001we'd like to welcome everybody and call to order the November 7th 2019 regular meeting of the enlarged City School District of Middletown start off with our pledge allegiance led by mrs. Blumenau please Humane standing for a few moments of silence please mr. Perino please not officially members of the district very good friends of the district the first moment of silence is for Judy Lockley Johnson member of the Board of Regents of state in New York and this Board of Regents if you do not know they have overall control of education in the state a premier educator she served in a number of positions from president superintendent interim superintendents and so on and remember the Board of Regents she was down here a number of times as I said a very good friend of the district
002she realized what we were trying to do reduce the look and feel of poverty every student every day she will most definitely be miss the other moment of silence this evening is for Theodore sly the Orange County historian for many many years he served his country as a member of the Armed Services in the Korean War he served its community as a member of the American Legion as well as other organizations and you know Ted would come to speak to our students when asked he spoke on a number of occasions about the history of Middletown the history of Lawrence County and never refused to never refuse to just our students oh please remember mr. Johnson and mr. sly and your thoughts and prayers thank you so much thank you mr. Perino what you are on
003which you also mind doing the mission of the enlarged City School District Middletown please thank you we strive to provide fiscally sound educational opportunities in a safe environment that continually supports our diverse student population we one able all students to graduate to reach their full potential to become lifelong learners and to be competitive productive members of society Thank You mr. president thank you roll call mrs. Clark hear hear thank you I need motion for approval of the agenda for tonight second we moved in second any discussion all in favor signify by saying aye opposed so passes I need another motion for approval of the regular minutes from our October 17th 2019 meeting so moved in second any discussion all in favor aye opposed moving on to our personnel action items if there is no objection
004we will put a pro approval of our personnel member random 10a the personnel memorandum 10 be together can I get a motion for that police move it's been moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye opposed so passes and any introduction to personnel tonight no introduction of personnel all right moving on to the good stuff recognition announcements and community reports I'm going to ask for this first recognition I'm going to ask for a mr. Perino if he would please take the lead on this month thank you Bishop Williams the first recognition this evening is our no Kid Hungry program the Middletown school district committees on the move can do many things for our students as far as feeding our students we have the pre fuel we have refill refuel we have snacks after school
005when it comes to the weekend we need a little bit of help and quite a bit of help because the poverty rate in this district is reaches almost 78% so we rely on people such as the Middletown Lions Club no Kid Hungry program Glennis Foglia is the coordinator of that program and some of our organizations in town st. Paul's Methodist Church Our Lady of Mount Carmel church they both been magnificent and supplying food we see the notice in the Mount Carmel bulletin that Glennis had picked up a carload of food and I think a bit more and with Glennis tonight is Michelle Bailey Michelle is a longtime employee of the district 22 plus years and she is one person that directly hands out the packets at Maple Hill after going this is provides the introduction
006and states what's happening this year I've asked Michelle to come over and speak what happens when she hands out the the packages in the backpacks of food Glennis would you like to come on up I picked up three Carlos from Mount Carmel okay me first thank you for letting me come back again and talk to you about our no Kid Hungry backpack program I'm going to give you a couple of statistics when from the year that we just finished two thousand eighteen to nineteen the club filled two thousand six hundred and six backpacks we provided eighteen thousand two hundred and forty two weekend meals and twenty three thousand four hundred and fifty four snack items and I counted every single one of those items so I know that that's there we're now in our ninth
007year of the no Kid Hungry backpack program we started this past October seventeenth and we're filling 84 backpacks this this year 34 Presidential Park 25 for maple Hill and Carter and we have for a Truman Moon and the schools all know that if there is a need we will certainly increase that amount that's no problem whatsoever our county legislators approved orange cares for another year so we are getting food from the food bank of the Hudson Valley twice a month in fact yesterday we got bread and we got the best apples in the whole world so today we were able to put two apples in every single youngsters backpack and they love the fresh fruit so that's always a plus I don't know there's just been so many people in the community that are absolutely
008amazing and I'm very very grateful but this is exciting this is new the bridges program from SUNY Orange it's a inclusive secondary post-secondary education program designed for students with autism spectrum disorders and in intellectual disabilities we've had volunteers over the last year just come on in and help us this past year the director of the bridges program called and she wanted one of their students to become an intern it was it was not easy getting the Lions Club to agreed to do this but this young lady is in her third year of the bridges program when she finishes she's going to get college credit and she'll be able to fulfill the requirements of her final year of vocational studies and I just want to read to you the goals of this young lady of this
009internship students will increase their level of independent completing job tasks students will focus on transferring communication and interpersonal soft skills learned in the bridges classes to the workplace students learn to increase their work endurance and I have to say this young lady is really doing that she's anxious to get there she follows directions she works really really well with us so it's a brand new program I'm really excited to be part of it but that's enough for me Michelle as you know the office manager I have my own thank you for inviting me Glennis and mr. pre know I will speak from my heart it is one of the perks of being part of this program not only is it a team effort with our social workers and our teachers recognizing the students that need
010this little extra bag of goodies our custodial staff helps bring them in when the students arrive to pick this up she wanted me to share with you a couple of the students reactions and one little girl grabs her backpack and opens it and literally her breath is taken away and she went I can take this home I had another little boy that asked me four times can I take this home to my family it is the most humbling experience when Glenna says to apples to apples brightens these children's lives for a weekend thank you for letting us be part of this this has put our heart and soul into this program for the last what how many years clintus nine years you know you don't blush you I have a question can you tell us
011a little bit more about the weekend meals program I would say 17 to 20 different food items that we put in the food bank of the Hudson Valley gives us some things they don't give us many of the special treats but we always have a food item like tuna or chicken or Chef Boyardee with me some of the something like that and then we have soup always have soup especially in the cold weather I'm trying to think of today sea oats hot cereal cold cereal Thank You pudding pudding cups applesauce cups fruit cups hot chocolate what else a lot of crackers peanut butter crackers saltines granola bars all kinds of really cookies those things how many students 84 84 and is this a two-day meal it is it's a week they take it home on
012we pack it on Thursday and sometimes they the children bring it home on Thursday other things our schools they take it home on Friday and then it's for Saturday and Sunday if there's a holiday like there will be we make sure we have more they get a little heavy after a while and then they're supposed to bring the backpacks back so we can fill them up which doesn't happen all the time all right we've got a lot of good stuff going on and again it takes it takes partnerships like that in order to help our children and help our community and so again I thank you and applaud you for everything that you're doing and so we continue to press on we want to take take some time to recognize tonight robotics team from the
