Sayville BOE March 05, 2026 - Workshop Meeting

001Okay, hello everybody. Welcome back to our workshop meeting. I'd like to ask everyone to please rise for the pledge. Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. Okay, just a reminder that tonight is a workshop meeting and we will have a public session and it will be for comments based on agenda items only and I will turn it over to our reports and the superintendent of schools. Great. I welcome everyone. Thank you for coming tonight and thank you for those online. We have a really great exciting presentation tonight from our elementary team. Uh but before we do that, I just want to thank all of our elementary teachers and

002our teachers who participated this week in the Wizards game on Tuesday, I believe it was. Was it Tuesday? Uh we played the Harlem Wizards and got beaten again. But uh it was a great time and there was a lot of kids cheering and screaming in the stands. And then day two, uh back-to-back nights, we had the uh traditional Sayville serving Sayville volleyball game uh where the three elementary schools got together and every year it's the same thing. They come in, "Oh, it's not competitive. We're just going to have some fun. We're going to just play. It's no And next thing you know, people are diving and crashing and accusing and screaming." And it was a really exciting night. We had a a three-way tie, which went to a sudden death overtime, and we want to

003congratulate first of all all the teachers cuz the whole place was packed. So, thank you to our teachers and congratulations to Cherry, who took home the trophy. >> [applause] >> There's some There's There's some There was a a couple of contestant contested plays there, but we got through it. All right. Um as we head into this presentation, I just want to remind everyone where where we always begin, which is the outcomes we're looking for for our students. And 5 years ago or 4 years ago, we surveyed parents and students and teachers and said, "What is important to us? What do we value? What do we believe in that when our kids go through our schools, they're going to come out being able to do?" And we identified we want them to be independent learners, caring

004citizens, communicators, collaborators, critical thinkers, and joyful learners. All of those components then become the focus of everything we do pre-K through 12 in all of our work. And the board goals that we created together kind of align with those outcomes that we're desiring. And in the last couple weeks, we've had presentations on the fiscal planning and our budget, and tonight we're taking a moment to focus on the curriculum and instruction side of this. Our teachers have been unbelievably hard at work with our administration on a number of initiatives with reading, with math, with literacy, with MTSS programming. But one of the things we're really proud of is the fact that over 150 of our elementary teachers participated in committees to kind of look at our curriculum, look at our current reading and literacy program, and

005think about is the work we're doing good enough? Can we do better? Are there areas we can supplement? And what do we need to do? And they came up with I think a really great plan. So, I'm here to introduce Miss Amy DiMeola, our assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction, our three elementary principals, and some of our elementary teachers who are going to share with you basically a 4-year journey, a 3-year journey of where we've been working on our literacy curriculum. So, Ms. D'Amelio, take it away. Good evening. Everyone here is in for a big treat tonight, and it's not because of me. Um so, I am very, very proud to be here tonight with our three elementary principals, Dr. Ein, Mr. Romano, Dr. Foy, um and some very special guests, um uh faculty faculty speakers.

006Um and we're here to share with you um a literacy journey that has been a central focus of our elementary faculty and leadership for several years now. Um we have reflected together on research in the field that outlines science of reading uh as it relates to our practices and the materials that we use to support our literacy curriculum. Um so, tonight will illustrate how we came to common understandings about pedagogy um and methodically sought new resources to better help us reach our goals as a district. And we will enthusiastically share some new resources that we're excited to uh implement district-wide. So, we'll destruct describe the journey um the same way we took it as a team. So, I would like to invite Dr. Foy to get us started. Thank you so much, Ms. D'Amelio. Uh

007good evening, everyone. Thanks for uh giving us this opportunity this evening. Um so, like any good venture, um you you don't know where um you don't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. So, this is a a little timeline of uh almost like the past decade of literacy instruction in the elementary world um in terms of bringing us to this point now. So, prior to 2023, we spent some extensive time and years um working with Columbia University and Teachers College. You know, we adopted that curriculum formally back I want to say somewhere around 2017, 2018. And we, you know, we all in. We had teachers on a regular basis that go into and from Columbia University, staff developers that were coming here five times a year to work with each teacher.

008We were really getting stronger and stronger as teachers of reading and writing. The the research that we unfolded through years of not just um working with staff developers, but really working with each other was it it's brought us to where we are now. And I think collectively, I know collectively as a school district, we can really stand on our knowledge base of good strong reading and writing practices and say, "What is going to be best going forward for our students here in Sayville?" Um you know, and then a couple years back we heard a lot of new research coming out science of reading. Um and there was never a time where here at Sayville we said, "Well, we're doing something wrong or we're we're not teaching things um the the the best way." But if

009there's a chance for us to improve as a professional group, let's do it. That's what our students and our children deserve. So, we we started with an audit and really just got the impression from all the experts that are in the trenches teaching it on a daily basis and look to say, "What are our strengths? Where are the gaps that we need to fill in in terms of stronger literacy instruction?" And we we built a plan to really put these steps in action. And all the while, we knew that this was not something to rush. This was not something that we wanted to go forward with and just plow through and pick a new curriculum and move on. We wanted to make sure we did it right. So, go slow to go fast. I think

010that's Ms. D'Amelio's motto of Well, I I feel like it is, anyway. Um but, it it's such a it's such a perfect thing to think of because we wanted to make sure we got it right. So, with the new research, we took time um to to say, "Well, what do we need to do to strengthen our understanding as a staff?" And that's where um last year and the year prior, we moved towards Shifting the Balance. We had wonderful groups um a professional collaboration with teachers. We worked with staff developers. A lot of it was uh virtual, but it was based on some real strong instructional focuses of what we need to do to strengthen the things that maybe we're not doing as well as we could have. And we saw a lot of wonderful things,

011and we spent the better part of the year diving in so that we could make the best decisions going forward if we were going to make a uh a pivot from a current curriculum, or if we were simply going to add more to it. Um last spring, we started to truly investigate the different curricula that were out there. We met with different vendors. We went to site visits. We had whole giant teacher field trips. No students this time, it was just teachers. Great conversations with different teachers in different places, and wanted to know, "Well, well, what are your kids getting out of it? What are the conversations like? How are their levels of comprehension? Are their spelling principles are they improving? Are they able to carry this over? Where's grammar fit into this big picture

012of strengthening um a student's uh just overall understanding. Um we we really again, went slow to go fast because we couldn't find the perfect one yet. And it started to just organically arrive that a lot of school districts were starting to move towards Magnetic Literacy. Magnetic Literacy is part part of the curriculum associates mothership. Uh Um, we are already utilizing i-Ready for our diagnostics in both math and reading and there's a ton of resources that coincide with that that we can um, that we can use with students. But Magnetic Literacy developed a program and you'll hear more about that in in a minute. Um, but it wasn't yet ready for us to start this school year. So, okay, when is it going to be ready? January. Okay, what are we going to do? Well, we're

013going to rely on the last 10 years worth of our strength and understanding, our teacher expertise. We're going to work together. And our reading teachers did a phenomenal job over the summer really working together and giving classroom teachers a little bit of a launchpad to start this school year to say how can we best enhance what we're currently doing now with our units of study using Moss Flower cuz the terminology all changed from Teachers College to Moss Flower and um, and then say, "Okay, well, how do we infuse all of these practices that we best we learned from shifting the balance? Let's move forward. Let's get it going." And once uh, well, January hit. Or it was kind of December and we said, "Okay, are you ready? Are you ready?" Cuz we really do want

