001All right. Good evening and welcome to our board meeting. Um, so at this time I need a motion, a second to adjourn us out of executive and committee meetings and go into our uh public hearing on the safety plan. Motion >> second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> All right. Um and would everyone uh please stand for the pledge of allegiance. And now we'll go into our public hearing on our safety plan. Uh, Dr. Hayes. Great. Thank you. So, um, tonight's public hearing is on the district safety plan, which is typically adopted in the summer, but this year, New York State required every public school district to add, um, an addendum for DESA's law, and that has to do with AED and CPR. So, we were required to have a cardiac emergency response
002plan. So, the addition of the cardiac emergency response plan is what you see tonight. Um, and then we'll have to adopt that. So, we have a official plan to submit to the state. So, does anyone have any um comments uh on the safety plan? >> All right. Um do we need a motion? Second. All right. So, I'm going to need a um motion and a second um on our safety plan. >> Motion. >> Second. All right. And all those in favor? >> I I Great. All right. So, let's um now we'll adjourn the um safety plan public hearing and we'll do um our first recognition of Mrs. forgone. Okay. All right. So, she texted us very lightly like, "Oh, just by the way, I finished it." And anyone who knows about National Board Certification knows
003it is anything but no big deal. It's hundreds of hours of coursework. It is video submissions, a competency test and maintenance. So, not only does it take, you know, potentially several years to earn national board certification, but along with that comes ongoing professional development for your colleagues and coursework. So, it is a feat and for sure something to be recognized and we are very proud of you. Grateful to have you here on our team and Leah's done all of this not because she had to, but because she wanted to be the best she could be for her students. When you walk into Leah's classroom, it exudes joy. On top of that, the instructional practices are teaching excellence at its core. So behalf of Milroad, Brian and I and and everybody here, we congratulate you and
004really proud of what you've done and proud of yourself. And I would just like to add congratulations to you, Leah. You are an outstanding teacher among many outstanding teachers, but you go beyond the call by making sure you continue to be on cutting edge with your instructional practices. There's a lot of work that goes with becoming a nationally board certified teacher. And even though you're mid-career, as they might say, you're still out there doing it so very well because it goes be it goes to many panels. And it is not just what we think. It's what a national board believes is an outstanding achievement and an outstanding work that you've done. And I watched you through it and you're like, "Oh, I don't know." But you persevered and you really did represent all the um
005elements of the Raider profile and you show that to your students and your families and your staff and your administrative team every day. So, thank you for your efforts and and and yeah, Leah, would you like to speak? Would you like to talk about this journey or No, >> no, we would love to hear you. >> No, we'd love to hear it. And I would say thank you to all your colleagues that this shows what an outstanding team member she is. Thank you so much for taking the time tonight to recognize my most recent professional accomplishment of which I'm very proud achieving national board certification. This recognition tonight is truly unexpected and I'm humbled to have my work acknowledged and Dr. Boyd, Dr. Summers Buffman out while I was on leave last year to congratulate
006me and you know I hadn't told anyone that I had achieved at that point. I was shocked and thought to myself, wow, they really do have a way of finding everything out when I actually did achieve you know because I Yeah. So, um, I have to say though, everyone's en encouragement along the way meant so much to me and it's honestly what kept me going. I felt like I definitely had some cheerleaders rallying in my corner. Um, Dr. Summers, Dr. Warden, Dr. Hayes at the time. I was under leadership at that time. Um, and all of my colleagues and especially my family who allowed me the time and space I needed to write papers and do the work I needed to do to make all of this come together. Definitely a big shout out to
007John Lesica and the tech team who helped me submit all my teaching videos. You remember I was in tears. Didn't know but how to submit everything and he helped me. We got it. We got through. Um so you might be wondering about my why. And so during COVID I realized how deeply I love teaching and how much I miss teaching my students. That season of life really inspired me to take a hard look at myself as an educator and think about what I was doing, what I wasn't doing, and what I wanted to do. 2022, I decided to start my journey of National Board Certification and elevate my teaching practice. At the end of the day, it just means better learning for students. And that's the main reason why we're all here tonight. National Board
008Certification has changed my why, my planning, my analysis of learning, and was and is the reflection I needed to learn more deeply how to help all students be successful. For me, it's a gift, a privilege, and an opportunity to become just more impactful with my students. So, thanks so much for celebrating this accomplishment with me tonight. It really Yeah. Congratulations. >> I know. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> That's amazing. And now you ladies get to follow that up. Um so now we're going to hear from our student board of ed members. They're going to tell us a little bit about what's happening. >> Hi everyone. I hope you all are doing well. We're happy to be here. So, we recently had our pep rally back in December. Um, despite a small time crunch we experienced,
009it was very successful. We started with the jazz band concert which was truly amazing. We have such talented students. Followed by the volleyball tournament which was run by our physical education department. Afterwards, we recognized winter sports and we played a few volunteer games. Um, we received a lot of positive feedback and we're already planning for our spring pep rally. >> Um, and then kind of continuing that sports theme. Um, so our winter season is in full swing right now and um, January tends to be the busiest month with games and meets and everything. So, um, all the Raiders seem to be doing really well on the sports teams and it's just a super fun environment and everything right now. Uh, student council has been very busy recently. We've started planning quite a few events for
010February, including our Super Bowl. So, that's a soup sale. Um, our Valentine's Candygrams uh, Lunar New Year bake sale. And we're also on our third month of our new initiative, Spirit Friday. So the first Friday of every month, we'll host a spirit week or a spirit day. Um, and we've been receiving a lot of good engagement and people are really excited about them. Um, we've also started looking into a few community service initiatives that we're very excited about, including some with the American Heart Association. And we're currently working on our application to the National Student Council Gold Council of Excellence Distinction, which is something that we haven't done in the past years. Um, as the year goes on, we also hope to plan a district-wide cultural culture carnival, which is still in the early stages
011of discussion. Also, the spring musical, Hello Dolly, is well underway with rehearsals. Um, and the cast and crew have been working incredibly hard in preparation for opening night, which will be March 13th, and I believe it'll run through March 15th. Um, and then also looking ahead, so midterms are next week for the high school. Um, so everyone's studying and getting ready for that. Um, and then also seniors, all applications are in pretty much I think today is the deadline. Um, so we're starting to hear back from schools and it's just super fun to see where everyone's going right now, what they're planning on doing. So that's also something we're all looking forward to. Uh, finally, the eighth graders are starting to get ready for their big transition. Um, with the eighth grade parent night happening
012just the other night. Uh tomorrow eighth graders will also be attending a presentation in the pack where they'll hear from our wonderful teachers and faculty members and they'll learn a little bit more about the high school and start filling out some forms and interest seat sheets to get ready. Thank you. >> That's exciting. You guys have lots going on. And in that spirit, I know that you have midterms and tests coming up. So if you need to scoot out of here, um you're free to do so now or at any time. Okay. So, make us proud. All right. And that brings us to our next order of business, which is um a tenure. Um Trudy, and I'm going to say it wrong. Cone. Serenion. I didn't even have a shot. Serenion. And I'm a Belli.
