001Could we please stand for the pledge of allegiance to >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God indivisible, liberty and justice. >> Zachary, our student member, we're going to try to start a new tradition at every meeting. Our student board members are going to remind us of our mission statement that >> our vision is for our students to grow into critical thinkers and lifelong learners with integrity, confidence, and compassion. Our mission is to create an inclusive, welcoming educational community where all students can find their purpose and achieve their goals. >> Thank you. >> Recommended motion to approve the revised November 18, 2025 board of education meeting agenda as presented. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in
002favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. >> Superintendent update. I think we have our our PTAs here. Representative presentation they'd like to share with everybody. >> Thank you guys for being there. All right. Good evening everyone. On behalf of the elementary PTAs and the middle school and the high school PTSAs, um thank you for the opportunity to share the work that our families are doing to support Ronda Valley schools and our students. Um we come together tonight with two purposes. First is to highlight the many ways that our parent organizations are filling the gaps and enriching our student experiences. And second is to ask for your partnership in making sure that these efforts can be sustained and strengthened for every student across our district. So when the board discussed the goals for the 2025 2026
003school year, the very first goal was around strategic planning and vision alignment. Dr. Federo talked about bringing people together with the board, students, parents, staff, and the community to help inform the district's priorities through different engagement sessions. Board members have also talked in the past about forming committees or parent groups uh to bring in different perspectives from the school community. And honestly, that is exactly what our PTAs and PTSAs already do. Uh these groups are made up of parents, teachers, and students who are deeply invested in our schools and who have the experience in bringing voices together to support our kids. So rather than creating something new, uh we'd love to see the board recognize and collaborate with the PTAs and PTSAs already in place, we're organized, we're active, and we share the same goal,
004which is to help make informed decisions that benefit all of the students in our district. So the four of us stand here with pretty much shared priorities. Uh family and community engagement, which is maintaining those strong partnerships between schools, families, and the community. Equity and access, ensuring that all students have fair opportunities for academic support as well as extracurriculars. Funding and resources, advocate advocating for transparent, sustainable funding that supports classrooms, staff, and programs as well as as well as enrichment and student experiences. extending learning beyond the classroom and sparking that curiosity. >> That's it. >> Um, hello everybody. My name is Vanessa Green. I'm the Marbletown Elementary School PTA president. This is year five for me and year eight is PTA. Next to me is my president-elect, David, coming in for me for next year.
005Um, so we are here to just chat a little bit about Carninal Town. Um, last year we raised about $25,000 and we put 22,000 back into our building. Um, and we have reinvested most of that through lots of different efforts. This year we're looking at 25,000 um, and an expenses of about 28,000. So, this is what we fundraised for a household to do what we do. Go ahead. So here you'll see that we have our literacy night that we help to support and our Postmark book fair and our used book fair. Postmark is actually one of the local stores in Rosenale that we work with every year to host our book fair. And then our used book fair is a donation collection. Every book's a dollar. Every student goes home with ample books. If you've
006ever got a child in Marvel Town, they've come home with a lot of books for the years. Um we also like to support our state test prepping, our school nurse. We gift all of our students, our third grade students with yearbooks. Um, we also do summer reading events with the library and steam programs. >> Um, I'm Hope Irwin Brown. I'm from Khson Elementary School. This is my first year at uh the PTA and president. So, that all happened at once. Um, as far as Yeah, it's it's a big undertaking. Um, and I have big shoes to fill. So honorary the PTA helps to foster a love for reading in our school community with reading challenges contributions like in bookwor vending machine book fairs and events like the readathon as well as literacy and steam night
007>> um uh field trips and experiences. We fund field trips and enrichment programs that spark curiosity at an early age. Among the many trips the students take at KES, they have recently attended Menowaska State Park Preserve, the Bronx Zoo, Sam's Point, and Elders Farm. The PTA also hosted an assembly with DJ Reggie where students enjoyed learning about respect, fairness, being caring, and trustworthy through singing and dancing. The PTA works with all grade levels to provide multiple field trips per year costing around $7,000. Among the various places, MEES, Marbletown Elementary have students have visited. More recently, they have spent time at Kilders Farm and Upac, Lake Minawaska, and Trevor Zoo. The students also experienced several assemblies throughout the school year like the 2 by 2 zoo and birds of prey. Last year, we also provided an