014to bring in Magnetic Literacy. We saw it in action. We talked to teachers. We saw kids learning it. We were excited about it and this is a component that we really feel is going to not just fill um, what research says we need to do, but it's going to truly complement what we're already doing great here in Sayville. And that brings us to the decision that we're moving forward that we are we've been piloting now. We've got some piloting teachers out here and some others around that um, they uh, they are all in. And I would say just like any other venture we take with our teachers, when the staff developers, they give us A, B, and C, the teachers write the rest of the alphabet. What they are doing with it, with each other,

015the collaboration, it it's amazing. I'm I'm getting knocked off my feet by watching. I was in a class today and watching some great things. Um so that being said, that's where we were, that's where we are. Think I'm going to pass the baton over to Dr. Ein now. Good evening everyone. Uh so fortunately for us, districts have local control over curriculum. And we also know with all of our combined years of experience that no program is perfect. Um so while searching for new programs, materials, um we sought to really keep in mind those oldies but goodies, those things that we've come to learn to love. Um and also to engage in best practice, what Dr. Foy started to talk about. So, you know, creative writing. We don't just want children reading a passage and writing

016about that. We want them to engage in the creative writing process, whether the writing prompt is based on interest or choice. Small group instruction. It's not just pulling a group of students and reteaching. It's literally teaching to individual learning styles, needs, uh differentiating based on content, skill, process, product. It It's It's When our teachers do this, they really are pulling magic out of thin air. Um and they're doing it on their own. And then, I don't know about you, but I know for me, walking into a room and seeing kids reading in their own book, a hard copy book, whether it's based on their reading level, whether it's based on interest, genre. Uh we certainly don't want to lose that either. Um I know our librarians are our biggest cheerleaders in saying, "We want our

017kids to be readers. We want them to develop lifelong love of reading." Not because they have to, but because they still want to curl up with a book, and we certainly don't want to lose that, where it's just open up the textbook and read because you have to. Um and then of course novel study where they're engaging in whole class um engagement in a novel. Think of Because of Winn-Dixie, something that's rich, something that's classic. So, we certainly want to make sure we're still incorporating those. We want to do all those things while we're filling the gaps in looking at a cohesive program, something that addresses the science of reading and really making sure that we're supporting the way that the brain reads. And that is not innate and that's a whole science in its

018own and that's what leads us to this program. So, as Dr. I'm was just describing um the process of learning how to read and write is very complex and we've talked in the past about um the visual described by Scarboro's Reading Rope um that um intertwines language comprehension and word recognition um and in the past we've needed to draw on multiple multiple resources in order to accomplish this in our classrooms. And what that's um we have found that led to was um an increased risk of inconsistency across the district um in how the products were used and supplemental materials that teachers needed to pull and uh a lack of clarity on on how to proceed. Um so, what we were really aiming for was um a cohesive a comprehensive um tool that we could use

019our best uh practices or pedagogical expertise um and have something that was truly designed to be coherent. Uh all of those elements were designed um in light of one another and not retrofitted to each other. Um and so, when we have a single tool that mostly does the job and you know we can choose areas that we'd like to supplement especially the ones that Dr. Anne was mentioning. It It propels us forward in a more unified direction. And so now I'd like to introduce one of our reading experts Ms. Merchant. She's a reading teacher at Lincoln Avenue and she's going to illustrate for us how the year that we spent doing professional development on instructional approaches to science of reading all of those shifts that shifting the balance taught us how to do how magnetic

020literacy will help us fulfill those. Hey everyone. I'm Ashley Merchant and I'm officially here to bore you. Just kidding. So I'm here to talk to you about the year-long PD that we had the amazing opportunity to go through what we gained from it and how we know that this program is based in research. So the program is split into two books. The program that we went through for professional development it's written by teachers and researchers Jan and Carey and we were lucky to learn from them individually. So it's kind of interesting the way the books are split they're split between K2 and 35 and that's done with intense and purpose because around 8 years old is when those foundational skills develop and students make that shift from learning to read to reading to learn. And

021it just so happens that magnetic literacy splits at those exact points. So the K2 is a very cohesive scope and sequence and then so is 3 to 5. So let's talk a little bit about that. So the first thing we really learned from the six shifts professional development, is when does comprehension begin? Um, and the answer is in the womb. Um, but it really solidifies the fact that oral language is an essential component of literacy learning that cannot be overlooked. So, um, we you'll notice as our teachers share about magnetic literacy is oral language is um, intently and intentionally included throughout the program. Next is phonemic awareness. Um, a recommitment to phonemic awareness is how the six shifts sort of define it because it's not new practice, but, um, again, that explicit, systematic instruction intently

022built in every day. Phonics is very similar, and luckily for us this was an area of strength that magnetic magnetic literacy remains. Um, then when we talk about high frequency words, um, we really need to orthographically map every high frequency word and teach the kids the parts that they can decode, the parts that, um, don't follow the rules they've been learned and why, and magnetic literacy does a nice job of that. Um, reinventing the ways we use MSV, that means meaning, structure, visual, in other words, the three queuing system. Um, and so, that system really focuses on meaning first, then what does the word look like? Uh, research tells us we really should be inverting that, and that's just what magnetic literacy does. And then, um, the last step for the, uh, K-2 book was

023talking about what kind of text should be in the hands of foundational learners. Um, and magnetic literacy makes a commitment to provide a variety of text. So, there's anchor text and there's thematic text, but there's also power in decodable text, text that only have phonics patterns explicitly taught to date. Um, and so, we're excited to commit to that. All right. I'm sure there's tons of questions rolling. You guys are like so into this. All right, here's the three to five bucks. Um So, in the three to five one, again, it begins with thinking about compre- comprehension, which is obviously the end goal of reading, right? We want to get something from the text we're making meaning of. Um and in Magnetic Literacy, there's thematic units aligned to our science and social studies content, um building

024background knowledge the entire time. Then, the second shift is about um strategy instruction. And instead of explicitly teaching strategies to comprehend, the theory behind Magnetic Literacy is a thinking curriculum. So, the comprehension is the result of many skills being put together. It's the goal of reading in the first place. Vocabulary in three to five is obviously very important. Um and the research kind of told us that we need to commit to vocabulary instruction, but through a variety of approaches. And when we only take one approach, we only reach a certain amount of students. And Magnetic Literacy does mix the experiences um to support word learning. Reclaiming word reading instruction in intermediate grades. I'm so excited you're going to hear from our fourth-grade team to to really speak about this. But, um syllable division is incredibly

025important. And once you get to third grade, we learn those multi-syllabic words for the very first time. And um Magnetic Literacy really does a nice job of continuing that through the three to five curriculum. Fluency instruction, um not something students will just learn, but instead through repeated oral reading with um models of fluent readers through evidence-based practices like echo reading and choral reading is daily in Magnetic Literacy. And last, um independent practice, um which like Dr. Ein had shared earlier, we believe in independent reading for students. We want real books in their hands, and we want them to be reading with purpose and and with a target in mind. And magnetic literacy does support us towards those goals. I'm done. All right. So, I have the privilege of jumping into how we piloted program, the

026design of it, and the teacher feedback that we received during the pilot. Um it was so thorough in doing so that I actually took some notes. So, I want to make sure that we cover every component of it. Um good thing I brought a pen. This is where I was supposed to show the volleyball trophy. Oh, man. >> [laughter] >> Just kidding. Uh so, teacher training. Um training for teachers was provided by I ready. Um we had full-day trainings and we divided our teachers into two groups. One group was for our K through two teachers, and one group was three through five. Um this training was critical in that it equipped our teachers to use the materials effectively and helped to ensure that the program is evaluated based on its true potential. Um after that,

