BOE 12/15/2021

001[Music] okay [Music] i didn't know that of otherwise okay that's why i'm putting it thank you [Music] oh my gosh [Music] oh my god [Music] thank you with liberty and justice [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] ah [Music] uh [Applause] [Music] good evening everybody and welcome before we get started there's such a large crowd here tonight i want to just go over some procedures for the meeting first we're going to go through the agenda there'll be two opportunities for the public to speak the first opportunity will be only on items that we doubt to vote on the second opportunity for public comment will be where it says opportunity members of the community to speak when you take the microphone and you take turns on each microphone you'll have a limit of three

002minutes to make your comment please try not to be repetitive we understand the issues and there's no need to be disrespectful there's no need to yell because you don't communicate a great message when you scream in the air you create more on problems than we need we want we're all here for the purposes of our children every single one of us sitting here is for the purpose and the good of our children we're volunteers and we're parents and grandparents just like you are so let's have a good meeting great comments and let's be respectful of the order of the business of the board and of yourselves thank you for coming okay with that said i need an approval for the minutes from november 17 2020 second all in favor any opposed promotion count financial reports

003i need a motion to file them for orders my glasses are followings i'm talking sorry okay items of information celebration of services mrs preview good evening here in the oceanside school district we know that student students benefit greatly both academically and emotionally from volunteering their time for their community and the world and to help make the world a better place when students get involved in community service they not only help others they grow they get a more expanded world view they cultivate their compassion their kindness their empathy empathy and they even grow their leadership skills they realize that their actions can have a positive effect on others tonight it is our hope to give you a lesson to how we nurture the hearts and the minds of our students the video you are about to

004see illustrates the many ways that our students and staff are helping others and are in the service of others of course with the support of our families and with many of you here this evening now more than ever we need each other and our schools are cleaning away i look forward for you to see it this evening [Music] hmm [Music] as we celebrate our holiday season it is important to remember the best tips on bought from the store the best tips [Music] because they're so far away and they miss their family they're making him [Music] holidays hello we're part of school 2 student council we love to do a lot of different fundraisers and put smiles on the kids faces our most recent one is our tour drum we we are collecting a bunch of

005cold cards and we are donating it to the oceanside community center so the letter to santa is to like help like macy's and like children that have like serious illnesses like cancer leukemia heart diseases they um have this website where it says make a wish on the bottom corner it says write a letter to santa so we we all clicked that and we wrote a letter they grant more wishes from every dollar that you donate and the more letters that come in more dollars that are donated we are the helping hands club there's over 50 people in this club and we run the school store we donate to oceanside community services and state jude's also diabetes and all of those hi we are from troop 2129 we are collecting hats gloves stars and jackets we're

006collecting these items to donate to the community sharing table in oceanside cherokee is a place where you bring all your items that used or new for people who are in need and need those things and they will [Music] the lego foundation sees that legos will be donated to kids in need we enjoy doing this because we want to put smiles on everyone's faces and help kids looks less fortunate than us veterans from the local from the local hospital queensland toiletries from identity so my dad took action they emailed principals from their schools to start a fundraiser and all toiletries are being collected toiletries will be donated to a local hospital in queens for the veterans this year's school force k kittens student council team enough to sponsor a school-wide children we are encouraging our classmates

007to bring a new unwrapped toys to benefit families in our community we are hoping to encourage our classmates to give back this holiday season this holiday season student council is collecting unwrapped unused toys from for the john thiessen toy foundation and we're going to give toys to the people that need for the kids that need them this holiday season school five students has made pocket flags we're going to send them to opportunity soldiers this holiday season it's important for those veterans to have a piece of home wherever they're going it's good to have them feel appreciated as they're seeing their lives this season school 5 is partnering with oms to give cookies to the va veterans hospital thank you for your service so during november we kick kids started collecting leftover halloween candy so we

008were successfully able to collect ten filled boxes of candy to donate to the homeless shelter and every just every thanksgiving real paid part of the canada that will do um and now what we're doing we're teaming with uh student council to do a toy drive you must give in unwrapped brand new toys for infants kids or teens and you drop them off at either our room the the kids room or at the student council room and we collect them and at the december 15th we're gonna give them to ronald mcdonald children's house celebrate this wonderful season of giving the kid kids club at school 191 helped put goods and treats for the annual chinese shoe we decided to decorate boxes for a collection of goods and made posters to hang around the school building we

009received so many donations and we were so excited to help our families in our earthly site community in kk kids we made thanksgiving cards to give to patients at the moshe university hospital who were spending our holidays away from their family we were so happy to receive a thank you letter from norfolk hall college my life to help put a smile on the patient's faces we are looking forward to the holiday season at oms we have many exciting activities and events planned for our students as well as opportunities for our students and families to serve our community over the holiday season here at castleton we have several traditions for giving back to our amazing community to our thanksgiving celebration and our veterans day ceremony and our partnering with the ocs food drive isn't our core

010values to celebrate service during our day five activities this past veterans day we race a flag at schoolhouse green in honor of veterans castleton students are raising money through beating america to raise five hundred dollars to help out our community hi we're members of the go at oceanside high school and we just helped with the turkey shoot the turkey shoe is an event where we collect canned goods and turkeys for weeks and then we distribute them to families in need so they have dinner on their table for thanksgiving we were able to serve over 125 families this thanksgiving a lot of times we forget that our peers and other people in our community are struggling even though we aren't so i think that the turkey shoot is a really good opportunity to remind us that

011it's important to help others because some of my groups in school or people you see at the supermarkets you don't know what they're going through and it's just a reminder that it makes you feel better to help others and you're making their life so much easier for them hi my name is lindsay chekhov i'm a junior ambassador for an organization called live behind which is it's a charity based out of oceanside run by rob shulman and it donates money to build to get prosthesis for children both domestically and internationally so as junior ambassador alumni i wanted to find a way to be able to get oceanside high school involved with limping so i talked to members of the key club and we were able to organize a pretzel sale in the lobby on november 30th

012which was giving tuesday uh to help raise money and all the proceeds went to limb kind so we ended up raising over a thousand dollars in combination with donations through facebook and through the pretzel sale itself this holiday season the oceanside high school staff decided to do a giving treat in hopes to give back to the community for the holidays the giving tree has ornaments on it made by our staff and each ornament has an item from a different family's wish list our staff have been taking these ornaments and purchasing these items to make these holidays just come true for these families there are gratitude cards that the health and wellness task force has decided to put out in december just as a way to remind each other how grateful we are for one another

013and how much we appreciate each other in the building so each there's a stack of cards in the main office and people are welcome to come and take a card and write a little note to someone that they want to spend their you know gratitude toward and put in that person's mailbox and then other people are you know encouraged to then continue the chain by writing a card to somebody else so hopefully lots of cards are being received by lots of different people and they're building that's giving them a nice way to start their day or two to feel good about themselves or to help someone else feel good for themselves as well around the holiday season it's obviously so important to give not only to your family and friends but to people who aren't

014able to experience or who aren't as fortunate as we are in the school this last year has been very hard on us all and sometimes due to the isolation we forget that we're part of a bigger community and no matter what we're always needing to help people any any act of kindness helps like giving paying it forward any small act helps because it goes from one person and then that person goes to two people and those two people goes before and it just keeps expanding and getting bigger and bigger just from one small act it doesn't have to be big but as long as this is a good deed it's it's very helpful to the world the smallest things can end up being the biggest things for some people nothing is too little nothing is

015too big we hope everyone can do what they can remember we're all members of the oceanside community and we need to remember to kill one another so um i don't know about you but i find those students to be the most incredible hope-filled human beings and they really make us feel that our future is bright we have a bright future ahead of us and our community is a warm and caring place i do want to share with you that we have one young lady here with us from puana's kids at school98 who was part of this endeavor and i know she might be a little bit shy but i want to introduce you pia and give you and all your peers [Applause] dr harrington school age eligibility yes thank you mrs muller so as many

016of you know for a very very long time the oceanside school district had december 31st as its eligibility date for young people to enter uh our kindergarten program that was the the that we have been researching and studying for quite some time because it is really quite unusual um most districts certainly in our in our neighbors uh in our neighborhoods but certainly also across the state uh december 1 is the typical date that is used for school age eligibility as i said we've been looking at that and studying it for a couple of years but it really became more apparent how that date is a disadvantage to our students in light of our universal pre-k program as well as the number of students we do serve through our cpsc preschool special education services so after