008inflatable obstacle course for students to enjoy on field day. After school program, oh, sorry. After school programs give children safe and structured opportunities, building teamwork, creativity, and confidence through clubs, sports, and arts. The MEPTA held 13 clubs last year, over two sessions, which provided after school opportunities for over 200 students. These include steam club, field hockey, painting, running, music, Harry Potter, and more. The PTA also fully funds a third grade drama club costing $2,600. And as you can see, our running club has run the Shamrock Run every year with the most students registered to race. We've won a two years running on staff appreciation and school beautifification and improvements. By organizing staff appreciation events, we remind our teachers and staff how deeply they are valued. When staff feel supported, it directly benefits our students. Um
009through school beautifification efforts we we helped create a place where students feel proud and excited to learn every day. We've celebrated our teachers with breakfast, an apple bar, a taco bar, catered lunch, dessert Fridays during teacher appreciation week. In October at Khan Elementary, we let the custodians know uh we'd be a mess without them and provided gifts with treats and gift cards. The PTA has been fundraising for the past five years to purchase the pavilion and picnic tables at Kest so we can have a space for outdoor learning. Um members of the community donated their time and materials to help with this project at Marbletown. The PTA has provided back to school holiday and teacher appreciation meals for the MEES staff as well as updating and organizing the staff break room. We supply retirement tiles
010and contribute to the recognition for all those who have contributed to NEES over the years. The leave behind projects that the third graders work on at the end of the year like the rock garden and painted picnic tables as well as a school garden are also PTA funded. We prior prioritize family connection hosting events that welcome parents into the school community. The MESPTA coordinates the Boohoo Yahoo breakfast to welcome new and returning families to celebrate or commiserate the start of a new school year and assist with the K and grade three moving up ceremonies at the end of the year. We also have multiple school dances, trunk or treat and the well-known holiday craft fair. And for the Carson family engagement, parents, students, and teachers have all enjoyed the community building opportunities that the KSPTA
011have organized. We've come together for fun events like school dances, a make a stuffy night which is making a stuffed animal, um trunk or treat, PJ bingo, the winter clothing drive and our February winter carnival, as well as our color run and our touch of truck event preparation for the future. And as our students prepare to transition to middle school, we see the importance of social emotional learning and readiness programs. Third grade field day is when KES and MEES third grade students come together to tour the middle school and work with the intermediate school leaders. The PTAs provide student designed shirts to the occasion and lunch to all students and staff at a time. So at the middle school and high school levels, our PTSAs focus on supporting students during what can be some of
012their most challenging and transformative years. Uh while our priorities do align with the elementary PTA, our efforts build on that foundation that's set in the elementary years and we aim to meet the students in the middle school and the high school where they are and we specifically do that through enrichment and student experiences, staff and community support as well as fundraising, success and trend. My name is Danica Nori and I am the president of the high school PTSA. Um, so the high school PTSA is new. Um, but we're working to build traditions that create positive student experiences and engage and foster a strong sense of student. We work with our high school administrators to hold Battle of the Grades attendance challenges fall and spring to bring students together and motivate them to come to school
013every day. By working side by side with our high school students in events like our pickleball tournament and homecoming fundraiser, we are building a sense of community, student engagement, and unity that extends to our students, teachers, staff, parents, and the greater Roundup community. And what makes the PTSA unique is that students are active members, not just participants, but leaders that are elected by their fellow students and administration. Um through the PTSA, students gain valuable leadership experience, community service opportunities, and a platform to have their voices heard. Um these experience help them build confidence, learn collaboration, and prepare for life beyond the middle school. Uh the PTSA directly funds field trips across all grades four through eight that bring learning beyond the classroom and build that social emotional growth. Uh last year the students experienced the
014U experienced the UN Lake Minawaska Chadwick Lake Park um and the pride of the Hudson River cruise museum village and even attended a Renegades game on education day. And support for the school play, the art show, the student t-shirt design contest and yearbook shoutouts foster creativity and school pride. Um and events like the winter dance provide a safe, fun, social outlet for middle schoolers. Uh staff appreciation events that show teachers and staff they are valued which strengthen which strengthens their morale and retention. Strong partnerships with local businesses and donors like the ones that you see up here demonstrate community collaboration. So businesses like Tap Street Realy, Stone Ridge Pool and Landscapes, RV Vets, Skate Time, Bujorn Porn um have sponsored our middle school events year after year. Restaurants like the High Falls Cafe for Hungen