013>> Hello everybody. I'm Stacy Smith. I'm the principal at the middle school. U it is my honor and pleasure to present Trudy Serenion tonight uh to the board for tenure. Um Trudy is a a teachers assistant in at Lynden Avenue and um she helps us with our most needy students. She works in our ESS program um which is our clinical support tier three and tier 2 um program that we have right inside the building which has been great. And so Trudy is a great support for all our kids who have some really specialized um needs and she's a great support to them. So it's my pleasure to congratulate Trudy Senzion tonight. All right. So, um, can I get a motion and a second on this? >> Motion. >> All those in favor? Any opposed? Welcome.
014I mean, you're stuck now. All right. So that brings us to our first presentation on digital literacy and artificial intelligence. >> Yes. Okay. So I'll just call the team up. Um today this is our second presentation on digital literacy and AI. Last year we did a presentation and um so this is a continuation of that presentation. So we have the whole team here and they'll introduce themselves when they come up or I can introduce you all now. So I will I'll introduce you. So we have Mr. Brenton Gardner. He's our director of technology. We um have Christian Strothman in li of Dr. Boyd, but she'll do just as well. And then we have Stacy Smith and Dr. Kyle Rody and Miss Amanda Allison. So this is the team that anybody No. Okay. This is the
015team that worked together on this presentation. So we'll go to the next slide. So this is just a review because we really did hit all these items last year. Um, so I'm not going to read it to you. So the things that we're looking at is digital literacy, AI literacy, and shared foundational skills when we talk about technology. Next, this is aligned to the New York State portrait of a graduate. That is something that we are required to do through New York State Education Department. This is um they just agreed to a new portrait. So this is how we align our work. So our job as educators is to prepare students for a changing world to do that with an critical, ethical and responsible way so that they understand the use of technology and that
016we are preparing students for college careers in civic life by being able to have them have transferable skills such as communication, creativity, collaboration, and digital citizenship. We do have standards aligned with digital um citizenship. So that is something that we are required to teach in our schools. Next. Okay. We do here at Red Hook use a very balanced approach to what we do in our educational programming. We do it with intention and you really have a purpose a purposeful use of technology. Um, it's not to replace highquality teaching. It is to enhance our instruction. We do utilize developmentally appropriate practices. So, younger students engage in more guided, exploratory, and unplugged learning experiences and older students gradually build independence and digital responsibility. It is a balanced learning experience in our instructional classrooms. It's direct instruction and
017discussion, hands-on learning, reading, writing, and problem solving without screens and strategic use of technology when it supports the learning goals. We are always as a team and with our teachers and our administrative staff doing ongoing review and reflection. We every summer we have opportunities for curriculum writing projects and certainly through faculty meetings, instructional meetings. We are always looking at our practices. We are focused on student engagement. We do get feedback from staff to ensure the technology remains intentional, equitable, and aligned to the students well-being. So at Red Oak High School, we've been trying to work firing on both cylinders, really focusing in on that digital literacy and safe and ethical use of technology and also exposing our students and faculty and staff to artificial intelligence. You know, focusing on AI first, we rolled out late
018last year the use of KIGO, which is the virtual AI assistant with Khan Academy. And the the reason for that is that's a system that is a closed environment. It's not chat GPT where anything in the world, anything on the internet can get pulled in, but it's a closed system and it's socratically based. So it doesn't give students the answers, but I ask them other questions to generate additional thinking along the way. Uh we've done a significant amount of in-house professional development for our faculty and staff on how to use AI um if they so choose, whether it's through efficiencies or other tasks. um but also exposing our students to to that technology. But at the end of the day, a lot of it's right now focused on talking about what's safe, what's fair, what's
019reasonable, what's ethical. Um and those conversations are starting to heart happen with our student faculty or I'm sorry, student administrative AI council. Um that's a group of students that meets with myself and Miss Lynch, the assistant principal. Um it's newer. We've only had one meeting so far, but the first meeting, the entire 45 minutes or so was solely focused on the concerns with AI. And it was interesting because I think a lot of times we assume that young people are really passionate about technology use, but every student in that group had major concerns about AI, whether from economic impacts on jobs, environmental impacts, and the impact on AI on cognitive development. So, they have a lot of concerns. Um, there'll be other conversations in the future about the potential benefits and why it would it's
020a positive thing to learn these skills here competitive in the job market. Um, looking at our use of digital literacy, a lot of it goes down to the fundamentals of using technology in a safe and ethical way. you know, especially in the world today where it's hard to identify what's real and what's not online. Understanding what a safe source is, what is a, you know, a good way to identify if something is reputable, not reputable, and even going back to things that sound intuitive, but they still need to be explicitly taught, especially at the high school level, is how to construct an email, how to write a a introduction to an email, sign off on an email, and leveraging various technologies to, you know, manage files, sort through data electronically. There are so many tools
021and I think that as our students go through schools, they pick up so many things along the way. But at the high school level, we're only, you know, a few years or maybe less than when our students go into the college world or the professional world or military world. And being able to use things like Excel strategically is really crucial. So, it's a blending of all those things combined that we feel that our students are getting exposed to the challenges of technology and how to leverage that for their own safe benefit. Now, moving on. Thank you. Um, so a lot of the things that we are looking at at the middle level are very similar to what Kyle has already mentioned and what Dr. Summers has also mentioned as well. So, um, I want to
022start by just saying, you know, we are really very aware of cyber safety skills and and digital literacy in terms of protecting students. The middle level is that convergence between elementary school and and high school and students are on that journey of becoming adults and starting to own some of their own independence. So being aware and when they're when they're when they're interacting with certain tools. So it's a it's really all about striking that right balance of what's developmentally appropriate for them today and what skills are they going to need um to hone for their future. So, um, you know, I think that when when we're looking at technology use in the middle school, it's done very intentionally. It's part of the students day. It's not their entire day. It's um, you know, laptops are
023away until they're needed um, throughout their classes. So um you know it's it's it's it's really important to us that um as we learn more and more about technology integration um and the world that students live in now and will live in um that we we continue to assess that balance. So um at Lambs students are learning about digital literacy in technology classes in library skills cath classes and also computer science skills. Um, so they're getting a different angle from each of those classes, but um it's it's each each year it's a little bit uh more complex um what they're being exposed to. So, so we have the babies and I think you know in the last year we've had a lot of conversation with some of you uh with Dr. Boyd and I, we
024came together as a community around the anxious generation. And so it's really for us trying to figure out and learn together about not overusing, but making sure that students know what technology is and when it does come time for them to get on a device, what is safe use look like? What is safety on the internet? um and really thinking about thoughtful use and making sure that when we use technology, it's not to replace instruction, but that it is really enhancing what we're doing in the classroom. And so finding and figuring out is pulling technology in right now adding value? Are we using technology because it's there or because it enhances what we're doing? And so, you know, we've had some shifts in mindset and um in our conversation, one of the things that was
