely and openly was me what makes this plan um so very uh well worthwhile and addresses the needs that were expressed so I thank you yeah thank you and just a reminder to the community that's here this evening and that are
064watching at home we will have our second administration of our tripod culture and climate survey if you recall we did that last year and and it's done at an annual Cadence you have to have one year in between the administration and so that will be coming out to the community and I would say like late winter and so that'll be another opportunity for you to provide voice and guidance to us as we continue to move thank you [Applause] I think our assistant superintendent we'll talk about the family curriculum night good evening again so before I get to the family curriculum nights I just want to talk about the Seal of Civic readiness this is a new opportunity that's available to our scholars in the district so the Seal of Readiness is a recognition that a
065scholar has attained the high level of proficiency in terms of Civic knowledge Civic skills Civic mindset and Civic experiences Scholars that earned the Seal of Civic Readiness have a special Distinction on their High School transcript and diplomas to learn to the advanced regions or the Seal of Civic or the sale of by literacy to earn the Seal of Civic Readiness Scholars must complete specific coursework and in Capstone or culminating project either in the middle school or High School this year we have Scholars as early as 7th graders working towards the Seal of Civic readiness we hope to we hope to be able to highlight some of the accomplishments of Scholars on their way to earning the specific Readiness at a future meeting please see our Facebook page to view this graphic in more detail and
066learn more about this amazing opportunity foreign thank you all right all right so next I would like to talk about our family curriculum night so the first one you're seeing pictures from our October 24th event at monhegan middle school this was our Middle School Humanities and stem family night so some of the activities that we had was literacy Jenga vocabulary games math games such as super mass by algebra Dominos multiplication by heart and fraction war and we also had thrall library with a station set up for families to get a library car to learn more about the systems that are available there coming up next we have our elementary family Humanities night that's going to be Monday November 14th from 6 to 8 pm at Maple Hill High Elementary School this is available for all
067of our K5 families so it's just not for Maple Hill families but uh if you're at Maple Hill Presidential Park William Carter Maple Hill innits all families are welcome to attend so we're going to have a read aloud we're going to have uh from the real out we're going to break into two different groups so either you can learn more about storytelling or improving interesting skills with your families and we will have translators available we will have books both available in English and Spanish so please if you have not seen the information check your Scholars backpack there's a flyer going home tomorrow there's also information available on their website and Facebook page as well and we're asking families to RSVP as soon as possible that way we can plan to make sure we have the
068plan just help us plan with supplies and snacks that we're gonna have available that evening on December 8th we will have a similar event for for stem it's going to be at Maple Hill and it's going to be from 6 to 8 P.M so please save the date for that event and just a reminder while I'm up here that we do have uh the first working period is going to conclude on November 10th so please expect to see report cards on the parent portal the week of Thanksgiving if you have not signed up for parent portal please reach out to your schools your Scholars the main office at your scholar school to get signed up for the parent portal and this Tuesday we'll have a superintendent conference day so there will be no classes for
069Scholars so we'll be staff professional development day and then Friday school will be closed for Veterans Day and just thank you to all the veterans that have served our country thank you very much moving on to the Board of Education committee reports Mr Gomez your fair funding report please thank you madam president Our Fair funding committee is throwing focus on advocacy on behalf of our children with special education needs this is something I've had in my heart for some time uh I want to our goal as Fair funding is to ensure that we have the adequate and proper financial resources to ensure that our district provide resources that will give each and every one of our students or our Scholars unlimited education opportunity or in the words of Dr Eastwood every child every day among
070the issues that we want to highlight are number one ensuring that our district gets reimbursement aid for the different services our children's special needs get such as speech otta I believe and well ask Mr tunnel to correct me if I'm wrong I think it could be up to at least thirty two thousand dollars I think either per child or overall overall overall so we're going to be working on a resolution to make sure that we get the appropriate reimbursement by the state another topic that we touch on was uh localizing services and by that I am referring to um the practice in our state of New York and perhaps in other states where whenever you don't have particular Educational Services for children sometimes there are bus out of County or out of the region I
071mean there are instances where children may have to travel from Orange County whether it be from our district or another District all the way to the Bronx for example and uh I believe we spent as much as 16 billion dollars in transportation cost uh uh given that our County already has grown in population significantly I believe that it will be the state of New York should consider I guess this is something school districts could work collaboratively together to uh once there's a certain population level that the state makes an effort to concentrate trade most of those services within that particular County or in close proximity to the school district where the kids need it that way because think of it not only in such a major cost but the wear and tear on a child
