001good evening everybody we'd like to take this opportunity uh to welcome you to the regular the well the january 17th june june see how bad this year has been for us i'm all confused on the months frank you need to help me we'd like to call to meeting to order the meeting of the june 17 2021 regular board meeting of the enlarged city school district of middletown i now call that meeting to order and we're going to ask tonight that our mrs hewson would please lead us in the pledge of allegiance one nation under god indivisible with thank you mr houston uh mission of the enlarged city school district of middletown uh mr bison if you could read that please thank you pastor mission of the enlarged city school district of middletown we strive to
002provide physically sound educational 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 mr bison roll call mrs clark here here here thank you mrs clark uh i'd like to entertain a motion for the approval of our agenda tonight please moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed so passes now entertain a motion for the approval of our regular minutes from our june 3rd 2021 meeting second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed so passes moving on to our personnel action items if there is no objection we'll keep well first let's do this i'd like to entertain a motion for the approval of our
003personnel memorandum 28a administrative please moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed so passes if there is no objection i'd like to put personnel memorandum 28b instructional and personnel memorandum 28c non-instructional together may i have a motion for such please second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed the so passes is there an introduction of any personnel okay there's no introduction of personnel uh moving on to our recognition announcement and community reports i'm going to ask our superintendent if he would take over at this at this point for these particular recognitions thank you pastor williams members of the board of education and certainly our entire middletown school community all of us are here this evening for the celebrity that we have here for celebratory's type of events here so thank you all
004for coming it's great to see you all back in person as we move very slowly uh to what we do pre-covet if you will so we're looking forward to the school year coming up and of course ending our school year very successfully but tonight we do have you know celebrations and i'd like to begin with the high school outstanding students these are the two students that have demonstrated a really exemplary target on their academic studies they were the top two students in the class of over 525 students and we're very very proud to recognize them and they'll be speaking at our graduation ceremony coming up at the end of next week we have the outstanding student the top student in the senior graduating class here tonight with us is felice dong uh john rather excuse
005me and uh the the second student that had a gpa just below that jasmine core so i'd like to congratulate them i'd like to please mrs sorrentino please come up and say a few words at the microphone about these two outstanding exemplary students they were recognized in the county last week and it's not raining this time no thunder no lightning no wind no rain no hail good evening mr del morro president williams members of the board it is an honor tonight to be here with you i have with me two amazing young ladies miss felice dong who is an unbelievably well-rounded individual who has participated in our college credit programs um i am going to let her speak about her future justice coach but i would like to say she'll be headed to yale this
006fall she is the wow and so let me turn things over to police first just to say thank you tell us a little bit about your future come on baby you got this going out you're good um a little unprepared for this but thank you for having me here tonight so yeah as ms sorrentino said i'll be attending gale in the fall and i'll be studying engineering and economics wow excellent it's all you jasmine you got this um it also gives me a distinct pleasure to introduce miss jasmine core jasmine also a student who's been with us for her entire school career at the high school she has really taken advantage of our programming she will be attending a school called vasser in in the fall so jasmine hi everyone thank you for having me
007here tonight okay i'm a little nervous so um as mr sorrentino said that i will be going to basta college and i will be majoring in biology and yeah following a pre-med track and my goal is to be a cardiologist thank you very much we have certificates from both of these flying students were recognized at the county level last week that's what uh mrs argentines were referring to the weather was a challenge for us that day we were out on the field at goshen high school and so they were recognized county wide as well is thank you so much foreign next okay continuing with our celebrations as i mentioned at the last board meeting there are milestones in educators lives in particular teachers and administrators who receive tenure that's one of the milestones the first
008milestone i believe is when they're hired for the first time and certainly we have the the leg of that celebratory track and we have when you retire so we have a mixture of both here tonight so i think it's important that we recognize the achievement of individuals that have been with our students for many many years and retiring the countless hours of dedication commitment is certainly going to be a loss for our district but very happy at the same time for their next venture in life so i'm going to just push it off right now kick it off to our new personnel director inclusion officer so that she yes no i know i'm just going i'm going to go to the retirees to see and then go to the scholarship yeah all right i'm just
009going to do that right for the retirees ms crawford no no thank you i'll get there good evening at this time we want to acknowledge our retirees for the 2021 school year we want to thank you all for your dedicated service what you've brought to our district to the community you've been such an asset and what a year it's been but we're so happy that you're here today and we want to wish you well at this time i'm going to call your name if you're here please come up so that we can give you a token thomas scott superintendent of buildings and grounds this is your token mary jane crescenzo senior account clerk [Applause] brian ross head custodian rosemary sadler's teaching assistant [Applause] patricia de pew food service helper [Applause] karen taylor teacher insistent is
010congratulations nelson reed security aide [Applause] diana tenet science teacher victoria hazel enl teacher [Applause] oh here she goes [Applause] congratulations nancy petyani keyboard specialist barbara conoya school nurse nettie sawyer enl teacher [Applause] commander andrew wall connie duzaminski english teacher [Applause] miriam velez pettit special education [Applause] [Music] natalie navarro guidance counselor judy hulse special education teacher doris lapari bilingual teacher nancy fernandez bilingual teacher kathleen byrne elementary teacher [Applause] patricia mcgorry elementary teacher frank woodward physical education teacher well i got a fist bumper now [Laughter] [Applause] louise kirkwood elementary teacher bridget curley elementary teacher in the box cheryl decker special education teacher congratulations helen riley coda cecilia pimental teacher esl sue washburn part-time clerical coley taylor heads ground keeper [Applause] is a wolf confidential secretary to the superintendent please give a round of applause to all our
0112021 retirees congratulations families if you want to take something now's a good time also too huh thank you [Applause] [Music] as the superintendent's making his way back um again congratulations to all of our retirees you earned you earned this and and i'm we're really honored that we can be here to celebrate you tonight um as you step into the the next season the next season we wish you great success we wish you great happiness and and great peace especially after we're coming out of such a such a crazy year you deserve you deserve all of this applause and all of this accolades and i'm glad that we can have this last meeting and we can smile at each other and that we can enjoy this we needed this we needed this so congratulations to all
012of you again continuing with our celebrations tonight uh first time in 16 years we've had nine scholar athlete teams to be a scholar athletic team one has to have your entire roster looked at reviewed and 75 percent or more of each athlete on that roster must have a gpa of over 90 percent we have nine first time in 60 years we have this many and eight are female teams so before i ask the athletic director mr coast to come in and introduce the coaches because of those nine teams there would have been 109 athletes in this room and you can see that might have been a little bit of problem for our governor so i'm going to ask mr coats to come on up and identify the nine teams and we have certificates and the
013coaches of those teams thank you for all your hard work with the ladies and gentlemen thank you so much mr del morro pastor williams members of the board of education uh it's my privilege and honor uh this evening to present our scholar athlete teams i couldn't be more proud as the athletic director in middletown as mr del morro stayed in and took my thunder the all the all the stats because i'm a stat guy i know he's a stat guy too but these are tremendous stats but first and foremost i'd like to thank the administration and the teachers at mhs for uh getting our our kids through this uh this year uh what we had to go through and what the kids and the coaches and teachers and administrators had to go through was tremendous
014and it was just an amazing accomplishment so i like the teachers and administrators uh i'd like to thank the coaches as well we have five of them up here out of the nine uh four but one coaches two that's another stat for us mr del morro but uh couldn't thank the coaches more because they created the goal for the teams and they empowered the kids to do what they needed to do in the classroom and most importantly i like to thank all the kids i know that they couldn't be here because the most that that we've ever had in 16 years 109 athletes uh in the in the year that we've had the kids persevered through trials and tribulations like we all are can imagine uh and they uh with their coaches persevered tremendously and