025a big adjustment for us this year was at our primary level, we went from iPad lab to little engineers. And so, we are talking more about limiting screen time, particularly for our youngest learners, and the amount of minutes on iPads during Little Engineers is near none. Um, so they're they're doing things like building and puzzles and challenges and I think our understanding will continue to grow and so our focus has been yes, we have to build foundational skills. We have to make sure that they know how to type, right? The reality is they're taking assessments on at third grade online and if they get there and don't know how to type, it will become even more of a challenge for them. So, we continue to work and learn and grow, but really um being mindful
026of not overuse and what does it look like in every classroom and working with the teachers to think about what's the best way at the elementary school level to make sure that our students know about technology and they're learning it and they have access to it, but also making sure that there's not overuse. Good evening everyone. So uh my slide is really taking a a different lens approach in terms of uh AI and digital literacy and how we support our our teachers and staff when working with some of our more exceptional or complex learners and looking at adaptive technologies. So, we use we can use AI as a a helpful tool to help support differentiation uh level the playing field for students that have IEPs or 504s. Um it's there to help enhance differentiate text
027support and scaffold. It can be very helpful for students that have different uh learning disabilities such as dyslexia, disgraphia, uh even dcalcula. uh areas in which we are seeing a growing shift in need in terms of this uh screening and the level of different spectrums and of those areas and uh digital literacy and AI tools uh can support being able to scaffold decode text for a student in an instant and and allow a teacher or a staff member to be able to do that so that it is quick, it is easy and it is not taking away from instruction time um and helping the student to feel connected and a part of their school classroom community. Uh it also allows us to continue to support with uh assist of technology which I really see as
028kind of support taking a lead in a lot of special education uh supports and needs and it continues to allow us to also give our all of our learners the ability to be ready and competitive in an everchanging world. Uh an example of a program that we are uh actually do use that is EDLAW 2D compliant is something called Magic School, which is absolutely exactly what I just explained. It allows staff and teachers to take text um to create text that's decodable at different levels. So you could have a classroom where you're teaching um to students who are at different reading levels that are at a fourth grade reading level, a kindergarten reading level, a third grade reading level, and you could take that same content information and in an instant be able to get
029that content ready and decodable for them so that everyone can access that instruction. Um, so again, it's not there to replace the wonderful teaching and hands-on learning that we we have with our classroom teachers and staff, but there I I think in in my eyes enable uh something able to assist. >> Uh, and as my role as the director of technology, I am there to make sure that any initiatives that we take on are compliant with ED law 2D, the NIST cyber security framework and furpa. and I work with the administrative team to select programs that meet New York State's educational guidelines and are also compliant and legal to work with. And then we I can communicate what those what it goes into making those decisions and why something is or is not compliant with
030the standards that we are required to meet. >> Okay. So, thank you for that. Does the board have any questions? Okay. So that's a comprehensive look at what we um how our instructional practices are aligned with being age appropriate, developmentally appropriate, grade level appropriate, and that it enhances instruction and does not replace instruction. >> Thank you. >> All right. So um that brings us to um the presentation of our new classes at the high school uh IB literature and performance uh AP cyber security and welding one. Good evening. Hi. Um, my name is Christine Griffin. Hi, Kate. Uh, my name is Christine Griffin, the English department chair, and I'm here with Diana Decker, the IB coordinator. Um, we have another new course for you to think about. Um, we uh we're we've been pretty consistently
031re-examining our program and our practice. Uh, we're in our a year and a half already of IB for all and having just a blast with that class, right? Um, we're having a blast with that class. We love it. We love the results we're getting from the students. They're really kind of stepping up to the challenge and um, engaging and being really creative. But as a department as we kind of were taking a look at the way things were going, we we got some feedback from students and uh faculty that the half-year courses that we were offering in ninth and tth grade didn't give students and faculty enough time to get to know one another and really get to know the content. So they all asked kind of overwhelmingly that we kind of move back to
032the full year courses. So, I just kind of updated our uh course flowchart for you. So, you could just take a look at that um and highlighting the tiny little feet of our uh theater pathway. As we were talking about the pack and and the tremendous opportunities that the pack offers us in the English department to introduce theater to students, we felt that students really didn't have the opportunity to choose to take a theater program if everyone was taking IB for all. So we felt like that was kind of um making them make a choice or kind of forcing that choice in 11th grade upon them. Um and Diana and Rob Kurthers started talking about the possibility of bringing in English literature and performance. So that's what we are here to talk about. >> Thank
033you. Good evening. So we're really excited about this course. Um, this is an interdisciplinary class that combines the study of literature with elements of theater and performance and it fulfills as an interdisciplinary course, it fulfills both group one and group six requirements um, in the IB program. So students will still do everything you'd expect in a strong English course, close reading, discussion, analytical writing. Um, but they can also in this class explore texts in active hands-on ways. Um, that might mean bringing a scene to life, experimenting with voice and movement, and adapting a written passage into a performance. And as you can see on the slide, the course focuses on three main areas. Uh students learn to engage deeply with literary texts and then they also analyze and perform dramatic works and then they this
034is really cool I think transform non-dramatic texts like novels and short stories um and poems into performance. And through this process, students can collaborate and think creatively and really make those purposeful choices about how meaning is communicated. Um, and another thing that we really like about this course and value about this course is that it supports um different learning styles while maintaining our high academic expectations. So um it's a course that will challenge students intellectually um and also allow them to explore literature in dynamic and engaging ways >> and question um so they could take this instead of the reg so it's it's an alternative to the um yeah different pathways. No I love it it's great idea. Yeah. >> Yeah. And the last slide Heather if you would. Yeah. So you can kind of
035see this is where we were going to tease that out Russ. So, thanks for that lovely segue. Um, we uh we are um going to give them the choice then to sign up for either IB English Literature 1 or IB English Literature and Performance One. Um, and you can kind of see another exciting part for us as teachers is that the a lot of the assessments are going to be very similar within the two courses. So, we don't think we're going to have a lot of students kind of picking the quote unquote easy one or saying, "I don't want to take this one because it's harder." Because they're both going to kind of walk in a very similar pathway, which is which is also really nice as English teachers. So, all students will write the
036paper one, they will all have a written assignment, and they will all do the oral presentation. So, it's not going to be, you know, oh, I don't want to do the oral, so I'll take this class. it'll it'll be that everyone um will be doing some similar things which is also exciting. I feel that hearing a lot of the juniors talk about common concerns or common issues or common things that they're finding in the classroom as an entire group of 137 is kind of really exciting because there you know there's a commonality there and there's like a kind of we're all in this together kind of thing. Um, and then, um, because we're English teachers, we've already started talking about the books, um, anticipating that you'll say yes. Um, that, uh, we're going to have