015Diner and Benny's Pizza generously welcome any opportunity to support our students and donate to the Roundup Valley community and we try to return that support to these amazing local establishments whenever we can. Uh at the high school, we are following the lead of the other great PTAs that we work with in our district. Um we're supporting uh teachers and staff through teacher appreciation lunchons um each spring. Uh and by providing support for educational events that the teachers spearheads like the science symposium, we're able to let teachers and staff know not only do we appreciate them, but we're here to support the initiatives that matter to them. Uh in terms of fundraisers, um our fundraisers raisers help to reinforce school spirit, unity, and engage our high school students and support local businesses at the same time
016as much as possible. At the high school PTSA, we have the ability to work side by side with students to help them raise funds for the initiatives that mean a lot to them, like their junior and senior prom. This allows us to help give students the opportunity to volunteer, work together to achieve a goal, and to know that their parents, teachers, staff, and community are here to support them um through creative fundraisers like the Miles Middle School Walkathon, uh Tip a Teacher, which is happening right now, uh restaurant nights, art sales, and our end of the year event. The PTSA raised nearly $25,000 last year with a surplus reinvested into future student programs. Um, family participation in events like this and the relationships that we have with local businesses like the ones that we've shown
017before, excuse me, reflects that the community has a strong commitment to education. Um, it also highlights that the PTA and PTSA help bridge that gap in places where the district budget alone just simply can't cover. ensuring that students have additional resources and opportunities. So, let's work together. Our parent associations are hoping to create more of a connection with district leadership. Our families are committed to working alongside you to identify the student needs and step in when necessary. Together, we can ensure that our students have a strong foundation in elementary school, the support and enrichment that they need in middle school, and preparation for success in high school and beyond. So, in the spirit of collaboration, our Harlem Wizards event is a fundraiser that is hosted by all four PTA and PTSAs in our district. There
018are so many different fun activities that are planned around this game, but most importantly, we get to see teachers and administration and staff play against the Harlem Wizards. So, we're hoping that the success of this event will strengthen the bonds of all of the members of our community and lead to some more collaboration in the future. So, I think that's it. Thank you for your time and for your continued partnership with They're like running. >> They're trying to get to the teacher. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. You all do a lot for our students in each and every leadership in each of those buildings. I do thank you for all that support that you give to us. Uh, next on the agenda is Gen Spotlight Marble Town Elementary School
019with >> Thank you very much. I do want to say thank you to all the office as a design. Thank you very much. >> Um, all right. We've got some great students that we want to go. want to talk about kind Ruby shown a level of strength and determination far beyond her years being acknowledged for the Anderson spotlight award is a wonderful recognition of everything that makes her so special this year has faced a personal challenge that would have made things difficult for but she continues to try her best every single Even when in things that are tough, she works hard and she never gets up. Her effort and perseverance show what it truly means to be strong. Because of her hard work, she also has a big heart. She cares deeply for the people
020around her and is always ready to help a friend, offer kindness, or make someone smile. Her compassion and willingness to support others makes a real difference in our market community. This gander spade award celebrates students who stand out in the best ways and is absolutely wonderful. We are so proud of Ruby and everything she's accomplished. Ruby, I really applaud for her effort, your perseverance, and I just want to keep encouraging you to keep going. I know it's not always easy. Ruby here. >> No, right. >> Oh, right here. Our next uh our next student recognition um is for Sparrow. We're very proud to honor Sparrow as one of the recipients of this month's college award. She is a conscientious, dedicated student. She approaches every day focus, integrity, and a strong sense of responsibility. Her thoughtful
021approach to learning and consistent effort set a positive example for everyone around them. Sparrow is always willing to lend you a hand, whether supporting classmates during group work or offering help without being asked. This is a helpful nature combined with calm competence that makes Sparrow a natural leader. In the classroom, she leads not by seeking attention, but by modeling respect, cooperation, and kindness. One of Sparrow's most admirable admirable qualities is her ability to reflect upon her own behavior. She takes feedback gracefully. She considers her actions and impacts on others and makes adjustments when needed, demonstrating maturity well beyond her years. Star truly embodies the spirit of her spotlight. And we are delighted to recognize hard work, her character, her positive influence on our school community. We're very proud of you. I do want to acknowledge