072with special needs to have to travel from Orange County or Middletown to Pelham Parkway in the Bronx to go to a school for the children for the deaf I think that the fatigue on that child could be more harmful the benefit they may be getting when they have to be almost four hours a day in transit so long term that's something we could look at uh quote Magic Johnson all kids need all kids need is a little help a little hope and someone who believes in them and I think that's the move what we want to do here and of course we want to work towards greater parental empowerment I think it's important that parents voices their concerns in this particular area be heard I have the chance to hear uh the new uh director
073of special education and again uh concerns I expressed uh I expressed again that I want to make sure that we have a turning of the page where uh we can move down in the to build greater morale among our staff and The Confident among all our parents uh whether there's agreements or disagreements that our district is here to attend them attend the concerns and that will be setting the model or what a special education department should be so that's my hope to quote a a pro a proper train a child the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it and that should be in essence our mission every child every day so that when our children reach their adulthood they will be in the right track towards the
074future thank you Mr Gomez Mr Mitch Williams your diversity committee report please yes diversity committee I'm working with Miss Linda Rivera brat um so I said it right with that and I'm very excited we had our first meeting um so miss miss Rivera is going to speak a little bit to it um you know what our focus is on with the Hispanic Community but I'll let you speak good evening again William is it green there we go good evening again um president Tobias and vice president Williams superintendent creedon assistant superintendent Camila Doma and the entire Board of Education I wanted to give a shout out to the chairperson of the diversity committee Mr Mitchell Williams for the invitation for district representation within the community and to open the diversity Community to all who are interested
075so this evening we'd like to share some highlights of our first meeting that we had in downtown Middletown at 59 North Street back on October 21st and we will be having monthly meetings as well within the community so that we can hear the voices the needs and bring them to the attention of the district and to move forward with some meaningful action and purposeful intention so with that being said uh some of the highlights in these minutes will be made available um which is basically what was the goal of the committee and it was really focused upon diversity equity and inclusion which basically uh unites members of all different backgrounds to really come together and to bring about cultural and also possibly ethical changes necessary so with that being said um one of the main
076things we started as a foundation was with just some District data what were our enrollment numbers both as a district as a total inclusive of our out of District Scholars as well we also shared for all populations because I don't like to use the word subpopulation because we're inclusive and that was also from a colleague of mine that I wanted to share that out but also we shared graduation rates from August of 2017 all the way to August of 2021. um and some noticings there was an increase of graduation rate across all populations specifically with the Latino population similarly we shared Dropout rates and if graduation increased rates increase obviously Dropout rates will decrease so that data is also available and I'd like to give shout out to our data accountability analyst Janet Farrar for
077providing those numbers what was really critical about the meeting was just to listen and to create a safe environment for our community to Really voice what is on their minds and so the meeting started at 5 30 it ran a little bit more than an hour but it was purposeful to stay there and to really listen to all voices at the table and we welcome more voices at the table because that is what will effectuate the change that we seek um one of the key pieces of that was that all members mentioned that they wanted to see the district be more inclusive and communicative with diverse populations of course our Focus was on the Hispanic Latino Community for the meeting but it was really critical that all information of all populations was presented as well
078and so what really came out of that were three highlights was the experiences and the perceptions within the community about the district and where we need to go hiring and also language representation and access uh the third piece was also just representation to have staff that really looks and understands our community and our Scholars there were also five main areas that were brought up by the community members who attended for example special services and English language Learners population to have increased support and you know cheering up the servicing of the program within them also advocacy and continuous translation and interpretation the second one was understanding the populations that we have here and to have that representation really visible for example with our Latino population sometimes citizenship status prevents many in the community from coming forward
079for fear of deportation or fear of retaliation again these are not my words this is the community words that I'm sharing out publicly and so we've had these conversations and we're looking forward to moving forward because one of the third points was communication not only from the district but through the schools and you can see through our strategic plan that these are pieces that are already starting to be addressed and in place but we have much more to do and I know we have a five-year plan and goal to do that so working in collaboration I really see wonderful things happening for the Middletown city school district um also really loud and vocal was Community Support a quote that I remember from the meeting was let us in we're here to help similar to what
