001good evening everybody i'd like to take this time to welcome you to the may 18 2022 regular meeting of the large city school district of middletown i take pleasure in calling that meeting to order at this time uh we're going to stand and have the pledge of allegiance uh tonight being led by mr crescenzo following that i'm going to ask you if you could please remain standing for just a few moments for a moment of silence mr crescenzo and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible just for a few moments of silence thank you can you hear me bishop williams yes sir okay thank you the first moment of silence is for the 10 individuals who were executed in buffalo for no other reason than the color of their skin
002this should not happen and it should not happen again it tore the hearts of most of america or all of america the second moment of silence this evening is for all the men and women who have lost their lives fighting all the wars and conflicts of the united states of america as memorial day comes please remember them in your thoughts and prayers thank you everybody thank you mr purino uh mission of the enlarged city school district of middletown mr gomez please thank you mr president the mission of the enlarged city school district of middletown reads as follows we strive to provide fiscally sound educational opportunities in a safe environment that continuously supports our diverse student population we will enable all students to graduate to reach their full potential to become lifelong learners and to be
003competitive productive members of society thank you sir roll call mrs clark bloom now mr cresenzo here mr gomez here mrs houston here mr perino here miss tobiason here mr freddie williams here pastor williams here mr mitchell williams here thank you thank you um motion for the approval of our agenda please second moved in secondary any discussion just a quick quick um comment i want to respect everyone here who is here to celebrate our students and scholars so i just hope that in the future our our agenda will have less bundled items but thank you thank you any other discussion all in favor aye opposed thank you um approval of regular uh minutes from our may 5th 2022 meeting may have a motion so move second moved in second to any discussion all in favor i
004have a discussion i'm sorry um i just want to be sure that um with the change in the law regarding um that happened last november that the public understands that the governor signed into law that the public record of a meeting is not necessarily written minutes but that they must be an unabridged set of minutes meaning a fully transcribed discussion of what happened word for word or a recorded meeting as i understood it thank you all in favor aye aye opposed it so passes thank you uh moving on to our personal action items approval of personnel memorandum 23 a administrative second moved in second to any discussion are we allowed to discuss sentence personnel not not not really okay no not really can i express a general disappointment in this that i agreed wholeheartedly with
005the letter that was sent to us by that particular administrator thank you thank you mrs houston all in favor aye aye opposed oppose you so passes approval of personnel memorandum 23b instructional i have a motion please second moved and seconded discussion all in favor aye opposed so passes approval of personal memorandum 23 c instructional so moved second moved and seconded any discussion just that i'd be voting no because of the same reason as i did last meeting for curriculum writers until we have a curriculum committee established i do not feel we should be hiring curriculum writers thank you thank you any other discussion all in favor aye opposed oppose so passes uh approval of personal memorandum 23d non-instructional some moved second moved in second any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes uh recognitions
006community reports uh i'll turn you into the hands of our superintendent uh mrs creedon good evening thank you we're excited tonight we have two special acknowledgments we have the debate world cup team here mrs kerry luba and miss rachel koontz will come on up and give us a little synapses good evening we are so happy to recognize one of our 11th grade scholars shio kumapai [Applause] so under the mentorship of her u.s history teacher miss carrie luba shia participated in the spring league of the debating world cup hosted by harvard student agencies during the month of april she was selected from an exclusive group of high school students who were rigorously screened from institutions around the world and competed on a global stage during the league shia learned to structure a compelling argument develop her
007skills in public speaking and confident persuasion raise her voice on global and local issues and create change shia was selected as one of the top 16 debaters in the national championship and she will be moving on to compete with harvard students and global peers in the debate world cup in december 2022 wow good evening everyone um i just have four special ladies i would like to thank for this but first and foremost i really just like to thank god for getting me here for favoring me for giving me this opportunity um i officially just want to thank mrs creeden our superintendent she was my patron of sorts she kind of funded me without her i probably wouldn't have gotten into this i'd like to thank um madame glauc my french teacher and mrs luba for
008just thinking i was going to be a good fit for this and introducing this to me i'd again just like to thank mrs luba and mrs coons without them this wouldn't have been possible every step of the way mrs luba emailed me she asked for progress reports she was like an annoying boss but not annoying but um she really was there this like every step of the way and i'm just so thankful for them and i just want to thank everyone for making this possible so thank you [Applause] we can't wait to hear an update in december great job yes and also tonight we have some special guests from the maple hill orchestra so i'm gonna invite mrs driscoll the building principal at maple hill and mrs gina gilbert the musical instructor good evening so
009happy to be here tonight we are celebrating some members of the maple hill orchestra we have two young ladies with us who have worked incredibly hard we're extremely proud and i'm going to leave the honors of introducing them to their orchestra instructor miss gina gilbert miss gilbert [Applause] hello we're so happy to be here tonight um i have two students who will be performing our first student is alice um to tell you a little bit about each student alice is a fourth grader at maple hill um she's been playing violin for three years and she joined us part way through the year and i just have a little story to tell you like what kind of a student she is her very first day in my class i handed her a letter about the concert
010and i said i'm not going to require you to come but we would love to have you would you like to be in the concert and enthusiastic yes she was very excited to do it which is a great attitude um so she's going to be playing by martini [Applause] oh [Music] oh [Music] do [Music] uh uh [Music] hey [Music] oh [Music] a little baby [Music] me [Music] ah [Applause] so [Applause] uh next i have alina for you um elite has had a very busy year at maple hill she's also a fourth grader and she accompanied our chorus on both of their concerts in december and earlier this month um i'll tell you sir about elena she was spending some time in my in the orchestra room and she asked if she could play the piano