022two other things. Sparrow is just an absolutely super strong reader and she reads all the time and she models her love by reading by basically she'll take up a book anytime there's there's a chance to miss Jay her teacher shared with me a little story about spirit which I thought was fascinating and shows that she is an a reader and learner. Miss Jay was reading a book and there was a phrase mind your peace and it and said I know that I know where that saying comes to mind your piece of cue and she said it was a way of bartenders back long time ago to say mind your pints and your quartz. I'm not exactly sure how everybody knows that, but it shows you kind of depth of learning while So, congratul Mr. Franc,
023can you hold on one second? Miss Jay, where are you? Come on up. Come on. I want to get you. I also want to thank Miss J. She uh she helped me out. Last one is Aurora Martin. So Aurora, I'm going to share what some of the teachers wrote to me about because what happens is these quietly I go to my staff and I say I want to hear about all those students who are doing great things. Give me a long list of students who are doing awesome things so many great things and we got to kind of narrow it down. So I want to just share what your teacher taught about it. Aurora has made tremendous growth during her years at Marbletown. She consistently demonstrates kindness, gratitude, and perseverance. I'll never forget when she
024once thanked me for showing her a demonic a pneummonic to help with memory. She smiled and said, "Thank you very much for showing me that. That'll really help me remember how to spell that word." The simple moment captured her appreciation and genuine love of learning. Aurora is a bright spot in her classroom. She smiles, spreads joy, and makes friends easy. She doesn't allow challenges to hold her back. When faced with difficult work, she perseveres with patience and determination. Although she works slowly and carefully, she always completes her projects thoughtfully and without complaint. Reading has been a challenge for Aurora, but her grit and steady progress are inspiring. In math, she takes systematic and thorough approach. During her most recent assessment, she was the last to finish, but the only student in the class to earn
025a perfect score of 100%. >> Remarkably introspective and true to herself, recently shared that she decided to stop taking ballet, a difficult choice, but explained that it no longer made her happy. Her self-awareness and honesty are beyond her years. Because Aurora is so quiet and well behaved, she could easily go unnoticed. However, recognizing her growth, perseverance, and character would remind her that we do see her and that we are so proud of the person she is becoming. I truly believe this acknowledgement would encourage her to continue soaring. I would ask the two people who are join Aurora. It's just been so fun watching you think that it's neat as well as watch and just keep working at it. You're doing so great. So proud of you. So we got that's you. All right. Um, we
026have a staff member who we're going to recognize right now. So, several years ago, we had a library aid who left us in the middle of the year because understandably got his job much much closer to home. and I worried that we would not find a strong placement. But then Gina came into the interview and I breathed a sigh of relief. Gina had raised so many children in our community and and so we were kind of knew a lot about her coming in much so when she decided to apply for the position knew that this was going to be great. Great reputation for kids, great reputation as a community-minded person. Hiring her is a no-brainer. Gina possesses the perfect blend of those old school sensibilities and love of children. In other words, she is clear
027with students, holds them to expectations, but always does so in a loving manner. Gina helps throughout the school, not just in the library. She's one of the people to greet students in the drop off group in the morning, says goodbye to them in the afternoon. She supports in the cafeteria and on the playground. She's got great instincts. I always know things are going to be okay. Gina's there. Gina is also Mrs. who's our library media specialist right-hand person. As Miss F said, I cannot do it without her. There's many words I can describe to pop up for her work at the library and that's organized and efficient. She sees problems. She sees them coming down the pike. She tries to find a solution to them before they become problems. She seeks a remedy, but she
028wants those remedies to be efficient. After the pandemic act ended, we had all these books come back in from trailers out on our property and we had to put them back into the library in organized manner so that the teachers could utilize them. So you want to kind of have them in small groups so whatever letter different type of uh reading skills teacher's working on should you get at them. Gina's worked on that for several years and our book room is fabulous. It's a wonderful resource for our teacher. She makes life easier for our teacher. She created the list of all the books that she has in the book the room and sends that out to teacher. She has written all of the library processes, most of which she created and has put them into