017again some further research and dialogue with it with a number of individuals i am recommending to the board that we consider switching the date to december one but of course we would do it in a transition stage so that for next year any parent in the in the queue for thinking their child is going to be entering kindergarten if their birthday is between december 1 and december 31 we'll still have the opportunity to do that for next year same with a parent who has a three-year-old thinking that they are going and work would be interested in our four-year-old program um so that is not changing for anyone for next school year they will have an option of either the december one or the december 31st day however the subsequent year which we think gives more

018than ample time for people to uh to prepare and be in the right cycle i am recommending that we update our policy to um really match again near um what the rest of the state really does uh with a december one um birthday cut off thank you john harrington any members of the board have any questions regarding the change of the age eligibility um the date of eligibility okay there will be no question south and harrington and i just want to say when we add that to a policy update when we do our second reading of the policies we're going to be doing the first reading of today that's okay with the board okay okay so updates on our website so one of our district goals um continually is to find more effective ways to

019communicate with our our families and our constituents our website is continually a work in progress we have found and some of the feedback we've received from our community is that it is not very user friendly when you're looking for something and perhaps most significantly uh especially when people now don't use computers any longer they use their phones their devices their ipads and the website and cab really didn't transfer well at all to those mobile more mobile devices so we've made a couple of changes in the district over the last year or so including um having ms donna krause as our communication director who is now also our district webmaster so she's a sole person responsible for the content of that website she will be working closely with people at each individual building but we are

020incredibly excited about our shift to a new website that we're just going to take a few moments for uh miss krauss to walk the board through some of the highlights of the new website and we are very very much uh looking forward to rolling out it officially with the start of a new calendar year so sometime in january expect we expect that shift to this more current district website so ms krauss we turn the floor over to you good evening it's my pleasure to take you on a tour of the website before i start i just want to say that this is a collective effort and that the support of the board dr h and her team the tech department all of the administrators and staff members who gave feedback and in particular the instructional

021assistants at every building who work very closely with me every step of the way so as you can see it looks very different from our current website we asked the designers to use our school colors with blue and white and to give us some pops of color to draw attention to some particular features and you'll see that we have a translation feature and we have a search feature up here our menu is pretty much the same we wanted to keep everything simple for you to find that if you're used to using the current website that everything wouldn't be completely unfamiliar what is different is that if you're using this on a desktop when you hover the menus just pop open so you don't have to click and drag anymore and you can see which menu

022is opening by where that yellow line is [Music] so when you're on mobile this is a little bit different the menus don't look like this so let me just take a quick look at how it looks on mobile and what it does is it responds to any screen so as you can see it changes based on the size of the whether it's a phone or a tablet but your menu is up here and so you click this open and then we built a lot of shortcuts into the current website uh into the new website and our current website also has shortcuts on it we wanted to add some additional ones and we also wanted to make them more cohesive so that they would all have a similar look and to have words underneath so you

023know exactly what they are and this may be obvious to some people but i never know what people know and don't know so when you see these these mean that there's more on the screen and these are customizable so every every school that has its own webpage can um can have its own icons to shortcuts that are important to that school building on our news site will always have highlights of current activities and events and if you want to see more there's a shortcut to a whole news page and similarly there's a special feature here and a shortcut to more about that our twitter feed is here it's not showing up right now sometimes i have to refresh it um but this is where our twitter feed goes and then here's just a quick snapshot

024of our calendar and this is also customized for each building and then if you click at the bottom here there's a link to our full calendar and we'll just give you a quick look at that so this you might recognize it's probably in all of your homes this is our print calendar and this is a pdf this is a link to that one page calendar that we usually adopt sometime in january so that you can get a quick glance at all the upcoming holidays and board meetings for next year and this is our full digital calendar and you can filter this by school and you can also subscribe to it you might have noticed that we don't have a phone a home button anymore the logo is the home button now so if you're on

025the district page the logo takes you back if you're on the district page and you go into another page the logo will take you back if you're on a school page the logo will take you back to that school page so i'm just going to pass some of the things that you've already seen and so this is our footer and every footer looks very similar we have all the policies and procedures we have links to our social media phone number that's our main number if this was the school footer that would be their number this is me so this is how you find me if you have questions and this is a link to our staff directories for the entire district and for every building and then down here you have additional shortcuts so the

026parent portal the lunch menus because we know everybody wants to know what's for lunch and back to the full calendar okay so i want to show you a few pages that are important this is our board page so here you can find our board meeting dates the guide to board meetings we hand that out at the board meetings but if you're watching from home you can click this and look at the guide to board meetings and it tells you how to separate questions and otherwise participate in board meetings before policy votes presentations that they're that are given to the board an overview of what the void does and how it operates and bios of all of our board members athletics is another important site that we know many people like to visit often for the

027schedules here's the schedule right here athletic registration and those now go to the site known as big teams and it's just an upgrade of the way that we used to do our sports schedules okay so this menu up here this dark blue area is called our utility navigation and it's almost the same on every page except that when you're on the district's home page this word district doesn't show up and you don't have this drop down but when you go to a school home page and you want to get back to the district this is how you get back to the district and this is how you get to any other school so now we're going to just take a quick look at some of our school websites this is our high school and the

028instructional assistants have done a great job of it it looks really beautiful and you'll see that they have the same icons that exist on the district page except that they can customize these so for example school counseling isn't on the district homepage but it's here because that's germaine's in the highest position what looks different on the school pages is these grids these grids can be used flexibly so each each school can do what it wants with them in some cases uh i don't know why i keep saying district when i want to say great uh in some cases the grids lead to an inside page so here if you click here you would be able to see all the morning announcements and then everything else about their pages is pretty much the same they all

029have a news section a twitter feed a calendar and then their footer with all of the same links to the portal the lunch menus and the calendars so we'll just take a quick look at oms which also looks really beautiful and you'll see that their menu here is slightly different from the high schools but the menu up here is the same across the district and this is how they run their grids to go to the library community service the school store [Music] esports and then everything else is similar okay and then from elementary school and i'm not picking favorites but i did choose school five because they were using the grids a little bit differently and i wanted to show you that so in some cases their grids like the high school and the middle

030school they're using them to go to things inside so for example the principal's newsletter read the calendar meet the counselor but in other cases they're using their grids just to give you like a little billboard of information so here's everything you wanted to know about sailor and here's some upcoming events at school five and then again their news section and you can scroll through that there are events [Music] the last thing i want to show you is something that actually just popped up without me knowing it was going to be there but um it's the way that we're going to communicate things that are urgent when i say urgent i don't necessarily mean emergencies but anything that we want you to know right away you would use something that's called a page pop and you

031already saw it because it was on the 5k but i wanted to show you how it works so this is what happens you go to the page page pop pops up and you can't see anything else until you click off the page so hopefully you will read the message the urgent message that's there so happy holidays everyone and that concludes my tour of the website and i'll be happy to take any questions [Applause] mr trump donald great job staff great job thank you very much thank you anybody else okay thank you excellent job okay policy review update this is the first reading let me explain whenever the board updates or changes policy there has to be two readings the second reading is will be the time in which we vote so tonight is just the

032first reading or the first presentation of proposed changes to certain policies so the first one is policy 1205 meetings of the board um we because there were changes in robert's rules of order and open meeting law we had to make changes within our policy and while doing that we made the language more clear and easier to understand it was very convoluted we changed the word participation to comments as is as is what that's what we do we take comments we already followed most of all of this protocol and and procedure and we need to be in compliance with the new with the new rules and public uh offices one policy 3100 it's so hard to speak with the glasses okay i was just making a joke gender neutral single occupancy bathrooms this is a new

033law when mandated to to have a policy on this um and so we have a policy now adding language relating to gender neutral backgrounds policy 4205 procedures for reporting child abuse maltreatment on the black pen domestic settings the entire policy represents procedures for reporting child abuse in a domestic setting as is reported by new york state law this is new it's a new requirement and we have to add this to our existing house policy 5104 non-discrimination equal opportunity this is an update of our existing policy our existing policy was old it was one paragraph long this language expands on on our current policy and it really provides a lot of protection and for non-discrimination and people opportunity for our students and ourselves policy 6407 smoking vaping and other tobacco use on school premises this language

034expands our current policy our current policy discusses tobacco and tobacco use we have now added language that we're required to do um including cannabis and other types of smoking materials for a lack of a better learning policy 6607 building and grounds maintenance and inspection this policy outlines the required sed regulations please note that by adopting this policy we will be eliminating our current policy our current policy on the standing committee on buildings and grounds you will note that embedded in the new policy we leave room for an ad hoc committee to be informed as an on and as needed basis policy 60 56 vote eight i really can't believe that um 6608 school building safety where we've reviewed this policy we continue to review our policies this is an important one but no changes to

