Middletown City School Board Meeting 9-23-2021

001good evening i'd like to take this opportunity to call the regular september 23rd 2021 regular meeting of the enlarged city school district of middletown to order uh i'm going to ask uh first that we be led in the pledge of allegiance by mrs blumenau following that i ask you to please remain standing for a moment of silence mr if you could remain standing for just a moment mr perrino please moment of silence thank you president [Music] the first moment of science this evening is for louise traver outstanding mathematics teacher at the high school for over 20 years she not only taught students in her classes she invited students to her home and tutored them in geometry trigonometry and algebra enabling them to pass the regions louise also served her community she was a volunteer in

002a mammocating first aid corps for over 50 years she also volunteered in the woodsboro library and she also was a helped with the local fire department so louise a very wonderful person i served on committees with louise and she was very focused on these committees the second moment of silence this evening is for charles newkirk jr mr newcourt the father-in-law of bill kilcoin and bill colquin has been a very respected member of our buildings and grounds crew for over 20 years mr newkirk graduated from middletown high school in 1951 he was very active in school affairs in sports in the in the student council he's also served his country he was a member of the air force in the korean war served the community among his community services he was a member of the elks

003for many years and in this position he served on the elks scholarship and education committee which greatly benefited our community also please remember suzanne driscoll's father anthony castalo and sue short's mother patricia short maureen patricia shorten your in your prayers suzanne driscoll of course is the principal of maple hill elementary school and mr short is the principal of this building presidential park so again gone but not forgotten thank you so much can i ask everyone to still remain standing for just one more moment i want to take this opportunity to acknowledge a tragedy that's happened locally many of you are aware in the news of a tragic stabbing in arlington one of our neighboring schools across the river but still one of our neighbors and so we want to take this opportunity to remember quran

004smith who was a junior at arlington high school who lost his life too early it hits home when our children are lost and so i want to take this opportunity to wish his family god's speed there in our thoughts in the in our prayers as they go through this tragedy and may none of us ever have to experience that thank you thank you yes uh thank you mission statement of the large city school district of middletown mr freddie williams good evening we strive to provide physically sound educational education opportunities in a safe environment that continuously support our diverse student population we will enable all students to graduate to reach their full potential to become lifelong learners and to be competitive productive members of society thank you sir roll call mrs clark here mr freddie williams

005here pastor williams here mr mitchell williams thank you i entertain a motion for the approval of our agenda tonight second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye opposed surpasses now entertain a motion for the approval of our regular meetings minutes from our september 2nd 2021 meeting moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes um just before we move on i would like to take the opportunity first of all uh to thank uh all of you here that have been uh praying for me and keeping your concerns for those who might not be aware of my absence the last few weeks five weeks ago to this day i suffered a mild mild heart attack and it took the wind out of me for a bit and while i'm still under

006doctor's care i thought it was important to be here tonight and so i do appreciate all of the phone calls all of those that checked checked in on me all of you that were keeping me in your thoughts and your prayers i am doing i am doing better than i was and i will continue to do better and come back stronger than ever so keep my family my family has stuck by me the whole time and uh took very good care of me for that i am very grateful so i just wanted to express that express my gratitude that's why if you haven't seen me the last couple the last five weeks that's why i haven't been here and i know that that the board was respecting my privacy as to what was happening but

007uh it's not a secret it's not a secret so thank you moving on personnel action items if there's no objection i'd like to combine personnel memorandum 7a instructional and personnel memorandum 7b non-instructional i'd like to combine them together please thank you any discussion all in favor aye opposed so passes uh moving on to recognitions announcements and community reports um when i start down at the at the uh at the end of the table with mr freddie williams how you doing um been blessed to start a flag football program that's gonna start roll out in the spring uh through the middletown district um from grades three through ten the younger kids can get involved and all the kids can get involved and it's just a general consistency of the of the ages um so that's going

008to roll out in the spring i sat with a few people from the district so we're gonna get that going inclusive and we will be doing fundraisers to make it a free program for all the kids which i think is great and um also there is this saturday i believe starting at 6 30 uh the middletown police department is presenting movie night downtown in um festival square starts 6 30 and the movie starts at 7 30. i believe they're showing the movie uh moana so that's good family fun too for the community and that's what i got for now thank you thank you sir mr mitchell williams um i just want to you get me just take this time just to acknowledge um different things that we're going to be doing that i'm very excited

009about that we're going to do in the middletown community so i want to acknowledge that it takes a village team because of a few different things coming up the first thing one of the first things is we want to acknowledge hispanic heritage month which is from september 15 to october 15th we're going to be doing something the texas village team is made up of freddie williams anthony williams yaya williams omar perez chief john as well as john merchant as well as and that's just the core team everybody else in the community that wants to get involved can always get involved but our thing is to unite everyone as well as with the community with the school district with the police everyone just for the families of middletown and i'm very excited about it so we

010have something coming up from that the next thing that we're involved in as well is this tailgating thing that we're very excited about and i just want to thank the school district dave coats for adding on with us with that as well as well as amy creeden for sitting at the table takes a village all of us together because that's how this thing is supposed to work all of us together for the benefit of our family and betterment of our kids so we're excited about that please everyone come out to that um to cheer the football team on before they leave and we're gonna drive out and get that bell back all right um the next thing is it's something that uh freddie williams have brought up uh last week when he's talking about the

011importance of transparency and it seems like sometimes people doesn't know don't know what our responsibility is and i'm all about transparency and i'm all about accountability because no one is above accountability so i wanted to put this up on the screen and i wanted to read the responsibility of the school board as well as the superintendent and how it relates so it says the school board decides what the superintendent decides how the school board requests information the superintendent seeks and provides information the school board considers issues the superintendent provides recommendations the school board creates reviews and adopts policy the superintendent recommends and carries out policy the school board approves and reviews plans the superintendent implements plans the school board monitors progress the superintendent reports progress the school board contracts with personnel the superintendent supervises hiring

012and process practices the school board approves evaluation and criteria and procedures the superintendent supervises and evaluates personnel the school board approves and reviews budget the superintendent formulates the budget the school board represents the public interest the superintendent acts in the public interest that's all i got thank you sir mrs blumenau thank you that was great i couldn't have said it better myself i have nothing i just i know this is like our first week of full school so i hope everything is going well and i know that we're moving into open houses open house week so i'm looking forward to hearing more about that as i don't have children in the school but i've been seeing some some positive posts about the um that interaction some of them are online this week or have been

013going on this week and i hope that those are going well thank you thank you mr crescenzo thank you um i don't have a lot but we're we were supposed to start a review of the twin towers project but that they'll talk about that later we need more consultation with the architects so that'll be next week and that's a really exciting project that's coming also out the window here the playgrounds coming together for the older students from this building and i just hope everybody's enjoying the fall weather and when it stops raining it's it's going to be really really nice so thank you thank you this is houston so um first of all i want to say that i'm looking forward to the pep rally i'm hoping the weather holds up tomorrow last week's football

014game was like the beautiful weather we only caught the tail end my husband and i but um there's tomorrow's golden grads the class reunion i believe it's class reunion of 1970 that's the year i was born but um and i hope my my speech tonight doesn't ruffle any feathers it's not my intention but i always say the truth this week a member of our board of education decided to attend a city of middletown public meeting and spoke on behalf of our board preemptively as to the hiring process for our superintendent using the pronoun we multiple times with regard to actions that are going to be taken by our board just for the record this evening as a board member i wish to say that the hiring process for our new superintendent has not yet been

015collectively voted upon as a board and this action in my opinion was a little out of line no offense per my conversation with our school district attorney this afternoon there are multiple paths for our board of education to take with regard to this hiring process it is our right to conduct this search without outside help from an agency that will cost our district a lot of money if that is what is decided upon by the majority if certain board members wish to speak at public meetings they have every right to however they should not be making decisions on their own and announcing them before the appropriate time also this board member spoke out about his own personal feelings as to our administration i wish to clarify that these feelings were his feelings they weren't necessarily

