Oceanside BOE : June 11 Regular Meeting

001How you doing? Good. Okay, good to see you. I said this. What is he doing? Good evening all. Welcome to the June 11 board meeting. Uh this is a great night tonight. We're gonna have uh honors night tonight. We're gonna have honores tonight. It's going to be a great night. a little long, but it's going to be a great night. So, I would ask everyone first to please stand for the pledge of allegiance. The national anthem will be sung by Brooks Burio, Talia Rosen, Julia Vermy, members of the Ocean Oceanside High School, Sophonic Choir, Honors Choir, and Oceanside High School Swing Choir, Select Choir. After we do the national anthem, we remain uh standing for a quick moment. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

002which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hallelujah. [Music] I would ask you please to remain standing for a moment for our troops, for our Nassau County Police Department, our Oceanside fire department, first responders, and of course our healthcare workers. Okay, everyone can please be seated. So, this is one of the few times that I'm um I'm so proud uh to get up. We have a student here named Dennis Yoshava. It took me, if some of you people remember, about 12 months to get his name correct. But Dennis was so last year the governor uh ordered or wanted every school board to have a member of the um student council at present at all our board meetings to represent the students. And we started it, it's in effect this

003year, but we started it last year because uh that's the way we are. We think that something uh requires somebody that's doing a good job. We want to do it. We want to recognize Dennis. So this year, um, we have a plaque that we're going to present to Dennis, student representative to the board of education. He's the first one that come through the school district, and that's important. In recognition for your dedicated service, leadership, and commitment to representing student voice, your insight, and contributions have been a valued part of the board's work and have strengthened the connection between students and district leadership. with sincere appreciation the Oceanside Board of Education this June 11th, 2025. [Applause] No, good. We have a few special scholarships that we have the honor of presenting here this evening. So, um,

004I would first like to ask student Brian Torado to join me at the podium. So, as Brian joins me at the podium, let me explain that our board of education made a conscious decision to be a part of a professional organization known as SCOPE. It is well known on Long Island as an organization that supports learning for educators, teachers, and board members alike. One of the things that we are able to do based on our membership is at for scope to u allow us to allow the board of education to select one student to receive a $500 scholarship on their behalf. So, it is my pleasure to let you know about Brian, a dedicated student and athlete who exemplifies exceptional character and resilience. His positive attitude and friendly nature inspire those around him, including his

005peers, teachers, and teammates who admire his tenacity and kindness. Remarkably, Brian balances academic responsibilities with extracurricular commitments, excelling both in his studies and as a valued member of the OS boys varsity soccer team. His commendable time management and organizational skills shine through in those pursuits. Despite facing significant challenges this year, Brian's unwavering determination and grace under pressure highlight his ability to adapt and persevere. He has maintained his academic standing and commitment to his teammates during emotionally trying times, highlighting his courage and resilience. As he prepares to major in accounting, we'll have a job for you in a couple of years, okay? And play soccer at Nazareth University this fall. It is clear that Brian possesses the qualities that will make him an exceptional young man on campus. So on behalf of our board of education

006is my pleasure to present Brian with this $500 scholarship. Thank you. Justin, are you here? I am extremely excited to share with the board and the community. Um, do you want me to read about the students? So, you may have heard us um, speak now for the last couple of years that we engaged in an energy performance contract and actually going to be talking a little bit about it later this evening, but uh, we've been very very pleased with the work that has u been happening with that. Uh you might have noticed uh all our rooms and our buildings have LED lights. We have solar panels uh and so many other amaz uh amazing uh improvements that have also saved us a significant amount of money. If you listen to any of our up uh

007recent budget uh presentations, but one of the things I was so impressed with with the company Energy was that they um made a connection to students. So we've had representatives come into our classrooms and to talk to students to give them real life experiences and so on. So one of the other things that they do is present scholarships to special students that they allow us to select but that represent the goals and aspirations of both eniga as well as the school district. So it is my pleasure to begin with this student. She has set the bar exceptionally high in all aspects of her academic and personal invent endeavors. Her combination of academic excellence, relentless work ethic, phenomenal talents and genuine kindness make her a remarkable student. By the way, this is just a Ben Wah

008who is from uh Energier. Samantha has demonstrated a profound commit commitment to her education, consistently achieving an impressive GPA while managing a rigorous course load. Her academic achievements extend beyond the classroom. She's engaged in significant research at Hofster University and Lehman College. At Lehman College, her research on heavy metals and microlastics in marine biology earned her first place at the National Marine Educators Association and the Long Island Youth Summit. Additionally, Samantha independently studied the effect of hyaluronic acid on the growth of Brussa Rapa, showcasing her exceptional capacity for self-directed learning and research. This fall, Samantha will be studying biology at Sunni Bingmpington and will be part of the first year research emo immersion program and the scholar program there. So, uh, I do now want to congratulate and ask Samantha Freriedman to join me at

009the podium. Where's Samantha? You want to say anything or do you want me to Where's Samantha's not here? Anyone want to accept the check on her behalf? We will make sure that Samantha, the check is for $1,250. Welld deserved. Hold on. Sorry about that. Is Jamie here? Jamie Mitchack. Jamie. No. Okay. Well, Jaimeie Mchack is an exceptional student whose passion for learning, strong character, and intrinsic motivation have made a lasting impression on our school community. She has consistently challenged herself both in and outside of the classroom. She demonstrates leadership, dedication, and compassion. Clearly, she deserves this well uh deserved honor and recognition. She will be attending Renolier Polytech Institute to study civil engineering and business administration. and she too will receive a check for $1,250. We will make sure that they get those welldeserved awards.

010And I certainly want to thank uh Mr. Benois and and Najir for their generous uh recognition of the achievements of our students. Thank you. I know this is a busy time of year for all of our students. And now we move on to the honors portion of our evening. We are always pleased to welcome parents, students, staff, and members of the community to the honors ceremony portion of our board of education meeting. When we call students eventually, please come to the stage. When you hear your name, I will be on the stage ready to hand you your medal. No money, I'm sorry, just medals. But they're really really nice medals, I promise you. Um, but we're going to begin tonight's honors uh in in a um in a slightly different way, and this will be

011a little bit of a surprise to our board, but um I've spoken many times over about how our board of education not just attends monthly meetings. That would be way too easy. Um but in addition to that they are consistently engaging in their own level of professional development and they also belong to a professional organization called the New York State School Boards Association and this year in particular this is the most we've ever had. We have four board members who are being recognized for NISPA. I'm going to call them up here to receive their certificate and their just due res recognition. I'm going to start with someone who has received the board achievement award level one. There are all different levels for this. Um, but this is for Miss Laura Liy. [Applause] rec being recognized

012for a level three board mastery. Mr. Stewart Kaplan [Applause] We have two board members who are receiving board lifetime achievement awards starting with and by the way this means that they have achieved what they call points over 500 points for ongoing association PD and for accepting additional leadership roles. This really is a true true commitment. The first board lifetime achievement goes to Miss Sandy Scho. Most boards would typically only have one member to receive a lifetime achievement award. We have two. The second one goes to Mr. Seth Blau. [Applause] Thank you. And again, thank you so much our school board trustees who give so much of their time so selflessly. Thank you. [Applause] We have two other individuals to recognize for professional recognition. One is for Misty Mr. Ed Risner. Unfortunately, he could not be

013here with us this evening, but it was worth recognizing him because he has received the educational leadership award for outstanding leadership scholarship and compassion from the graduate leadership program at LIU where he recently completed his studies toward receiving administrative certification. He's coaching his son's little league team's game, otherwise he would be here tonight. But I know this is a big achievement, a big recognition as well for Oceanside and we all congratulate him. The second professional recognition award goes to our very own Miss Diane Pvo. For anyone who knows Miss PvO knows that she is beyond amazing in her role. She's had many in this district, teacher, principal, and fortunately for me, over six years now as the assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and technology where her work is just beyond stellar. She was recently recognized

014by NASA Boseies as an education partner. This award is given to educators who exemplify the dedication to providing all children with an excellent education. Miss PvO is a tireless advocate for students and for giving families the information and support they need to foster their children's education. It is my personal pride and joy to congratulate Diane, thank her for all that she does for this community. This is a welldeserved recognition and she gets a medal. Our next presenter is Dr. Brendan Mitchell. [Applause] Good evening. I'm Brendan Mitchell, the principal of Oceanside High School, and I'm proud to introduce our first student honores who have earned the highest rank in their respective scouting organizations. Liam Joseph Marino, who has achieved the rank of eagle in Boy Scouts, created a Hall of Heroes at school number five, his

015elementary school, that recognizes members of the military and in particular, Lieutenant Ronald Winchester, who attended school 5 and gave his life for our country. In addition, Liam, who is a musician, built new stands for musical instruments in the auditorium. Liam Joseph Marino Our next two, Amarice Rivera and Katie Swansig. They have both achieved the gold award in Girl Scouts. Amarice's gold project was a campaign to raise awareness and understanding of American Sign Language and to foster inclusivity. She created educational brochures, a website, a YouTube channel, a booth at a summer festival, and worked with children in East Rockaway and Oceanside. Katie held a theater rally at the Oceanside Library for children in grades 1 through 4. It included theater games, crafts, and a song and dance performance to introduce children to the joys of theater.

016Congratulations to Liam, Amarice, and Katie for being outstanding students and scouts. Scout leaders, if you are here, please join us on stage. Now, in the area of mathematics, our director of mathematics, Tara Mau, couldn't be here tonight, but I am so proud to announce the following honors in her place. First in the American Mathematics Competition from OS, third place, Cassidy Cuchio and Katherine Isabella Martin. Their teachers are James Smith and Rosio Sabrio. Second place, Richard Wang. His teachers are James Smith and Rotho Sabbero. And first place from OS in the American Mathematics Competition, Ellis Chu. Her teachers are James Smith and Eves Jeanpierre. Congratulations from MS in the American Mathematics Competition. Third place, Maya Curtis and Ryan Mayer. Their teachers are Jenna Hoser and John Herren. Second place, Ariel Lrand, Ashley Wallace, and Kaden Brown.