037students study the Handmmaid's Tale, um, in this course, which they're already studying in IB Lit. Um, they're going to do the visit. Uh, they're going to do Sylvia Pla. So, we're going to again keep them um doing some very similar things so that regardless of whether they're performing the texts on the stage in the pack or reading them up in the classroom, they'll all have a common experience and with those texts. So, we find that to be pretty exciting as well. And that's it. Unless you have questions. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> I don't have a question, but I have a comment. So I you know I'm a big fan of you too because you know what you are such a standard. The fact that this program has been only a year and a half
038you're already iterating. You're already getting feedback. You're already listening to those students. You're making adjustments offering different pathways. It is so inspiring because you know again that to me it's so student centric. I know there was resistance to this concept but you are engaged and you're listening learning and making the changes to meet kids where they're at. And it is I like I have chills. I can't wait to come. I mean I I know you already had some elements of theater in Ivy. I've seen the Boys on the Boat video. Hilarious. Big in our family. But you know there's a lot of kids that are going to maybe never have considered a performance and this is their opportunity. So I applaud you just for your very inspirational in the way that you reflect, change, engage
039and listen to student voice. So you are a high bar barometer. I applaud you. >> Thank you. Thank you. I got it. Thank you. So what are we doing? Oh. Um. All right. And say that bring. Yeah. The cyber sec. Uh, do we have someone present? Oh, cyber security. Yes. All right. I know, right? >> We love you, too. We love you, too. know it going in. Did is What do you think? Yeah. Are there any prerequisites uh to take the class? Like do they have to have computer science? Uh Right. >> That is it is another pathway. That's great. >> Yeah. Okay. No. or be a hacker. >> You guys are knocking it out of the park. No. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. And that brings us to our
040um welding one class and pathway. I'll be speaking tonight about our CT welding pathway um that we're very excited about because this is very newly approved. Just last month, this was approved by New York State. So, kind of hot off the presses. Um and before I do that, I do want to thank my colleagues in the high school for their presentations tonight. I think between the IB literature and the cyber security, it shows just the der of offerings that we have in the future focus and all that you just heard was totally teacher initiated. So I want to thank my colleagues for everything they've done tonight but also in pushing these forward in our building because it provides such a benefit to our students. So um along the same vein I want to give a
041shout out to two teachers who couldn't be here tonight but Steve Hutman um who is our technology teacher. He was this is the brainchild of him both this presentation that I'm going to do and the next one in the winner circle Steve was really the driving force for this internally and Christy Heggerty as well through her work through her administrative internship did a lot of the leg work with the you know bureaucratic red tape and the process with getting the CTE approval in Albany. So they did a lot of great work to allow us to be here where we are right now. So, moving along, moving along, we have a newly approved CTE pathway in Red Oak High School. And a CTE pathway, if you're not familiar with that verbiage, that's typically what students uh
042schools send students to a Boseies for. There's a regional effort where most schools on their own can't offer their own internal CTE pathway. So, we pull our resources and send kids to Boseies and they do a wonderful job. The challenge with that is twofold. One, there's only a limited number of seats at Boseies for every program. So every any given year we can only send two new students for welding at Boseies and the demand and the interest far surpasses it. The other downside is when you go to Boseies which is a wonderful experience you're also spending about an hour and change in the car and the bus on the way there and back each day. So you're not able to maybe engage in as many things during the school day as we would like you
043to be and a lot of students would like to be. So because of the interest and the fact that we know this is a field that is you know I don't know if anything is AI proof but I feel pretty confident that for the next few decades this is AI proof and it's going to be sustaining in a number of ways cuz working with your hands especially in a complex way like this is so crucial not only in the career field but just understanding and developing that mechanical mind like how things work, how things fit together, how to take things apart. My brain does not work that way and I wish I had an experience like this when I was in high school. Um, so there's so much data out there about these these jobs
044that are out there. Whether someone wants to work in welding or, you know, or plumbing, auto, or go into the Navy and be a CB. There's, you know, there's no shortage of opportunities. Um, so what does this look like in the high school? You know, we're building on programs that we already have. The high school has had an introduction to metal working for a number of years. So that happens right now. This the really the impetus for this presentation tonight is next year our goal is for to be approved to offer our new welding one course which would be the second year in this pathway. So our students that go into the welding pathway and our ninth graders right now that are in intro to metalworking are all fully able to engage in this. So
045our goal was to try to make it so it's not like only the current eighth graders that are going to be nth graders but if you just spend a year doing metalwork we want you to have this opportunity. So they would take intro to metalworking in ninth grade along with DDP. Um design and drawing for production also counts as an art credit. So a lot of students that have these types of interest already take DDP for those art credits. Um in 10th grade they would be taking welding one. In 11th grade welding 2 and as seniors they would be doing a capstone project which is really exciting where they would potentially be going out in the community working with a nonprofit or a business to create and build something that has an actual real use.
046Um, so again, you know, kudos to Mr. Hutman and Miss Heggerty for working on the trajectory here, but I think it's going to provide so many great opportunities for our students. Um, I'm not going to go through all the details of every class in the pathway, but just to highlight welding one. Um, this course will cover in depth the occupations within the field of welding, safety and health, reading, understanding, weld symbols, drawings, and obviously doing the actual welding work. um this pathway will culminate with a certification from the American Welding Society. So, you know, while certainly internally we're going to hold these students in very high regard, but externally in the real world, having the certificate from the AWS is something where they can bring anywhere, whether they want to go into the iron workers
047union or go into work for a contractor. That's something that will set set them, you know, a cut above the rest. Um there'll also be a local assessment which is part of the CTE pathway. Um, and they'll also be creating their own employability profile. So something in writing on paper that says why they're going to be awesome employees to be a welder. Um, so again, who is eligible? Any eighth grader or ninth grader. If there is a 10th grader that is really, really interested in this but maybe isn't going to CTI, there might be a way to maneuver them because some of these are only half-year classes. We're not actively promoting it because based on the other classes they are potentially taking, that might be a little more challenging to put in. Um, but it
048wouldn't be necessarily impossible for everyone. And that concludes that presentation. Any questions? >> Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I think that, you know, we want our students to stay in um as many as possible, but they might say, you know what, I want to I want to be a contractor and own a business. I don't want to be a welder, but I want to develop that firm understanding. I'm going to do two years of welding, but then I'm going to take, you know, um residential construction and all these other things. So, yeah, it could be alakart. We obviously would want them to take the prerequisites, the intro to metal working probably before going into welding just because you can do more with the prerequisite skills. Just like we don't have students go into residential construction typically unless
049they've taken um woodworking, although it could happen if you have a student that's really engaged in that type of skills outside of school. >> How many welding bays are we putting in? How Um I forget the number off hand. I think 10. >> I think 10. Yeah. >> How many students do you think would like based on kind of how it is the enrollment this year pursue something like >> I think it's going to be huge. Right now we have I think over 30 ninth graders alone in our intro to metal working. and we had that many students that were interested before we had this all-encompassing option that kind of showed that, you know, goal at the end of all that hard work. So, they they just signed up and and a lot of our