016i'm not saying they weren't but representative of everyone's here it is important that when a board member speaks here she is distinguishing between his or her own perspective instead of speaking for the board of education as a whole and i know we have liaisons and i know sometimes this particular member does fill in for that role however we isn't always okay with me when it may or may not reflect our board of education members said that each of us should bring a list of qualities which i like this idea which we would like to see in a leader in an upcoming workshop last week i sent a letter to all of my fellow colleagues that said the following after attentively listening to the many constituents of our community who attended our last board of education

017meeting and reading the numerous letters and really hearing what they have to say here i am losing my place again i think it is safe to conclude that they are rightfully expecting the community or the board of ed excuse me wanting to look for the following qualities from all of us elected leaders and paid administration number one humility and leadership which right now seems to me the most important one number two for us to listen to them with open hearts and minds without censorship number three for careful unbiased consideration of their asks for truth five transparency six accountability seven fairness eight improved communication nine uncompromised people in positions of leadership and ten integrity which of course numbers one through nine are part of it's funny how life works because last night i was out of

018class and without prior knowledge the class ended up focusing on the desirable qualities of an excellent excellent leader so i'm going to have to add to my list number 11 humility that's number one again number 12 gentleness with strength to opposition when necessary thirteen someone who is led through through heart by truth and word fourteen someone who has an awareness of the needs of the many and the needs of the few fifteen someone who is reassuring 16 protectiveness 17 trustworthiness 18. fearlessness 19 a person who is sensitive to the suffering of others 20 a wise individual 21 someone who is discerning 22 someone who is led by fire but not consumed by it and 23 finally fairness speaking of fairness i want to mention that several months ago i mentioned in a public session that

019i had heard of a hiring practice that our district has been said to have used i spoke with a concerned constituent today who wants to remain anonymous who had been denied a position by our district because of one grade over 20 years ago on her college transcript it is said that our district turns away all applications in which the applicant has a grade lower than a b on their college transcript transcript even if the grade was over 20 years ago and the person may have have been a freshman young from a fatherless home poverty or any other situation that may have delayed them realizing their full potential as a college freshman for the record i do not agree with this practice which is not a policy to my knowledge i think i think of my

020own situation i once took um golf to fulfill a physical education requirement i was a chubby little ballerina so phys ed as much as i wanted to be isn't my forte but i try the golf instructor was not a golfer in fact he was an award-winning olympic bobsledder but the point is that i earned a c in his class and that was because i didn't take his class very seriously so in conclusion i hope that middletown would not have dismissed me for a grade like this if i had been the applicant this is just food for thought um just wanted to say my feelings and thank you for listening [Applause] williams thank you but i'm going to need to address that if you don't mind i'm going to address that no i'm the person that

021miss houston is speaking of i'm the liaison for the board of education uh to the common council and you know when miss houston starts her thing with i'm gonna ruffle some feathers you know you're into maybe some misinformation so what i did at the common council meeting was and by the way let me preface this with mr perrino and i are the only peop persons on this board who have ever done a superintendent search it's an incredibly complicated procedure it's time consuming the mr del maro we didn't need a superintendent search we decided he was the person for the job so with that in mind i went to the common council and i used the word we because i do speak for the board of education miss houston i'm sorry and um excuse me excuse

022me no let's let's move let's move we don't need we don't need to do this so i'll be i'll be polite listen i explained point of order for an order we can hold this we can hold this discussion i appreciate the the need to respond we can reserve this for um we reserve this for round table this is this this particular point uh this particular point we are in community announcements recognitions community announcements and community reports i prefer that we move on and stay within the framework of what our what our agenda says and then we can come back and we can address this at another at another time another time thank you mr gomez any community reports at this time thank you thank you mr president this past saturday the middletown marching band had

023the opportunity to go to syracuse university probably the football games and next week next weekend they will be going to the san genero festival in little italy which is also part of chinatown and uh you really have to admire our young people they have they have to be here about three o'clock in the morning i know that because i'm one of the dads that help bring the kids over or pick them up late almost at 8 00 pm and the same energy that they have at three in the morning they can't wait to be there it's the same energy they bring back and i would like at some at some point that we could have them come to the board uh let me play for us i think they might have in the past because

024the enthusiasm and the love they have for their school the way they represent the community proud is something worthy of recognition and i know that my dear friend colleague mitch mentioned i think it takes the villages of learning his hispanic heritage just for the record the king of uh the march ban king who who is the father of many of the patriotic march songs john philip souza was of portuguese heritage it's a little dull fact i think and they're an inspiration for so many anyway thank you very much thank you mr gomez mr farino thank you president williams the first is an announcement for middletown humane society sponsoring a rabies clinic this coming saturday at 1 30 to 2 30. and if you want additional information there's some rules that you have to follow the

025dogs must be leased cats must be in carriers people must wear a mask please call 361-1861 that's a good uh that's a excellent organization uh dr kelly hewlett is uh going to be the uh the vm on in charge of the rabies clinic and it's a very low cost fifteen dollars for rabies and fifteen dollars for december so uh again more information call them up three 361-1861 they're great to talk to um continuing on for a moment there seems to be a little confusion written article in the paper concerning bilingual administrators in the district we have more than one bilingual administrator in this district i made a list and and i may be off a little bit because i did not get the list of names as i requested but i made this up uh

026i sort of made this from memory uh so here it goes and i may be missing something here and there the demis caraballo elizabeth rodriguez omar perez katrina acevedo ashley merchant julie dominguez post melissa scheiner yaya whaley williams and nagla el scala so these are some of the administrators who are bilingual in our district i just wanted to clear this up also we have an award winner here with us tonight it's lenny zapker he's a director of our security and he received the 2021 district utica national safety excellence award and the titanium level which is the highest honor that is achievable and you know it's no easy task to do this there's a huge booklet and there's over 300 questions in this and you have to present uh documentation and i just like to read

027the uh read the accolade here we are in receipt of the enlarged city school district's middletown submission for the utica national 2021 school safety efficient program congratulations on achieving at the titanium with honors level and being the first time recipient of this award then it goes on to thank uh thank the department for their time and effort so thank you lenny and thank you members of the uh safety and security department it's it's a a great honor um continuing for a moment food service department we can we can put that up now [Music] fresh fruit and vegetable initiative elementary homeroom classrooms receive fresh fruit and vegetables each tuesday and thursday a box containing up to 24 pieces of fruit or vegetables will be distributed items can be enjoyed by all members of the classroom and

028and the adults are also encouraged to be a role model and it's going to continue through june no cost to the district money obtained from a grant from new york state very quickly shout out to dan higby and his staff they've been able to keep the buses rolling not an easy task because there's a a local and nationwide shortage of bus drivers so good job dan continuing on for a moment i want to give a shout out to all members of the twin tower staff who participated in the capital improvement program i've been attending the meetings and the meetings were great and they've come up with some excellent suggestions which are going to be incorporated into the project finally our njrotc unit has been very active uh over the past couple weeks they for example

029were at the they did a cleanup on wizard avenue on carpenter avenue and also they appeared at the veterans stand down on the elks and they presented the colors and i heard nothing but good comments about these individuals so i could go on but i've taken enough time and uh we can move on from there thank you mr farino mr bison i'm going to remove my mask i think i just want to bring to attention that really tonight a middle class [Music] a middletown high school student andrew stevens was supposed to be here to talk to us about child's cancer month as many of you know andrew was diagnosed with cancer while he was still a student elementary i guess i i get a little emotional when i speak about andrew but i can tell

030you that from elementary school until his present day now in high school he's been a fire fighter to say that he's beat all odds he certainly has i call andrew a warrior because there isn't anything that andrew wouldn't do to promote the cause andrew was hoping as i said to be here tonight because he wanted to urge all of the middletown schools to go gold next thursday 9 30 which is the last day for the awareness for children's cancer month i'm hoping that all of us can really show our support and go gold on thursday and as you can all see i have my shirt on and on the back i'm a member of andrew's team and i couldn't be prouder thank you pastor [Applause] thank you mr bison i want to take a moment