017Their teachers are Dan Art and Jared Stler. And in first place in the American Mathematics Competition from MS, Antonia Verdino. Her teacher is John Herren. [Applause] And continuing with mathematics, the hackathon. Congratulations to our MS hackathon team members who were our district's first participants in a computer coding competition known as hackathon. First place for digital banner submission. And please hold your applause till I read all their names. Peter Asana, Joshua Benson, Misha Buon, Austin Candela, Jared Fernandez, Liam Brown, James Ryan, and Henry Whitman. Their teacher is John Herren. Please come up to the stage. our hackathon team from MS. Congratulations, guys. Congratulations. Congratulations. Our next winner in mathematics is from the pi contest at MS. Congratulations to Henry Wittmann of MS. Please come up to the stage, Henry, if you're here. Henry won the MS

018school pi contest by memorizing an incredible 236 digits of the irrational number pi. Pi which is often written out as 3.14 is an infinite number with no repeating pattern which makes which makes it extremely challenging to memorize. 236 digits for Henry Wittman. Congratulations. And from the math olympiads, the silver pin award, top 10% worldwide. Our final honore in mathematics is from school number four. He has earned the silver pin award in math mathletes, which puts him in the top 10% of mathletes worldwide. Congratulations to Braden Hickey. Braden's mathematics and mathletes advisor is Susan Bruno. [Applause] Congratulations again to our math honores. Our next presenter is Andrew Frey Gold. Good evening. I'm Andrew Fry Gold, director of media, fine, and performing arts. There's an extra letter. I'm used to it. I am pleased to announce that

019for the third consecutive year, students in our media production program under the direction of their teacher Tracy Busk have won a telly award. The telly's are an international organization recognizing filmmaking talent across a variety of genres and platforms. Telly awards are given to professionals in the fields of film, media production, and advertising as well as students. They receive 12,000 entries each year and the judges are industry professionals. Our bronze award-winning filmmakers in Miss Busk's broadcasting course were selected for their Halloween themed Sailor Station broadcast. Congratulations to Juliet Arfin, Joseph Braggy, Dylan Kino, Julia Herskowitz, Matthew Cppel, Sophia Luceno, Justin Manis, and Bella Usiferi. Congratulations. [Applause] Next. Congratulations to our Oceanside High School winners in the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition. First, with a silver key and an honorable mention, Juliana Yonados. [Applause] And with two

020gold keys, a silver key, and an honorable mention, Lane Rapaore. [Applause] Their teacher is Nancy Nigro. [Applause] I am pleased to introduce our next presenter, Dr. David Rose. [Applause] Good evening, bui. I'm David Rose, director of world languages in ENL, and I'm proud to announce the outstanding accomplishments of our students on the national world language exams. Let's begin with the national Italian exam, the zamin national italiano at Oceanside High School. Let's start with the bronze award. So, I'll read all of the winners in that category. So, if you could just hold your applause until the end of each category, that would be great. So, we have three winners for the bronze tonight. Alexa Perry, Sophia Arata, and Leah Leran. Congratulations. Come on up. The silver award. Matthew Antonette, Samantha Gala, Gabriela Amenta, Camila Almeida, and

021William Brooks. The silver winners. Two students took the gold. Mateo Gilbert and Caitlyn Vivona. [Applause] Let's go to the National Italian Exam winners at MS and we'll start with the bronze, Avery Albert and Justin Romano. The silver goes to Leah Awetti. And we have several gold winners. Here we go. Anthony Balsson, Francesca Bautterero, Jared Fernandez, Rebecca Ritzi, Christopher Ria, Jano Ciro, Lacy Wassenberg. Congratulations to our gold winners. Their teachers are Bridget Amthor, Dr. Angelo Must, Aaron Patel, Richard Jenna, and Suzanne Valeraniano. If you're here, please come up. [Applause] Okay, let's keep going. Here we go. The National French Exam at OS. Let's begin with the bronze winners, Christian Carbonado and Mary Divine. And the silver goes to three individuals, Abigail Santiago, Sabrina Zendaki, and Isla Russell. One gold winner, Suana Massud. Congratulations. Moving on to

022MS for the national French exam. We will begin with the bronze. Anderson Maroin Lopez, Ttha Molina, Juliana Calabres, Angelina Vorer, and Isaac Ramos. [Applause] And the gold award goes to Amelia Chu, Carlos Cuentes, Fernandez, Juan Rosero, and Francisco Valencia. Congratulations. Those were the national Spanish exam winners at OS. Okay. Continuing with the National Spanish Spanish exam, we have the bronze award at MS. We have lots of winners here. Here we go. Sebastian Adelman, Charlotte Baron, Uvel Ulvis de los Santos, Sophia Elias, Miranda Espinosa, Emma Gomez, Kylie Hickeyi, Antonio Lasso, Mia Meestro, Isabella Matut, Joseph Montenegro, Perez, Kayn Morales, Robato, Aliyah Par, Cecilia Reyes, Vivana Pelano, Chloe Velasquez, Lexi Whitesman, Melanie Marillo. The silver award also lots of winners. Johnabel Adams Araena, Elelliana Burgerer, Julia Brew, Tabitha Brew, Emma Bernal, Kora McCarthy, Isabella Monio, Ava Rodriguez,

023Ruby Shabbererman, Gabriela Sparasio, Amelia Stefanowski, Jesse Strowmer, Alexis Mer, Mason Helmsley, Madison Molite, Zayn Ramen, Hannah Wineer, Aiden Flannry, and Ariel Lrand. Those are our silver winners. And taking the gold, we have Adriana Abraham, Emily Qua, Briana Ducos, Leia Flores, Lucas Infante, Madison Mestro, and Santiago Uchiferi. Their teachers are Oh my goodness. Okay, we have two additions. Here we go. So, on the national French exam at MS, the bronze award goes to Matthew Moran. Congratulations, Matthew. And the platinum award goes to Daisa Lar Ro. Congratulations. Their teachers are Elizabeth Levvengood, Dr. Angelo Must, Richard Jenna, Amy Brown, Rand, Christina Castillia Lys, Jacel Vargas, Janine Garcia, Kelly George, Nvaroka, and Patrica Valeraniano. If you're here, please join us and we'll take a photo. [Applause] Yes. So, I'm done. Let's give all of our world language winners

024one last round of applause as I conclude with you this evening. And I'd like to introduce Mr. Thomas Leeman, director of physical education, health and athletics. Thank you. Good evening everyone and congratulations to all of our winners. Um we came off a fantastic athletic season or school year. Um we had over 70 allount athletes and we celebrated those athletes last week both at our all county ceremony and our varsity awards night. Um, student athletes, if you hear your name and you're in attendance, please come come up to the stage and wait until we finish all of uh our athletes and uh for a picture. We'll start with our all county baseball players. We have Kyle Shore and Luke Vala. Come on up. In we have an all Long Island uh member, Adriana Oleta. [Applause] In

025football, we had all Long Island and All State, Andrew Dato, Ryan Kakaro, Shane Harmon, Dylan Bender, Dylan Teter, and Ryan Pender. [Applause] In golf, we're all county honorable mention and Matthew Lee. [Applause] Gymnastics we had all county Julia Blet, Anna Quinn, Emily Sullivan, Adriana Alleta, Bobby Thorne, Isabella Manino, and Cifa Los Sophia Loscoo. [Applause] Back to the spring season in lacrosse, we had all county Dylan Bender and Cole Ren on the boy side. And on the girl side, we had Kayn Harrington and Sydney Abbott. And all county honorable mention Samantha GMO. In softball, we had all county Riley Brush, Joanna Burn, Carly Handelman, Maya Levy, and Christina Lakus. [Applause] In track and field, we had a county champion in the 100 meter hurdles and all county in the high jump, Alexa Kazakoski. Uh Alexa was

026also named our female athlete of the year and will be competing competing in both events at the state championships on Friday. Addison Vice will join her at the state championships and she was a county champion in the 400 meter hurdles. Another county champion in the long jump was Nicholas Cor and all county in shot put. Brianna Cinnamon with All County in the triple and the long jump. Riley Morland all county in the 100 meter hurdles. Cassidy Paul, all county in the 400 meter dash. Brandon Fano, [Applause] all county in the 800 meter run. Matthew Latina [Applause] all county in the 4 by 800 meter relay. It was Kevin Fernandez, Tristan Quas, Matthew Lauina, and Tyler Dantis. [Applause] and all county in the four by 100 meter relay for track and field was also Nick Coins,

027Christian Santos, Luke Strandberg, and Brandon Fano. Our spring coaches, Mike Pastilio and Tom Palado for baseball, Sam Samantha Kelly Chach for cheer. Uh we had Rob Brown as our head coach for football. Ryan Lucas for golf. We had Dakota Edes for gymnastics. Uh we had Mike Santistan, Tom Mazika and Jason Carwok for boys lacrosse. Ralph Monttera, Tina Pumo and Jackie Silio for the girls lacrosse. Carlo Quagliada and Alex Palato for softball. And we have Mike Kelly, Mike Howie, Connor Ganine, and Gary Murker for track and field. If you are here, please come on up. [Applause] So, in conclusion, be resolved that a page for the minutes of this meeting be set aside to record their accomplishments along with continued best wishes from success from this board of education done at Oceanside, New York, this 11th

028day of June 2025. A round of applause for all our uh students. At this particular time, we're going to take a five or 10 minute break, five minute break. Uh you can have some cookies and some refreshments in the cafeteria and we'll see you back. Thank you again. Beautiful dog. Thank you. My Mr. Hang on. What's going on? I was so proud. I can't even get over it. So happy. the library. Email me. Yes, I should be talking. I don't know. Oh no. Retirees. Retirees in the family. Oh my god. athletics department. We're going to talk about Rabbi, I had it open. We'll be starting in 30 seconds. We can get everybody to sit down, please. Not Eric. All right. Welcome back everybody to the full business meeting. Uh we're on 4F as in Frank.

