001welcome everybody we thank you for being here tonight i'd like to take this opportunity to call uh to order uh the regular board meeting of the enlarged city school district of middletown on this date july 22nd 2021 we'd like to start our meeting with the pledge of allegiance mr gomez is not here at this time so i will lead the pledge of allegiance on which it tonight one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all if you could remain standing for just a few moments of silence um mr perino absolutely if you're more comfortable sitting down you can sit down thank you as i said if you're more comfortable you may sit down the first moment of sounds this evening is for mr frank phil frank was a member of our custodial staff
002for 39 years very hard-working individual i worked with frank in a number of moves moving the buildings the twin towers to the high school and vice versa also setting him up various media centers he never refused a request a gentleman that just went about his business in a very workmanlike manner one of those individuals that very very diligent about his job the second moment of sounds is for ronald paul goodrich mr goodrich the father of erica reid and erica reid is a very well respected office manager at william a carter elementary school ron was a 1957 graduate of middletown high school he was ahead of me by a couple of years his life i characterized as one of servers to school country and community in school ran ron was on the varsity football team for
003four years he ran track for four years he was an officer in his homeroom and a member of the m club which was a very coveted position at the time in the who's who section of the yearbook interestingly he was recognized as quote the most talkative and the nicest smile he was someone i was an underclassman as i mentioned it was someone that you could look up to he served his country as a member of the united states army he served our community by building a very successful construction company goodwin construction company which was and still is known for quality professionalism honesty and integrity goodrich construction did work for the school system and by all accounts did a very commendable job uh leisure time ronnie enjoyed tinkering with cars he enjoyed racing he raced at
004orange county speedway and navers in pennsylvania on motorcycles he also liked to play golf and it was said at his visitation that he played golf into just about a week before a week or two before he passed finally if i may quote from the middletown times herald record ron was a hard-working man with traditional values a faithful friend to many with a heart of gold he always had your back when needed a true man of his word and believe me that that he was the next moment of sounds is for christine langbang she was a sports staff the assistant office manager at twin towers it was actually aj viral aj reality the president's side of the high school then when we moved she moved with the builder with us to twin towers she was there
005for many many years very well versed in screw in school procedure a very precise individual she was willing to work with help staff members understand not only the procedures but the dreaded school register i don't i don't think staff has registers today but i remember the registers well they were all kinds of chevrons reverse chevrons all kinds of lines and squeals and if you didn't get them right they you were in trouble with the state you know it was attendance right and with the principal the administration chris was one of those individuals she arrived early and she stayed late very well respected by the not only the administrative staff but by the instructional and support staff serve the community active in in saint paul's united methodist church and past president of the ontario supposed company
006of the ladies auxiliary uh herm i worked with herm he was the uh he was uh captain of the ontario's uh host company for a number of years and the final moment of silence is seen as a mle mack ammo was the partner in life of george of greg farina i'm sorry greg is again a very well inspected respected member of the staff at presidential park teaches art he's taught eye for 27 years here [Music] in fact at the visitation reminded me that when he first joined the district i interviewed him we used to have a segment on our channel meet the educator and he's one of the individuals that i interviewed mr mack by all accounts was a fighter for social justice he was interested in politics and he and greg bred champion bulldogs
007i did not know mr mack but as i mentioned i have great respect for greg and i've known him since he started in the district so we offer our condolences to all members of the families the individuals who passed within since our last board meeting please remember them in your thoughts and prayers thank you so much thank you uh mr purino um and i i want to thank you for uh what you do when it comes to these moments of silence i think that it's important for us we come for these business meetings but it's also very important for us to to understand that this community is very tight-knit and and it's wonderful to be able to remember those that have been connected to this community who have gone on before us so these these
008moments are important and i want to thank you for always being diligent and consistent in in for years now in making sure that this part of our meeting is done and done very well mission of the enlarged city school district of middletown mrs hewson we strive to provide fiscally sound educational opportunities in a safe environment that continuously supports our diverse student population we will enable all students to graduate to reach their full potential to become lifelong learners and to be competitive productive members of society thank you roll call mrs clark here here that's never going to get over to me that's never going to get old to me moving on um uh uh very very quickly i need a motion for the approval of our agenda tonight please so moved and seconded any discussion all
009in favor opposed so passes uh i need a motion for the approval of our reorganization meeting minutes for the july 1st 2021 meeting please second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye opposed so passes entertain a motion now for the approval of our regular meeting minutes from our july 1st 2021 meeting moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes then i will entertain a motion for approval of our special meeting minutes from our july 8th 2021 meeting please show move moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed so passes thank you uh everybody uh very very quickly moving on to our personnel action items uh i'd like to entertain a motion for the approval of personnel memorandum number two a administrative please so move second moved and seconded