013Middletown high school so I don't know who's taking the lead on that it must be must must be our principal mrs. Sorrentino and I I see mr. Cano is there and Serena Thomas that a robotics teacher all right good evening Pastor Williams mr. Tuttle BOE members we were given an amazing opportunity a few weeks to go to participate in the first annual Hudson Valley hackathon at mount st. Mary College as you know we have an amazing technology department at Middletown High School and we have two members that supervise and coach our robotics team they mobilized very quickly under the guidance of mr. Connell who I'm going to turn things over to in a moment to get our hackathon team ready to participate before I turn things over I would just like to thank mrs. Thomas
014mr. Sweetzer and the parents for helping us get together and be mobilized so quickly for a Saturday so I thank them and I'd like to turn things over to mr. Connell to give you a snapshot of what they participated in thank you very much mr. president members of the board members of the military community it was an absolute pleasure to join or a newly-minted robotics team in this hackathon just with with a with the supervisors a teacher supervisor has just been able to see our students outside of a classroom setting interacting with profession other students technology and just really standing up and and and having their voice in that very crowded and noisy room was just outstanding um there was no Prada moment other than when our very own Kevin Linderman was recognized for his
015absolutely wonderful delivery of the project that he started to work on and the issues at the address were really salient issues they they were using technology to develop app and how to retain technological talent in the mid-hudson area and as you're doing it though I was impressed just to see how far they were willing to go like in within minutes they were building computer apps they were developing computer simulations and I was absolutely blown away so I just don't want to talk too much because I want miss Thomas to actually share her experience because she was right there on the floor with all this with all her students hi I'm miss Thomas I am the robotics teacher at the high school as well as in part with mr. Sweetzer the robotics coach for our first
016annual FIRST Tech Challenge that's a company ran by Rev robotics and we will be participating in some competitions later on in the year but this year we were able to be a part of a hackathon which was a opportunity to brainstorm and come together in order to think of a way to retain talent in the Hudson Valley region because there is a lack of tech talent that stays here there are no tech jobs so they were thinking of ways how can we bring jobs opportunities and encourage people to stay here as well as young adults I will ask Kevin Linderman to tell you more about his first-hand experience because he was one of the students that took part in the whole process of thinking of an idea kevin 'ln if you don't mind hi guys
017so our main theme with life the whole like hackathon thing was on socio-economic stability in the Newburgh and Hudson Valley area overall and one of our ways and one of the particular issues that it was highlighting was how to retain sustain and maintain technological information and it's like a lot of days like use like UI youths they know where they want to end up but they don't know how to get there so what our mission was was oh I create like a space that incorporated aspects of like I'm sorry that incorporated aspects of like new technologies and like ways to provide children to like really know how to get to their goal because like they decide what they want early on but don't know the steps to get there which is where we come in
018and from there our idea was create like a makerspace which was like like a physical building and we design like a mat plan and my entire team helped me like prevent this idea in such a way that it was like it was very beneficial and I hope we could actually start this idea and I think that's it thank you I would like to introduce the rest of the team that's here there are 13 students in total but only if you could make it I'm glad they're here we have hurry scours hello my name is Harris Galvez like Miss Thomas said I first got introduced to robotics when I first came here freshman year and I presented for robotics in stem so we've always had that connection with robotics and I was referred when she said
019that we were able to have a Robotics Club so I was able to you know use robotics more because I am interested in like electronics and technology and I think it's a great opportunity that we are able to use like technology and like the real world and use competition so I'm glad to be in this team we also have Daniella Ramos hello my name is Daniel Ramos I'm glad to be part of this team because even though I'm not personally I'm not gonna be in a career with technology however I feel like this team does hope able to learn more about technology and it be able to explore other careers even those who without technology so thank you for making this impossible and we have Stanley's then good evening my name is Stan Lee's an
020arm currently a senior at Middleton high school and I'm looking to go into the technology field for my college major I would say I'm very excited to be part of the robotics team because it's really my first opportunity to be part of something like this starting as a freshman I already knew that I wanted to do something technology related but never really had a chance to do so so this year is my chance to prove that well everything I've learned is I guess my opportunity to make a difference thank you all right thank you so much we want to we want to take a moment and and recognize some very special people in the district I'll say my piece and I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm going to let mr. Perino mr. Perino and and our
021acting superintendent tonight talk talk talk a little bit but we do want to recognize some wonderful people in the district who have worked very diligently in the midst of a very how should I say stressful situation I have a lot of empathy for what you had to go through with all of these all of these regulations and the last-minute things that you had to deal with your your your diligence your work and what you did during that time and even before that and as you work every day in this district is not going unnoticed and so we just wanted to take a moment to recognize the nurses and the and the the district nurses that work in this district I've always said this that everybody from top to bottom and really there is no bottom
022there is no top we all work together but everybody is valuable it takes it takes a team and it takes all of the cogs working together in order to make all of this work and and you all are extremely vital and important part of making this district work of watching out for our children of making sure that that they have what they need even as it pertains to health I know my kids have spent some time in the nurse's office so you know but not too much not too much but but I always ingredient with I'm always greeted with a smile as a parent coming in over the years and and I want to thank you for that and mr. Perino has been here a long time and I really want to ask him as
023as one of our senior members to have something to say as well thank you I Bishop William Hughes said at all a very integral part very important part of this district the district could not get along without the wonderful professional nursing staff in the district you do so many good things for the for students so without saying anything else we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts shuttles gonna come up say something he's gonna say he's going to say something he's going to give some specifics as to as to what they had to deal with and we've got alright thank you very much so as you said tonight we want to honor the nurses the LPNs and the health clerks for all the tireless hard work this past years some new regulations
024were put in place regarding vaccinations and they did a yeoman's work trying to make sure all the students were vaccinated in time reporting and when we were done we had a pretty good student population coming to school there were regulations saying if you were not vaccinated you were not allowed to attend school so very kudos to you folks and is job well done the district want to thank you with a nice certificate so if I won't come on up we can give you a nice certificate like have miss Kura come up there's our nurse practitioner yeah yeah if everybody else wants to say something thank you very much good evening pastor Williams mr. Perino and the entire Board of Education and the community my name is Barbara Kyra and I'm a family nurse practitioner and
025now a director of the health services in our district I'm proud to represent the Middletown school health services team I've had a privilege to work with this wonderful group of ladies for over a year they're our compassionate caring committed to keeping our scholars healthy and safe in school as of today we are 28 members strong this includes eight registered nurses eight licensed practical nurses and twelve part-time clerical staff most of them are in this room tonight please welcome our school nurses and health clerks worked tirelessly from the first day of school school year to ensure the Middletown scholars are fully immunized or our impressive process of catching up on their mandatory immunisations particularly those that have prior religious exemption the new public health law and immunization required that every scholar needed to have proof of