027we knew that it was important that our teachers um had some collaborative planning time. Uh so, now that teachers have been trained, uh it was important to give them the time to digest the information and work together as a team to collaborate, share best practices, and discuss how to implement the curriculum effectively. This collaboration helped ensure the implementation was aligned not only with the instructional shifts that we just heard about, but also with our district's core philosophies. Our administrative team worked together to design days where teachers not only had an opportunity to plan together in the same building, but across all three buildings. And I think that's what's key here is that we provided opportunities for our teachers to share best practices across all elementary schools. Um the support from our reading teachers. It's important

028to note that all classrooms, both before and during the pilot, rely very heavily on the support of our reading teachers. Um they serve as our in-house literacy experts. They support classroom instruction, provide students with talent interventions, and help ensure every child receives what they need to develop strong literacy skills. This is a resource we deeply value across our schools and one we continue to leverage throughout this implementation process. Touch points with the leadership. During the pilot, Ms. Dimiola and the administrative team made it a priority to be present in classrooms. Um, as Dr. Foy said, he was in a classroom today. I know Dr. Ryan does the same, me and myself. Uh, we've attended training sessions and engaged with teachers about the implementation process at the ground level. This allowed us to see the work

029as it was really happening and better understand both the opportunities and the challenges teachers were experiencing. We worked through the process together and continue to do so. Opportunities for feedback and reflection. Throughout the process, we provided multiple opportunities for teachers to share feedback and reflect on their experiences with the pilot. Each piloting teacher completed a survey with questions aligned to our instructional priorities and goals. And through ongoing touch points with the pilot team, we engaged in meaningful dialogue about the program and its implementation. And we do have a literacy committee. Um, and we had discussions with them. And this is ongoing conversation with our committee. We reviewed the survey results together. Um, and their thoughtful contributions truly guided our work. Their dedication reflects on a commitment to the highest standards for our students. We deeply

030appreciate and engaged them in this process alongside them, not only celebrating the opportunities, but also recognizing how we've identified areas to support and monitor, ensuring that we design a curriculum that is authentically Sayville. And I think that's our biggest priority here. So, what were the outcomes? So, in terms of all of that, there are some areas of strength that we uncovered through the pilot. So, the first one is building knowledge. Um the curriculum is content-rich. There is true productive struggle there. There is engagement and joy. The material is interactive. The students are engaged in the lessons. They're talking about the content they are reading, not just in the classroom. I'm not even joking when I say in the cafeteria, and believe it or not, at recess. There's foundational skills. It's systematic. There's an approach to

031teaching the skills needed to support good literacy instruction. The student impact is transferable. There's alignment that will go through the grades. There's explicit instruction. The assessment and data that's provided is informative. It's supporting tailored instruction. And most importantly, it provides what our teachers asked for. Unlike anything else, I think Ms. Viola said or Ms. Dr. Ein, you know, years of experience, there is no perfect um curriculum out there. So, there are some additional areas of design work, which are the areas of our philosophy that we don't want to give up on. These are the solid components of a Savva literacy program, and that's small group instruction, tools for differentiation, independent reading opportunities, creative writing, and novel studies. And I think it's important to note that through the work and through creating a Savva approach to

032literacy, 100% of our piloting teachers are in favor of adopting Magnetic Literacy. So, we're going to share um a little bit about what Magnetic Literacy looks like. Um I'll just give a a brief uh visual of things that you've heard about tonight. The decodable texts, the explicit phonics instruction. Um there's uh some real process writing that uh occurs throughout a unit as students uh build upon a structure so that they're eventually prepared to write a more in-depth piece at the end of the unit that they've been working on for an entire unit. There's direct instruction on reading comprehension strategies, and what we really love too is that there are great explicit connections to our strides values. In classrooms that I've been in, they're talking about perseverance. They're talking about all of the things that that

033are character building as well. But to really bring it to life, we'd really like to introduce you to what's happening in our classrooms. So we have some teachers with us tonight that you'll meet throughout the night. And we're going to actually kick it off with what's what this is really look like in a classroom by sharing a video with you. I don't know Dr. First if you can click on that. There's a going to be a going to be a link that pops. There it is. And if you can like expand to the full screen. This is a first grade classroom. >> [music] >> What is it, Hazel? But if she draws herself, then she won't need to be on the map. It would have the same problem in Henry's map over there. Oh, what

034was the problem that Henry had in Henry's map? All the animals ran on the farm. He wasn't even in his house. You're right. You're right. Where were they? Where did they end up moving to? The hill to look at Henry's map, and then they stopped farming and they looked at Henry's map. Exactly. Exactly. And and Janie went in lots of shops. Jean got socks and a red hat. Gran got a muffin. Ah, Josh. Ah. Ah, ah. Josh. All right, and Thank you so much. Um Can we advance to that? There you go. Thank you. Um and so that was um live from a first-grade classroom, but to hear from our teachers, I'm going to invite our kindergarten ICT team from Sunrise, um Ms. Heather Hewer and Ms. Mary Pat um Holler. >> [applause] >> Good

035evening. Um like you said, I'm Heather Hewer and this is Mary Pat Holler and we are the kindergarten ICT um team and we were really excited to have the opportunity to partake in the pilot this um last few I would say like a month, right? A month, month and a half. So we're here tonight to share some of our experiences and reflections that we've had since we started the pilot and overall we can say that mostly what we've seen has been positive. So we kicked off the magnetic literacy pilot program with the theme of neighborhoods and the kids have been so excited. When we talk about um a place in town, all of a sudden their hands are shooting up or sometimes not even they're yelling out, "That's my library. I go there. Mom took

036me there. They feel a connection. Um and they and now they're starting to understand why these places in their community are so important. Um we've been exploring all kinds of neighborhoods, cities, suburbs, rural areas. Um the kids love talking about big cities with tall buildings. They're remembering when they went to see the big Christmas tree in New York City. Um quiet suburbs, houses that are close together, or if they went on vacation, they're making connections to some um rural communities that they may have seen. Um what's really cool is watching them compare these neighborhoods to where they live, seeing the similarities, seeing the differences, um noticing differences in buildings, roads, how people get along. The excitement, the conversations, um and the vocabulary that they're using has been amazing. Um even the students that tend to

037struggle are jumping in with ideas. They're participating. Um and I really feel it's because they have a connection. They feel confident. They know that they have something to contribute and they they feel that confidence and they're okay to share and participate um in the classroom. 28 years ago, long long time ago, when I started um my career in kindergarten. I've spent most of my time there, so I'm a expert in kindergarteners. And being in kindergarten. Um but when we started, there was really no set curriculum. Instead, we focused on teaching essential skills through meaningful themes. Those themes help children naturally make connections across different areas of learning. Over the years, we've seen many changes to kindergarten. Some have been positive. However, some of them have also been challenging. One major shift has been isolating important

038skills and teaching them separately. While they're all important, what I've noticed is that sometimes it makes it harder for our youngest learners to connect and to learn, you know, in a in the most positive way. So, for many years, um I know if everyone has heard me say it, that we need to revisit some of those earlier practices and return back to the basics of how young children learn. That's why this program is really exciting because it brings us back to learning in the thematic approach, how young children learn best. So, learning through themes allows children to connect ideas across reading, writing, math, and play in a natural and engaging way. As you can see in our pictures, um even during playtime, our children are choosing to build different neighborhoods while using new and relevant

039vocabulary to describe their creations. Through this one theme, they are building a deeper understanding of their community, why they all go to the same library. I mean, they'll still be like, "I go to that school." Like, they don't understand that it's because they're part of Sayville, um that they all go to the same places. Um they're learning comprehension, they are learning writing, um they're developing reading skills, they're exploring story elements, all through this one thematic um theme of neighborhoods, and they're all actively engaged and having fun. So, when we teach children the way it was meant to be taught in kindergarten, the way it's meant to be taught through connection, exploration, and play, we're more able to unlock the potential of even our weakest to our strongest learners. So, basically, what we take away from