010any discussion all in favor opposed so passes if there is no objection i would like to combine personnel memorandum to be instructional and personal miranda memorandum 2c non-instructional together may i have a motion for that please don't move second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes um introduction of introduction of personnel tonight uh into the hands of our assistant superintendent um mrs creeden thank you pastor williams um i am so enthusiastic this evening because we are welcoming um two members of our administrative staff into brand new roles inside the district but i'm always continuing to serve the middletown school community so tonight we're welcoming elizabeth rodriguez up to the podium to introduce herself um to the community um in her new role as instructional leader kindergarten group for enl bilingual
011and world languages mrs broad if you want to join her up there good evening everyone um i did want miss brad to come and join me up to the podium please so good evening uh members of the board president of the board and middletown community it is with great delight this evening to formally introduce our k-5 bilingual instructional leader i've known liz for years i've had the honor and the privilege of working with her when i was formerly the principal of truman moon elementary school and she was there as an educator she has been working with us in an administrative capacity for five years going on six years and she has served in multiple capacities building a bridge from home to school with our most needy populations and really showing them just a gentle hand
012in loving care with our english language learners she brings so much strength so much talent to our team and we are just absolutely thrilled to have her to work within our programs not only bilingual dual language and english as a new language at the k through five level so without further ado this is elizabeth rodriguez thank you thank you so much miss broad i wouldn't have done a better job even if i tried so thank you so much um good evening school board members president williams miss creden mr tuttle i am looking forward to joining the bilingual education program as instructional leader for k-5 my plan there's many but one that i could think of from the top of my head is that i plan to work closely with building administrators teachers and families to
013build on the current practices with the goal of improving and promoting student achievement i am very very pleased and fortunate to be working twist that end with um both ms brought the director and ms caravaggio instructional leader and of course with your continued school board members with your continued support with the foresight of mr domoro and miss created and of course the financial expertise of mr tuttle i feel as though the possibilities are endless in what we could accomplish in the program of bilingual education so thank you thank you all so much and if you grant me an opportunity to translate i will do so este para los pares familias is [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] congratulations again liz thank you um and then um also this evening we are pleased to um welcome julie dominguez
014post up to the role of assistant director for special education so i welcome julie and the special services team up to the podium thank you good evening pastor williams mrs creed and mr tuttle and board members and of course the community of middletown i am so humbled and grateful and thankful to be here tonight the past two and a half years working in middletown has been exceptional i'm working as an assistant principal at maple hill and maple hill annex at truman moon i have learned and grown so much i have met some of the most amazing educators leaders students families board members super dedicated to our community and to the education of our students i am super excited to be able to work with these wonderful ladies behind me our director mrs marconi instructional leaders
015mrs tagney and miss koontz they have been warm and welcoming to the team and i am really looking forward as our department grows to be able to support our students with disabilities and as also with our enl and bilingual and all of our sub-population students to ensure that they are continuing to grow just as much as we want them to i look forward to the great work ahead these ladies have done some amazing work where we will continue to grow within our district with our swd plans our social emotional learning plans our cultural responsive work that we've been doing so it's a lot of exciting work ahead of us that i am so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of um which has thank you everybody congratulations julie thank you so i
016i i promise that by the end of this school year i will open this meeting speaking speaking um another language i won't promise what language it'll be but i will i will find out how to do it and i've got a goal you have guys you guys have given me a goal so by the end of this year by by by june of this school year i will open this meeting speaking another language it's gonna be more than one word i'm gonna get a whole phrase a whole sentence it might be pig latin but it'll be something [Music] eddie uh thank you thank you thank you all let's move on because we have um we have some wonderful recognitions um that we we want to make tonight and um it's my my profound privilege to
017start off this first recognition on tonight and then i'm going to let mr or mr perino carried on from there just a a a few days past a staple of this district and of this town uh made the decision to to retire and to uh and to step away from a great service so we want to honor tonight um our mr ernie odell and we thought it was apropos that you would come to the board meeting because we do understand that technically that position is a city position but the service that you give is to the community as a whole and over children i had the opportunity mr o'dell to drive by you on many many mornings as i was bringing my as i was bringing my my two youngest children to uh presidential park
018and there was never a day that you didn't wave at us and greet us with a smile and uh coming in to pick them up the same smile that's not that is not just uh uh something that anybody can do it takes a special individual and a special person to keep the type of smile because you can tell fake smiles and you can tell real smiles you can tell when the person really loves what they do and you have been that you have been that person and so the day that your last day i was just driving by on my way to the building and did not have any idea that the city was going to be out doing what they were doing but i was so grateful to be able to stop the car
019tell my wife wait stop the car pull over here i've got to get out and i've got to say something to this gentleman and so i want to take this opportunity on behalf of the entire board and on behalf of this district to to thank you for your service to our children to our community you're going to be you're going to be missed and and and somebody will stand at that corner but they'll never be able to replace you they'll stand at that corner but they'll never be able to replace you you are you are without question and i don't anyone that knows me knows i don't say things just to say things i i say what i mean and i mean what i say you you are one of a kind you are one
