BOE Meeting 6/16/21 at 7:30pm

001[Music] so ah mother right you foreign right now oh congratulations you i know [Music] hey oh wow good evening everybody thank you for coming can everybody please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good evening everybody dr harrington yes good evening thank you mrs this is our traditional june meeting where we are so very thrilled to honor so many of our students who have achieved so much over the course of the year uh this is of course particularly special to us because they overcame um even more of the hurdles and challenges that we all face this year so we're looking forward next year to having these students and their families with us in person that's for sure but for tonight's presentation

002we do have a video that was put together by so many of our wonderful faculty and staff and i do ask you to please sit back and enjoy as we honor and celebrate the successes of our oceanside students thank you good evening my name is jessica keagan i'm filling in principles it's my pleasure to announce our very first honoree of the night maria's travis of school number two has won an award of merit at the state level of the new york state pta reflections competition previously maria was an award excellence winner at the nassau county level for her musical composition entry in the primary division of the competition entrance to the competition are asked to consider a theme in crafting their entries for 2021 the theme was i matter because congratulations to maria and her

003teacher trisha welsh good evening everyone my name is joshua pearson and i'm the principal of school nineteen tonight i have the pleasure of announcing that mark horny one of our sixth graders has been selected as the recipient of the freelander upstander scholarship by the holocaust memorial and tolerance center to earn his award mark wrote an essay about a time in his life when he was an outstanding this award comes with a monetary scholarship that mark used toward his education mark also received a proclamation from the new york state senate in recognition of his essay we are so proud of mark congratulations to him and his teacher christine rosenberg thank you hello i'm joanna clutter principal of school number four and i'm very excited to announce that school number four has been designated a no place

004for paid school for the fifth year this work is accomplished through the hard work and leadership of our student council along with their advisor mrs jackie corcher our president kathy la mercenary our vice president sammy thompson our treasurer celine ballen and our secretary joanna byrne along with mrs horton our school social worker created three building wine projects that allowed us to get this designation the projects were focused on diversity and culturally accepting all types of people a recipe of respect was one of their projects as well and they provided a monthly word for our school focused on words that can hurt and words that can heal so thank you to our student council leaders and to all of our students and staff to support the efforts to be designated as a new place for hate

005school good evening my name is tara maurer and i'm the director of mathematics for oceanside schools and this evening i'm here to read and recognize many honors in the area of mathematics in oceanside schools i'm going to start at the elementary level with our project extra students they all participated in a worldwide mathematics league competition and i congratulate you all probably say it at the end of this large group the first student from school number two michael milit is receiving first place and he's a sixth grade student liam power also from school number two third place and sixth grade student ethan de vivo also from school number two third place and he's a fourth grader the next two students are from school number three uh nissan cohen first place fifth grade joseph cressen third place

006fifth grade the next several students are from school number four cole sarah i apologize if i'm pronouncing any names incorrectly first place fifth grade eleni smaractus first place fourth grade joseph vulpes second place fourth grade cora mccarthy third place fourth grade and from school number five olivia edwards second place eric zielinski second place in the worldwide math league competition for grade four and from school nine e we have um amelia chu third place for sixth grade justin lizarson or lazerson second place fifth grade sebastian edelman third place fourth grade and i'd like to congratulate their teachers michelle gamache stacy greenfield kelly manning kristen steya and casey patron congratulations to all of our elementary students receiving this wonderful recognition this evening at the middle school level we have a student who placed first place at oceanside

007middle school in the american mathematics competition at the eighth grade level ellis chu and their teacher is dan art we have three students who participated at the middle school in a contest called the continental mathematics league competition tied for first place in seventh grade is richard lang and ashley sparroccio our first place in the eighth grade at oceanside middle school for the same competition is and again the teacher is mr dan art we have students who participated in the new york mathematics league competition and earned first place in the seventh grade uh that goes to daniella sanchez and first place at the eighth grade level goes to ellis chu congratulations to all of those students at the high school level i'd like to congratulate a new krishnatis anu participated in the maa american invitational mathematics

008examination also called the amy and he was selected to participate in this exam which is a huge huge accomplishment because only 2.5 of students who participate in the american mathematics competition are selected to do so we'd like to congratulate anu and all of our honorees this evening good evening i'm matt christensen the director of science i'm proud to announce that research student drasana shanthan has received the ryco sustainable development award at the long island science and engineering fair more commonly called lysa this award recognizes outstanding efforts in addressing environmental sustainability and responsibility in students projects drisano's project was entitled effects of habitat fragmentation and modification on species richness and abundance of endurance congratulations to tristana and our research teacher mrs heather hall good evening my name is robert grace and i have the great pleasure

009of being the director of fine and performing arts for the oceanside school district and tonight it's my pleasure to announce several other reads in the area of art our first honorees are school number four students of art teacher jean-marie joy who have had their work selected for publication in the celebrating art anthology these talented students are ava pelosa michaela jenna jacqueline kurchenko cali la personnelli hazel hodain luco romero madison sereno michaela sheriff eleni's smaratas and henry zaraton and fondly our last student ephrath hannah weiss of oceanside high school was selected as an exhibitor for the flower power exhibit sponsored by the art guild of long island congratulations to all these wonderful students as well as their great teachers catherine field and jean-marie joy good evening i'm mitch daven director of social studies k-12 i'm proud

010to congratulate our world interest club with repeats of modern united nations simulations under the advisor of teachers daniel block and gavin county for an outstanding year students from the club attended virtually modeled united nations conferences at harvard university brown and most recently reported at these conferences students assumed the roles of world leaders to discuss complex issues at the heart of which accommodations balance their own interests to collect requests for international peace security and economic social progress the following students different awards at cornell best delegate max coppola honorable mention julia height thomas eldaho and luke strikinsky congratulations to our wic students and their advisors in scouting the bottom four oceanside high school students have achieved the pinnacle of their respective scout organizations in addition to their experiences observing a natural world participating in outdoor activities and

011learning valuable life skills scouts learn about their communities our nation and current events the tenants of democracy and civic engagement and so much more they also perform a great deal of community service culminating with their final projects please join me congratulate these young people and their scouting leaders for their accomplishments adam abby eagle scout troop 303 mark homestead eagle scout troop two three zero a lot of progress girl scout gold award troop 2417 congratulations good evening i'm sarah dowell our health teacher at oceanside high school as well as the oceanside high school youth council advisor additionally i work with the oceanside state coalition which works to prevent underage substance use members of the oceanside youth group have partnered with the oceanside safe coalition the new york national guard county drug task force and the nice

012bus to create a public service campaign about substance use and its impact on the developing brain the ads appear in the nice bus all over nassau county over two-month campaign reaching 33 000 writers congratulations to these following students for their efforts and advocacy rachel churcola danny cohen brianna zacher jesse fitter olivia hickam jessica davis isabellisi nick in cargolia paige sacker i'm dr david rose director of world languages and enl it gives me great pleasure to announce the results of the national language exams and recognize our students for their impressive achievements the national french contest the following students have excelled in the national french contest honorable mention oceanside high school jayden hernandez magalie musto ava de muzio ryan mcfaul aaliyah shannon thomas elder sebastian patino alexis alfassa shiloh leibowitz maya phillips the silver award oceanside middle

013school madison moore the bronze award oceanside middle school bella honorable mention oceanside middle school jordan aquio elena benedict annabelle connolly victoria cuevas victoria dubai addison weiss our french teachers are elizabeth levengood kelly george and richard jenner the national italian exam goldwingworth oceanside high school nicholas alvarez sarah robston the silver award oceanside high school gabriella lucas julia shapiro the bronze award oceanside high school gabriella catrona lyanna silver award oms catherine rue alexa perry bronze award oms haley cruz dylan donnenberg olenna achievement award oceanside high school nicholas cairo julia levine grace nastro vincent calvino gabriella prendergast jessica banta spencer helser cassandra lucero keane monahan mia grace roadley carolina roshiomi cody thorne suhad rahman liam khan dino palmier the achievement award oceanside middle school tyler desantis samara hughes luca nagroski montana robster vanessa francodales our italian teachers are