026Muniz ation in their health record by 14th day of school every day our team ran reports wrote letters updated health records check state and New York City immunization registries and made phone calls to meet the deadline on September 19th there were still hundreds of scholars who are missing vaccinations and had to be excluded from school with the assistance of building principals Orange County Department of Health local health care providers and parents and guardians we were able to get all the scholars back to school within a few weeks I would like to add that this awesome undertaking a vaccination compliance took place during a busy time start of the new school year when nurses are getting to know their scholars their individual needs their families logging medications for those with chronic health conditions establishing care plans
027completing fall sports physicals and clearances not to mention organizing their offices this recognition and appreciation for their hard work is truly worth well-deserved they are invaluable members of every school team in our district we were grateful for their contribution to the well-being and safety of our scholars and health of our community nurses and health kirk's we appreciate you and thank you please come up for your certificates for your certificates Julia fuck Lisa held a Gurkha Peola choo-choo Shakuni bah a media Wendy - Laura quaderi Chris giochi Daniel Moses Margaret Sienna ELISA Davis Christine McKenna Ron Allen Davis Gloria Troy and Barbra Kanoa thank you very much thank you everybody um I just wanted to give this to Barbara and thank you for all your Tyler suffer as well thank you very much take these through
028the rest okay if all the board members were director attention to their in front of their laptop there there's a vas or I guess a jug or water jug this is an appreciation for the school board appreciation week that was last week and we wanted the district wand to thank you for all your tireless effort that's outside in the parking lot whatever yeah they are empty right now but thank you for all your tireless effort you do sensational job making sure this district mission statement is met the students really appreciated the staff and the administration really appreciate all your hard work so thank you very much I like the fact that my name is on it so now my kids can't take it so if any of you see any of my kids walking through
029the school with this you better tell them you better get that back to your dad thank you so much we greatly appreciate that well yeah they may well not the boys that my baby girl will walk around my dad's a school board member the boys the boys the boys try to hide they don't want to be seen but moving on moving on moving on again thank you everybody opportunity to address the board first opportunity you have four minutes mr. Pierre is our timekeeper he'll let you know when you're down to one minute he'll let you know when you're down to 30 seconds but you have four minutes signing it at the at the mic at the podium and and you'll hit the clock all right we know who you are although this kind of moves
030good evening president Williams members of the Board of Education and administration first thank you for recognizing the Health Services Department and our hard work and diligence with the challenges we face this year with immunity compliance we would be remiss if we as a team did not recognize and express our appreciation for a medical director of mrs. barbara Kura she also was she also is faced with many challenges such as conflicting information from different state health offices she leads by example she shows her dedication to her responsibilities as a medical director as a medical provider of services and a leader to the staff who report to her I hope that I can speak for all of us when I say that we are grateful to have a leader that not only cares for the children and
031families in this district but also shows compassion and understanding to the staff that she manages I'm going to change directions now I don't know how many people know the history of school nursing so since our business as a whole is education I've chosen this time to offer a brief history of school nursing picture it the United States of America between 1870 and 1912 million or so immigrants arrived New York City seeing a tremendous rise in this population and this population lives in terrible conditions when the city finally felt overwhelmed the powers-that-be decided that public education and school attendance would help bring these members of society out of poverty poverty and help them assimilate to the American Way of life so in 1897 New York's New York City had hired about 150 doctors to spend about
032an hour a day assessing students for various afflictions such as tuberculosis lice etcetera etc they would send home notes that children cannot reach that children could not return to school however we know how that goes sometimes things don't change and the kids wouldn't give the notes to their parents or many cases of the time the parents weren't able to read the notes what happens then is they're running around the neighborhood's playing with their friends which then in turn results in more children being infected this increased absences tenfold so that brings us to two extraordinary women in history that you may or may not have heard about Lillian Wald's and Lena Rodgers I can go on and on we go the dedication and a complement accomplishments of Lillian Wald but we would be here all night
033so I'll be brief Lillian Wald moved into the neighborhood and lived and worked among the poor along with other nurses she founded the Henry Street Settlement she was a champion and pioneer of Public Health nursing housing reform suffrage and rights of women children immigrants and working people in 1902 she became such a presence and was able to convince the New York City school system to provide school nurses the first public school nurse was Lena Rogers the plan was that Miss Rogers would work with the physician and provide simple simple cases that didn't sorry I must have mistyped simple cases that didn't have to exclude the children from school and then she would make house calls to follow up this was to be a 30-day experiment in those 30 days she treated 893 students made 137
034home visits and assisted 25 students who had no prior health care recover and return to school the experiment was successful and on November 7th 1902 Lena Rogers was made the first school nurse hired by the New York City Board of Education is this a coincidence that we are here tonight on November 7th maybe maybe Lily Lena and Lillian had a hand in that the New York City Board of Ed hired 12 more school nurses and within six months they saw a 90 percent decrease in their absenteeism to wrap it up we the Health Services staff of the enlarged City School District Middletown proudly carry out the duties set before us of our foremothers Lillian Lillian Wald and Lena Rodgers we are at times the first people to recognize that something just isn't right and make
035referrals we offer compassionate care to our children and their families we work with health care providers and other community members to keep our children healthy and safe I can go on and on but I will stop here and close by saying thank you for the opportunity to continue a job that I genuinely love just in time huh at the time I would run off just in time I think I think there was an extra few minutes on there we gave you you always get extra few minutes so anybody else that would like to address the board tonight there'll be a second opportunity in a few minutes but it's not moving on I did I need to go backwards I'm sorry I didn't I didn't have recognition announcement community reports from our board members and so
036I want to backtrack and offer a opportunity for our board members to have any to give any announcements or community reports that they'd like to give if we could keep be concise but brief it'd be great I'm not going to say anything tonight so I'll start down I'll start down at this into the table with mr. Gomez Thank You mr. president at least past two weeks are various ptl's have had numerous fundraisers all to the benefit of our children the ROTC had a fundraiser Tony buffer and again the believed there were different fundraisers with chipotle Texas vbq as was sponsored by the Parents Association included the delicious Krispy Kreme Doughnuts at presidential Heights and we thank them for the continued work miss sherry Soto from Maple Hill won it asked me to announce the following
037that the Middletown Little League has begun its registration for the Supreme 2020 season these cars have been given the day to know all the needed information there's gonna be a tea bowl baseball softball the next registration will be on Saturday November 9th at Academy Avenue for yourself sorry 47 Academy Avenue that's what parts of recreations are at between 10 a.m. and well p.m. and for further information the phone numbers to call our a four five seven four two forty three nineteen and a four five five five one forty three forty also um today the New York County sorry the Orange County Legislature can consider legislation extending the see stop armed cameras for the the for the school buses and I have the opportunity to be there and speak as a private citizen and only express