020of a kind and we've been blessed to have you as a part of our community and as part of our district and watching over our children and watching over our community and so we wish you all of the best as a pastor as a pastor i i speak what scripture says it says with long life he will satisfy you and so i speak to you uh that you live you live amen this is the best time in your life live and enjoy every every hour every moment and while we do this my mom used to sing a song that says give me my flowers why i live and so this is our opportunity for the middletown district to give you your flowers and and to congratulate you uh on your retirement and to thank you
021mr perrino if you could at this time as i said we don't have flowers we have a certificate for you ernie and i just want to introduce members of the uh family here tonight please connie shalom and uh niece and uh ernie's son yes so we really respect and admire you and in our mission statement uh nicole houston read our mission statement providing a safe environment and that only not only encompasses in the buildings but going to and from the buildings we also have with us tonight retired sergeant david green who is uh who hired ernie some 28 or 29 years ago right dave yeah and we have uh also uh representing the city uh the alderman gerald kleiner and back there and we have alderman paul johnson and paul of course a long time
022serving board member and and also president of the board of education for a good number of years so why don't we all get up and pay say hello to ernie and we'll present him i'm going to ask can i can i say something please john do you want to please you don't recognize me of course you see so many people over the course of the day but there's nothing more pure honest or whatever the right word is than the perception of a child we on fridays my granddaughter who is going to be four in november she comes to us every friday for the full day we'll walk down that way when school's out we'll come down to the playground over here and ernie the first i'm not making this up the first day she met
023you you gave her that smile and we're walking down the hill she goes papa he's a nice man four years old she nailed you got thank you thank you thank you very good is it's been a while since i've been at a mic so you're in trouble now on behalf of the thousands or tens of thousands of students and staff that came through this for uh for your 29 years of service ernie my thanks our thanks my love and respect uh i remember the day you and yvonne your wife walked into the my office and said we'd like to have a position as school guards if if you're willing to hire us and back then the rate of pay was not so so good it wasn't uh it you didn't do it for the money
024you did it you did it because you love the job and you love the service and to be out there in 90 degree weather and to be out there in zero degree weather uh you did it because it shows your love and dedication and on behalf of all who have come through that intersection including the hundreds and hundreds of mid-city buses uh i want to say thank you ernie and and long life and enjoy your retirement i just want to say here on behalf of the city and particularly our second ward for keeping us safe and always being there we really appreciate it thank you thank you i think ernie wants to say something who wants ernie ernie come on be our guest thank you i don't know how good a speaker i am but
025i do want to thank the whole board uh for their honoring me this way i really it was the children that i always thought of and it was a pleasure every day to come and see them their parents the grandparents their friends and some of them would come and give me a hug and that that at the time with the virus and everything a lot of parents didn't like it but they came up anyway and i loved it and i love all the children it's been a pleasure it's not a i didn't do it as a job i did it as a friend of the children the parents grandparents and the all the people in the area that would come up and say hello to me i got to know a lot of people in
026the area and of course i live in middletown but uh that in the beginning was a new experience and i really enjoyed it and i i want to thank everyone for honoring me tonight and my heart goes out to everyone thank you anyone else like to say something mr o'dell it says this this says crossing guard a certificate of appreciation awarded to ernest o'dell the large city school district of middletown is grateful for your 29 years of service keeping our children safe thank you for your commitment to the local communities it's signed by superintendent richard demaro and by myself uh john c williams president of the board david this day 7 22 2021. thank you so much them [Music] come on good morning thank you very much thank you i also want to add um
027i i did receive a text message from mayor de stefano uh a little while ago and he he apologized for not being able to make it tonight at the last minute it was his intention to be here but he said to make sure that i give you his regards and his uh and his uh great admiration and respect so uh meredith stefano i'm expressing that because he asked me to do so so again congratulations and thank you thank you so much [Music] mr uh mr perrino if you could go with the next the next the next recognition tonight okay thank you the next recognition involves the donation to the presidential media center of a book junior's brother and i think we have that on the up there this book interestingly enough was written by a
028student a former student dr stephen konoff and dr kanoff is the son of paul and and mary norton and they are here tonight paul of course sitting in the back there paul of course is the head custodian in the district in charge of our custodial staff does a nice job and mary for many years a member of our support staff in the district she recently retired now continue with this story for a moment dr kanoff actually got the idea for the book junior's brother book of hominins he got the idea when he was in the uh at dutch the charlie school now of course we're here at presidential park in the library which has now become the media center and um he had that idea actually in second grade and he is a uh a
029doctor of physical therapy one of our successful very successful uh graduates and he still believes in motivation hard work and perseverance to be where you want to be the book is lavishly illustrated and homonyms and i'm sure everybody knows what a homonym is and vince is basically studying his notes for homonyms good he's picking on you tonight vince the homonym of course is words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have a different meaning weight and weight son and son and so on and this book incorporates that and gives students a better understanding of homonyms and also tells the story so uh we're going to donate this book the nortons are going to donate this book to the presidential media center and uh i'm going to ask liz rodriguez instructional leader to come