029Uh this is the part where we go to our high school student government and our representative of course is Dennis Ojiovaya. Dennis, take it away. Thank you, Mr. Damrosio. For the last time, I would like to call up the following people. Myself, Sher Armad, who is the vice president, Julianetta, who is our treasur, and Dakota Calderon, who's our secretary. So, you all can hear me, right? Okay. We are, we first are very proud to announce from past events that our AP testing is finally over at OS. You're all breathing a sigh of relief. I know that's exactly what we all said the second we finished our last AP. Uh after two weeks of testing, these students may now be able to breathe a sigh of relief and finish the year strong with AP experience. So,

030good luck to them all. On May 9th, our thespians held their induction ceremony. This musical gen these musical geniuses have to go through high hoops to reach this point and many of them have done so to reach the gold. So good luck, good job to them. Our spring concert was a wonderful success. We at the high school held two dates, one on May 14th and the other on May 19th. Our world language and math honor societies held their induction dates on May 20th and 21st. It was great to see so many students be honored for their achievements in both fields. Also on the 20th, our thespians along with the ACE classes held our annual spotlight on the stars event at the middle school. It was an absolutely an amazing absolutely amazing and a packed house

031show. We love to see this event every year and it brings such a joy to all who participated. Continuing on, our music department held their annual tri inductions on deter and it was a great time for our music students getting honored. And now last week was an absolute jam-packed with all like seniors and students. So on June 2nd, OHS started their awards week by hosting the art awards. It was a great week to honor Thespians, artists, and musicians. Additionally, on June 3rd, OHS had their Hall of Fame inductions for some special seniors, and later at 7 p.m. was a varsity awards. We congratulate all of the athletes in OHS. Finally, June 5th was a great event for our seniors and community members as it was honor night. Our seniors received lots of scholarships and recognition

032as well as our community members having a place to remember and honor their loved ones with memorial scholarships. We congratulate everyone who won and thank all the community members for what they've done for this school. On June 4th, our seniors had an absolute blast at Six Flags for the senior trip. It was a great bonding experience for everyone involved. And while the bus there was um back was excruciatingly long, we still enjoyed it very much. Our annual car show was held at the field on June 8th. It was a great experience for our engineering students. We have had lots of regents and fun events happening these past two days. While some students have been talking, taking some of the new regions given by the state, the juniors have been participating in workshops for the resume

033given by the guidance department as well as seniors received their yearbooks and watched the senior slideshow on the 10th. And the 11th today, they participated in the annual barbecue. We're also proud to announce that the new yearbooks created by the Spin Drift staff. This year's edition is called Waves of Memories. And we have we were beyond excited to be able to honor Miss Stilbert, Mr. Zilbert in our dedication page. We love him. OS will be hosting their annual science synopsis in the cafeteria tomorrow, June 12th. It should be a great day for all people who are fascinated by all things of science. Okay, our thespians are gearing up for their thespian banquet which is going to be held on June 13th. It should be a great event for seniors and to congratulate them on all

034their hard work. Sadly, it is also shocking and bittersweet to announce that we will be having our last day of classes and school on June 16th. After this year of hard work and dedication, students can now finally relax and enter summer. Who's excited? However, before they fully start to enjoy the summer, they must finish their regents and finals being given from June 17th to June 25th. Good luck to all on their finals. It's the last stretch. We can make it. It also is shocking to announce that our graduation will be held on Monday, June 23rd. After four years of hard work, our seniors are finally going to get their diplomas and sail away from the harbor of Oceanside. And the seniors will lastly, for one more time, reunite on June 25th for prom and donium.

035It should be a wonderful event for all, even if most will be staying awake until 4 4:30 in the morning. Uh, I'm not excited for that. But on behalf of the 2024 2025 Oceanside High School student government general office, we are so grateful general organization. I apologize. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity this year to speak at every board meeting and to give our part of the high school and just really have a blast. This opportunity was wonderful and we would like to present the board of ed with a gift from us to show our appreciation. So we have flowers for all of you. [Applause] I'm speaking go. Why do you have the whole box? Now, while they're giving you your gifts, we're not done yet. Um, so yeah, we have no

036more gifts, Mr. Moresca. That's all we could afford. [Laughter] So, it like Julian said, it's I still personally cannot believe that we are almost done with this year. It still feels like feels as though it was September like it was yesterday and we had our first presentations to these board to this board. Now it's the end of the year. During this time of year, luckily came our student government elections which were held on June 5th. And I am proud and honored to f to finally announce our future officers and namely our future general organization officers who when they hear the names, please come on down. We'll wave you and thank you. So, and wave to them. They need to see you. So, first and foremost, our incoming GEO president and second ever student representative on

037the board of education, Brian Rusco. Good. You waved. You practiced like I told you to. Our incoming GEO vice president, Mappel. That is not like how we practice. He will get an earful from me later. Our incoming GEO secretary, Macy Broner. [Applause] Good. It's just math that didn't do it right. And our geo treasurer, Jeremiah McDow. As we can see here, these are about to be the future bright and shining stars of Oceanside. Treat them fairly, please. Uh, well, before we end today, I just wanted to say a couple words. If I could, I'll be quick. I know it's a long night. I have been coming to these board meetings for the past two years now. I know it's shocking every single time, mind you, Dakota. And I have been doing it as GEO secretary

038and GEO president and now as board of education member. I it it's just an honor that I will never ever forget that was given to me to do this to do these things. And first of all to the board I thank you all so very very much for that. Now continuing Dr. Mitchell I I I thank you also I thank you so very much for all you've done for both the government both of the students and for myself personally. He's I don't think he's here but Mr. Keel no he's not here for all he's done with the student government all he's done with the shared decision making team and along with that a couple people in student activities one of which if it was not for her multiple times mind you I would personally not

039be here standing in front of you all I would never have been in student government I would have never done any of these things and I would even though she's at home right now I'd really like to give a huge thank you to Mrs. community yellow for everything that she's done to me. Along with that, Miss Tanko and student activities as well. Mr. Turk who's been filling in for her, which I think we're all excited for her to come back. Uh we love him, don't worry. Yeah, he's joking. And as well, Miss Steinberg in who's our secretary in student activities. To everyone here, it has been my honor and privilege of a lifetime to speak in front of you all. To the future GEO officers, you have a lot of fun in front of you.

040Believe me when I tell you. To Brian, they're feisty. Get to know them. And that's really it for me. I shocked to say that it's over. And I think we were planning on doing this. Got a little bit messed around. My name is Dennis Yoshv. I have been a student government from freshman year to senior year. I am proud to leave this building as GEOP president student representative on the board of ed, first one ever. And now I'm luckily going to George to the George Washington University. [Applause] My name is Shahara Ahmed. I've been in student government since my sophomore year, dragged in by Mr. Diovive himself. Um, it has been a blast and I'm ending off my high school career as the GEO vice president proud to serve by my friends and my fellow

041student members and I'll be going off to John's Hopkins University for biology. Uh, I'm Dakota Calderon. Um, I was also dragged into this by Dennis. Um, he does that a lot, but it's okay. It's what makes him fun. Um, I've been in student government for two years already and I can say that it is by far one of my favorite extracurriculars and believe me I have done a lot. Um, but yes, this year I am ending off as goary and I will be going to Lyola University of Maryland studying biology premed. Hi, my name is Julianetta. I remember back in uh 8th grade, Dennis and I mutually agreed to join student government and the circumstances of us joining both got foggy, but I'm so glad that we both stuck around for the long ride. I

042am ending off as go treasurer and I will be attending University at Albany studying chemistry for premed in the fall. I I actually forgot a couple of things. I'm sorry. It was all and stuck in my head. I I know. I'm going to wrap it up in a second. uh to the whole board especially a few of you and I'm going to name you in a second Sandy but thank you Sandy especially you took me on as your me as my me as my mentee you're my mentor and you made that wild mistake and you lived with it but it was a good mistake that you made and I thank you for that and to my go officers I've made the closest of friends I ever could and we I told you this Amtrak. You're

043gonna Amtrak me at GW. Correct. They'll be visiting. I thank you all so very much. You are now relieved of your positions and thank you all so very much. [Applause] So I'll wrap it. Don't worry, Dennis. Okay. Yeah, I know. I know you want to finish. I know get out of here. Um just one last thing I want to say. As you can tell from like our whole spiel about like our getting into student government, the common theme was kind of Dennis. Dennis getting us into student government, kind of dragging us into it. And even though like at first it was like, oh, it's student government and all that, I definitely have become very close friend Dennis. Four years. Four years. I know. And I just really want to thank Dennis. I feel like student

044government wouldn't have been the same without you. All the efforts, all the hours you put in, everything. I'm wrapping it up, okay? I just want I just know that you deserve this all this and I'm honestly really proud to call you my friend, knowing you however long and for even more years to come. I will be visiting you at GW. You'll be visiting me. I'll make sure to take all the antraxs and yeah, I'll definitely miss this school. I'll miss this district, but I'm just glad all the friends I made and all the connections I made. So, yeah, thank you. Get in. Get in. Get in. What the heck? Okay, everybody sit with Oh god. No questions. Dennis, you want to say anything else? Dennis, I mean the whole night here. You originally said I

045know you know we have a little night. Just you continue on afterwards if you want. After we end the meeting, you can stay here with your friends and hang out. I made a bet with Moresca. I have to win it over under 10 o'clock. I have to I hope Brian is I hope the new guy Brian is going to be a little less than you. God, let's continue on. Dennis, uh we have the um MS students. So, I'm honored to introduce the MS student representatives who are Zoe St. Germaine, Juliana Repetto, Aaliyah Castillo, Sha Gado, Zh Zana Elbery, and Quinn Brier accompanied by Dr. Glickman Rogers. [Applause] All right. My name is Shay Gat and I'm a part of the source of the strength uh like community from miss. My name is Zana Alvaary and

046I'm a part of the source of strength community of eighth grade. Hi, my name is Quimbara. I am a member of the source of strength community for the eighth grade. Hi, my name is Julia Rapetto. I am part of the source of strength of seventh grade. Hi, my name is Alia Castillo and I'm a part of the sources strength community up for seventh grade. [Applause] So, source of strength is a program where we we are all proud to be a part of. were trained. We were trained back in December through the Patrick O'Shea Foundation grant. Here we learn skills about connection and most importantly the protective factors associated with suicide prevention. Sources of strength is a program dedicated to providing an upstream pro proactive approach to mental health instead of a reactive approach. Through the

047sources wheel, we help students identify strengths in their lives, including trusted adults, friendships, family, relationships, physical activity, and spirituality. This year, we had the opportunity to meet as a group to come up with some important campaigns. Our first campaign was helping each student identify a trusted adult in the building. During advisory, they wrote a note to their trusted adult as to why they valued them. We then created a campaign for mental health awareness week. We kicked off the week with a live advisory where we talked about stressors middle school students face and strategies we use to help us cope with these situations. We also set up tables in the lobby during lunch with different strategies and skills that we help students use. These strategies include deep breathing, box breathing, and mindful coloring. We are so

048excited to have the opportunity to be a part of sources of strength and look forward to all the of the support we can offer to our community in the future. Um before we end, quick shout out to the Patrick O'Shea Foundation for sponsoring us for sources of strength. The jersey I'm wearing is a Long Island uh Islanders or New York Islanders jersey that was created from the fundraiser that they had I believe last Saturday. It's part of a raffle box won by my father in the back. Um on it has the RO Ryan Patrick O'Shea Foundation patches here and like on the shoulder and then on the back which I'll show you right after I say this is 988988 which is suicide hotline prevention or prevention hotline and it says talk says li saves lives.