011it's a common question and i said sure go ahead um and then she started from memory playing a chopin sonata so it was it was pretty impressive so i hope you enjoy she's going to be playing vivaldi a violin concerto in a minor [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] uh [Music] down [Music] mm-hmm [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] did [Music] do [Music] down [Music] do hey [Music] [Applause] uh i just would like to take a moment to congratulate miss gilbert the orchestra concert at maple hill was amazing this year considering that it was the first time that any of the students had ever been on a stage because of covid in addition i want to thank the board of education and the administration and the past administrations i don't know if a lot of people who have
012always been in middletown realize that many many districts do not have a strings program we are incredibly fortunate to have that here and as you can see we have students who are really benefiting and it sets a beautiful example for the younger students who watch them and it makes them want to come up and play instruments as well so i want to thank all of you i know the families thank you for all the hard work you've done and thank you for coming tonight and i know there's tremendous appreciation in the district for the programs that this board has put in place so thank you [Applause] thank you thank you fabulous job parents congratulations thank you so much everybody beautiful job can we give you one more round of applause we're going to move on
013to our individual board recognitions and community reports i'm going to start down with mr freddie williams tonight oh good evening what i have more is uh for round table so i'm good right now thank you uh mrs houston i just want to thank the girls for playing i thought that was incredible so so blessed that we have so much talent and i want to see more and more school funding get channeled into programs for students thank you thank you mr williams um for the community reports and recognition i just want to thank everybody for coming out for academic achievement awards when uh 250 kids got acknowledged for the achievement i want to thank the kids the teachers the administrators just everybody who put that together was an amazing night um i really want to highlight
014the kids how they all were rooting each other on it was just the energy was just incredible um so i just want to thank everybody involved in that also experience our programs that evening there was over 2 000 people that came through to experience our programs with the kids and just the support from the families that's in the district as well as all the employees of the district everybody that is just incredible and that's just one middle town right there it's just like the energy is just overwhelming so i definitely wanted to recognize that and commend everybody who was involved in that and if you didn't experience it you missed something you missed something thank you mr williams mr gomez thank you mr president first i want to join my colleagues mr mill williams and
015miss houston and uh acknowledging all the wonderful talent among our children yeah definitely we need to continue ever upward in our investments whether it be in our musical programs where our school district stands out as well as in other areas of the fine arts in our stem program which also showcased i believe last week a lot of our kids accomplishments and continue to create those opportunities for every student including our special needs children also uh our district should be known always as one where no child is left behind and i mean we mean that heart and soul so i also want to congratulate all our students uh who uh uh you know were recognized at our academic awards night and as at the same time uh or and all other endeavors in these last few
016weeks we're seeing the the our kids stand out and show what our district is all about children who are aspiring and can make it and it's our job to help them make it towards the future and i also want to congratulate all our candidates iran my three colleagues on the board that got reelected as well as all the candidates who ran for the first time for the board i think combined uh there was a very exciting discussion of ideas about the future and and i think our uh we have very promising days ahead uh as we work together towards the good of our of our of our community and again i thank my three colleagues i mean they they as well as all the candidates they ran honorable campaigns uh and they spoke out they
017shared their views and they made our middletown district one of an exciting electoral year and this is i think a good example uh to going forward to the future that's it thank you mr gomez uh mr cresenzo excuse me um the presentation by these two young ladies i closed my eyes i was listening and it just took me away you know it's just absolutely stunning and to open my eyes and see these little people you know that are just so very very talented i hope someday to watch you grow as you move on with your talents and what have you thank you thank you for that um agreeing with mr mitchell williams the academic achievement award night was very very special the amount of work and effort that the students put in their families the
018faculty and staff they didn't get there by themselves they had the motivation um and the awards the scholarship and what have you but one of the things that really really stuck to me was the the very end when the 2022 honor graduates stood up quite a few of them and you could see the diversity of middletown standing there there was virtually every ethnic background represented standing on that podium and they were all so happy and everybody was applauding their families were so happy um this is a district that absolutely works with the students seeking excellence um it's a joint process we all work together with this and i'm very very proud to be a part of that and i went to with mrs blumenow i went to the stem night that was amazing too every
019room had something different and they were actually dissecting a fetal pig which brought me back to my college days i couldn't do it then i couldn't watch it today the other day but the talent and the um the enthusiasm they were explaining how things got from here to there what they were doing and as they kept moving forward they got more animated and and it was just just so much fun and didn't want to leave so again this is that's what this district is all about uh we bring out the best in our students we bring out the best in our faculty and staff and very proud to be here thank you thank you mr crescenzo mr purino thank you uh bishop williams can you hear me yes sir okay thank you firstly i'd like
020to thank everyone who came out to support our budget with the minus 6.9 decrease in the tax levy and just looking at the results of the budget i went back to uh what hank bauer said to mickey mantle and of course hank bell was an outfielder for the new york yankees in the 19 50s and i i may be into the 60s and mickey mantle about the same era and mickey liked the nightlife hank bauer did not earn as much money nowhere is near what mickey mouse earned and hank bauer said to him when mickey came in and uh and not such a good shape from a night out on the crown don't mess with my money and looking at the results of the budget boat in some cases i felt the same way so
021congratulations to every to everyone who voted positively on the budget i'm sure with this period of inflation the minus 6.9 will help everyone in the community and i also in that regard to the vote i'd like to congratulate bishop williams i'd like to congratulate mrs tobias and mr crescenzo on the on now winning achieving another term continuing on and i'll go into some of the items when i'm back hopefully that other board members did a nice job on i just want to read from a something that kevin witt sent us and i thank you uh for that kevin the schedule may 6 month hagen's got talent may 9th twin towers national junior honors society may 10th maple hill oxford concert may 11 mhs academic awards may 12 month national junior honor society may 13th middletown