029a handbook. So if there's ever another library, it's going to be a lot. Gina's a doer. She's a self starter who positively contributed to the lives of everyone attending or working at car with them. She does so with a sense of humor. Not long ago, Gina became a grandmother to poor event. Now I'm getting a little concerned that she made me want to spend a little more time. It was important that we recogniz all her contribution. By the way, this little bit of scary family tree got the score mag because if you go on that side, you got Jean on the other side, you got Tony to. So all I can say is if poor May comes to Rhonda teachers might want to be getting prepared anything. Congratulations. >> Gina usually tells me what to
030do anyway. My son, my husband and my other daughter. Uh, my last person I want to recognize here is Brian C. I've worked with Brian for about 13 years and each year I really have a deeper appreciation of all he does for our school. He's our PE teacher, which means that his classroom is also a place where we have before fair, afterare, concerts, meetings, assemblies, plays, after school clubs, evening sports, kindergarten, graduation, community activities, third uh third grade moving up curriculum, night drama club, and much much more. So, you need somebody who's going to be flexible, someone who is community minded, who's going to bend and help out with all of those different different pieces. He shares his space and not only does he share his space, but he helps set everything up. He's the
031first one comes to me and says, "What we need to get done and he does that. He helps out all the time or kind of start taking it for granted and I don't want him to think that I'm taking it for granted because I really appreciate it. Uh he helps throughout the school. He runs recess. He helps buses and uh and afternoon pickup. He's a regular on our safety team. You can always count on Brian to throw to throw himself into the spirit of whatever goofy nonsense we're doing, whether it's Halloween, ugly sweater day, school spirits day, which makes things fun for all of our kids and adults alike. He has a passion for teaching. It makes learning fun for his students. I literally, which is true for I had a kid in my office
032crying last week because he had to go home because he was going to miss this TV. Uh he teaches team sports, lifetime sports, fitness, a thousand games he's developed. He also decks his room out for the holidays and makes it fun for kids. More recently, I've been really impressed over the last several years, Brian continues to grow his craft. He has embedded some of our social emotional learning strategies into his classroom. He has taken on student teachers. He has learned to use technology to help students selfassess the different skills that they're learning in the classroom. He's constantly growing as a teacher outside. He's on an adult lacrosse team which is apparently pretty successful. Uh he also took up piano and he said he wanted to learn Billy Joel piano making. He's going much further than
033than that. Uh he held a recital recently and in typical Council fashion while other people dressed nicely for this and played the elegant pieces, Hel wore his yellow, excuse me, orange and black Halloween outfit and played I think it was a theme song Halloween while modeling for us what it means to be a lifelong. A lot of us at the school really enjoy giving Brian a hard time, but we also recognize him. Great teacher, great role model, really a great man. So, congratulations Do we have all of this? >> Yeah, I'm not being inside us. >> Big guy. Thank you very much. Anybody wants to eat? All right. Um, on to public comments. So, at our last Oh, sorry. before >> um at our last uh at our last board meeting, we did have um
034uh one of our comm uh community members um talk to us uh with some concerns about and asking us questions about how uh we're we're doing with our immigrant population and such. And then we also had uh concerns about the new olsterosis. So we um we'd like to quickly uh address some of those. Um our assistant superintendent Ned Garrett, she chairs our equity council and she can address how how they talked about our >> Sure. Yeah. So, um, in response to the public comment and, uh, just some conversations and work that we've been doing here in the district, we invited Victor Fuea to come to our equity council meeting, um, who is part of the Olter immigration defense network. He's an, uh, immigration attorney as well as a parent in our district. Um so it
035was nice to have him come in and kind of just give us an update and some information about um ice activity in the surrounding areas and um how some of the surrounding school districts have been impacted as well as some of the partnerships that they have uh formed specifically with uh Kingston City School District and the work that they're doing there with the faculty and staff. Um there's also been some work that they've been doing with the new school district for us. One of the things that we plan to do moving forward is to invite Mr. Clea back to work with our mental health committee, specifically our social worker, school sites and so on to do some professional development with our staff and just some ongoing umations. Karen, did you want to add? >> That