038my appreciation to County Executive Newhouse and the Orange County legislation sorry legislature for taking action for a long time we've been asking the state legislature to raise the penalties in the vehicular traffic law for cars that pass the school buses but he continues to die on the estate assembly and I believe the Orange County Legislature say an example which I hope Albany will follow and I'm gonna pass a copy of the article that appeared in weeks before in The Times Herald record we're expect to the legislation that was being considered today with the support of county executive new house and the Orange County Legislature my power bipartisan support let me add and that's pretty much it November 13 does the orange county leadership prayer breakfast which is a gathering of different elected officials clergy which
039is held annually at in telling the Windsor anthony's pyridine yes Anthony's p9 november st. anthony's pier 9 november 13th and that's around 7 a.m. in the morning it's 6:45 in the morning there I'm there every years oh thank you thank you so much mr. Gomez mrs. sucks thank you you're so glad to have lied to see you see back we you know we've we've been you've been in our thoughts in our prayer so right starting back down at this into the table mr. Pierre thank you but I have nothing to report at this time right I didn't make the teacher set a meeting last week this is Blumenau hello we're we're back from the New York State School Boards Association meeting up in Rochester was great event I think will be some of us will
040be reporting tonight a little bit about if we have time I also on was Tuesday night Wednesday night today's Thursday right so Tuesday what day is it Tuesday night yes I took advantage of the fundraiser for Carter at Chipotle and then I went over to their open house for thank you I eat my no I went over for parent-teacher conferences and met some of our scholars and some of their parents and walked the halls of Carter which my children both attended and when it was mechanics town so it's hard for me to say that but it was really such well organized evening mrs. Jensen just does a beautiful job over at that school and so it was a nice nice event I really don't have anything but to comment on my Paula said we spent
041for three nights mystic but it was probably I've been to a lot of these school board conventions this was probably the best one it was money well spent all the workshops were excellent and if not tonight next board meeting we're going to do a very short synopsis of what we witnessed and learned thank you I'm just going to help find things faster because we're a little pressed for time but first of all I want to encourage everyone to thank a veteran it's a Veterans Day coming up on the 11th this Monday and there'll be some of our students working these various events and secondly I want to congratulate all the members of our board who attended the school board conference mrs. Pullman now mr. crescendo and Bishop Williams you took a lot of your time
042to do this and I know we all thank you for that you know we talked about the robotics team this evening they were introduced and that is just one of many many programs great programs in the high school and one of the other items one of the other great programs is a drama program and this weekend is the fall play directed by mr. Schofield Midsummer Night's Jersey there will be performances on Friday at 7 p.m. and on Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. it's a comedy retelling the Shakespearean Midsummer Night's dream and I know the seniors I spoke to some of the seniors today and they plan to attend the Saturday matinee as a as a group on Sunday November 10th the Honor Flight dinner which at the Middletown l's Club which raises money
043to send veterans to Washington and members of our NJ OTC unit will be helping and they'll be presenting a very moving flag ceremony along with the middle school elementary Honor Society Junior Honor Society from man Hagan middle school Michelle Abair directs at and she said be sure to be sure to pencil me in when I spoke to her in the fall so if you can't attend that it's really for a good cause and speaking of the and speaking of the Elks were starting with mrs. sorentino's assistants the student of the month a student of the month award and hopefully we can get that kicked off in the next board meeting I know that mr. Sorrentino came in on a holiday to meet with mr. Manoli and myself on this and thank you for that she
044spends a lot of time in that building and on programs believe me also on November 8th tomorrow this building presidential park will be honoring veterans and the ceremony is at 9:15 I think it was advertised somehow at 8:45 but no the school doesn't open to 9:00 so I called them today and it's 9:15 mrs. no miss Nolan and missile Boyle are coordinating that program this past weekend the bhana societies from Carter and presidential Park this building along with the NJROTC they helped with the Elks pancake breakfast we had almost 800 guests and I must say our school board was well represented in this bloomin L was there mr. gomez was there and mr. Larsen air was there helping out and we thank you for that and wait a minute now and mrs. mrs. the bias
045and we had we had to put a bit of restriction on her see she went back two or three times and we said now that's it so I have other things but I'm gonna just save those because I've gone long enough you know all these programs the health nursing nurses and the health services the clerks and the all the programs they really make the district a very comprehensive district everybody's doing such a good job so that's all I have and thank you I'm gonna I'm gonna hold my a my announcements there's a lot of good things going on and my assignment is to high school as well so and there's a lot of good things going on to high school other things are coming up but I'm gonna hold mine tonight and the interest of
046time any letters no letters so we want to move on moving on to our action items real fast I need action item a approval of financial memorandum number 10 take a second second second mr. Pierre any discussion all in favor opposed it so passes thank you all so much action item B approval of special service memorandum number nine so move moved and seconded any discussion all in favor opposed again I I want to make note that we receive all of this information prior to prior the week prior to this board meeting so we're not just passing things along we look at everything very meticulously and and any questions that we have prior to this we're able to ask the superintendent or anybody that any of our central administration if there's something that we don't completely
047get right away so we're not just passing things through action items see approval of change orders so move moved and seconded any discussion we had a meeting on this evening and all change orders seemed extremely appropriate mrs. Ballew Mennella was at the meeting and mr. thank you all in favor opposed so passes action item D approval of resolution superintendent employee medical examination authorization so move moved and seconded no discussion all in favor opposed so passes action item ii approval of election worker huh ever Celie and whatever that says I don't even try I don't I don't like messing people's names up for 2019 through 2020 school year second no discussion all in favor opposed so passes approval of appointment of impartial hearing officer so move no discussion all in favor aye opposed need a motion
048for the approval of change the board of education 2019 2020 meeting calendar so move moved and seconded mr. mr. Tuttle can you explain the reason for this change real quick so that everyone would know why we're changing the date yes so previously we had a meeting on December 19th and due to a referendum that we're going to have early December 10th we need a meeting immediately the next day within 24 hours they're approved their vote results so we'll have the meeting on the 11th 19 all right any discussion all in favor aye opposed so passes moving on a second opportunity to address the board if anybody here would like to address the board same rules apply it's the first time around but we welcome you to come to the desk at this time no takers
049going once going twice it's gone sold sold committee reports just a brief we're going to take some time we have we were doing pretty good tonight so we're going to do we'll do our reports if that's okay with you two we want to we had the opportunity myself mr. mr. Chris Enzo and mrs. Blumenau had the opportunity to attend the New York State School Board Association conference in Rochester New York it's been about a week now week ago and as mr. crystal said a little bit earlier this to me was one of the best conferences that we had the opportunity to attend the sessions the workshops the seminars were excellent the opportunity to network was excellent and so we are we want to do a little recap before we go before before I turn it