030up and accept this donation thank you could we get a photo john take the photo of the nortons and come on up paul mary on behalf of miss sue short the principal presidential park it is a great honor to receive this book i have to say as the kindergarten teacher enl teacher now bilingual il i feel like i want to keep this book but i will give it to mr tomorrow morning thank you paul and mary would you like to say something we just uh we hope it's an inspiration to other children uh as well as you said he was in second grade at shirley was seven years old he was inspired enough to go ahead and uh write this book mostly on his own of course mary helped him a little bit but uh
031it was just a uh it was kind of a neat thing and like i said if it inspires other children to want to learn and stuff like that i think it's a it's a good thing okay awesome thank you thank you [Music] recognition please okay thank you the next recognition and this goes back to our june graduation is the martin a delugeettes award marty delugatz a long time member of the middletown board of education active member in the community a businessman in the community it's given to a person who goes the extra step in helping families in the community and when you help families you help the children of our community this year the martin a delugeats award and there were other candidates but we awarded it to miley rivera velez who is here with
032us uh tonight uh miss velez is the uh coordinator of the interfaith food pantry of saint paul's united methodist church and i can say having gone down there to meet and see the workings of the food pantry and also glennis foglier a former member a former recipient of the deluge award is here tonight who runs the the no kid hungry program the lions no kid hungry program but it's a it's a wonderful thing feeding the hungry and uh i know millie during the pandemic you service between 800 and 900 families and arranging for food and normally it's about 500 families which is uh is quite the thing so i know you do a great deal of work arranging for this and uh arranging for contributions uh through um members of the community now what you
033might not know and i found this out that millie is a marine corps veteran right semper fi and you work with the orange county mental health association the vet to vet program so we want to congratulate you on your award it's very well deserved and we also want to uh congratulate uh not only you but your staff and also glennis fogelier who works with you now uh i keep my promises and i still have even at my i still have a pretty good memory so uh i said during the last campaign cycle i didn't i said i'm not going to put up any signs but i'm elected fine if i'm not that's okay but i promised a donation because i know one dollar of food he buys what 14 one dollar donation buys 1400 am
034i right on that 14 and 18 dollars of food so uh you're going to get a plaque you're going to get a donation glennis no kid hungry program you had your plaque you have it but you're going to get a donation so why don't we all go up to the podium and uh we'll award this plot john would you want to come up here absolutely mr mr perino did such a fine job at graduation during the presentation and i i hope that you got a chance to see the video um from graduation from the graduation uh but this this says the martin ate the lugos award presented to millie rivera velez uh an appreciation for your volunteer efforts on behalf of the community and the students of the enlarged city school district of middletown dated
035june 2021. thank you so much and congratulations once again thank you for everything and let's see here's your check and everyone has here's your check okay and this is your box thank you thank you so much would you like to have somebody well i just want to say it is an honor and i feel humbled by this award but basically i can't do it with it without any of you and my staff i truly run a food pantry that is neighbor helping neighbors we don't ask the government for any money we basically get all our donations from the lions club and other local civic groups and people like yourselves who may have a little extra to share so again it is my honor and my privilege to serve our community i've worked with millie from
03610 years she's my mentor she has taught me everything that i know about the no kid hungry backpack program a wonderful lady and fun to work with is all right okay again congratulations to all of our honorees tonight and we're really grateful uh to have the opportunity so i was trying to uh i was trying to keep the meeting brief tonight uh i was trying to keep me i knew i wasn't gonna i knew i wasn't gonna beat my record doc i knew i wasn't my record is 28 minutes um i knew i wasn't going to beat that record tonight uh but if we if we go a little bit longer tonight and we're not gonna when i say longer i'm not saying we're having a long meet because we're gonna be done in just
037a few minutes uh but if we go a little bit longer than i expected tonight is because of good stuff but i don't mind going i don't mind going long for good stuff it's the other stuff that gives me gives me indigestion so but nevertheless this is good for for um for my fellow board members if you if you don't mind can we can we bypass recognition announcements and community reports tonight yes is that all right with everybody all right so we're going to move on um our opportunity to address the board uh you you see the timer is up the four minutes four minutes time timers up and this is opportunity for you to come just come to the podium sign in and uh after four minutes and here comes here comes the order
038the great order order himself and that's all i got you're still doing better well i uh the timer is very distracting bishop i just want to tell you that but it serves a purpose so yes my name is paul johnson i always appreciate the opportunity to be before you this evening i'm here as an alum 86 to 2003. i know it's quite a while ago but i'm still here i think i'm the last guy standing but that's okay um i'm here tonight for several reasons first of all the martinez award marty and i are very good friends we went through the civil wars together got the wins to prove it and millie congratulations and if you knew marty you would really be honored to be receiving this award because he's done a very good contribution
039to our community and he is still alive let's just be clear about that okay i just want to be sure we know that i also appear before you as third ward ultimate the word best word but that's my opinion i want to let you know the o w project is moving forward we have head start possibly moving in there we'll see how it goes we got a 2 million dollar grant from assemblyman gunther assemblywoman gunther and um we really want to get that building moving it's been a long wait as has many other things in the city of middletown but we're excited about that things are alive and well in middletown at our recent meeting we spent about four million of 11 million dollars that we already have awarded to us for various projects throughout