031to acknowledge i think mr hughson mentioned it just a few minutes ago that on saturday saturday will be the golden grad graduation acknowledgement for our class of 1970. um i take pride in talking about that for a second because my sister jessica uh was a 1970 graduate of middletown high school uh my uh my sister dolores who passed away six years ago was a 1971 graduate of the enlarged city school district of middletown i wish that i could be there on saturday i'm unable to i'm unable to be there mrs houston if you would do me a big favor and please make acknowledgement of that my sister is currently my sister is currently recovering from a massive stroke that she had in may and we are her care providers and going back and forth to

032pittsburgh and so uh i'm sure that she would want to to celebrate uh so i remember that and celebrate that so we do want to recognize there's so much good stuff that's going on here all of the things that's happening uh the the williams the williamses have have uh have expressed so many things that are going on everybody's expressed things that are going on in there and this is a fantastic community and and although sometimes we have although sometimes we we have uh i don't want to even say conflict although sometimes we come we we run against each other on some subjects and some different things i tend to believe that this is the best community in the world i have recently been offered recently been offered a large congregation in the city of chicago

033uh that and when i say large it's a very large congregation in the city city of chicago and um oh it's friday night i'm sorry golden grass is friday night at 4 30. i'm sorry thank you but i turned down the offer because this is my home and this is my community and each and every one of you regardless of regardless of anything uh we're one and so my hope is is that as we as we move forward we find a way to once again um once again come into a place where we can work together for the betterment of our entire community and so i just wanted to acknowledge that tonight the golden grads mr houston friday night at 4 30 if you could and mr perrino you'll be there as well if you

034could please make that acknowledgement for my sister jessica wilkes thank you again that is an approval of financial memorandum number seven it's been moved by mr gomez do i have a second seconded by mr perino any discussion all in favor i'm sorry yes sir am i correct on that is that something else is this part of financial memorandum number seven yes could you explain that program a little could you please expound on that please yeah it's a digital math program that the students and educators get to use and it's called delta math and we had previously had access to this resource at a free preview rate through the spring of last year and this year purchased the product for educators in grades 6 through 12 and it provides them opportunities to expand their resource selection

035in their toolbox is is this the program that uh is this a program that was spoken about uh that we received an email on and uh that's for what grades six through twelve six through eight six through twelve six through twelve six to twelve well i tell you i'm going to go for i'm gonna vote yes on that program the reason i'm gonna vote yes on this program i received the the scores on on grade six i received from grade six to eight and at the eighth grade level uh all students proficiency is twelve percent so we need something very quickly at seventh grade level all students is 29 as sixth grade level all students again at 29 and as bill parcell said you are what your record says you are so that's it and

036i think we should make every effort i was i was criticized in an email and i don't care about that for uh for saying that uh for quote uh attacking the math scores no i'm not attacking anybody i don't believe it's the classroom teachers that at all are at fault i think the students have to put more effort in i mean that's a bad word today effort i know that you're not supposed to you're not supposed to work say that anymore but i don't believe that you have to put effort in to get results and right now i want to read something to you right now the united states is ranked 31st in math literacy out of 79 countries while china ranks first in mathematics proficiency if you want good jobs and i think this

037might be a good program if it works if you want good jobs in stem science technology engineering and mathematics you have better be not only proficient in mathematics but proficient in reading and english language skills so so there it is and thank you for explaining that program and you'll give us a result of how that's working i take it in the future thank you i think you skipped the superintendent's report uh no actually actually um actually there is no superintendent's report tonight it's been removed if you look on your board docs it's been it's been removed from the board dots thank you thank you though for noticing uh so we've had we've had the discussion the question uh all in favor i opposed so passes i entertain action item uh or approval for special services

038memorandum number six please i have a motion second it's been moved and second to any discussion all in favor aye aye opposed it so passes thank you um action item c approval of change orders motion please show move move is there a second second thank you moved and seconded any discussion um i think mr bartlett mr bartlett if you could please yes we have five change orders tonight the first is to provide labor and materials to reframe and install multiple i t junction box access panels into the ceilings and walls the second is to provide tapered insulation and lube of a flat insulation at the roof canopy the third is to modify the steel framing around the roof drains drains the fourth is to patch the pavement and the lower loop at the sewer line

039sewer line repair and the last is to provide electric for the new ac unit in a room's room s-3 thank you all in favor opposed moving on to our opportunity to address the board again you can sign in at the desk the if you hope you see the four minutes you have four minutes i'm sorry let me say this again opportunity to address the board uh there is a sheet at the at the podium that you um please sign and uh and and you'll see the clock is is up for four minutes you have four minutes uh there are other names before me here invite you to the to the point come on sir there are three people already signed sir i'm sorry there are three names already on the list okay it's okay they

040can still come they can still come to the mic they can still come to the mic it doesn't have to be in order it's just important that you're uh that your name is on there okay well good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board for the record once again ray mcnamara senior 270 pocatello road i'm a taxpayer in the school district i've heard a lot of great things up here tonight i've heard about being a community i've heard about team andrew of which i'm also a member rotc a lot of people out there trying to get the word out about what we're doing and how we're doing it in relation to different things one thing i'm not hearing and i understand ladies and gentlemen that you are bound by executive session i understand this i

041personally am an elected official in a government agency but my question is this it has come to my attention that as of august 20th of this year albert rivera was allowed to retire in spite of some serious allegations against him while i know you can't answer that here and now that's something i think most of us would like an answer on how is that allowed to happen that's all i have thank you thank you sir [Applause] whoever please good evening my name is diesha enriquez i am the parent of the student that was assaulted off school grounds and reported the incident to this district back in 2019. i am the parent that was never informed of the incident and was unable to provide the support she needed at the time i am here so that

042the board identifies a face to the family that's the date to this date has not received the response from the district in listening to many of the issues being brought to light by the community it appears that the district's approach is that of no response is a response i'd like to take the opportunity to thank the members that responded the board members that responded with genuine concern i'd like to acknowledge the bravery of the many women that have spoken up in regards to the incidents with the sexual harassment within our district my res my presence here today is to remind the district that this family to the state has not received the response to the investigation that was lost in my what was launched in my daughter's situation in conclusion i'd like to remind the

043board that the community is speaking and is demanding leadership that is fresh uncompromised and will help this community heal the candidate should not be part of any investigations in which the district has been part of gaslighting the candidates should reflect the qualities that miss nicole houston spoke of we need fresh representation and we need a community we need community and we need healing thank you good evening my name is nicole vantrapal this is my son matthias he's five years old he's not he's a non-verbal autistic child my husband works for one of the bus companies and i i understand there's a nationwide shortage and everything like that and i i try to be understanding um about a week ago for a whole consecutive week my child is on the bus from 6 a.m in the

044morning his school day starts at 8 15 he's not arriving until 9 45 he's missing a large chunk of his day it's not only him it's three other children from the middletown area he lets out at 2 15 my son doesn't reach home every night until 6 sometimes 6 30. that's not my issue he has special needs he has put on a special bus with a monitor as i said my son is non-verbal he was forced to sit on a bus for three and a half hours and like i said i'm trying to be understanding to the fact of the shortage with an ac on high for three days in a row to the point that every day he came home his lips were blue because of his autism he has sensory issues he does

045not like clothes the first thing he does when he enters our house is stripped down to nothing he was looking for clothes to put on because he was so cold in the interim of that my son developed a cold which in turn because of his symptoms was out of school for an entire week because of his symptoms he had to have a coveted test which then in turn my two other children missed school because they too had to have a covet test now that's not even the half when i went to the bus company i was told and they were well aware of who he is and what bus he's on why didn't he open his mouth and say he was cold when i explained to the woman that he was non-verbal well he still

