001Good evening and thank you for joining us for the December 16th board of education meeting. If you could all join me please to start the meeting with the pledge to the flag. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And so we will start this evening with the report of the superintendent, Dr. Murray. >> Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the December 16th board of education meeting. Construction on the new wings at Midland and Osborne continues to move forward. While recent cold temperatures have temporarily delayed roofing work at Osborne, significant progress has been made on the interior spaces at both buildings. As temperatures rise, we anticipate resuming
002work on the Osborne roof for an additional two to three solid days this week, after which I'll be able to share an updated completion timeline. We are pleased to share that the county has secured funding for our satellite mental health clinic located at 324 Midland Avenue for the 2026 calendar year. We're grateful to county legislator Katherine Parker for her continued support and securing in securing this funding which allows us to maintain critical services for our students. I'd also like to recognize Rich Savage, Ry High School girls varsity soccer coach and Osborne school fifth grade teacher who has been named both New York State and regional coach of the year by the United Soccer Coaches Association. The regional designation includes New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and and places Coach Savage in consideration for National Coach
003of the Year, which will be announced at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia from January 14th through the 17th. We congratulate him on this outstanding achievement. In addition, all Rye Fall Varsity Athletic Teams have been named New York State Public High School Athletic Association Scholar Athlete Teams. To earn this to earn this recognition, at least 75% of each roster must maintain a 90% or higher average during the season. Congratulations to our student athletes, coaches, and teachers for this accomplishment. We have enjoyed attending our holiday concerts, which concluded last night at Ry High School. Congratulations to our musicians and to the music department for delivering such high quality performances this season. And finally, at our next board of education meeting on January 13th, we will recognize our varsity football team for winning the New York
004State Class A Championship. We look forward to celebrating this achievement together. As the holiday break approaches, I'd like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a very happy new year. That concludes my report for this evening. All right. Excellent. Thank you. We will now move forward with presentation and discussion number one. Presentation on climate and culture survey and SEAL committee update. Dr. Freedenberg, you're going to take it away for us. All right. Good evening, everyone. just want to thank you for the opportunity to be able to um report on the results of our climate and culture survey and give you an SEAL committee update. Today um I have joined with me to help with the presentation is uh Mr. Seth Bushing uh who is our director of school counseling and student wellness, Andrew Hara
005who is our high school principal, Nick Claire, middle school principal. Leah Blumenthal who is our middle school assistant principal as well as Angela Garcia from Osborne representing the elementary schools. Our SE our SEAL work from grades K through 12, including new and upcoming initiatives, reflect the core principles of the ride commitment, ensuring that every student feels safe, connected, supported, and engaged through consistent SEAL instruction, DBT skill building, responsive classroom practices, restorative approaches, team structures, and strengthened student adult connections. Each building is working to ensure that students feel known, valued, and connected. authentic learning experiences, MTSS supports, clear feedback, and student voice initiatives reinforce the commitment to engaging, equitable learning for all. Collectively, these initiatives show that SEAL is not an add-on, but a systemwide approach that brings the right commitment to life and that we
006are creating schools where every student feels a strong sense of belonging, experiences emotional and physical safety, and is supported by caring adults who foster meaningful engagement and holistic development. Our journey in social emotional learning began with the formation of the SEAL committee. Bringing together educators, administrators, and support staff to guide our work. After the pilot last year of our climate and culture survey, we implemented this through um in grades 5 through 12, which provided us with valuable feedback from students and staff and helps us understand well where support is needed most. Recognizing the importance of leadership in this area, we also welcomed our director of school counseling and uh student wellness who's begun his work with coordinating SEAL initiatives, building resources, supporting both students and staff in developing social emotional skills. Together, these efforts have
007laid the foundation for a district-wide commitment to student well-being and a positive school culture. Our essential question which was developed last year with the SEAL committee. It directly mirrors the ride commitment to belonging, connection, safe environments, and positive school culture. It reinforces the idea that every initiative is anchored to the goal of ensuring every student feels known, valued, and supported. So, what are the ways we can enhance the culture and climate within every building so that students feel a sense of belonging and connection? I'll turn it over to my colleagues to tell you. >> Good evening. Thank you for having me and thank you Dr. Breudenberg and thank you very much both Dr. Greenberg and Dr. Murray for laying the groundwork for what we started uh in the fall of this year looking at the
008survey data. Um the committee convened and we went through looking at student data first and foremost to understand the areas where students were reporting potential concerns. Um and the committee was broken into three separate groups to look at the high school, middle school and elementary schools collectively. Uh reminder that the survey was given to grades 5 through 12. So the focus of the elementary group was the fifth graders who just had the most experience in the elementary setting. The committees when we looked through the data pulled questions and started to categorize them into areas of concern or focus for Ry High School. They chose three areas of focus. They're in no particular order. Uh they are all viewed as equally important. Um and for the sake of consistency, we have listed them the same for
009high school and middle school as there were very similar uh results from the data. So the first area for Rye High School and Ry Middle School is belonging in school connectedness. The second focus area that we'll be looking at this year is safety and bullying. And the third focus area will be student support and engagement for both the high school and middle school. For the elementary school, we're going to be looking at conflict resolution, safety and bullying as well. And lastly, impulsivity and decision-m. Our next step in this process in terms of data collection before we get into how each building is going to be addressing these concerns the for the remainder of the school year is to get more information from the students directly. While the survey itself did provide a very strong overview
010of general trends, we did end up having more questions that we would like to speak with students about directly. Uh thank you to my colleagues for helping to organize these groups. The focus groups will start in January and continue through February. Uh we have a list of questions that we'll be asking these groups. Uh we'll be surveying each grade level 6 through 12. And the questions are going to focus on specifically the three focus areas listed for each of the grade bands. I'm going to hand it off now to our high school principal, Mr. Aara, who's going to talk about the current and next steps for the high school. >> Mr. Bushing before you take a step away just and you may not know because each building is different and so maybe the principles when