050over to them to start I have a video a short video from Misbah that is a little bit of a recap of the conference so that you understand what we're what we're doing and where we're going so if you can just Misbah news is supported by the New York schools insurance reciprocal New York school board members are faced with challenging decisions about student immunizations data privacy vaping and other pressing topics attendees of Nesbo's 100th convention and education expo in rochester picked up invaluable information for addressing these complicated issues and their local school districts the annual school law seminar kicked off the three-day event by exploring important legal topics the bottom lines were trying to get board members the opportunity to focus on how to engage in preventive practices so the ultimate goal of looking at
051student achievement and having a soar into the stratosphere can be had for them at the pre communications workshop speakers shared tips for effective interpersonal communications through emotional intelligence our school board members here will recognize that we have to move away from piecemeal approaches like buying a kid or a program or an assembly and thinking our how do we do this work in a systemic way to make sure that every child every teacher every leader gets the emotion education that they need to achieve their goals the workshop group also learned how creative problem-solving can help us tackling difficult problems Rita thinking and creative problem solving our life skills to have to live is to have problems and to solve problems creatively is to grow Thursday night's opening activities included a celebration of exemplary school board service
052with the presentation of the Everett our Dyer award to Mary Jo O'Hagan from the Baldwin Union Free School District Robert J Duffy the president and CEO of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce presented the keynote yes I want to thank it and really take time to thank all the school board members here the New York State School Board Association and national associations here for everybody who's here who serves I know that the overwhelming number in New York State our volunteer school board members which i think is an exceptional public service so I just want to thank you for what you do the festivities included a farewell tribute and President's Award presentation - executive director Timothy Kramer who is retiring at the end of the year after twenty-one years of service Thun is ba' today I
053am confident that I am leaving this but in good hands and an excellent shape bill thank you for the honor of being selected as your President's Award recipient this is a capstone moment to my 40 year career that has been my true calling attendees met the association's new executive director Bob Schneider who has been witness but for 20 years and currently serves as associate executive director and chief operating officer school boards are shining examples of democracy in action elected directly by the voters in your local community and charged with serving the public good I believe that this ideal is worth fighting for and I want you to know that I and this association and committed to preserving and strengthening that ideal convention goers attended a variety of education sessions including a session on the negative
054effects of vaping the annual education Expo was in full swing with hundreds of exhibitors showing off the latest in learning techniques and technology the 100th convention and Expo concluded with the annual business meeting where Fred Lang staff was elected the next president of Misbah and a slate of new officers were also elected we we get a lot of the credit for this happening but you all know that the staff and your buildings and your organization's that run so it's to them I give my applause as I prepare to pass the gavel to our next president I want you to know that I'm blessed to have been your association president for the last two years I have had the privilege to work with an incredibly talented and dedicated people reporting for news the news I'm Kacie
055Nicholson so that's just a little a little view into some of the things that go on at Nizza it's just so much we couldn't we couldn't even begin to talk about all of it I think there was such so many good workshops and seminars I believe on Friday we didn't most we didn't see each other till the evening time because we were all we were in so many different directions and Hanlin thing and so by Friday evening Friday evening was the first time that we had the opportunity to really connect up and kind of and kind of unpack what we experienced on that day and so I'm gonna give mr. Chris ENSO opportunity to talk about what he learned we want to have an opportunity to later on with with all the board to kind
056of unpack some of the things that we experienced and I think that is important that at some point at some point board members next will be in New York that some of the board members make an effort even if you just go down for one day to make an effort to be at that I think the information is invaluable it's essential I noticed in that video they didn't show you with the lampshade on your head no I'm sorry bad joke but there had to be well over 50 seminars and and what have you spread out over the course of the day and each one of them was at least an hour long now the one communication workshop actually was four hours long I didn't realize that when I signed up for it but there's a
057nice thick book that goes with it I'll give it with I'll give it to mrs. Clark and the board can look at it at their leisure so I attended eight workshops I don't know an hour apiece and one of the things I got out of this it was something that wasn't mentioned this is a real opportunity to and and meat and and you know talk with other board members from all over the state and you know you've got districts with 1,100 students you've got 7,200 in this district very you know many many differences between the districts but a lot of commonality also and one of the things I've gotten each time I've gone to one of these conventions is how unique the enlarged City School District of Middletown is we're way ahead of the curve
058on many many things so what I'm going to do I'm just going to mention the workshop that I went to the seminar and just give you a very brief description of what I saw and I board members have PowerPoint I sent every one of the actual workshop so the first one was called space and its impact on academic success it was a Groton Central School District they used renovated space they had an elementary wing that was pretty outdated they moved out of it but they went back and made it into they call it steam they add art so it's science technology engineering art and mathematics and they made that into their esteem program and they also promoted it as a collaborative learning center so I'm sitting there smiling and you don't I'm being very serious
059now you don't want to sound like you know we're fortunate we have an administration that does incredible strategic long-term planning especially with the finances so our facilities for cooperative learning would have you or far more advanced but they did a great job and I'm watching this and and they had videos of their students learning and it was good and it was scaled down from what we do but it's very much exactly what they do the next one was free speech in an era of social media and what this was about and I got a lot out of this and I needed to get something out of this social media is a platform where the public can criticize school district actions sometimes the public can be a board member what speech is protected and when is
060it best to respond or stay silent and they define free speech as it applies to district policies so you know they talk about Facebook Instagram and the rest of that and you know we had our issues 1214 years ago when people were using social media in a very destructive way we've gotten behind that the community the next one was trauma-informed schools understanding the impact of adverse childhood experiences this was kind of near and dear to me I work with through Family Court through with foster children and what they've experienced in their lifetime and also I was a special education teacher at BOCES for 36 years and so two-thirds of children report one traumatic event or types of events by the age 16 that's two-thirds of the students it could be bullying divorce unfortunate much more
061serious things like maybe sexual abuse and what-have-you oh you know what okay yes so they were given many examples and remediations and we're ahead of the curve again with our social with our counseling programs and what have you see managing conflict the courage to listen listen class of personality this is about boards Boards of Education we have a large board nine most of them are five and seven member boards class a person clash of personalities or different educational philosophies affect the Board of Education focus on student achievement conflict resolution trust better working relationships were discussed and how to try to achieve that and it's it's a long term process it could take a year it could take even more especially as a board the composition of the board changes with elections this particular program I