022arts stem and humanities may 19th president of park ban concert so there's a whole list of these and of what's going on in this district does not validate the dedication of the staff the hard work of the students then i don't really know what else we can do i saw tremendous examples of both um one other thing and then i will uh i will close out on this um this shows dedication to me uh it was saturday after the stem program i received a call from a uh a participant a staff member who had could not find a very valuable antique case that she used to display materials in she wanted it back and she was very concerned that something happened to us so i'm chairman of the buildings and grounds committee this year i
023called bill bartlett at home and i said bill i explain the situation what can he do what can we do about this he was very very um understanding and he got in touch with the custodian at the high school julio rodriguez and julio went through four dumpsters four dumpsters to try to find the item the item turned up in a uh room it had had had gone somehow to the wrong room but to me this it showed a determination it showed dedication it showed hard work on both their parts bill taking a saturday call and mr rodriguez for doing what he did he just didn't say well you know i can't find it and that was it he finally found it so congratulations to our buildings and gallons custodial staff and all our professional staff
024for their dedication and hard work this year and believe me the programs are still on going so bishop williams thank you and i'm done thank you mr perino mr bison thank you bishop one of the nice things about going last is that i can just echo what my other board members have said i'm going to start in with the academic awards it was one of the most rewarding evenings and to realize that one of our students received a scholarship i believe in the amount of thirty thousand dollars to go to rit um to witness also as mitch had pointed out to see the number of students that are in the national honor society to be introduced to the valedictorian in the salutatorium for the class of 2023 a wonderful wonderful evening kudos also to the
025experiment experience hour program i can tell you i went to the first session and we didn't want to leave they were telling us at six o'clock we had to leave and people were really holding back it was phenomenal i left there to go with the om team to goshen for their participation in the spontaneous another great example of our students and the skills that they have lastly i want to say congratulations to our custodian lindell who was named custodian of the year across the united states and if anyone saw the nasdaq yesterday there was a big banner in the city of new york talking about new york city we don't have to go to new york city look at the talent we had here tonight going back a few months i went to the high
026school orchestra concert concert and i have to tell you and i remarked at that time we certainly do not have to go to new york city the talent that was in that room and that was demonstrated to all of us is absolutely amazing and i think where i saw a real progression was that some of the students that were on the stage i saw them in fifth grade in fourth grade and i remember the screeching and the noise and the practice and then i saw them as juniors and site and seniors and sophomores freshmen's too freshman through senior absolutely amazing yes middletown you have a lot to be proud of so i thank all of the parents and all of the students who have so unwilling willingly given their time not unwillingly willingly giving their
027time to make this a wonderful school district thank you mr bias and if you look at the picture that check is for ten thousand dollars ten thousand dollars uh lydell won yeah thank you um i just want to um just echo echo um all of my all my colleagues here at the table um there's so many amazing things that's going on and over the next uh next month and a half um we're going to be filled with so many uh recognitions and events that are going to be going on from concerts to uh to academic academic uh recognitions to so many different things that are really uh really powerful uh when it comes to celebrating the students and the parents and the families that we have in this in this school um i want to
028start by some of the just a few of the events that i was able to go to uh first of all the national honor national honor society for the high school then i had the privilege of being at the national uh junior honors society at mount hagen um i was not able to make all the other ones uh but then we had the uh the academic awards night and i don't think anybody realizes that on that night there were there were hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships that were given away that night and uh to see these young people uh 250 of them you said right 250 of them uh that have worked hard and have really uh strived in excellence and to see them celebrated and to receive these opportunities is amazing these
029are opportunities that i did not have when i 40 years ago when i graduated from this school but it's just amazing to see the opportunities that all of our young people have and and here's the thing it was such a great diverse group of young people that everybody that was walking across that stage uh just was representative of what uh this this this district is uh and the greatness that it is and that doesn't mean that there's not challenges it just means that we have to focus on the greatness uh as well to make sure that we can continue to move forward um uh also just really tapping in real fast to the uh experience our programs not it was not just a stem night but it was featuring all of our programs from music
030to art to all of the stem programs robotics labs cisco labs biomedical artwork yes so so so much so much so much stuff and so we celebrate all of you um our wonderful staff are wonderful and when i say staff it's not just administrators and teachers it's it goes to all of our staff it goes to our our health professionals it goes to our custodial staff our buildings and grounds it goes to it goes to our food service workers so many wonderful uh individuals that are here in this district that work hard daily that work hard daily and especially after coming out of a pandemic and and still uh still working hard and so i congratulate all of you uh and and what can i say about lidell henderson um lido henderson will recognize him
031directly here at our next meeting um but uh this is a this is a gentleman who i grew up with and he's never changed and everybody that remembers lydell remember that liddell was also that same custodian who performed a heimlich maneuver on one of our students who was choking you know and uh and saved that child's life and so uh we celebrate him uh he's on vacation this week and i think he deserves it and yeah he his his wife's his wife his wife uh his wife is on is getting set to climb on a on a boat to the bahamas and so so we celebrate we celebrate him so um so many wonderful things to look forward to let's keep moving onward and upward and uh and let's continue to celebrate our our young
032people and our children uh and those that are coming up the ranks let's let's celebrate them and continue to work um for for the good work for the good thank you president williams i i would like to yield my time back if i could just to quickly mention one more thing in my community announcements um i have been reached um someone has reached out to me but i want to commend her because she's reached out to the whole community emily figueroa a student of middletown high has been coordinating um with me via email to hopefully meet with mrs creden and dr williams to have some kind of stem program to get children and in particular her interest was to get more girls involved in the program and young women so um i didn't want her