014bridget amthor eric patel dr angela gusto suzette valeriano and christina piticilla our final group of world language honorees this evening are our national spanish exam students the gold award oceanside middle school alexandra aceta zoe nunez julia de la morta hayley diet olivia zielinski silver award oceanside middle school madeline abel jordan davis michaela alexander michael blinn katie swanson jobel angelico monifay martinez luis trevilla emilia walcott tatiana diaz luke villala brian flores angelina lopez the bronze award oceanside high school samantha chaston the bronze award oceanside middle school siena huelos savanta [Music] matthew gomez honorable mention oceanside high school michael kane gabriel tajeda juliana fabrizio carley o'mara joanna savokulos julian petrajita daily rodriguez jack swansea robin lear avery morgan angel yaya honorable mention oceanside middle school danielle vivona max kane paula renatos john donner brandon rempel isabella beauchamp

015haley wesley parker roth daviana rodriguez lauren dowd michael eberle joshua gemara shea hutchinson michelle katz timothy barrons colton greene kayla henranti jackson lopez jack paul chloe salute eliana duran isaac vasquez matthew pepe our spanish teachers in this category are christina lange larocca patricia valeriano francisca d'agostino gino romeo christina castillo license janine garcia and amy rand buenas noches good evening i'm jeff reisner director of health physical education and athletics please join me in congratulating our student athletes on their outstanding accomplishments as well as their commitment on and off the field in basketball all county honorable mention gabrielle majolusky and jacqueline cyrus all league matthew amitrano logan myson and matthew mccabe their coaches are jared stoller and edward reisner in cheerleading all long island alexa paplowski all long allen's second team matthew guglielmo all county sami olsen

016their coach is samantha chaback in cross country all county jason beer tristan degan daniel hoffman jason kerber jada king jackson murray and trevor wren their coaches are al lyson and claire meeker in football the thorpe award for the most outstanding player in nassau county is charles mckee the don snyder award for the top quarterback is charles mckee the pioneer award for the outstanding linebacker is andres duran all long island is andres duran and charles mckee all county joseph broderick mario de pasquale ronald kramer logan lyson and michael mecca their coach is rob black all county in golf michael donaporia michael's coach is ryan lucas in gymnastics all long island jessica grew in floor exercise catherine brew in balance beam floor exercise and vaulting all county in gymnastics catherine brew and the all-around emma raider and

017megan rugelo in the uneven bars and floor exercise megan reynolds in the uneven mars jessica brew and kayla kessler in the balance beam and abigail garrett in vaulting their coach is andy marks in soccer all county is gianna fusillo lily johnson matthew maher and benjamin sanchez all counting honorable mention is david acker and ryan proffitlich their coaches are patrick turk and marianna winchester in swimming all county is michael bierikov and the 100 meter butterfly and in the 100 meter backstroke michael's coach is john madden in volleyball all county zachary takorsky and john justin all counting honorable mention shannon d dominica victoria justin and colleen mccabe their coaches are chris harkins and rob kiley congratulations to our student athletes on these outstanding achievements hi my name is audrey miller and i teach the video production and

018broadcasting classes here at oceanside high school i'd like to recognize our students who competed in the locust valley student film festival they competed against several schools on long island we'd like to recognize the finalists and the students who were given the distinction of best in show they are jared price finalist for the movie trailer maggie keller finalist for commercial antonio celebule finalist in the comedy category timothy kunken who was a finalist in both the drama category and the comedy category michael prepare finalist in the comedy category and best in show for psa hayley demisa finalist in the documentary category and best in show for psa michael garcia finalist for psa and best in show for commercial jacob grace best in show for animation brian anderson best in show for movie trailer and alex benowitz finalist

019in the coming category best in show for animation and best in show for documentary congratulations on a job well done okay thank you all for your patience with that but it is really such a pleasure to sit back and watch the breadth and the depth of the achievements of our students um so many varied so many different students recognize in all different aspects of what we do so just it certainly makes me incredibly proud speaking of which this is an opportunity once a year where i cannot really do justice to giving homage to the service that the individuals i'm about to talk to about and mention have given to us but it is the least we can do as a school community to take just a few moments and recognize their choices to move on

020to a different stage of their life and to actually officially leave the oceanside school district i am joined um by my colleague donna gales who's the vice president of the oceanside federation of teaches to help me celebrate and honor these individuals so let me just begin by a few uh people who unfortunately could not be with us this evening first our director of fine and performing arts mr bob grace has decided to retire from oceanside after 32 years of service kathy rosso is a teacher uh reading teacher retiring from school 9mm illness after 21 years of service geraldine lacroni is an officer teacher also at oms serving the school community for 33 years a music teacher joined george grossman a choral teacher at ohs by far an amazing music educator musician here for 26 years

021and linda horowitz is an earth science teacher from oss ohs excuse me retiring after 24 years unfortunately they had prior commitments and could not be with us i would now like to ask a few individuals to join as i call your name if you can just come to the stage and stand so we can ultimately get a picture of everyone but normally we do have quite a few aids monitors um other people in other positions besides teachers that have that choose to retire but there are those and there are a few that we're mentioning tonight who are able to be with us tonight are so special to us um mostly because of their dedication and years of service and also because we will miss them terribly so without further ado i would ask marianne santana

022to important to join us i think that's podium here she actually served 23 years as a monitor and she liked that so much she decided to move into the clerical world where she served us for 14 additional years i'm not sure what uh people know what administrative assistants do in our elementary schools but for the most part um they basically do everything the principal asks them and needs them to do and they are just so incredibly valuable to us especially in some of our large buildings where quite honestly in other districts there would actually be probably assistant principals in that role we have two amazing amazing women who are retiring after 28 27 years of service respectively and i'll ask them both to come up one from school three one from school five congratulations to

023our michelle cadaver [Applause] [Music] i think if there's anyone here from school 5 4 school 3 you can certainly attest to the um the invaluable nature of these women and what they add to our school culture and they will be absolutely terribly terribly missed another position that we have in our district is called instructional assistant and these individuals also are the right hand and left hand of the principal and quite honestly of the teachers as well um they deal with anything technical technology-wise in in their buildings but they are also the go-to people for taking pictures and doing just about again everything that the principal asked them to do we have someone retiring from ohs castleton after 31 years of service andrea weinberg [Applause] [Music] and now moving on to our educational staff i'm going

024to begin by with an elementary teacher who is retiring from school 5 after 22 years of service congratulations kathy kelly [Music] another school five teacher i don't know if they decided on this together or not but she's returning after 18 years marianna [Music] mills both mariana and kathy had the pleasure of having miss pavito as their principal and you know she speaks so very highly of them and how much they will be doubling this from school 5. one of our teachers from school number two has decided to retire after 24 years of service we honor mary hagney in the role of school counselor at oms a very very special man who has been just near and dear to the hearts of so many of our middle school students and i know how very much he

025will be missed from home at oms we wish the best to robert hellring [Music] we finally got a man up here robert he's wondering what's going on [Laughter] one of our finest finest social studies teacher at ohs a woman who wore many many hats over the course of her tenure here in oceanside including working so closely with student activities and i know that's where she's remembered so fondly from so many of her teachers and watching her in action in her social studies class is is truly a joy because it's obvious she's incredibly passionate about her content area as well always having the best interest of the students at heart congratulations after 33 years of service julia nappy [Applause] teaching science at the middle school is quite a challenge but it also can be incredibly exciting

026when especially when you have the inquisitive minds of the middle school students this teacher did it incredibly well after 33 years as a science teacher in ons we wish the very best to david noodleman we're very happy to be with us this evening david thank you for joining us the next two individuals i am going to call up together because in my mind they're repaired one they both taught physical education dawn for 33 years jamie for also 33 years but they both did and i know for a fact that i'm pretty sure they decided to make this move together but we know at the high school and in this middle school we know on our in our in our coaching ranks as well as our pe ranks we will certainly miss but wish the very

027best to dawn howard and jamie conway [Music] [Applause] and finally certainly not last but not least um it is my real true personal privilege to um to recognize our retiring director of health pe and athletics i got to know mr eisner when i came here to oceanside eight years ago from the day i met him until now i cannot think of a more kind gentle caring loving individual he was always there for me we had lots of challenges along the way to say the least this year was the most challenging but he always always um handled everything which shows dignity such grace a true gentleman he will be very very much missed we keep telling him we hope we're going to see him around because he is an oceanside resident but we wish you and