062would highly recommend for a board retreat next year school board meetings legal do's and don'ts common issues about school board meetings and parliamentary procedure and the next one was avoiding district election Hall mrs. Clarke avoiding district election and budget vote challenges I had no idea how complicated it is to run a school vote school election because school districts are different than the regular elections the state elections they have different parameters different rules and regulations and every year it runs like a well-oiled clock so congratulations to you and thank you for everything you do yes so they gave us a list of things the do's and don'ts in New York State education law of versus the election law school district law education law and talked about the ballot machines and what have you when you put
063the key in the door you can not somebody even went so far as somebody is coming through the door at the time the poll closes you're not allowed in you have to lock the door that could cause some problems but in some districts you can understand that I would let that person in but you're not allowed to do that okay so the last one this one was near and dear to my heart this one was called accepting and celebrating the LGBTQ student and that's lesbian gay bisexual trans trans so it could be their transgender where you're you identify as the sex that you weren't born with so chromosomally you're that sex but you're identifying differently and then transsexual will you actually have the surgery to become physically the member of the other sex so this
064is where this comes in how do I do this look turn it off hi Aaron it's okay good good good this was the Smithtown Long Island Board of Education and as this went on the presenter became more and more interesting and he wasn't a professional presenter you know he spoke from his heart he was very genuine and then later on like three-quarters way through we found out why and this was a big part of it Noah's story okay so the challenges of they face every day in school is a personal history judgment of people judging them what have you ability to create understanding their secret lives many of these people many of these students you will not know throughout their entire school history what they're going through the educational systems societal culture is different in
065every district some are more accepting than others which makes it a lot easier for the students some aren't unfortunately and finding role models and advocates all of this stuff develops as you have programs in your district to address these things and identifying and connecting to parents and families okay so what I'm not gonna do all the slides but what do the LGBTQ youth need they need acceptance just like any other student a student with a limp a student with a stutter these being an lbgtq person is not a disability but they need to be accepted they need to feel safe obviously everyone needs to feel safe and I'll go on a little bit later about what they face opportunity for growth having a voice and how their their programs run what they feel how they
066fit into everything else and being respected who does not need to be respected and celebrate who they are the big part is normalization as far as I'm concerned my my son is gay he came out 30 years ago and he we lived in Rockland County at the time North Rockland school district he was bullied out of school he never finished high school but he was smart enough and had the motivation enough that he went to our Rockland Community College got his degree and moved on and today he's a very successful restaurant owner in new city in Rockland County he's married they adopted two children they adopt Italia at 14 years old and she's 18 now I get a little emotional she's a scholar athlete she was medically challenged at birth and Samet had some cognitive
067issues she's a student athlete students a scholar athlete all through high school she's been on the honor roll from middle school on through and Nikki's five years old so he's new to the family okay skip some buddies oh boy he's hard to read all right so I'll just go briefly to this there are protections and New York State is a very progressive state and I'm very happy about that in a very positive way there's the dignity for all students Act dasu it's designed to protect public school students from bullying by employed by employees or other students based on actual or perceived race color weight national origin ethnic group or religion religious practice disability sexual orientation gender or sex and it's a very powerful law and it's it's and it's it's enforced very strongly and then
068federal government is title nine and this came into effect in 1972 during the Nixon administration of all things and that states that no person United States shall on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in be denied the benefits of will be subject to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal finance assistance if you violate that the federal government can and will remove federal funding from your programs which would be devastating I'd say I wish this didn't realize was gonna be hard to read okay so the presenter kind of brought the program in to talk about the trans community and they are probably the most vulnerable of this entire lbgtq community they're a very very small population they're they can't tell you exactly how many but it's anywhere from one half of
069a percent to maybe two percent of the total population this population ten percent of them have attempted suicide in the past year twenty-two to forty five percent have attempted suicide in their lifetime this is higher than any other cohort any other group that you can think of sixty-six percent have presented self-harm at some point during their lives LBGT LGBTQ students are two times more likely to be assaulted they have the highest per capita rate of murder of being murdered of any other group in over any other cohort so there was one slide here I wish that came out but I guess it's not going to so the point is that in order to make these students feel safe the district has to by in in our district does it quietly not on purpose but quietly
070with a lot of dignity these students they go through many of them one might go through our program you wouldn't even know that they're part of this community but one of the important parts of this is the Board of Education has to set goals and attitudes and interest in protecting these students we have policy that we've adopted and that the state of New York has adopted for us we have to follow this policy the superintendent presents leadership which mr. del Moral absolutely definitely does there's an administration's investment they are district I know has at least one club LGBT Q Club in the high school and then they talk about PTA septa booster clubs and what have you special interest groups I don't know how that works here but and then family and community awareness is
071probably one of the bigger parts of it that it's a quiet community and if they're not out yelling in the streets and so community a family awareness comes when you know somebody a family member or a family friend or what-have-you is involved and you take interest and you you do the best you can to help them and teach your understanding and follow through I know that happens here staff awareness and support so that's that's basically it oh the point was the presenter I this as involved as I am with this I have difficulty when we're talking about a transgender person started as his daughter and now it's transed into a male into a son so I will call him he because that's the pronoun they want to use and went through a relatively different call
072time but his parents understood him this is not a flippant choice this is who you are this is who you how you born this is how you're wired and his parents took such good care of him that he is you know he's back in he's in high school he's graduating this class he's outstanding he started groups and chapters and what-have-you and the presenter introduced him to us and he gave us a little bit of background about what he had gone through he went through my son's gay he's not trans he didn't go through anything as my son which to me makes and he had a more difficult journey which makes me feel optimistic that the society now is becoming more accepting and what I do know is that students high school age students whatever by
073and large they just don't care you know this is my friend you know they just don't care they let them go on about their lives so that's that was it and thank you for listening thank you mr. Perino mr. Chris Enzo I knew that joke was coming I knew that was coming but thank you thank you mr. Chris Enzo you can see you can see many of us have we all have the same passion we have different areas of passion but we all have the same goals in mind and we're different personalities here in this board sometimes we agree sometimes we don't agree I know you all don't get to see a lot of the times when we don't agree but for the most part we operate with great deal of respect because at the