050technology courses, too. Woodworking, I think we have over 30 students as well. We're running three sections of automotive this second semester. Um, so there's just been a huge focus on the trades and I think for good reason. Um, but I I think that we could very easily have 20 students in each cohort. Um, and even if we start with 30, you know, like kind of how we have now, I don't think that every of the 35 students will necessarily do the whole pathway, but I think more than half for sure. It's such a great opportunity and the fact that it can fit in your schedule so easy. It's just one class at a time each year with the exception of the DDP and intro to metalworking nth grade. Yeah, >> it's great to see uh
051like the the breadth of new offerings um and the regular upgrade and you know uh refreshing of the uh various courses at the high school. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. I think it speaks volumes to the passions and skill sets of our teachers and faculty. Um, you know, we we really are uniquely situated for being a smaller school to have all these different offerings here. Um, you know, I I did a deep dive into other CTE pathways in New York State and almost every Boseies throughout the state does have a welding um program. Outside of Boseies, I think there's like seven or eight high schools or districts in New York State that have a welding program. That includes the big five. So Syracuse, Rochester, Yonkers, Newberg has it. Another random school in Manhattan, and Little
052Red Hook. So I think it's a nice feather in our cap here. >> Yeah, it's great. >> Yeah. >> And and I'm I'm I'm staying up here. So, this presentation is something I'm super excited about, but I'm going to go through it relatively quickly because at the February board meeting, representatives from this organization are going to come and present um with more bells and whistles and they can speak to a lot more than I can. Um but the reason for this presentation tonight, even without those representatives, is there's three additional new classes that are going to be part of what we call or we don't call, they call themselves the winter circle. And the winter circle is something that it's not new in Duchess County. It's growing quick. Um Duchess County is kind of the
053hub in New York State, but there are two or three other schools in other areas of the state that are involved with this. So they are a nonprofit organization that works with schools. And the way it works is this they come into the school, they have their, you know, packaged curriculum and the students form a racing team. And it is a full-on racing program where they compete with other schools and ostensibly the focus is they build a race car and not like you know a race car comes in and they change the tires over it. We get probably a thousand boxes of car parts including engine parts and throughout the course of a year they build the entire car. Um, but what I really like about it is it's an all-encompassing program where students that
054are involved get to go on a number of field trips throughout the year. I think there's seven total. Um, where they go to places like the um, Alfred College um, motorsports program. I'm sorry, that's an internship. Um, they visit the Factory 5 factory. They go to all sorts of places. They go to a actual racetrack at the end. Professional drivers race their cars. Um I don't know how if it's a race like you know to win where they just drive them around but the kids all go there. There's a lot of networking with other students that are in the program. Um and it's a competition so they earn points along the way. You could have the fastest race car but not actually win because there's all sorts of other ways to gain points. One of
055the things the program provides for is a racing simulator. So that comes with it. So in the classroom they would have a racing simulator. Once a month there's a race where our students race against students from all the other schools involved. And it's it's very funny because you only get if each kid can only race one time and there's different points along the way. So you don't necessarily want to have your best racer race first cuz that only might be worth five points but the last race might be worth a hundred. So you have to decide who's going to go first and it's a lot of fun. But the actual building itself is only one course. There's two other classes. Up to 35 students can be in this program. So there's a visual communications class
056which is art based um which would be taught by an art teacher about the graphic design work and the social media pieces and you know whether it's the decals that go on the car but all the stuff it's an entire racing organization. So you think about NASCAR. Yeah the car and the driver is really really important but there's so much else that goes into it. Um, so the the artbased course, there's also a marketing and media relations course which will be taught by a business teacher all about the marketing and advertising and the business aspect of creating a race car and funding it. And then of course the build course and you know the exciting thing is there's a limited number of seats, but if you don't get into the build course in 11th grade,
057you can go into the marketing course and then in 12th grade go into the build course. Um, you know, for the first time we do it, you know, we would want to really build that sense of community. So, all three classes would run at the same time. So, the kids might be building the car and the marketing class might walk in and say, "Hi, see what they're doing." Or they the kids building the car might take a break and go to the business class and kind of learn. So, the and they all go on the field trips together. So, it's really exciting. Um, these are actual cars built by 15, 16, 17, 18 year olds in Duchess County. um you know, as close as Pine Plains and Hyde Park right down the road. Um they're
058actually building these. They drive, they send them to a a company that does like a a check to make sure that they're safe and properly built. Um not that we wouldn't expect anything less. Um but it it's pretty incredible. Um you know, there is a cost obviously with anything. Um but the nice thing is the car cost around 50,000 to purchase. part of the program is you auction it off and most places make between 35 and 45,000 in the sale. Um, and the rest of the program is a Bosey's program that's all subject to aid. So, you know, it's you got a lot, but with the aid and the sale of the car, it becomes much more viable. So, I think that covers it. Um, again, they'll be here next month and if you thought
059that presentation was good, wait till next month. Um, but I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Do they have to have a driver's license not to build it? >> Yeah. Night classes for us. >> I want one of those cars. >> Yeah. >> Really? >> Fantastic. I'm excited, too. And I think, you know, there's two things that we'll look at prioritizing that because, you know, the build class I think is going to be with the most interest because that will be, you know, 15 kids. There's only so many bodies you can have around a car, right? Uh but we would give priority to upper class, you know, seniors that will be graduating and students that have already successfully taken the automotive classes that we offer. So almost like kind of a mini
060pathway in that respect because if you've already gone through auto you can just do a lot more and then you know we can um be even that much more competitive. Not that it's about winning but I'm sure our students are really going to want to win. >> It doesn't hurt. >> Yeah. >> Anyone have any other questions or >> That's fantastic. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> What a great way to start. Um so that brings us to our first recognition of visitors. If you would like to speak, we ask that you come to the podium. Um state your name. Uh we also ask that you not use the names of any children or minor students. Um and that you keep your um comments to under three minutes. Um and that this is a not
061an interactive uh this is a listening exercise only for the board. Just just so you're aware of that. >> Hi. Uh my name is Carol Brown and I'm here as a representative of Red Hook Screens which is a group of over 30 parents and growing uh with students in all three of our schools. Our group is dedicated to partnering with our district, schoolboard, and school leadership to ensure that technology use at Red Hook is thoughtful, researchbased, and grounded in strong connections between school and home. One thing we love about the Red Hook School District is its willingness to change and grow. The district highlighted the importance of technology in our children's lives when it invited the community to read the anxious generation which posited that the great rewiring has hugely negative impact on our children's
062mental health. As parents, we have experienced the impact of screens at all grade levels from prek students using iPads to middle and high school students receiving MacBooks without parental request or permission. We are worried about our kids and we want to be proactive about protecting and empowering them as they navigate their relationship with technology. We know that this issue is top of mind for the board, school leadership, and other parents who want students to thrive. We appreciate the district's openness and hard work already on this issue. As we welcome the new director of technology, we think this is a great time to align on a vision for how we use technology in our schools and to address three specific time-sensitive concerns that we're facing right now. One of these is insufficient parental oversight of schoolisssued