015i couldn't thank them more so thank you so much i'd like to recognize the four that are not here melissa conley our varsity girls softball coach our varsity boys tennis coach the only boy team this year but we will have more next year matt hayden our girls cross country coaches stephanie burke and george shorter and our basketball coaches ed bobel and diana gold one more stat before i have our coaches come up and receive their certificates and say a little bit about their team five years ago the new york state public high school increased the standards for this uh for this award and when we first looked at that our coaches were surprised that it went from 50 to 75. but we took that on as a challenge and i couldn't be more proud of
016these coaches this year because the first year that it went to from 50 to 75 percent 90 or above we had three teams that one year and then the next two years we had four but we created an emphasis and a goal within our program amongst our coaches and athletes and then we went to five and now nine so it's a it's a it's a perfect example when you raise your standards it motivates you motivated these coaches and our athletes so i couldn't be more proud of them thank you so much the first coach i'd like to call up is our varsity softball coach coach mcewen simonson i just want to say congratulations to all the girls that made this happen uh they work extremely hard in the classroom on the softball field in the
017community and i really couldn't be any more proud to be a part of this softball family to be a part of this middletown community to be a part of middletown high school and to be blessed to be able to to coach such fine young ladies and feel confident that when they go out into the world they're going to make a difference thank you [Applause] next i'd like to have our two sport coach come up mackenzie gage who coaches varsity girls lacrosse and varsity girls soccer hi everybody i just want to say thank you for everything that you've done for us supporting both teams this is my first year coaching both varsity teams but every chance that they had they jumped into the community they did the community-wide cleanup i had 30 girls there for lacrosse
018soccer we had a couple girls transfer over into both sports so that's awesome in order to connect both programs in the future and thank you i really appreciate it [Music] next we have our varsity girls swimming and diving coach cynthia parisi bosco thank you so much for bringing us here the girls on the team were amazing this year with covid we challenged them to keep their grades up and they were at practices they had one of the best seasons that they've had in a while and they worked extremely hard i'm going to congratulate coach woodward who actually raised them and brought them up to a place where now a lot of them are really in a section qualifying time they got it all back it was because of what he did with them but there
019were 19 yes there were 19 of the 22 that made it and i was extremely proud that the team really held it together and thank you on the board and everyone for letting this season happen for them it was really important and we appreciate everything you've done for us so thank you and last but certainly not least our varsity volleyball coach amanda is a grotech [Music] yes i'm a volleyball coach in the number five too i might have to lower the mic um i just want to say thank you to everybody um the girls have persevered through the season as you know like we were the first indoor sport after basketball and we ended up having two prac two weeks of practice got quarantined and my girls ended up making it to sections um even
020after that and going against one of the roughest teams state champions in the first round and we this is our second year of scholar athletes we also had three girls this year which is amazing because we haven't had any girls one girl last year make the all-county um all-star team i guess you call it and one on the second team and two honorable mentions so so it's great it's great they did awesome and i want to congratulate them and thank you all for all that you do for us thank you mr del moro members of the board of education thank you for your support and recognition thank you oh i'd be happy to take this okay [Laughter] there we go thank you [Applause] all righty okay and for certainly not the least important but perhaps
021one of the most important evenings is the night the board of education grants tenure now there's been a great deal of discussion over the years of the purpose and validity of tenure is it really a lifetime position no we here in the middletown school district look at tenure as an accomplishment of commitment and excellence that we want this individual educator this classroom practitioner this leader of learners to be guiding and moving our children every day and every day of their career here in middletown and through now what is four years of a probationary period coming to close some have three years of probationary period because of a previous tenure in the same certified area but it really is a outward sign that this person has achieved that threshold of excellence and tonight was with great
022pleasure and gratitude and appreciation for the countless hours put forth in your planning in your teaching in your continuing learning and professional development activities that make middletown school district special that it is because of you so administrators that will be receiving their tenure tonight working with the teachers guiding them supervising being their mentor we thank all of you for your responsibilities your jobs your insight and as well as your dedicated in commission to this job that is what they claim to be one of the most noblest of all professions and certainly it's a proud night for all of us and we're very proud for you and thank you very much so we're going to have the principals and their team members come up to celebrate we're going to start with the high school and ask
023mrs sorrentino mister to come up because they have three administrators as they had recognized their tenure teachers last board meeting and so we're going to have the three mr williams mr perez and mr donahue congratulatory evening for you thank you come on up [Applause] all of the high school team please who are here miss acevedo mr whitman everyone can speak mr sorrentino except you know who you can speak saturday thank you mrs now we do too good evening again this is an exciting night um with us i have our entire team and it is a great honor to honor three young men that entered my life two of them four years ago one of them several decades ago i think i'm going to start with anthony williams could you please join me this young man
024entered my life at mong higan middle school this young leader passionate driven to become part of the middletown community and part of our family he was a guidance counselor for us with mr whitaker had a fantastic year and we saw in him the ability to reach students that really need that extra connection and that extra support he became our dean of student support and he has run cried held supported celebrated with our students i am incredibly proud of him and i am very very happy to have him on our team congratulations anthony thank you mr argentina i just want to say like being granted tenured is defined as you know demonstrating four years of effectiveness um in your craft and uh i really i really really appreciate it it hasn't been easy um it's been
025challenging but despite of the challenges um as my mentor uh rasheed f ferrar davis would say i chose to focus on the work and understand the data some of the data points that i'm so proud about um you know just to share a few um this upcoming year we have decreased the dropout rate six percent um which is huge which has a connection that that does not help that that does not mean it was me by myself we have a special team behind me and a lot of special teachers attendance officers and support staff that's that was connected to that work another data point is if you decrease the dropout rate six percent that didn't help you increase the graduation rate which we are on pace to have the best graduation rate we ever had
026so i want to celebrate that the district blessed me to be to have the opportunity to lead to initiatives for the my brother's keeper mentorship program our first cohort graduated 15 young men 12 went to college two went to the military and now one went to he's employed but now he's enrolling in sewing orange this fall this upcoming cohort which is our second cohort had eight seniors in our mbk program all eight of them are graduating that's 23 kids in our mbk program and 23 are graduating we have a women's empowerment program that i'm so proud about um and this is our first cohort this year and we have five young ladies who are going to graduate while data is not the only thing i mean and it's not it's not the only thing that
027measures success um i want to let you guys know that i measure success by seeing these young people in the community and they want to come back and give back to their community and and be mentors in in you know in the program to pay it forward and this past year we have four young men who want to come back and be mentors for our mbk program so i don't want to take up all the time but i want to say this you know um as a resident in middletown community i'm a post in the community and now as a 10-year administrator i'm a post in the school district passionately unapologetically i'm going to continue to serve our families i have one quote from denzel washington i don't want to misquote him because i didn't
028write it down and my mother-in-law and my wife would would be really mad if i misquote denzel washington but uh i'm going to say this is about giving back it's about paying it forward and uh you know it's nothing more is nothing more special than to be a mentor to our young people and make sure that they understand that when they leave here whether it's work or college to come back and give back and pay it forward so thank you [Applause] mr perez four years ago another young man joined me in my office he was new to orange county in terms of administrative post but not new to being a dean he has brought with him his passion his drive his experience with connecting with students especially our newcomers to district and has used that
029to really welcome our students he partners with mr williams mrs creed and i on the mbk initiative and has been instrumental in connecting our learners to that program and to really moving our students to new heights our two young ladies tonight our outstanding students are in mr perez's house and he's really connected with learners of different varying levels and needs i'm extremely proud of him and happy to have him on our team mr perez oh sorry i'm a little tall thank you guys um i don't want to take up too too much time um and those of you who know me know that i can be talkative and long-winded so i apologize in advance but i i really do want to make this about what's important and why i am excited and even here tonight