035being made we think that our policy is is current up to date and sufficient policy 6703.2 mail charge and prohibition against meal-shaming policy again a requirement in new york state that we needed to add to our current existing policy and we're amending this to include the fact that the district is not committed to file a lawsuit against students parents or guardians for meals unpaid and that's a presentation do you want me to add the age okay and adding to that is the policy that dr harrington discussed where next year you'll have the option you have the choice um if your child's birthday is december 1st or december 31st you can choose to keep your child home or send them to school then the subsequent years partners age eligibility would be december 1st and that's the

036changes from the 31st to the first miss and i also just want to add just to make sure that the community does understand that we do have a subcommittee of the board that meets with administration and we spend a great deal of time uh reviewing all of these policies um and we look deeply at the policies we currently have and whether it's worth um proposing some changes as ms mullen said some we don't have an option to do some would do but i just wanted to be clear that it's it's a it's a very very long process and this is the result of the subcommittee bringing it to the entire board for its first reading thank you dr heather are there any questions from any board members regarding these policies okay that would be the

037first reading of policies construction report mr coakley construction reporter's accident thank you mr copeland superintendent's report dr harris so thank you again so typically for enrollment and pd i would just say as submitted as well but i don't i don't have that love to read tonight because we are adding an agenda item uh having to do with an update on covid uh let me just begin by saying that um we thought we went a couple of meetings without actually having to speak about cobra because things were going incredibly incredibly well and no one wished that we could have gotten into the entire year uh without having to mention it and in fact probably you know hopefully being even in a better place than we were uh in september i think you all can admit that

038sadly we're just not there so rather than listen to me speak um specifically about a particular situation that did occur within the last week i did ask two of our principals to speak um from their perspective in terms of hoping to clarify the decision-making that we did make and and the prestigious that we did put in place um i again thank them for all that they do and what they've been through um these last months uh actually i should say these last couple of years it's not been easy and i can say i really appreciate i know many of them are perhaps watching um on on video but i cannot begin to tell you how many uh kind and appreciative emails that i have received cc's to to the to the board cc to the

039principals just just trying to understand that none of this is easy and and that's really where i want to start this conversation none of us want to be here all of us want this to be over we are incredibly fatigued cold and fatigued but at the same time we have to do what's right for our children so i am going to now ask ms castiello and mrs pearson to uh please share a perspective um that i i i hope that you can follow and understand thank you i want to start by thanking the board of education and dr harrington for the opportunity to speak on behalf of my fellow administrators this evening we appreciate your continued support and guidance running a school in the age of kobit was never something we could have anticipated when

040we became elementary school principals we have always put the safety and security of our students first but the last two years the landscape has completely changed our daily child responsibilities have morphed into something we could have never predicted but the one thing that has remained the exact same and at the forefront of every decision we make is your children are our number one priority we are a hundred percent on the same team we are doing our best to meet the competing needs and interests of all of our parents we are doing our best to keep our kids in school because we know that is where they belong because their connection with their peers and their connection with their teachers is so important to their academic growth and emotional well-being we really are doing our best

041to try and replicate as much other traditional school experience as possible but not everything that we want to do we can do so we pivot when we have to and we try to be flexible to the changing dynamics of the current situation it is a recent pivot we took that caused some parents to voice their concerns and frustrations using a variety of indoor alternate locations to ensure all students are six feet apart during lunch which would mitigate the spread of the virus and the need to quarantine students keeping kids safe and in school but we want to share that these adjustments were made with your kids and your family's well-being and with your holiday and vacation plans in mind over the past three weeks we have had to make over 100 calls quarantining students for

04210 days keeping them home and isolated from their beloved schools parents cried and pleaded with us to allow their children back to school so their children didn't fall behind miss out on time with their friends and so that their parents could work unfortunately these are decisions out of our control so as the holiday break approached and the number of covid cases continued to rise and more students were being quarantined we knew we wanted to and had to do whatever we could to limit exposure and quarantines we didn't want one child or one family to have to spend the vacation sick and in isolation please know as always when parents reach out to us and share their concerns we address them immediately but it's also important to know that our kids often feel very differently about

043something that our parents just don't agree with like having an indoor picnic for lunch many of our students cheers many of our students cheered with excitement thrilled to have a picnic in school just like they have done for the past 19 months for outdoor lunch and snack and the many years we held back to school barbecues some students even said to me it's the best type of picnic no bugs we know that our school community has trusted us for years when it comes to making really important decisions for their children and we would hope they would continue to trust us now the frustrations you feel over a global health crisis is understandable but we are here to protect your children our children and help them navigate this world we are living in we promise you

044we are in this together please try and remember that as we continue to navigate these crazy times at this time i would like to invite mr mcpherson enough to share some activities that are happening at his building to handle some of this thank you good evening everyone and thank you uh at 90 we've implemented several lunchtime procedures in september to promote social distancing these procedures have included the use of alternate locations for lunch including our classrooms our cafeteria and our gym for our fifth and sixth grade students where chairs have been made available to those students who wanted them we implemented a daily rotation schedule for these lunchtime locations this approach was successful and allowed students to eat six feet apart several days in a six day cycle our newest version of this plan which

045began this week also included splitting students into larger classes i'm sorry also included students who are in larger classes into two smaller groups with one group remaining in the classroom and the other group eating in one of the alternate locations that i just mentioned we've also reconfigured some classrooms and developed a cafeteria rotation for our snack on any given day there may be factors that limit our ability to fully implement this plan resulting in students getting closer than six feet however with this new approach we hope to ensure that on most school days all of our students are able to maintain six foot distancing when eating as miss castillo indicated my colleagues at the other elementary schools have implemented a variety of measures similar to those i've mentioned with the hopes of keeping students safe

046and reducing the number of students required to quarantine thank you [Applause] and just to give you some perspective on on this on the quarantining just today today in our district district wise not just elementary but the majority are elementary we have 224 of our children home in florentino please help decorum please allow i do not have to despair and part of our frustration is exactly that that for the most part they are healthy that is why our requirement of quarantining them is something we wanted to take control over to the best of our ability i can assure you that the test to stay or the tested test out of quarantine you might have heard both of those terms is something i support and i agree with so do the superintendents within all of nassau county

047we have made a we have made a plea to the nasa county department of health with data real numbers on why we think the quarantine rules currently in place don't make sense for our kids i will continue to advocate that but it is a decision i don't get to make what i have to do is say to my principals sunday night you need to call these parents and it's been in huge numbers increased numbers and now you have to tell them they were planning to send their kids to school on monday and they were planning to go to work and now all of that has changed that is not what we want to do it's not what we want to spend our time doing and it pains us to say that to parents and as

048ms castiello said we had parents crying we've had parents begging we've had parents who haven't been very kind about receiving those calls we understand that we do and that's exactly what we want to take control of i recognized that when we shifted to the lunch procedures changing just to be as transparent as i could be we honestly didn't think it was that big of a shift because that's exactly what the kids were doing since september outside kids were taking snack in the hallways that's what they were doing and we also as mrs castillo said we've had family barbecues and picnics outside so we we missed we missed the mark we missed the mark on how parents would have reacted to [Applause] [Music] we're constantly rethinking and at the at the end of the day this

049week off this week alone monday tuesday wednesday i can tell you we have the numbers yes unfortunately the positive cases still prevail we had 43 cases since saturday 43 positive cases those 43 cases would have resulted in significant number of quarantines because of the new procedures we put in place which meant possibly up to two times a week kids would be sitting in the gymnasium for about 15 minutes or so because that's all most of them take to eat and then they go outside and play for by making that change we were able to significantly reduce the number of kids we are quarantining and keeping our schools open some of you may know that in our neighboring district of east rockaway and also in the elmont schools they've had to close down their entire school

050so east rockaway junior senior high school will not have school between now and quite honestly after the break we are trying desperately to keep kids in in our classrooms because that's where we know we need to have them i know you know that's where we need to have them and that's what we're trying our best to do we're not perfect and god knows we're on a daily basis running as fast as we can trying to stay on top of our decisions we also know i need to say something i said in august we are not one community that speaks with one voice please know that so we are in the position of having to address multiple different points of view on this and i understand that there are parents frustrated with this i understand that