074end of the day our goals are all the same and we don't have any hidden agendas and so that's why I appreciate I appreciate each and every one of my fellow board members so much I'm gonna I'm gonna let mrs. bloom and I'll go but I just want to touch I'm not going to talk about in in I'm not going to talk about in detail of of the workshops that I went to but I also attended about eight or nine workshops and I just just to go over a couple a few of them one of the workshops I went to was trauma-informed schools I went to a workshop that dealt with community engagement workshop dealing with building a systemic equity framework I went to a workshop that dealt with disproportionality and suspensions I went to
075a workshop that dealt with implicit biases who knew a workshop and the whole child approach through through immigrant eyes I went to a workshop again I guess you can tell where my passion is creating a culture of equity and as well as a workshop on my brother's keeper one of the featured sessions that I attended which I very much enjoy was was a workshop moderator was Timothy Kramer who's an executive director of Nisbet our school board members in touch with what's happening in schools today that's a good question that was a good question huh our school school board members really in touch with what's happening in schools today are we are we really McBee cuz are we really in touch because some of us sometimes and this is for everybody all of us as adults
076as adults I'm not just talking about school board members but as adults we tend to look through the lens of what what our experiences was in our day but recognize and it's not just our day anymore it's a new day and so we have to sometimes step back and try to take a look through the lens of these young people so that we can understand better how how that how to to cope and how to deal with them and help them so that was my session so I'm not gonna go through detail with that I'll unpack that later with my fellow board members missus Blumenau was our was our direct representative tun is ba' she handled the business session and all of those different things and so I'm gonna give her some time well that's
077the only part that I don't have with me so the only part I don't have with me but I did it so very quickly because I did I also attended the art school board members really in touch because I really wanted to know and sometimes it's really up to I really feel like it really is up to it up to every one of us as school board members to keep ourselves connected and one of the things that we're doing to do make sure that that's happening is that each one of us I think most of us have a direct connection with a school this year which is a new initiative so we're we each have a school that we are liaison to and it makes it I think it's going to make a difference but
078I started off my kind convention with the the law the law workshop which was a full day extremely intense they went they basically went through some of the some of the law some of the legal cases that have been that are both in the courts right now but also have been resolved there's lots and lots and lots of them related to school districts but they also they were really even it was interesting because I felt as though I wasn't in a law seminar for a while I felt like I was in a mental health seminar so one of the really interesting slides which I would have brought slides of fight we've never done that before so that was pretty cool Vince thank you I just want to read a few a few highlights here one
079in five children ages 13 to 18 have or will have a serious mental illness less than 8% of children with a diagnosable mental health condition will visit a mental health provider in any given year anxiety disorders including generalized anxiety social anxiety PTSD are the most prevalent psych psychiatric conditions and children and psychologists I'm sorry psychosis affects about a hundred thousand youth and 100 adults each year eighty percent of chronic mental disorders begin in childhood New York loses an average of eighty students to suicide each year the percentage of young adults aged 12 to 17 in 2017 with severe thoughts of suicide increased while adults stayed the same children who are bullied are five times as likely to develop anxiety and two times as likely to self-harm suicide is the third leading cause of death in
080youth ages 10 to 14 and the second leading cause of death for 15 to 24 25 24 year-olds 90% of those who died by suicide had an underlying mental illness and you know having our nurses here today when you know I I really wanted to focus in on this because I remember with my own children I remember telling them if they they ever had they ever felt like they needed to talk to someone they ever felt the first place to go would be the nurse's office it was interesting um sometimes the guidance counselor but the nurse always seemed to be a very safe place to go and so I'm really so thankful that you're our first our frontline and Wendy spoke about that so so very well thank you but anyway so continuing so the
081the I went to a few less because part of my part of my job was the business meeting which I can report on those those are the initiatives that were voted on by the full body of the board members to basically bring our issues to the legislature and lobby for some action at this at the school at the state level so that's basically what we're voting on so many of these many of the initiatives were on surrounded on mental health and supporting the whole child but anyway I also went so some of the workshops that I went to one of them was redefining ready and that is looking at our diplomas the way they stand now and understanding that the children with special needs students with special needs may not need a Regents diploma they
082may need something other than that then that type of a accreditation I mean it's the skills that need the skills are a very different skill set for what their career path is going to be then for a student who's on a career path to be a medical doctor or an attorney so what's what are what are we really doing are we really doing the best for our students with disabilities to you know bring them to the system in this very generalized way and I think that we look at the whole child here in Middletown so I was able to I always do go to these conferences and come home going we're doing it right we're doing it right we're doing it right we we do tend to be on the forefront of some of these
083items one of them one that one of the ones that I went to that was really interesting mr. Gomez will and you'll appreciate this was understanding foundation aid so I'll just tell you I don't because even though they went through the foundation aid formula and how it's changed and there they are looking to read redefine the formula on foundation aid but we're fighting to do that I mean that's that's one of the initiatives when to a one of the workshops was hot topics in policy being the policy chair that that you know I found that to be interesting and I'll just share some of the hot topics with you one second let me just pull it up okay so some of the hot topics are which you'll probably agree bullying climate walkouts and free speech
084and political statements cyber threats dress codes grief counseling guns in school Halloween celebrations immunizations meth mental health red flag laws start times at the high school level that was actually one of the one interesting conversation about the length of the school day and when it should be starting substance abuse suicide prevention Universal free lunch which you know where we we also feed all of our children and vaping so those are some of the hot topics we had a we had an I would say a useless conversation with the Chancellor the Chancellor useless useless it's kind of like a lame duck situation at stay at the the stay dad right now because we're in the midst of transition so they've they're appointed interim commissioner and and the so that the the commissioners leaving the interim Commissioner
085is also leaving so that's all changing and you know that was it was kind of a waste actually mental health I also went to our small City Schools breakfast which at that at that was very interesting these the the the speaker which I don't have all the details on but just to give you what can be done when a school district comes together with and they're really failing I mean they're on they have you know on the verge of being taken over by the state and what they can do and they really pulled their resources together and bring in programs that can you know take take a look and fix everything from the bottom up and really work with teachers and work with parents and turn the school district around from a twenty-nine percent graduation
086rate in just a few years and turned that around to the right now they're at about a seventy five percent rate so big big changes and that was a school district right outside of Rochester Rochester has undergone some intense changes over the past couple of years and then and then the last one I had gone to also was the our school board members really in touch so I was very interesting so that's what I have here I can I can report on the specifics of the the voting next meeting if you'd like so thank you and thank you for the opportunity of allowing me to go to this conference it really was one of the best conferences I've been to I did I I really I took full advantage that I could every session that