080one of the family members said tonight one of the speakers we are here to help another quote that was mentioned was a drop is just a drop but many drops create an ocean and so I thought those words are very poignant to share this evening because we had so many different voices and we were inclusive and we had those conversations but last but not least was Point number five where the resources and supports that are still needed as we move forward other questions were our next steps so our next meeting will be November 14th it will be again at 59 North Street motor Suite and we do have Refreshments so that is always a good thing so please um so we're ready to begin our actions because we heard we're always going to be listening
081throughout this entire process but we're ready to start moving breaking up into groups and having some actionable and measurable items to move forward with so key questions for our next steps were where do we go from here as a committee which will be guided by the committee and their voices what can we do immediately or in the short term so there's a lot of great ideas that stemmed from that and what are we going to do over the long term or the long hole and so with that you know I want to say thank you on behalf of being a part of the diversity committee this is creedon for the invitation of Mr Williams because I really feel that hearing the voices of the community aligning that with the district goals and Visions will be
082such a wonderful and positive move for Middletown city school district thank you thank you and I'm going to thank you for just stepping up and Diving right in as greatly appreciated you know because as soon as called us she's like let's go let's do it I was already in let's go let's do it thank you let's go let's do it as well as the community members that has been coming up and stepping up so I know it's going to be dynamic and we're going to get things done so thank you thank you next meeting as you stated is Monday November 14th yes correct yes 5 30 P.M there's a lot of District events but we have a great team we can be in different places at different times thank you so much thank you so
083much I believe that's the only committee reports that we have I'm up now to comments by the Board of Education members uh anyone want to start first okay I know you want to go last just following um I added on to the diversity committee and I just wanted to mention that the energy and the vibe in that that uh space was was awesome um I commend you Mr Mitchell Williams Mrs Brock it was uh very a lot of information given out and um it was essential to the direction we're trying to go in so I'm I'm uh excited about adding on to the diversity committee and the direction that it's going in so I just want to commend you guys Mr krasenza okay um last Thursday Friday and Saturday Pastor Williams and I went to
084Syracuse for the nisbah the New York State School boards Association Convention I would have rather have called it a conference because there was so many incredible workshops that I wish it had extended another day but part of the convention was they had an expo huge room and it had everything from school buses to you know vendors with selling curriculum Architects everything you could think of was in there and that was that was pretty interesting but we didn't get a lot of time to do that but the workshops that I attended there were a lot of them on diversity there were three of them that looked at diversity from different angles Reviving your District's brand post pandemic that was very interesting a lot of Social and emotional learning uh one of the more interesting ones was
085the school board and budget election there are things that I wasn't aware of that the school not not breaking any laws or anything like that that the school board is kind of responsible for that we don't we don't do so I'll bring that to your attention and a lot of um legalities so we'll talk about that um what else uh there is a there's a board president's Roundtable so I represented the district I've a three-term former president of the board and that was very interesting because throughout this entire conference there was a tremendous amount of networking going on and the the 50 business cards you made for me they're gone so I put them to good use so I've been railing here about certain things that I would like to see changed and one of
086them we talked about round table and one of the participants said you know Roundtable if you look at a dictionary it's a place for discussion that's what a round table if you sit around you talk about ideas and if I remember back in 2003 when I first came on the board that's what we did it took some time the president needed to keep control so somebody didn't Ramble On for 20 minutes but we talked about topics um and that was a good thing so looking around that room there weren't I don't think there were any districts that limited the amount of time for the type of discussion they were they were placed in various places in their agenda but most of them had at the end of the meeting so when we sit down for
087a board retreat on the 17th I think this is something we should talk about and if we can work that out there are a lot of things I want to talk about uh with these conferences I have a lot of notes they have a lot of slides and and notes that they prepared and if I have to I'll just send those out to the board members but I would really like to talk about it but I'm not going to be cut off after four minutes it's kind of insulting when that happens when you put that amount of time into going to the conference and you can't talk about it so um that's it and when the next convention comes up I highly recommend I think it's going to be in Buffalo right it's quite a
088trip um I recommend that as many people go as possible and if you bring this guy with you you walk into a room in at least five or six people Pastor Williams you're one of the most famous people in New York state I can't believe how many people knew you I mean that's it so thank you for the opportunity to attend this conference convention thank you Mrs blumenal thank you I just wanted to commend our team this evening for the initiatives that we're moving forward with we've been talking about them for several years and just watching it all come together into a strategic plan is what it's all about and now and moving forward and knowing that many of these things have been in the works but that they're just formalized now and that we