030tenure wasn't a big deal to me um i had tenure i worked for 10 years in the city very proud to be from the bronx and worked there for 10 years i did not want to leave um i i am a resident of orange county but i was very excited to join middletown and become an administrator here i didn't choose choose education education chose me um i come from modest a modest background my last name is perez a very proud uh latino i'm of dominican descent ialo espanol and so i speak it with pride and with that uh education and that modesty that i came from i always knew that i wanted to become a professional although i'm a first generation first in my family to go to college i knew that was going to
031happen with that being said i didn't know where i was going to go but i know i wanted to do something for others i wanted to serve people that's always just been in my spirit whether it was mentoring in church whether it was bible studies whether it was tutoring kids after school while i was only 15 and not realizing that it looked good for an application for college you know i just did it because that was in my heart and education found me and it was a mom while i was modestly after graduating from albany i did not know what i was going to do but i had to work because i didn't have parents to support me or a home to go to at the time and it was as an office manager at
032columbia presbyterian hospital working for the pediatric neurology department that a mom said because her child had special needs i wish my child had a teacher like you and that sparked something for me and that story's always meant something to me and that's why i got into education um [Music] so i did not want to leave uh uh the the classroom but i saw that i could have an impact because i love the relationship with those kids my kids and their families so i said oh my gosh i could maybe do something even on a larger scale as an administrator if possible so i feel very lucky to be an administrator i'm appreciative of everyone here when mr del morrow uh interviewed me uh in his at that time he was the assistant superintendent and then
033he brought me over to uh the superintendent at the time i don't know if it's bad to mention names since he's no longer here but dr eastwood who i appreciated um you know i hope that they remember i told them i do things with integrity i love connections with kids i love restorative practices and i hope that i've kept my word to them and to everyone else in this room this is not about me though this is about the work this is about the kids and my children and my wife who are here they're the ones who told me it was important to come tonight because in the city tenure is not a big deal you get it you keep moving forward i didn't think i wanted to come tonight but i knew it was
034important because i need to thank them because i'm here because of their patience because of their understanding when i'm on a phone call with a parent at eight o'clock in the night when i'm emailing with kids at 7 00 pm while we're out at dinner they understand the commitment i have and they continue that so i thank them because they've been patient with me so now that i'm here i want to make sure because my daughters didn't understand what tenure was but they thought it was important i love the dictionary still although people don't use that so tenure is is defined as a status granted after a trial period in ex sometimes to a teacher that gives protection from summary of dismissal that's not what tenure is to me that's how it's defined i don't
035need protection my tenure is working for the families working for our teachers working for our adults who are dedicated to our children that is my validation they give me my tenure so i want to thank the community because there's not a day that's passed that i've regretted being here because i love the community i chose and was lucky enough to be offered a position for middletown but i chose it because of its diversity diversity and color diversity and language diversity and race diversity and religions diversity in political stances i love all and i'm open to conversations and i want to teach that to our youth so to the teachers to the committed staff to the parents who i love i love your children as if they were my own and i thank you because you've
036given me tenure nobody else i don't deserve it and i hope to continue to deserve my tenure because if i'm not doing my job please hold me accountable because i will promise that i will hold everyone accountable for your community for your children so i thank you guys for my tenure i appreciate it and now i'd like to welcome mr donahue to the podium as i stated before i met anthony and omar four years ago i met mr donahue over two decades ago and yes i'm gonna tell the story again so suck it up i was billy's track coach when he was in middle school we both survived good times good times um mr donahue has joined us in several different roles here at mhs um when i came back from my eight and a
037half glorious years at monhagan middle school he was our varsity football coach and our social studies department chair and in that role in our first accountability meeting with mr del morro now there was a hoot he was able to quickly speak to how our students were performing and how our teachers could support them even further and also remembered the glows what they were doing and what they were doing well he's he stayed steadfast to that um finished his administration excuse me administrative program and then became our instructional leader working with our english and social studies teachers constantly he's been instrumental in developing pd coaching models as well as our um fundamental work in pivoting our instructional model when we went in the blink of an eye remote a year and a half ago so i'm
038very excited um to welcome him as well and very very proud of his work um welcome to tenure mr donahue thank you miss sorentino uh good evening pastor williams mrs lamar members of the board retirees uh those getting tenure everybody who's here my family thank you um you know i just want to say it's it's first of all there's very few instances where i'm tongue-tied and oddly enough this is one of them when it's time to talk about myself but one of the things i did want to say is tracy mentioned you know obviously growing up here you know that that's part of it but i've done so many interviews and i don't know if anybody's done interviews lately but the new thing or maybe it's the old thing is to ask me questions and
039one of the questions i always get is why why do you work in middletown why are you still here and i answer it quite simply i say i hope you don't understand or i hope you do understand that you know i can go anywhere else but it's this community it's the group i work with standing behind me it's the kids most importantly that i have the passion for so when i make that choice again i'm maybe sound overconfident wherever else i can go anywhere else but there is nowhere else i would rather be those kids i was one of those kids and my job and my mission and i my passion is serving those kids and giving them the greatest educational experience that they can do the other thing i did want to say too
040i wanted to give you know some thanks i am fortunate as tracy said to work with such a group of dedicated professionals in the english and social studies department everything that happens i'm there to support them they're the ones out front they're doing it they're being innovative they're being creative and what a year we had and they were there throughout it all so i'm lucky i'm blessed to work with them i am lucky i am blessed to work with the community the professionals i'm with and i would be remiss also i'm looking in the back i want to make sure i thank the other people as others have that make it all possible that hear me coming home and i'd love to say i always had great stories sometimes we have bad days and they
041hear all about it they hear the phone calls my wife rachel on the back my son brendan who's here jack and sam where's the camera where's the camera jack and sam at home mom couldn't make it tonight but i know whether she's watching now or she's watching later uh i definitely want to give a special shout out to you guys you guys make me everything i am so thank you [Applause] [Music] ugh oh my gosh [Applause] [Music] god oh down i'm trying to break it down thank you i for the teachers okay [Music] all right now we're going to recognize the teachers from the elementary program for tenure i'm going to start with presidential park elementary school team administrative team mr short and our administrative team good evening mr del maro pastor williams members of
042the board are members of the community we have two awesome teachers receiving tenure tonight the first is colleen misca we stole colleen from new york city public school system and it was a really good find colleen's sister her twin sister also works for the district as a reading teacher too colleen is passionate about providing foundational skills to our youngest readers and she managed to effectively work completely remotely because as an ais teacher she wasn't really seeing her students in person this year she had to see them remotely and still teach them phonics and still teach them comprehension and she did an awesome job so new york city's loss was our gain colleen misca [Applause] i don't even know how to follow that all i can say is that uh from the day that i've entered
043this school i have been nothing but blessed the support in this building is tremendous the resources are also tremendous but i am blessed to be a part of this team and i thank you [Applause] all right next we have wendy rincon wendy rincon i believe started as a substitute for us and she comes to us actually also from new york city but from the nypd and you might expect that somebody who had been a tough new york city cop would be a tough tough teacher but she is full of love wendy rincon is so passionate about the students that she serves and their families she is a true advocate for her l students and their parents i've never seen anybody go so far out of their way especially during the pandemic to go to her