033to think that uh with all of the different end of the year circumstances with the candidates and the election and the different activities that that have been overlooked so emily if you're listening this evening i am so moved by your enthusiasm and i'm looking forward to working with you and um our our leadership to get that uh possible thank you i was in quarantine for steam night so i apologize i um wanted to do the right thing but i really missed out on a great activity it sounds like so hopefully next year thank you thank you mr houston uh we're going to move on um acceptance of the may 17 2022 vote results approval to accept the may 17 2022 vote results may have a motion please [Music] any discussion yes i wish these two
034items had not been um bundled i would have wanted them to be separated but i know president williams you told me that's not possible i would have voted yes on the budget portion but i am forced for blah blah forced to vote no on both with respect to the candidates appeals process with the commissioner of education there were some discrepancies and i'm sure they'll get worked out but um as of now from um the total balance received were 1002 there was um more than 19 that were declared void one absentee ballot eight affidavit ballots and 12 machine ballots so that could have changed the results of the election but that process gets handled through the commissioner of education and she will decide so thank you any other discussion all in favor aye opposed opposed it
035so passes congratulations to the administration mr cuddle and to the board of education and to the community on on the passing of our budget and and for uh we'll talk about the other stuff later but thank you so much thank you so much um moving on um opportunity to address the board you have four minutes you can sign in at the desk and uh and take your four minutes and there'll be no dialogue as we always say but this is your opportunity to address anybody i'll be i'll be pretty quick um i'll sign my name real quick uh good evening middletown middletown school board i just want to say it's been a tremendous ride i'm honored to see that the community had an opportunity to hear not only my voice but everyone that has stood
036up to push forward this community to do better so um congratulations to those who won thank you mr williams uh mr vincent and rose congratulations so thank you sir have a good night you too thank you very much anybody else like to address the board at this time if not we're going to move on oh i thought you were here i was upstairs this is it and there's a little bit of a delay so yes you know to come down anyway my name is fran glickman i am um the junior class advisor and we have our prom this friday prom is this friday um i like to say put a thank you out there because there were uh several people who donated funds that went to our some of our needy students so thank you
037there was members in the from the community there was staff members and administration there was a number of donations so i'd like to you know just put that out there how wonderful we are as a family a middletown family and uh thank you and it was very much appreciated by those students who received the well-deserved funds for their prom just a reminder for parents out there [Music] that students cannot drive themselves to prom i've had several conversations with students who think that they should drive to prom there's a reason why we have this in place all right we don't what there was something that happened in the past that we do not want to see repeated all right and uh also there's a pre-prom meeting that is mandatory just so i'm just putting this out
038there for those who are listening um a hair appointment and nails appointment is not a reason to miss it because the information has been on the packet for months um so uh but something educational we have some students who are taking a test at boces so they have to take their tests at bosey so of course they you know they'll just come little late to the meeting and let's see what else i think that's oh when you if you have an early release signed uh on the students when you sign into the um to the pre-prom meeting you're actually like signing out for the day so make sure that you have all your belongings with you because they'll open up those auditorium doors and the students will exit the auditorium and be released to their
039parents waiting for them to attend their appointments all right i think we're going to have a great time um our our prom uh theme is visions and violet i didn't know that that was going to win um the survey but it did and um it's going to be beautiful a lot of purple and florals so it's gonna be a good time thank you so much everyone for all your support god bless and be well thank you fran thank you [Applause] any other addresses if not we'll move on um any letters today no letters uh district reports and presentations uh our superintendent mrs amy queen great thank you i just wanted to address our entire school community this evening those here and those watching at home on behalf of the enlarged city school district middletown our
040board of education our faculty scholars staffs families i want to take this opportunity to express our sincerest appreciation for the support that you demonstrated by approving the largest margin in recent history for the 2022-23 budget this increased participation which we're so grateful for which we no doubt believe came out of the admirable race that the nine candidates ran this increased participation and the budget passing by a majority of 79 percent is a clear indicator that our school community has positively endorsed our steps forward and we're so appreciative of that our vision for continued momentum includes providing safe healthy inclusive environments with engaging academics and social motion experiences for our young people our budget had some examples this evening of special programs that are included in those but outside of that includes supports that are centered
041on academics the social emotional well-being of our young people and this year provides for new enrichment experiences throughout the summer and throughout the school year um and again i want to just make sure that um you know for our viewing community really our entire school community that you know the budget although there are some big pieces that get talked a lot about capital of improvement projects you know are some of those the budget includes much more than that and there were many many pieces that although you know not quite dollar amount or as big as a capital improvements are critical to the success of our programs in total one example would be the um 12 new social workers that we've added to the district to address the social emotional needs of our scholars and we
042feel i'm really encouraged at the ability to work together with both the msaa and the mta to make sure that we continue to support our scholars in recovering from the kova pandemic so i think that despite some of the challenges that we've faced this year i am just incredibly proud of the collected efforts of our entire school community i want to personally thank the mayor of the city of middletown the common council um the supervisor of the town of walk hill and the town of walk hill council our entire community of supports our community meeting group we have come together and worked in partnership this year and we've made sure that every corner of our school community is impacted by these unified steps forward we have made progress and there is so very much to
043be celebrated we believe our schools are one of the biggest catalysts for growth within this community that we serve here in the city of middletown in the town of walk hill strong schools committed to excellence equates to strong communities and i don't think anybody loses in that scenario together we really believe that we're making legacy makers so i want to also send a special thank you to all nine candidates who ran very admirable campaigns i again i do believe that the candidates that came out and ran these campaigns and designated a significant amount of time to bringing voice to our community was impactful and what was resulting was a pretty large number of voters which was incredibly exciting for us congratulations to president williams mr cresenzo and mrs tobiason to being re-elected to serve on