089can communicate them to our community in a um in a clear message to understand that we listen and that we're here and that that we may not always have the answers right here at this table but behind this table is a very strong team that is ready and willing and always working so thank you thank you Mr Gomez thank you um yeah I joined Miss blumen and complimenting the administration and the uh particularly Mr Doma presentation you also gave a I think it's a step in the right direction that uh people that we involve that our parents be integral part of activities especially curriculum and what's being taught to their children so I think that's a positive step uh I'm normally doing Roundtable we do not engage with the participants but I would ask that
090the district under some of the concerns I heard particularly the dab children uh the pickup and drop-off the one of the members of our community address Mrs Rollins uh the tickets violation I think that a lot of people in the purview of the bus company but again I know we have policies with respect to individuals that work transporting children so I hope then the time frame notifying a parent of an emergency in the school I think there should be something established in most instances with my children I've always been notified whenever something's occur within the time frame I mean there might have been one time or not that I wasn't but of course we were concerned and unhappy about it but I think it's important that that happens and again I hope and I pray
091that the situation would Mia Williams could be resolved that the child could be back in school and that the parents concerns could be addressed and the bfp so that we can move forward so those those are my comments Mr Gomez Mr perrino Mr bison um I'm going to be start off with being something personal and maybe a little negative to some people or one person in particular uh you know one of the things I do is to look in on on senior citizens in the in the evening maybe they have to take some medicine maybe they need some food maybe they need something picked up in ShopRite things like that just to check on their Wellness so I can't be in two places at once I give a little time here as much as I
092can so when a I'm used a teacher at the high school said it's disrespectful that when I leave early on a concert how much more disrespectful disrespectful is it if a senior does not get his medicine or the senior cannot feed himself fortunately he didn't tell me but I found out I took it up with him so you mind your business and I'll mind my affairs okay and that's it now the second thing in the time I have left Dr Johnson talked about the snap Edge step Edge snap Ed New York which is great and thank you for doing that there's a lot of hunger in this community not only seniors but young people too I spoke to glennis foglia this weekend she coordinates a lion's kid no hungry program and she's going to be
093with us at a future meeting it's a backpack program they've increased starting this month to 95 backpacks that they send out I think it was in the beginning when it started I think was something like maybe 25 . I want to give a shout out to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church because they've agreed to participate in this and collect food for the backpack program so it's a great program it's a Alliance club and that's what it's named no kid hungry program and it helps it really really does because we can take care of students for the most part during the week but on the weekend not as easy so there it is that's one step and the snap Edge New York programs should be another step so good for everybody who's working to feed
094our our seniors and our kids thank you Mitch way yeah let's first want to start off by uh just thanking you Amy and your team for that strategic plan this sound great um thank you for the work that you're doing here steering the ship it's excellent work I also want to command you Rose as well as you Freddie Williams for the work that you're doing as far as with the board being the leadership of the board because there's nine personalities here and we had nine personalities we're different and but your steering the ship writing able to keep the order and keep the focus and I want to commend you for that you know because it's not easy work and I I know it it can't be but you're doing a great job that's it Pastor
095Williams so I just want to uh address I don't really have a whole lot to say I've been endeavoring to um to um just remain quiet for a while uh however uh did have the opportunity Mr crescenzo talked about the opportunity uh to have gone to the uh nisba conference uh it was an absolutely amazing conference for the first time having been back in person after three years I think literally three years um and so the opportunity to be able to be there uh with other board members administrators State officials people from Department of Ed to be able to collaborate to be able to talk and to network uh was amazing the programs and the sessions were absolutely completely embedded with uh diversity equity and inclusion um I don't I don't talk a lot about
096my accolades and the things that I do um I really don't I've always been very uh work focused and I've been more concerned about that than anything the work needs to get done but every once in a while you have to say something I want to so part of that is uh part of that is is that I I do have the great privilege of sitting on the diversity equity and inclusion committee for nisba which is a Statewide committee representing this entire area of schools and districts and everything that is coming through nisbah at this particular point every every uh uh every initiative um every resolution uh is now being run through our committee to make sure that it's embedded with inclusion and with equity and so I'm proud of that work that we've seen
097I also happen to be the area director for the black caucus of school board members uh which uh we're working to make sure that we include all of the uh board members of color throughout our entire region uh because at the end of the day we're not and I've said this a couple years ago we're not in competition with one another when it comes to education we might be in competition uh on the fields and the floors but not when it comes to education uh with that also being said I do want to commend the team the strategic planning team uh what we're seeing come into action now and I think that most of the board members here uh will agree with me has been the sum total and focus of the work that I've