063devices at home. Parents lack access to passwords or enforceable parental controls on schoolisssued laptops. This undermines parental authority and the district's stated intent around responsible technology use. Our requested actions on this point are to ensure parents have access to device passwords or equivalent supervisory controls, to provide clear documentation about parental controls and a video that models how to set them up. to let parents know about the option for laptops to remain at school and for completing homework on paper. This information should go to all grades and not be dependent on a specific teacher. Our second issue now is uh student access to YouTube and other unmodderated content during the school day. This has repeatedly resulted in exposure to inappropriate content at school. Our request requested actions on this point are to block YouTube on school
064networks and conduct an analysis of other websites to restrict. And third, we've noticed that there's no unified system for delivering student assignments online. Our requested action is that to the extent that assignments are online, we ask that they be organized on a single platform so students and parents can easily navigate them. We are already getting excellent engagement and support on some of these concerns from Principal Smith at the middle school. And to address them further, we are requesting a meeting with the new director of technology, with an assistant superintendent, a member of the school board, and school leadership. Beyond these discreet asks, we request that school leadership set up an ongoing collaboration with parents to develop an overarching vision for technology at all grade levels. We are excited about working on this vision together. Thank
065you. Would anyone else like to speak at this time? No. All right. So, that brings us to our superintendent Hey, good evening. Um certainly a great night filled with exciting opportunities for students um across the district. So I'm very very pleased with these presentations and the offering that we have in in this district. Um I do think it is very very true that our teachers are all our staff really our administrators are very responsive to our students and what their needs are. So I am just going to take a few moments to highlight our board reports and I'll start with the Milroad Elementary School. So they um have started their second trimester. It's off to a strong start. Very, very successful first trimester with outstanding student achievement performances that showcase the talent and hard work
066of our students that our teachers support. The fifth grade students delivered a terrific Shakespeare performance at the pack. It was outstanding. Uh December 16th, um our chorus went up with our band. They put on a wonderful winter concert. And then there was also the annual spelling bee. Um 12 fifth graders competed at the school level and I know just recently they had the district level. Not sure who won but I believe it was a fifth grader. Um fifth grade student council has met at Mil Road. They had a holiday bake sale in support of our families in need and they raised over $400 which our whole community supports that. There has been an emphasis on student writing this month. They kicked off and throughout January, teachers will be incorporating additional writing activities into their daily
067lessons focused on creative expression, descriptive language, and thoughtful storytelling. Our young scholars program has started at Milroad. They will begin this week and meet every Friday throughout January and February. The Friday morning program is focused on critical thinking, challenges, hands-on steam activities, and collaborative problem solving designed to deepen student engagement and foster academic growth. Tomorrow um there is going to be another buddies day um and they will focus on meaningful Martin Luther King art projects that bring students together and explore Martin Luther King's contribution to civil rights and social justice and that is a crossgrade level meeting where our older students buddy up with our younger students and really work through our program and it really is a delightful thing to see during um tomorrow. I look forward to it. at Lambs. The piano lab
068is in action. Um Mr. Pogy Miller. Um there was a picture of the sixth grade music class. So that piano lab is in full use. They're also working on a cafeteria mural with Matthew Pleva. He visited Lambs during lunches. And he shared examples of his work, his style, and began surveying students for ideas for a design for the cafeteria. They also were very excited and this was a little confusing to me but on the 67th day of school they did use the term 67. You guys familiar with that? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I am >> 67. All right. So they work through that and it does know in this report out if you were confused please know so were we. but that the dictionary.com named it their 2025 word of the year, which is interesting.
069So, they had a lot of fun with that. Um, I might need to spend a little time on that one. But, uh, the other thing that was noted is that the middle school is working on perhaps changing their master schedule. They had a me master schedule workshop for their teachers. All staff participated in that. They looked at three different models and based on the input from faculty um they're looking at exploring a shift from the 4060 block to a 50-minute block structure. This is not a final decision, but they are looking at going into a planning phase. So, more information on that will come. They just want to make sure that the information is communicated out and um that there might be a shift in the schedule at the middle school. >> When would that
070shift take place? That'd be next year. next year. >> So, um so at the high school, we certainly heard a lot of things from our board members. There a lot of excitement going on at the high school. We heard from our faculty and our administrative team um about the new courses happening there. I think the main focus at the high school for next week will be the January regents and midterms and um busy time for kids and faculty. So, good luck to all of them on that. uh eighth grade. It was mentioned by our board, our student board members that eighth grade did have a transition night on Monday and I believe they are visiting tomorrow, right? Okay. Um believe that's the the big the big deal at the high school, but we've heard a
071lot from the high school. So, um for technology, as you all know, Donna Sealbox last day is tomorrow. Um, so she's going into retirement. We have welcomed our new tech director. Um, he just been with us a week, so we'll give him a little time to adjust. Uh, 70 iPads and keyboard cases uh were issued to Mil Road Elementary School, and that was funded by the Smart Schools Bond Act. I Donna wanted in her last board report, she did want to take the time to thank the board and acknowledge the support that the board and Dr. Warden has given to her team over the years. And she notes that Red Hook Central School District is a great school district and a wonderful place to work and she really will miss not only the people but
072just being part of such a good team. So, I wanted to convey that thought. For athletics, uh they're in the thick of the winter season and they are also going to host on January 31st the state highway invitational which will include modified basketball play day with Pine Plains, Reinbeck, and FDR. So, that's something new. Um, and last but not least on my end is going to be the special education report which highlights the good work that's going on under Amanda Allison. She's very focused on strengthening programming across the continuum, expanding staff capacity, and enhancing family engagement to ensure that we remain in compliance with district policy and state regulation. Um, on December 6th, the high school flex team attended a sensory uh friendly performance, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which was at the Proctor's Theater
073in Skenctity. And that tickets were purchased through the Red Cook Education Foundation. And I would say that last but not least, uh December 3rd, all secondary BPS staff participated in a full day professional development session and focused on best practices in writing, understanding, and implementing IEP. So more consistent practice across the district. And as far as my world, um just been really busy with supporting what's happening in the district and really looking to support um teachers thinking the administrative team and really focused on what's best for our students. So, thank you. Any questions? >> Great. Thank you. Um so, just a few things to highlight from the different departments. Uh Mr. Cercio reported in his um transportation report just talked about the different buses and we have the two electric buses. We um had the