044children's homes to give them supplies that they needed she's always thinking about her students she's fabulous she's passionate wendy rincon [Music] thank you principal short thank you board members thank you mr delmoro wow i know it's going to get emotional but this truly is such an amazing place thank you for seeing something in me um someone who is new to the middletown community as a sub and extending the opportunity you know it starts as a sub it starts as a leave replacement and and i tell other teachers that are in teaching programs that are new to the profession don't give up don't get discouraged put in the time and as long as you do what you do to the best of your ability with the best of your integrity um the blessings will come in
045god's perfect timing i am so so blessed to work in a place where we have an administration that is replete with consummate professionals who at the end of the day truly put every student every day first i work with a community of teachers who are so knowledgeable and so generous and don't think a robbery to you know to shoulder alongside you and to bless you with their wisdom and their commitment and they inspire me every day but most importantly the thing that moves me every day are our students who in the face of kovid and challenges even before kovit if we're talking about our ill population the challenge just to get to the united states and to look at our kids and see how resilient they are and how enamored they are with learning and
046how they get more inspired every day with every achievement is such an honor to the families thank you for entrusting your kids to me i call them my burritos my little chickens and for me they are my adopted children you know um for me teaching is not just about academics it could never be just about academics because even 40 years ago when i was a little kid there were teachers that knew that in order to bring out the best in kids you had to teach to the whole child and not just to their academic ability and the most profound powerful thing for me as a student and even now is when people who aren't your family believe in you thank you superintendent del morro for believing in me at first and giving me the opportunity
047and for seeing something in me that you knew was there and for mrs short for believing in me and trusting me and sowing it to me this is such an amazing place and i would be i would be remiss if i didn't talk about director brock who is such a plethora of knowledge and i can't wait to call you dr brock because you deserve that and so much more the level of support that we have in this district is renowned and it is phenomenal that you know you would think in in a in a small community that there wouldn't be such resources but there are and even for assistant superintendent credence for having the wisdom and the foresight to write the race to the top grant which really came and helped save the day when
048covet hit and gave us a leg up on hitting the ground running when we had to go completely remote so it's all those little things every child every student every day that makes it such a wonderful place to work thank you [Applause] thank you if you just wait up there we'll do one photo with all of the tenure recipients right right right all right i'd like to ask mrs jensen and her administrative team to recognize their tenure recipients good evening superintendent del maro president williams and board of education what a thrill to be out tonight and to see everybody in person and be back together and see so many faces that i haven't seen in a long time it's really wonderful congratulations to our retirees and to my fellow high school admins who are wonderful
049congratulations i have pride tonight to introduce to you miss christy boyd and mrs catherine sienna george christie boyd pursued her bachelor's degree at suny plattsburgh and then went for a tesol at hunter college she then studied abroad honing her skills to become an enl instructor she's incredible she works to acquire language acquisition to build vocabulary and background knowledge in our students always connecting resources that the students really engage and enjoy she also what's so special about her is looks at the whole child is really interested in their social emotional learning and who they are as people christy so proud of our team [Applause] i feel really short um i don't really have too much to say other than thank you to the board thank you to superintendent del moro and to the wonderful administrators and
050to linda i never imagined myself as a teacher growing up i never imagined coming back after being so far away to somewhere where i grew up or close enough but now i can't imagine working anywhere else being anywhere else and working with the students that i work with they are a joy i wish i we had work tomorrow because i missed them already i don't know how i'm going to survive this summer but i hope to be here for as long as i can i love this community i love william a carter i love the team that i work with and most importantly i love the kids so thank you [Applause] then mrs catherine sienna george is a lifelong member of middletown after graduating from st thomas aquinas she went to work for the department
051of education in new york city first as a teacher and then as a math coach when she came home i feel so fortunate to have been able to hire her she came with an extensive knowledge of math standards practices and resources and to say that she is incredible is an understatement when you go into her classroom she begins every lesson with an investigate that turns ownership and learning over to the students they confidently discuss math with academic vocabulary and are so proud of themselves and all that they do and that's because of who she is catherine thank you thank you so much for this opportunity it's been an honor and a pleasure to be back at middletown coming back from the city um it's great to work with such wonderful staff and thank you to
052my administrators for always being so supportive and having an open door policy and i just love the stories of being able to work with my kids and making a difference and the most important thing is just building those connections because without that we wouldn't be where we are so thank you again [Music] thank you and now our last school to be recognized in their tenure recipients mrs driscoll and her administrative team please come to the podium with your tenure recipients good evening i'm so happy to be here and i'm really happy that you did the other elementary schools first because when we came in i greeted each person getting tenure and i said you know i'm going to invite you up to the podium you have to say a lot just you know something brief
053and then anthony omar and billy came up and made these incredible eloquent speeches that were so beautiful and inspiring and i thought oh my gosh they're probably having a heart attack thinking that's expected of them so um i'm glad that there were a few people in between that were you know a little more nervous let's say someday i will be less nervous at this podium but here we go so i'm very excited because we have a lot of people here this evening unfortunately i have two teachers who were not able to come but we will celebrate them in the fall so that would be olivia cost and shannon summer and we'll look forward to introducing them to you in september but tonight we do have several people here and the first that i would like
054to introduce to you is miss jessica silva so jessica has been with us as a special education teacher she's been working in an ict placement she is sort of a jack of all trades and what i mean by that is she has worked at multiple grade levels i think almost all of them not k1 but 2 3 4 and 5. she loves math that's her wheelhouse but when i asked her to do ela she dove in and did that as well so she's been an amazing asset to the team at maple hill she's incredible at working with her colleagues to ensure that students get everything they need incredibly patient incredibly kind her students just love her and so the payoff for that is they work really hard and they tend to progress well so i
055would like to congratulate miss jessica silva on all of her hard work and so pleased to welcome you as a tenured member of our staff congratulations um so first i just want to thank the maple hill admin team and the board of education for this amazing opportunity i came to middletown right out of college i remember feeling so many emotions i was nervous i was excited unsure of what was to come but since that day i have grown so much not only professionally but personally as well and i can attribute so much of that growth to being in middletown it has been an absolute pleasure for being here for the past four years it really feels like a family at maple hill and in middletown it's really a great place to work and i look
056forward to the coming years thank you [Applause] next i would like to bring up miss katherine byes katherine has been with us as a first grade ela teacher she has shown the most incredible growth over the past four years when i went into her classroom this year i was just blown away when i reflected back to her first observation and her you know she was so nervous and just the difference and the growth and that span of time was amazing she was comfortable with the students she was joking with them they were so engaged in what they were doing that everything was running smoothly it was just amazing to see you know some kids on the screen some kids in the room just absolutely phenomenal the students love her again so patient so kind just
057a perfect first grade elementary personality so i'm so pleased to congratulate katherine byes i would just like to say thank you so much to the board and to the maple hill admin team i've learned so much this past four years i always knew i wanted to be a teacher but i really fell in love with teaching since working in middletown and my connections with my students is really what makes me love being a teacher and making every challenge worth it and my students telling me today that they'd rather be in school with me than go home for the summer just lets me know that i'm doing a good job so um i just want to say thank you and i'm looking forward to growing and learning and continuing my career here at middletown thank you
058[Applause] and now i'd like to invite camille martinez camille so camille has been working with us as a fourth grade ela teacher for the past four years some of you may recognize her as part of the drama club coaching team so she's dedicated lots of time and effort to that as well camille also this year i was just so amazed when i went in to see her the growth that she's shown over the past four years and the courage that she had this year when i went into her room and she was trying new and different things with you know having to work online and grouping students and really creative ways of using technology that a lot of people were not totally willing to try because it felt a little bit risky and she not