098pushed and the things that we've done from day one being on this board and I understand process everything has to go through a process of ups and downs ins and outs uh sometimes you feel like a nut sometimes you don't you have to go through all of those different things in order to be able to arrive at the goal and even when you arrive at the goal my father used to always say there's always work to do and so the work continues day in and day out but I do want to commend the strategic planning team and I want to thank you for allowing us to be a part of that of that process I was a part of those teams uh in order to get us to this point where we're moving forward is
099it perfect is everything is anything perfect no but that's what we work to try to continue to mature and to grow and I think that at the in the end of the day that this district has that goal in mind to have continuous growth continuous continuous um uh work to do and so that's all I have to say thank you thank you Pastor uh I'm going to conclude I was a little disappointed because last night we had scheduled a listen and learn and we didn't have any takers but we're going to have another one in December and it's a wonderful opportunity for the community to come in and we sit and we listen we might take some notes but it's it's a great way to let us know some of your concerns and where we
100can move forward so we'll have a date and it'll be posted on the page posted on the website and those opportunities are interactive where I just wanted to make the point that those are interactive opportunities where we can actually respond I feel that when people come to the microphone the expectation is that we can respond and there are certain things where I know that we can later on but during the opportunity to address the board we're just here to listen so during those right we we do listen and we're trying to learn how we can move ahead during the during the these opportunities that you're talking about um we're we're actually able to have conversations yes it's a definitely it's a dialogue you know it's not a monologue it's a dialogue and we're both listening
101and learning both sides because a lot of times they may not even know exactly what our position is or what we can do or what we can say so it clears the lines you know just being involved and it's an excellent dialogue where we're able to actually have an understanding yeah because I sometimes I think that all of us um feel a little disadvantaged when we're at this table not to be able to just talk back right and respond that's right um and it it's meant is no disrespect it is just the rules of the game right right where we are and there are no more than three board members present because more would constitute a quorum which which then leads us into a meeting we do not want it to be a meeting so
102we'll we'll have the date posted you know I want to just say something real quick about that too is that um you you just I guess it's Roundtable discussion right um you you you you made the statement about a quorum and it's the understanding that as a as a board we individual board members and everyone here knows that that's sitting at this table um but that we're only aboard when we're sitting here at this table in the corner we don't get paid Pastor no but but but individually we don't have we we have no we have no Authority individually outside of that and to understand that when we are elected we're elected not as Representatives we're not the board of Representatives we are elected to be Trustees of the district which means that we are
103trustees to every student in the district um and so we're not we're not representing I'm not representing uh uh the First Ward or et cetera et cetera et cetera and so those opportunities to be able to engage um and have those conversations uh literally uh helps us to not have preconceived notions as to what any of us as individuals think because all of us have different thoughts about everything at some point or another but as I've always stated I don't have a problem with someone who doesn't agree with me I have a problem when we don't have the same goals and when we have the same goals regardless of how we get there we'll get there so thank you Pastor so so board members board members if you just noticed this was a round table
104discussion people had opinions and and added to the topic added to the discussion this is what Roundtable is supposed to be about not a four minute mark thank you Mr kruzanda as December 1st is our next regular board meeting Thursday December 1st we will be meeting the board on November 17th as a board retreat at that time the two major items on our agenda is to review we are bound by State education to do a superintendent's evaluation there is a tool we will be re looking and reevaluating the tool to see if there's any necessary changes to that document the evaluation takes place in the spring the second item will be we're going to be looking at board Norms we have Norms from 2018 2019 and uh Freddie Crystal John Perino and myself participated in
105a nisba online conference and at that time in the discussion there were districts that came on and they had they don't call theirs Norms they call them governances so we have copies of those governances if any board member needs any of these documents before the November 17th meeting please let Crystal know and we will get you the hard copies because I really want it to be a very eventful planning meeting did I leave yes Mr Perino mini course we took on board officers I thought that was excellent and that's where we got the governance from Mr and basically Vince the material you sent out to us we covered that in the uh yeah it was in there in that course and I wanted to particularly thank Fred Williams for being there because he's running a
106business and he spent from he spent three or four hours there so good job on that was a good course and I would take even more of these these virtual courses are not expensive to the district and they provide Vital Information I just wanted to say I see someone's leaving I do want to thank everybody that comes and sits and participates with us we do appreciate it I need now a motion to adjourn so move second move by Mr Perino seconded by Mr Williams thank you all and have a good evening I'll see you soon yes yeah you can see me