040this is we love what we've seen so far, both from the program and from what our students are doing. The excitement, the connections, the confidence that we see that they're building makes us really optimistic about what's to come. >> [applause] >> Um, I would like to introduce Lisa Board, our second grade teacher, um, to talk about how this looks in second second grade. Okay. Hi. Good evening. My name is Lisa Board. I teach second grade at Lincoln Avenue and I can truly say I've had the pleasure of being able to pilot our new magnetic literacy curriculum. And tonight I want to share the most valuable feedback I've received, which I think is the most valuable, the authentic voices of my students. So, when I asked my second graders about magnetic literacy, their feedback was overwhelmingly

041positive and highly specific. They expressed a deep connection to the new material. Now, these are right from their mouth, no support. Um, they talked about a really big interest in the content. So, in second grade, all the piloting classes started with unit four and in second grade, our theme is National Parks. And hopefully the goal at the end is for the students to understand what makes National Parks so special and why is it so important to protect them. So, my students said they love learning about National Parks and they especially love learning how much poetry is included. So, the first time this year, um, in our magnetic literacy unit, a lot they were showing so many different genres of writing and showing writing in different ways through photographs, through non-fiction, through fiction and through poetry.

042So, the students already are super excited about poetry. They've started learning about rhyming and alliteration and basic metaphors, um, and they love it. Another kind of feedback from them was they really noted the structure of the curriculum. They said that they like that everything is in one book. They can just take one book out and that's where we do our phonics instruction and that's where we do our reading and writing. And they said it makes them feel more organized and they if you ask them, they'll tell you that Ms. Bort loves organization. So, that makes them happy cuz then I'm happy. Uh and then they also said, which is really sweet, little girl Tess, she mentioned, she said she loves that there's mini books within the big book. So, she was very excited about that

043that within the one workbook there's all these different mini books and you just have to use that one workbook. They also talked about the challenge and the growth. They noted, in their words, that the program is easy and hard and involves a lot of thinking. And they're excited about learning new concepts like R-controlled vowels. So, that's something that we're doing right now in our phonics phonics instruction. We just talked about the air sound um spelled with e a r and a r e, which was very exciting. Also, graphing all these different words today. Um and then, which I really thought was amazing coming from right from them, they said if they felt like it was a big honor. They said they felt like they were chosen to try this new curriculum. So, and that that

044was their words, big honor. Um and I felt like that already demonstrated their buy-in, their enthusiasm. I think my biggest takeaway so far from this curriculum is that the student engagement is through the roof. [clears throat] Um and in I've taught for many years before Savvas and now luckily in Savvas and I always feel that when engagement and is high, that's when the learning comes. That's kind of the sweet spot. Um when you're engaged in something, you can learn anything. And that's what I'm really seeing. Um they're really deeply involved in it. They want to talk about it. The students are telling me about trips to national parks they went on and they bring pictures. They're also telling me that they're trying to get their families to take them to national parks. >> [laughter] >>

045Um so, they're really engaged. Um they're excited to read the new stories. They're excited to learn the new information. These pictures are taken from an activity that we did. I had um, kind of um, with the help of John, um, I helped to he helped me kind of blow up pictures of national parks. So, I laid around national parks throughout the classroom and we completely did a gallery walk where students um, one of the strategies in magnetic literacy is to notice and wonder. So, we're asking the kids to really notice what they observe using their senses and then really wonder about it, ask questions. And so, we did this silent gallery walk walk first and they walked around the room with a clipboard of notice and wonderings and they really just took note at the

046different national parks and I tried I included Fire Island National Parks and that's kind of like right in our backyard and then ones that were far away. Um, and then you can see the little thought bubbles, those are all right from them. Um, they they really are they're loving it. They're loving that they're learning this new information and they're excited. They're excited when I tell them to take out their book. They're excited when they see the new, you know, poem that we're going to read about Yellowstone. Right now we're doing all that Yellowstone National Park. Um, so, the engagement is high in second grade. >> [applause] >> Thank you. And uh, our next grade level is grade three. I'm going to invite Ms. Barilli to come up and share what's going on in grade three.

047Good evening everyone. Uh, so my name is Nicole Barilli. I am the third grade teacher, one of the third grade teachers at Lincoln Avenue and um, you're going to hear a lot of I think the same themes um, that we've all said so far tonight is that we're really excited and we're very honored to be a part of this pilot program. Um, when I heard this was coming, I really was like on Amy, like I want to do this. I'm very excited to do it. So, thank you for giving me the opportunity to pilot. Um, so, in third grade, our first unit, unit four, is tastemakers. Um and unfortunately for my class, we do our literacy block right before lunch, and all of our stories are about food. So so far, we have learned about

048how our taste buds work. So my kids are now talking about how they're a supertaster. Uh if you test um positive for the cilantro gene, that you think cilantro tastes like soap, you are considered a supertaster. So that was pretty cool for them to find out. Um turns out I am a supertaster. >> [snorts] >> So they were very excited to hear that. Um we've also read about nachos. We've read about ramen. We are currently reading about Japanese-American cuisine. Our next story is about pizza. And then our final story for this uh theme is something called Accidentally Delicious, and where they're going to find out that chocolate chip cookies were actually an accident. Um so pretty cool. So they're excited about that. Of course, they're asking if we could bring in food to eat. So

049of course, the kids were excited to try something new. You can see on my slide, my student engagement, just like the other teachers spoke about, is very high. They were very excited to be a part of this. You know, we we build up our kids to be excited about learning. And so when they heard we were going to be like a special group of students that were going to test this out for the district, they felt very honored and very responsible that they really had a voice um in in choosing this program for the other students of of Sayville. Um I love that it's all in one one book, um and then I could use that book to go off into small group instruction. Um and lots of small group opportunities for children of varying

050levels. Um and my kids have been given the chance to really show what they can do when working independently um with me or even without a teacher present, um and they're leading the groups themselves. Um I saw the engagement shift immediately with my students. They are very excited when it's time to do reading, which as a teacher, you can't ask for more than that. Um and they really get excited to learn new things. And one of the stories we just read um is about a Japanese American chef and one of the things she says in her story is "Kayashi" which means show them. And so that's kind of been a theme in my classroom now the kids are actually saying it to each other um when they get excited about something or when they think

051they can't do something. So that just shows me that they're highly motivated um and I'm really seeing a true love of learning and a renewed passion for teaching reading and writing to my students. So as a little side story over February break I happened to run into Ms. Demeola in Target of all places and we had a very organic and very excited and animated conversation about this program and I thought if that's not you know, a love of teaching and and learning and teaching children to read then what else than in you know, aisles of Target. Um and uh a week later Mr. Amano said, "Do you want to speak at the board meeting?" because Ms. Ms. Demeola I think she'll be a great speaker. I said, "It's probably because of the conversation we had

052at Target." because we never stop learning and talking about learning so it doesn't matter if we're on the beach, in Target, at a restaurant, we're talking shop all the time. And it's just organic because we love what we do here in Sayville. So I want to thank you for the opportunity to allow us the chance to explore this new curriculum and I think it's going to be really exciting shift for Sayville and the students of Sayville and I'm very excited to continue to see where this journey takes us. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Ms. Burley. I actually want to touch on uh something that you brought up and it wasn't Target. Although that was really nice to run into you. Um the um the cultural responsiveness um New York State uh um has