044the board of education for another three-year term we are very lucky in middletown to have a board of education that continues to support this growing school community we have amazing schools we have incredible educators administrators and staff i want to thank the members of the mta and the large group of administrators from the msaa we're here tonight to cheer on the passing of the budget we are a vibrant school district we celebrate our young people it is an exciting time to be a part of the middletown city school districts and i am i'm honorably serving as superintendent i want to thank you thank you very much superintendent creeden um action items uh entertain a motion for the approval of financial memorandum number 22 please don't move moving in second date any discussion all in favor
045all right opposed so passes approval of a motion for approval of special services memorandum number 22 please moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye opposed this so passes uh motion for approval of change orders please don't move second moved and seconded um mr bartlett if you could give us a quick explanation of change orders please certainly tonight we have one changed order and it's a changeover to raise the existing ac refrigerant lines 12 inches at nine separate locations to accommodate the future roof installation of truman moon [Music] thank you sir any questions all in favor opposed it so passes um action on student disciplinary appeal don't move moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye aye aye right opposed so passes action on student disciplinary appeal we have another motion second i
046nap moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye opposed it so passes uh action item f action on student disciplinary appeal so moved second on that moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye opposed it so passes approval uh action item g approval of moa for directors and supervisors second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes thank you moving on to our committee reports are there any committee reports tonight mr gomez sure the fair funding committee met last week and uh one of the goals that i think we have is we want to reach out in the coming months to our local legislatures to see if they could take on initiatives that will benefit not just our school district but school district as a whole such as uh
047maybe changing the uh when it comes to the foundationing formula we're still using uh demographics from the year 2000 census maybe uh moving towards the year 2020 census we should be more reflective of the current challenges and these are our school districts that's something to look into state senator shelly mayer chair of the education committee raised that when she came here and definitely i think that's something to look forward to another idea which i would like to uh bring over to our some assembly woman gunther and other elected officials is maybe allowing school districts as well as municipalities to be eligible for a waiver of unfunded mandates uh you know they will have to apply to the respective state agency and demonstrate either the uh the waiver of the the mandate it's not necessary or
048applicable to the district or that the district has found a more cost effective way to fulfill the objective as opposed to a particular method the state once imposed again it will allow the marketplace of ideas to go forward and save money for school districts so it's just ideas we want to share with our elected officials and hopefully get some benefit for the years to come for our district and school children and school districts throughout the state of new york thank you sir any other committee reports tonight um uh mr perino you have a committee report tonight committee uh we have one committee report safety and security uh mitch do you want to start off on this i was in may 11th meeting if you like start off in and out then i'll add on okay
049then i guess i will start off and maybe you'd like to fill us in as we go along may 11 we had a safety and security meeting lenny zapco coordinated the meeting at that meeting ashley merchant middletown high school dave green retired member of middletown police department juvenile officer dwayne whitaker dean atlethagen myself nicole brookins twin towers and mitch of course and uh barbara kerr barbara kura is our health practitioner and she's also our reporting secretary um we call this meeting we have regular meetings of safety and security and there was a an allegation that that various weapons were getting into the buildings that the administration was not aware of the administration at each of the buildings takes steps to prevent this and it does happen sometimes and when it does action is taken you
050have to understand the way it was the way it is in the way it always will be that each administrator has sources in those buildings there are students who want to do the right thing they will go to an administrator and say hey this uh johnny jones has something not supposed to have in school and and so on so um this is it and each they're very proactive our administrators for example twin towers to help alleviate hallway crowding mr brookings has implemented a staggered dismissal time for each grade level and that's golf course twin towers we have the revitalation revitalization committee it's becoming a a bit overcrowded school has there's bag checks in school there's mediation in the school and she also said there's a need for one more security officer and by the way
051we discuss that in detail each of the administrators felt that there are no downsides to having security personnel in the buildings no downside as a matter of fact i've been watching closely our security personnel they do a wonderful job they build relationships with the students don't think of these security personnel as 17th century or 18th century prison guards carrying around billy clubs they don't do that they speak with the students they help get the students the class and they respond if necessary to emergencies and i wanted to elaborate on that uh like you said we were saying that they said it is not a problem they said just the opposite they are basically the glue that help that keeps everything straight because it's not even a lot of them is not just building a relationship
052with the students they know the students a lot of them are are people from our community and that's why i wanted to put this on committee reports but also as far as community reports because a lot of them are from the community their coaches their dads their uncles they're people who if you're in the community you know them and they they really love the kids and they want what's best for the kids before they even got hired i was running the people like mitch i need to got cities there's fights going on in the school man i'm going to try to get me a security guard you know which way okay well this is how you got to go through the hiring process that's who you go to because they want to be involved and
053they've actually answered the call so i commend them so much on the job that they're doing they're doing their best because they love these kids they love these families because they're a part of the families a lot of them have kids that are in the school right so it's it's and and based on what the the principles we're saying they are stepping up and doing what needs to be done and they are very helpful they become a guidance counselor a teacher a friend uh everything to those kids good i i believe that the as mitch does at the secret our security personnel and our soos sro is our big asset to the building speaking about middletown high school bag checks with metal detectors daily since november 30th a total of four knives a butter knife