049So, if you also want to help out the Ryan Patrick O'Shea Foundation, I recommend like looking into their events because it's a really great foundation. [Applause] Thank you. MS. Now I would like to introduce the school 8 student council members Emma Duca, Ben Worthermer, EV Eveina Sarkeesian, and Jordana Brewer. [Applause] Hello everyone. My name is Emma Duca and I'm school 8's president. The rest of the student council representatives and I have done so much for our school this year and I'm so proud to be a part of everything we've accomplished. But before we get into that, I would like to talk about the experience I had running for president. There were two votes to determine who will get the role. First, whoever wanted the role in the whole grade can put their name down into

050a dock and the grade would vote from the list. I was so nervous to put my name down because there were so many people, at least 15. I was even close to not putting my name down and trying for one of the other roles. Two out of 15 was pretty rare. But yet, I decided I really wanted that role and I should take the chance. I was so thrilled that I had made it. Then I realized I was up against my best friend. We were both perfect for pre for president and we were already in student council for fifth and sixth grade. I knew whoever got the role would do an amazing job supporting our school. But in the end, I was overjoyed to realize I had won. I couldn't wait to start. Since that

051day, we have done so much like our school store, making special lunch menus, donations, and spirit weeks. I will be focusing on spirit weeks. I love to go full out and dress up. It is so much fun and really makes the week thrilling instead of having your typical school week. We have done all types of themes like special colors, wacky Wednesday, backwards, sport teams, pajamas, and much more. Sometimes we even relate them to events that's happening. For example, for PARP week, kids got to dress as their favorite book character one of the days. But none of this would have been possible without our amazing student council adviser, Miss Srano. Thank you for making our school as great as it can be. We love you and and we are so apprec and we appreciate you so

052much and we cannot believe this year is almost over. You're an awesome teacher and whoever has you next year is so lucky. Now that you know about our spirit week and our fabulous teacher, please welcome Benjamin Worerheimer, our vice president, who will be talking about the lunch menu. [Applause] Wow, what a year. Hello everyone. I am Benjamin Worheimer and I was one of the student council officers this year. This opportunity has been huge for me. Now, a few quick facts about me. I love all types of sports and I love learning and engaging with new activities and and people every day. Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy how I explain some of the key details of being a student council officer. This year, I decided to run for vice president. If you think about it,

053the president basically does the same responsibilities as VP. I've been helping out to make our school the best it can be. I've helped out with some major activities throughout the year, and I want to shout out all my colleagues and friends for helping make helping with making school a great. This year, we collaborated to create a special lunch menu week for every student. It was during the middle of the March and it was during the middle of March and we loved it a lot. We had some brand new food options including Belgian waffles, dino nuggets and more. We like to continue this tradition to future sixth graders. Everyone loved the new options. We even interviewed different students about the quality of the food. Lastly, I've over the year collected over 200 plus responses from students

054for food suggestions for the future years. This was such a big contribution to our school. Thanks for giving us these different opportunities to help out our school. I feel very accomplished in being a successful vice president this year. When I heard my name with the lad speaker in November, I knew I would benefit our school. Love all my friends and want to be I want I want everyone to be as happy as possible. Thank you. Thank you for giving me strength, confidence, and bravery and standing up on bullying and other horrible things people do every day. We are also a very inclusive community and I look forward to middle school to continue my amazing work and making everything positive and inclusive for everyone. Finally, I can offer up my friends like our president, Emma Duca,

055and our secretary, Eveina Sarkeesian, and our treasurer, Jordana Brewer. Thank you for this amazing opportunity to be this year's student council vice president. Good luck to the future members. Now, let's turn over our attention to Eveina at our amazing school store. [Applause] Hello everybody, my name is Eveina Sykes, also known as school aid secretary. Getting secretary was a very difficult role to get. It was like neck and neck for winning. I was also the only one who ran. But when I heard my name in the last speaker for who won for secretary, I was so excited because I was able to be part of student council at these amazing guys here tonight. And also because I was able to be part of changing our school for the years ahead. Some of the improvements were already

056listed like the lunch menu and spirit week. But one thing that we haven't talked about yet is the school store. The school store is a great marketing opportunity where we sold highlighters, erasers, bookmarks, folders, pencils, and more. We had our school store in the morning from when the doors opened around 8:05 to 8:25 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We held a school store from February to May, and people in the student council could help on it. Throughout the three months that we have held this store, we have raised $1,000 which we invested in a utensil dispenser for our cafeteria. You may be thinking, a utensil dispenser? Why? Well, we chose it because our current situation for holding utensils is bins where there's no plastic wrap on the forks or spoons. You could probably imagine how that

057might look like sharing the utensils with first graders all the way to sex. Not a pretty image. Um, I lost my straw. Imagine going to pick up a fork and seeing a little bit of food on it. Not a It's like extra seasoning on your food that no one asked for. This is why we're going to use the money to buy dispensers so you don't get mushy surprise in the food you eat. Before I say goodbye, I'd also say also like to say that we should thank the student council who kids who dedicated their extra 15 minutes of sleep to coming and helping run the school store and our amazing teachers like Miss Cle, Misso especially for helping with ordering the items and help and run help running the school store. Now let's send our

058heads over to Jordana School treasurer. [Applause] Hello everyone. My name is Jordana Burer and I am school age's treasurer. I know these speeches are long, but we are all talking about what the student council did for our school. I want to tell you some thoughts about how it was being elected. In the beginning of the year, I wanted to be treasurer, and I always have. When I found out that sixth graders could run this year, I was so happy and filled out the form to be treasurer. Everyone was everyone who was running wrote a speech and I figure mine was very good and we said it on the stage and so you can tell here we are and I made it as treasurer. It's a lot of it's a lot of fun being a part

059of student council because we do many amazing things. Some places that we donated to were Lenda Paul, Oceanside Community Center, Down Syndrome Associ Association, toy drive, food drive, and donated to the troops. We donate we donate a lot of amazing supplies to these places that to help them out. We try to help them as much as we can so that everyone feels good. We also have some things that have been talked about like school store that we do and the money goes to the goes to the school to save up for other things. Thank you so much for coming here tonight and I hope you enjoyed listening to our speeches. Have a good night. [Applause] How we doing it, Dennis? Okay, I'm fine for now. Anything else for me to say? I not right now.

060We'll we'll catch up later on. Yeah, school A. Good job over there. School A kids, good job. And at this particular time, I'd like to call up Dr. Harrington for recognition of our uh retirees. I don't want to say new retirees just of our retirees. Dr. Harrington. So, I like to say that this is one of my favorite favorite evenings of the year, but the truth of the matter is for me it really is a bittersweet evening. in now 12 years, I've gotten to know so many of these individuals uh in so many ways and uh they've touched my heart uh because I know that each and every day they have just done an amazing job in the classroom and outside the classroom as you'll hear in just a minute and um I al always

061think that when we um when we lose such talent um it's something that we have to really uh take pause and um be reminded what these individuals have given given to us over the years. So this year in Oceanside, we rallied around a common theme, teamwork makes the dream work. We found inspiration in the great American pastime, baseball, where every player has a role, every inning matters, and every victory is shared. Much like the game, our schools thrive because of individuals who step up to the plate day after day, season after season, with heart, dedication, and the unwavering commitment to do what's best for our students. Tonight we honor a special group of team members, our retirees who have devoted not just years but decades to our district. They have been our steady infielders, our

062strategic coaches, our outfielders watching the big picture and our closers who always found a way to finish strong. They've shown up, rain or shine, given their all in every inning, and never lost sight of the greater goal, helping every child reach their full potential. Their leadership, compassion, and resilience have shaped the lives of countless students, colleagues, and families. Whether in classrooms, offices, hallways, buses, cafeterias, or behind the scenes, they've each played a vital part in making our team stronger. Oceanside is better because they were here. As they round third and head for home, we send them off with our deepest gratitude and admiration. May this next chapter be filled with the same joy, purpose, and love that they brought to our district. Thank you for your service, your spirit, and your heart. You will always

063be a part of the Oceanside family because once you're on this team, you're part of the dream forever. And now I'd like to call each one individually and I ask you please to come up to the stage and um and just wait for a um a huge round of applause as well as a wonderful picture we'd like to take. So I'm going to start with the people that um I consider our unsung heroes. Um, these are our hourly employees and sometimes it's not always quantity. Um, but we it becomes quality. So, the first person we'd like to recognize for retiring from a teacher aid position is Joan Doyle, who's been with the district for three years. Congratulations. Sort of the opposite extreme, someone who has given 27 years as an amazing teacher aid in our