040the city our milling and paving has gone very well this year what else did i want to say i want to thank you for continuing the sro program uh it doesn't go back quite to my day but somewhere back there and i think it's a great program i appreciate the fact that you think the same as well uh the topic of the moment front page of the paper was a cannabis conversation it was it was a spirited conversation we had a public hearing and as you well know reading today's paper the council unanimously approved the idea to opt out with the option to opt in by december 31st so we're all going to wait and see how this all comes together at the state level and whether we opt in or not at the end
041remains to be seen lastly i wanted to remind you i sent i gave you some cards this evening about nixle nixle is one of the best kept secrets in middletown and we have about 15 of our people that are aware of it and i want to see 90 of people aware of it so nixel is a community communication program i have 1 minute and 46 seconds left it's community communication program all you have to do is text middletown to triple a triple seven and you're in it will take five seconds it doesn't cost anything and then what will it get you every time we're going to close the street have a water main break go fix something snow emergency changing garbage you'll get a thing on your phone this is this is what's going on
042don't go down this street it's going to be closed we're turning off your water for four hours to do something and it's really a great idea and if we had more people aware of it it would be even greater idea so that's really all i got and i got a minute left so um there you go thank you can i can i take your minute dr johnson i just have one minute four seconds another best kept well-kept secret is sanchez david's park the water park there is it's incredible it's one of the best run programs i've ever seen they uh they rotate the lifeguards like every 15 minutes um the diversity the cultural diversity there is incredible my uh granddaughter that i was speaking about before she can't wait to get there the water the
043spray part of it i enjoy it just as much as the kids do so fancy davis park and i think it's like two dollars or something to get in 250 it's worth the trip it's incredible you guys are doing great well we appreciate that as you know we had a trouble with lifeguards because of covet and people that didn't work and things were closed so our limited capacity this year but we're doing the best we can and of course i'll take my last 28 seconds and talk about fans for david with the extension of woolsey field which also coordinates the city of middletown public education system in the city and that guy kind of set back by covid but we're moving forward if you drive by there you'll know we are and weather will be
044done by the end of this year i've been in government long enough not to make any promises so there you go thank you wow anybody else i'm probably a familiar face to some of you i recognize mr concenzo mr fereno mrs bison mike tuttle president williams my name is joe sliczinski and i'm going to give you a very quick background about my involvement in the middletown city school district i'm a 45-year resident of middletown my family has been involved in the middletown school system both personally and within the confines of my my family extended family all my kids three of them went through the middletown school system my wife's father bob walker was a principal at june of raleigh junior high many many years ago when i came into this district um dr krauss was
045still here i i served in here for 32 years within the maintenance department i'm a retired electrician from the district my wife was the administrative assistant to um to dave coats and she served in that capacity for 29 years not only that but other variety capacities within a district so we have a we're very well embedded in this district and i just want to touch on something president williams said earlier on when mr perino was doing his remarks about various people one comment you made was this is a very tight-knit committee community and you're spot on this is a very tight-knit committee community and um as such i've been very involved in what's been going on in the district though not in front of the camera but certainly behind it and i'm coming here tonight
046because of a concern that i have and it's a topic that probably is not a familiar a favorable topic to discuss but i'm going to bring it up anyway because i need some input i need to be educated and that's primarily why i'm here it came to my attention recently that this board had decided to incorporate within our district if i'm if i'm wrong please correct me something to do with the critical race theory which is now predominantly throughout our society this last year and a half for our students particularly it's been horrendous they've suffered greatly in terms of their education and so forth and if i'm am i correct as in regards to what i just said that is going to be something that's introduced just a yes or no will will satisfy but
047my my point is that i did hear that that was going to be incorporated and if that is the case what i'm asking is this so that i'm educated i i want to be able to have access to the very same information that was presented to this board and then if it's going to be presented to our teachers union throughout the district i want that information provided to me as well because frankly what i see out in society there's so many different fingers of this right now i don't understand what it truly is and if it's going to be something that our children are going to be exposed to i want to know what they're being exposed to i want to know what they're being taught and i think it's a fair question and i
048think it's fair that if that is indeed the case and if it's any shape or form being introduced into our system i want that information provided to me um so that's essentially what i'm i'm asking and i don't know if there's any comment from the board as regards that but i would certainly appreciate that i would not be here if i did not take it so seriously oh i will definitely if you if you make sure that your information's on that paper what we'll have is we'll have the we'll have um uh we'll have our administration will reach out to you to answer any questions that you have okay and and i it would be fair to say that when that administration reaches out to me i'm assuming it's going to be dr del maro
049and perhaps this young lady uh it might be it might be mr del maro it might be it might be uh but i am i'm assuming that at that point i want this to be public i'm assuming at that point that i will have a full access to the information i'm requesting is that correct yeah i i i can't give that kind of answer i don't know the answer to that but what i'll say is that they'll they'll talk and they'll give you they'll give you uh the information the information is is free it's it's open to give so it's not it's not anything that's hidden but that's fair but that's that's what i was that's what i say you you'll be able to contact and the last comment the last comment i'll make because