053a cultural responsiveness framework that schools across the state are um rightfully obligated to attend to. Um and it this we're finding in very creative, very age-appropriate, and very engaging ways. These materials are making it easy to weave in an awareness of different cultures that our kids need to have as they grow up. So to our final group of teachers is our fourth grade group, Ms. Mr. Kuvek and Mr. Zeltman, and they'll talk about what this program looks like in our intermediate grade level. Good evening. My name is Dan Zeltman. I teach I teach fourth grade at Cherry Avenue Elementary School and just like everyone has been saying, we really enjoy the program so far. We're really having a great experience with it. In fourth grade, we're doing unit four, which is birds as symbols. Birds

054as symbols for fourth graders. Doesn't sound that exciting, right? Myself included trying to, you know, jazz it up at first, but my I had my my doubts. And the students did as well. And at this point in the school year or the the program, the kids are all in. The program is really just it's so engaging. What we love is that every student is reading the same text. That really makes it a lot easier for us as teachers to work in small group, to really know if students are comprehending what they're reading cuz we know exactly what they're reading. Um instead of just constantly in their own their own personal books. It's easier to provide support. There's also vocabulary, which is really enriched. There's vocabulary introduced before each new text with also some background knowledge,

055which helps with the comprehension. Students really have a better understanding of what exactly they're reading and and a little bit of history behind it before they get involved. Um there's also something that is introduced in the program called the read routine, which helps students with um tackling tougher words, maybe, you know, bigger words that they aren't familiar with. Uh that would be breaking apart words with um prefix and root words and suffix. Uh also, they are learning how to break up words by syllable. Um each module exposes students to different types of genres, which we find very um enhancing. Uh so, we have folk tales, poems, fairy tales, and plays that focus on a singular writing topic. And like I mentioned, it's birds as symbols. Uh we like that students are practicing their response to

056their reading. So, their writing correlates to what they've read, but we also like that there is a creative writing component to it as well. Uh throughout the module, students are um learning different types of writing strategies. For example, recently we just did a whole lesson on focusing on dialogue. Um let's see. The structure of these lessons makes it seem well there's a lot involved in it, but there also is time for things like small group. There's um a component to it called support and extend. That's part of every single lesson where we can have students work in small group. They can work uh in their own books doing their independent reading. Uh they can also practice lessons on I ready using the online component, uh which goes with the diagnostic that we do three times

057a year. Um and so far that's uh that's all from me, but it's been a really great experience, and uh we're really fortunate to have done it. I just want to note to just enhance the cleverness of our teachers, this Cherry teacher has managed to sneak a picture of the trophy of Sable saving Sable in the corner of their magnet literacy slide and I thought that was very clever. Lincoln and Sunrise don't think that's very clever, but I thought I was missing some symbolism of like the bird as a symbol. I was like that's not anything with a bird or a symbol. That's just called gloating. Well, cherry Cherry symbolize winning, so kind of sticks with it a little bit. It's not a bird, but good evening everyone. I'm Doug Kubek and I'm one of

058the fourth grade pilot literacy teachers over at Cherry Avenue. I want to provide you all with some background knowledge about the photo on the left, not the bottom left, but the top left right there. This page was taken directly from one of our magnetic literacy workbooks. In fourth grade each module has a writer's craft lesson at the end of it. Each writer's craft lesson builds the skills needed for the final unit writing task. So I like to think of it almost like starting with like an empty toolbox where you know each unit you're getting one tool that you're going to use you know towards the end inevitably to build a masterpiece. In this particular lesson here I was able to teach the students about the importance of using sensory language. The program provided me with

059easily digestible definitions, the opportunity to identify examples of sensory language in mentor passages, and the planning page for the students to develop their own paragraph that utilizes sensory language. This right here is an example of a student demonstrating her ability to take the writing skills then to the next level all thanks to the explicit skill based instruction that the program provides. Thank you. Hi, I'm I'm Kiana Naya and I'm going to talk about the middle bottom picture, not the other side picture, but anyway my I would like to first say that this program my students like it, some don't because it's hard and I think that that is a fun part is that it is challenging like Miss Merchant said it's a thinking program. So it really is a lot of them coming up with

060these ideas on their own. I'm just kind of guiding them through this which is amazing. So this bottom left picture this bottom picture is talking about the story The Nightingale written originally written by Hans Christian Andersen but it is adapted to fit a Moroccan culture. And in the story we're talking about I'm so sorry. That's that's what that story is. This one then goes into using the Nightingale again but now being set to a play which is amazing to see. Some students of mine yesterday we have to you know we're reading it all together just like Miss Merchant said it's a lot of oral language and my students took on a like British accent in a in a play telling of the story of the Nightingale. So in this story the character Mr. Pombar needs

061to relate himself to how he feels about this bird. This mechanical bird but also the real hermit thrush bird which is represented in the Nightingale. And in this part the students have to go back into the story to find explicitly where it says that the the character is feeling towards things. And this image right here is from a student that is a tier three reading service. And I was impressed by the amount of times his hand was up every time he had an answer and I could not believe that this skill this this strategy this program allowed someone who does have reading difficulty to be able to find the actual text find the evidence and then apply it. There was I I was like almost in tears there was so much inferencing happening which is

062a really tricky skill a lot of you know literal comprehension but in our one part it says you know clearly that the he doesn't like the mockingbird. Excuse me he doesn't like the real mockingbird because it looks like a brown puddle which then they're able to say therefore that shows that he likes the artificial bird and it was just fascinating to see that them coming up with their own, you know, thoughts in this process. Nothing I did just to, you know, allow them to have this opportunity to guide them through it. And then the top picture talks about how we use this graphic organizer at the in the middle to then write their own story. And one of the amazing parts, like Mr. Zelman said, is that it uses vocabulary right before we read the

063story. So it is exposing us to vocabulary, exposing us to the meaning of vocabulary. And in this one, this word was unsatisfactory. And how many times today were they unsatisfied by a lot of the things, you know, lunch today was unsatisfactory or where it's just amazing like you uh Miss Bortis said like it's amazing to see them using this language. And Miss Burley said it's so amazing to see what they're able to do in this with this reading program. The other thing that we wanted to also show is that fourth graders are reading Cage Bird by Maya Angelou. Like who does that? That to me was the first poem that we read and it they every time we come back to this poem, they are always saying like it's Cage Bird. It's like the Cage

064Bird. And I don't know that I would have ever thought as a fourth grade teacher to expose them to something like that. So it is really a wonderful program and I'm seeing so much growth in my students and so much rich good conversation conversation, excuse me. Dr. I was even in my room the other day and we were reading and it was just the amount of good authentic literacy conversation is is wonderful to see. So thank you very much. >> [applause] >> I just have to say how lucky are we to have these teachers, these principals, these families, these kids. We are so lucky. And so I would just like one round of applause for all of them. Thank you. I have the greatest job in the world to be able to supply these artists

065with a set of paintbrushes. Um, and so I'm very pleased to be able to do such a thing. Um, I would like to take the momentum that we have, clearly uh strong feedback on some materials that we worked hard to source, um, to vet, to find, and to buy into. Um, and to proceed, um, um, judiciously. We are interested in, um, allowing our entire district to benefit from these same resources. Um, this will entail training. Um, and we, like every important thing that we do, will do it in an iterative fashion. We'll, um, look with a critical eye. We'll look to refine and revise as time goes on because we know nothing is perfect. I'm so glad for these wonderful experiences we're having, and I know that we'll have challenges. Um, but I'm encouraged that