046should have opened his mouth and said something i walked away i went to miss marconi's office in the special ed department to voice my concern a woman came out who was rushing me along and also said to me why didn't your son open his mouth and say he was cold now to my understanding the children going out of borough are only supposed to be on the bus for 115 minutes two hours the most i have the regulations as i said my husband works for one of the bus companies okay so why is it my son is freezing he's missing a large chunk research shows the negative effect it has on a child a child with autism or adhd has to have a routine his routine is being broken that when he gets to school it's

047difficult and to my understanding the school as well as the three other parents have made the district aware now i've contacted like i said i went there left my email left my name i would prefer if someone called me back and said i don't have an answer i'm working on it i'm looking into it but to actually feel dismissed is worse my son here has adhd he was pulled out of class the other day and sent into crisis counseling because another little girl had a meltdown said she was going to blow up the school that's to the degree of it was and because his anxiety kicked in he was removed from the classroom and i was called my kids cannot speak i am their voice all i am asking is for you to please do

048something i get that this is our new norm but he doesn't understand norm thank you good evening everyone i'm sure you're all aware um of the issues we're having within the district obviously we have some issues with the bus i've spoken to the bus company it's not just those issues i'll start start off by saying my kindergartener went to school the first day i'm in a very compromised household i have brain aneurysms she came home on the bus at 5 pm in the middle of two other students where i was told certain students are also on the floors we're bringing our kids to school three to a seat unvaccinated and it's okay and then we're putting them into the schools with uh monitors and masks and three to six feet of spacing which isn't happening

049at all so this is happening on her bus and my bus it's overcrowded the school is saying no we don't have any overcrowding we have congestion that is not congestion when you're putting unvaccinated children three to a seat for over an hour it's not okay if either child on either side of my daughter contracts covet 19 and is positive if my daughter is only in between them for 14 minutes you're not gonna call me and that's what i've been told that is not okay it has to be 15 minutes and it doesn't matter where you're sitting um dan higby told me that specifically from the bus company um i don't think that that's okay there's a lot of really concerned parents out here we all want our children in school but only if you could

050provide a safe environment for them we started a petition because all of the parents that are concerned are not getting help i was told there's maybe roughly 20 20 parents that want remote that's not the case miss credence holding a list of 184 known middletown residents she had asked a question there's other signatures on the list from out of state some of those out-of-state people are our family members our grandparents some of them are custody battles where dad lives in another state and mom lives here and the child is in the middletown district so that's something that really needs to be looked into also um the address is on there they're old addresses from old emails they're they're not accurate as to where they are most of those people are from middletown district and we're

051the parents that want an option to give our children remote because you cannot guarantee us that you're following the cdc recommended guidelines no one has been able to tell me that you can follow those guidelines and i want to know why the cdc recommends between six and three feet if possible so pretty much what the school district is telling me and my children from my high risk family is that we can make it happen if we can make it happen and then we're just gonna play russian roulette with your children that's not acceptable i'm not accepting it and then other parents are having cps called on them because they're leaving their children home because they care more about their children than following the school's rules i don't understand why there's not an option for remote

052i would like one person to tell me why these families cannot have remo you have congestion wouldn't it clear up spaces in the classrooms in the cafeterias the congestion there's herds of students going through one one door in twin towers then where are they going you know where they're going they're going into the hallways before they're in their classes that are also congested this isn't working it can't just keep being brushed under the table these are our children this is our community and it's going to spread i don't feel like anything's being done yes we can find a way to clean in between routes possibly maybe we're working on congestion what are we waiting for what are we working on if you're not going to give us a remote when are you going to fix

053the problem that's what i want to know i am tired of fighting with the district to answer the phones answer questions amy has been very helpful but besides that what is actually being done nothing at all thank you [Applause] good evening my name is connie quinones and i have a student at twin towers beck and i have been partners through this whole thing and we're trying to get like the parents together and just help see what's really going on so she basically um we knew we had four minutes so she basically kind of covered everything i guess she was motivated so so i'm just gonna um if some of it is repetitive i apologize so i'm aware of the coveted mandates with that being said after numerous phone calls and emails i would like to

054know do you not have the authority to enforce safety guidelines in the best interest of our children with the amount of congestion in our schools for example is a congestion of student not means for either remote or hybrid learning options to give parents the choice how many cases does the school need to have before parents are notified of these cases i'm not asking what is mandated i'm asking the school's position what is the number of cases the school needs before the district decides to go remote again this is not political i'm not asking about the mandates i'm asking what does the school think is fair for the students staff and parents to keep them safe thank you good evening board members educators students community members my name is shad saint louis and i'm the only

055black male school guidance counselor within the school district i have been a resident of middletown for the past seven years and have been working at middletown high school for a total of eight years martin luther king jr once said in the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends or in this case the silence of the people we elected to represent us i recently came to the realization as to why i have been silent and the reasons for this includes there has been a culture of intimidation cronyism bullying fear nepotism racism and discrimination within this district this environment causes intelligent and capable people who do not conform to these toxic traits to think they are doing something wrong while in fact there's instead something gravely wrong with

056the system so i'm breaking my silence publicly not only to add to the testimonies of other staff and students who have come before this board to illustrate the injustices and wrongdoings of this system but also to be strong for all of the students past and present colleagues who can't come forward publicly for fear of retaliation or further trauma i stand before you tonight to share my story when i first got reinstated as a school guidance counselor at the high school back in 2015 i received treatment demonstrated systemic racism and have been falsely accused targeted spied on intimidated and set up with the intention to discourage or make me quit my job numerous times most prominently during the 2015-16 school year where monthly meetings were scheduled with the principal to discuss my performance here are a

057few examples there was a meeting with principal nadine where i was accused of telling a student with disabilities she was unable to take a college course because she had an iep this was not what i told the student i told her the course would not fit into her schedule due to the boces program she was enrolled in a simple conversation with the dean would have cleared this up instead it was escalated to a meeting with the principal with a follow-up letter cc2 personnel when discussing a struggling student with a hispanic last name who i motivated by gifting him a 75 hour gift card from walmart if he earned a 75 or above in each of his classes the principal verbally stated and wrote culturally this student could sell the gift card and buy drugs with

058the money as an educator of color this felt to me like the principal was saying people of color are expected to be drug users and drug dealers which is not right the personnel director informed me they made a mistake hiring me and they would contact two other white counselors who were ahead of me on a re-iron list i was told i would be informed by december 1st and if someone else was hired in my place they would start in january when school opened they never informed me about what they discovered to this day my union representative will share a story how i was spied on by a secretary next so why speak now i felt i needed to share my story at this pivotal moment of time when the board is considering candidates for new

059superintendent so you can understand the importance of selecting community building unifying and transformational leader as the next superintendent i'm hopeful that under new leadership at the district level the culture of intimidation bullying and systemic racism will cease to exist within the school district i'm optimistic and hopeful that new district level leaders will empower students teachers and community members to achieve our 2 potential and build bridges instead of walls to conclude i will quote malcolm x who said chief is on the side of the oppressed you are not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality wrong is wrong no matter who does it or says it a person who stands for nothing will fall for anything i hope that the board of education is learning to listen to the truth thank you

060thank you uh ladies and gentlemen the board mr superintendent and uh you motivated group of concerned community members uh the meeting mr st louis mentioned um i was asked to attend with him it was the house dean of the principal and um it concerned a matter of a student and a suspension at the conclusion mr st louis had presented to me earlier uh what it seemed to be an inadvertent email from a house secretary that seemed to indicate the secretary was was tracking mr st louis's movements during the day i presented this fact to both the dean and principal the dean expressing uh you know an incredulous nature there i we we continue we ask if the secretarial staff was tracking other staff or faculty members you know should we warn staff or faculty members