050i'm running out of time because i i appreciate your um exercise of robert swirls you did a remarkable job at the beginning thank you sir and i just need to thank you so much and thank you for coming coming tonight thank you if you leave your make sure you leave your telephone number i certainly am and everything there and and i promise you we will follow up some of these board members know where to find me is there anybody else tonight dennis [Music] march 12 2020 was the very last no kid hungry delivery that they we made for the middletown lions club may 13th of this year was our very first one it was an abbreviated backpack program but we filled 471 backpacks for the last five weeks of the school year and it was
051so good to get back doing that i loved it one of the most important things that i really wanted to report to you is that all of this was done safely troy martin from the food bank provided us with backpacks with plastic bags and they were a heavier plastic they worked beautifully and i know that every single uh social worker loved having them so i'm kind of suspecting that when we start again hopefully in september instead of a backpack we are going to use these plastic bags they worked perfectly and when we finished packing our backpacks we put them in the car we take i call the schools and i have a contact at every one of the schools and i let them know that the back or the bags are in the car and
052they're going to be delivered to the front door at that point in time every school has a it has a representative coming and meeting our cars be it the actual social worker many times it was a security man or a maintenance man but it worked beautifully and i have to congratulate you because working with all of these people in the schools has been they've been wonderful they've been absolutely amazing so i'm hoping that we start again in 2021 in september because the middletown alliance club loves what we're doing and we like to serve that's it thank you thank you so much and you do it so well other uh come on jerry uh mr kleiner come come come uh hi jerry kleiner um second ward alderman and i mentioned that because uh i think i
053heard somebody say that the third ward was the best ward i i yeah i just didn't wanna and then they went on to praise average park which you know is in the second ward we're meeting here in the school in the second ward watch parks in the second ward city halls in the second ward police stations in the second ward libraries in the second ward i could go on but i think you get my dream thank you [Music] and i live in the first ward let's just say let's just say that the the first the second the third and the fourth ward are the best wards why don't we say that the peacemaker i i've learned i've learned how to be a i've learned how to be a peacemaker we all i've learned how to
054be a peacemaker because i'm not good at other stuff president williams yes yes yes sir just one comment while we're going into next item i just want to say that uh joe mentioned bob walker and bob gave me my first of all he was my principal at uh memorial school and uh he also gave me my first job when i got out of the service in somebody was leaving during the mid-year and he says well we need somebody so that's it and joe's wife linda she worked for the recreation commission which i also did as you know 14 and 15. and she always used to warn us she was like a boss she always used to warn us when the big boss was coming just memories of middletown yeah yeah there's a lot of good
055memories of middletown fine ones yeah a lot of good memories um you know no matter what the ups the downs the ends the outs you make the cake out of it um and uh you know i'm third generation middletown third generation middletown my grandparents my grandparents were here my mother is a 1949 graduate of middletown high school my older sisters were 70 and 71 graduates and i'm an 82 graduate and my brother my brother was 85 graduated a lot of good memories here at middletown um let's move on let's move on are there any letters no letters tonight no letters tonight so we will move on [Music] tonight moving on to our action items uh i entertain and we'll be done in just a few minutes i entertain like to entertain a motion for the
056approval of financial memorandum number three please so move second moved and seconded any discussion [Music] no discussion all in favor aye opposed it uh entertain a motion for approval of special services memorandum number two please i need a second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor all right opposed so passes uh motion for action item c approval of parent member part 200 regulations required parent member moved seconded any discussion all in favor aye aye opposed so passes entertain a motion for the approval of gardner avenue extension sidewalk replacements sequa intention to act as lead agency so move moved and seconded any discussion is so any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes uh action item e entertain a motion now for approval of twin towers modernization secret intention to act as lead agency
057second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye opposed it so passes um approval a motion for approval of change orders please don't move some more bills over there move the second it um uh uh bill could you please come in and give us um a discussion explanation of change orders please certainly bill john while bill is going to the mic he's a little modest but i want to say that on the fencing at the presidential here he saved the district 13 000 dollars and got a better quality getting a better quality job i know he's not going to say that but i'll say go ahead bill i discuss these with him go ahead thank you mr purino i want to mention some of the change orders we have coming up under our site
058improvement project we have a couple over at twin towers excuse me a truman moon the first is to remove two trees grind the stumps provide top soil and seed to the area the next is to provide additional drainage at the front entrance of truman moon the third one is for the site improvements is here at presidential park and this change order was for to provide a credit for the fencing scope which will now be provided by others under the high school addition alterations there's a change order to provide additional bracing at the west soffit and two additional column enclosures for the fire alarm replacement over at truman moon there's that we have a change order to to provide labor equipment and materials to install six additional exhaust fan relays and the last is at the
059high school and it's a change order to add an extension uh excuse me an expansion joint plate and level the floors on the second floor are there any questions well just we appreciate it bill thank you man thank you thank you so much all right well we've had the discussion and explanations uh all in favor aye opposed it so passes uh moving on to committee reports are there any committee reports tonight no john yes quickly the iep committee uh the iap the ieps are very very well done and there i congratulate mrs marconi miss marconi and her department they're very clear and uh they are the explanations are just excellent they've become better over the past a couple of years so congratulations karen on that thank you thank you so much um any other any