054plated twine source knife some pepper spray and some vape pens were found that's a school of about 2 400 students again all the positive activities that were reported there are in every building and every age there are few students who don't obey a few simple rules and then action is taken and action should be taken and uh dr williams at the high school again a new person on staff fine job she's doing uh monhegan the same way bag checks are conducted um there's no way there's reports from other students if something goes wrong and have a good administrative team at that building so um you can't anticipate everything who can but uh we're doing what we can we're doing and we're trying to do more uh mr williams mitch williams has a mediation center on
055north street and he's doing a fine job with that so that's my committee report for the evening i'd like to commend barbara kerr she's our recording secretary of the group and uh i think we're done with that mitch you have anything you'd like to add well once again uh with barbara and the nurses doing an excellent job um because when we ask for the reports from them we ask for numbers because we got to go through things based off of data so we're saying okay well how many ambulances were called with all the fights that are going on okay that zero okay how many stitches are we talking about and i hate to go there but we have to go there this is what we're doing okay none okay what are we talking about right
056now we're talking about some pulling hair and different things now of course we don't want that either but it's like okay all right and you know thank you for what's going on and barbara and the nursing staff excellent job and once again this speaks to the security that are getting to these situations before it gets too much so now it's the thing okay so we're doing our job in the school because the school is trying to do what they have to do as far as it but then now okay what are we doing in the community because it spills out into the community it's playing out in the school but it's a community thing so it's just something that where now we're starting i'm trying to me and freddie are trying to think of different
057interventions that we can do in the community that could assist in this because it's not just the school that's right we are community members we're trying to work the school with the community the school is doing their part so now it's for us to do our part that's it and also just one final thing uh dave green lieutenant dave green retired a very big asset to the committee he made some great comments and offered some suggestions so i think we're through with that report bishop williams and move on thank you any other committee reports yes sir um well part of it i took a another webinar about um policy but unfortunately the um the slide deck and other information for whatever reason didn't come through so as of this afternoon i didn't get it so
058i'll do something with that next week is really really interesting about the new state and federal policies that are coming out addressing very current topics of uh what's going on now but uh just a couple of minutes um i i want to talk about the election and um uh i thank the people who supported me and uh the other all the candidates seemed to support each other was really a wonderful experience but one of the things i've gotten from this there are two things that have happened to me in the 11 years i've been on this board of education and the recent actually the when the pandemic hit in march of 2020 i volunteered to deliver food i've said this before and i thought i'd just do it for a while but um i it
059just became a part of my day in my life and i did it for seven months and what happened there was i got to meet people who i never would have met you know these um we went into these housing apartments and what have you uh where um some very fragile people and families live and it took a while for them to come out i made the mistake of wearing my uh boe thing and they saw the badge and they didn't want to come out so what i'm trying to say here is that we have an amazing community here it's go it's at all levels and it's it's intertwined and it's a part um and that was a it made an impression on me it was a very moving experience for me and especially the
060kids they came out and they trusted you they spoke with you they told how much they missed going to school they missed their friends and that's good so with the election i ran five times for the board and fortunately i won four but when i was successful i went around and knocked on doors and the first time i did it you know just maybe 120 whatever this time around i did over 500 homes in different communities and i did it because i wanted to and when i started i'm like oh yeah but as i got down the middle of the block you knock on the door you meet this person they have their concerns they're happy about this they want this fixed um other places where you know i don't vote well you know i
061think i had an american flag on the side of his house he said how can you not vote and you you have a flag well what does my vote do and you look at this election especially last year's election where our good friend mitch here won by one vote you know so votes do count so i don't know if it changed his mind or whatever but the part i'm trying to say is that this um event experience was kind of similar to the delivering food it wasn't quite as dramatic um but we i keep saying this i said it about the awards assembly we have an amazing community here i don't think you're gonna find it anyplace else you're certainly not gonna find it in goshen or warwick or anything like that you know take
062the time go out and especially in the summer now when the city's starting to bustle a little bit they're going to have events non-stop things in the city get out there and meet people they've got a lot to say you've got a lot to learn i learned a lot one family had four different languages spoke in their home so again thank you for your trust in me i will do everything i possibly do to be a better board member and to listen to the community thank you very much president williams i have to leave a few minutes early this evening i hope you all have a great night thank you so much have a good night um just quick committee reports um oxford orange county school board association um uh i i have the privilege
063of being i'm not only the representative but the first vice president for the orange county school board association uh the annual meeting will and dinner will be on june 1st uh it'll be held at cosmos in middletown it's wednesday june 1st uh all the board members that desire to go are invited we'll be recognizing superintendents you'll be able to meet some of your counterparts from our component districts and if you would like to go to that dinner on that night please respond to our district clerk and she'll be responding to the executive director of of oxbow uh also i i am i am up again um for election on oxford for the next year um again as the first vice president um nisba nisba of course um mrs blumenau is our representative at the nisba
064but i do sit on the dei committee diversity equity and inclusion committee which is a very active committee that is working toward um dei initiatives for the entire state we will be presenting uh in in june in july i'm sorry in july we will be meeting for two days and we'll be presenting comprehensive programs and trainings to [Music] not only to the rest of the nisba executive board but also to the new york state department of education um a very important part uh and to understand that uh diversity equity inclusion is not just about your ethnicity i'll make sure that i put that out there um it includes it includes in some way or another all of us and then lastly uh i lost it i'm getting old um nisba i had oxbow i had
065nisba i had um oh i i also i also have the have the privilege of sitting as the uh the area nine director for the black caucus of school board members for area nine um and so uh i'm encouraging all of our all of our uh uh members of colors from all over um all over this region um to get connected with this group who does a lot of uh advocating and uh working toward again diversity equity and inclusion and so um it's my job now as the area director to begin recruiting so i'm recruiting and uh and then oxford the ox the nisba convention will be in october and so uh we'll be preparing for that i i think i think the nisba convention is going to be in rochester this year uh so