051there are parents who want us to take these messed off don't you think we want to do the same thing we do do it is is by at the end of the day right now today when we started school in september and our numbers were reasonable for those that know me know me to be incredibly optimistic they called me pollyanna to a fault i there was nobody that prayed as much as i did literally to say please get us out of this please and as i sit here today and i read and listen to the same news that you're hearing and reading every day i sit here in front of you very sad because it almost feels like we're going backwards so i get that but the numbers are there we have to run a

052school system we have to do what's right for the the or our entire school community and we accept the facts the fact that for some we have to agree to respectfully disagree but please can i please implore the community members here and the community members watching we've got young people here in this audience okay we are their role models all right and please we can be respectful we can listen to one another but we also have to understand we will have different points of view because as a community if we don't learn to have that kind of discourse respectfully then we are horrible role models for these incredible young people who i have to tell you make make my job the highlight it is every single day because as bad as the bashing may be

053at times and i don't read it people tell me what i'm like i really don't i really don't want to know i have the luxury you guys don't have this i'm very lucky because i can i and i do get out and i go and i spend time with kids from our littlest learners to our young adults that are here this evening that's the joy that i am reminded of every single day and it's for that reason why the decisions that we make i always make it as a team but i am i am the leader of this district i will take full responsibility i'm not shy of doing that please know that but at the end of the day i get to go and look at the faces of these kids and i watch

054them every day our kids are happy our kids our kids are our kids are learning and they are happy let me say one more thing and then we are going to go on to our agenda and there will be an opportunity for common period i assure you the last thing i will say is um regarding a letter to the governor i am in the process of drafting the letter with our board we are going to ask our governor to please please use metrics please use data to give us clear consistent guidelines that transcend across the state okay that's what we need from them right now um as you know once again we're in the situation where different agencies are being committed to make different decisions and that puts us between a rock and a hard

055place no matter what we do so i hear you again we're here for your kids i thank you for your kind attention and i really do mean that i thank you for your kind attention we're going to continue with our agenda which won't take long and you will have an opportunity to to share your comments at the right time i thank you and miss monger enrollment and pd is afternoon thank you i just want to ask a question um and every elementary school principal is here correct okay my question is are there chairs available for students that want chance okay that's my question any other board members [Music] um moving on this is the time where the opportunity for members to speak um regarding items on the agenda that we're about to vote on that

056would be items a through l okay anybody from the audience has questions on those items okay otherwise we're moving into action i need a motion to approve the 2223 school calendar i make that motion i'll to the community that that calendar now adopted will be on our website and it's just an advanced notice that once again the way the calendar days fall we will be starting school prior to labor day again i don't make the calendar but if you look at it you'll see that we had no option and we are starting a very very similar calendar [Music] i need a motion to approve of the csc and cpsc second all in favor on any post an extension motion carries i need a motion to approve new york state department of labor move it [Music]

057an extension motion carries need item f motion to approve to accept donations move it certainly [Music] all in favor any opposed an extension motion carry i need a motion to approve the use of facilities moving second all in favor any opposed an extension motion carries item h i need a motion special education placement [Music] she is in our audience i'm so happy that she's here um by way of introduction those of you know that over the summer one of our own stephanie williams who was an information technology specialist i took a position in another district and we took that as an opportunity to rethink that position and uh we took an opportunity to advertise for uh just the perfect person that we wanted to come in who had a whole series of different skill sets

058and we were thrilled to find mr mateo uh she actually lives in a neighboring district but for since the year 2013 she's been commuting into the city uh she where she has been working since 2013 but as of 2018 she was the technology coordinator uh for a school uh in the brooklyn school district so we are so happy to have her we know she's going to be an amazing addition to our technology team working closely with ms flyer and also miss o'giri um and and mr sedona she's going to be really working most closely with the instructional assistants that ms kraus mentioned earlier those are the boots on the ground people in each of our buildings and she's also going to be helping our teachers uh basically implement technology which is a constant evolving and

059growing process that we want to try to stay as ahead of as possible so welcome mr dean and taylor we're so happy to have you here [Applause] [Music] the only thing to add at this point miss um is that i wish everybody a incredibly happy healthy healthy safe holiday holiday recessing break thank you thank you dr harrington opportunity i'd like to take this opportunity to thank the ost they were very generous this year because of the clover the last couple of years we haven't had the ability to have our turkey shoot men which we usually do or the holiday christmas and gift wrapping and the toy drive and everything that goes with it the community-ism is really fantastic but leave that to the side they came to the plate and uh they were able to

060raise thirty seven hundred dollars which they donated an oceanside community service uh through the president the obama casa and twenty six hundred dollars worth of cold gift cards which we use to give the students and the children in this community new clothes we don't go to the thrift stores and make sure that we have an allocation for those that need it to get close in the fall winter and summer and spring [Music] we also have eleven hundred dollars in grocery carts to supplement the distribution to the pantry which we run every week right next door uh on friday evenings uh also i'd like to report the thanksgiving interface which partnered with oceanside community service that 600 families were assisted with fresh turkey meals we were able to feed the first fourth and the eighth precinct

061at the nassau county police nassau county aviation uh nassau county public safety the rockville center police department freeport police department oceanside marshall center ems i think they just really really came together and that totaled 1100 meals that went out the door oh and a hundred went to soup tonight's the soup kitchen alder and freeport [Applause] thank you for that this saturday uh doctor will be having this holiday happening which is on the calendar that oceanside community service with student activities is delivering deals uh pre-packed bags with all the fixings for a christmas dinner and we do have gift cards that we've given all the children in this community that requested assistance by christmas time again thank you very much [Applause] [Music] of commerce we had a great menorah landing in the tree light and schoolhouse

062rain a lot of people attended it was a great night it was warm we gave out hot chocolate and donuts to the kids uh they sang the school choir who was sending some nice hanukkah some and christmas songs and it was well attended so i want to thank the entire community and also psychologists for co-sponsoring that event and bringing some holiday to our fantastic community thank you all right this is the point where the opportunity for members of the community can comment on non-agenda items the limit is three minutes however before we start i just i got a notification that the thespian club was here tonight [Applause] awesome please introduce yourself okay there it is good evening board of education members fellow theater and art students and the oceanside community my name is sunny barrenson

063and i'm a senior who is heavily involved in the theater and music programs at wichita high school this year i am president of pesticide 32 and i'm here to speak on behalf of oceanside's scholar artists and performers and on the future of oceanside high school's theatre community oceanside's theater department is one of the most interactive and influential programs our high school has to offer over my years of high school i have been pleased to watch the theater program expand and i have been honored to have been a part of his growth i'm proud to say that this program has grown tremendously and is not because of love theater classes have the impact theater classes have an impact beyond making students more talented and well-rounded actors the active classes help with public speaking thinking on the

064spot memorization and communication skills skills that can be applied far beyond the classroom beyond learning valuable life skills the ocean type theatre department has a massive has a massive support to the student's mental health through their work independently as a team our teachers mrs taclon and scala have made tremendous efforts to personally know and develop a relationship with each student miss gala must have been together have cultivated such a welcoming and kind environment that is more reminiscent of the family within the classroom i could speak on behalf of all theater students when i say that these classes and our teachers have positively affected my our mental health by increasing my confidence and giving opportunities i never could have imagined happening this year miss gallowan teaches four dance classes two special needs dance classes and three

065acting classes about two years ago there was an acting class that had 27 students because the class was so large projects just weeks to complete and it was difficult for a single teacher to devote individual attention to each student currently our dance classes and beginner acting classes are similarly packed this year i am in an advanced active class that has around 10 students in comparison to 27. i found that projects are completed faster students are given more attention and the class runs more smoothly overall adding a second data teacher would not only allow for individual attention in closer net classes but it'd also allow for the creation of additional pivot classes in the future we want to explore the idea of a screen acting class a special needs acting class and a bridge between the

066middle school and high school in order to follow our current trajectory it's imperative that we have a second year teacher in the past few years oceanside has seen expansion in departments such as engineering and business programs which have multiple teachers to support their career additionally all other arts classes have multiple teachers including two course teachers two band teachers and multiple art teachers it's only logical the theater follows suit we have had a lot of changes in administrations here in regards to the art department and although it is sad to see such wonderful influences retired it has been refreshing to have new teachers and administrators to bring forth new ideas and innovative opportunities through her time as a student at oceanside and to the present day as a teacher mrs tapley has exemplified all of the