011you come up you could address >> uh how students were chosen to participate in the focus groups. >> I I I will say that the focus groups were selected by the school team the building team. So I I would say that be best answered by Mr. Har. Okay. >> Um as they go through. >> Great. >> But um feel about those. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um, just to answer that question, Miss Anderson, uh, we actually haven't we have focus groups and dates planned for each grade that the students that who are part of the focus groups in January have not been selected yet, but they will be in the coming weeks, right? >> And so it I'm just trying to is it one of the things that I think about often, right, are
012the people who self- select. And so is this self- selectors? are these students that we're reaching out to, teachers, administrators, just trying to gauge how we might go about selecting, not needing to know who it is, but what would our criteria look like? >> And yeah, on in this case for the high school, it's not going to be self- selecting. It's going to be identifying students who are cross-section of the school um and and speaking to teachers and counselors and um our people support staff. Oh. Um, but thank you for the opportunity this evening to uh share some of the areas of focus uh that we've identified for Rye High School. Uh I've personally as an educator I've always felt there's nothing more powerful you can give students in the power of belief in themselves
013and a sense of belonging in this case a sense of belonging of something greater in this case the school community. Um and really just this idea that students matter. Um, so going back to last year, a lot of the work that our team has done has really been focusing on um, finding ways to make sure that students voices are amplified and that they have a they feel that they are seen um, and heard and valued. So I our student government association uh, has been an important part of that work. It's it's great to see our student body president Ryan Croer and our student body treasurer uh, Sam Yay here. um as now two of our inaugural uh exofficial members of the board of education and I think that's very symbolic of a lot of the
014work we're trying to do in amplifying student voice. So it's it's great to see them. Uh I know Mr. Bushing already mentioned what we've done a bit of what we've done as anal committee but I'm going to re reiterate that the three areas of focus for the high school were identified uh as part of a reflection on the district-wide climate survey uh that was administered in September. uh and our next steps in each area of focus have been identified uh as a committee. Uh our three areas of focus in no particular order of of priority are belonging and connectedness, safety and bullying uh and student support and engage engagement really with a focus uh on instruction. Uh for each of these there's a lot of bullet points up here. So I'm I'm really going to
015focus just on um maybe one uh current work that we're doing in these areas and and maybe one area of next steps. Um, and I'm going to start with this idea of belonging and connectedness. So, we are continuing to partner with Challenge Success, uh, an organization that prioritizes youth mental health and meaningful learning alongside student achievement. So, at a school like Ry High School where there is a lot of achievement pressure, this work is really important. Um, our team of students and faculty and parents and administration have been engaged in something called an IWish campaign this year. uh in which we are giving students, teachers, and parents uh an opportunity to anonymously share feelings that they wish others knew about them. Um so we've recently received some really powerful statements, some very heartwarming and some
016uh honestly heartbreaking uh from students on what they wish their parents, their teachers, and their friends knew about them, as well as statements uh of what feelings parents and teachers wish their students knew about them. Um so that's work that we're currently doing. uh and and we will be releasing some of those statements and sharing some of them. And I I think it is a great start to trying to create this sense of belonging and making sure that everyone understands and and understands how um you know the various stakeholders in our community are feeling. Um as far as next steps, >> Mr. Har, can I just ask a quick question about that? So for the IWish campaign, is that something that's going to be just ongoing and open or are you is it a period
017of time? It's a period of time that we're doing and we're going to the the committee is going to kind of put together some of the statements in a way that the community can see and and feel and you know we we actually went through the student statements together at our last meeting and it was it was a powerful moment to see what these students are saying um just what they wish others would know about them and know what they're feeling. one really stands out to me where it says um I wish my I wish my parents uh would talk to me about things other than college applications and talk to me about my friends and what I'm doing outside of school like they used to. That was one that really stood out to me.
018Um but I think just that perspective is important as we start thinking about especially in a place where there's such so much achievement pressure. We're seeing our students get their college acceptances. I mean that's you know a very stressful time for a lot of people and it's a time of celebration but it's also a time of anxiety and disappointment. So just being aware of this um I think is very important. Um part of cultivating a sense of belonging and connectedness um is in the everyday practices we do in the classroom. I'll talk a little bit more about that in our third area of focus uh of student support and engagement. Um we're also in the process of of planning some community building days next year um in which students would maybe take a breather from
019classes in the morning or in the afternoon and be able to select into various sessions um you know to get to to really take a pause at times and see the kind of work uh and get some of the learning that um sometimes we just need to take a pause from academics and do. Um, I also have meetings coming up to discuss some suggestions from student government, uh, and the Ry High School parent organization, such as a homecoming dance next year and a student showcase in which students would be able to, um, show some of the the the the passions and talents that we don't always highlight or see in school or in school activities. Um, so that's something we're looking forward to in the spring. I'm going to go to the next slide and
020talk about safety and bullying. Um, for us, I'll focus on one area of the ongoing work for our team this year. We've we've been spending a lot of time refining our um processes for conducting DASA investigations, dignity for all students act investigations and part of our practice has been that whe you know any incident or alleged incident of bullying we initiate we now do it as a DASA investigation and whether it's founded or unfounded uh we've been spending a lot of time implementing restorative practices as part of um a follow-up to a lot of these incidents. Um, we've had some really successful restorative um, conversations uh, at at the end of some of these investigations this year. Um, and I I feel like everyone came away feeling like there was some restored uh, some restoration
021to some of the harm that was done. Um, but also a sense of understanding both ways uh, for whatever you know went into having that particular conflict happen. >> Um, >> so Mr. Har, could you just share for those who are unaware what would a restorative practice look like? So, uh, you know, let's just take a student conflict, right? Um, many conflicts happen the same way. Sometimes there's a third party involved who distributes a message from one to the other and it gets misconstrued. Um, and the more that time is spent entertaining these different things that they're hearing, sometimes the conflict can balloon and with social media can balloon even more. Um, and so part of what happens at the end is there's just all these feelings and misunderstandings and we come together and we
022have, you know, when it's um, when staff is trained in being able to do a restorative conversation, it's really getting at the the source of what the harm that was done and focusing on that piece of it and focusing on being able to make sure that both sides are understanding the other's perspective and then coming away with expectations moving forward and an understanding. And a lot of times those end in um you know I I've been happy to see that some of the biggest conflicts that I've seen between some students in school. You'll see them two weeks later and it's like nothing happened and they're friends, right? Like that that happens and that's kind of the um kind of the cycle sometimes of teenage friendships. Um but that's happened um at least a couple times