064district, Jill Damrosio. [Applause] And now our civil service employees. I think anyone who knows anything about the running of schools know nothing happens without these individuals retiring. And I know Mr. Leman is beyond himself about this, but after 20 years of service in our office of physical education is Miss Janet Marx. Janice, here she is. Thank you so much. And I would like to thank Miss Donna Gails who is a representative of our OFT because we share this honor. After 11 years as a school for typus clerk, Miss Kim Peekham Kim [Applause] These next couple of people I get to know a little bit better because they've served in the district office for 15 years as an account clerk. Miss Anarie Leon, [Applause] she was a beach day today, so I'm guaranteed she was out

065on the beach all day. 15 years in our district office. Miss Barbara Graham [Applause] and 15 years at our school 4 central office main office. Miss Mary Ellen Callen [Applause] So 4 has been wiped out if anybody notices. So, we're we're we're we're we're really scrambling to find replacements for these amazing amazing and we know in an elementary school in particular how important those main office uh individuals are. And now to our professional faculty. When you hear the amount of years that these individuals have served our children, it it is really truly quite remarkable. an an ENL teacher this year, assigned to school, too, but she's been in many different um buildings in our district. Miss Dominique Od Martaluchcci, 30 years of service. After 21 years as a reading teacher, also in number of districts,

066number of schools in our district, but most recently school 4, Susan Cumberford [Applause] also school for 25 years of service as an elementary classroom teacher, Miss Karen Flynn. [Applause] serving as a reading teacher also in number of different schools in our district but most recently school 8 after 18 years of service. Miss Melissa Cleti [Applause] I'm going to call the next two up together because they really are two peas in a pod. They started together and they sort of made a pack. They were going to end together. 37 years at school 9E. Miss Eileene Benson and Miss Jennifer White. [Applause] Miss White has also served as an active member uh on the OFT and I've cert so thoroughly enjoyed working with her in that role. but she's also been a an O of representative on

067the nesters, the teachers retirement system um delegates board for representing the teachers and I've had the pleasure of interacting with her with that as well. 37 years of serving as an elementary teacher. Um I don't know um how we're going to replace that knowledge and that and that just that professional guidance and and expertise. They will be missed. science teacher at our Oceanside High School after 29 years of service. Mr. Evan Young [Applause] After 33 years as an elementary school teacher at school number eight, Miss Beth Davis [Applause] One of our most amazing health teachers at school at Oceanside Middle School, 27 years of service, Joseph Rzola. And he's a picture of health, wouldn't you say? We have another science teacher retiring from MS after 26 years of service, Miss Adriana O'Brien. [Applause] So this

068next individual, I just have to take a few special moments to say that when a new superintendent comes to the district, one of the things they get warned about is, "Oh my goodness, you're going to have to deal with the union." And I heard the Oceanside Teachers Union is out of their minds. And the truth of the matter is, in a very short period of time, I learned that that was not anywhere near true. And that I had the real pleasure of getting to know a number of people um incredibly well in that in that period of time. Um, so, um, there is a special relationship you wind up having with the union representatives. At least that's always been my philosophy and my approach. And I've always been very fortunate to have great relationships in

069my now over 20 years as a school superintendent. And it it really is an important important relationship and I'm so grateful to the OFT reps that currently serve. Um, but this is an individual that um taught me very early on what it was going to be like to be um representing the Oceanside school community. He's also been an amazing amazing English teacher um at uh Oceanside High School, 36 years of service. Uh and he and I really also have a very special bond because we are really, really, really, really avid Mets fans. So um it is my true um honor to recognize after 36 years Mr. Frank Nappy After 25 years of service as a physical education teacher, Mr. Robert Regna [Applause] At OS, we are losing an amazing mathematics teacher after 18 years of

070service to our school community, Miss Cheryl Garry. So now I think I have one last person. So but this happens to me all the time. People sneak up on me. So, if by some chance I missed you, please please please uh call yourself out um after I after I recognize this last person. Um, so I mentioned before relationships with the OFT and, uh, to my surprise, um, I learned that our current OFT president, uh, was going to be retiring after 30 years of service to, um, O Oceanside Middle School, but really also to our entire school community as he wears the hat as president of our, it is my honor to recognize Mr. Robert Pitman. So, we didn't miss anybody, right? Okay. So now, ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct pleasure and honor to

071congratulate O Ocean Oceanside Schools class of 2025. [Applause] Dr. Harrington, do we have the amount of years? Go ahead. I'd like to say, can we up can we add up those numbers like right now on the spot? I don't know about that. Congratulations. All right. How about Jill? How much? Oh, can can you hold on just for a minute? There are people taking pictures in the back. 402 years on the stage. Did you Is that really? Round of applause. Thank you, Eric. Wow. 42 years. Again, congratulations to all the retirees. On a personal note, I want to thank my wife because now she can for putting up with me. Now she can do all the stuff around the house now that she wanted me to do. Now she can take care of all those things

072on the refrigerator. She deserves a special congratulations. Exactly. I will give some we'll give another minute or two. Okay. At this particular time, we're we're on four uh uh J and that's the policy review the update in the first reading. So, Mr. Joel, would you like to take care of that? Yes. This is the first reading. Um, and we have exactly five policies. One of them uh 6106 uh was really reviewed and it was the only revision in it uh was we upped the petty cash amount from 25 to $50. That's the only change in that policy. The other four policies are all brand new and they're based on brand new legislation that was recently passed. Uh, and the policies are all there for you to see. Um, I think the best thing to do

073now is just to uh take any questions the board members may have and we will direct those questions to uh Dr. Harrington and if she wants to also speak with anyone else have anybody else speak on them, I'm sure she she'll call on them. So, we'll start with uh policy now um is going to be known as 1508. It's a new sexual harassment and grievances policy. Are there any questions on that from the board? All right, seeing no questions on that, um, anybody who needs to read them again can go on to our website and read those policy that read the policy. The next is, uh, something we already discussed tonight uh, and we saw it in live action, the exeicio student member of the board um, and we are adopting the policy from NISPA

074and it will be in section one under new number 1208. Any questions from the board on that? Mrs. Schol, the only thing I would add if I may sure is that the board had an option of deciding how the representative would be chosen and uh we made a conscious decision that it would be uh the student elected member of the student of the student government and um we think that that's the most appropriate way to um select a candidate. Okay. The next policy which NISPA refers to as 8113 is now going to be um our extreme heat condition days and that is going to be section 3 new policy number 369. Are there any questions from the board? I have a question ahead. This is Liy. Um, so my question is, are we currently monitoring

075it just to get a baseline of what the temperatures look like, especially maybe in the like the gyms during testing time? We do uh our schools uh are now controlled under the EPC, which I'll get to next agenda item um with um temperature controls that we can uh automate. So, Mr. Monttoano and our facilities department does have that based on school zones. Perfect. Thank you. shut it off. All right. And the last one um which has been in all over the all over the airways and in the news is uh the student and personal electronic devices policy from NISBA which will be our new policy section 5 uh 5124. And um at this time board members if you have any questions for Dr. Harrington. Seth, do you have any? Hi. Uh, Dr. Harrington, I see

076that the the policy requires students to keep their devices in their lockers. Is that part of the state requirement or is the state requirement to they just can't use them? The state requirement is that need to be in a storage facility of of some sort. It becomes the local control as to what how to identify what that means. Um after Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Lickman Rogers as well as the elementary principles met with teachers and and and students. In fact, uh it was determined that the locker would be the primary and sole storage facility for the middle school which they use do currently this year as well as the high school. So if a person is just holding the phone and not doing anything else with it uh at some point during the day, they

077would be violating the policy. That is correct. And I know the policy says that it'll be chiefly enforced um I think by administrative staff. Who who are the administrative staff in the school that would the ones tasked with enforcing this? It would be primarily ultimately the building principal is the chief um chief sole person. But of course in our high school and and our middle school they have associate and assistant principles. they would be included as well. We also have deans at our high school and in very very uh productive conversations with the teachers. They also understand that while they're not they will be not the ones to actually be the ones um addressing the specific issue, they they also are going to be part and parcel of helping to model and set the expectations

078clear. But it is it is the administrators that would be primarily responsible for enforcing the policy. So um and what about like hall monitors or security or cafeteria staff or anyone that maybe in places where student has it on their person and takes it out if they see that they're not not to to do anything? No, they they would they would attempt to say to the student that they're, you know, violating the policy and as as you see what the intention is then is that the the phone would be removed and the hall monitors would have the authority to to ask for the phone and the student will have the responsibility to turn it over to them and then ultimately it will be in it will be then uh passed on to an administrator who

079will as you can see from the policy reach out in some way uh to the parent and ask the parent to come and and pick up the the the device. And as far as in the policy, there's a blanket spelled out no suspension rule that's that's built into it. Um, yes, that is correct. That is part of the legislation. Uh, we we are not uh able to suspend any student for a violation of the actual cell phone policy. uh if there was a violation of our code of conduct um that's a different a different scenario but for the cell phone policy they cannot be suspended and similarly the inclusion of the language about um stat uh reviewing the statistically significant disparit enforcement impact that's in the legislation also by September of 26 so at by

080by September of 26 we need to publish our data for the 2526 school year of how many students uh there were infractions of this policy and we need to collect that data and we do need to identify it not by student identifiable data but by demographic data and I believe the intent again very specific in the legislation but I believe the intent is to ensure that there would not be an unre unfair or disproportionate um uh uh accusation for students um perhaps um you know of diverse students, minority students, you mean of of just enforcing it against certain groups. Correct. Yes. Thank you. And what is the um and how do they define the statistically significant? That is a very good question. Uh it hasn't been more clearly defined than just that. Um so I

081can't answer that. But we look at data as as you know um when it whether it's absenteeism, whether it's grade reporting. Um, so you know, we don't have a number that we say is statistically significant, but you you can you I'd say anything above 25 30% would be statistically significant, but that's me making that up somewhat arbitrarily. It has not been further defined in the legislation. Okay. And um I know in the in the policy there are certain exceptions that are listed in there. Are those exceptions that are built into the legislation or are those exceptions that the exceptions the exceptions that are built into the legislation are um the ones that are listed here are the ones that are specific to what the law provides for. Um and of course any student with an