066as we as we move along through the summer we'll determine uh it's open to any of any of the board members that desire to go so i have nothing else and if there's no other no other um committee reports we'll move on real quick to round table uh to round table uh tonight uh uh board members uh i'm so i'm sure we're all gonna be brief tonight um so but whatever whatever it is uh mr williams i have a few things i might not be that brief um i would like to congratulate all the candidates elected uh last night mr williams mr cresenzo and mrs tobiason congratulations [Music] and the passing of our budget of course and those who do not get elected you have a place in our district you are warranted to help
067us achieve greatness for our scholars and we as a board are focused on working with you all um the next thing is i wanted to acknowledge my cousin lydell henderson again um i had the pleasure of being there for the celebration as most of us did and it was just like amazing i don't know hundreds of kids and and and the atmosphere and uh actually got the videotape him walking in and i posted on social media and it like so i was making uh making light of the situation i told his his son my my other cousin is like he's gonna cry he's gonna cry when he walked in so he walked in and i'm taping and i started tearing up off of the emotion that he was you know because he we all know
068lydell and he's pretty stern and straightforward but um that was an amazing an amazing uh an event and celebration for him and then to get the text message of the times square uh that was just it's just adding on and adding on um so me and the family we also plan to do something uh within the city soon i can't give all the details but um they'll be coming out soon so i want to acknowledge lydell again and uh you know just a great guy me i mean he's known me since i've been in diapers and uh i've always looked up to him and and this is an amazing achievement for him uh and the family and also uh i wanted to comment on middletown youth sports uh we're working on free pro summer programs
069right now for our youth um and it's made possible you know by business sponsors and individual sponsors um many of which you you know sit on the board and and you guys are amazing uh the businesses local businesses are amazing and i want to give a special thanks to them a special thanks to mitchell williams help me uh helping us get this thing together and get all of our kids like i always hear inclusion and that's that's like our thing you know not everybody can shoot a basketball or throw a football or but we're gonna have things we're we're we're looking at uh trips you know we're looking at track and field we're looking at whether it be chest or you know whatever it is but inclusion is is the goal so i just want
070to thank everybody for um supporting middletown youth sports and um that's what i have thank you thank you sir mr gomez thank you mr president i just want to bring a little reflection on our adapt children those are students who uh often because of different physical or developmental abilities have to travel or disabilities have to travel outside of the district or outside of the county to get an education some going as far as bronx county or maybe new york county and it is my hope or wish that they could come and that will probably require maybe coordination by the different school districts changing state law as well pro a initiative from part of boces and our county government to make it possible for those students to be able to get their education here within their
071county or ideally within our district just think of the wear and tear on their bodies have to travel two or four hours daily to get an education and also the cause not to mention the financial cost be it to the families or to the school districts our goal as i stated earlier should be that no child be left behind and i hope that these children will be given that priority in the years ahead again that will not be a battle or should not be a battle for our district alone it will involve many stakeholders throughout orange county but it's something that and throughout the other counties of new york but it needs to be done i think it's pretty unfair that there have to be children that have to travel all the way to pelham
072parkway in the bronx because that may be the best school for children that have issues with hearing i think as a state as a community we could do better and i hope that's something that we will look into and explore in the years ahead and with that i call on the county government the state government as well as all our partners in education through our accounting state to think about how we could better the life of these children we come a long way from the days of helen keller where children with special needs were in off but there's still much to be done thank you sir um mr mitchell williams um yeah i want to start off by congratulating um pastor williams rose and vince congratulations on being back here on the board i also
073want to thank everybody who ran um [Music] i think it was very exciting the race but i want to tell everybody keep that same energy you don't have to be on the board to help out in the community [Music] there's a lot of things that we're trying to do in the community that you can add on to please know also you because i was hearing concerns during the race was running and i'm like okay i'm jotting things down but you can email me also amy has an open door policy dr williams have an open door policy we want to hear concerns so we can address them because we're solution focused there's no way we can only win together that's the only way we win so please i implore you keep that same energy just because
074you're not on the board does not mean that you doesn't mean that you're not in the game you're gonna have to start saying like um i'm done or a man or something like that or pick up the mic and drop it or something like that i'm done so i know you're done okay thank you thank you mr crescenzo paul did he have that slide paul yeah all right it's it's um als recognition awareness month um als is uh amyotropic lateral sclerosis and amyotropic means death of the muscle hardening of the muscle muscle atrophy lateral has to do with your spine and your brain stem and sclerosis is the hardening of the muscle yeah the hardening of the muscle and the nerves which makes them inoperable so i didn't know anything about um als um the
075only exposure i had was the uh pride of the yankees the lou gehrig's story and um he he was an incredible athlete he he played 2164 consecutive games didn't miss the game in all that time and then all of a sudden uh the clear blue sky was having a difficult time holding the bat he was dropping balls that he normally caught with ease and it just started escalating and he went to various doctors and he diagnosed diagnosed him with a um a muscular oh my god yeah excuse me a motor neuron disease motor neuron disease so that's motor neurons are the nerves that work your muscles they didn't know what als was at that time and then ironically um the scientists who are really into this research don't believe you ever had als or some
076other type of neuron disease but they're going to keep the name there for the notoriety so anyway it's a horrific disease it's a it's a death sentence when you're when you're diagnosed with als you have between on the average of two to five years some people live longer it's some it stops and they don't know why and then it eventually progresses again um i have a personal uh connection with als and there's a phrase they use um als doesn't have a face until it's yours or someone you know and my friend and neighbor who lived across the street i witnessed this we were we're pretty good friends um he had a hatchback and he went to close the hatchback and it slipped out of his hand a few months later it got more difficult and