060other uh reports tonight all right moving on um round table round table uh do does the round table we'll we'll go through round table we're holding ourselves we are submitting ourselves to the four minutes the four minute four minutes um standard that we have always had in place i just want to make sure that everyone understands we've always had in place but the last couple of years we last couple years we hadn't really been doing roundtable uh so but uh we're going to hold ourselves to four minutes so um mr thank you pastor i'll be brief um first of all i want to make a clarification as to no let me start off with congratulations to the new positions and the wonderful warmth and enthusiasm you're bringing and um thank you to our city i
061i love hearing about the water park and there's just a lot of positive energy in this room tonight and i don't want to mess that up so but um i do have to address a couple little things and i'll be brief um the last meeting we had we had a member of the community come up and speak and i just wanted to clarify that i was never against the survey i was not in favor of the company that we selected for that survey also i wanted to mention that it was me who spoke out at the april meeting against critical race theory they were my own personal opinions about it and um our memo memo but the motion passed by our board to implement educator and administrator trainings that incorporated critical race theory and my
062concern in my personal opinion was that will filter down and trickle down and i i think um as i don't want to rehash it there's just so much positive energy but i do want to mention that um whenever something is put at the top and it it couldn't trickle down and we want to make sure that um i at least that's my opinion um that it doesn't trickle down so that's all and um thank you for um what a beautiful presentation mr purino on all of the information you gathered in getting to know all of the people in our community that you know so so many people and you had so many nice things to say about our members and and um i know miss miss rivera velez has left but and mr um odell
063and the norton family wow just a lot of great positive things happening here so thank you two minutes thank you um mr cresento thanks gotta take this off um just quickly i don't want to get into the critical race theory but you gotta remember that it's a theory it's not part of a curriculum at this point and there's so much misinformation on both ends of the spectrum hopefully eventually we'll come to some place close to the middle and make this work one way or another but um you know thinking about this past school year and if we can think about kindergarten through 12th grade as one cohort and if you can think about a tree if you chop a tree down it has rings and those rings give you a tremendous amount of information about
064the life of that tree it tells you when there was a drought a plight or blight on these trees good days bad years good years if we could look at this year as a ring in education and compare it to other rings in my lifetime this is the most unique school year i've ever witnessed and being a part of a board of education and being a former educator i really really took it personally and to start with this district handled that incredibly well pivoted when they needed to improved whatever delivery went with state education's confusing mandates and what have you but thinking of that ring and thinking about education what i understand and haven't been a special education teacher the most critical years are k through three you learn to read and then after that
065you read to learn and just reading some statistics uh students who start kindergarten behind is the largest group of dropouts over the history of their 12-year experience in school they have less than a 12 percent chance of attending a four-year college so with that in mind and not just that part of it but following this once you fall behind it's very difficult i'm also an educational advocate um i'm a court appointed special advocate and work with foster children and go to cse meetings and you realize after time that despite a district's best efforts and quality education whatever once you're behind it's incredibly difficult to catch up so if you're one of my students is three years behind entering the sixth grade so if she were to make up time even if she reached grade level
066and made up another year she's still two years behind but my point here is that if somewhere somehow hopefully somebody will take hold of this look at that ring of this year compare it to previous years which would be easy to do but over the next 12 years as these oh and kindergarten this district excels because we have a two-year kindergarten so kindergarten being so important gives the kid an extra advantage if they don't make it successfully through the first year but take that ring and over the next 12 years of this cohort to see what happened to these students because their i believe their educational journey is going to be different than mine anybody sitting in this room um and it will be unfortunately my age i don't know if i'm gonna you know
067but to see this unfold and to compare it'll be and hopefully the educational system can learn from this you know heaven forbid something like this happens again this virus is flaring up again hopefully they can get a handle on it but um there's a lot to learn here and i think educational systems obviously respond very well to the learning environment so it'll be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming years thank you thank you mr c uh uh mr mr mitch williams first i see you there you have something sir no so okay mr freddie williams good evening um i just want to say first and foremost i'm very excited in the direction that the district has been going in and that is going in now with uh the new uh administrators and teachers
068coming in uh congratulations and uh i just want to touch on what uh mr uh vince cresenza was saying about um you know kids falling behind and and coming up to where they need to get um so we're strengthening a lot of uh programs and departments in the district which is awesome i don't want us to fall behind in other departments right so what in particular which comes to mind is student support um like mr vince cresenzo said this year and a half which is my first year on the board which is a roller coaster uh to say the least but um you know i'm just thinking about everything that's good and i'm also like you know devil's advocate that i want to make sure that we don't fall behind in other aspects of the