028your family jeff nothing but the very very best in your future having served ocean scientists 23 years congratulations [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and [Applause] just one more moment you know to remind everyone and i'm sure you realize that making the decision to end one career and perhaps be getting another or just another journey a labor your journey is never an easy one no matter what career you're in but i find that the educators or people who serve schools i think it's even harder because you wake up every morning wondering what what what am i going to do today to make a difference in the lives of children and to be to think that you might be missing that is tough and i recognize that i also recognize that this year was particularly difficult and i

029certainly while we we definitely survived or we'll be talking about that in a little bit it was a tough year for everybody everybody certainly our parents certainly are students certainly everyone in the community but especially for teachers and educators because you had to really do so many things differently you all stepped up and i do hope that you don't forget this year because you did step up and you didn't meet those challenges but i certainly hope for you from the bottom of my heart that you can be reminded of all the amazing collective years behind you and what that really did feel like and never lose the the fact that you did make such a difference in the lives of thousands and thousands of children [Applause] congratulations [Applause] so here so i'd like to congratulate

030all the honorees and the retirees thank you for your service to this community and to the school addition to our children of all these years and the board wishes you the best of luck in your new chapter in life thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay i need a motion for the acceptance of the minutes from may 5th may 5th 2021 regular meeting may 10 2021 special meeting and may 18 2021 special meeting second all in favor yes thank you this is also our meeting where we traditionally review um our accomplished goals and objectives for the year so without further ado i've asked um i turned the microphone over to our assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction thank you thank you for the opportunity to share an update on this year's district goal suffice it to

031say this school year has been like no other it is hard to believe that last year around this time we had established the superintendent's task force for the reopening of school over a hundred individuals were a part of this work dedicating days on end to prepare for whatever we were faced with all the while it was clear that our mission no matter the obstacles no matter the uncertainty or to navigate the school year engaged we had students staff and our community safe and healthy we maintained the continuity of instruction ensured access and equity and met the unique needs of our students and be communicating with our stakeholders this was our priority and as such we pivoted from our traditional means of developing numerous goals and remain laser focused as and surviving here with these elements

032was our contest the very fact that we are gathered here today is a testament to our success it was not easy nor did we please everyone along the way with our decisions but it cannot be denied that we provided continuity of instruction for our students and kept health and safety at the forefront of one of the most unprecedented times in our nation's history despite the challenges we were able to make progress and successfully accomplish other initiatives and goals that were established before the pandemic for example as you know we have undertaken a multi-phase transition to align the new k-12 next generation science standards fully meeting the expectations of the transition timeline provided to us by the new york state ed department this year under the direction of our director of science dr christensen we have

033accomplished the final phase of alignment for grades k through six we implemented the use of i-ready grades k-6 i-ready is a digital platform through which we were able to assess students in the area of mathematics and readings then we use the diagnostic information to tailor instruction to the individual needs and monitor our students progress across the year iv has become an important tool for us in the coding gap that may have existed for some of our students as always we are committed to providing professional development of the highest level at the inception of this school year we provided extensive professional development specifically in remote teaching best practices and also in deepening the use of identified software and applications we also focus workshops on social emotional literacy mental health and wellness and culturally responsive education finally

034we continued our work with columbia teachers college to support professional learning in the reading workshop model this year oceanside school district parent university adapted to the circumstances and provided several virtual parent workshops for the transition back to school and on topics related to mental health and wellness i hope some of you have attended the virtual viewing of the film end and also the film light i am proud to share that with supported access to the film for our high school students as well we this yielded over 1 300 views for the film eggs and we expect an equally strong viewing for the film life which is to take place on the 18th this was not an easy year to establish brand new paradigms and programs but we did do just that we successfully transitioned our

035project expert program to a home school model this evening we saw quite a few uh honorees from that model we launched our grades one through three maker space program and our new wellness program which affords students in grades four through six lessons on social and emotional literacy and mental health and wellness on a regular basis we continue to work on supporting and promoting the success of all students through professional development on culturally responsive education and effort the district also moved forward with the energy performance contract project this was a way to conserve energy while also yield savings through efficient upgrades in our buildings and our systems that being said what i'm most excited about was the student engagement partnership that we embarked on with esg that was the engineering firm that oversaw the project a

036cadre of our oceanside high school students from our technology and engineering courses and our ap environment course volunteered as student ambassadors working alongside engineers and other individuals from the epc project they did walk throughs with them they provided feedback on the project and they even presented at one of our board meetings i am so proud to share with you that this partnership led to a paid internship for one of our seniors because of their depressive work these are the kinds of partnerships that we look for the types of collaborations that we see in the hopes of opening doors and opportunities for our students i'd like to thank our two wonderful teachers who really supported his work josephine giacomo and john laplacia finally a capital reserve fund was established with voter approval in may of 2018.

037the reserve allows us to participate in construction projects and large perfect purchases and is the means by which we are facilitating the renovations of our science lab this year we began the first phase of those renovations and these state-of-the-art renovations will certainly elevate the teaching and learning that has taken place for our students at the high school as you can see we have accomplished quite a bit despite the challenges we were faced with there are those who would call the 20-21 school year of last year i would argue it was anything but that together we navigated the roughest of orders our students were resilient and they showed fortitude in the face of incredible challenges never before seen when we looked back at all of this we went from surviving to thriving and no one can

038attest to this better than the voices of our very own kids so let's listen it's easy to listen to the complainers and only see the negative but there have been many great things happening too so we created an entirely virtual elementary school that has challenged each of us to step up to the plate as virtual learner we adapt to this new way of learning with positive attitude the librarians have used their prize money from the fallout video challenge to revitalize the library the books have been recategorized to make them easier to bind they also bought furniture and decorations to make the library a more welcoming and functional place in app creation this year project three was to create a school store app mind maps were created to see the process that was required research was

039then done to find major trends in app creation students had to show their creativity when deciding how to meet the best needs of the customer students also had to be sure that their app was extremely user friendly finally students had to make sure their app performed well and that their content was accurate and organized this project was so challenging and fun the stairs and hallways have been transformed with images that celebrate literature science history language and inspirational heroes [Music] the cider press and sailor station have continued to produce high quality content to tell the stories of oceanside and spark a discussion about what is going on in the world virtual and streamed events have helped to bridge the gap now live sports have a turn with many of our teams achieving successful seasons on the

040failure on the field they are also being recognized cheer and dance teams have been able to perform in front of live forms many of the traditional events have returned like the variety shows fortnight and the mother-daughter dinner team spirit was so much fun we weren't able to do the things we normally would be able to do but we made it through we did most activities outside like softball and tennis baseball there were new activities that came out of team spirit as well such as the ultimate relay there was a day to celebrate our seniors complete with a background [Music] at school number eight we are especially proud of our police parade it was an amazing opportunity to give thanks to those who serve and protect our community we need flowers to show our appreciation for

041all of our first responders on september 11th we had national merit scholarship recipients our awake team took the top honors and modeled the un competitions at harvard and brown the dutch team did an outstanding job earning recognition at the state level this year we participated in makerspace during specials we are innovators creators and thinkers through hublitz we design solutions and develop and use models for our challenging tasks we celebrated our college-bound students through several athletic assignment day ceremonies and our decision day celebrations through all of this we never lost our humanity the annual turkey shoot fed needy families during the holidays students and staff organized numerous drives for local charities our essential workers and even a local animal shelter in february we participated in the super bowl and collected 200 cans of soup for oceanside

042community services in only two weeks in march our community raised over 2 000 for lls in april our student council led a workathon our families raised over five thousand dollars through this event for austin speaks despite the challenges we face this year we are proud to be a community that supports charities that touch the lives of our families mental health was a priority with students and staff providing resources students in the health classes reached out to their peers they even set up events like psi levy day and the kindness tree to help let everyone know that they are not alone this year on friday we won mindfulness exercises and faculty skills with free speech where strategies and health analysts that helped us not just survive the thrive this year these tools support our academic social