059only was willing to try it but she was doing it during an observation which was extra risky and it was just amazing to see and the kids were incredible the way that they were working with one another really to me spoke volumes about what she was doing in the room every single day i was incredibly impressed i'm so pleased to have her as part of our team she's really become an integral member of our faculty so i'd like to welcome camille martinez congratulations so i would like to thank maple hill the administration team ms driscoll mr del morrow for allowing that opportunity with drama and giving me that chance and also miss creeden she was the one who hired me she saw potential and she gave me my first opportunity to be a teacher so
060thank you um it has been an experience and i thank my family and everyone who has dealt with the late nights the early mornings and the excessive planning to make everything perfect so i just want to thank everyone and the wonderful community the wonderful district for the opportunity and everything they have done for me and my colleagues because without them and all of their support when you're a first-year teacher it can be very difficult so without the support of maple hill it's an amazing team um i would have been able to to do it so sorry i'm a little nervous dripping about my words but um thank you for for letting me have this amazing experience and being able to get tenured so thank you [Applause] next i'd like to invite ariel sacker to come
061up [Applause] so arielle has been with us as a school psychologist she has been with us for the past four years and i i don't know if there's enough time this evening to regale you with all of the ways in which she has enriched maple hill and its staff members and its students she is a phenomenal phenomenal school psychologist incredibly knowledgeable incredibly hard working willing to educate me i can go to her anytime with a question about the way something works can we do this do you have a strategy willing to do that with the teachers all the time she has done a tremendous amount of education with our staff with regard to student behavior and different things that we can do just an amazing asset incredible with the students as well um unbelievable ability
062to develop a rapport with kids in a very short period of time to de-escalate students who are really struggling she's just been incredible so please join me in welcoming to the tenured staff ms arielle sacher [Applause] thank you so much and thank you everyone i'm i've learned so much since i've started here this is actually my first job out of grad school and you know i just hit the ground running and i was so lucky to be part of such a great team where we really just all pitched in and you know i was the door was always open we could talk about um kids and different strategies and um you know i really felt supported and valued and i'm just really excited for you know my continued career here at middletown so thank you
063everybody [Applause] and our last tenure recipient who's here this evening i'm actually going to let julie dominguez post introduce because she works over at maple hill annex which is where julie works day in and day out so i thought it might be nice for her to have an opportunity to speak about miss crystal marrero [Applause] i'm just a little shorter um so good evening everybody tonight i present to you the most amazing school psychologist crystal marrero she is super dedicated as my first year as admin at truman moon she has been an amazing person to lean on she is super supportive with all staff her colleagues they can always go to her for anything i think she's like the child whisperer she can take a student who is in crisis and de-escalate them in the
064matter of minutes where they even forgot that they're in crisis and able to turn their day around the scholars so look forward to meeting with crystal as i see them in the hallway do i have counseling today do i have contact please can i go see you um so she has great connections with our scholars with our staff with everybody in the building she's an amazing addition to the middletown community and for our students for everybody so thank you so much crystal for all that you do for our kids good evening everyone i would just like to say my experience here in middletown has been very rewarding i have had the opportunity to work with some of the most remarkable scholars families and staff and i appreciate all of you and thank you so very
065much and i look forward to continuing this wonderful journey in middletown thank you please well let's take the pictures okay so okay okay oh man do you want to move in the middle fine that's fine thank you so much congratulations [Applause] thank you peace it out if you if you all would just give us give us just 30 seconds we do have a letter that was sent in by one of our one of our retirees that she would like to have read tonight so before we go get cupcakes mrs clark is going to read the letter mr del morro members of the board colleagues and friends although i am unable to attend this evening's board meeting i would like to take this opportunity to thank you for affording me the honor of joining the middletown
066school district family 30 years ago it seems to me the years have gone by rather quickly i have seen many changes and taught in many buildings memorial liberty street maple hill truman moon and my forever home of six years presidential park i've had the pleasure to work with absolutely awesome principals colleagues as well as forging many friendships in these 30 years most importantly i cannot forget to mention the over 600 children whom i have taught and that have touched my life and inspired me in so many ways it has been an immensely rewarding experience as difficult as this decision has been i realized that it is time to pass along my dry erase marker to someone else i have always believed in the mission of the middletown school district and i urge you all to
067stay the course striving for excellence even in these challenging times we always need need always be our goal thank you again for this opportunity and good evening respectfully patricia mcgorry [Applause] well we're going to take a pause and we're going to go out and get some cupcakes and celebrate you guys again congratulations we're excited for you you earned this tenure and it's really good to see your faces we're going to pause for a few minutes let's go out and enjoy ourselves all right [Music] is well welcome back everybody we uh thank you for your patience as we took just a few minutes to celebrate our our tenure uh tenured staff as well as our retirees tonight so we took a minute just to just to be able to shake hands um smile at each other
068and eat eat a chocolate cupcake and so now we're back and we're going to continue with our business and uh and expedite as best as we can the room is now uh emptied out a little bit and we've got oh we've got we've got we got donald so don's over there so we're good we're good he's uh he he's our audience tonight he's happy he's happy you got your cup you got your cupcakes so we got an audience so we're good we're going to move on we're going to move on at this at this time and i'm going to turn you into uh the hands of our superintendent for our superintendent's report on this evening mr del maro it's in your hands thank you pastor president williams members of the board of education mr bison
069and of course members of the middletown school community i'd just like to just remind everyone out there who may be watching on midi tv that tonight was a very celebratory evening very happy to congratulate all the retirees for their long lasting dedication to the students of this school district and to the families over the years certainly it's a task that sometimes goes unnoticed but the fact of the matter we do notice and each of the hearts of each of the children and the minds you have touched we thank you very much for as they enter into their adult life i also want to thank and congratulate the families for working with all of the teachers who received tenure this evening certainly your support of them is a contribution to their accomplishment tonight and i do
070not want to diminish the work that they have done to receive tenure it's certainly a high honor a recognition that does not happen to everyone so we want to congratulate all of them and thank you we look forward to their continued career here in the middletown school district and finally my final part of the report this night is to make a public address announcement if you will of juneteenth celebration that will take place in new york city on this saturday from 11 to 3 p.m to celebrate what really is the recognition of the end of slavery in our country so many people have a misinformation of when it really ended it didn't happen in 1863 with the proclamation but certainly we're celebrating that event and at festival square again 11 to 3 p.m this saturday
071hope you can join us thank you thank you president williams oh okay all right i'm sorry yes thank you for reminding me graduation we received relatively recent like this morning uh changes in the guidelines to graduation as you know we've been announcing our graduation celebrations would be five two on this next thursday coming up and two on three on friday however due to the lifting of the number of people able to attend at a single outdoor setting we're able to have two graduations one on thursday of next week and one and friday there is a change of time for the each event will be at six pm at fowler field so thursday those parents who had the two different celebrations on thursday you are now going to have the joy of one celebration at 6
07200 p.m on thursday and those who were slated to have celebrations of graduation on friday of next week the three you will have one starting at 6 pm so like to congratulate a little in advance our class of 2021 and i hope you all come out and join us thank you very much thank you mr demaro with that being said um with that being said uh uh i hope everyone would know what reason why i'm so so patient in in when we're going through these particular times because i know things can shift on a dime and so with that being said because of the changing of these particular um graduation ceremonies the entire board is now is now able to come to each each of the graduations the one on thursday and the one on