082IEP or a 504 where this is identified as um an an area that would cause a student concern, we would be responsive to that. Um and if there's any significant medical need, uh we would be responsive to that as well. Um but that's assume that would I guess assuming then the device could only be used consistent with the IEP or the medical condition. And so if a person has an IEP and they are permitted to use it for a certain situation and then are seen walking in the halls holding it not consistent, they'd be violating the policy. they if they not if they're supposed to have it and they don't have it. Are you saying that if they're if they have it and using or holding it or using it in a way that's not

083consistent with the IEP, it would be a violation of the policy. Yeah. Yes. The IEP would have to be very specific in terms of when, how, and and why it would be needed to be used. Uh do we have any examples of um why the device might be needed either with the IEP or or some of the other um yeah I I I think there are a number of them but the one that comes to mind is um se serious anxiety diabetes. What about um and for the one for the care and well-being of a family member, that would be for a student that is caring for a family member. Typically, I'm imagining that it would be possibly a high school student caring for a younger child and that there would have to also be

084very specific rationale as to why they would need access to the phone on a, you know, on a consistent basis. Okay. And then of course there's sort of the catchall that's in there. um that it could be permitted for other specific purposes um like what other types of examples that could be deemed as exceptions. I think at similar to other situations we have in our school that that um there are times when parents um work with their pediatrician or doctor who they feel and and and they get medical input or we and and we get medical directives um that for whatever reason a physician would say it's absolutely required. So do I anticipate that that might occur? I do. that the doctor would say that the phone is or the medical the the personal device

085is required because of a medical condition. Correct. Correct. And I and I'm I'm imagining anxiety will be the number one reason for that. How are they used for anxiety? To reduce an anxiety. Yeah. How? Just holding it or like using No, not having not having the the access as they as they're really currently used to I would cause potential anxiety. That's what I imagine I could see a medical practitioner saying, especially at a parent's request. So then would the student then be allowed to use the device or access the device or just hold it or possess it? that would this the specifics of how it needed to be used would have to be outlined in the request and then each request would have to be reviewed specifically by the building administration. Okay. And then going

086back to sort of the the initial uh piece about um students keeping them in their lockers, what were some of the other options that were considered? Backpacks. And I know in the high school a lot of students generally don't use lockers. They will next year. You're right. Um but this was a a significant conversation at the high school and so right. So why why that over then? Because because if you follow the research and and this is is this law was really built on that and and let me be clear, we don't expect that this is going to be seamless in terms of enforcing it especially going into next year. We're prepared for that. Um but we know it is the right thing. Um and over time, similar to the way we had to teach

087our kids the importance of wearing the IDs, um we expect it will become part of the culture. We do expect there will be challenges at in in in the early part of the year. Um that being said, part of the research is that having even your device as close as your backpack, which would ultimately be, you know, on your person, if you will, is is more anxietyprovoking than if it was learn to be in a completely separate location from where you physically are. Now, I will be clear. We don't intend at the high school to search backpacks. We're not going to stop and frisk. Um, we're going to, you know, trust that our students will certainly ultimately learn, um, you know, why this is so important. Uh, and and and be able to follow the

088practice of coming into the building, going to a locker, putting the phone away, even if they they can still carry backpacks, let me be clear, but the the phone cannot be in their backpack. We've we've doing that this year at our middle school and it's working successfully. And I I I could really understand for a ninth graders, it's going to be no different than what they're used to this year. I really see for our upper classmen, particularly our 11th and 12th graders. I I recognize the challenge that it's going to be. We're talking as adults about how we're going to have to be good role models for that and we're trying to build up our own uh ability to do just that. we all have become so um used to having this device um you

089know at at our fingertips. So this is going to be a learning uh a learning journey for all of us. Uh but it is with merit and um for very good reason. So that that raises an interesting point that I hadn't thought about. This applies also to staff. We're we're not telling staff they have to put their phones in a locker, but we are going to ask them um to be to be good role models and and and not use their phone in inappropriate times. You know, teachers have different schedules and you know, they have different responsibilities throughout the day. Um but we we do um expect that and I don't I don't anticipate any problem with our teachers helping us and quite honestly it's good for them too. It's good for all of us.

090Okay. And are there Are there issues with lockers being broken into and a concern that if everyone's going to know that there are devices in the lockers that could That has never been something that has been brought to my attention and it's never been, you know, vocalized as a worry moving forward with that being the the plan. It's never been brought to your attention. No one's ever asked about it or suggested it or it's I think that if there was a a a significant issue with thefts of lockers that we would know about it. No, we're talking about it going into next year if everyone's going to know that there are devices that are kept in the lockers. Then that's also a little different than not knowing what may or may not be kept in

091lockers. Um, I guess or a lot of students not having a locker at all, which if they're all going to have a locker next year and some may have a locker just to have the phone in. I would say honestly, I believe most will probably use initially especially use their locker primarily to store their phone. Um, but I I think it's a valid point. Obviously, we'll monitor it. I um I have a lot of faith in our in our kids. Um, our kids are great and I just don't I just don't anticipate that as a problem. Okay, I don't have any other questions for me. There's a lot here to think about. Yeah, I mean 90 90% of this policy was drafted as you know as a model from the NISBA policy directly coming from

092the law. The few places where we had some liberty as I said was where the storage was going to be and um you know identifying both internetabled and non-inable internetabled devices that are still electronic devices. Right. So this like includes watches. So people will take the watches off, earbuds, things like that. Okay. Thank you. Wait, I I have a two quick questions. Sorry. No, quick. Um I noticed in there it said that parents will be able to communicate via email with the students. Currently it's locked out from outside district emails. That's going to obviously be adjusted for next year. We're we're aware that that's it. How do we Brendan, do you remember where we dealt with that with the email? I'm trying to remember. We went back and forth on that one. Yes. But we're

093we're hoping that parents will primarily use the the the oldfashioned way of calling the office. Okay. Um my other question quickly, I it doesn't address Oh, I'm sorry. I I I apologize. Just remember one other thing we we realize that a parent if they really need if they can't use the telephone to reach they can send an email to a staff member to to the to to to a to to the counselor to the principal um you know not that they're checking their email 247 but that is another way they can email the school secret and and and they will all get very specific information on how they can um access and what emails would be more likely to be used. So that just another alternative I that's what I wanted to remember. All right.

094And and just the last question quickly is I noticed it didn't address field trips or at least I didn't see it in here. What is do we want to add language? Field trips are off of school grounds. I mean I think at this point we're not going to touch that. Um and just let's see where that takes us. Okay. Thank you. It's also uh included in the legislation field trips. So no reason to touch what's not there. Right. Uh that's it. I no. Oh, go ahead Mike, Dennis. Is that okay, Dennis? Or just Okay. So, I was just wondering, Mrs. Schol or Dr. Harrington, is is this a complete state pack uh state policy or we got a state policy and then we decided to edit that policy which what's good for our students? We

095made a decision relative to what we were going to determine was storage and we decided that at the high school level it was going to be the lockers, middle school level it would be the lockers, elementary school it would be the cubbies. They have different places in different elementary schools. So that we made the decision on and we um we clarified both internet a enabled and non- internet enabled devices that are electronic devices and we included that in our policy as well. Those are the only things that we modified. The school day is defined by the law. School grounds are defined by the law. Um the method to uh contact the parents defined by the law. um the the um uh which which students may be authorized to use different devices by the law. Um

096students with IEPs or 504s by the law and then the other um pieces about having it the info on our website communicating with the parents is all in the law and the suspension of students also in the law. So, so we can say basically across New York State um in all public schools they are doing a similar policy to this except for just a few different items. Correct. I can only speak for the fact that this is the law and what individual school districts do. I I can't speak to that. Is there do we know if there's any pilot programs that's available or we're just going right into this whole policy? We're going to follow the law. Okay. And the other thing was that are we going to be having meetings with our students and

097our student councils as far as when we call it policies on specific policies and I guess we'll start off just by trying to educate our students. Dr. Mitchell I know yes because he's already begun that. Can you explain Dr. Mitchell? Yeah. I'm just saying is that and Dr. Harrington brought up as far as anxiety or whatever it is. And I and I'd like to see possibly that we can maybe start educating like IDs and stuff like that, giving out uh handouts and making sure that we keep it keep reiterating to our students exactly what we're trying to do, you know, rather than, you know, push this law down their throat that that we are getting pushed down our throat in in this particular incident incident. In other words, say that I would go ahead. I'm

098sorry. I I I I just want to remind the board that we started a year ago when we determined the goals for this year that we would we would um focus on the use of social media and we did that very effectively through parent university. We had many many different platforms where we heard from parents and we had parents who were very very concerned especially the parents of our younger children as to where they were going to go. That was before the law even became the law to be honest, you know, to be honest with you. So, we were ahead of the curve in terms of having those dialogues. We continue to do that and one of the things that we spend a lot of time and attention on is the impact of social media

099because I think as we all know it has had a huge negative impact on on our young people. I was very fortunate when I took a tour with Mr. Kaplan uh to the to to the high school and we saw we had these cubbies that were on the doors. So the kids came into the classroom um and I think also uh Castleton where the kids came in and they put their phone on the door like on that cubby when we were kids it was shoe racks um and I guess the kids saw their phone or they knew phone was there mentally and they knew that at the end of the class they were able to pick it up. So, I mean, I I hope that under that type of style that they were starting to

100get away from their phones, but we're going to come off a summer of kids holding their phones, holding their phones, holding their phones, and next thing you know, when we walk in the first day that we're going to try to start to ease them out of that phone and try to educate them more than than anything else. Yep. and and in September we'll spell out that like the dos and the don'ts that you can't do and and I know but I'm just saying that after we do that but sometimes kids have lacks of uh you know lack of lacks of memory and and I'm sure the middle school kids they're going to come in also and you know they come off for summer and they're all excited and you know beach and next thing you

101know we're you know we're trying to grab their attention and as we know the first week or the first couple of days you know we got to try to saddle them down. Dr. Lickman Rogers did you want to say anything? Next year. anxiety. Exactly. Well, also the fact is that sometimes we have students texting their parents to say that, "Hey, mom, there's a police car in front of the building." Not that we have a police car there because they're just doing safety checks. They're not there for nothing else. If an ambulance shows up, it could be anybody that's going on, but then the social media frenzy starts and that's how the whole thing starts when we start getting misinformation out there. So, we can also maybe try to work on that too a little better