036was pretty great. Yeah, I think he was great and he seems like a really good resource for us going forward. It was just really helpful to hear him be able to share some of the information he has since he's working sort of And then we also um we did have a parent and some students express their concern about the new servos site. So our superintendent and some of the board members um did uh attend and have a tour of it. Um members not all the members were able to attend but of the members that is there anything you would like to share of things that you that you saw? I think there was a lot of uh things that were kind of incomplete or missing with the comments from uh person that spoke. Uh I
037know it's an ongoing uh you know work issue for them. So uh you know we hope that they just continue to think about the students that are coming there and uh they put them in the best possible position uh to learn. There was a lot of noise all over that we noticed. Uh, so I hope that they're addressing those issues as much as they can. >> Yeah, I would just say they are they're working out the kinks of moving into a new space and we're not quite there yet, but the space itself is really impressive and the programming is impressive and having this like brand new brand new facilities for career connected learning is pretty cool. So excited to see it again. they work out. So, >> we spent a lot of time I think
038an hour and a half, two hours or something like that. It was we visited I think pretty much every space which was really helpful. I appreciated having the opportunity to sort of see what's going on there um and to hear from them. And yeah, the program seems really robust. Seems like there's a lot of exciting work. It's a really beautiful open space. And the one thing that I sort of left thinking was that the acoustics really need to get attended to now. I mean, I think there are a lot of plans and there, you know, which I think so I've heard will be put in place within the next couple months that will help with it sort of architecturally or or what have you with the contractors. Um, but even before then, I think they
039just really need to be going into these spaces and understanding when they need to be shutting the doors, when they need to be putting a rug or whatever it is so that kids can hear. Some spaces acoustics were not an issue and for some they really really were. So I really hear that in that student speaking about that. That's something I was really looking for and there are some spaces in which it's an issue and I think, you know, they'll they'll work on that, you know, but sooner rather than later, I think on that particular issue and there were a number of of other things that were mentioned that I did not notice. I did not smell any paint. I did not see those things and that could have been happening prior to our tour
040and then I think maybe that got that got got fixed, got cleaned up, got finished, what have you. Um, so I think they're checking things off the list, but I think the acoustics are a are a piece. Do you need one as well? >> Yeah, I mean I'll answer as well. >> It's it's a work in progress. I think what Carrie just said, I think, you know, when we were meeting with the superintendent, he said, "Well, that was fixed last week. That was done last week. That was done last week." So, a lot of the concerns I think that were there were rectified the week before we got there kind of thing. So it'll it once complete it'll be it'll be nice state state of the art facility. >> So um Lucy Vanickle is our
041representative for Rondout on the Olster Vices board. So Dr. Scadero and I can meet with Lucy too just to share some of that feedback so she can bring that to their board directly as the run. >> Okay. Thank you. public comments. >> Recommend a motion that board of education approve the consent agenda items through 18 as presented. >> I'll make a motion. I'll second motion. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. So these are two. >> So this evening and it's my pleasure to recognize Kaylee Ball who's here tenure tonight. Uh she's been with us for four years. She's chief biology high school. She's extremely dedicated. She's an innovator. She's been a leader in the building. Um students often regularly seek her out for not only academic support, but
042she's a really good listener. She's a great positive role model for us in the high school. She coaches soccer as well as cross that she did last spring. She's a member of our building leadership team. She's kind of like an all hands on deck and she's also a parent. So without further ado, congratulations. page. >> So, uh, a bit of an update. So, um, at the end of October, yeah, um, Harry, um, and myself and and then Baron, we went to our the convention down in the city, so had to do a lot of learning. um a lot of collaborations, a lot of really getting a lot of new ideas. It was through that um convention that uh I h I've asked our student board members to read the mission statement at the beginning of
043every meeting. Um there there's there are some uh boards that do that uh throughout New York. And you know it it it's a really good way to remind us all why we're here whether it be us as the board members or administrators or teachers. Hey you know we are here you know for the students. Um so I think it's a really it's where I that's where I got that idea from. It's a great way to kind of ground ourselves and start each meeting. Um, you know, I I I went to some workshops that, you know, they try really hard to explain foundation aid. I think we have to keep going to those workshops, right, Tabitha, because nobody really understands Foundation Aid. Um, but, uh, but I did learn a lot. Um, Carrie, is there anything