066we have a talented faculty that will outthink any challenge that comes our way. So right now, we have a superintendent's conference day coming up where everyone will, um, be able to get a launch training. Um, will this pilot is not finished. It's going to last the rest of the year, um, and that's going to allow us to utilize these great minds to continue to problem-solve and design, um, around things too, as, um, we heard Mr. Armano say before, um, in Sayville fashion. Um, we'll, um, create summer curriculum work. We know that, um, the materials are not the curriculum. We write curriculum, and we're going to use this as a key driver of that curriculum, but we get to design around it, um, using the framework that we've developed over the last few years um, and

067then of course ongoing practice and training reflection and revision. So we often talk about connected autonomy. Our buildings have unique cultures and they're going after their own extremely important goals in extremely impressive ways and they also have some very important shared goals that are guided by our district and our board goals. So the incredible work that we've shined a light on tonight represents tremendous collaborative progress towards our efforts for a unified MTSS system. That is informed by valuable and consistent assessment data which this program provides and also a comprehensive unified literacy curriculum. So this process has led us to select a resource that we're excited to use to help reach the goals. We're looking forward to the curriculum writing and the PD that will allow us to use our pedagogical expertise to bring magnetic literacy

068materials to life and continue the journey. Thank you. >> [applause] >> I would like to add just before the board starts timing in and I it's really was important to me that the teachers had voice in how we move forward and that there was buying. And four years ago when we did this 100 days study and we surveyed the teachers and we did focus groups. I met with a lot of teachers. There was a lot of pride in the work that we did with Teachers College and the reading and writing workshop but teachers were also having to supplement by filling in gaps that were clearly known but doing it in their own way and so what the parent feedback was we have amazing teachers but depending on who you get they're filling in a gap

069in a different way and there needs to be more consistency in the district across buildings across grade levels and K through five and so when Amy was hired 3 years ago, the charge was, you know, work with these principals who are great, work with these teachers who are clearly amazing, and help everybody kind of not tell them what to do, but facilitate something powerful that everyone can get behind and get 100% buy-in. And that's a tall order. And then we come 3 years later and we have 100% buy-in from our pilot teachers. Uh if you look at the surveys, they're quite amazing from our teaching staff. Um but another mandate that we gave was we don't want a program that is a script. We have too many smart teachers to give them a script. We

070need to have the science of reading and balance that with the art of great teaching. And I think that this kind of provides the tools for the teachers, and then that summer curriculum work is going to be where we design it so it's a Sayville version of that that matches our needs. And I think that's what's going to make this really powerful. And I think we are blessed to have these great teachers and these great principals, but I also want to say we're blessed to have a great assistant superintendent curriculum who facilitated all of this. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Now you're just taunting everybody, Tom. That's it. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Armanno. Um I'm sorry. Really great presentation. Really nice to to see the collaboration. And it it sounds really exciting. I can't wait

071to see. Um thanks. So, what stood out to me was I like that the program supports and affords time for shared best practices um because that's fun for teachers and so exciting, and it builds collaboration, and it builds continuous improvement. It that's awesome. Um all of the teachers mentioned that the students are engaged, motivated, and passionate. So, that's great. And the literature is rich. Like to have Maya Angelou with what? Fourth graders? It's great. Thanks. Questions? Um I just wanted to say thank you. I mean as teacher March is like the doldrums of winter. You know, and like you guys definitely have inspired me today. Um so and thank you for volunteering to do the pilot programs and stuff like that. And I I always feel like some of the best teachers are always the

072ones that are looking to try new things and experiment. And if it works, awesome. If it doesn't work, let's change it and let's mix it up. And I think I heard some great stuff today. Um Mr. Romano Uh if you need somebody that's tall and maybe needs to sign a one-day contract and bring it back for Lincoln, you know, just just give me a ring. I just want to say I just want to say a week ago Mr. Romano hired a 6'2" aid for the purpose of winning the volleyball >> [laughter] >> and he's still there. Um All right. So, first I just I'll start with like the glaring positives. Uh Like Kathy said, the engagement make no mistake about it. The engagement is not because of the content. The engagement is because of you.

073Right? The engagement is because of your excitement. You can see that, right? So, maybe the content is better than what you were doing previously, but your excitement about the content is what is raising their excitement about it. So, they see that you're so fired up about this and they'll they'll get fired up. So, I keep that up because that's what's going to drive you know, what's going to drive the instruction. Um I did I you know, I I I want to thank Amy because she did give me a password. Um so, I have been diving into this uh in my free time because you know, this is what I do. And um I did there were some things that you guys touched on that I really liked about the program. Um I did really like

074especially for the secondary, the 345s. I did like uh the vocabulary uh component. I thought they touched on um like Latin prefixes and some things which is great for decoding and and you know, will help you you know, tackle those tier three vocabulary words as you get into harder texts and and when they get older. For what? Um yeah. Uh I did there but there were some things that I wasn't crazy about but what what I you know, I do value uh Miss Enaia's opinion and her and I spoke about this. I I I I did call her with my concerns. I said these are my concerns. What are you seeing cuz you're actually teaching it. Uh one of my biggest concerns cuz I'm a big big proponent of using novels to uh to teach

075reading and into enhance reading instruction. Um higher level novels as as the kids get older and she pointed out that one of the and I was glad that that was on the area of weak I will I will say that everything that I thought was a an area of weakness, you have labeled as an area that um what does it say? Areas that require additional design work because I agreed with that. Um I was looking for I'll stay with the novel studies. Uh Miss Enaia said that it it there is time now to to jump into those novels where you can um And that's important to me. I I think that's I I think that's incredibly important when it comes to teaching literacy especially in the secondary but it has its place in the primary

076as well. Where kids can now take what they learn in your book and they can take the skill and they can apply it to an authentic novel. And that's important, and that only deepens That's building content knowledge, and that only furthers the understanding of the small skill that you may be trying to teach, as well as the overall. So, it's like macro and micro at the same time. Um so, you know, she calmed me down with that, and then that I thought that was important. Um And the other thing that I just wanted to touch on was the uh the the differentiation cuz I I had a hard time navigating the site uh and and trying to find it. So, I just wanted to make sure that all the differentiation that's going on with the

077current program it is continued and can can easily be transferable. Um because I know sometimes like these programs, they can be a mile wide and a mile deep. And because everybody's trying to sell their program, they want to include everything. And like, "Okay, we're going to have our spelling component. We're going to have our vocabulary. We're going to have our language. We're going to have our comprehension." And and sometimes things gets lo- lost in the shuffle, and and the main thing that we're trying to teach will will not hit everybody. Um so, I just I I just want to make sure because it sounds like we're implementing this now. Or is this going to be fully implemented in September? September. So, the pilots will continue and everyone else will join. >> Okay, perfect. All right,

078because I just want to make sure that the kids who are receiving services now um that transfer is over to that program so that we can figure out where that goes cuz I did have a hard time finding that. Um Yeah. Can you Can you do it to the mic so people at home Uh so, it's a great question and one that I think that we have to we have definitely have to dive into is how do we hit every learner and every need? So, one of the the the basic things that each lesson does provide I don't know how I'm not I'm looking more hard copy stuff, so I don't know if it's on the the the virtual on the website as well, but um every lesson has a language goal attached to it.