043and emotional success while helping us be on yourself from surviving the driving this has been a year like no other it has been a challenge but through it all persevered we showed up masked up and got the job done [Applause] years from now it is my greatest hope that we will remember how we came together the flexibility and the dedication of our faculty and our administrators the endless support of our board of education and the unwavering steadfast leadership of our superintendent most of all i hope you remember with all the adaptability perseverance empathy self-discipline compassion and heart that our students showed through all of this they reminded us truly every day that we are sailor strong thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you because now we're just going to look a little forward and i'm honest

044no that's my fault i'll probably go i promise to go quickly through this apologize to the lights but looking forward uh you may have heard that the federal government then ultimately through the state has provided districts with different allocations of resources that could be used through an application process for very very specific things relative to the response to the corona virus as well as what's known as the american relief project so we have been working diligently there was a very short window but we have been working very hard with teachers administrators a parent body board members to sort of define what we think would be the best utilization of these resources moving forward the problem with a grant like this is a great thing to get but it's very clear also that these have to

045be non-recurring expenses so while we can spend this money over two year period after two years the money is going to uh no longer be there and we have we'll have decisions internally to make at that time whether or not we proceed to keep some of these in place and of course by that we'll also have the data on whether or not the positions were valuable or the things we decided to do were worth holding on to and then we'll use that data to make decisions as i said moving forward so some of the things that we are putting in this application in terms of addressing what the federal government is calling learning loss we are going to expand on the i ready program that mr vito spoke about early bringing it to k-8 this

046will give us um real very quick uh data on student achievement in terms of both in the reading and the mathematics area and then of course we'll be able to support sorry to provide that support uh accordingly so in addition to that we're also looking to add math academic support personnel k through eight uh and it's also possible that some of those individuals would provide literacy or reading support we do currently have those individuals currently we're looking to add to that and focus quite honestly in the mathematics area data we would get from the irate program we're also looking to give an allotment of monies to each individual building k-12 so that they can provide after-school academies at their choice in terms of what they think might be a best way to address the learning

047loss uh in their buildings and for example some of the things that have already been tossed around uh in in the middle school for example is something called esports which is an electronic sporting game type of thing that we're going to make a club for because there are lots of students who enjoy sports but don't necessarily want to play on the field so that was an idea that has come to us that quite honestly we couldn't add to our regular operating budget this now gives us an opportunity to do those kinds of things for our children one of the things i have to say i'm really thrilled about is in the area of technology because this grant does allow us an opportunity to replace uh existing technology or add technology that we don't have our

048smart boards which sort of feels like we just started using them days ago are actually anywhere between 10 to 14 years old especially in the elementary schools they are really in need of replacement to do that one fell swoop is quite costly this grant will allow us the opportunity to do that in our entire elementary in each of our elementary schools very excited about that one of the areas in terms of falls under the category of promoting a successful students we are looking to improve upon our initiative which is known intervention these will be training sessions at each in the individual building so that staff at the building level will be able to address immediately needs of students that might be struggling in a variety of different areas it's something that's been around for a

049while and we've certainly begun to do some work in that area we recognize that we can do a much better job in that area and as a result we're putting funds on to that initiative uh those that might have heard of some work we've already started this year with our culturally responsive uh education and equity advisory council uh work was done at our high school which was you know quite brilliant in that and there was a committee that worked and made a number of recommendations they did have something on their wish list and quite honestly thought it was going to stay on the wish list but they did ask for an opportunity to bring in a school counselor who would focus just on that um over the course of the year k through 12. um

050i'm happy to say that this now is something we could entertain um you know and again a two-year commitment you can see after the two years how that person is utilizing the advantage of having like someone like that on board but i'm really excited that we can actually honor that request that came from from the teaching staff at the high school and again it will be a k-12 position prior to covert we had gotten a grant through senator kaminsky's office we decided at that point we would redesign some of the space at the high school to actually create a self-contained wellness center had lots of wonderful ideas for and everything just sort of stopped cold when we when we get to shut down for code it is our understanding that that grant is still uh

051very much uh ours we are higher up in the queue so that's happening through that grant but this work um in this grant we're going to support actually staffing that wellness center with a people personnel staff member it may be a psychologist it may be counselor maybe social worker we're not sure yet but we are very excited to have be able to have a full-time person staff that as well and then finally under the area of supporting best instructional practices and student engagement we're looking at three different things one is we do have a teaching and learning coaching model it has worked incredibly well in our district we're going to expand that model haven't quite defined in what areas k-12 but it is something we are going to be looking for we are going to

052increase our professional development in the area of reading and writing and perhaps one that i'm most excited about mr mareska i know you'll be really happy to hear this um you you may know or notice that we have what what's called an arboretum um out in this courtyard here and it is at one point i understand it was a wonderful wonderful um working environment over the years like anything else um enveloped into a bit of disrepair um our vision as we started having this vision a couple of years ago was that we would continue to keep it under the guise of a of an arboretum type environment but to even expand on that and make it more like an outdoor learning lab and we're looking to do that with the help of our castleton students

053and others as you well know our kindergartners and pre-k children will be here and they'll be able to take advantage of that as well having scoped out all of the great ideas that can come from that but we are also very excited and it actually fits under the guidelines of this grant as well so that is our plan um if the grant was actually due yesterday they gave the gate districts um 15 more days to do that and actually said that their the allocations may actually increase so we're actually waiting a little bit to see where our final dollar amount is but our we're ready to go on this my understanding is that the it will be the the applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis as they as they are received at the

054state education department and i do believe they intend to review them and get results back pretty quickly because as you can imagine if this is all approved we'd like to act on it sooner rather than later that's the end of that miss miss mohan thank you so much i'll entertain any questions thank you guys for having me the i'm ready software that was mentioned earlier and just now we're moving from k through 6 to k2 through 8 in reading a math how often will be evaluating the data that comes out of that is that um overall is it per individual student do we evaluate it uh periodically at the end of an academic year we have currently established the district data team and there's also building level teams we assess the data throughout the year

055we go in for each of the benchmarks there are three benchmarks that are taken by our students where we assess that data and we do look at the data from a building level of district level and of course individually because that's the point that's the impetus of all of this it's really saying what are the areas that we can target what are the areas of strength to elevate those areas of strength as well it's not just about differentiating or closing gaps but also lifting areas of strength for our students so we have regular data meetings thank you thank you any other questions okay moving on update mr copely on the school lunch program yes thank you uh just a brief recap of our end of the year within the food service operation uh we had

056a very challenging like my opinion very successful year our year-end projections indicate that our food service program is strong which is needed to continue supporting the many different needs of food equipment and supply purchases in all of our cafeterias just some major accomplishments that we underwent this year we successfully had the completion of two audits uh one done by the state um and one done by our own risk assessment or internal auditors um an administrative review is performed every three years required by law by the state of new york by the child nutrition department for any school district who approves a state approved meal service program obviously we are one of those it did include a complete review of all breakfast and lunch service free and reduced price applications after school food sales menu nutritional

057analysis etc i'm very pleased to report that on both audits uh we we came out extremely positive with minimal significant no excuse me all the recommendations um second accomplishment as part of the national child nutrition program and the united states department of agriculture uh oceanside opted into the free meals initiative back in this past november which extends the provision of a free breakfast and a free lunch to all of our students regardless of income status as a family i am happy to report that this was a success uh beginning in november through the rest of this school year and we were recently informed that the free meals initiative will be extended for the entire upcoming 21-22 school year also in march we celebrated national nutrition week which focused attention on the importance of making informed

058food choices and developing sound eating patterns to that end due to the pandemic we kind of shifted our efforts to more of a digital slash virtual format to reinforce that importance and we actually uh offered and showcased the week-long friendly contest called the first annual great oceanside cook-off which was well received and all participants and families and students were recognized and honored and finally we just want to we are proud and we want to recognize the hard work of all of our food services employees to that end we did create a video that was uh played here at our march 24th board of ed meeting um the purpose of that was really to show kind of the uh the various measures um under the office of the pandemic what that meant for food service with

059respect to cleanliness safety precautions and how the overall food service department prepares food at the high school every day and ultimately gets nutritious meals to all of our students district wide that video i believe is still on our website under our food services page and just finally i would like to thank jane blackburn our director of food service and her entire department for a very challenging but successful food service school year thank you mr copeland any questions from the board mr dean version mr what's the uh percentage that we have now i guess i want to say at the elementary school or maybe if you have the numbers there as far as with the free breakfast and free lunch we have a lot of people taking advantage of that when you say it's 25 50