073friday if you so desire to do so so i just that's why that's why sometimes i just pause i know sometimes it seems a little frustrating but the reason i pause is because i know things have a way of working themselves out because we have to stay within the framework of what we're what we're able to do but if we're patient sometimes things will work out in the in the best for us so i hope to see all of the board members there on thursday at 6 p.m and uh as well as friday at 6 00 p.m let's move on um uh action items i'd like to entertain a motion for approval of financial memorandum number 26 please be moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes approval um action item
074b approval of contracts for professional services with youth truth moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed opposed eyes have it so passes um motion for action item c approval of special services memorandum number 24 moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed so passes uh motion for the approval of change orders please move the second did for the discussion uh mr bill what is going to do that tonight come on mr barb okay welcome to the mic sir thank you pastor williams we just had three changed orders uh this time around uh they're all at the high school edition and alteration project the first is a modification of some duct work in the lobby ceiling of the entrance area to the new addition is to eliminate a return plenum so that we
075can would be permitted to install a gas line the next modification has to do excuse me change order has to do with modification of the return grilles in the library itself and the soffit area which will allow for the new ductwork design the third and final one is the relocation electrical wiring within the studio storage room to accommodate the steel supports for the exterior video board any questions okay no sir thank you sir you've had the discussion all in favor aye aye opposed it so passes moving on to our um committee reports audit committee mr bison please thank you pastor williams the audit committee met last evening and on the agenda was the approval of our minutes from january 28 2021 we also reviewed and approved the weekly claims reports from march 8 15 22
076april 6 12 19 26 and may 3 10 17 24 june 7 14 2021. so you can see we had a busy evening we also reviewed and approved the treasures report via which we received via email and we also receive each week the claims audit report so that we can review them and ask any questions that any of the members of the committee has and there are two members of our committee from outside from the school community linda knapp and chuck jones so it's there's a variety of membership for this committee the old business we had none but under new business and i left at every board member's place the believe it's four sheets this was the entrance conference audit that we went through with our auditors one of the biggest changes was on the
077second page item four where he was talking about gasby 84 and the changes that occurred there we did spend some time talking about reserves and um the reason for these obser the reserves and where we are mike i don't know if you want to add anything there um yeah he just talked quite extensively about it just saying how in uh good shape we are uh with two views from the comptroller they always say you have too much money and then when you go for um to get your investment in your ratings they say we don't have enough money so he's always talking about how you balance that and just looking at the limits and things and all that we are in compliance with so we are in compliance with where we can actually fund all
078the resources thank you mike um we also established the meeting dates for next year we meet the next school year i shouldn't say the next year but we're going to meet in september again in march excuse me january september 29th january 26th march 16th and june 8th our meetings are at 5 30. presently we are only doing our meetings uh during via the teleconferences um hopefully we'll go back to in-person meetings uh any questions from the members of the board mr bison are there any um openings on that committee for our board members to join we're not there yet oh okay yeah we're not we're not there yet that'll happen when we come into the new the new school year thank you we'll discuss it any other questions yes freddie oh you will wait okay
079all right thank you very much and uh you need give me the motion for to receive the report what do you need to do miss clark do i need a motion okay so i need a motion for um the approval of the minutes from january 28 2021 march 11. sorry so moved any discussion hearing none all in favor aye and miss clark our very competent board clerk tells me that i need a motion for the dates that i mentioned i'll repeat them september 29th january 26th march 16th june 8th they are all wednesday nights so moved any discussion hearing none all in favor aye passes unanimously thank you very much thank you miss bison any questions um on the four sheets uh you can either email me or you could email mr tuttle with questions
080regarding uh the entrance exam audit thank you thank you so much everybody um any other committee reports tonight anything that i'm missing if not uh we're gonna move on to opportunity to address the board um he's don the only one here he said he he waved okay we do have a letter we do have one letter um uh mrs clark did you read the letter please um uh mike can you turn your mic on and just point it toward her thank you to principal maple hill school and board of education and vice principals i just wanted to write this letter to thank maple hill school for excellent teacher teachers aides all faculty and maintenance and your officer who helped keep traffic flowing and kids safe this has been a horrible year for all concerned town
081of walk hill officer was great you have done a remarkable job teaching remote and now keeping our children safely back in school as a grandmother i truly believe most kids need to be in school to stay focused also for socialization i am so impressed how hard your staff works every day to start school and end school with tons of us in cars picking up and dropping off everyone greeting us with smiles and good wishes so incredible fourth and fifth grade teachers we are experiencing this year are amazing miss grass miss perez miss gork miss silva miss ellingsworth miss price miss libnewski miss vias miss cast and mrs rafferty i hope i didn't miss anyone these are the teachers my daughter and i have had correspondence with amazing teachers last year aiden had miss berlin and
082shirley made a difference in his life we loved her this year is no different thank you all please thank all for us we love this school have a blessed summer and safe one your staff deserves this for sure sincerely anne thomas grandmother carrie ann contran mom thank you thank you moving on round table we take take a couple take take our time go to go to round table i'm going to start tonight we're going to start mrs houston and move on down down the road um before the timer starts i just want to wish all of the dads and father figures out there a happy father's day and i also want to preface what i'm about to say with three principles that i live by i believe in holding to the truth because the truth
083has no agenda speaking without fear and questioning with boldness a year ago this month i was elected by 1832 voters to serve all of the stakeholders of this district i swore an oath last year to uphold the u.s constitution which i take very seriously some of my colleagues may think i'm politically grandstanding however that is simply not the case because tonight i want to bring awareness and shed some light to our community on a topic that goes against what our constitution stands for and if anything i'm trying my hardest to keep politics out of our district the topic i want to discuss is crt the acronym for critical race theory i've heard from members of our district privately mentioning to me that they would like that ban from our district let me tell you why
084i agree with them and why i'm deeply concerned for the scholars of our district while our administration has said it is not being taught at the current moment i think we have to be very careful that this divisive theory no longer comes in through the back doors of our school through grants or administrator and teacher trainings which could already be trickling down into our classrooms on april 22nd i voted no on action item b along with two of my colleagues mr gomez and mr purino to not allow our district to fund or approve a contract for professional services of courageous conversations to provide various lead seminars to our building administrators and educators costing the amount of forty six thousand four hundred fifty dollars you may be wondering why i mentioned it briefly in a couple
085of meetings um i don't believe in telling children what to think but according to the paperwork that came directly from courageous conversations lead seminars these trainings are rooted in the toxic and divisive critical race theory this action passed by our board of ed despite three objections and sadly our district building administrators are being introduced to critical race theory lead seminar number two is titled using critical race theory to transform leadership and district lead seminar number three reviews administrators understanding of critical race theory and begins a process of applying it as a tool for their own lives and leading their staffs lead seminar number four engages leaders in a dialogue to deconstruct the learning environment and classrooms to create environments utilizing critical race theory lead seminar number five reflects upon critical race theory and adaptive leadership
086and finally lead seminar number six creates a framework for planning and executing critical race theory in our district once again i voted no along with two of my esteemed colleagues on these lead seminars back on april 22nd tonight i voted no on finance financial memory number 25 i believe it was changed to a different number but it would cost our district forty nine thousand dollars over the next three years on a student survey that in my opinion is related to the topic which i mentioned a few moments ago it is my opinion that our district should be prioritizing equality and we should be speaking the language of dr martin luther king jr i subscribe to the truth taught to us by dr king one of the most important lessons he taught us is to judge
087not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character critical race theory does the exact opposite opposite it is a lie and it is a form of marxist propaganda that will damage divide and indoctrinate our scholars i challenge our districts to do better than this and to unify our children it is not our place as the board of education or the place of administrators and educators to tell our children what to think singling out children as oppressors and victims based on the color of their skin teaches hatred and racism and critical race theory does exactly that we must teach each and every one of our students the value of hard work service scholarship leadership free thinking and most importantly character and integrity we must give our students endless opportunities to move