079So, I know that we have a strong special education population at at Sunrise Drive alone. Our speech and language pathologists now have a specific goal that's going to connect towards the the learning objective of that lesson. Just a very quick little goal that they know that the kids could work towards. Um the the lesson also pre uh slates out three suggestive um English language learning areas that you can focus focus on. But, what we're seeing, and I've had conversations across the building with different pilot teachers, is these aren't just for English language learners. These are for all learners. They're great ways for kids to all access the learning objective and the content specifically, but in a differentiated manner, where the child's going to get pride because of their success that they found, but it's going

080to be at their specific level, and they're reading the same content that their friend next to them is, because the teacher's also helping to break it down. Um and then the third thing that um I'm seeing, and I had a conversation with a fifth grade pilot teacher, and I spent a lot of time this past week alone in her class, and what the program is allowing her to do is to now connect the diagnostics that the students take all three times a year. And what the diagnostic does is it spits out um information based on the different domains. So, um you know, whether we're looking for comprehension, is it literal is it information this, and it's giving it's giving information on that. Now, because it's the same program, i-Ready and i-Ready Magnetic, it's actually giving

081suggestive groupings based on the student's diagnostics, and based on the student the teacher's exit tickets from the day prior, that the teacher's setting up individual groups based on the specific skill, and how that student has either mastered that skill, not yet mastered it, or not approaching it yet. So, this teacher was talking to me today about, "Okay, well, this is what I did, but now tomorrow I'm taking these three groups that I had, and this is the activity I'm doing with them." And it gives it does give a specific um resource to use. She's changing it a little bit because she knows what her kids need a little bit more so than just what the computer is saying, of course. Um and then the the piece that she was, I think, most excited was that

082in the spring I-Ready's changing their diagnostic. It's not going to be called diagnostic anymore. It's going to be called inform. It's going to be shorter, which is so awesome, right? But it is going to on a daily basis coincide with the individual lessons the teachers are teaching so that they can pull up the lessons' objective, and it can automatically group kids based on what what their ability is, too. So, there's a lot of differentiated uh opportunities um that the teachers, besides what they're doing on their own, that it's coming to the table with, which I remember from the classroom, that's huge. I need to come to the table with some resources, and then let me not just take three. I know I need to need like I need like five or six, but I'm getting

083a great start. Um so, I I thought that important to hear. I also want to add, if you look at the like the looking ahead map, um a key important piece will be the summer curriculum work we do, which is we set aside in the budget money for that particular piece, because those areas of weakness that you saw that were listed, that's where the teachers will get together as grade levels and address those and try to build in whole class novels, uh small group instruction, differentiated opportunities to support tiers of instruction. And I think the key thing is we don't want a script. We want teachers to have the autonomy to create and to bend and to move based on the kids they have in front of them. Th- These are just tools that that

084now create a format that can be consistent across the district. And the difference is in the summer curriculum work, we're doing it together as grade level, so it will still be consistent Uh you know, across the district. And uh we had talked to some teachers uh the other day at Lincoln when we were at the PTA meeting, and we talked about the idea that like we they spent a lot of time like looking for things, or vocabulary, or grammar, or supplements for what they were doing. Now they can spend less time looking for those things and more time uh looking at their student work and kind of differentiating and thinking about how they're going to small group work with them. So, I think we're just going to maximize our time as teachers, too, to focus

085on those things that help us individualize our I like what Ms. Huber said, too, about uh I forget how many years. I don't want to age you, but it was over 20. And uh because teaching is cyclical and everything comes back. And I and I like how that she said that the thematic units in kindergarten are are what works best because who knows better than than her, than somebody who's been here that long and has, you know, been through everything. And now you come back around to what what you feel works best. So, You know. >> Also, those themes connect with science and social studies and all kinds of of other concepts. So, it's learning throughout the day that that sticks more when it's not in a silo. I just think >> The excitement of

086teachers is what is what's been driving Absolutely. I have so much to say, um but I'm just going to try to keep it brief. Um really looking at this more um from the parent lens. I'm not an English teacher. A couple people here are, but um really just as a parent, I would like to first thank everybody for such enthusiasm. Uh I love reading. I was always a park mom um with my own kids. I tried to really just hammer home how important reading is. And I know now um as technology as the children get older and technology starts to take over and there might be less reading, more watching, um that it's so so vital to really instill that love of reading at at early ages and earliest age as possible. Um and I

087agree with Desmond that the just the drive that everyone has you in each one of your talks you just looking at your faces even Mr. Merchant who is joking around you were not boring. Um very very exciting and it's exciting to see your excitement because uh like Desmond said that's what the children are seeing and they're getting that from you. Uh so I can I can envision uh being a parent of younger children now and having them come home and and ask me to take them to a park or um you know what are we having for dinner? Let's be super tasters or whatever and I think that's really great. Um again a way to instill the learning. I loved the ICT class Mrs. Yura Mrs. Holler the building the building that they're doing with

088the reading because that's it's uh like Dr. Ferrar said that it's not just in in a vacuum they're learning um different things together and that's helping it stick with them for the long run. So thank you for being brave enough to pilot this. I'm sure as you said it's it's a hard time of the year uh March cold and dreary and you're brave enough to bring out this um new uh you know work that it's new to you and I I'm really looking forward to the summer curriculum work uh where you can bring it all to your colleagues. Uh out of curiosity has anyone spoken to your colleagues? Do you do you get a feel for what they think about this? Are they excited about it? Are they nervous? They I think um you know

089obviously lunchtime conversations always occur and we talk about you know who's piloting who's not. And so teachers that aren't piloting they'll ask us a lot of questions and I think because we are so enthusiastic about it it makes them excited to want to do it because it's unknown. Yeah. And we all went into this knowing it was this unknown thing we've never done it before. Um and just having like the team of pilot teachers, we never all know like thing that we like talk about, but then we all get to bring it and have teachers ask me about it. And they're excited now because they're excited and I think that's what's going to kind of drive the the shift over to this is that they're not being told this is what you're doing, but they're

090doing it from their own colleagues, their own teammates, their own um, grade level teammates. And and that's going to be exciting for us is able to show them like, you know, how excited we are and bring that progression to the school. So, I think that'll be exciting for us to see the change in September. Absolutely. >> I think it's exciting to see the kids that are doing it now going into grade 1 that haven't piloted it because they're all going to come in with like a little bit of an edge. Yeah. And so that's exciting too to see how they enter the school year already having 6 months of this, you know, in their in their blood pressure. Thank you. I'm happy to hear that you're not only getting the kids excited about it, but

091also the teachers. So, it's like double duty. So, thank you all so much. Yeah, I'm just going to sum this up in one word and that's pride. You are beaming. I don't really think you understand like how powerful that was for us to take in. It just felt so good to see the pride that you had in your students and how they've rubbed off on on you. I'm sure you on them, but but vice versa. You all you know, so focused on them and their engagement and and it's just it's it's oozing out of you, which is like so amazing. Um, the pride in working um, together and in supporting each other and you know, kind of tackling it and finding things that work and things that don't, which is important. Um, the the pride

092in the fact that's what old is new again and that you were on the right track and always have been and now you're just finding a way to do that. Pride in having a resource that that actually provides you with what you need. And I do love Mrs. DeMeola's go slow to go fast idea. The fact that you are did the research, you're piloting it 100% buy into a pilot is like unheard of and and there's not a person in this room who shook their head or made a face and any comment made everybody was like yes, more and more it's great. And I always say do less better and I feel like listening to this conversation this program is sort of providing you that ability where you're not out looking for resources and trying

093to supplement. It's there for you so you can do the things that you need to do better. And I think that it's only up here uphill from here. So thank you. Downhill uphill are we going up downhill? All right, which will go up. I like to go up. >> [laughter] >> You're not a skier. You know you know the Christmas ribbons? I ski uphill. >> [laughter] >> I do. But but I really think we're we're on the yeah, exactly. We but we are on the right track and I think that's really the most important. And thank you. Just thank you all from from from Amy to the the principals to the to you know you as teachers and and the students, right? And and then soon to be their parents. You know what I I