023this year with some of those restorative conversations. I hope that answered your question, Sanderson. Um we are in the process of um uh going through the process of becoming a no place for hate school. So this is some of our next steps here. Uh you know and what's required for us to be designated. I know already um Milton school has been uh identified as a and got their designation as a no place for hate school. I know Mr. Principal Claire is going to talk about it for the middle school as well. Um but uh part of the processes in looking at uh sorry let me just back up for a second. um part of what is required for us to be designated. They're already programs and initiatives that we're doing. Um but at the same
024time, part of the process is looking at and enhancing those processes um and aligning them to the tenants of the no place for hate um school uh campaign. Um so for our team, we have some feedback from the climate survey uh that was that we're kind of looking at and really going to hone in on. Um uh and and we're going to Yeah. And I one and the one last thing I want to say for the no place for hate piece, we talked about the DASA investigation piece and oftentimes that's looking at um instances of bullying uh against protected classes. That's kind of the designation of the DASA uh act. But part of this campaign too is it's not just about protected class. It's how we treat one another just as human beings and and
025as acts of kindness, right? So becoming a no place for hate school for us for for us and for our team that's a big part of it. How do we just treat each other kindly, right? Um not make fun of one another for for small trivial things that sometimes happens, right? Um and as far as our third uh our third area of focus, it's student support and engagement. Um so our team has really spent a lot of time going to what the ongoing work. We spent a considerable amount of time this year refining our MTSS process, our multi-tered systems of support process for students. um as part of the process students get identified by faculty or administration as needing additional supports and we've really been honing in on tier one supports in the classroom right
026so often times when it gets to the MTSS team you start talking about tier 2 and tier three supports outside of class what kind of supports can can they get really having conversations with our faculty um and looking at what tier one supports are happening in the classroom um in terms of community building I'm going to give one small example of that because I think uh we've been noticing it as a team. We, you know, we have been as a team aligning some of our instructional work uh and our instructional coaching around things that we're norming and seeing in the classroom. So, one thing that the team uh Mr. Bloom, Dr. Bloom, uh, Miss Forest, and myself as we've done some of our observations, we've noticed that in classes where there's strategic grouping, right, a
027small tier one intervention where someone is strategically either partnering two students together or grouping them strategically together based on their understanding of those students as opposed to letting them self- select into these groups. We've been noticing a heightened sense of engagement from those students, right? And it kind of makes sense if you're hanging out with your friends and you can talk about what you did over the weekend, you're less likely to be focused on the particular task at hand. Um, we've actually been modeling this for our faculty. So, at our last faculty meeting, we asked them to come and bring every faculty member, every teacher one either activity that's student centered or one tier one community building um practice that they have in their classroom to share with their colleagues. And often times in the
028past they sit in departments where they often times spend time and those conversations can steer in different directions. We strategically grouped them across departments and we got feedback from the teachers that it was nice. One they got to spend time with u colleagues that they normally don't get to spend time with but two just in looking at it they were really focused on the task at hand. Um and I think that's something just as a small example of a tier one practice that we're really going to hone in on and focus on. Um so that's all I have for our three areas of focus. Uh if there are no questions, I'll pass it off to Principal Claire. >> I I don't have a question. I do have a comment that it's that kind of attention
029to detail and instruction that makes such significant changes in a student's classroom experience and in the teacher's classroom experience. And we talk all the time about we're not a district that needs huge massive changes instructionally. We need those margin changes. And that's a perfect example. It's low work, low effort, but huge impact. And so it's really exciting to hear that. And I before you walk away, I do also want to say I'm really happy to hear about the focus of the no place for hate, not on protected classes only. I think we as a system have done a really great job about being really mindful about that. And sometimes when you're so mindful about that, you lose those daily microaggression micro and it's not even an aggression. and it's just the way of treating somebody.
030And so I'm really happy to hear that that's another focus of that along with continuing to think about our our broader protected classes. So thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Hi everybody. Um so the first area of focus for the middle school is our belonging and connectedness. Um, and actually Andrew, you'll see one thing that I'm I noticed when we were going through this presentation is that you're going to see a lot of overlap from K to2, which I think is a a strength of our district, is that we don't do things in a silo. Like we really meet as an administrative team or as buildings across the district to make sure that everything that's happening at one level is known and followed through all the way through all of the levels. And
031it really helps us um it helps all of us just because that's part of the teamwork of what's happening, but it also ensures that the students are able to follow things through all the way through their time through RI schools. Um so as as we go through the middle school um presentation or part of the presentation, you're going to notice a lot of overlap, especially at the secondary level. Um so one of that is I want to highlight that we're also doing the Irwish campaign which will really roll out in January. Um, a couple of our teachers are actually leading this campaign with uh some of our students that are on the challenge success team, which is pretty cool. So, you'll be getting communications from me that were written by students and teachers to gather
032the information to put together the I Wish campaign, and that's obviously partnering with um Challenge Success. Um, and then also, you know, part of being belonging and connected is feeling like you're part of something within the building. And obviously you all get my communications. You see that my sign off as I write shine bright. I say it every morning on the announcements. And you know it started off as something that I was just trying to like be positive with the kids and build some relationships with them. But it really has grown into something that like we believe in as a building. I say it at our faculty meetings. I say it when I meet with students, when I'm in classrooms like and we talk about as a faculty with our students what it means to
033shine bright. Which brings me to our next steps. So, something super exciting and Miss Blumenthal is going to pass them out. We have some props coming around. So, this is this is hot off the press. You're getting um first look at our acknowledgement and positive reward system that we're going to be implementing in the second half of the year. So, I'm really working with our uh support staff and child studies team um which consists of our counselors, our psychologists, our social worker, um and the administration. And we want we wanted to be able to shout out students when they're doing great things, right? When they're being kind, um when they're being good citizens, because we want to be able to publicly acknowledge students, um and just continue to make that a part of our culture.