067quality as not only an incredible teacher but an incredible person she's made all students from all areas of not only the buildings but the district feel welcomed included and important through her work and engagement at the middle school the thespians recently had the opportunity to speak to middle school students about the year in high school it was so exciting to see the future theater at oceanside so much of which can be credited to ms kaplan losing her as a member of the theater program at oceanside would not only be a massive disservice to service to students but to the department as a whole in conclusion i hope that our presence denies how much speaks for itself we care about this department as for all of us to act as a family in the home our

0683d teachers in this department always supported us through our high school careers and beyond our teachers were also always instilled in us that when you care for someone who show up for them and tonight our mission is to do just that oceanside's theater department is one of the most influential and special programs this district has to offer and it is only fitting that we expand our staff and our course catalogue to cultivate [Applause] okay opportunity for members of the community the non-agenda items please take turn at the microphones please keep your mass on and three minutes thank you and please say your name come with school your children attend or what school you attend um my name is matthew moran and i'm a fifth grader at school three and today i came into school school

069three like i always do with a happy smile i was so excited like a new day there's so much stuff to learn and i've got food all the day and at lunch time something um day strange happened we went to the gym and i sat on the floor i had to eat my french toast with syrup on the floor i had nothing to offer i had no table no nothing i don't know how i was supposed to eat it i was sitting on the floor as an animal what am i supposed even with the tower it's disgusting and you have to eat on it too i cannot figure out why we have to people have a teacher's land and this [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] i thank you for the opportunity to talk as you

070know i will be retiring next week after 32 years of teaching at old school number three i would like first to thank all of the teachers that have contributed to my own children's education my husband and i recognize the impact that their nurturing has had on them and although they are both young adults now without a doubt they feel the positive influence their teachers have had on them a teacher doesn't just impart knowledge to their students but life lessons that are an integral part of who they are as contributing members to their respective work and social communities i would also like to thank and acknowledge all of my colleagues who work tirelessly every day never more so than in the last two years as they positively impact the lives of their students of this district

071they are amazing and i've had the privilege of working with them i've had a rewarding and a gratifying career here in oceanside i am proud to be a member of a community and a district that puts the needs of children first thank you [Music] for your teaching and your community leadership throughout the years and your children being in our school districts has been amazing for two beautiful amazing children your husband as well dedicated and still dedicates time to our community so you will be showing us but thank you [Applause] hey everybody it's john henderson thanks a lot for uh all right um so first of all with respect to test to stay my understanding is that that's been effective in new york state and globally since at least september so i'm a little bit concerned

072that there's been a lack of urgency associated with our own implementation or our own efforts to implement it and so i'm hopeful that this is a serious effort and that you guys act quickly on it the other thing is i've seen at least two iterations of tests to stay one of them includes a quarantine reduction from ten days to five and one of which includes an immediate return to school for the child upon obtaining a negative test i urge you to utilize the latter i think it's wasteful for us to keep these kids out when they're healthy i know that in rochester in monroe county that is exactly what they do and there's no reason why we should be doing that here um you know i've heard i've heard some reference today by ms cassiello

073i think to a global health emergency look the fact of the matter is this is a disease with a 99.997 [Applause] it's far higher than that and for people who have vaccines it's far higher than that so frankly i think we should stop utilizing the rhetoric of public health [Applause] there are school emergency who are writing letters in opposition to kathy hopeville i think we need to be in an operational stance [Applause] okay because no one is listening lord friend didn't listen she's out of the job now [Applause] november vocal lab so we get some rational policies i want something to change now [Applause] please introduce yourself and what school your [Music] i don't know how to follow that up and i want to thank you guys for all your hard work and dedication just

074seeing that you have every uh our children's interest in mind that being said i provided each of you a letter they are child specific to my children and it deals with the masks in our school it is chock full of information scientific research a massive ineffective and they harm our children [Music] i know that i'm telling you i know that we have this rhetoric that we keep bringing up but the fact of the matter is our children are not vectors for this disease they may get it but i challenge anyone to tell me how many children have died from this disease or had serious illness the answer is statistically irrelevant basically our children are losing the ability to connect with each other [Music] if you watch that video as beautiful as the things that those

075children did they couldn't breathe [Applause] this is not how we want to raise our tree i know some of you have children here in our schools i know that this is your time because you represent us we are the voice you represent us and you need to be our voice to the governor and you need to stand with us and tell us how we can help you how can we organize organize us to help you because we're here we want the best for our kids and we don't believe that they don't maybe some people have different ideas or listen to you know you know are unable to get past this current state that uh the state that we were in but we're moving forward this virus isn't going away it's endemic we need to learn

076to live with it and live normally with it [Applause] criticizing one of you but now [Applause] but it starts with you guys saying no because the money the 275 000 that they give us in this budget does not work our children suffer in another day and you may think that they're happy man and i respect everything you've done with our children but our kids are generally not happy my children have rashes under there by their noses for what the match don't work was we wouldn't have 60 new cases the other [Music] because kids don't get affected by this and you know what if we use the excuse that we got to protect grandma and us we're towers thank you very much [Applause] [Music] last time i was here i asked dr harrington and the board

077what was being discussed with the new york department of health for guidelines for a return to normalcy since that time nothing has been done today i heard dr harrington mention a letter that's being drafted why wasn't it drafted a month ago not sure but we are moving farther away from normalcy and digging ourselves deeper into a hole that seems that we'll never get out i am sick of hearing that everything is done for the health and safety of my children let me say that one more time i'm sick of hearing that everything's done for the help is not a threat to my children i'll tell you what it is drug use um depression um suicide these are much greater issues than i have some statistics so um among states reporting children were 0.00 um to

0780.000027 percent of all coveted deaths and six states reported zero child deaths now i could pull up statistics on drug overdoses and suicides they're much higher than what i just voted for so what else is a threat to my kids the mask i didn't plan this with this gentleman but in my hand i have a report that talks about it says a group of parents sent their kids face masks to a lab for analysis here's what they found let me tell you it's disgusting e coli tuberculosis pneumonia lyme disease these were masks tested because they're gross but they also aren't doing anything to protect my kids from coping which cova doesn't relate threat to my kid anyway so let's mask them for seven hours let's not socialize them and last time i was here i

079was also told that their kids are fine they're not fine my six-year-old is trying to learn to read with a teacher a saint of a teacher in a mask while she's in a mess how is that fine that's sad that's horrible that's not normal and i want you to advocate for a sense of normalcy six-year-old should not be learning from mass teachers mask themselves to enunciate sounds and letters and learn to read and the last thing i'm going to say is that nobody here including every board member can tell me about the long term psychological and emotional damage that's being done to our kids because there is no substitute for time we just keep talking about this global pandemic but my kid's not socializing with myself thank you thank you very much [Applause] [Music] hi

080my name is todd goodman uh my kids go to school nine i've got three posts in the district currently i'm not here to talk about madison hogan i'm an educator in westbury i'm a teacher so i feel respect and understand how difficult this whole thing is um i would say that my three boys play a lot of sports and they're not socially hurting um they never complain i don't complain about it as a parent my wife doesn't play not a parent i found from teaching kids for the last 18 years if you don't make it a big deal anyway [Applause] [Music] um uh ferry will get cut each year there's about 65 kids on the team there's three coaches there is no way that you can run a great football program and that makes it

081on a team you can't get reps you only play six games not good kids in the game it's impossible i don't know how you can even evaluate 100 kids in two days and two practices to know who was actually directly coordinated play football or not uh 7th grade is the first time that a lot of kids are actually allowed to play football their parents don't always let them play football from the time when they're six or seven years old um and again so i'm fighting for that i would like you know for that to happen um if you have two teams right there you third four kids in each team you're enhancing reps all right because more opportunities to play i'm trying to talk right here um [Music] it will incur very minimal costs in

082the district right it's an outside sport not worried about gentile right you already have 66 five kids on the field at a time if you have two teams from 35 to 40. all right you've got the eighth grade team right they practice from the 40 in seventh grade teams is on the other half of the field i do have the same thing at port washington high school where i coach football with the varsity at the jd i know we have the equipment how do i know that coach football fort washington we had 75 kids come from the middle school team there it's the most i've ever had we borrowed 30 helmets from oceanside so i know we haven't heard all right um there are five other schools middle schools that have just seventh grade football

083teams so there is a schedule all already in place it's not getting five schools six games scheduled that will complete your schedule um those cool coaches all right there's three steps in the contract step one if you hire three coaches for that team and you maintain the same coaching step salary as a combo team it would only be fifteen thousand dollars for three coaches um but i do want to say something um is this the lane in here um okay that's our that's how it completed to answer um i saw him earlier but i didn't know if you were still here i appreciate your comment and we're definitely going to be looking into something exactly if there's anything you need to do thank you [Applause] is it possible to put something together for the reward