087I could to see to be somewhere and we really had some very good sharing we also get a chance just finally I hate to take a look time but we also get a opportunity because we even though we're here in Orange County we don't get a whole lot of time with our with our counterparts in area 9 so it was very interesting to talk and and get together we have dinners with them so we're you know it's it's from it was it started our days started my day started at 6:45 every morning on the shuttle to like 10 o'clock at night so it's really a full day of learning and exchanging so looking forward to next year in New York City thank you just what you said about sharing I was sitting with the new
088superintendent from Chester they have 1,100 students in their school that's our freshman and sophomore class their entire school's 1,100 so you share perspectives and ideas and things good thank you I would say we we had a really good time and next year we want to present we're asking our administration to prepare to present at the next in his book conference which is going to be in New York City so it'll be it'll be near I also want to take a moment to thank my fellow board members that travel with me for watching out for me because I went up and I was not I was not well and they and I was not I was really not feeling well I was I had something going on and I was left here in extreme intense pain
089and that pain kind of persists throughout the entire conference but I want to thank you too for really watching out for me and checking on me I do a great greatly appreciate it and so with that being said I've got some other things that I want to say but I wanted an interest of time I want to keep moving so that we can get out of here we all got to get up early in the morning where we committee committee reports any committee reports that are urgent that we have to did you have did you have a fair funding meeting the fair funding committee met last week of and we have we have a very dynamic committee the the objective of the fair funding committee from is to address the funding needs for our school
090district small city school district in the Hudson Valley upstate first and of course our school district first and what reforms could be put in place to make sure that number one our taxpayers are proper homeowners get the relief they deserve and at the same time our schools are fully funded one of the issues that it's Ana burner right now it's the foundation a dismiss Blumenau pointed out we will be participating or probably I'll be participating on behalf of the fair funding committee and these the December 3rd hearing that will be held in New York City sponsored by the New York State safe Senate Education Committee that's looking into fair funding reform okay sorry Foundation a reform foundation aid is the a that specifically set aside by state by the state of New York will do
091for a school district they have student bodies of high needs and he takes into conservative factors so right now the state legislature is looking at how they could look at the different factors and how that could be addressed this over the years a formula was said going back over a decade but New York State has never found that New York State has never able to chip in the amount of money owed to our districts but at the same time it never has trouble imposing more unfunded mandates and passing the buck or the burden to the school districts and the local taxpayers so I'll be attending that conference the 7th December 3rd and again our our fair funding committee includes myself my my dear colleague and friend of Miss sucks and other members of the Middletown
092community linda jansson who's been active her life time for our community and miss miss Fran miss Frances fell or miss Glickman when our beloved teachers are in town high school if anybody else wants to get involved feel free to contact of standing the district clerk miss Clark and then looking forward to seeing you our next meetings will be on November the 12th and December the 10th and there will be at 4:30 at the district office look forward to seeing you there Thank You mr. gomez any other committee reports mr. Perino very briefly we had a safety and security meeting on the 22nd Tom Scott chair of that committee the director of security Lenny zapka was officially introduced discussed with vaping issues emergency drill reports and also the meeting served as a buildings and grounds meeting
093I believe because Tom gave a very comprehensive overview of construction going on in the district and what was completed and what's in completion so that's all I'm going to say about the good Tom ones are very very efficient need thank you thank you thank you mr. Perino you wanted me to yield some time to you I want to I want to be respectful you you know we we don't do we haven't done roundtable in a long time but I want to be able to time you said you said you had something else you wanted to say my mic is on yes we have report cards coming out and we have had quite a few different incidents so far this year which I believe all of our schools and all of our school buildings have been
094trying to keep up with anything and everything that's been going on but also just wanting to address and state that you know with the climate that we're in again I'm so happy that we do have our nurses here because they are some of the first people who are dealing with these things that we've really been fighting with and I know firsthand because I've been getting some phone calls from certain parents based upon their children having some definite issues that are that they're dealing with and I just wanted to say thank you for being this school district that we are we're not perfect we are trying and I want everyone to know that when it is something that you have to say please no matter if you think it's right or wrong or if someone else
095is going to maybe speak against whatever it is that you have to say please still come out and speak we do need to hear your voice we enjoy hearing your voice because you do make up what's going on and without hearing from you we are just sitting here twiddling our thumbs we can't make a difference if we don't have everyone and everyone speaking and giving us from their heart or what they do know and that was basically what I did want to say for tonight but again I do always say make sure that you go out and say something nice to someone next to you because you don't know what they are going through and that will make a difference in our school district thank you have a good night thank you mrs. sucks so
096we're getting down to the end I want to say something before before before Rose before Rose makes emotion because she's chomping at the bit we'll be out of here two minutes two minutes two minutes two minutes we're gonna be out of here the next meeting is November 21st our next board meeting is November 21st we've talked a lot about different things tonight we honored these wonderful health professionals and so many others that serve this district I want to say this we don't we that that there is no real face to mental health into depression and different things and if you allow me just a transparent moment those of you that know me know that this has been an extremely trying and tough year for me on many fronts I know you see me smile I'm
097always the one that I'm always the one that is in trying to encourage somebody because I believe that's where I find my strength I'm a counselor I I'm a pastor I'm a preacher everything I do my entire life has been given towards service but I had to come to the point and recognize that I also was dealing with maybe not maybe not a deep depression but I was dealing with with levels of depression and had to go seek and find some help for myself so it's nothing wrong with admitting that you need help there's nothing wrong with admitting that you need to see that you need to talk to somebody and I wanted to take that transparency parent moment because sometimes people look at somebody and think that just because they look strong that they
098are strong and so it's incumbent on each and every one of us to be concerned for each other for our community yes we are our brother's keeper and so in the meeting with that if I can mr. Perino well said bishop thank you thank you one more thing in 30 yes sir yeah I guess so we just have last this Tuesday a municipal elections in Orange County Orange County and of course thank all our candidates who ran for office those who got elected those who did not get for contributing to our democratic process and I also just want to know I say local resident tone involved in the community or appreciate my express my appreciation for town supervisor at Diana and a ton of Wallkill who serve a lifetime in our community I believe he
099began his public career serving within the Middletown school district and always was supportive of our district and safe on safety matters as well and with that said look forward to continuing work in relation with the succeeding towns newly elected town supervisor again thanks to all our elected officials from old city of Middletown channel wallkill and in a good bipartisan spirit let's continue they moved second to I need a second no discussion all in favor aye meeting is adjourned thank you everybody thank you for saying for everyone for sticking with us during the meeting thank you that's right