102on I guess just just trying to calm our friends down. Okay, I'm good on that. Mr. Schaw, hey, I have a little I have a question if anything and just have a couple things to say. So, I we are actually excited to meet with Dr. Mitchell tomorrow about the whole policy and to be quite honest as a student government we were incredibly terrified by this new policy. We had all assumed originally that the pouches like those uh yonder pouches would come in. We were all wildly against it. Then the locker idea started to come more so ahead. We we weren't fine with it because it was taking away our phones. We sat with it and we kind of realized after a lot of us that were seniors had to tell them like this is how

103it's going to go unders they finally understood like this is this is the way of the plan this is how it's all going to happen and this was the easiest of policies of transition now what I'm wondering is this because in the middle school you're doing very very well on it I even remember having put my phone away when I went before COVID these students had co which in many senses kind of like gave lacks to them and it wasn't on any of our faults. We had to shut down and that kind of lacks continued. We have three grades that are coming like becoming higher ups who do not remember anything of this. Maybe the ninth graders had something of this in the middle school but primarily the 11th graders especially and the 10th graders

104are stuck with this now and we have heard massive complaints from them. is this is sounding as though to us at the very least it's being pushed and I know at the very same time we are trying to put info on them trying to tell them like this is how it's going to go and everything but to many kids it's it exactly sounds like it's going to be pushed and they have no way out of it well that's typically the way law works works I know and and we were understanding of it we were fine with it no I so you make a very valid point um Dennis and and And as I've said um that you know when and when this was first being discussed all year long so we knew this was potentially

105going to happen. I I actually really was surprised that um ultimately the legislation took such a hard line on it. I really did think that initially they would leave it more to local control. But I have to say that the more even in the last number of months, the more that you look at the research and you realize that almost, you know, what you're describing is sort of like a cold turkey for for some of these these people and stop. And we know that's going to be difficult. As I said to Mr. Blau earlier, we we're not foolish about this. We recognize it, but at the same time um we really do think that um in a in a relatively short period of time, people will not only get used to it, but will ultimately

106realize the benefit. So, we'll monitor it. We'll work very closely. You know, the relationship that the school administration has with the students. um we we want to work together on it, but we we will be following the law and and at the end um you know, so it can be interpreted however you you you say, but we will be doing that and then supporting our students through this. We we have plans in place especially I just I also wanted to make them know that like especially for those seniors incoming seniors that really do feel like they have cold turkey on this. There are plans in place to help them with those anxiety issues and everything. Even for the students who do not want to like ever go to a trusted adult about any of these

107things there are plans in place to help them. That's just what I want to make sure. Right. Yes. And you know one of the things that goes back to a question that Mr. Blau asked. So, we could have taken um a stronger position on uh extracurricular activities um or as Mrs. Scho said before, field trips. Um but but we chose not to go that route. And we're also an open campus. So once schools once students leave the school grounds, they would be entitled to use their phone. We're we're certainly not going to, you know, track them down off the school grounds. and we re we recognize that that will be a transition and something we're going to have to monitor. But um you know there is a little bit of that that wiggle room there

108for some of the students. Many of our students as you well know leave campus for for the the lunch periods or their free periods. Dennis, I want to thank you. I think you're going to defer to George Washington for one year and you can stay back and help us with the cell phone policy. I, as I wrote in my letter, you need anything, I'm one phone call away. And track. Okay, Mrs. Sch. She's done. Are you done, Mr. Sch? Okay. Uh, we're at right now on uh 4K update on the energy performance contract, EPC. Dr. Jerel Kley. Yes. Uh, just two quick uh updates regarding our energy performance contract. We are in the final stages of nearing um completion of all 11 energy conservation measures. Uh just a reminder for the community what that includes

109that is steam trap upgrades, boiler burner controls, plug load controls, building weatherization improvements, mechanical insulation improvements, unit ventilator improvements in the oldest wings at schools 3, 4, and 5, HVAC auditorium replacement at the high school, building automation, DDC temperature controls, LED lights, and solar panels. Um, construction began back in the winter of 2023 and again will be wrapped up over the next couple of weeks. There are a couple of outstanding punch list items including occupancy sensors as well as going fully online with the solar at the high school. Once completed, we do plan on having before and if and before and after pictures of each ECM on the district's website in the buildings and ground section. The other important update is back when our um EPC was the contract was signed a couple of years

110ago. At that time, we were given an estimate of guaranteed savings um that were projected by our energy savings company which included rebates for steam traps, LED lighting, and projected savings through energy consumption um through their proposed improvements. Um we are definitely seeing some of those savings as predicted. um and our contractor that's leading the work, Energy Systems Group, and our partner, the project manager, Eneria, we had the representative here tonight. They have been relentless with continuing to apply for additional rebates and incentives that stretch beyond what was initially proposed. Um to that end, um Oceanside has recently been approved for a federally funded incentive um under the Environmental Protective Agency that has to do with us installing solar panels on all of our schools um under the Inflation Reduction Act. So right now for

111us on paper, it's approximately a million dollars, which is a great sign. Um documents were signed on our behalf and filed accordingly. However, this incentive, like many others, is currently tied up um with federal programs that are um in flux about the funding commitment moving forward um as it was under a previous administration. Um however, we are closely monitoring this development and um hope to have, you know, some sort of further development or information moving forward. But just wanted to provide this update to the community that you know we are again relentlessly advocating for further incentives but you know we are tied up with uh um some federal government um intervention with our EPC. Thank you Mr. Kley. Um on 5A public uh input opportunities to comment on agenda items. Any audience member wishing to

112make a comment on an item that is on tonight's agenda can do so at this time. Anyone wishing to make a comment on an item not on tonight's agenda will have the opportunity to do so later on in the agenda. While New York State Law does not require us to hold a public comment period on agenda items, this board of education chose to do so because we believe it's important to get input from community members on the board's agenda items. Please note that the board is here to the board is here to listen. While everyone is encouraged to share their comments, please keep in mind that this is not designed to be a question and answer session. Again, comments should be directed towards the chair of the meeting, which is me. Anyone who wishes to

113speak should come up to the microphone clearly. State your name and your child's school. Is there anybody that would like to come up only on agenda items? Seeing none, I'll take a motion to approve minutes for the May 7, 2025 uh meeting. Motion. Second. We got that, Justin. Yep. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Approval of minutes of approval of minutes for the May 20th uh meeting. I'll take a motion. I'll move it. I Laura. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes. Acceptance of financial reports, treasury reports, transfer of funds, and internal claims and audits of warrants. I'll take a motion. I move it. Robert, second, Don. Any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Approval to

114accept the donation for school 2 made by school 2 PTA. I'll take a motion. Motion. Second. Stu and Seth. Uh, any questions or comments? All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Thank you. School to PTA. Uh, approval to accept a donation uh for school six made by a community member. I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion. Sandy, I second. And Laura, any question or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Approval to accept donation made by the school 6 PTA. I'll take a a motion. I move it. Robert Don second. Okay. Any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Thank you. School 6PTA. Um, I'll take a motion to enter into the financial agreement with Mnt Bank for the 2025

1152026 year. I'll take a motion. Motion second. Stu and Seth. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Justin, how we doing? Approve for use of facilities uh for the Ryan Patrick O'Shea Foundation. I believe that came from school eight. Uh I'll take a motion. I'll move it. Sandy, I second. And Laura, any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Approval for the approval for the use of facilities as submitted. Um use of facilities East Rockway Ocean Raiders uh for use in the fields. I'll take a motion. I'll move it. Robert second. Don, any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Approve for the use of facilities for the Oceanside United Soccer Club. I'll take a motion. Motion. Second.

116Stu and Seth. All in favor? I. Any questions or comments? All in favor? All any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. I'm sorry. Approval of the use of facilities by the Oceanside Library. I'll take a motion. I'll move it. Sandy, I second. And Laura, any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Approval for the use of facilities uh for sports set cheer. I'll take a motion. I'll move it. Robert, sure. Dawn second. Uh any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. We're on 8A. I'll take a motion for professional personnel recommendations. Motion second. Still set. Any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. Mr. Dan Broer, if I may. So I I would be remiss if I didn't just

117announce um another bittersweet moment where the board has just accepted the resignation of Mr. Kevin Carbonetti. Those that know Mr. Carbonetti just know him to be a gentleman's gentleman, a just an amazing guidance counselor. He started as a TA in 2009 uh in the guidance area then became a counselor in 2011 through 2020 and then we were wise enough to bring him on board as our associate principal uh primarily in charge of guidance since 2020. Uh Kevin for those that may not know this uh traveled uh back and forth from New Jersey every single day. So, as the father of four, um, he ultimately realized that he just really needed to be closer to his home. Uh, he was very, very sad about the concept of leaving Oceanside, but we basically said to him he

118had no choice. Uh, we know he's going to have an amazing future in education. Uh, the upstate district is very, very happy to have him, lucky to have him. He's certainly um a loss to us. Uh but I will say we've started the process and we have some good prospects um that we're interviewing now for the role of associate principal and I know um the board joins me in wishing Mr. Carbonetti nothing but the very best. Oh and also I'm so sorry we just approved many many many uh new teachers. Uh so you can see that the HR department has been incredibly busy. Uh I can't honestly tell who's here and who isn't. We'll have our opportunity in the early fall to recognize you specifically, but can I please if you're if you're a new

119now official sailor, could you please just stand to be recognized? [Applause] Now, congratulations. We're on B A 8 B. I'll take a motion for civil service personnel recommendation. A motion. Sandy. Second. Laura. Any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Dr. Harrington. No. Okay. I'll take a motion for hourly employee recommendation. I'll move it. Robin John. Any question or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. I'll take a motion for the 2025 summer school program recommendations. Motion. Stu. Second. Seth. Any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. Uh uh make a motion for reappoint of probationary personnel. All motion. Sandy. I second. And Laura. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. And we're