084yeah good thank you wherever you want it [Music] can you please state your name can you please take your name on what school your child attends no problem hi i'm peggy peduto i have a grandchild in high school and i have a grandchild named school age both have been sent on one quarantine uh they get one hour of education a day if a homeschool child's only get three hours so these children are obviously lacking in their education and then also on the new york law don't they have to be in school 180 days did that change did you change mr miss harrington so that it took it here is out three times that's 30 days they're out what happens to it they don't no one is giving a dance about the kids if you have

085um personal questions regarding your grandchildren or your children please address or please address things with your school principles that's the we're [Music] i will speak generically about quarantine instruction and mr vito fill me in as i don't say um as completely as i'd like to you are correct that we want our kids in school because quarantine instruction what we do is we're following the model of what would be in place if the child was receiving homebound instruction they are getting one hour of individual instruction per day that is the that's the minimum law that that we are entitled and expected to give our students when they are on homebound so we are following that same model we don't disagree with you that it is not ideal again one of the main reasons we have stayed

086focused in trying to keep our kids in school so i hear you don't disagree but the model we have in place does match and mirror our homebound [Music] that what you've ever done [Applause] [Music] so i'm looking around and i'm thinking to myself are we still doing this like really this is two years now we still with this charade i'm looking at all of you up here you're not three feet apart why do my kids gotta be three feet apart i had something totally different to say but i'm looking around i watch governors go to parties with you know masculine kathy hochschill every time she shows up no mask on but five-year-olds have a mask on it's ridiculous at this point it's absolutely ridiculous and it's time for you guys to stand up for us

087for yourselves oceanside has always promoted to my daughter since pre-k to be an upstander it is the motto of oceanside be an upstander stand up when something is [Applause] our children stand up and be the leaders be on the right side of history [Applause] but the problem that i come across we're talking about safety i'm not going to go into the statistics we all know it it's repetitive it's ridiculous here's the problem i have the middle school had lockdown yesterday a drill okay and every time there's a drill i always ask my daughter how was it what did you do i want to know and she said oh it was fine we just sat at our desks that's safety what happened to the last 20 years of huddling in a corner because there's an active

088shooter somewhere coming into our schools that they need to be safe [Music] this was the kicker later on last night she started to tell me about a game they played in gym yesterday and how much fun she had playing this game and the reason why it was fun and i don't remember the details of the game but apparently the teams had different maps and you could have as many people as you want on that map the coffee doesn't go into the gym for this time but it happens in the classroom so i'm confused where the safety is where is the safety i don't i don't get it what are we doing what are we doing to do the same thing over and over again and getting the same results there are no sets they are

089cases thank you thank you thank you hi daniel gillis my children and [Music] so this is the first quarter event meeting that i've been to and i felt that it was really important to come here because i didn't want to be the one sitting around complaining and not addressing it as a mother as a career mom as a business woman it is in our best interest to come together and figure out a solution the hypocrisy in this entire with all due respect town is insane and it's unacceptable [Applause] we have our children at the forefront our health and wellness of our children at the forefront yet it's really strange 2 500 students at kellenberg are in school all day they eat lunch together they play together they keep sports together it's only in union so

090tell me where the difference is when we're adhering to the department of health guidelines that caliber it's fine over there and my daughter hasn't been quarantined once [Applause] lack of information the lack of communication but this is absolutely unacceptable for the taxes we pay and we all know that this is a business the school district is still a business so here's what's gonna happen you're gonna have people pull their kids out because i'm gonna be the next one my son's gone [Applause] if you empower the parents and give us the opportunities we will help people but please ask our opinion my son is not sitting on the floor for a second and i will say the second i told dr zandari he responded immediately and said no problem the kids can bring in the chair

091that's the communication that i expect from the district but again i'm curious to know and i would love an answer on this if we're all following those apparent department of health why is the catholic schools operating totally fine [Music] so just for the record i just took a note of that and i will get an answer to that tomorrow i appreciate that input because i don't have an answer for you but i will get one because i'm curious myself to be just perfectly carried with you so thank you [Applause] please thank you i'm jamie i have a daughter from school six and i stopped from school three um when i got miss castillo's email on friday i went berserk and she called me on sunday thank you um and i heard about the chairs and

092i was like i can i'm working with you because i want my kids in school 100 but i will not allow him to get on the floor i'm trying to make him a little man and do everything i have to do so we have to think of something better i'm happy to hear the trades because that has not been conveyed to the parents um and then i just agree with all the other parents here tonight uh my like sixth grade uh my school sixth little girl is trying to learn how to read i feel like she's not getting it because she can't see and i think her addiction is off slightly and i think we would be better without the mess and bruce [Applause] on december 13th ruth blakeman wrote on his facebook page that

093he will not be following the governor's mandate because he's mostly 90 percent crap and he will uh i say it again a mandate is not a law we support you if you would just fight back a little bit we want to get rid of this follow the science you know really follow us not about science [Applause] two children one in high school one in the middle school um side note i'm not going to be popular right now but i do agree with the mass mandates teacher for 21 years elementary school first grade i understand everybody's concerned about reading and watching addiction but my concern really is with the soft lockdown yesterday at the middle school my daughter told me i'm part of the brt team in in my school in the city which is the

094building response team on the leader so my concern is that when the children were sitting nothing is covering the windows so i know for a fact that in all of new york state that the the windows need to be covered considering the mandates the children aren't allowed to go in the corner and hug but if there is someone in the building an active shooter or not someone iraq whatever it may be the children are sitting dogs the person to look right through the window these glasses are huge these these doors the windows they're used so someone walking by can easily see so maybe have the teachers cover the windows or maybe put a blind that they could pull down as opposed to them just sitting there and looking right at someone who might be a

095threat to the building or to the children in the in that classroom thank you that will definitely be addressed thank you please state your name and what school your children go to um okay first i'd like to thank uh the teachers and the principals and the staff at the elementary schools because i know you're doing your best in this difficult time um i know you don't have a lot of say in the directives and the guidelines set forth by the district i know you're doing your best um but here i'm here to address dr harrington and the rest of the board tonight um recently the superintendents of both long beach and rockville center school districts have sent letters to governor [Music] an opposition of the potential scuba 19 vaccine mandate for school-aged children dr harrington

096have you or are you planning on sending a governor a letter to governor hopeful in support of the parents that are requesting the right to parental choice in the decision to vaccinate our children all right this is commentary just keep speaking every minute if you are could you could the community members see a copy of the flag okay assembly bill a8 378 is scheduled to be voted on on january 5th this bill requires immunization for children to attend school i support the right of those who choose to vaccinate or not but it is an insult to our personal liberties to have that right taken away furthermore i believe a mandate such as this will result in many parents pulling their kids out of school parents should not be forced to inoculate their children with an

097experimental vaccine the current environment that our children are living is far more damaging to them due to the emotional and psychological toll they are currently involved as stated our children are suffering the brunt of this virus we would all be hypocritical to say that once our children leave school they do not resume normal life we are not keeping our kids masked at three to six feet distance from one another outside of school they are having play dates sleepovers and all other types of interactions as kids do i believe to believe that they could only transmit and get copenhagen while being in the conference of school is observed [Applause] my two undocumented children just recovered from cohen a few weeks ago experience shows me that this virus does not warrant the constant fear of hunger driven

098by politicians and the media this does not mean that i think hope it is fake or non-existent but i do not think the congress stricken displaced by governor cocoa and the new york state department of health for schools to open and remain open it's extreme it should be required [Applause] [Music] i apologize for your time [Music] um i thank you for giving this opportunity i really would like to also thank mr strandy who i think is a very good principal and will be with my student my child for seven years i did want to come up here and i feel very strongly with how other people feel but when i did this with the masks i really felt like felt like it fell on deaf ears so i'm not going to really i don't want

099to say waste my time but i already kind of know how to feel about that so i want to just like address certain issues that um are very important that i think you do have control over i also want to thank kim's son for being brave enough to come up here [Music] [Applause] i'm not okay with my child i do not want her offered alternative chair i would like you to use the uh the space in the school to you know make room i am a guidance counselor at a new york city school i have 700 kids we have all the preps in the classroom pretty much minus jim um please utilize the space the floor is not an option [Applause] is the quarantine time other school districts do things differently where they do not