074approval for the four which we should be in receipt of for delivery soon. He and I are going to do a formal presentation in February. We we will highlight more detail, but just wanted to point out we were unsure of how the EV buses would perform in the cold weather um due to the heating, but they've been great. Um we do lose some mileage in the winter. It's about 125 miles per charge in the spring and summer. We're running about 70 m per charge in the winter. Still doing really well. And the new buses that we purchased um with last year's proposition have a bigger battery life. So, we'll see how those perform when they come in. Um but more to come on that next month. Um we had our ribbon cutting ceremony uh for
075the high school gym at the high school last Friday night, which was great. It was a packed house. Um it was awesome to see the red zone full. Uh, we welcomed our construction manager, the Palumbo Group. Tetratech, our architect, Mayor Smith was there. Um, Dr. Warden did a presentation and we had a couple representatives from the boys basketball team cut the ribbon. So, that was really exciting. Um, in Lynen Avenue, we've been in receipt of new classroom furniture. So, the team over there has been busy building that and putting that together and delivering it to classrooms. Um, and I'm happy to say that for the first time in four and a half years, as of tonight, we are fully staffed in our facilities department. So that was a big accomplishment. It was great. Um our
076food service department is equally as busy. Um so Mr. Pride continues to build up pathways. We we participate in the 30% initiative which means that 30% of our food that we serve in schools comes from local um vendors. So he's uh very active in that, very active with our local farms and partnering with them. So he's done a lot to actually surpass the 30%. So that's been really great to see. I had mentioned earlier that we had partnered with the culinary institute of America for um different things and one of those benefits of that partnership is that we offer trainings for our staff um on different things, knife skills, different cooking skills. So we have two events planned for them to come work with our staff in the kitchens in both February and March on
077two different Fridays. We are still looking at opportunities for to be an externship site for CIA graduate students to come and do their externship with in our kitchens which is a a great opportunity to partner with them. We also have formed um a great relationship with Hudson Valley Fisheries. Um so we've been serving fresh local fish in the cafeteria which has been a huge hit. Kids like the trout so that's been great. Um that Hudson Valley Fishery. So, they offered a tour, they offered for the board if you wanted to come tour. Um, they're great. Yeah, it really it's a great operation and and I think worth the drive out there. Um, I want to commend Yolanda Lee. She's one of our food service helpers. She's been really instrumental in um our food recovery and
078donation efforts. So, taking our surplus food and redirecting it to local pantries and soup kitchens um has been an incredible thing that we can do for our community and she's really spearheaded that. So, I want to thank her publicly for that. Yolanda Lee, she's one of our food service helpers. Yeah, she's done a great job with that. Yeah. Um I saw before Frank McCann was here. I see that he left, but he's been really instrumental. We started a micro business program with our flex students this year so that they can come into the kitchens um and learn hands-on trades and as part of their skill development and Frank has really spearheaded that as well. So that's been wonderful to see and a nice opportunity for our students. Um and finally for food service I had
079mentioned last month that uh Mr. Pride and I are working on submitting a an agricultural an application for a grant. Um and the idea if we are awarded the grant is that we will be able to cryovac fresh produce in the summer so that way we can serve fresh produce throughout the year for our students. Um and the nice part about this grant we're actually put in a request for a refrigerated food truck um to partner with local schools so that they can buy produce from us. um so it reduces their cost and it also helps make our program sustainable. So we have six um schools, local schools that are interested in partnering with us. So that's part of the grant. The deadline is Tuesday. So fingers crossed that we get that um because that
080would be really incredible. >> I'm you lost me there uh on what? Fryovac. >> So they basically so you prepare the the produce and you freeze it. So, you suck the air out of the right um containers splash freezing. And then part of the grant is to buy a new walk-in freezer and a new walk-in refrigerator at the high school so that we have bigger capacity and then the refrigerated truck that we would be able to deliver to local schools that wanted to participate with us. >> Okay. Can we cry back the local fish? >> You can c well you can cryo back. Yes, >> we could try. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> One question, Erin. You might you might not know this right now, but maybe at some point if you can um let us
081know with now universal lunch, universal breakfast if there's more of a surplus of food um that we're finding an increase in that at all or any change. >> Yeah, it's a great question. I can find out the answer to. I'm not sure. I know that our participation, as I mentioned in the previous month, has skyrocketed. Um, and I think as a function of not only the free meals, but also the efforts that are put in by the kitchen staff to serve some really interesting things and using that local produce, it makes a huge difference for kids. Um, and having and you know, in our garden program, when kids can go out and grow produce and they do taste testing and and that's been really incredible as as well. Yeah. >> Um, and finally, I just
082want to thank the Red Hook Education Foundation. We are um I think closed for our second um cycle of our grants, which is great. They have three cycles this year. they've been super supportive of um different programs in the classrooms, different clubs, field trips. So, um they've they're really a great partner to have and they do have their gala in June, although I don't know that they have a date. I'm looking at Paul because I don't know if that got updated yet, but they are still trying to secure a date. So, a TBD on that. Yeah. And that's all. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um so, that brings us to our board of education review and our committees. Um, do you want to start? We'll start with policy. I guess you guys want to report
083out. >> So, we reviewed um three policies uh for this evening. Um, one of them uh tonight is a second read on our um accidents and medical emergencies. So, that's just updating some of the language um about first air uh first aid care from uh from staff members uh just meeting um more aligned with state requirements uh and expectations. Um and the other two um are first reads. One of them is on um independent educational evaluations and the other one um has to deal with actually meal charging. Um so now that we have um pre- lunch and breakfast um for all students uh our policy really um needs to be updated. Um so we are recommending that although it's a first read that it becomes adopted tonight um so we can um become more aligned
084with it because we're not charging uh the old policy was talking about uh a collection of money from uh families when meals were charged. So since that's no longer applicable, uh we needed to update that language with the new policy. So uh we're recommending adoption on that policy and we're also recommending adoption on our independent educational evaluations uh policy this evening as well because um again that the new language uh more aligns with our practices um and it aligns actually more closely with um the other approaches of the districts in the region as well. Community engagement. >> All right. So um for community enga community engagement committee um we begun by continuing planning of the co community partnership um tours. So we aim to have those tours beginning in March the three three sites three
085tours. And in terms of action items for the committee, um we are hoping to be able to get out an interest form uh by the beginning of February so that we can garner our interest from the community to see who else who is who we can welcome into our building and engage in discussion. Um and then we we obviously have to solidify our dates before we get that interest form out. So, we're we're aiming to do all of that before uh the first week of February so that we have sufficient time to go through applications and um you know determine who is going to be a part of that team because it was really you know successful last year and we look to continue a lot of that discussion. Um additionally we spoke about the
086uh BOE buzz. We hope to have the third edition out by early next week um so that we have a nice digestible uh recap of this meeting and the you know highlighting all the wonderful things that were presented. So be on the lookout for that on parent square. Um and then in terms of new business, we were visited by a number of parents um who are representing the group that Miss Bronn spoke about in her public comment. Um and that group expressed a willingness to engage with district leadership on uh conversations around the direction of the district in terms of all things technology um at various levels. And so as a committee we are looking to help support their efforts and you know whether that is to come up with a forum for meetings in
