001A president of the board of education. I'd like to welcome everybody here tonight because I think there's a presentation. >> Can I call up all of my wing students? So, if you are a current student, an almost current student, or a former Wing student, one of our alumni, you can come on up and we're going to do the pledge together. Mommy daddy. Daddy. Please stand for the flag. >> I aliance 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. It's a brand new day. I'm going to be better in every way. [applause] Thank you. walking to our school. We will welcome you everywhere we do. Everybody here more and more. [singing] to our school. We've been
002waiting [music] for you. Welcome to our school. Welcome to our school. >> [applause] [applause] >> What I do? shoulders. light. >> Thank you so much for being here tonight. Um, and let's give our students another round of applause. They did a wonderful [applause] job. Thank you to our families for bringing our students out on a late night. We really appreciate it, but it's always so wonderful to invite them to join us on this evening. Um, so today's presentation is we sing, we play, we learn. We do a lot of things here at Wing. Um, and some of it is singing, some of it is playing, but a lot of our singing and playing is to help us to learn. Um, when you speak to people that don't work in a K1 building, they say, "Oh
003my goodness, it must be so nice. The children would play all day. It must be lovely." Um, but it's hard work working here at Wick. Um, it's hard work for our students. It's hard work for our staff. So, today we're going to take some time to celebrate uh the hard work that takes place each and every day here at W. [crying] >> I have too many things in my hand. I'm really sorry. [crying] So, we are lucky enough to play in the mornings here at Wing. We have some fabulous clubs that we've been able to expand upon over the past couple of years. Um, we have a multicultural club. We have a pie club, which is our kindness club that teaches our students some social emotional skills. Um, we also have a very successful craft
004club and gardening club. Sing, play, move club, which is our music and instruments club. Uh we also have our um learning and fun club which is also very popular. It's um learning uh skills to collaborate and play together through games. Um our clubs are growing in popularity each and every year. I think word gets out how wonderful they are, how uh great our teachers are and how much fun our students have learning and playing in the morning. Um, most of our clubs are starting to have to expand into two uh sets where we are no longer able to have our kindergarten and first grade students together in a blended class because there's so many students that want to be here. We have to separate them only to keep the numbers down so that it's manageable
005for the spaces that we have available to us. And these are some wonderful clips of some of the things that they've been working on this school year um and playing. And it's just such a joy to walk into the classrooms and see the kids come in in the morning. It's a little bit earlier for some of our children. Some of them are ready to go. Um but some of them um you know it's a struggle for them to get up in the morning, but the joy that uh you see on their faces when they come in, they're excited to be here. So we're very grateful to have these opportunities and to our wonderful staff that uh facilitate them each and every day. >> So we sing, we play, we learn. our staff uh learning alongside
006and with our our students each and every day. And that's a big part of what we're going to highlight tonight, the hard work that our teachers put in each and every day to make your students days successful, to help them learn, to enrich their lives, and hopefully to create lifelong learning uh within them for their future. So we continue to grow across our uh building with our ruler program. This is our um we have a growing committee. Sorry I didn't mention I did share it with you. Um so we continue to learn as a staff um and grow in our professional practice in implementing ruler. So this year we had the opportunity to send additional staff members um as our committee grows to the role at Yale. Um and uh they were able to bring
007back to us some new opportunities that we're going to continue to embed in our days here at W. In this picture you also see how we have created a safe chart. um part of the process with ruler is to kind of establish how we want to feel each and every day when we come into work as teachers so that we can then ensure our students feel that way as well. Um and these are the agreed upon emotions that we want to feel every day when we come to work. Um teachers can't take care of their children if they can't take care of themselves. So this is in uh initiative for us and supporting our staff. Um and at the bottom you see the mood meter. So the mood meter is for quadrants. Um staff are
008invited at the beginning of faculty meetings to kind of check it. Where are you today? And it doesn't necessarily mean that that's where you are professionally, but maybe personally you're just having a rough morning. We've used this data across our committee and across our building to implement some initiatives to support staff members when they're coming in each day and find ways that we can hopefully lift them up um and support one another. So through the committee we have a subcommittee formed. teachers came to us and said, "Hey, we want to create the W Wednesday committee so that we can find ways to bring joy to our teachers um each and day despite what might be taking place outside of the day." Or if it's just a stressful day at work, how are some ways that