061we are assured by the principle that um the matter would be looked into um to my knowledge there was never any follow-up to this uh report from the administration um my takeaway at the time was that the the sessions for mr st louis uh were sort of a gotcha um rather than a sort of a punitive method to punish a subordinate rather than uh to lead or nurture talent um and i and i worry that that that punitive um this punitive atmosphere uh well i know it's extended in some cases uh to mr perez uh and and others uh guidance uh uh uh school psychologists etc so um uh yeah it was concerning at the time and um very demoralizing mr st louis i um i i also want to thank at the time mr

062williams and miss hewson for really presenting to the public duties and responsibilities and what is expected of the school board one of our board members mentioned the article i think he's referring to the uh september 16th issue uh for the time sale record and uh echoing mr mcnamara uh i think mr um perez they said is one of the only bilingual administrators of color in the minority nominated district or a minority dominated district school officials have yet have not yet responded requests for confirmation on this so uh the paragraph above this though and ray mcnamara brought up already uh merchant was one of dozens of community members who attended september 2nd school board meeting to show support for black administrator omar perez who they said was transferred out of the high school after reported sexual

063misconduct by a non-instructional district employee i would hope that we'll receive a report in the press as to the results of this investigation again as to uh what did the superintendent know and when did he know it so thank you [Applause] thank you hello my name is maria blonde i want to begin by thanking nicole hewson for giving me hope that individuals can open their hearts and minds to truth and apologize when mistakes from the past are made i'm not sure how many more stories will need to be shared for each and every board member to open their hearts and minds to the truth of what has been happening in this district for way too long you have heard from my son-in-law shad saint louis and husband tom blonde about the horrible way shad has

064been treated in this district starting in 2015. quite honestly i still don't know how shad has been able to muster the courage to go to work each and every day after hearing his stories if you were in his place would you have the strength of character to keep working in this district i witness shad day after day holding his head up high a big smile on his face as he helps students learn to believe in themselves empowering them to succeed the disrespect this fine young man experiences is heart-wrenching to witness i have learned recently from him he thought he had done something wrong and was the only person being targeted during the last few years as we have learned of other educators and students who have received similar even worse treatment there is the realization

065of systemic racism problem in this district i'm honored to be trusted as i have listened to stories from countless students and educators of color i have boldly spoken up on their behalf when they weren't ready to share their stories publicly for fear of retaliation we have spoken truth at many meetings awaiting the time when people who have been disrespected so many times for so long now feel emboldened to speak their truth directly to the public when i hear board members say we are harming morale by saying there's systemic racism in the district i wonder if there has been any consideration about what it feels like for the students educators and staff members who have been experiencing this racism day after day after day month after month after month year after year after year how do

066these students educators and staff continue to come to school doing their best in this traumatic environment as a white person speaking up for people of color i have been bullied ignored and silenced i have never in my life been treated with such disrespect i realize this kind of treatment is tragically familiar to people of color to all of the courageous people attending and speaking both indoors and outdoors tonight and at the last meeting muchas gracias messi on peel thank you very much that's all the languages i know we have spent a tremendous amount of time working on shifting the leadership culture in this district not because this has been enjoyable but because it is absolutely necessary up to this point our alerts to problems have been discarded and ignored these motivated gatherings of concerned community

067members who come to meeting after meeting after meeting would not be here now if attention and action had been taken more than a year ago my greatest hope is this district will transform to be a place filled with truth and respect for each and every individual focusing especially on students and educators of color plus those with special needs we want to work with the school board to bring the new york state department of education to fully investigate past and recent claims against the administration these issues are too big to handle alone let's work as a team of board members educators students parents and community members thank you i am bishop james rollins senior i looked at 62 bedford avenue right here in middletown new york and let me just start by saying first of all

068in the spirit of transparency i've got a problem coming out of the blocks when i looked at the agenda i don't understand especially in the spirit of transparency why there is no superintendent's report and while i'm looking at the clock and i realize the clock is there i've been told that i've got to limit my comments to four minutes and that there are no opportunities for anybody else to give their time i don't see that in the guidelines and i really have a problem with it because if in the halls of congress they can actually yield some of their time to another person i would think that we could certainly do it right here in the school board of middletown having said that i've got a problem because i'm sitting here and i watch two

069board members who can't seem to get it together because the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing i look at there are board members who didn't know that the superintendent's report was going to be skipped and so i've got a real problem with it i listened to one of our board members tell us that they don't know about the specific number of bilingual teachers that it's made up and i know john perrino but i that is unacceptable sir don't make it up you have all of these people are educators if you don't know how many bilingual people are teachers or educators around a school district say i don't know but i will find out because at the at the end of the day sir if there are 5 6 10 15 bilinguals

070if they speak mandarin and russian and the majority of the students are spanish or another language we still don't have any help they may as well not be bilingual at all just for the sake of saying that they're bilingual and so i've got a problem with that and i wanted addressed i've been i teach on thursday so i didn't have an opportunity to be here but i want to make sure i've got a problem with the fact that we didn't get a superintendent's report and we have a superintendent who has been allowed to retire under the guise of honor with a golden parachute with the real intent to avoid the demand for resignation that's what i'm looking at and i'm not accepting it i don't want to hear it i don't need the excuses i'm

071saying to you just like it really is i've listened to the other people talking i've heard them talk about uh the occurrences of systemic racism and why we need leadership that understands that and that will be addressed in terms of my suggestion that we look at promoting from within but i digress because when i think about the fact that there are those who actually support the banning of the teaching of critical race theory because critical race theory suggests that there is no such thing as systemic racism and yet i continually hear it over and over and over again and we've got two board members sitting right here who stood side by side with colin schmidt that is nicole hewson and kevin gomez while he actually introduced a bill from the assembly to ban the teaching

072of critical race theory to address the issues of systemic racism let me say it to you in case you want to stop me systemic racism weaponizes the mind with bias that results in hatred in the oppressor and the oppressed because neither will ever be free according to the words of nelson mandela and so while i stand here it seems like there are issues all over and that some people are bitter and yet some are saying they want to be better let me suggest to you gentlemen and ladies the only difference between bitter and better is i that's the only difference and so as i stand here you know i've got a list of things that i want to address because the cost of systemic racism are social the cost of systemic racism are economic the

073cost of systemic racism are cultural and last but not least academic so what i'm looking at and i look at the fact that we've only got a few black administrators men of color and there have been opportunities or should i say efforts to actually displace or move them i can tell you from standing right here it is not going to happen on my watch it is not going to happen not accepting it and i will rally along with the grassroots efforts and every other resource that i can bring to bear to make sure that our children get the best education possible i was at the forefront of changing the name of mechanics town school in case some of you don't remember to its current name of william carter elementary school where my grandchildren attend only

07440 percent 40 percent of the community decided they didn't agree with it but i just needed the 60 which is why the name is blazing across the school now for a man who gave everything he had to ensure that our children were properly educated i will yield to the time but let me tell you something we have quality talent in this district i will call her name yaya williams i'll say it without reservation i'll say it without reservation you say to me i hear you say that there needs to be a national search and that there are only two people that have the experience and then you give me a caveat about the last one well the last appointment of our superintendent who now sits and will not give us a report tonight for whatever

075reason i need you to understand that that sets a precedent because the fact that he was not a part of the national search you just moved him along there are other incidents as well we have this thing going on in the district called two for one i'm going to investigate where people who come in they come in at different levels and it is an impediment to the successful recruitment of minority teachers in this school district i am going to investigate it okay it's coming it is coming and so when i say to you the things that have taken place i've heard uh comments about sexual harassment you know and i'm telling you now the knee-jerk reaction to a community that stands up and calls you to a place of accountability is unacceptable leadership is not

076a spectator sport you got to be on the field and you got to know what's what time it is and what's taking place and i'm not seeing it and so i've waited i've waited and i've taken this opportunity you have someone going to the uh the city council meeting i understand that that's fine but to disrupt the flagship school that serves the most scholarly by removing one of only two black administrators in the district who is also one black male who is spanish speaking is a travesty i'm not leaning down to the mic because i don't need it and so i'm saying to you here and now it is critically important we pay taxes so that as i saw in the chart the org chart i expect it to be carried out as it is