069district and um but as a whole overall i think we're doing a great job congratulations once again um to everybody that's coming into the district that's been here that's you know taking new positions um you know i'm excited about this year and hopefully it it will be smoother than last year that's that's that's our hope and that's it thank you thank you sir um mr purino one thing very quickly uh a very valuable member of our staff isa wolff is retiring tomorrow tomorrow uh he's a wolfe the confidential secretary to of the uh superintendent and uh also the uh assistant uh uh superintendent she does a couple of jobs over there maybe more than a couple excellent person she knows the district she knows the personnel she fields telephone calls and she knows who to
070whom to direct the calls to she's there early in the morning and late in the evening i know i do the ieps and sometimes i get over there my schedules i make it over there at seven o'clock in the morning or and uh she's usually there to uh open the doors and let everyone in so she is really going to be missed a very efficient competent individual wonderful personality so best of luck to you isa i know you're moving out of the area and we wish you only the best thank you president williams thank you sir um mr bison just briefly i just want to thank our two new administrators and their use of spanish tonight because that's been a bonus contention of mine for several years that we need to address our hispanic population
071so i'm very much appreciative thank you so much thank you mr gomez just came in late i'll give you an opportunity if you like your comments special yeah yes i was got stuck in the town of lloyd justice court in ulster county and then the lost ended up going back to ulster anyway uh it's an honor to be here as always and with respect to our upcoming activities and fair funding we're looking forward to hopefully this fall doing further a fair funding town hall where we will present to the community at large parents and all interested but the whole concept of fair funding what is fair funding what's the role the state government plays local taxpayers play and how could parents or community members get involved and make a difference and and also how our
072school district is funded i think it's good that parents and the community understand what comes into play that's something we're going to work on and present to the board of administration and once we're ready we'll select the date and put it forward good kid thank you sir mr williams yes sir uh yeah something i'm very excited about that i just wanted to talk about is that sidewalk math that we have going on right some of our educators are putting it out it's it started at maple hill every week they put different uh math problems so it's even during the summer time that educators are still thinking about the kids in the community to keep them just the buy-in and keep them going on to be educated i'm very excited about that um from um because
073it matters 24 7 crew and they are educated so it's just the community and the education just coming together i'm just very excited about that absolutely and they've been doing that now this i believe this is their third year yeah third year of of doing that so if you see math problems on the sidewalk um it's just so that we can keep our children in the community engaged and i think that's good math brings everything together thank you um so i'll be very brief first of all congratulations again to everyone um our new administrators uh coming in and uh to even tonight we approved a new teachers uh we approved uh new uh teaching assistants and and others that will be coming into the district um this is gonna be critical time as we move
074forward um to to to try to the best of our ability to fill in the gaps um that you know were created as of because of covet but not just academically also to be there and to be able to stand in the gaps for those emotional and as well as uh mental issues that not just our children and our scholars have faced but if we be honest you know i always say this it's one thing to lie to somebody else it's another thing to lie to yourself if we be honest with ourselves all of us have gone through some emotional and mental strain in this past year maybe you haven't gone through the same degree as somebody else but all of us have felt the stress of it and so uh we have to fill
075in the gaps and we have to remain strong and and i want to encourage anybody that's here it doesn't matter how strong you are if you need help you have not because you asked now it's it's it's it's a sad person that will be in the water and drowned without crying out to help from the shore and so um i want to encourage anybody whoever it is i'm going to be very very transparent for this moment is that even as a pastor everyone expects the preacher the pastor to be the strong one but at times i need help and i'm thankful to have a circle that i can ask for help and so let's get off our high horses to stop being so proud and let's let's ask for help because um the blind can't
076leave the blind because they'll both fall in the ditch and so somebody has to get better so that we can help everybody else get better and so and with that being said i want to thank you for coming tonight and and uh and asking the questions that you asked because i've long said this i've said this as it relates to any of this controversy that's going on is that what we need is education what we need is education we need to be educated um and the only way you can learn and grow is you cannot get your information from one source your information has to come from multiple sources in order for us to understand both sides there's always three sides to the story there's this side there's that side and then there's the truth
077where everything comes together and so um i think it's important so i want to appreciate i appreciate the way that you you came to the mic and you posed a question because i say this to everybody it's it's okay to say i don't know it's okay to say i don't know if you don't know you'll never know unless you ask the questions and unless you're willing to be able to learn and to grow none of us have arrived and we have not attained yet but we're working on it and we're trying to perfect those things and perfection simply means to mature to mature in those things and and as far as i know i'll be maturing i'm 57 years old i'll be maturing until until i'm 120 and i intend on living that long so
078i attended and i'm going to retire from basketball at 80. um so but that's all i have to say thank you everybody thank you thank you uh we have a motion to adjourn i'm so moved our next meeting our next meeting will be on uh august the 12th august the 12th here in this room again thank you everybody for coming back and since you mentioned august 12th yes you want to mention yes real quick before i before i finalize the motion um uh our summer graduation ceremony uh for the uh the class of 2021 will be at middletown high school auditorium 6 p.m on august the 13th so uh we're looking forward to that time as well we received a motion any discussion all in favor aye opposed thank you so much thank you everybody
079have a good evening was that a speeding case no it was a criminal criminal you