094don't know if you know what I do for living but I work with districts and the collaboration that we see here in Sayville is just of the utmost pride cuz we don't see it everywhere and and it needs to come from the people who do the work and and thank you all for your expertise. So thank you very much. This was absolutely powerful. That concludes our presentation on literacy and our our focus for this meeting. We'll now go on to board discussion. Okay, we have nothing listed on the board discussion but I do just want to bring up because in a few minutes we're going to approve our minutes and I just want to mention the special meeting that we had on Monday. That meeting was a result of legislation that had been passed kind

095of over the February break. It happened very quickly. We didn't know it was coming and it was kind of complicated. There were four parts to it and really only one of the four parts was one that we needed to act on quickly and in order for us to do that we need to have some information and some expertise on on the law and what it says. So I want to thank Dr. Ferris and our um board counsel Mrs. Risa Miles and her firm Garcia and Garcia who really worked over the weekend to read through the law and give us the information so that we could make a a educated action. So I want to thank the board members that were able to clear their schedule and be here on Monday afternoon with very very short

096notice because once we got the information we understood that we had a timeline that was not dictated by us but dictated by the way the tax rules work in our local county and town. So the rest of the state did not have the same timeline as as Suffolk County did. And we had to have approved the our part of the bill by 5:00 on Monday. And the what resolution that we passed was about supporting the widows of police officers who died in the line of duty and by support it was to give them a break in their taxes. We don't thankfully have a lots of people in Sayville but there are few that do and I know that as a board we were very proud to recognize that we had an opportunity to show the

097support and gratitude to the families who sacrificed the most through the service of their of their family member. So I just wanted to explain that although it happened quickly we were able to get that in in in a timely manner so that we can provide that service. and support. I just wanted to speak really quickly about bless you um the school well the the trip to Spain that the students recently took with the art club. Um I'm not sure if anyone knows but there was quite um an excitement so to speak. I don't even know if that's the right word. Um when they were coming home um they were split into two groups. Um much a very large group of about 30 students and about six uh adults and a smaller group of about 10

098or 12 students and two chaperones. They were split up and they were taking different flights. The smaller group um which included my own daughter um made it back uh had a layover in Dublin and then made it to um JFK without any difficulty. The other group unfortunately um left from Madrid and a passenger on the plane experienced a medical emergency. They had to turn the plane around, return to Madrid and then we got the blizzard. So they were stuck in Madrid um for I think it was 2 days and then um they were finally able to get out to North Carolina I believe and then they were stuck there for a couple of days and then they finally were able to come home to JFK. I want to give a shout-out to all of the

099teachers that were on this trip because they real I mean these people did a great job. I I if I was in charge of this many kids in you know not being able to get back uh to the United States I think I I don't know what I might have done but Miss Baradi uh was the leader of the trip. She was amazing. She kept us informed all the time. I know it was hectic there for a while. At no time I think did any parents have worry about you know her ability to take care of the kids. Um And then at the end they didn't have enough passes for everybody to come home and I I believe it was four teachers agreed to to give up their tickets so the kids could get home.

100And that included Mrs. Russo and Mr. Pace and um it's their other names are escaping me, but I just wanted to to really acknowledge their their work and their utmost dedication to getting the kids home safely, keeping all the parents updated. The kids had a great time despite this crazy difficulty getting home with weather and and things out of their control. So, I did just want to say thank you so much to all of them and the kids too. The reports were that the students were amazing. They were complimented left and right on their just their poise and their ability to roll with the punches and I just think it was a a wonderful experience. I'm sorry that they all had to experience that difficult part, but I I just really wanted to say thank

101you to everyone involved. Thank you and the teachers, we really appreciate them and they appreciate your your thank yous, but uh uh every time you take a trip, you never know like with certainty every piece of it's going to work and again our teachers are professional and they always put kids first. So, thank you to those teachers and it's just consistent with what Sayville's all about. Okay, opening up to public comments. Um anyone like to speak on tonight's agenda? That's cuz you all spoke already. Okay, I'm going to move on. Um okay, recommended actions. I'm going to take uh 601 and 602. Can I have a motion? Okay, I'm going to take 601 by itself. Can I have a motion? Chris. Kelly second. Um all in favor? Approved. 602. Can I have a motion? Kathy

102second Tom. Um um discussion? Nope. Yes, discussion. Uh all in favor? Five and one abstention. I'm just going to abstain because I wasn't at the All right. Not that I'm not in agreement with what we did. No, thank you. Um Okay, moving on. 701 to 706. Can I have a motion? Kelly. Second, Tom. Discussion? Yes, I would so. Uh oh, sorry. I think um I just wanted to um point out that we have a a very nice um Yeah, donation for the Sandy Gillian Nursing Scholarship Fund. Um I wrote it down. Yeah, the $10,000 from the um Condin family and the Condin Foundation. So, thank you for that. It is it's generosity and Civitas never ever. And uh se- So, 71 is we are now voting to make that a separate voted on issue. Yes.

103Okay, so that'll be on the back of the ballot. Um there'll be two parts on the ballot. Okay, section one is a yes no vote for the budget. Yep. And section two is for the capital reserve, which we talked about would be for the lighting and sound at the high school theater. >> the stuff that we I just wanted to make sure that in in case people had questions about it that we were like very clear. >> Yeah, and then when we put out our budget >> voting on that. We're voting to put it on the ballot. >> Correct. You're voting to put it on the ballot. The voters have to vote on Correct, yes. I just wanted to make sure of that. Very clear, yes. And and Mark, I I just want to further

104elaborate that um this is money that we already have in it's already in there. We just have to get approval to use that money. Yeah, so four years ago uh we set up a capital reserve. If you remember, there was some extra COVID money, and we decided to put it in the capital reserve. The taxpayers had to vote on that, and we described for instructional spaces, for improvements, enhancements that would result in anything for student learning. Um so, that was in the original capital reserve that was voted on by the uh public in 2023, I believe. And now that money has been in that code and we've kind of looked at our finances and said, "We're not going to be expanding this code any further, so we really want to spend it for the good

105of our kids at this point." So now there are two parts to it. One is to vote to put the money in, and now the community has to vote to spend it, but we have to be very specific with what we tell people we're spending it on. Uh so it's again just so we can continue to promote what's in there. Um we're going to be looking at lighting and sound at the high school to improve and enhance that. We're looking at bringing the weight room from the basement of the high school up into the wellness center. Uh we're looking to enhance all the math classrooms in grades 6 through 12 uh because we've been approaching math in a different way and we want to support the teachers with good math instruction. And we're looking to

106enhance our security cameras and outside work for uh to enhance our security perimeters in each element each elementary school, middle school, and high school. That will be in the capital reserve. It's already been set aside by voter approval and now it has to be voted on whether we spend it or not. If the vote goes yes, then it gets used for it. If the vote goes no, it stays in the fund and we can try again and or eventually let the money go back into uh general fund and put it into reserves. Thank you. Yes, we do. All right. Uh voting now on 701 to 706. All in favor? Okay, motion passes. Um now um uh motion for um 8.01 to 9.01. Is there a motion? Uh Kelly Tom second. Um any discussion? All in

107favor? All right, passes. Okay, upcoming dates. March 9th is a family connect night. Um our next board of meeting March 12th is a business meeting. We are not We don't have any um student recognition on the calendar, so we are going to hold that meeting here in this building, just more comfortable for everybody. Um and that will be um our third budget presentation meeting uh will be on the agenda for that. So, that will take place here as opposed to the middle school next Thursday. All right. Can I have a motion to go into executive session to discuss personnel matters? Desmond? Chris? Um all in favor? Okay, thank you. Good night. Thank you so much.