077outlined if i stepped on your toes tonight so be it pull your feet back do the job i will be the first one to pat you on the back because at the end of the day the kids are all i care about thank you very much thank you sir [Applause] my name my name is adam andre torres derosa i've worked at this district for 12 years i am a spanish teacher at the high school i've written something i want to share it and i want you all not the board of education the public the parents the students i want everybody to listen to what i'm about to say all right it is a crucial moment in the middletown school district with mr delmoro retiring we find ourselves with an opportunity to create real change district

078change will only come about if the next superintendent has organic community ties has a connection with the teacher population and has a progressive vision and the ability to achieve that vision our community has spoken at the last board of education meeting our community demands proper representation meaning that they want to see someone black or brown latino latina who genuinely understands our students experiences and needs and someone who is approachable to all when looking at our pool of talent at the middletown school district there's one person who stands out from the rest that is mrs yaya whaley williams our current coordinator of mathematics k through 12. now i've seen her at community events that she has helped organize where she leads and inspires with as you said humility and naturally moves the participants i've also seen

079her interact with students that get excited to see her and greet her with genuine love and infection and affection where her belief in being a lifelong learner verbally and innately passes on to them mrs whaley williams has all of the necessary quality qualifications on paper to be the superintendent yet she has proved to be more she is connected with the students the community staff and administration also of great importance mrs whaley williams speaks spanish she is able to communicate with our large spanish-speaking population roughly 60 percent of our population of students is latino or latina with many parents and family members that do not speak english many of whom do not feel comfortable communicating and being active within the district mrs whaley williams has been in the field of education for the past 16 years

080a teacher for nine years and an administrator for seven years other districts have seen her potential she was offered the assistant superintendent position at the liberty central school district she was also a finalist for the assistant superintendent position at the newburgh enlarged city school district mrs whaley williams also has a more personal attachment to the middletown school district by having her two children attend the district as a teacher that has been working at the middletown school district for 12 years who lives in middletown 90 sprague avenue i have witnessed administrators come and go and been seeing and felt the need for real change it is important that the community has a voice and that teachers and school employees have a voice without feeling they will be met with negative repercussions from administration the times of

081administrators and employees being senselessly shuffled around without taking into consideration our school's best options need to end the days of decisions being made that make no sense need to end the days of no comprehensive explanations that affect teachers and students needs to end the days of no transparency needs to end the days of a bully culture from someone of the no the days of a bully culture from some of the administrators and you all know who you are needs to end it is time to pass the torch to new blood it was decided it was decided to keep the nominee for the superintendent position within the district with dr eastwood retired and mr delmoro gained the position now it's time for the superintendent position to be filled with someone from the district that will bring

082us to the next level create a positive and proud school culture and when considering our internal talon i believe that person is mrs yaya whaley williams [Applause] i have a thing that i wrote about humbleness but you said it so i appreciate that that's my petition that i put out i would love for parents i would love for students to read it so they can see it again and i would like them to sign it if their heart moves them too this is the thing our students they don't have some they don't have the time our students don't have the time our students don't have the time to have someone lead them who is trying trying to understand them and not even genuinely or naturally attempting to connect with them we have someone here and

083now to bring them forward why would we hold our children back for some selfish individuals that don't want the best for our community and our students but want the best for themselves that is evident because they know somebody can be more effective here at middletown and they don't step aside and allow for natural progression now i want you guys to know looking around i'm the only no looking around i am the only teacher here there was another one sephora newsom but i'm the only teacher here ask yourselves why that is you all know the answer they're scared they tell me they're scared so the parents check that out so the board was addressed last time at the last board meeting and i'm going to stop after this okay the board was addressed at the last

084board meeting by numerous students numerous parents numerous community members and those people had questions and not one of those questions was answered tonight why is that and that's the answer thank you anybody else tonight i want to thank everybody for coming to the mic and speaking and speaking your heart and your passion speaking of heart and passion and uh we're hearing we don't dialogue and you and you all know that we don't dialogue during these meetings but but we're here we hear you i understand let's let's move on to our committee reports or committee reports any committee reports tonight yes pastor williams the audit committee is meeting on uh wednesday just just for for everybody every everyone that spoke tonight everyone spoke tonight somebody somebody will reach out to you we're gonna have somebody reach

085out to you your names if your names are on the list and you put the information there we'll reach out i'm sorry hold me to it you know you you have access to me all the say after we time to them [Music] as i always do no excuse necessary our committee reports our committee reports please on uh wednesday evening next wednesday evening uh september 29th the audit committee will be meeting via zoom at 5 30. thank you thank you any other committee reports mr gomez yes thank you mr president the fair funding committee met last week this earlier this week we are planning and i really would like parents are here will uh listen to this we will be hosting a town hall for the district and we are working on it uh on how

086our school district or how are new york school districts funded where does the money come from of course the taxpayers but what are the different formulas in place and how we as a community could ensure that we get the the dollars that we rightfully own under the current new york state foundation aid formula our district has been owed repeatedly over 50 million at least 50 million dollars a year in spite that we have thrived but if you create a formula to narrow the gap how is it that it curates a deficit to our children so i think it's important one we hopefully will do this at the high school at a place for the community and there will be more information out there because i believe it's important that our parents our community be informed

087how the finances of a district operate so they could also be advocates for our children our teachers and for our taxpayers okay so stay tuned thank you mr gomez any other committee reports tonight if not we're going to move on to round table i'm going to start down again at the at the end of the table with mr freddie williams please good evening once again i had a couple bullet points i missed with the community community reports just trying to reiterate middletown youth sports will be the program also sponsored by texas village held on school grounds and fields this is flag football coached by middletown staff members and middletown district parents all accountable respectful people who have our best kids interests at heart this will roll out in the spring and once again with the

088special thanks to middletown police department for the movie night special thanks to chief juanchu and the entire middletown police department and something else i had was uh concerning the situation we've been in and we've been taking a lot of losses in the district so i was always told by coaches and and mentors that there's lessons and losses so what we have to do is extract the lessons and the losses in order to move forward in a productive manner so i think we really need to cite that and as a board member i look forward to continuing to do what is progressive progressively progressive and with integrity and complete transparency um let us please take the community's concerns and issues with the highest regard without the community there's no us and that's what happened thank you

089sir mr williams um just like at our last board meeting i'm just moved by the concerns of the community our community recognizing that the school district is in the community i just think of the three things that i live by is commitment responsibility accountability i made a pledge has a commitment and i have the ability to respond and it's only right that you hold us accountable that's your responsibility in this so keep it coming and we're going to keep working i took this position knowing what it is and i'm going to do my best to represent this community i'm not making friends i'm just friendly be clear there's a difference i know my job and i'm gonna do it to the best of my ability thank you mr williams mrs bloomer now thank you every

090opportunity that i get to sit in front of our community and listen to what they say is a learning experience for me i pride myself on being a good listener i also pride myself on being a lifelong learner what has been said is that there are people that are afraid to come forward in this district and that now because there are par they have partners in this goal that they are feeling stronger to come to this microphone and speak and that's a good thing but we are strong as well and we are here to support our district our families our staff our administration and do it to the best of our ability and i believe that every single person that is sitting at this table myself i can only speak for but i believe that

091i'm sitting at a table who has only the best interest of this district at their heart and we are making moves and we are taking action to find out what the talk is all about right we're we're just hearing this you say that this is you know we come to this microphone and we're sharing now which is a good thing but i've been in this district for nine years at this table as a as a board member as a leader and these are this this is a lot of new information that's coming to us and we are taking it seriously and we are moving really carefully forward with changes and they will happen but be our partners in this don't be our enemies i want to be a partner to this community that i am

092a partner to this community and i always have been we are not the enemy we want to work together so let's work together there are lots of questions out there that need to be answered and i want to please those that can make those answers officially please make sure that our community gets the answers that they need so there is clarity and consistency because what i'm feeling is that there is not and if we can be nothing else let's be transparent and let's be honest so if there are things that need to be said let's get to it thank you mrs blumenow mr cresenzo thank you i don't know there's a whole bunch of things it it really really troubles me that people say that they're afraid to come to the mic for retribution i