034So teachers and everyone in the building are going to have access to these shining bright um little tokens that students will be able to get and then they'll get little awards and shout outs and we'll just be able to, you know, increase that public access of when our kids are shining bright. Um the next thing is that we're going to streamline and standardize our SEAL practices. And really what that comes down to is creating common vocabulary to share amongst all of our staff and using the SEAL toolkit that Seth is going to um talk about a little bit later. So you hear about that. So getting that out to all of our staff. Um I want to bring some groups of teachers down to the elementary schools. We've heard uh some great things about the
035responsive classroom program that's happening in the elementary schools. So, like I said before, we want to make sure that our teachers are aware of what's happening at the elementary schools as far as that program is concerned and be able to continue to um understand what our students are coming up with and then ensure that we carry that through with them uh through their time at RMS. Um and something that I'm very passionate about is helping our teachers learn and understand the power of holding individual student progress meetings within the classroom. not only to provide this timely feedback, but also that's a great way for them to build those positive relationships on an individual basis, get to know their teacher a little bit more, get to know the student on an individual basis, and it creates
036that connection and that belonging because you feel like you're part of a class outside of just being one of, you know, one of 15, one of 30 in some of our larger classes. So, um, finding ways to implement those individual student progress meetings. Miss Blumenthal is going to talk about our next set. >> Good evening everyone. So the next section that we're going to talk about is um safety and bullying. And this has come up across the buildings and we know in the middle school even if you work in the best middle school in America, which I think we do, is that this is a very real fear for students and it's something very real that they experience. Um and it's a very important part of the work we do at all levels. And so
037things that we're already doing that will continue um rolling out the full grades uh grades 6 through eight of our DBT work um which happens in sixth grade in our skills for success classes, seventh grade in our PE classes and eighth grade in our PE and health classes. So students are having access to this full curriculum focusing on skills like emotional regulation, um interpersonal skills, decision making, all of which are things we want our students to have and continue thinking about every day. um continuing our building bridges program. This has been really successful work that um has continued up from the elementary schools and students have a different focus um in every grade level that supports their understanding of of all people and really focuses on inclusivity and the message of being a good friend
038and being kind to one another. So, we're going to continue to revamp that every year, make it better as we always do, but keep that good work going. and our next steps like principal Har said um that we're really focusing on becoming a no place for hate school which we're really excited about. So these first few bullets uh focus on that um and that work that will come from that process. Uh Nick sent out a communication earlier this week to all of our families about the opportunity to participate in the no hate, no place for hate campaign and we were absolutely overwhelmed in the best way by all of the responses and we felt it was so important to put this out to the entire community to make sure that every voice has the opportunity
039to be part of this. and um we have huge student uh participation and it's clearly something that the kids and community feel strongly about and I will make a huge impact. So as part of that work with the committee um we'll be implementing a pledge across the school the no place for hate pledge um at least two activities and strategic lessons that the committee will decide on um and make happen throughout the school building. So we're really excited for all of that work. Um, the next piece is displaying student successes on bulletin boards throughout the building. And this comes from our challenge success committee both last year and this year. Something that the students and families on our committee felt strongly about is that we have students that as typical in middle school kind of
040find their pocket of people, right? Maybe it's their sports team or it's their uh band class. It's their place and that's amazing. And we want to be able to showcase to the whole community what great things kids are doing outside of their area of um you know their area and their friend group. So students are going to work with me and the committee to identify a bulletin board and really update that with ways we can highlight students strengths and interests and make that part of the fabric of our community so that we can reduce incidents of bullying and make sure every student feels safe. And the final next step that uh will be happening for this year is um we talked about the DBT steps A curriculum happening in all of our grade levels. And
041our students have a really strong foundation for what these lessons mean, what these activities are, what language they can use when they're in crisis or feeling stressed. And we want to bring that same language to make sure our whole staff is fully aware of how to use that same language and have communication with students if they notice a student is struggling. Um, even just using those key words and knowing how to manage that in the moment can make a really big difference. Um, so those are our next steps. I'll bring it back to Mr. Claire for our final one. >> Can I just ask one quick question about the the DBT? Um I the description you were just giving about um having that common language for the faculty to have with students and and in
042among themselves. Is there an element where that um also gets translated to families like to parents so that they can hear that language and understand it too or have some of those um uh um pieces that they can then work with their kids on at home? >> Yeah, absolutely. I think um Dr. Reutenberg can add a little bit more to that piece of >> Sure. So, we've done parent universities for um the at the elementary level specifically for this on the four different modules and um we've sent home um last year in the newsletters. We did send that home and then um Seth also is providing that with the updates as we send the newsletters home at each of the levels. Um but there's certainly ways that we can continue to look for ways to
043engage um other families and the community as well. thinking of that, you know, in terms of the middle school, it might be worth, you know, doing something K12 so you know, um, more people can, you know, learn the skills that the kids are learning. >> Yeah. Great. Thanks. >> So, our final area of focus um is student support and engagement. Um, because we really found that we want kids feeling connected to their curriculum and supported within their classes. Um so the two things that I want to talk about for our current work are um our common common assessment work. So this year with our faculty in the middle school we're working uh um with teachers to learn how to write effective common assessments across across grade levels within content areas. Um, so for instance, the
044sixth grade math team will get together and they'll write a common assessment and then collect the student work, review the student work to identify um some needed adjustments and make informed instructional decision decisions based on what they're seeing in the student work. And we're having that happen across the entire middle school. So, all of our teachers are doing that. Um, which is a lot of work, a lot of learning for our teachers. Um, both in writing these assessments to make them effective and then also how the student work review protocol goes. So, I'm super excited about that work and we're in the middle of it right now. That's ongoing. Um, we also have a really strong multi-ter system of support structure in the middle school right now. So basically teachers or staff members, support staff
045or administrators can identify students that might need a little bit more support than your typical support that you're getting within your classroom. And so they'll identify a student that could use a little bit further support. Leah and I both work together with a team. So we'll bring together a team of people including teachers and support staff to identify the needs of this student and provide them with some interventions in the classroom which could be as little as um like principal Haro was saying like be being mindful of the groups that they're in or as large as like pulling them out for some extra counseling and kind of like there's different tiers to it. So we do a really good job of providing that individual level of support for students based on what we're seeing in