100have to do contact tracing and such um i know you mentioned attend these five days please look at other policies that other school courts are using um districts because the day that you've told me that my children will be out for 10 days i really i don't know what i'm going to do that is as an educator for 15 years the worst thing that you could do for children is to keep them out of school so please please help me um another thing i want to mention again i'm a guidance counselor so you guys always look at school academically i look at it like i deal with abused children issues very severe staying home attendees is more than just not getting education it's a lot of other reasons um so again if please look at

101the quarantine time um i would like more mental health and services offered to my children um i had a student say the other day i have to wear a mess of killing my grandmother please understand the damage that this is doing my my husband and i are going to speak very openly to our children they do not feel that way however i do not know how other children feel um you have a wonderful guidance counselor in um the king department center i can't remember anything right now um please give more time to speak to these children about what's happening not with opinions just with you know give them an opportunity to really talk about how they feel their children and they don't understand and yes they can think differently than their parents sometimes give them

102that voice please it's very important this district to pay more attention to mental health okay please state your name and school your children hi my name is roberta siegelson and my children are in school 3 and 1s i would like to just make a request that it becomes a policy in the district that no teacher asks a child if they're vaccinated these are decisions that are made between parents and really think that the pediatricians need to keep their own opinions of that to themselves [Applause] [Music] um i just want to say that i think the way that things were handled was really really poorly um i know that i feel like i mean i thought i was pulling them off the other day i feel like it should have come from you and it didn't

103but i also feel like there seems to always be this little miscommunication i know that on two different occasions when we were initially discussing the term of sports the board was very taken back by your vote and they seemed to not know anything about it and i know i spoke to board members who had said that school aid wasn't actually going to be part of this and then it turned out that it was actually a policy across the board so you failed and unfortunately they can sit here and they can you know talk to us as the principals and i know they're doing the best they can but you put them in that position to get like their hands [Applause] the second thing that i want to say is as the board you guys this

104is the second time in a widespread period that you've done these things and when do you go to like i mean at the end today i know i asked people who's who's your boss i mean it's obviously them they hired you you don't seem to feel that you need to answer to them because they obviously didn't know what you were doing or they're lying to the parents which i mean which is it are you gonna know the board members that we vote for or are you going to admit that you just do what you want so that as you said you can sleep well at night and you're making them and you're actually making yourself the enemy when you don't need to if you just have a conversation with people and you keep using the

105word transparency because you're not just to clarify a letter was sent by me on friday afternoon i did explain about our quarantine numbers going up and i did explain that there would be changes in procedures because each building was different i did say expect a letter from your building principle and that went home on friday evening well in some cases some buildings went home on friday and some cases that went home on monday my letter my letter went out to the entire community okay when you sent your letter did you know what the changes were going to i knew that the building principles were going to make modifications to those things and they say that it was a policy so that means that you already knew it so why did you address it on friday

106[Music] please this is from my heart i'm not i'm with you i'm not against anybody in this room i'm not against any child not against any parent but i i you need to know that when we went into this my colleagues and i we went into this we had a long conversation about it i promise you it was in support with dr harrington i never claimed it was a policy management we weren't directed to do it we did it in good intention i get it you're upset about it i promise we hear you dr harrington hears you but please please please just understand it wasn't meant to make this adversarial at all it was meant to keep kids safe the problem no the problem is is that there's people at home who did not hear

107anything you said because you didn't speak into the microphone so we need to we need to let mrs adriano finish can everybody stop talking please so i can get better and hearing with mrs handyman i'm making my point so this is [Music] this isn't the first time that you've done this and the board i mean again i'm not gonna i would never call out who i talk to and what you guys said but they they're they're telling us one thing when we see them in in private settings people that we're friendly with so they some of them showed up when the with the sports stuff in two years you know when we were going back to school having no idea so again i feel you have a responsibility to at least tell the board i

108mean you're not even telling them and then we're getting blindsided thank you [Applause] [Music] we attempted to do something to keep kids in school i get that it upset parents we hear you um but i have to support dr harrington in saying that this was not a directive to us this was not a policy this was something we did to keep kids safe in school that was why we did it so thank you you have an entire board of directors up here and a couple of superintendents and not one person thought that children sitting on a dirty gym floor might not be a good idea and maybe called the meeting and said you know what this might not be a good idea we have phds we have who the role of the school board is

109to ensure that school districts are responsive to the values beliefs and priorities of their communities as per the new york state school board association each member should make decisions based on what he or she believes to be in the best interest of the community of stakeholders including but not limited to all students in contrast to individual students or certain groups of students most importantly this is for the board understand and honor the roles and responsibilities of a school board as opposed to those of the superintendent you are a separate body dr harrington is your hire you hire her it is your job to keep the checks and balances and the super important you act as one body nobody speaks out with different opinions no one can test any of the things on the agenda [Applause]

110there's no exchange of ideas here dr harrington says and it appears to the community that it goes [Applause] that this board of education are only responsive to the values and beliefs and priorities of phyllis harrington and certain representatives i have come to this conclusion rather than the board of ed's lack of response to my at least 20 emails addressed to both dr harrington and the board of education and there are times when dr harrington replies but no one in the six years have been in a school i've never gotten a reply from anyone on the board of education so that leads me to believing that dr dr harrington is running the roofs and you were all soldiers and soldiers complying to what she does you find her it's your job to keep her in check

111and when i say in check i mean an exchange of ideas because not everyone is agreeing with what dr harrington is doing with this district and you are coming across as one body and that is not checks and balances [Applause] and cannot make progress as the governing body the board of education and superintendent are not using critical thinking to guide daily operations the board made a promise four months ago to share with the community the legals that have been guiding the decisions [Applause] all the time okay [Applause] [Music] please give this gentleman respect and hear what he has to say uh i is [Applause] [Music] more smart about any of this data because it doesn't exist [Applause] i'm just gonna ask that if we're gonna like if this is going to be just a continuous

112that you're not happy with with the school board and you're not happy with dr harrington we all get that we understand that see this is the problem let me say something we could respond to a lot of stuff that we're not obligated by watching respond to but we don't because it becomes a screaming match and a screaming crowd so if you wanted to have if you wanted to have a really good meeting it would be respectful you guys just keep screaming and it's every meeting and you don't want to hear the answers you just want to show [Applause] [Music] and i'm just here as a concerned parent um about the current circumstances that our children are in and how it will cause irreparable psychological damage and for what the future holds for our children what's

113happening before our eyes is a complete overreach of control when schools cannot operate the way they want to operate because of government overreach when teachers cannot teach the way they want to teach because of government overreach when parents cannot parent because of government the way they want a parent because of government overreach when doctors can't even treat their patients the way they want to treat their patients this is vitamin it's a sad day for americans because it signifies the loss of all of these freedoms [Applause] and although some of you may feel that these tyrannical rules and regulations are keeping people safe if we allow it to continue there will be a day where these rules and regulations do not align with your beliefs it might not be coveted but there will be something else

114that you not that you do not agree with and i'm fighting not only for myself but my children but for all of you as well and i hope this will open the value in these freedoms and what could be taken away from our future generations i ask that you stand with us that you support us that you write to our legislators and let them know you will not stand for these mandates and that you want local control not guidance not guidance for what they have what they want to say we have to do local control thank you very much for attending very much [Applause] please please your name [Music] all right listen we're all here for seeing purpose right we came together before i got hiring all the members of the community we're trying to

115figure out how to guide our kids through this horrible thing this is unprecedented crime but here's the thing the board dr hamilton oh we're failing [Music] [Applause] okay so we're not going to talk about the next that happens with its funeral and appointment let's talk about right now our kids are sitting three feet apart in single rows with mess and they're surviving because they're ocean quite strong but shame on us for allowing us [Applause] [Music] when other districts are streaming they're allowing like our kids their home kids dream life why aren't we doing that why aren't we doing better [Applause] [Music] i i work for the department of education i'm a related service teacher i'm in seven schools over two districts and i have a single student in any city school that you keep [Applause]

116[Music] me and mother parents why can't we split the lunch right that have kids have kids eat and have their fibularization so then we were told that we don't have this dick why don't we have to stick why can't we hire more of those monitors why can't we have a special teacher gym music pharma orchestra work and in the service group here why don't we pay the teachers to give up the press why don't we ask for rental volunteers if you have to use the today's name why can't we we're women tables chairs single dash heads snatching right or we have to if we're so worried about it for the 35 minutes tonight [Music] um so just again i'm a statistics person i need to know facts nasa county 95 of adults are vaccinated 99.9