044that you that stood out? What >> I really enjoyed I went to a a meeting about policy and policy become, which Dr. Sedara went to also. Um, and they really talked a lot about how to uh re-engage with it and make it even more accessible for your community. So, that was sort of a nice reframing for me and I've been sort of thinking about that since I'm also on the policy committee. Um, and then Tim Shrivever was a was a keynote and I thought it was pretty great. He does something called like the dignity index and it's basically >> um sort of in a nutshell how can we you know be respectful of a person say that we're speaking with even if we have sort of different points of view or what have you. Um
045and I thought that was really sort of useful and helpful in the world but also yeah I'm really appreciative of of the opportunity to to attend that. I also went to the law uh pre-law conference or what have you and that was that was great. I mean, hearing all of the all of the new sort of late um you know, regulations and all the all of that kind of thing is really helpful. >> Yeah, there's a lot >> being a new board member, you know. >> Yeah. No, I think it's a it's a wonderful opportunity and it is great professional development for not just the board members but for our district leadership too. They they end up coming back with a lot of ideas. Yeah, I need some ideas on how to redo it. Go
046through our policy manual. It was so we got some strategies how to tackle that. That's going to be gonna be heavy lift. >> Yeah. Tim Shrivever to me was one of the highlights of um of the convention but the conference but also the law conference is really important for for us and our office and the work that we do to understand where the commissioner's decisions are going any new regulations that are out. So it's a really important opportunity for us to really get a a very clear broad scope of where New York State is standing with commissioner stand and so on. So great. >> Thank you so much. Um, so for board time, let's put you on the spot. Zachary, I'm gonna start with you. >> Do you have what do you have for us
047tonight? >> Um, so Madison couldn't join us tonight, but um, I will be speaking about things that me and her also decided I should share out. Um, December 12th, we'll host our elective fair. Um, we one reason we're doing this is because with our club fair, we saw an increase in student members among a lot of the clubs that were in the club fair. And at the elective fair, each we'll talk about the types of electives we offer for high school students to really pull in more students to join more electives that they never thought they would really want to take. Um, another thing I'd like to share is our SEA or special education advocacy received a banner for national recognition for their unified PE program. Uh, that's all I have for that. And then
048our my last thing is that our wellness Wednesday will be hosted on December 17th. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> You said December 17th just um we did not have a curriculum committee meeting this month or we will. one is scheduled for Thursday, December 18th. Um at that meeting, we're going to talk about um I'm going to get an update on our ENL department. Um an update on our guidance plan and SEAL curriculum roll out. Um an update on our math and ELA curriculum, how that's been going. Um and then we'll hear course proposals and um and look at proposals for textbook adoption for the 26.7 school year. It's at 5:00 at the district office public meeting if anyone wants to join. >> So, equity council met um me um was our amazing facilitator. Um we
049also had um the principles from the intermediate and the high school assistant high school principal. We have parents uh somebody fellow board member was there Dr. Federo. So, it was a it was a nice group. Um we had a lot of conversation as we said we had Victor Clayba come in. We also talked about um some goals for the year. Um and one of the things that that actually had come up in the equity council in previous years is is community conversations. Um and a piece of this is um how to tie uh community engagement um and connect with New York State's portrait of a graduate. Um but one of the pieces is is I think and and this came up actually at NSBAN. some of the workshops as well is how to maybe structure
050a conversation for community members to come in and have it be kind of a listening session. So be structured about what it is, what kind of sort of feedback we're really sort of looking for, but then setting it up so that we so that community members can really sort of share with us. Um and then specifically um hoping um to hear from uh to hear voices from members um of some of our marginalized um community groups. Um so just sort of widening um some of the feedback that we could we could get about certain issues. Um we also talked about so CRSE program at NYU is continuing um plan their planning professional development. Um they're working with the building leadership teams. Um as you probably remember last year um most of the schools did the
051walkthroughs um and that is something I think is doing this year plus um the second phase of this or the second indicator is academics and rigor so they're starting that work um we also had conversation about um an anonymous reporting mechanism something we're sort of really thinking about um and that's something we've talked about with Dr. Um and then looking forward so the next meeting I'm not quite remembering then do you remember when we >> I think in about a month right >> okay good thank you um we can push that up but we had talked about um bringing Alex Dannon in and um having him do a presentation for us of the climate survey but with um disagregated data. Yeah, I have a number of upwards to share from the Ronda Valley Education Foundation.