088mountains and reach their full potential as our district's mission statement says the parents and guardians of the children who are students of the enlarged city school district of middletown work diligently to teach their children good banners and one of the first lessons each of us learns in life is the golden rule to treat people as you would want to be treated and never call people names or label others unfortunately critical race theory is polarizing and unjustly labels anyone who disagrees with it as a racist in fact critical race theory teaches students that people of color cannot be successful because of their skin color because they are victims and states that those who are not of color who have achieved success did not earn it it is an unfair violation of free thought and expression the
089only way to change people is to change their hearts through acts of kindness love compassion mercy free will and liberty as dr king taught he taught us these with so many other important lessons and a few of his messages have been weighing heavily on my mind in recent days dr king once said the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy he also said if we are not careful our colleges educational institutions will produce a group of closed-minded unscientific illogical propagandists consumed with immoral acts he warned us by saying be careful brethren be careful teachers and lastly he said in the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends
090that is why i've taken a stand here this evening in conclusion i'm sure that many of you have heard the expression from the mouths of babes comes much wisdom our children can sometimes remind us of the simple things that often become overshadowed and clouded by the complexities of grown-ups i was prepared to have a short video shown tonight but unfortunately i'm not able to show it but the video is available on youtube and you can look it up for yourself as it is entitled father and daughter speak against critical race theory in a viral tick tock video this video is of a little girl and her father who left a lasting impression on my heart i hope you will take the time to look it up and it will leave a lasting impression on your
091heart as well thank you thank you miss houston moving on to mrs blumenow [Music] thank you well first i want to say uh congratulations to our um i'll work from uh i guess from the those leaving to those that were tenured um our retirees this um this year um knowing many of them um it's a it's it's sad when you see people who have been part of your life and your community um move on but knowing that they're moving on because they have worked so hard and so passionately for this district and then i'll go down to now to our newly tenured because such passion that was spoken today from our tenured teachers about working in this district and the reasons why they're working in this district and the reasons why they've chosen to work
092in this district and i heard such statements as because our students our students are so diver are come from such diverse backgrounds and that our staff respects and cherishes the fact that they come from diverse backgrounds and their background could be anything as they as the tenured teachers spoke and administrators spoke so eloquently about the fact that our students are diverse in race and religion in background in education family education and so the way i see middletown is this embracing community and listening to our educators confirm that really was so powerful for me today lastly i would like to just extend my congratulations to the class of 2021 and wish you all well on your next level though there are we today had students who are off to today presented from are going to be
093off to yale and vassar that is incredible we also have students who are going to be experiencing their first job in their lives and that is just as equally important and preparing those students equally for those opportunities is what middletown is all about so congratulations to the class of 2021. um finally um just uh happy father's day to my dad and to the other dads in uh in my life and also to um you know all those that are just like a dad to me so thank you thank you it's crescenzo the old timer is sitting at this table you remember back in 2008 when eight small city school districts filed a lawsuit against uh new york state that they weren't but that they weren't receiving adequate uh funding for um their special needs programs
094well guess what how is that how many years later was that 13 years later the appellate court rules in favor of small city school districts we weren't part of that newberg and port jervis from orange county and then others upstate small school but i remember we did sign on in some respect that we weren't part of the lawsuit itself but we supported it the law it was a long haul i went through a lot of courts and give and take but the final uh according to this article the third department i don't know what that is something to do with the courts i wish mr gomez was here he would be as an attorney and as part of our uh fair funding committee he would be more knowledgeable about this but the third department did
095not direct a specific remedy ordering the state to craft an appropriate response that would be that would be subject to judicial judicial review pending that it was sent back it was sent the k they sent the case back to the state supreme court but the bottom line is that we won so it's going probably a number of years before we figure out uh where that's going to go um and this i was thinking about this all day and i struggled with it a little bit this is our last board meeting of the school year and um this has been one heck of a full year and a lot of people need to be thanked and you can't you can't do it all it takes you know as they say it takes a village every piece
096of this school community district worked together worked hard for this final outcome this graduation and kids moving up through the grades what have you but listening and um witnessing things i'm not putting anybody above anybody else but i think the maintenance the custodial staff buildings and grounds they did an incredible job they were here late at night so if we had a meeting here during the pandemic we left they cleaned this whole room if um we went into buildings uh during when when we were shut down they had to clean everything they did an incredible job and they did it to the best of anybody's ability so thank you to everybody who got us this far and we've come pretty far but thank you especially if i can say that to buildings grounds the custodial
097staff and would it leave out yes thank you and good luck to everybody i'm going to be at the graduation thursday friday i'm going to be out of town so i'm looking forward to that that's always a great event and it's just just looking you look up into the stands i mean the kids are excited enough but when they name a student and you hear this roar in the corner over here you know that's family aurora over there and everything it's just one of the most heartwarming and special occasions that culminate this any school year but especially this one thank you mr c mr williams good evening uh so my first year has been a trying roller coaster of a year to say the least uh i would like to thank the community of middletown
098for voting me on to the school board um and i promise you know i will keep my promise to the community to always represent our youth along with uh just being you know integrity and i lost my way here and i would you know i wrote stuff down but i i'm just kind of kind of go with my heart you know um like i said trying here i really appreciate all you guys for helping me through you know um it wasn't what i expected it was a lot a lot of layers to it you know um but i want to thank the community i want to thank you guys i want to thank the kids for the most part you know i have a business in the community and it's um based right in the
099heart now i run across a lot of our youth and um i'm able to touch him in a kind of a you know a different way with having uh conversations and and even while cutting the hair you know i mean it's it's a different uh level i think i get to reach the kids at along with coaching multiple kids for over like 14 years it's been great so this uh being on the board has been an amazing uh amazing situation for me and i look forward to servicing the next uh you know my next two years um i think they'll be a little easier you know but i want to thank you guys once again thank the community of middletown and i'm looking forward to you know being here and uh you know helping build
100up our kids build up our youth all right that's it thank you yeah thank you thank you mr williams uh to our senior board member mr mourinho thank you president williams i guess many of the people on the board said what i was going to say congratulating the fathers on father's day mr cresenzo praised our custodial staff you know it takes a great deal of time to set up this room because it's set up for classes this is a cafetorium and it's set up for a cafeteria so it takes hours to disassemble and assemble this and i think mr smith and his group deserve a lot of praise [Music] another group are technical staff you stuck with us the pandemic you were in when we had the virtual board meetings it took a lot of
101work and i'm always amazed at the performance of our staff and i really appreciate them even more so now when i see the resilience of this staff during the pandemic mr witt was is always here mr bartlett is here at uh begins his day around 6 30 in the morning so we have a great staff and it's just a dedicated staff so that's one thing i can go on and on about that for a long long time as a matter of fact talking about the school board one of our former school board members and president of the board for a number of years dr johnson is offering a rabies clinic that rabies into stem distemper clinic this saturday at the middletown humane society from 1 30 to 2 30 15 for each shot which is