093don't offend anybody and it's only my opinion i i have a hard time understanding that concept now whether it's a reality or not i don't know if it is we certainly will address it one of the uh hallmarks of this board of education this district of our country is freedom of speech we don't get to where we're going unless we have an open conversation so i'll be very very honest there are times that i don't agree with what's being said but i'm going to listen and i'll work with it if whatever i can do a lot of times i do agree with it and i hope that people do come to the mic in a respectful way today was a respectful meeting and just you know it's your civic duty this is your district you

094own it you pay taxes and we we as a board of education will always want what's best for you and one of the hallmarks of this board are nine people here and this is this is my 11th year on the board of education and this is probably the most diverse board i've ever been fortunate to work on and through that diversity we had a conversation an executive session and those two gentlemen on the end there taught me quite a bit that i needed to know and i appreciate that so that being said um pastor you've been a mentor to me and i'm going to take the uh high road on this um so we are looking for we will be looking for a new superintendent and what we're going to do is uh the new

095york state school boards association is a entity that oversees that helps the school districts they're an incredible incredible resource they do all kinds of things and one of the things we're going to take advantage of is their team leadership department they're going to come down and spend four hours with us to learn about a superintendent search it's a very very very complicated procedure and it needs to be done correctly and it's imperative imperative that every board member attend this meeting is four hours out of your life it's something you're going to learn and something you can keep with you they're going to be flexible they they're offering a course even on saturday late afternoon because we know people work after five o'clock so we're in the process of doing that now and hopefully by the

096next board meeting we'll have that date set up and we'll keep you informed as much as we can it's a process there will be total transparency total transparency and one of the things that i know will happen is that there'll be community groups there'll be focus groups there'll be administrators from this school teachers pto there'll be business leaders parents we'll make those students yes thank you we'll make those groups after the workshop total transparency and they have a voice and i won't go into the detail of how because it's not exactly established yet how the agency that we're going to hire that's going to do the superintendent search but all of that information will go to that person and they'll share it with us so i'm sitting here i'm putting my reputation on the line

097i enjoy this position even though sometimes it's a little difficult but we learn i'm going online on on a limb or so to speak that i guarantee that part of it that will be totally transparent you'll know what's going on every inch of the way and we will come out with the superintendent that will work for this district and work for the students work for the teachers work for the community and we will come out on top thank you mr c uh mrs houston as i said at our last meeting please do not take our silence as inaction there is plenty of going plenty of stuff going on behind the scenes but we are forbidden to speak about it by law each one of us as a board of ed member has a vote as

098to or with regard to the who what when where why and how the process of the hiring of a new superintendent takes place sometimes we need to do things differently than we have in the past i'm looking forward to this workshop but this talent search in my opinion does not have to be complicated and complex i agree with my board colleague when he mentioned total transparency and having much input on this decision from the community i wanted to mention too that i believe that at some point someone had mentioned a phd being a requirement for a superintendent i don't agree with that sometimes people are too busy doing the acting within a school district working with families doing having the experience part rather than the schooling part of it and i i think that experience

099speaks as a form of education so as a board member i don't feel a phd is a necessary requirement i want to switch gears here to one of our our speakers tonight from our community mentioned my position on crt critical race theory it is true i have spoken out against it i don't disagree or deny a problem that exists i just think that i don't have the same opinion on the solution that doesn't mean i don't think there's a problem and i if you want to see what i've said about it please feel free to go look up the former board meetings where i spoke about it the press conference i spoke at about it i'm very transparent on that and then finally i want to speak tonight about another issue i heard the passion

100of the moms the distress in their voices tonight regarding mandates and meeting the requirements of the mandates that have been given to us and i i just my compassion is huge for them nobody should have to endure what they have their children have endured as far as the mandates related to the coven 19 virus i have spoken with many parents on my own who are upset about the multiple things that are going on on the different aspects of the issue and to that i say i i cannot change mandates that are placed upon our school district by leaders of higher government positions but i can't express how i feel about it and i believe the science is not being followed on everything i think the data being put out by agencies and people of authority

101are incorrect in many cases not all of it for sure arbitrary and conflicting yet we as a district have to abide by those mandates i also believe that we have to follow rules so if you see me not wearing this it's i have a medical reason i've submitted that to our school district health professionals i believe that i need to say something from the heart regarding the experimental covid shot families are encouraged to do their own homework regarding this because the media and government are censoring the voices of many excellent doctors out there including dr luke montagnier you might want to grab a pen if you want to write any of these down a nobel peace prize winning virologist dr michael yaden the former head of pfizer or second in command of pfizer dr simone

102gold from america's frontline doctors dr ruth nordstrom a national leader of women's health dr steven brooks a knowledgeable doctor with a phd in virology including the many medical professionals that spoke out at last week's fda panel review of the covid vaccine in which it said that you can fact check this by the way for every one life saved by this vaccine there are two lives that it kills these are not my words do your homework check fact check me these are the words of a medical professional who has treated many coveted patients at the fda advisory panel you won't find this information on mainstream media like nbc cnn cs cbs msnbc or fox i'm not playing sides here you have to go online using an alternate streamlining application such as rumble or telegram because these

103important voices that have the right to be heard are being censored i'm a proponent of free choice as a board member and as a citizen and informed consent not oh of course it's safe kind of informed consent i say to all of our families only you know what is best for you and your children and i encourage you to speak with your medical provider and do your own homework that's all thank you thank you mr gomez thank you mr president uh by the way it's uh you don't have to uh be a lawyer to sit on the supreme court and you could be born in a log cabin to be president okay so likewise i don't think a phd sometimes it's a lot of it should be the number one criteria well i credit certainly

104i just want to address a couple of uh issues um that were brought today uh first i was very moved and of course upset by hearing the parent of the two special of the little boys with special needs i've already come i've conveyed to my colleagues how i feel about the leadership and special ed department and i i for one believe that it's time for a change i do want to address also another issue an issue that my colleague mr perrino has i think brought up consistently the importance of funding math programs recently the state of washington the legislature passed a law and the governor signed it that uh lowered or eliminated if i'm correct the requirement that particularly minority children take math proficiency exams because uh the tests are too hard i find that

105i'm not one who likes to use the race blame racism but definitely is very paternalistic to say that children because they're brown latino african-american that we have to lower the standards for them to succeed that we have to dumb down education and if you want me to prove how wrong they are in washington and i think it's legitimate that i raised that because what happens in the west coast tends to influence education pods in new york state if you want to see how wrong how disgustingly wrong that was or is here's the proof how they're wrong it's called the middletown school district predominantly minority children attend our district and i'd like to use the word minority because i believe we should not be judged by the color of our skill count of our character but

106only african-american latino children 90 graduation rate if you give our children the tools the empowerment especially at the lower grades they could succeed and go very far and that's the approach i hope that new york state does not adopt what the state of washington has done recently and again i commend my colleague for being a persistent voice lifetime voice john perrino raise and i guess all my colleagues here for raising and funding math programs having a math coordinator at the local lower level because we have to start at the lower level and that's very important and and i hope we follow that empowering our children empowering our families not lowering standards to give them the past okay that's the wrong thing to do and finally i just want to echo while my colleague mr cresenzo

107and i think mr bloom and i all my colleagues freddie mitch have said and and pastor as i think said many times i think in the diversity of uh the strength of this of our board is the diversity of viewpoints we have different viewpoints sometimes when we are an exact session we we do duke it out there are members of our board who are more conservative like myself and the members who are maybe more liberal but i believe that's important because in diversity of viewpoints all issues are taken into consideration and that's what makes us stronger that's what makes america stronger government of consensus not in tyranny of a majority or a teenage tyranny of a minority but people of different views coming together for what really matters especially here are children and to conclude