046the classroom and getting feedback from uh the teachers on that. So our next steps as Seth was saying is to conduct those focus groups. Um so we want to gather more information from our students to understand their pers perspective a little bit more. That will happen in January. Um the next two bullet points are really about helping students know and understand their own areas of strength and areas of growth, learning who they are as a learner and making sure that we expose them to a wide variety of resources um as much as possible. And then the final bullet point, um, so we implemented our authentic projects last year across all of our grade levels and all of our classes. We're obviously continuing that work. Um, but what we're finding is that that's a standalone um,
047project that connects kids to real world work, right? We want to find more day-to-day tasks and activities to increase student engagement that connect them to more relevant um, tasks and things that we're asking them to do to make it more authentic. and I'm going to pass it over to Miss Garcia to represent the elementary schools. >> Good evening. Um, as Mr. Claire said, I'm here to represent all three elementary schools. So, the information that I'm going to share with you this evening is on behalf of Osgor, Midland, and Milton. Um so the first area in which we are focusing this year um in our current work we are continuing with utilizing Kelso's choice which is conflict resolution uh curriculum that we're using in our K1 and two classes. Uh those lessons are delivered by our
048school counselors. Um, and we are also with our school counselors looking at that curriculum, looking at our push-in lessons and looking at pre and post assessments and seeing where we might see opportunities for uh redesigning our curriculum, making changes based on the information, the data that we're collecting from the students in those lessons. Um and then also we're very fortunate that the RIFE fund for education has helped support the responsive classroom work that we started this year. Um there was a small pilot but now we have implemented responsive classroom throughout all three elementary schools with all of our staff. Um we have trained classroom teachers, special area teachers, support teachers and aids and assistants in our responsive classroom approaches. And so one of the biggest things that we are trying to focus on with our
049um responsive classroom training is really building that sense of community with our children and our teachers in all parts of our school whether it be in our home rooms or in our special area classes. Um, and so through that we are really trying to teach children that we're building this community and we're opening our dialogue and teaching children how when there is conflict, how do you talk to one another? You don't need an adult to mediate those conversations. Um, an adult can be there to support you, but we're building this sense of community and teaching you how to talk to one another in our morning meetings out on the playground. And so, um, the children are really being asked to take that step and talk about how they're feeling and suggestions that they could have
050towards solving the conflict with each other. Um, for next steps, we're looking at making sure that we don't forget about any new aids that have been hired and we are training them also in the Kelso's choices curriculum. So the wheel that the children become accustomed to in their lessons with the counselors, those wheels are things that the aids and assistants can use when trying to help children talk about and solve conflict out on the playground. Uh we are looking to take the uh Kelso choices materials um that the co the counselors are using in the classroom and that we are going to make sure that they're visible out on the playgrounds. We all have posters that are out there that allow access, easy access to the wheels for the children on the playground when they're
051trying to recall what are the choices we can make when we're solving this conflict. Um and we are also working on bringing together across the three schools one committee that we can look at other ways in which we can design recess friendly supports to build on the keels choice curriculum and other strategies that they're learning in the three through five classes through DBT. Miss Garcia, before you move on to that and it maybe more for Mr. Bushing in that and going to what Mr. Claire was talking about with coming down to the elementary schools from the middle schools to to see responsive classroom, but knowing that those fifth graders are going to come with this common language. And so you can go and you can see the responsive classroom, but how are we then ensuring
052that the language that is being developed in fifth grade in K to 5 eventually is now going to come up to six? Obviously, it needs to be tweaked. Everybody's going to have their own idea of and their own way of speaking about things. but the commonalities about the approaches and how are we going to help provide hopefully a more seamless transition for kids so that as they now all come together they have that common language we make sure that that language still exists here >> yeah I think I think a big part of that is empowering our teachers to share what they see when they go down to the elementary schools so we'll be uh thoughtful in who how we choose our teachers to go to the elementary school so that we can make sure
053that they're bringing it back to their departments and sharing that with their colleagues is is one step in it. It's also how uh Miss Blumenthal and I run our faculty meetings and making sure that we're giving them that information and providing them with that training as well. Um our school counselors also have been trained in it also. So they are a through line for the kids and that really starts in August when I have the students and the sixth graders coming in um before school starts and like that's when they start hearing that okay we are on the same page with the elementary school and it really starts with my messaging as well to directly to the students >> and I would envision too I talked to Seth about this but the work that we've
054been doing because DBT has been around for longer than the responsive classroom the work that we've done to make sure that we are K12 with the counselors. I would imagine we would try to follow a similar process with responsive classroom. Um, one of the shifts is responsive classroom isn't direct lessons being taught. It's more of a way of being. And so, it's really about those observations. And we're really excited to have the middle school come down to the elementary schools and see morning meeting and really get a sense of what does it feel like to be in an elementary classroom and to do some of the responsive classroom work in a morning meeting talking about the class promise, the students vision for what their classroom should look and feel like, what it feels like and
055looks like to be a learner in a space with a teacher and that you're a community. It's not the teacher and then the children. Um, and also for them to understand how the shift is not it's not punitive, it's now logical consequences. So if a child makes a choice, what are the logical consequences to that choice and how how do you carry that through when they're moving up into the middle school and high school? >> Just uh structurally, do our um counselors have articulation meetings? >> Yes. >> So there are a few different structures. So at the elementary school again speaking on responsive classroom which is somewhat separate from the counseling curriculum specifically our counselors at the elementary level are trained in those practices. It is more of a classroom approach. The DBT steps E
056which is for elementary is what our elementary school counselors teach both in their 12 lessons throughout the year and our clinical team work with our students individually in small groups when they're meeting in their offices doing conflict resolution. The roll out of DBT steps A which is for adolescent at the middle school means that all of our counselors K through eight and have had the same fundamental training. Then they had the age appropriate differentiation of the curricula which is from the elementary levels and the middle school level. Uh we did kind of step over it a little bit just because in interest of time, but one of the uh next steps for the high school this year is training the high school counselors specifically focusing on the 9th grade uh in the language that these
057students have been using now, which is not actually a full K to8 yet because of the rollout process, but our eighth graders and rising 9th coming next year are going to have this language from their lessons in the middle school. So that kind of turnkeying, working with the ninth grade students, teachers, and counselors to have the DBT language in place is something we've already agreed upon as a department. We could look into further what DBT looks like at the high school. Of course, part of the goal of DBT is those skills by the time they're in high school have mostly been learned and just the ongoing reinforcement and support at the high school level is all is needed, not necessarily direct instruction at that point. That's something that we could discuss further. Um, in terms