06075 so our percentage of free and reduced uh eligible students district-wide is actually a little over 18 um we do uh have an obligation to report that um with that uh when we did up into the free mills initiative um we do we did still have to continue reporting that however uh we did kind of have an asterisk if not an exemption or a waiver for the entire school year um because of the status of free meals but i would say our percentage is a little over 18 district-wide would that be like a a county average you think or or a national average or just that's our average it it depends we we are hovering i'd say below average but we are you know not far off you know the the going average for for

061free applications thank you mr kobe construction report the construction report is estimated thank you dr harrington thank you okay at this point in time right now it's opportunity for the public to speak only on the island we're about to vote on if anybody would like to speak choose a microphone and wait online but this is right now only items that we're about to vote on okay for item a authorization to reaffirm [Music] all in favor any opposed any extension motion carries item b resolution of ocean southeastern preschool district adopted second all in favor all right any opposed any [Music] movement second all in favor any opposed any extension motion carries item e approval to enter into a financial agreement [Music] any extension motion carriage item g movement all in favor and the extension motion counters

062and an h movement any extension motion carriage item j move it second all in favor all right all right any opposed an extension motion carries settings any opposed any extension motion carriages approval movement [Music] all in favor any opposed any extension we have a motion to open mr [Music] any extension motion carries items all in favor any opposed an extension motion carriage i didn't see a second fall in favor all in favor any opposed any abstention motion carries by the max okay second all in favor any post any extension okay motion carries okay dr harrington opportunity for superintendent of schools yes thank you mrs i will promise i will do my best to be brief but i do have some very important announcements i would like to make first i just want to be clear

063and remind everybody that the area of fine and performing arts we were not able to perform our concerts live but each uh did a different area did have an opportunity to do a concert that was videotaped i know that a letter went out to the parents of the students that participated we will also have those on our website so if you do have an opportunity i know that they did an amazing job with that we're very very proud of their efforts um to that end and very much look forward to having them doing live cup concerts next year speaking of next year i do just want to say a couple things in terms of what we're attempting to do i'm attempting to do in multiple roles that i have across the county and across the

064state we are all very very optimistic that we will have a return to normal next year i will tell you that that's how we are planning our school year right now uh fully intending things to be normal i am involved in advocacy to also ensure that the governor understand that understands that for us as educators while remote learning worked for some under the circumstances that we are not in favor of remote learning and we believe learning actually needs to be in person and we are advocating for that i don't know where that will go but that is something that we're advocating advocating for and i really am very optimistic because as we all know every single day things have gotten better to that end just this afternoon literally i did get final clarification all superintendents

065got final clarification on some restrictions that have been in place uh the the restrictions in terms of in-school burning and the role the rules and restrictions that we are all still living by are still in place for the next seven days however very excited to report and i did send a video message out to our graduating senior families as well as our eighth grade moving up families that um for those large-scale events um we are able to now follow the release of the restrictions so what does that mean so it means for both of those ceremonies we will not have to have cover testing we won't have to have proof of vaccination we will not have to wear masks if you're vaccinated we will not have to do health screenings we will not have to

066do social distancing and as a result we will also not have to limit uh attendance uh at the at the high school at all it will be our traditional high school ceremony outdoors that we're really all hoping for if it is inclement weather we will be able to also follow suit with the traditional model we've had in place for years the middle school as well we are going to maintain the four uh team ceremonies in our beautiful greenhouse a schoolhouse green uh but we are also able to go back to um guests per student that they had traditionally had for the middle school i will also say that we had um spent a lot of time planning our elementary moving up ceremonies because of the sizes the way we were able to to minimize that

067we did not have to have the same kind of restrictions for testing or prove a vaccination and i have to say we did four ceremonies today of course we were very blessed the weather was picture perfect but i have to tell you every single one was just just spectacular um the parents were so appreciative uh it went it went smoothly um we had an incredible sound we had incredible live streaming and i know that everybody there really appreciated that so we're going to maintain our elementary model for the moving up ceremonies there there's just no reason to change them but i'm really so thrilled that we are able to release those restrictions i will also say that for our varsity sports awards mr mitchell and mr eisner um we thought we had to restrict parent

068attendance we could also now allow parents to to join that event as well so it's late and coming but better late than never i didn't really are so excited about that we do hope that that will help everyone enjoy those ceremonies even more i will tell you that our staff has been working for months to be able to prepare ceremonies that met the restrictions that were in place as of yesterday but despite the amount of time and energy we put towards that we are all so very happy to be able to shift to what are now the new restrictions or lack of restrictions if you will that came down that came down today the last thing i would like to say is an introduction to two of our newest members of the oceanside family last

069may 18th i believe it was uh the school board did appoint uh two new individuals to our team and uh they weren't able to join us on the 18th but they're here tonight and it is my greatest pleasure i'll start with mr tom lehmann tom is going to be our new director of physical education health and athletics he actually worked most recently in east chester school district as a director prior to that he was an assistant director here in harrison new york and uh believe it or not he is an oceanside resident so he's a school five and a school six dad we're so happy to welcome him and i believe that i'm assuming that your wife sitting next to you so i'm sure that many had heard that sledder has decided to take a

070position you know in a different district and we're very very sad to see her go it's a great career move for her but we are thrilled that we were able to find an educator who has spent her most recent years in a neighboring district the baldwin school district as an assistant principal we are so very happy to welcome jackie and i assume her husband jackie graham is going to be the new principal of school number four i guess last but not least i i i don't really know what to say in terms of how you can talk about this school year because it just there really are no words quite honestly so i won't even try uh except to say that i was incredibly blessed from the very first time that i started to work

071on this with a team that is superior to any um that i've ever had i've had a pleasure to work with but also i know i know a lot of teams i know a lot of teachers across this county and honestly across the state and how fortunate am i to have such a great team to help do what we accomplished here in oceanside i thank them from the bottom of my heart i look forward to the next seven days i'm not gonna lie i'm very much looking forward to this year ending i never in my 40 years i this is my 40th year i never had a card on my desk as i did this year with a slash countdown and how many days to the end of the year but i did this year

072however i am so so so looking forward to a new beginning a new year it's going to be amazing we are blessed we are blessed to be able to serve the children in oceanside um day in and day out as mr vito i think said it as our children said it the best um when you when you walk into classrooms or you see them on the field or you see them performing uh it makes it all worthwhile thank you board of education for giving me the opportunity to to uh to do to service the superintendent in this amazing district and i just wish everybody nothing but the best of health health health and happiness and looking forward to a new year thank you [Applause] [Music] okay opportunity for the board of education [Music] um okay

073we're going to come back to that later i'm going to go ahead and board a little bit and opportunity for the membership community to speak on non-agenda items for those of you that are not familiar with how to you can get up and line up at the microphones one question each then go in the back just to everybody has an opportunity to speak if you want to speak um and this is about any non-agenda items and when you when you do speak please introduce yourself so that we know who's speaking thank you the microphones are so that everybody at home can hear you because otherwise we we have the whole room wired now and we're very proud of that hi can you hear me okay um thank you for the opportunity to speak my name

074is roberta siegelson i have two children in school three third grader and sixth grader um i'm here on behalf of a large group of parents that have been basically communicating with everybody and a lot of the parents are here tonight a lot of them were unable to make it we know that this has been a very difficult year for everyone including the district the staff and i you know we don't envy being in the position that you guys are in by any means you're obviously between a rock and a hard place um you know we also have great respect that everyone has different feelings on what's been going on with covid and everybody has you know uh different fears and different levels of comfort in regard to all of the things that have been going

075on and the truth is is that you know some of us we really should have probably brought these issues to your attention sooner i think that as the weather started to warm up and things started to happen it kind of just snowballed pretty quickly um and you know i i know that i'm personally and i'm sure we're all very happy to hear what you had said about planning for a normal year last year so i hope that everything that we're about to say is a moot point i really do um but we felt that it just really needed to be addressed um okay so so we're here on behalf of our children of the oceanside school district in the beginning of 2020 when there wasn't a lot known about covid we did everything that was