108uh okay i allow one of the speakers that's permanent uh to conclude i always make a little prayer with my kids especially the younger ones when i take him to school it goes almighty god we acknowledge our dependence id we pray you bless we pray for your blessings and mercies upon us our parents our teachers and our country coincidentally that was the prayer that kids suicide in the new york schools unto the supreme court rule against it but i think in essence reflects my desires or art collective desires here for our district that our children and those who work here be blessed and be able to have go on and look back with pride in the education they receive thank you thank you mr farino thank you bishop williams you know i wish jim rawlins

109were here because i'd like to say to him he made some great points i knew bill carter bill carter was a friend bill carter was a colleague i worked with bill carter i pushed as hard as anybody to get that school name from mechanics down to the william a carter school and i was a lead resolution on that so jim if you're listening i just thought i'd add my two cents on that as far as a number of bilingual teachers in the district no i don't know that but i'm sure mrs crawford can give me an answer to that and then we'll convey it to mr williams i don't have all the facts on everything i have many facts on quite a few things though and i do know we have 48 percent of our

110administrators in this district are minority administrators not 41 percent of as it was reported 48 another item uh it was alleged last meeting that the ieps are being changed this is alleged in 2018 the state education department came down a letter from state ed and here's what they said new york state education department for found no documentation that changes were made to any ieps after the cpse meeting was held again new york state education department for no documentation that changes were made to any ieps after the cpse meetings were held so there that is as far as systemic racism goes i stand by my statements last week do i know what's in everybody's heart and every teacher in the district no but i judge it by the facts and figures of this who we are

111graduating what universities what trade schools they go to and so on again i agree to disagree with the people who made that allegation um likewise it will be mr delmar will soon be retiring from the district and i'd like to congratulate him for on the 35 years of service i don't know if there's any high school students i don't think we have any left here but if you like your new media center mr delmar if you like your new cafe uh mr del morro if you like the 130 uh college credits being offered now so it'll save you a lot of money uh mr delmar co-led that uh program two-year kindergarten elementary grades midpoint k to eight transitional program k to five uh mastery program mr del mar kate a flipped and blended learning on

112and on i could go so i don't think mr delmar has been giving credit for the 35 years of service he started as a principal in truman moon building then he went to munhagan then as an assistant superintendent and then is the superintendent so i just want to wish mr moore the best of luck and congratulations i could go on and on but i think i'm down at nine seconds and i try to respect seven seconds respect the clock thank you sir mr bison first of all i want to thank you for staying our audience is very thin but right now we have five six people seven people in the audience so i do appreciate it i respect what everybody has had to say at the microphone however on any personnel matter this board is

113not able to discuss it until there is a resolution and then it would be the reason why and nobody is saying it the reason why the supender wasn't a superintendent's report it was to be given this evening however we want to fine tooth it it had to do with the twin towers building and some plans that is the only reason why it was pulled i'm not going to go on i think all of my board members have said the way we feel we're in there and as it's been said we don't all agree but we try to come out unified with a unified decision sometimes some of us have to pull back a little and and listen to what others have to say please know that we work with our hearts and souls for this

114district it's hard to sit here and take some of the accusations but we also have listened we are looking and there will be some conclusions lastly i'm going to be try to add on a happy note please don't forget 9 30 next next 9 20 9 30 next thursday the where gold for middletown and for my dear friend andrew stevens i don't know how the boy has endured what he has gone through in the last four or five years i broke an ankle and believe you me i really it was an eye-opener when i look at some of the old pictures that his mom has and you see him laying in that bed you see him in a fetal position it's it's been amazing and i also know what they go through every time he

115has to go down for a scan the fear will never leave them but he is one of the strongest and as i said i call him a warrior and i know what they've done for other children liz is taking ten dollar gift cards from uh parane panera so that they can give them to some of the folks that are down there the toys that he's brought to students there i could go on and on is this what most 16 or 15 year old kids think what he can give back i'm so proud of andrew and hopefully all of us will remember next thursday to wear gold thank you thank you mr bison if you all don't mind i'll just take my mask off for a second please excuse my my putting my head down um

116it's not meant as any disrespect i'm not feeling well right now and and i'm fatiguing real fast um but i did want to express um tonight i do want to thank all of the speakers that came to the mic uh one of the things that i've always said and even even last year even last year is that it's our job to sit here and and to listen um we might not like the things that are some of the things that are said i'm not going to say i'm not going to say the things that i said we might not like some of the things i said but it's our job to sit here and listen what i might want to remind you know everybody is is that when it comes to board of education meetings

117a board of education meeting is not really a public meeting it's a meeting that's held in public and we as a district take the opportunity to have these moments that our public can come to the might because we sincerely want to hear your voices so that's why that's why that's why it's in place and if i'm not mistaken that opportunity was created by dr paul johnson at one time when he some years ago sat on this board and it has been it has been something that has con continued to this day uh in in respects to all of the different things that are happening it's it and the different things and the different things have been said it's important for us to address um all of these issues it's important for us when we have

118parents that are having problems with their children when we're having busing when we're having issues with with whatever it may be when when it's when it's discussions of of racism it's important for us to address it from day one of my being on this board i i have i have come onto this board and i've spoke about many of many of the issues in relation to the african-american community and i've encouraged many people and i understand their apprehension but i've encouraged many people to speak up your speaking up gives us the the opportunity to be able to make change but i sincerely believe in the process i believe in learning how to make the process work for you and so um with that being said i i did i'm grateful that everybody came somebody said

119something real quick and i only have one minute and i want to stay i want to stay in it uh stay within the time frame you know i i i didn't cut i didn't cut anybody off because i wanted to uh i wanted you to speak um and i know that maybe everybody doesn't want it doesn't like that but i think it was necessary and i'll take the heat for that but here's the here's the thing there are many things that we would love to talk about i'll be honest i would love to sing soprano alto and tenor but we're bound by law and some things that we cannot talk about but it does not mean as mrs houston said it's not being addressed and and and what i ask what i ask is is

120that we we allow the process to work so that we can get a successful conclusion and that we be transparent and we be forthcoming with information that we are able to share the things that we can't share it's unfortunate but the things that we can we need to share and so my time is done um but i i need i need to share that lastly lastly real quick real quick lastly the superintendent's report tonight as mr bison uh stated just a few minutes ago the superintendent's report was to include a um a layout of the capital project for twin towers so that we can begin to bring twin towers into a place of equity with our other schools it is one of our oldest buildings that that presentation will be at our next meeting because

121we want to be very concise we want to be we want to make sure that we move in a timely fashion because i think that our children of twin towers deserve to have the same facilities that many of our other schools have and so that's what we're working on um thank you thank you everybody thank you everybody for coming miss miss miss blumenow said it best if we listen we'll learn if we listen we'll learn and so i'm i'm going to i'm going to remain hopeful keep me in your prayers your thoughts whatever as i as i continue to try to heal but i'm glad that i was able to be here tonight thank you if there's nothing else we we will we will um adjourn into a late exempt with just the board please

122uh just for just for a few for just a board some things that we need to we need to just uh aren't out real quick is there is there is there anything else nothing else i'm missing okay um our next meeting will be held on october 7th i do want to invite i do want to invite you we are going to be moving into the new um high school media center it's there it will not be here our meetings from this point on will be held in our new high school media center and so we welcome you to come and to view it and to see it on october october the 7th thank you um i have a motion to adjourn into ex to adjourn into exec to move into exec we will not be

123coming back into public um i'm sorry sir 30 seconds yes i will board today all of you guys sat there and listened and i would just like to say to all of you out there that got up at this microphone and had your four minutes and had these ladies and gentlemen listen to you and then walked out the door that was rude and that is not how we're going to get results do better next time thank you sir we had a motion motion we're going to adjourn into we're going to journey into exactly we will not be coming into public all in favor opposed pastor could you just repeat the date of the next meeting because some people thought you said the seventh and some people thought you said the second it's the 7th of

124october thank you thank you you