058of I'm sorry, could you just repeat your question in terms of the other piece of the articulation meetings themselves. So the >> just between and among counselors >> that our elementary counselors meet with our middle school counselors and >> yeah, we had our department meeting today. It's actually fantastic. It's one thing that we really look forward to is all of the counselors coming together. We completed our first inter visitation cycle. Uh I specifically made sure that uh the counselors were paired. Each high school counselor works out nicely uh in terms of numbers had to either visit inter visit with a middle school counselor or with an elementary counselor. The elementary and middle school did an intervisit. The goal being to actually look at K to2 alignment. Uh at our January meeting, we're going to go
059over our intervisitation notes and share what we saw and what we'd like to borrow and add on to from the different levels. Um this is work that we were also looking at with the advisory council uh where all of the different grade bands were reviewing each other's sections of the uh forot the name of the document at the moment the counseling plan district counseling plan um to see what we could borrow from one another and what we'd like to earmark for work on. Um so that seeing how the team is coalescing and looking really at the K to2 level and being given the time to do that has been a huge uh push for us and just the individual articulation with the sixth grade counselor rather the current 8th grade counselor future rising sixth going
060down to the elementary schools to have those meetings with our students and our 9th grade the high school counselors will be meeting with uh the starting with the cse for our rising ninth students. So the articulation at various levels is in place and the alignment between look grades is it's not new uh but we've had the time to really reinforce that this year already. Our second area of focus is around safety and bullying. Um, and so one of the things that I wanted to point out when looking at our current work is we're really trying to be mindful about the idea of being proactive as opposed to reactive. And so, yes, we all have very clear protocols that we follow when investigating and resolving potential bullying issues, but we've been really um cognizant with trying
061to identify what are ways that we can put ourselves in a better position where we're not just thinking about how do we react to incidents that may happen. And so a lot of that work is coming from again the um focus on um inclusivity and our work with building bridges. Over the past few years, we keep growing our building bridges program. Uh we started out with fifth grade and then we expanded it to third grade and now we're expanding it to second and fourth grade. Um and then also with our art and motion assembly that we are doing from the elementary schools into the middle schools really looking at a strong message of positivity and inclusivity. Um, and then also again going back to the leveraging the responsive classroom, building community and promoting kindness by
062building those communities in the classroom, teaching children how to make a promise to each other um, and to value each other in our classroom environments and our school environments, our bigger community. Next steps for moving forward, we are looking for growing opportunities for our aids and our assistance with responsive classroom. We really um got positive feedback from them in our first training. They felt that um they were given this professional development opportunity that allowed them to truly understand uh how to handle children when they are expressing difficulty with peers or they're having difficulty regulating their emotions and they're looking for more opportunities. So the assistant principles are running monthly meetings with the aids to help continue that growth. Um we are also doing focus groups at the elementary school for all three elementary schools. Our
063fifth grade students are uh representatives on our student government. So those are the students that we will be using for our focus groups and they cross over all home rooms in our fifth grade. And we will be looking to revise our K5 curriculum to provide yearly touch points on identifying, reporting, and managing situations that may involve bullying and harassment. So looking at opportunities for teaching into what it means to be an upstander, what it means to be a bystander, what it how you can report, who who you could go to to report if you do see something. And the last area of focus is impulsivity and decisionmaking. Um so we too are acknowledging pro-social behaviors throughout shoutouts and student recognitions. This could happen at an assembly, it can happen in newsletters, it can happen on
064morning announcements. um for our students through K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K through five, uh looking at our lessons and identifying uh emotions, emotional regulation, mindfulness, um looking at our steps, E DBT curriculum and really uh focusing in on those articulations that we talked about across the elementary schools and making sure that the lessons that we're teaching are being done with fidelity and that we're constantly talking about those lessons and how the students are responding. We have created calm corners in our classrooms. We all have sensory walls or paths throughout our schools for students to use. And our next steps in helping in this area, we are looking for ways to provide teacher classroom teachers that when a counselor
065leaves their classroom after teaching a lesson, how can we leave tools behind that the teachers can also use with the children? So you have that consistency from the counseling lesson to the teacher uh use after a counselor steps away. if the if the teacher is helping a child in an area of emotional regulation or conflict resolution. Um looking for ways to display materials. Some of us have Kelso's wheels throughout the school. Some of us have um different emotion thermometers throughout our school, but looking and and trying to figure out, do we all have equal representation? Are there places in our school that we could use some of these tools and visuals as reminders, but also things that children can access on their own that come from the Kelso's choice and the DBT curriculum. Um, and
066then again assembling interbuilding implementation teams to plan for comm corners now in our special areas. So, we're looking to bring together a team so that we can be thoughtful. The team would be classroom teachers who are using comm corner successfully, special area teachers who would be expected to use comm corners and really opening the dialogue. What does a calm corner look like in an art room? What does a com corner look like in a gym? What does a calm corner look like in a music classroom? So, making sure that we're being mindful that children have access to these things, but they're done in a very thoughtful way, not just something placed in a classroom with the expectation that someone use it successfully. That's it for me. >> I'm going to talk next steps. Just a
067quick recap all hearing from my colleagues. One thing I want to share is looking through the data which is what spurned this work. Overall things are looking very good in our district. What is interesting is even the focus areas are looking pretty good themselves. And what I'm very excited about working with my colleagues here is that that that isn't quite good enough for us. And we really want to not strip the table and start over. We want to refine the work that's been done over the past several years because it's very good work. The key now is honing in sharpening those tools and making sure that we're using them decisively across the board. My role has been really helpful for the elementary counselors in terms of we meet weekly to ensure alignment in each of
068our lessons. um meeting weekly with the middle school team to communicate those changes and the inter visitation so that they can actually have thought partners as they learn and practice the DBT work that has been done at the elementary school for years and similarly communicating that to the high school team who for a lot of very good reasons is laser focused on the tasks at hand and this has provided time for them to sort of understand this work accept it and are on board with rolling it up and helping to support the students who are learning these things at the lower grades. So our next steps for the committee specifically the midyear meeting which will happen in February, we're going to be reviewing the group data uh the focus group data that is collected uh
069by the building principles and myself as we meet with the students grades 5 through 12. We'll also review the challenge success survey data which is coming out. Uh, one thing we didn't add was, uh, that we'll also look at the IWish campaign. While it's not hard data in terms of numerical, the actual anecdotal pieces that come out of that are incredibly illuminating. Um, and we're excited to use that information to really guide our work. Um, the later in the year, we'll have our final committee meeting where we'll compare pre and postclimate and culture survey data and we're going to propose next steps as we're looking into 2627. The last thing we're going to talk about tonight, and I'll be as brief as I can because this is still fledgling, is something I'm very excited about,