117of seniors are vaccinated 92 percent of kids 12 years and older are vaccinated according to cdc zero children have died from coverage in new york city [Applause] no kids have died from in new york city from pogo um so it really starts because of it you know so based on the facts i don't understand where the hysteria really started because of the fact that i'm reading um the schools have always encouraged partnership and support from us as parents and we expect the same from you guys in return when we ask for it um i hope the leaders of our community to a higher standard i expect more from our leaders i know you can do better than this i don't think you're maliciously trying to hurt the children but we need a better game plan

118what what you guys have presented is not acceptable to probably the majority of us and you guys can do better and i hope that you will take the time to think about a better solution than children eating on the floor or on a towel or on a tray i offered you know i went to school too as a child when the building was not big enough we used to have to bring in and mr moreska was the principal back then um we used to have to bring in tables and chairs every single day and put them away every single day i told that to dr z as well i don't know what the big deal is why can't that be done now if you need my help i work from me and my husband work

119from home now a perk of you know covid so if you need help you want us to come and volunteer i will gladly come in and set up tables and chairs [Applause] on his lap that is not acceptable [Music] and if we have to do the a and b schedule uh something like half the kids are eating in the classroom half the kids are eating in the the cafeteria or the gym i'm sure there's solutions out there that if we all put our mind to it we can come up with instead of the haphazard solution that was presented to us this past weekend um and a quote that i would buy um may your choices reflect your hopes not your fears that's nelson mandela [Applause] [Music] [Applause] school your children attend good evening my name

120is ryan apacella my daughter riley goes to wonderful school number three um i'm in 100 agreement with most of you here i want to say thank you to the school uh school parade ms castillo i think she does a wonderful job and keeping us free so with that said i'm a correctional idea for nassau county new york state rules and regulations and we had more yeah even though most of our staff was out of color such as myself and i did bring it home to my family and everybody got it and recovered what i'm trying to ask and i understand i appreciate all of you it's we're all here because we want to talk about it we want to be a part of that i don't want an email on friday it looks like you

121guys are running from us on friday and then probably work to find the situation on sunday the second part and this is just i have a question for the board feel free to answer it what is the board stance and dr harrington stands on global minions because the culver 19 shot like most of you said is because we all as parents and doctors and pediatricians get together and discuss with our kids if it's the best opportunity for our kids what is your stance on because i know long beach i know raffle santa have already came out with a letter saying that they will not support management so if you don't mind answering my question thank you for the [Applause] your time my name is russell uh i've been eastern school of five um so here's

122the issue um you guys are putting these kids on the floor i've spoken to many superintendents i've spoken to many officials none of them agree with us you know you told everybody that they that everybody agreed with it before they don't what you're doing is wrong uh parent x before they said why don't you guys have enough money to hire teachers you gotta go with relief on you know what you use that covert relief on a diversity equity inclusion teacher for counselor you guys know what diversity equity inclusion is you are openly using diversity equity inclusion in this school district that's an issue you're not even shying away from that that is an issue and page 2 line 19 is saying the brutal masculine is a black and brown people of amongst police officers you

123are teaching these kids to be political activists and to go against police officers you're teaching them that is don't roll your eyes at me because that is true that is true it is on the site and that is true i have an idea we're going to have a presentation on what that actually is mrs pravito isn't is the assistant superintendent of curriculum she will speak to you these kids and when you're telling somebody you're judging somebody by then by the color of their skin you are doing wrong by these kids what are you teaching these kids you're not teaching these kids to be anything important go ahead and speak to you okay finish it for four minutes please because here's what's gonna happen here's what's gonna happen and to the board members too if you

124guys do not fulfill the promises that you guys are here to make and if you do not fulfill this community you guys will be voted out i don't see you sitting on the floor you are not 6 feet if mr coakley has colbin are you going to sit on the floor tomorrow and eat lunch [Applause] thank you is about shaming none of our work is about critical race theory none of it is related to any of that what we are doing here excuse me don't please let us speak no one interrupted you let's let us [Music] is [Music] is [Music] we are not teaching critical race theory and what we need guys [Music] i am 100 behind the things that we do in this district the mission of our work there is simply to promote

125the success of all students um [Music] i think we can all basically agree that eating on floors was an epic fail but i just spawned moving forward you're offering chairs and lap desks and whatnot i think you need to think of your special needs population if poor motor planning and other things you need alternate locations assistance technology accommodations made for your special needs and um i did mention it when i originally spoke we are being responsive one of the things i said um but it's good for you i don't understand we're consistently pivoting um and being flexible um [Music] [Applause] all of our students needs are being met but yes we are absolutely looking at that and taking each individual situation in our buildings uh seriously and making sure that all new needs are being

126made thank you can i speak together i can state your name please um if my child or my children did go to this district i believe it would be school-free um my husband and i are watching on youtube as well as 350 other individuals in this district that are watching we were home our kids are asleep we were compelled to even just come here and speak just because we're just curious i think someone came up here and said that their children go to caliber my son goes to st magnus i think i would just love to know as a taxpayer how are you not teaching the kids at home my son's third grade is completely shut down and he has been in school from 8 15 to 2 15 today [Applause] that are doing completely

127the opposite of what you guys are doing the other thing was calendar my husband is a teacher at calendar he we have no answer as to what this district is doing because he had it taught from our living room taught and still teaches kids that are in school at the desk and kids that are home all the time every time every day so it's very confusing to hear through youtube right that you guys have no option nor willing to give an option to this community at all and we're paying you guys have no option no options for these children okay yeah you know what i'm not one of those people that think that it doesn't exist yes it does it says yes kids are gonna get sick but you have one hour to give to

128the children when my husband is teaching over what 210 kids a day or anything i will make a commentary to the board uh from the board um and then we'll make a motion to a german meeting if you have a question regarding anything other than that subject matter please state your name at work school your childhood brianna kids are on this frenzies i just want to point out that i want to state that you aren't okay with parents repeatedly coming up to express their similar concerns but i want you to know that it's a matter of time parents are starting to see through what's going on and it's a growing number of parents every day more and more parents are not okay with what's going on in the school and it's a matter of time

129when new york state mandates this cloven vaccine for kids they are going to pull their kids out of school is [Music] um [Music] so unfortunately i could not make up the most recent board meetings but the last one i was in attendance was in august and i did direct to dr harrington in the board um about the transparency and would we be receiving the emails again as we had last year hello fumbling and not no real answer um so you have the positive cases on the website but they are cumulative they are not giving us an accurate picture of what is really going on so when an email comes and oh we have 50 000 cases come on so i think it's time that we start back with the thumbnail so we really know what

130is going on i can't log on every day oh is it 50 or 52 or is it 54. okay so i think it started so it's cumulus and now we only have one today but two yes [Applause] where can we go with this the bottom line is yes i think you absolutely right in the summer we opted to not send daily notices first and foremost partly because by the time the daily notices were going home in the spring it was sort of like white noise and people really just were no longer in many cases opening them up and that's what people were telling us directly so we had made that decision because quite honestly the numbers were really down and we were really happy and we really didn't think we would need to do that

131what we made a commitment to right then and there we didn't fumble with a decision we made a commitment right there that if there was a spike or a specific reason that either district-wide or building-wide we would need to notify people we would do so and that is why over the last month you've received a couple of different emails from you make a great point about the cumulative cases on our website just today i told our data person we need to have this now by by the week because you are correct it doesn't give you a sense of quite honestly how bad things have gotten in terms of the numbers so it's a great point it's already in place as as of tomorrow there will be a graph that will actually give the numbers by

132the week so in that cases completely agree and that's what we're going to be doing appreciate that i know usually there's only one thing i could ever say but um just we were all doing google classroom last year we have the ability to do remote learning why the kids infer team getting one hour why can't they have the google classroom again [Music] just to point to clarification on the quarantine instructions the there is two hours a day per for the secondary students we do follow the homebound instructions so thank you we are looking at that secondary they had two hours ago okay you can't just sit in the audience and yell out you can't do that but anyway i'm making a statement by the board and then we're adjourning you oh cindy i'm sorry that's

133okay um i just want to make a statement and then i just wanna uh just as a statement um that um cornell university just recently closed um they had to go online for all their finals and stuff so they're well-known university um as well i just want to wish the board the administration the teachers the staff are very healthy happy um merry christmas and new year and everything hope we can get a little bit past this next year thank you okay the answers to your questions are and i know you don't want to hear and i appreciate if you just let me finish speaking and then we'll adjourn and you guys can scream all you want okay the answers to your questions [Music] be ashamed of yourself