076asked of us we all stayed home we closed our businesses we didn't go anywhere we complied with every mandate 15 days has turned into 15 months the time has come for parents to resume all medical decisions for our children and obviously the main thing that we're speaking about is predominantly the mass issues the knowledge and treatment of this virus has greatly expanded since last year so at this time we believe obviously that masks should be optional for children and it's very interesting that with what cuomo came out with yesterday that and i'm sure it was you know frustrating to you guys probably as much as us that everything can open up and everybody can take their masks off camp can take their masks off daycare everywhere except for mass transit for healthcare workers and for

077schools and that's completely nonsensical it doesn't make sense in any way shape or form schools have not been shown to be a place of community spread including new york's new york state day cares where young children were never required to wear masks cope it's never been a significant threat to children i can speak of this personally because i had a child with covet and three other people in the house didn't get it including one of my children the survival rate for her children getting covet has been estimated to be 99.997 and those children who contract the virus generally experience mild non-severe symptoms there's no evidence that the masks even work to protect against covid studies have shown that non-medical masks do not prevent coca transit transmission standard cloth size cloth and surgical masks offer next

078to no protection against the virus-sized particles or small aerosols and the boxes of the masks indicate that studies that have compared states and countries with and without mass mandates have shown that masks are not linked to the prevention of coca transmission similarly the 30 states that have lifted mass mandates have not experienced spikes in coca-19 rates of doctor proud she's own words in his recently leaked emails indicate that cloth masks do not protect against the virus and he also noted that there's very little if any asymptomatic spread there is however a lot of evidence that masks are harmful to our children studies have shown that cloth masses of action can actually increase influenza linked illness additionally there are proven microbial challenges as well as breathing difficulties that are created and exacerbated by masking our children

079masks are also impacting the social emotional and mental well-being of our children children are not inherently ill and they've done nothing that should warrant any infringement on their constitutional rights and their bodily autonomy now in the most [Music] recent in the most recent department of health release of guidance on june 7 so only a week ago when it talks about mass and it says responsible parties will need to consider and address developmental appropriateness feasibility and ability to implement such policy in a safe consistent manner i can speak to the fact that there is not consistency in the schools i have two children who have two completely different experiences with masks and the unfortunate thing is that the child of mine i have one child who's fine with masks and i have one who's not and

080it's not she's not in an appropriate class and she's been yelled at she's been bullied she's been you know and i've addressed it with our principal but it was an ongoing issue for a long time and in the beginning i just kept telling my daughter just deal with it deal with it but in reality i think over this long period of time i think it's really hurt i think she's fearful she's you know her self-esteem in her class has been really problematic and i think that this is a part of it you know the consistency is definitely not there um something else that's very important that there are students who are unable to medically tolerate a mask including students where such mass would impair their physical health or mental health are not subject to the

081required use of a mask and my understanding is i have not uh personally tried to get any type of exemption for my children but my understanding is that that uh a doctor's note is required for the district but it doesn't say this in these guidelines nowhere in it does it say this as parents we know our children if our child you know if your child comes home and maybe they don't have a fever but you know something's not right we know our children we know when something isn't right and we know if our child can tolerate a mask or not tolerate a mask and i think that that's really important that if a parent says hey my kid's not okay and i know again from my own personal experience i told my daughter and i

082wrote a letter and i said my daughter is to have a mass break whenever she feels it's appropriate and the response was you and your mom aren't the boss cuomo makes the rules and you know i said no no my daughter can take a break when she needs it she's an eight-year-old child with a developing brain and i just think that these are things that that listen like i said i hope to god i think we all hope that wherever you stand on the issue every one of us hopes that this is a point next year but i just want to point out that that's something that's you know that's that's really been important what i have i have um a couple of things that we have here is um you know like i said

083we're not expecting you to go and say hey we're gonna lift all this and that's it but but we want the advocacy to be there with us we want you guys to stand up with us and say you know what you're right it's not right and we're gonna write a letter to governor cuomo like many of the other school districts have done we have a lot of districts we have a lot we have a lot of districts that have reached out and said hey governor this is not okay and we're not saying do the opposite but but not more than what's in there the guidelines don't say that we need a medical note if the child is saying it's sort of like hey guys if you say your child is not okay and and and

084you're not making it up like we know this it's really important and that social emotional component and the physical component for these children it's just so unbelievably important and then one of the other items there is a letter that that we wrote collectively and it's signed by uh probably about 125 or so parents of the district and just basically talking about this because i think the concern is the you know now with them not wearing the masks outside in the heat i think it's become less of an issue um the last thing that i just want to touch on is um with the a large group of people and i can't speak for everybody but i can definitely speak on behalf of a large number of people who feel the way that i do that

085if there are any mandates in school next year that there are going to be many of us calling our children withdrawing them [Applause] and maybe it's one of your fears or maybe it's not but you know some of our fears are that they're gonna say hey you know what you don't have to wear masks we think that they're holding on i personally think that they're holding onto the masks to say you know what you can take off your mask if you get the copic [Music] if you want it great but it's not a tested product and i can tell you for sure that there are many of us who are going to pull their children with any of these mandates we need you to stand up for our kids [Applause] one person at a time

086at the microphone thank you that's what we want we just want you guys to get behind us and go hey you know what we understand you know we have to follow the science we've been saying science from the beginning we've been saying science from science i'm sorry i just because i know there are some other people who want to have enough time so first of all i just have to say i'm very impressed that you were able to read all that on your phone i could never do that so good for you um so a couple of things um first i want to say there's a lot that you said that there's no question that we all agree um and one of the things that has been the most difficult is the inconsistent messages that

087are being sent if you want to talk about frustrating and you and you reference that and we appreciate that you recognize that so so there's no question about that in terms of advocacy there are many things that we have done i need to just share that i was on the phone personally and i only say that because i am i'm assuming a role come july 1 that puts me in a position that i have a direct pipeline as a matter of fact last night and then again this morning with the governor's aid to education his name is dan fuller so you can look them up i'm not making this up and one of the things that i emphasized was that we can't keep sending mixed messages we need the clear consistent guidance and i promise

088you that i have advocated for that as has the board you did excuse me please you'll if you want to speak you'll be able to come to the mic and speak we promise the bottom line is as you well know a lot of these districts that that push these letters out if you really read them closely in most cases they weren't doing very much different than we were and those that took a hard stand you know what happened days later they got direct phone calls and they were told you must cease and desist to do those things but i think we all abandoned together and said hey but you also assume and and you also alluded to this but you also assume that everyone in our community feels exactly the same way i know you

089sort of alluded to that but understand that we can't you can't talk in the audience please we have to have civility here if you'd like to speak the microphone is available but we everybody will have the opportunity but you cannot speak sitting in your chair please what we can what we can ask for and demand is clear consistent and timely messages so we can get that information out to our families that you deserve so quite honestly that you could be in a position to make decisions if that's the case but here's the bottom line we are not the health professionals i will tell you that as of yesterday when i was crazy about what the new regulations were going to mean i was on the phone directly with tavara buckman who's on nasa county doctor

090department of health and she was like absolutely not there are no changes in that we must follow those guidelines the bottom line is i hope that what you say more than anything is going to be the case we are in a better place as a county we're a better place as a as a step definitely is a state so i am the first thing you said i absolutely hope is the bottom line it's a moot point i just want to make one other point and i promise i'll give the floor to anyone else who wants to speak i just need to say for the record and i understand you had a personal experience apparently with someone in your school which characterizes the individual in in a negative way and i know that you didn't intend

091that but that's how i heard it i need to say without a question that the unsung heroes in this district or our class are the classroom teachers and while that might have been your that experiences that we not be left with a feeling that that teachers or anyone in the schools would act in that way i happen to have you know it's it's not a personal thing i i happen to have had wonderful experiences for the majority of our schooling experience you know but my concern was when it started to really affect and and it was you know a child who was six feet apart behind plexi getting constantly it was four months i i do understand but you saw the faces of those kids on that video it's just a snapshot really but day

092in and day out there's no teacher that would ever have made a child intentionally suffer or in any way shape or form be uncomfortable things happen you know i'm not going to pretend that that's not the case you can have that conversation privately it's not really but yeah but i'm just saying i just i needed to say that publicly and i appreciate you allowing me to do that thank you very much alternating so if anybody over there has one to speak hi um my parents school by and i just want to know what is the school the board's position with regarding mass and vaccine come september if the vaccines are mandatory let me let me explain a few things and thank you for asking that question okay because some people are yelling out um you