077he was he was he wasn't an architect but he was in that field he was having trouble uh doing his drawings and things so long story short the trouble with als a lot of trouble one of them is it's very difficult to diagnose they think of parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis there's a whole bunch of diseases here and they eliminate those before they get to the als so you see on this chart it's not an incurable disease it's an incredibly underfunded disease i uh my association now because of frank he died on may 11 2011 and i found this organization called als tdi therapeutic development institute and they sponsored this fundraising drive where we ride our bicycles from boston to greenwich connecticut over three days and we average about seven hundred thousand dollars a year
078on this uh thing and they're they're working on this um a cure is way off in the distance but they're working on ways to slow it down they're almost there now and possibly stopping its progression the way they diagnose it because it's a nerve disease is i had this test for something else they'll put an electrode and nerve here an electrode up here and travel it through the same nerve and they measure how long it takes and it's milliseconds but they can tell that way so uh let's see the symptoms are progressive you um eventually you you first you lose your limbs the use of your limbs uh you're confined to a wheelchair sometimes to a hospital bed um and then um as your body atrophies you lose muscle mass obviously and you become very
079thin what have you and the insidious thing about this whole thing is that you never lose your intellectual constellation you you're very aware of what's going on you know your family you know everything as though nothing were wrong with you and then slowly but surely the disease takes over and generally what happens um your diaphragm you breathe the diaphragm expands and you exhale and it contracts and you inhale and eventually that goes and then you have a trach and what have you um and frank got he he was so brave right to the end he just never lost his sense of humor or anything they were getting ready to you can use your eyes on a special computer screen to communicate and he was just getting ready to do that unfortunately he passed so if
080you see something out there like some kind of a fundraiser or something or you get involved in um discussions with people if you're i found if you're in a room with 50 people or more there's someone in there that knows somebody who [Music] knows somebody who has the disease knows somebody who's uncle friend whatever it's there so um you know thank goodness everyone in this room is healthy and take care of yourselves thank you thank you sir mr um perino uh thank you bishop williams i'll be very short i want to thank everyone for the well washers during my uh sort of a bit of an illness here and secondly uh an event is coming up i believe it's in warwick uh the special olympics this year and uh again uh shout out to dave
081coats and his staff and mrs marconi and her staff for arranging our participation in this and all kids are special to us every single one of them thank you thank you mr purino um mr bison thank you pastor first of all i'm going to say it's all aboard to iowa next week for the olympic of the om team from presidential park so i want to make sure they know that they got all of our support and good luck lastly it is with a most humble and heartful thanks to our middletown community for your continued support in my re-election to the enlarged city school district of middletown our children are our most precious possessions and i will continue to work to provide and support all of our students and our staff so i thank say thank
082you to each and every one of you thank you pastor that's it um uh well first let me just say um uh thank you thank you to the uh entire middletown community those that those that um voted for for us and those that those who voted for me and those that didn't vote um for me i i thank all of you for just simply voting um i'm elated and i don't know why i'm elated to be back on this board only because i i love um what we do uh nine years ago coming on this board to step in at a time when others did not want to step in i had the profound privilege of meeting some wonderful individuals that were of like mine that wanted to see this district to continue to progress
083and to go forward and so even with the challenges of the last two years but even more so the challenge of the last year i questioned because of my health my health and some different challenges that i was facing whether or not i would run again but when i see the smiles and i see the faces of our scholars and our students and when i get a chance to interact with this awesome staff and this awesome faculty and administration uh i i had no other choice but to run again uh prosperity is not what's found in how much money we have uh biblically speaking and i'm not trying to preach to anybody but biblically speaking since i am a pastor prosperity is our children it's not about how much money i have in the bank
084or what possessions i have material wealth uh material wealth comes material wealth goes um but it's it's the prosperity is our children and the legacy um that we leave them and so being a part of this district allows us to be a part of leaving legacy uh been working in this city for nearly 40 years 40 years my entire adult life i've worked in this community whether it was sports programs whether it was whether it was feeding programs whether it was tutoring programs whether it was preschools whatever it was and i've been so honored to do so but i've been ultimately honored to be a part of this district and to work with such wonderful people so thank you again to everybody that voted it even to those again that that didn't vote for us
085the reality is is that we're all in this together and i've been saying that forever and so uh to all of those that uh that ran and threw their hat in the ring i applaud you i salute you um as uh as coach mitch said um stay in the game because there's always a place for us to work and [Music] there's so much to do uh i'll i'll say this and i'll and i'll pretty much be done is that the reality is is that as long as we look for trouble whatever you're looking for you'll find it if you look for negative you'll find negative if you look for you look for a fight you'll find a fight if you if you're looking for something bad you'll find something bad but i want to encourage
086everybody to begin to look to the light and begin to look for the positive in people even when uh even when it's hard look for the positive in what we have because we have so much positive going on and i sincerely believe that the positives that we have going on this district far outweighs anything and any challenges that we have and it's only by only by accentuating and magnifying the positives that will be able to overcome any negative that we might face or any challenges that we might uh have to go through so middletown community let's keep working together uh you've got to apply yourselves sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing does no good just like salt that stays in the shaker doesn't do any good so only works when you when you apply
087it and so uh for each and every one of you uh let's continue to be salt let's continue to be light and let's continue to go onward and upward thank you i'm done i'm done i i should i should i said i did that for you so moved there's been a motion to adjourn so moved our next meeting will be before we adjourn our next meeting will be june 2nd june 2nd thursday june 2nd we invite everyone uh to come and we'll see you then uh no discussion all in favor opposed to so passes good night everybody thank you guys for thank coming uh