052Lots of great things happening. So, the first is the caring cafe which is happening in high school and the board co-chairs didn't even know about it. They went to visit the school for parent teacher conferences. This cafe was running but it was started by the government and economics teachers to help students build real world skills that they are learning about in their lessons but also contribute back to the community. So the money that they're making serving a fraction of right. So all the money that they raise goes back to the Brown Valley Education Foundation. They've already raised almost $700. And one of the recent grants that was made was for the junior high holiday caroling trip. So the junior high select chorus and eighth grade bands. Um I think select members in the eighth grade
053band are going to be performing at Brookside preschool and also at 10 brook nursing home just to bring some music to people during the holidays. And then um some annual report highlights. The foundation filed their annual report last month. Also, the gala which me you some of you are at maybe some of you is amazing. They raised 27,000 which is the most they've ever raised. The next most amount that they raised was I think like $5,000 their skate event. So really huge for them. They're going to continue it as an annual event. And they're also planning to host up to three annual alumni gatherings every year. Um they also reported that the teacher payroll deduction contributions increase this year. So they're deeply appreciative of that and look forward to reinvesting that into the school community.
054And also just want people to know that educators are encouraged to submit grant applications funding. They're excited to find classroom projects, field trips, um, innovative learning experiences, and all the information is on their website. So, lots of >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, we'll hopefully be adopting our policy, our new policy tonight for wire transfers and electric electronic fund transfers. Policy number 6415. Uh basically what that does, it gives us a protection and secures our funds uh between uh establishments when we're paying different types of bills or whatever it may be. And would you like to add any more to that? Is that that's okay with me there as well? Okay, good. So we won't adopt that tonight. I think it's a pretty easy uh policy to maintain. Our next policy meeting is December 1st.
055And then as the athlete and jock and coach in May, of course, I have to congratulate uh all the athletes that participated in the fall season uh with all the different sports that we've had and all the athletes, but also I have to put out special congratulations to the cross country team. We won a section championship and they had some individual winners. Uh, two of the names that I'm aware of are Owen Schaefer Surman, I believe might be his last name, and then Hannah Chapman. They were individual winners for our cross country team. So, congratulations to Ann Bellson and her team winning a section 9 championship. Secondly, uh the field hockey team uh went to v watch their uh state final the other night. Uh they played their hearts out. They played with a lot
056of grit. They were losing two to zero at the time. Uh during the during the game they fought back to tie it up 2-2 and the game went into overtime and when it goes into overtime uh the uh the teams are reduced so it opens up the field a lot more and unfortunately some penalty. I don't know all the rules. I hear a lot of whistles in field hockey. So I try to, you know, I don't know all the rules, but anyway, something happened within the circle and unfortunately they had a corner as they call it and uh Whitney points scored off the corner and uh it was a very sad and tough loss for us. Uh but again uh you know this is the second year that we've been there so we keep knocking
057on the door to win a state championship. I think it's going to come soon. Maybe somehow we got move Whitney points somewhere else. They're they're a dynamite team. Uh they've won multiple championships in a row. So it's uh it's it's tough tough to to beat them, but I think if they just keep doing what they're doing, I think they're in uh fine shape. The hard thing for coach and and the rest of the team is that those expectations are now that you're going to get to the final every year. So it makes it a lot tougher for the athletes and for the coaches, but I'm sure that they'll take it on and not have any problems with it. Uh and then the last thing I want to say that I attended uh was the uh
058uh was the Vata dance and it was absolutely awesome. I enjoyed it so much uh watching uh all the third graders throughout the district uh coming to uh the high school and performing their dances. I had some I won't say which ones I particularly like, but there are some really good ones. I'm a movement guy, so I liked a lot of movement in the dance. Uh, boy, it was a great It's been I worked with them for many years at the as the high school phys teacher here. I would would come into our gym and use our gym and we would just observe and and and watch them uh practicing and it's just a fabulous program and I really hope that we continue to do it. And uh that's about all I have. >> Um
059facilities committee did not meet this month. Uh you're meeting December 3rd at 4 o'clock. It's a meeting anybody's welcome to attend. They are our team is coming back with some preliminary design work uh for the next explor. >> Thanks Steve. Um thank you to everybody. I want to uh acknowledge that today is as they call SRP day, school related professional day. I want to thank all our really there. Um, to be honest, you really are the glue that holds everybody else together. Um, so I appreciate it. I, you know, as as an educator myself, you know, I love my all my SRPs and try to spoil them today as much as possible ourselves. Um, because you do a lot of you do a lot. So, thank you for all our SRPs. Happy SR day. Recommended
060motion to approve consent agenda items four through six as presented. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. >> I'd like to make a motion to move into executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular individuals as presented. No action will be taken after Yes. Thank you. in space. Okay.