093know the board represents all children every single child and as many emails as we got about people anti-mask we also got the same or more emails about wanting to keep the mass on but the reward excuse me but the board has to follow the law you know what we advocate every single day for things for you for your children for everybody's children and but we don't advocate to break the law and the school districts that advocated to break the law had on on sunday had to retract on monday and what they did was they caused more let down more confusion false hope and we as a board will never advocate for you to break the law but we will advocate as we constantly do by phone calls zoom meetings in person meetings we advocate for

094state aid we advocate for for testing for curriculum and testing things that we want changed or that we that we want for our kids but we also advocate for coping we advocate for direction with reasoning with sound reasoning give us the reasoning give us time okay art we and i'm talking about todd kaminsky i'm talking about judy griffin new york state senator you know new york state assemblyman who gathered our districts and they tell us our voice is being heard but the problem is is that the governor needs to hear okay and the governor does what the governor wants to do the governor does what the governor wants to do and and he actually came out that next day after those districts sent those letters that they're not going to wear a mask and he

095sent out and said no you're going to wear the mask and it's going to be ramifications and by the way we're going to send enforcement to your school as well we didn't want that abortion side we don't have any we don't have the anonymous um uh community behind us even in a non-mask and and so we have to be very careful on how we handle it and we are making strides again the strides that we made was that that as dr harrington said we asked her please get on the phone with her liaison that she that she knows from albany because she serves on a very high committee in albany so get on the phone let's get direction together this can't keep going on we need we need conciseness we need um we need reasoning

096okay so i get and this is not a personal opinion of any school board member or personal belief or anything i get it we all have i have kids in the school i get this 100 but we're never going to advocate to break the law what we advocate for is to go back to the way we work and because and because and because everything seems to be everything doesn't apply to the school it's okay for everything else to go on but it doesn't apply to school we don't we that we don't advocate for that we advocate that if you that you got to show us what the reason it is behind this because we have to answer to you and we can't answer to you unless we get the direction from our elected officials we

097can't break the law we don't make the law okay [Music] executive orders according to our legislators who gave him the authority an executive order must be obeyed you're right it's not a law but it's an executive order and we are obligated to obey an executive order i'm sorry if we don't if we don't follow we face ramifications so anyway i do but no one here is asking for laws to be broken nor is a uniform stance of everybody must be in mass everybody must be back advocating for parental choice for our children [Music] [Applause] okay we're advocating for our own children if this mother over here wants to manage their children please do it if this one over here wants to vaccinate your child please do it but do not say that we have to

098and i just want to know what the stance is with the school board if it comes down to mandatory vaccine come september and to be in the blue school they have to have a main story so so i can answer that perhaps you know that currently there are certain immunizations that are mandatory by state law or you cannot put your child in a public school if if and i think it's a big if and again please i'm not saying i know the way this is going to go but if those vaccines whatever ever to meet the standards of those immunizations and i don't think it's likely i really don't but please you cannot hold me to that but if if if they were then they would fall in that category if they would have those

099rules now for certain immunizations you know that yeah so so the choice the choice you do would have and again i i don't want to believe at this point because let's hope it's not going to happen this is not something we have to discuss at the end of the day as a public school system we are under the guidance of the state education department july 1 these board members are going to sign oaths of office as state officers they are obligated to follow state education guidelines and that is there call it a law call it an executive order call it a policy that's their obligation let's hope we hear you we believe in parental choice but we can only take it as far as those those rules if you will allow us to so let's

100just leave tonight hoping that that where we are right now is only going to get better and they won't be things we have to address in september we hear you let's hope we don't have to deal with it exactly do we have any other questions regarding growing anything other than wearing mass do we have any other questions on the same topic and so basically our governor was quoted saying sorry but he was and you just said he's gonna do what he's gonna do which basically means he's a tyrannical governor and he said we need to vaccinate while they're in school while they're a captive audience he likes this idea of just pushing it through right so i think what lindsay was trying to get an answer on is if you guys feel like a experimental

101vaccine is okay to push on our children or not because if you don't will you have our backs when we say no or will you say sorry your choice is either come to school and give implied consent that they're getting it or pull your child out number one number two those other districts that really tried to push back they were threatened they were threatened with withholding money withholding funds and i know for a fact that that is why everybody is scared to push back they don't want to lose money it all comes down to money and power and that is why our governor is trying to push the way he's pushing it's about money and power and the people who are scared are scared to lose the money and scared to lose the power and

102we are fighting for our children we don't care about money and power we care about our children's health safety emotional well-being all of those things so we just want to know will we be supported when we really want to fight for them or will the governor just do what the governor does and push things through that's what we want to know [Applause] my name is stephen weinberg i have two children in this district i think the issue is that your leadership and communication over the past three weeks has been terrible you've been getting emails you've been getting phone calls about very serious issues that pertain to many parents in this district regarding their children i've been in consistent communication with you dr harrick dinner you've responded to me twice i've probably emailed you 18 times

103one email was in regards to when my child was segregated when he first came to school and did not have a mask on i received no response in regards to my child being segregated in a room like this by himself with some moving on that was never reported to me and we can't speak about your children and abort nina not my specific children who have been segregated [Music] wearing masks has never been a law never have is it's an executive order you are bound to follow you have you did not listen to what was just something i did okay it's an executive order that we have bound to file right so so it is a lot to us the school board laws we have to find laws along well so i'm not gonna think about

104you know what is the board saying and where does dr harrington stand on segregating children who want to come to school and not learn math because they want to read and they want to have non-verbal communication in school thank you that's my question where do you stand on you want to be angry you will be asked to leave this meeting [Music] needed to adhere to the policy that is in place thank you thank wow please you yourself okay disgusting you essentially represented government hi my name is you want to answer you failed to recognize the other team in this school year you recognized the board your teams would have been great but you failed to recognize the parents [Music] and now i'm going to listen i didn't get my answer okay no one gave me

105an answer i'm quiet i'm cool okay that there are others that are taking away from the time from others so please please just allow us to continue i am so sorry hi again my name is ed um two kids in the district my son graduated last year the the new model of graduation last year was fabulous i would recommend keeping it smaller uh kind of better than a regular graduation my daughter lucy is finishing her junior year 12th grade had a really positive year this year she's been happy healthy done well academically so i appreciate that very much um i'm a clinical psychologist prior to practicing with brooke about 30 of my clients are teachers at one principal as well in that context i've had a very very intimate front row seat from which to

106witness the fear frustration sadness technology confusion tears moments of encouragement exhaustion disappointment that my clients have suffered as they've attempted to make their way through an utterly impossible situation while teaching their students as best as they can so i've never been to a board meeting before and i wanted to come down here and say thank you i have two daughters in the school i just want to let you know that the mass the pcr tests and the vaccine are for emergency use authorization only and they do follow the guidelines of the murder code okay and it's you have to be very careful listening to cuomo whose cuomo killed thousands in the nurse at home [Music] [Applause] [Music] um hold on we have somebody over here that's okay please introduce yourself hi my name is cynthia

107rosen my daughter is in middle school i just wanted to thank the board thank dr harrington um you know it's been a very tough two years um there's been emotions all over you know between teachers parents staff relatives just everybody in this world you know i understand parents point of view i understand administration's point of view we have seven more days of school we've got to just get these kids through the seventh days of school my daughter is on friday she almost was scared to remove her mask she wanted to do it because of her classmates i've kept her safe this whole school year because of cloven i was petrified to bring her back to school my my family thank god did not get covered but i didn't lose a relative during covenant my girlfriend

108and we just had the young family this past weekend and it was the hardest thing that i could have done um you know everybody tries to do the best that they can i mean como you know but you've got to look at every school district and every staff and every faculty and every administration and every parent that's sitting here you want the best for your child just like i do my husband has been home for almost two years now working from home trying to be safe he just was told to go back after labor day i am petrified he works in the city okay yes coleman is getting better but we still have it september and october that's the the hardest months to get through when the weather changes yes everybody's back but you're not