070is the teacher toolkit, which is a K to2. Currently, it's formatted as somewhat of a handbook. This is going to expand as we go through the year in partnership with uh the assistant superintendent and all the building principles in terms of looking at very straightforward tools, activities, anything from a one minute check-in which could be as simple as a quick mindful mindfulness activity to a 5 minute short share out amongst students to 15 minute 20 minute full-on activities where students produce work and actually take time in the classroom. room to connect to one another and to themselves. Something that any teacher in this district can pick up, grab, have the immediate resources on hand that have been vetted by our own teams and are aligned to the work we're doing in the counseling department so
071that they're part of what we're doing in those 30 minute or at the high school 55 minute sessions working with our kids and explicitly teaching some of these skills. The reinforcement is really what makes the difference. A 30-minute lesson is never going to stick unless we're sharing materials. We're working with families. We're helping the teachers to whenever they feel it's needed or beneficial to jump in and teach a little micro lesson or a mini lesson on something that they see their kids need in the moment. When we have to wait for another month for a counselor to come back or send them out of the classroom to get the help they need, the goal is tier one supports for all. And I thank uh all the building principles here as well as those not here
072this evening for sharing that they're happy to have me working with the teachers directly in PD whether it's in conference days or later in the year to help not just develop the toolkit itself but to train them in how to use it and use real world examples of how a teacher could quickly pick this up. There will be say hyperlinks or other materials that are concluded with it they could pull right out jump in. Hey guys, I see you guys are like out of it right now. let's just do a fiveminute refocus, jump in and start over so that teachers don't have to figure out how to do SEAL. It just becomes an incorporated part of their daily life. And I I'm certain that once it starts going, they're going to see how productive that
073is academically that students who are needing a break, needing to refocus, and want to know that their teachers care. It's just an easy turnkey thing that they can move forward with. So that's still in its early stages, but it's something I'm very excited about and we'll share more later. Any questions? Anybody is also welcome to come up and respond. It is a fantastic um synopsis of what you guys are doing and it is very exciting. Anybody who's ever listened to me over the last I don't know I've lived in this town now 10 years has heard me talk at Nauseium about um the focus and the work that value that seal brings to students and to the education of our kids and to see and to hear so much of the work that is happening
074and is now really coming under one roof is really exciting and I just I'm I'm geeked out by it but I'm want to make sure other people have an opportunity to ask other questions but I could go on. >> So um first of all thank you to everyone. I think this is uh you know we've we've talked about how we can get to more of where we are now for many years. And so it's really wonderful to hear all of the work that is coming together and it's jelling in so many ways. Um, so, uh, uh, the the the the list of things that you're everyone's going to be focusing on and doing is just phenomenal. It's it's great. Um, two two things that come to mind in hearing all of it. One is um,
075and I'm I'm certain it's built in like the the feedback loop that exists in this is where we're putting some effort. We want to see what it does. How do we know what it does? So we can adjust and change if it's maybe not quite hitting the mark or um we want to shift to this direction um you know in terms of like uh any of the any of the kind of focus areas that you're that that any of the levels have. >> So certainly the the main data point that we're looking at is going to be the pre and post on the climate survey, >> right? Um, and with the recommendations made at the end of the school year, we thankfully at the beginning of the school year, fairly early on, we'll get another
076climate survey to see because not only is it longitudinal, but it's also cohort-based where we might see a certain trend in a certain grade level and being able to track them individually and then of course looking at certain things. How's the eighth grade doing right now? How's the eighth grade going doing at the start of 9th grade? And those will be new data points as we look at this data set over time where right now we're focusing on a snapshot. The comparison to the end of this school year is still a very microcale view of the data. So as tedious as it seems, I'm really looking to look back on this 5 years from now to start to analyze the really long-term trends because a lot of this work is not yearbyear. It's over a
077decade in terms of the roll up of a DBT or other SEAL program from K to 12. So you're looking at 13 years worth of data to actually see the effect on our current youngsters. And >> while we're not going to take that long to make improvements, that yearly cycle of twice checking in with our kids and then looking at other data points that we can use midyear, in this case for now we're using the I wish challenge success and the focus groups. and we're going to see how effective they are and if we get the right kind of questioning and data from those questions. Um so as part of both the uh advisory council which is was specific to the school counseling program and the SEAL committee we're going to come back at the
078year's end and kind of evaluate did these things work? Do we need to improve our questioning techniques? Is focus groups something we should codify and leave as part of the program or do we maybe need to take into a different direction? So um the fact that those are both happening separately but because I thankfully for I'm here and can tie them together >> uh it's really already even though we haven't completed a whole year yet really harmonious work. >> Great. And then I think the the second question is maybe actually more for for Dr. Murray and um in looking at sort of the timing of how we're doing this and thinking about areas that we may need to support from a budgetary standpoint, are there things that we want to consider? You know, so that
079if there is a need that we want to fund, we you know, budgets are built now, not at the end of the year. So, I'm just wondering if if that might be something we want to think about or consider for the future. Yes, we consider just as we consider all of our programming in our budget season, we consider the piece. I mean, you heard them speak about additional training, keeping people current, right? New staff that we've even brought on since the beginning of the year. So, we have to we have to work that into our our budgeting. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> That that does take me into a question that I had, which is when we have new hires >> and so what will be the thought? Where is that responsibility going to
080lie? Who will need to take on that responsibility? You know, it's something we're going to be looking for during the hiring process and or who are the mentors going to be and how and when because you bring one person in and you it's hard enough to learn a new job, much less a whole new way of thinking about engaging with kids. And I think that's about a any process or structure that you put in place. you you heard Angela say that now our APS are meeting monthly with the teacher the teacher aids um in order to make sure that they have know everything are able to they have the tools and the skill set in order to to manage conflicts maybe on the on the playground at the elementary level. So it's really thinking about
081who is it putting the structure in um and putting the training in place just and it has to be ongoing. At some point we might need to do formalized training depending on on you know who it is and and how many people we have but we have to just always be cognizant of that and make sure we have a plan in place. >> Y and so I would leave that up to the building administrators also to know the needs of their staff you know and so we all kind of work as one team um to to put the plan in place. >> That's great. I think probably the most exciting thing that's not fair. I heard a lot of great wonderful things. I think the thing that will stick with me is the idea that
082you have said and that you've all displayed which is this work is not happening in isolation. And it's very clear based on your next steps that you all have talked about is that it's really about finding those those entry points within the existing structures. of course having some extra things, but really all of it being tied to the real work, which is to educate the kids and to know that without educating the kids in their social emotional wellness, they're not going to be highly productive and successful in any of their academic work. And so to hear that message, to see it in in application is really exciting and makes me very excited for all the things that are going to come um from the work you all are doing. It's not easy work. I said