120on 8F for the 2425 co-curriculum new appointee appointments update. I'll take a motion. I'll move it. Robert, second. And Don, any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Um on 9A, we'll take a recommendation of a CEPSC chairpersons. Motion. Stu. Second. And Seth. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. And we're gonna take a motion to approve and allow students to compete in the 2025 2026 school year at school 4. I'll make a motion. Sandy, I second. And Laura, any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Authorization to reaffirm district reserve accounts. I'll take a motion. I'll move it. Second. Robert and Dawn. Any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Authorization

121to re to reffirm district reserve accounts. Reaffirm. Reaffirm district reserve counts. You just um take a motion to bid awards. Pency. Motion. Second. That's Stew and Seth. Any questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. We're on D. Proposal to add an addendum to the current contract between the Oceanside School District and the teachers aid chapter of the OFT. I'll take a motion. A motion. Sandy. I second. And Laura. Any question or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Approval to destroy ballots. I'll take a motion. I'll move it. Bob second. Don, any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Opportunity now for the superintendent of uh schools. Thank you, Mr. Drosio. Just very, very briefly, I just cannot believe that this

122is actually the last board meeting of this school year. Uh please mark your calendars. July 2nd will be our reorg meeting uh starting the 2526 school year. I swear it I I it feels like yesterday that we were in the auditorium of Oceanside High School starting um what was what was really what really proved to be quite a wonderful school year. So um our our summers are chock full here in Oceanside between our amazing CARES camp program and our summer school program and uh just the work just continues throughout whether it's curriculum writing or professional development. We look forward to it, but at the same time, uh, no one can deny that the summer is an opportunity to relax a bit and most importantly to spend some well-deserved time with family and friends. So, I

123use this opportunity to thank you all for an amazing school year and wish you nothing but the best of health and happiness for a wonderful summer and look forward to the 2526 school year. That concludes my report, Mr. D. Okay. At this particular time, uh, we have board of education report. I like to start off by saying that, um, this year was a real challenging year. I mean, I think we had a lot of a lot of things going on. We did a lot of good things. People had come down to our meetings. We recognize between the honors and the athletics, everything we're doing, you know, our high school principal, our uh Castleton principal, our middle school principal, all our elementary principles are all doing a great job and as they finishing off the year

124and moving up ceremonies and they're already looking for September, but I want to compliment between the administrators, our teachers, and our aids the job that they do. They're doing yman's job, especially the PTAs on finalizing this year on all the different things that are going on, honoring staff, honor administration, and then actually getting ready for September. And before we know, summer's going to be over and we are I know we're going to hit the ground running, the new cell phone policy. I know we're going to be ready for it, and we might hit a couple of bumps in the road, but I'm sure we're going to overcome it extremely well. Uh, and there's just a a real good sense in the air that everyone in this district is working hard and I personally like to

125thank everyone in this district that's making Oceanside the district that it is. With that being said, is there anyone else on the board that would like to say anything? Suppl. So, Dennis, you you did point out earlier tonight was your ultimate it was your ultimate meeting as our representative and and I know you I Are you the first ever student rep? Because I wasn't sure if you'd mention that. So, you know, the school district went 125 years without a student representative until you came on. So, when you say you're the first ever, you you know exactly how many years that we were here as a Union Free School District, without a a student rep. And I would just like to say now I'm in the history books as the first ever. So, 125 years. That's

126right. That's right. So, so you're there. I just want to say that um for Brian coming in. So what Brian doesn't realize and and you said you've been coming for two years, but the difference between last year and this year is last year you used to leave right after you did your your announcements and this year you had to stay for the entire meeting even when it goes beyond 10:00, right? Um but you did set the bar very high for our student representatives. So Brian's got a lot to live up to as well as all the ones do in the future. And um you know I do think that as you mentioned as you go on you will look back on this experience I think you'll find it very valuable and hopefully you learned a

127thing or two o over the course of time that you were here but I do wish you the best of luck next year and I know you're going on to do some great things in your future. So, congratulations. Um, one other thing I'd like to mention is this past weekend was the car show in um in the parking lot at Oceanside High School. So, it was the fourth annual car show. And for anyone that hasn't gone, it's a real treat. It It's amazing. It's amazing to see the work of our students of rebuilding the cars and putting them out there on display and seeing um just what they learn. And I know next year A little bit of the discussion was the challenge next year for the show because the construction will be going on.

128So, they'll have to figure out an alternative for that. But there were probably over 300 cars there. Um, and it was it was the rain held off. It was a beautiful day and I you know strongly encourage everyone next year to to make an effort to to come out and and take a look at that. That being said, uh the end of a great year. It's hard to believe that the year is over and uh look forward to seeing everyone in July. Any other board members? Uh Don Maskadium. Don, excuse me. Uh Mr. President, I'm on right. Thank you. You're on, Mr. Mask. Well, let me begin by saying I had the pleasure of attending school 2, three, four, and 9E beginner concerts. I congratulate the teachers for what they have accomplished with the third

129grade student orchestras and the fourth grade student bands. Great job. And uh also it's astounding at how many students played in these beginner concerts. And they'll still be running some tomorrow I believe and one next week. I could be wrong. But you know when you look at the beginning concerts then you look at the next step up the elementary concerts which includes grades four, five and six. And I had the pleasure of seeing school twos, threes and eights concerts and they were terrific. Next you came to grade eight concert and then the two concerts at the high school. What wonderful performances on all levels. Congratulations to all the teachers and the students and also to the director Andrew Fryul and his two assistants Jennifer and Vicki. And of course when you see the high school

130symphonic concert you think you're on Broadway. Mr. Simmons, principal of Castleton High School, and his students and staff members had the raising of the veterans flag ceremony held on schoolhouse screen. What a wonderful program. I also had the pleasure of attending three awards programs. And congratulations to the number of students receiving art awards. And congratulations to again Andrew Fry Gold uh the director of media fine and performing arts, his two assistants Jennifer and Vicki, the teachers involved and to all the students who won awards and there were many. And then again, congratulations to Tom Leman, the director of athletics and health, and the coaches for two outstanding programs. excuse me, the all county athletics induction ceremony and the varsity athletic awards ceremony to see again the number of students inducted to the all county and

131the number of students receiving varsity athletic awards was breathtaking. The auditorium was packed with students receiving awards and and with their friend friends and parents. It was a great job and it was wonderful to see those students get their rewards and to you Dennis to the high school students and I won't mention you I can't say your last name. I didn't have the practice that Mike Damrosio had but I want to wish you the very very best. It's been a pleasure having you on the board of ed or being a part of us. I want to wish you the very best in your future endeavors and it is a pleasure to have you aboard and I have a feeling you will be back and to one and all I want to wish you all a

132very healthy and happy set uh happy summer. I would also like to congratulate Mr. Transom. uh he was given an honorary life membership into the I believe it's the PTA council. Congratulations, Mr. Transom. Welld deserved. That is all I have, Mr. Damrosio, at this time. Thank you, Mr. Maska. Um let's go down the list there. Mr. Transom, anything? No, I'm good. Okay. All right. Uh Mrs. Ley? Nope. Just wishing everyone a happy summer. Mrs. show. Happy summer. I got just one quick thing, Dennis, that I just noticed that on my keyboard is how I say your name. So, I don't need this anymore. So, we can just do it cuz I'm never going to say your name again. Even if you even if you come back from George Washington, you're not allowed in the board

133meeting. So, that's it. And you you might be on a Jeopardy question of you know who's the first student rep in Oceanside in 125 years. Not that we'll be watching. Let's hope you're not going to get that question because you would never say the last name correctly. Next is our public comment on non-aggender items. I'll go quick on this. This is the opportunity for anyone who wants to make a comment on any item that is not tonight's agenda. As I previously mentioned, state law does not require us to hold public comment period, but this board of education does so because we believe it's important to provide this form to hear from community members about concerns and issues. Having said that, please note that the board here to listen. Comments should be directed towards the chair,

134which is me. While everyone is acknowledged, encouraged to share their comments. Please remember this is not designed to be a question and answer session. Someone has a question that can be quick quickly answered, we'll do so. Otherwise, the appropriate personnel will follow up on issue. Lastly, remember that the board cannot and will not discuss any personnel matters related to staff or students in public. Upon hearing that, Miss Cindy Rosen, Cyberman Rosen, go ahead. Good evening everybody. Um, I just wanted to say what an amazing uh last board of ed meeting it has been between the retirees and the honores and everything like that. Um, Dr. Harrington, as far as the um cell phone policies with um the upper classmen like you mentioned and Dr. Mitchell mentioned um with the 11th and 12th graders, especially with

135the open campus, if they are driving to school and stuff like that, is it possible that they can leave their cell phones in their car? I know that prior years they um you know had not no lockers at all. Um, and with the amount of students there are in the high school, how is it going to work as far as all the kids, you know, from uh 9th grade all the way to 12th grade getting to the lockers and stuff like that if you're implementing it back for next year? So, I hadn't thought about the concept of keeping it in their cars, but I don't see that as an issue. The issue is they cannot bring it on school grounds. Okay. So, I mean, I guess you could say if they parking it, but we

136would wouldn't split hairs on that one. they want to keep it in their car. I can't imagine that there would be many students who want to do that, but I don't see a problem with that. I would I would confer with Dr. Mitchell, but I really don't. Um, as far as the you know, it it's there's going to be some relearning about what it's like to go to a locker and make sure you leave enough time. I mean, we understand that those will be some of the glitches initially, but our kids are smart. They'll figure it out. Okay. Um, and I just wanted to um say thank you for an amazing school year. you guys have worked very hard with implementing everything that you know the state brings down um and the law situation. Um

137I just wanted to say thank you. Uh next year will be my last year here in the district. Uh my daughter will be a senior um and graduating. I am hoping to continue obviously continue coming to the board of ed meetings because I'm not leaving Oceanside. Um but I just want to say thank you for everybody um for this past year. It's been amazing. My daughter Talia has come like amazing. She's never really sang in front of you guys and she's come a very long way and I just wanted to say thank you for having her at the border edit meetings for singing for the national anthem and just have a great summer. Enjoy and uh we'll be back, you know, sooner than you know. Thank you, Cindy. Thank you. Is there anybody else that

138would like to come up? Eric, did you want to say anything? Okay, with that motion to motion to adjurnn, we're done. We give it.