102dirt cheap if you prices at a at a an animal regular animal clinic have to lease your dogs and cats must be in in carriers but it's from 130 230 and please wear masks had quite a bit more to say about programs i'm just going to give a shout out to one of our graduates jessica glickman was a recipient of the njotc naval scholarship a while ago she's been promoted to naval lieutenant which corresponds to captain and the other branches of the service i expect her if she stays in uh for 20 years i expect her to make advil or and i really believe that or at least command captain which is a which corresponds to colonel speaking about the glickmans i want to just talk for a moment about the senior prom frank glickman
103jessica's mom is in charge of that prom and she puts her whole heart into that organizing that i know she was there the prom was on friday she was there until 4 a.m on friday decorating for that prominent really turned out very well the the the gymnasium was just great in the surrounding area our food service provided an excellent meal michael milan did his usual good work the ice sculptures and the food it was restaurant quality food so as i was coming in i saw the distribution of food and there were there were cars lined up to pick up the food again food insecurity uh is a big problem in in many districts and in our our district included i know mr mrs williams were at the prom at the end and pastor mrs williams
104and you helped clean up i understand so it was just a lovely evening coming out of the pan uh coming out of this doggone pandemic so i'm gonna stop now i've a lot more i could say but i've taken my four minutes so i'm done thank you thank you mr reno mr bison thank you pastor williams i'm not going to be repetitive i just want to say to everyone that has been congratulated that you have my sincerest best wishes um whether to the parents to the fathers to our graduates to our tenured teachers the one thing i do want to say um is i think i was really moved by the speeches from our three high school administrators who received tenure this evening it was always a goal of dr eastwood when he was here
105and certainly now with superintendent um yes yes superintendent uh del mar don't forget his name goes uh however because that's my mind is racing to say what i want to say next john that was always their goal to get our graduation rate up and it was it just thrilled me this this evening to hear that our graduation rate has increased it's not absolutely where we want to be because we're the motivators that we want to keep going and doing better but as i reflected it's our elementary teachers who set the framework and the foundation for our kids to succeed so yes the culmination is at high school but to everyone who's been involved to help raise these graduation rates i am and i'm sure the rest of my board is entirely grateful for your hard
106work i know it hasn't been easy i'm sure there are days when you go home when you want to pull your hair out and then there are other days when you're jubilant and happy as can be so it was my grateful thanks to everyone involved who helped us raise our graduation rate congratulations to everyone involved and i thank you personally thank you mr bison so i'll make my final statement uh my final words for the end of this this last meeting of the school year first i do want to thank everybody as my my colleagues have already said but i i do want to give a special shout out and as we go into the next school year i do want to give a special shout out to our tech team that's here with us
107every time we come into this building but not only that they have been with us even in our virtual meetings and in many of the multiple meetings that we've had and so i do want to give a big shout out to them i'm going to be i'm going to i'm going the next meeting we're going to uh i want to i'm going to bring them in let everyone see your face because you guys like to stand behind the cameras but i am going to call you out one by one uh because i think that you deserve you deserve a great applause for everything that you have done in sticking with us into the late nights i know i know some of you all got i know paul has a has a little baby at home
108so he's probably not getting much sleep anyhow but that's besides the point but we do we do want to congratulate so can i just real quick can we just give them an applause and so and so many others to recognize we do want to recognize um as we're closing in on our as we're closing in on our graduation congratulate the class of 2021 of which i am proud parent of a graduating senior my oldest jalen and so i'm extremely excited this particular class is the class that i have had the privilege of knowing most of them from preschool when they attended our preschool and have watched them have watched them throughout the years grow to now where they are preparing to graduate and move into the next part of life so this this is going
109to be a very special graduation for me and for my family many of them have spent days many of them have spent days after school in my backyard or on my porch coming over and just hanging out over the years especially over their high school career so i'm so very proud of them i'm so very proud that they persevered through all of this it was not easy but i'm grateful that we are here at this point and i gotta admit you know as a father i'm a little scared i'm a little scared as they move into the next part of life this world is not the same world as it was when i was graduating in 1982 and they have so many more challenges they have to face but i sincerely believe that middletown has
110given them the tools to be able to face those challenges and we'll just we'll see what happens lastly lastly i i think that no one can doubt that i i've tried to be very fair and even tonight even tonight we did not i did not hold anybody to the four-minute uh four-minute rule uh i i need to i need to say something uh because of the because of the presentation uh that was made by my fellow board member uh miss hewson i do want to i do want to stand and say how how much i am diametrically opposed to uh the statements that she made she's entitled to make that she's entitled to say that she's entitled to have her opinion and so i i think that is incumbent on me as well to say
111what i have to say i was also elected uh in 2013 by the by the community uh to to represent the entire community but i'm also obligated i'm also obligated to represent those um that look like me those that have had those experiences that i've had i don't i do not i represent everybody don't get me wrong but when you look at me there's no question that i'm a black man and so i'm i i have to say uh how how much i am opposed to the ideas um that she stated she is it is her right to do so uh critical race theory is a very hotbed issue it's a very hot bed issue but critical race theory we might not all agree with it we might not all agree with all of the
112tenets of it but what i think the problem is with critical race theory right now is that none of us are educated enough to really understand what critical race theory is i don't think any of us have enough information and have enough knowledge to understand that what critical race theory is actually saying and i'll say from as much as i know about it critical race theory is not is not a divisive critical race theory attempts to allow those that are of color to be able to s to express and see the truth of their experiences truth is relative your truth might not necessarily be my truth because we come from two different perspectives but to deny me my truth that's divisive to deny me the experiences of a lifetime is divisive no one is saying
113that anybody uh anybody that is of another race or ethnicity is racist just because they are for critical race theory i do not believe that so i want to make sure i lay that on the table i do not believe that however i do believe that we are misinformed we are not educated enough to have a real intelligent conversation because because the opponents of critical race theory are trying to deny my truth for me it's very personal and so i don't have a prepared statement about it but i'm prepared i'm prepared to stand in opposition i'm prepared to stand and to speak on it from the perspective of a black man living in middletown and in america and i don't think anybody else can speak to my truths the way that i can speak to
114my truth neither can i speak to your truths the way that you can speak to your truths so i felt obligated it was miss houston's right to right to express her beliefs and her thoughts and i i applaud her on that i want to make sure i make that perfectly clear but it's also my right to say how much i am opposed to it and how much i opposed to the idea that we would say that critical race theory it is divisive and it is it is it is it's discriminatory it is not that's my truth that's the truth and i would encourage everybody here to go and study for yourself and if do so you cannot study until you study both sides and understand the pros and the cons neither can you understand it
115until you have until you have had a sit down discussion with those who have been directly affected by racism directly affected by discrimination and understand their stories and their truth i do agree that we are all we are all uh but must come together however what i disagree with is the notion and and those of you on this board have heard me say this before i despise the statement when you say i don't see color i despise it and i'm making sure i make it perfectly clear the reason why i despise that statement is because when you say that you don't see color you don't see my you don't see my my uniqueness you don't see my you don't see my experience you do not you do not see me for who i am i
116think that it's important for us to be able to see each other for who we are and what our what are some total experiences that's what will make us stronger not denying my experience nor my denying your experience what makes us stronger is when we come together and we recognize that despite our experiences we can come to a consensus and figure out how we can move on there's so much more to it but i encourage each and every one of you that's watching tonight and those of you that are here in the room don't take my word for it study it for yourself and then let's talk later thank you that's my statement for tonight um if there's nothing else how are we looking we're good next board meeting will be on july 1st at
1176 30 uh we'll start with our reorg meeting and then immediately go into our next meeting our first board meeting and so we invite the public we invite everyone to to join us or tune in as we move into a new school year thank you to the administration for all your hard work this year thank you for every one of you um and and dare i say thank you thank you to uh mrs terry clark who has worked tirelessly tirelessly for for all of us and so uh i think that's it so i'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn please move this thank you good night everybody you