083this to Dr. Murray when we met last week. This is a lot. This is a lot of work and it is so exciting to see what you all have planned and I really look forward to seeing the impact that it's going to have on our students and on our system because it really I believe is going to be that change within the margins that we've all been really excited to see. So, thank you all so very much. This is going to be great. >> Thank you. >> Nobody. Okay. I gave you two chances. Sorry. Okay. So, moving forward, we will now hear our hearing of the public on non-aggenda items and seeing nobody here from the public, my gift to you all this holiday season. I will refrain from reading the opening statement of the
084hearing of the public. And we will move straight on then to the consent agenda. Can I please have a motion to review this evening's consent agenda? Matt Shimoff, seconded by Valerie Lapam. Let's take a look at tonight's consent agenda. Consent agenda general. Consent agenda. Fiscal construction. Consent agenda. Fiscal. Consent agenda. Professional appointments. Consent agenda. Classified appointments. Consent agenda. Pupil personnel services and special education. Okay, seeing no questions, can I have a vote to approve this evening's consent agenda? All those in favor, that would be six to nothing with one absence. This evening's consent agenda is approved. And on this evening's consent agenda, we have a lot of our regular work that we take uh the time to make sure gets done during the course of the days and weeks in between our meetings. And this
085evening, we are also accepting the retirement of Miss Vanessa Kaine. It is with sadness that I announced the retirement of longtime Ry Middle School counselor Vanessa Kaine at the end of January after 22 years with the Ry City School District and over 30 years as a counselor. Miss Kaine came to the Ry City School District as a one-year leave replacement guidance counselor, as school counselors were known back then in 20 in 2003. She joined RMS as a full-time counselor the next year and has been there ever since. Miss Kaine came to the Ry Middle School from C CIS232, the Alexander Mcome School in the Bronx, where she had been a school counselor managing a case load of 300 students. Previously, she worked as a school counselor at the Emerson Middle School in Yoners and at
086the Pyadia program. It's definitely not right. At school 24 in Yoners and at Mount Vernon High School. Miss Kaine has a BA in liberal arts from Hostra University and an MS in guidance and counseling from the College of New Relle. Mr. Joe Giovani, the former Ry Middle School principal and current assistant superintendent for human resources and staff development says of Vanessa, "Vanessa has helped thousands of students and supported so many families over her years here at Ry Middle School. She has been a tre she has been a tremendously important part of the middle school community counseling department and will be greatly missed. We wish Miss Kaine all the very best in her retirement. Okay, we will now move on to presentation and discussion two and we will start with a policy review. Miss Bole, thank
087you. Uh so this is our presentation discussion two of policy number 2230 appointed board officials. Um and as we discussed during our last meeting um this uh policy was reviewed uh to really consolidate what it's meant to talk about which is the annual appointment of particular um positions within the district. uh previously it had included a lot of information that was more like the description of the job that each individual does which was not necessary. So we've um left that up to the human resources department to make sure that they have those pieces of information. Um and the policy itself uh will be very um minimal talking about the the positions that have to be appointed each year. I did not receive any questions from the last meeting. So I'm assuming there are no more
088now. Um great. So then we can move this forward for adoption at our next meeting. Okay. Wonderful. Uh we'll now move on to our board of education goals for the 2526 school year. We had previously discussed and reviewed these goals. At the time we were just holding on because there was a question or a a potential goal which was going to relate to the communication and Dr. customer you were creating and and having a survey on communication. We were waiting for your feedback from that. So what do you got for us? >> I did give the communication survey out. Um the results are in. >> I took it. >> You you took that? >> I did. I responded. It is anonymous though, right? >> It is anonymous. Um and so there we did ask about
089you know the need to hear more from the board of education. Um uh that was a small percentage of people uh who they really wanted to hear about you know from the were more interested in like district news initiatives events there wasn't there wasn't that piece >> they're not clamoring for us >> they were not they I feel that they feel very well informed from the district which is a good that's a good sign yeah okay so uh then that would be that second bullet there >> enhancement yes strengthen community engagement through improved communication of board education news and highlights. So perhaps uh less about strengthening and more about maintaining a robust or a hearty uh or some other synonym that I'm at a loss for right now. Okay. So we can make a we
090can make a slight modification to that goal and then we'll bring that forward at our next board of education meeting for review. >> Okay, great. Thank you everybody. So with that, now we will move on to communications to and from the board. And so there was a policy committee meeting. Miss Bole, >> yes, we just met about four or five hours ago, six hours now probably. >> Hot off the presses. >> Um, hot off the presses. Um, we don't have a lot to tell you for this evening, but there will be much coming forward in January. Um, one of the things I would say is that we did go we've been slowly as I've talked about um going through each of the policies to make sure that they are reviewed um and looked at for
091any changes ne necessary and from today's meeting alone I think we had about between uh six and eight that we've been able to review with no changes. So we are making sure that we can get to a point where we're on a more regular cycle of looking at policies. um before 20 years has passed. Um and we're also working to consolidate where we can because we do have quite a number of policies um and uh not all of them are required, but some of them are also still really beneficial for the running of our district. >> Okay, great. Sounds like January is going to be a hop in time, so everybody's going to have to get a lot of rest. So, we're ready to come back ready to work. All right. Um, were there other
092meetings? Pedestrian safety, do they have anything for us? >> There was a traffic and pedestrian safety committee on Thursday the 11th. Um, the only two items that came up regarding the school district were um police assistance being required at Osborne school pickup last week and um ongoing due to some traffic backing up from Boston Post Road into the Osborne entrance. Once that parking lot closes, the spots are all full and cars have been queuing up and preventing traffic from flowing through and even preventing their crossing guard from being able to safely assist the crossing guard from um taking kids across the street. Um so the police were there to help traffic keep moving and with some additional communications that you guys may have seen from principal. Um I think that is underhand now but there
093will be new procedures in place there. And the only other item that came up was um I think I've mentioned to you guys before how the Ry Presbyterian Nursery School has been having trouble with their pickups when that parking lot gets flooded at the church. And apparently um 2 weeks ago when the middle school had an early close at 11:00 a.m. That's right smack at the same time as the pickup for the nursery school. And I think the problem really is that the younger kids that choose have to their parents must physically park in a spot and there are very few to begin with and walk to the building and collect their children. So apparently there's a practice of middle school parents parking in those lots to have their kids meet them there and collect
094them and move on. So, um, John Hawkins was also on the call, um, last week with TPS and he offered assistance in coordinating, um, and communicating back and forth between the RPNS and the, um, middle school when those early closes will be happening at the 11:00 a.m. time frame and conflicting with the same pickup. So, um, they're going to coordinate a little bit there, possibly send out some communications to middle school parents about the practice of please don't fill it and clog up that church parking lot um during those times. So, it looks like we can work with them and help them out a little bit there. Okay, great. Any other communications to and from the board? No. Okay, seeing none, then our next meeting, as I mentioned, is going to be a big one.
095Lots going on including our critical thinking discussion on for grades K through 5 and that'll be on January 13th. So everybody hopefully you'll get lots of good rest and relaxation over the winter break and we'll be back here ready to get started on January 13th. So with that can I have a motion please to adjourn this evening's meetings. Sean Cler, seconded by Valerie Lapam. All those in favor that is 6 nothing. Thank you all. Have a happy new year. See you in 2026.