109back to normal people are still dying you don't hear as much um the other thing is you know we've got a couple more days of school if it's you know mass weary let's wear that square you know no you know what your kids should anyway i just wanted to say thank you so much to dr hart and the administration for keeping our children safe this school year for doing what you did with sending out today your message about eighth grade graduation about the high school which is amazing for the seniors because by the water who's in college lost all that um and i just hope that we can get through the next seven days safely i just wanted to say try to have a great summer and a safe safe summer you guys did an

110awesome job teaches faculty administration just keeping everybody as safe as we could with the colder messages with part t whatever you have to do to keep everybody safe so thank you and have a great summer thank you [Music] please my name actually have is children that have gone to this school district everyone has graduated and i have three in the middle school i myself have gone through this district i actually know half of you that are out there on the board right now and i just have a question regarding one of the slides that you had up there for the federal funding money that you were saying how you were going to advocate it and i just want to address an issue of this culturally responsive education and equity school counselor i don't believe we

111ever would taught something like that growing up and i'm just a little confused because it kind of sounds like that critical race theory thing you want me to speak and so yes very very very clearly we are not teaching critical race healthfully responsive education and equity is all about promoting the success of all students equity is about lifting barriers that students might have in order to impede them from being their best selves it means increasing parent engagement finding out perhaps different cohorts of families families who come from different languages families might have students with special needs any student that has barriers that doesn't allow them to be their best selves it's also and i'm sure you were taught this when you were younger because i was too it's also about respecting other cultures and loving

112other cultures and appreciating other cultures and inclusivity that's what it's about around frankly that's yes for a very long time for the vision it's not about separating people this is not about any of that and i want to make sure that our community knows i i don't want us to conflate what's out there with politics with the good work we're doing here our school is about achievements kids promoting their success oh i know and that's really what this is about so so i don't know if you ask the question because when you don't ask the question then you don't get that clear answer correct and then you run with your money ideas yes so when uh you do try this because you said over the course of two years is there going to be something

113that goes out to families and explaining it or even like um a time where they can come in and they could be some kind of like corporation yeah where we would it would be explained to us and we would understand it more and then we could actually back you guys love to see we want you to back us up and you know what i'm saying yes to be very clear the culturally responsive education and equity school counsellor will be working with students that will be looking at and you should hold us accountable for this quite frankly you should hold this accountable for the achievement of all students and i'm sure you've heard the phrase before achievement gaps and such it's also looking at that making sure that if you have an achievement gap of a

114particular cultural student whatever that might be it's our responsibility to you to close that gap and figure out what is causing them what what education might be what curriculum might you need to do any aspect of that to make sure that we are addressing that all our kids are productive because at the end of the day as a community member in oceanside if oceanside is going to be productive if it's going to be the beautiful community that it is it's going to come from our kids seeing a future no matter who they are that's what this is about and we absolutely plan on updating our community on the work okay and that's going to be an elective where it's going to be no it's not a course it's not a course let me let me

115play it's not a curriculum or a course it's an individual i will be working with students who are working with our schools looking at you know different areas of increasing family engagement looking at our achievement gaps looking at ways to remove barriers for certain students who might have them okay of course okay thank you very very much outstanding questions and really appreciative because it did need clarity and i really appreciate it i also appreciate the suggestion uh you know the board does that to to get their parents involved in because it is you know upsetting it's been around but i really that was a great question you deserve a round of applause um first i want to say um obviously i have a senior so i'm excited about today's announcement um but i do want

116to point out that i also have a special needs child in the district so when everyone keeps saying seven days seven days seven days for special ed they're going to be going more than seven days so the math that means they are going to be wearing them more than seven days you also have the children that are going to be those children that are caved through whatever grade goes up whatever grade it goes to those children so that's a great point it's a great point and i wish i could tell you that we had clear guidance on our summer programs but no no so i absolutely agree and one of the points that i brought directly to dan fuller was exactly that that school doesn't end on june 25th it absolutely and we said we

117absolutely need clear guidance with that i will tell you that absent that guidance as far as i'm concerned the year ends june 25th and we start a new year july 1. so that's where i stand right now on that but if i get very clear guidance that says otherwise but i don't think things are leaning in that direction i really don't i think they're leaning in the direction of we can you know we can really um reduce the restrictions that are currently in place that is my hope that's my intent unless i'm absolutely we're absolutely directed otherwise we know we're aware of summer camp that's outdoors anyhow but we definitely know from our dsy students that that's technically when you drop them off they do go into the building so they're going to have to

118there well not for the summer camp all right no it will right the summer camp will still fall outdoors one of the reasons we went to a short day quite honestly was so that we could keep the kids outside and our program actually for doc is running a short day my son's in the extended program yeah that is and i i absolutely appreciate that that's not every family because it's my son yeah and we're [Applause] [Music] is okay so um i just want to thank you guys because i personally have a kid that has super anxieties she has had such an amazing year and when i heard that best would have been lifted it freaked me out i lost two uncles three co-workers and i just lost another co-worker this week uh i've been remote

119it was all over and listen i know some people got my babysitter got it and we never knew we actually had it it was like you know so it's different for everybody i understand that everybody from both sides of the aisle wants the best for the kids but i just want to say this is a public school and as a public school we need to follow the public guidelines laws whatever and i'm thankful that our school my school i love high school i cannot be happier than my school children and i just want to thank you all for dealing with all this because we all dealt with it too and that's it just want to you [Applause] thank know hi my name is mrs fortunato i spoke with you last week i have two boys

120at school for i can't wait to meet you sorry like this um my one son joseph is 11 he's been receiving services his whole life he's dyslexic he has a hebrash all over his face i have sent you numerous emails only one person answered me miss hamilton you got samaritan sorry you told me to bring him to the doctor the doctor said i'm not giving him a note for school because there's only one week left when he puts the rash on his face it's hurting him he's literally crying my son vincent he's nine years old he's been receiving speech his whole life he's not improving with a mask on okay he's actually regressing in two years he cannot [Music] joseph came to me a few months ago telling me he needs to talk to a

121professional because he has so much anxiety with kobe and everything that happened he needs to talk to somebody it's really not fair when our children are going to and we didn't care about the last week all we wanted them to do was finish and he smiles on each other's faces and knows that things are going to be okay [Applause] to stand with us and not against us we're not fighting you [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] any board members okay motion to adjourn no regards to what's going on with masks i want to know what the school district is going to do i need to email dr harrington for the last since thursday you're well aware of my situation my name is megan estevez my daughter has been harassed by one of your staff members on

122numerous occasions numerous occasions and she's still in the building my daughter's afraid to go to school and it's not right she harassed her horribly that one of your um coaches had to email your ap your principal and she's still in the building guess what the next day she went against what the principal told her to do followed my child around the school yard harassed her turned around and she turned the other leg she told my child to get off the monkey bars when she was told by the principal to not to not go near my child she wasn't allowed to look at her she's not allowed to be near her she told her she was not does not have to attend the rest of her classes for the rest of the school year and she's

123still then then it didn't stop her there then the following day she went she went in where she was and was staring at her my child didn't go to school yesterday because she's fearful of this woman she's been in your district for well over 25 years she is not safe for our children in our district and i my daughter nine years ago we can't discuss this in public well yes this is not safe coming into the district any parent all right well we made a motion to join [Music] you actually responded back to me that you were aware that the school [Music] against what the principal told her then i emailed you again that is your responsibility she should not be in the presence of children harassing them where the coach had to call the

124ep because it was so disturbing so disturbing what happened it's not okay and she's done this to my daughter nine years ago as well she did it to her in september as well and she's still there this is not okay my child is unsafe in the school when you are going against if it's your insubordinate to your superior which is dr glickman spoke to her to tell her to stay away from my child and she did not it is really inappropriate to bring up personnel our children are not seen by one of your staff members that this is why it needs to be addressed because it's hidden it's really unfortunate that this is our last meeting and it has to end on this talk so everything everybody every my child is being harassed by an

125adult we're in the age of social emotional well-being and my child is fearful to go to school are you gonna tell me that this is unfair how is it not there for my 12 year old daughter to go to school and feel that way answer i wish everybody a wonderful wonderful happy and healthy year thank you healthy for all health so tell me about [Music] that