087the future with district leadership because we have a really great resource in that we have a lot of families and parents that are willing and eager to engage in these important topics. a lot of the conversations got started last year during our book talk on anxious generation and so I think it's a great thing that they're looking to continue that um as we welcome a new director of technology and um you know it's an everchanging world technology in school um and so as a committee we want to welcome as much engagement as possible so that we can partner with these these parents and um you know best support our students in this. Yeah. >> Uh question. Um did they provide a copy of the written statement that was made during public comment? >> Um we
088did not receive one, but I'm sure we could request one. >> Yeah, I thought there was a lot of good points and uh it'd be nice if >> um she's left, but um someone could reach out and perhaps uh >> Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be helpful to I would I thought there was some good points. It'd be helpful. I thought to, you know, get the a written copy of that. Maybe they can email us for sure. Yeah. >> Yeah, I can start. Um, so our two items. The first item was the update on field one. Um, the design was sent to state ed. Um, and we hope to start that project in May. Um we do have an upcoming planning board meeting where we need to um attend well I say we but um
089regarding the lights and then eventually there will be a public hearing around that. Um the second item is the discussion about the capital project um at the Lynden Avenue bus garage. Um the new item that we talked about today was a the need for a sprinkler system. Um and we'd be looking at renovating the slab, adding new doors, and um looking at a conceptual agreement for $14 million for the bus garage and 1.1 for the welding program. Whatever else I missed, one question. Um so was anticipated. you have an estimate on when we expect to hear pack about it? >> So, it was um the submission was for field one, the soccer field, which we refer to as field five, the varsity soccer field. It included the upgrades for the high school bathrooms and the
090kiln room. We have to uh fire rate the wall and um the ventilation for the kil room at Lynen Avenue. So, it was submitted right before the new year, the last week in December. their um turnaround has been about a month. So we expect it at the end of January. We will then have to have um a bid process. So we um advertise that it's usually a three to four week bid process and then weather dependent we can get started. What um Erin was referring to is that we have to get permission from the village to turn to use lights to have lights on the field. Um I think I'd mentioned before I met with the mayor. Uh it has to be approved by the village planning board. So, I have to do a presentation
091on February 12th. We are required to have a public hearing for that um and notify anybody within the vicinity of the field. So, they gave me a list of resident addresses that we have to notify about the public hearing and then they will make a decision in March uh whether or not they'll grant us a um special permit to use lights on the field. Do we have a date for that public hearing yet? >> No, they set it at the planning board meeting. >> Yep. >> Do we still anticipate the field will be ready for the fall? It depends on whether and if they can get started and and um the other thing that we might have to do if we don't have an answer about the lights is bid that as an alternate otherwise
092the decision for that will hold up the process because it's all part of one package. was the that meeting that was just referenced. I'm sorry. Where where is that taking place or >> village planning board? They have it at village hall. Y it's February 12th. I think 7 o'clock. I'd have to check the time for you. >> And is there space for representative of the district to speak on? >> It's a public meeting so it's open to anybody. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Is there more information? just I'm interested logistically like if this is something that the public voted for and how there's these kind of different processes that the district has to go through. Um if there's like more information about that somewhere that we could look to. >> Yeah, I can send you
093um what the lawyer had sent what we need to get approval for and what we don't and lights is pretty much the only thing. Part of it is the height restriction. So in the village the um maximum height limit is 30 ft. We have light poles that will go up to 70 ft. Um and then because of the lights we have to give cut sheets and lumens and light spread information to the village and um potentially who it may affect around them. >> So lights fall specifically under this >> lights fall specifically under this. Yep. Is this something, you know, that we can put this information out to the public like in our maybe at the website or maybe in the BOE buzz that kind of information? >> Everybody's reading it. >> Yeah. I mean,
094I think we h I think we have to get through the 12th. I think the 12th is the presentation. Then there is a month between they will set a date for a public hearing. So, I think we we'd give our pitch. I mean, I think we've done a very solid job and then follow the protocol of the town when they have their public hearing and so forth and then, you know, we can go to support and so forth as well. Um, I just wanted to comment on one thing. So, I know Erin mentioned it briefly, but February is the language for the the capital project. So, we want to leave here tonight giving Aaron and Kitty and Janet conceptual agreement that we're going to move forward with those two, welding and the bus. Correct. Yep.
095Okay, good. Um, you know, there'll be some a lot more detail coming in in the in the next um couple of weeks. Yeah. Any other things that uh board members would like to talk about? Any comments? Any things that you would like to discuss? >> Discuss. >> I have something. Um, I just wanted to say on the heels of these incredible presentations about the expanded offerings in our school district, the high school, um that I would just um love to at some point see us take a look at and assess and evaluate review um our second language education program here in the district. And um I know I've brought this up before a couple of times. Um but I still really feel that it's something that's maybe kind of somewhat left to the wayside and
096somewhat in the background of um you know what we're doing here at the district. And I we have this it exists here and I just want to see us really kind of dedicate some attention and um you know maybe even budget more budget to it um to really you know make it strong and successful and maybe even expand it um to the grade levels. Um I think you know at the middle school they're doing a really amazing job of trying to kind of build it there. I know they're working with kind of a partial schedule for students. um which is kind of difficult for a second language and I think you know I would just like to see us you know find more ways to support the second language offerings here. So just want to
097put it out there as we enter now the budget season again and um you know if not this time around to please keep it in mind for future discussions. >> Good. Any anything else? All right. Well, that brings us to policy review and approval. I'll need a motion and a second. >> Second. >> Uh, any questions or concerns? I know, uh, Patrick brought up that we would like to get these through. Any All right. Um, all those in favor? I >> Any opposed? >> All right. And that brings us to our business consent agenda. Um items uh 1 through we added some 24. Um I need a motion in a second. >> Second. >> Um any questions or concern on those um any of those items? All right. All those in favor? Any opposed? And
098then that brings us to the personnel agenda. And we're going to do this um this is for items 1 through six. skipping item seven for now and number eight. So, one through six and eight. I need a motion and a second. >> Second. >> Um, any questions or concerns on those? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. And that brings us to agenda item number seven. If anyone um needs to recuse themselves, >> I just have to abstain from that. >> Okay. >> Um, all those in favor of item seven? I All right. Any opposed? >> Perfect. So, I just wanted to make a comment about Ron and congratulate him on his retirement. He's been a bus driver with us for 12 and a half years. Um, not only that, but he was
099a coach in the district and um barely missed a day of work, made incredible connections with the students, talking about sports, and he um said he is very much looking forward to attending his grandson's games in his retirement. So, great. >> Super excited. >> Congratulations. >> Have to abstain for that because I'm really excited. It's like, yes. approved. It's great. >> Extra set of wheels now. >> I know. >> And I would just like to extend our um good what good wishes to Jack Stelling um in his next um endeavor. And that brings us to our second recognition of visitors. If anyone would like to speak, we ask that you come to the podium at this time. And just really quickly, um, you're going to get that statement. Um, you're going to email that to
100us from Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Um, oh, I think that brings us to a German. Can I get a motion in a second on that? All those in favor? I thank you so much. Thank you. Have a great night.