009we can lift one another up and brighten one another's days? Um in addition to our ruler imple implementation, uh which supports our social emotional learning al Sorry, it was like flickering at me. Um, now I hope this is too loud. Uh, we also have our Miss Dioro, who is our full-time school counselor, as well as Miss Frzky, who is our social worker. They work together to support our students, uh, and st sometimes with their social emotional well-being. Um, Miss Doro has the opportunity at least twice a month to push into classrooms. She's using the spot curriculum as well as Second Step to teach our students about their emotions and self-regulation in order to help create the skills that they need to be able to identify their emotions and uh find ways to self-regulate um and
010apply those skills throughout the day. So we proactively teach those um strategies and then we also reactively help to remind them of those strategies throughout the day. Uh they also create assemblies uh called our town meetings and five times a month we meet and talk about different character traits across the building and celebrate our students that are displaying those traits. So we learn uh today a reader tomorrow a leader. This year we had the opportunity to um create a wonderful initiative called uh the 100 books challenge. Um and we had classes exceeding our expectations right away at the start of the school year. So as of November 3rd, Miss Grell, who's here, and her class already reached that 100 book benchmark. They have read as of this day, I think it was 102, but they're
011up to >> 116 they read 116 books. Um this is part of our initiative to ensure that our students are developing a love of reading. Um and uh it's so wonderful because our children have now started to ask our teachers when are we going to read the next book? We can't read wait to read the next book and add it to our chart as we're documenting our progress. Um Miss Brell's class has their second 100 book chart outside of their classroom. other classes are right on their heels. So, I know Miss Lane is in the room and she's been so close. They were neck and neck for so long. Um, our UPK also came to us and they wanted to join us in this initiative as well. So, the goal is just to encourage our
012children to continue to read, develop a love for reading, um, and do it in a fun way. We're we're celebrating and the students can see the different titles. So, I don't know if you can see on the chart, but the teachers go outside every time they read a book, and it could be uh a readaloud, it could be an interactive readaloud, it could be a shared reading. Um, and they write the title of the book on the binding of the book in the hallway so that as a community, we can see the books that other classes will be reading and maybe be interested in something new to read in our classroom. And each of the students in that book were able to get a book from our book vending machine. Um, and Miss Bellow's class
013is going to be able to vote on five books that we will order for them to add to their uh list outside their classroom. >> Um, so we also want to kind of bring you into the classrooms today. Um, in these pictures you can see some elements of our readers workshop. We've been working really diligently. Our teachers have been working hard to implement their readers workshop each and every day. Um, so when you walk into the classroom, the teachers always do a mini lesson, which is the explicit instruction on the grade level standard that they're teaching for that day. Um, and then there's always opportunities for independent and partner reading, which is some of what you also see here. Our kids have book bins that they're able to go, they work with their partner or
014they work independently. Um, and during that time, our teachers work with uh groups of students each day. They will work with every child within a week to make sure that all of our students needs are being met, whether you're a struggling student or whether you're a student that needs some enrichment. um sometimes they're working on skillbased uh uh um lessons and sometimes it's uh guided reading and it's a mix of that to make sure that we are doing a balanced approach and a comprehensive approach to our literacy. Um the other thing that you'll notice these book baggies, our students always have a chance to go book shopping each week. So you should see coming home book baggies and in there there's a variety of books. So there's books that are on their reading level. We
015want them to be able to practice reading at home some of the skills that they're learning in the classroom during these lessons. Uh but you're also going to see interest based books. So they may not be on their reading level and they might just be looking at the pictures and walking through the book and that's okay. We want them to develop a level of reading. Um, and sometimes that's exposure to things that they're interested in because our children surprise you with the vocabulary they're able to comprehend in a book that might be above their grade level when it's something they have uh prior knowledge on. Um, and then you also might see coming soon guided reading books. So sometimes our teachers might package home some books that they've read in class in that small group
016so they can do a reread at home to practice what they were working on in that small group. I have the best video ever for you. And I swear I did not stage this. I just happened to catch like a magical moment. Okay. Okay. I I'm going to I want to do we see a rocket ship. No, >> let's spell a spaceship. I don't know if you could hear everything that was happening. Um, so the room was not noisy by any means, but the camera picks up a lot of that. But in a K1 building, it should be noisy. That means our students are engaged in what they're working on. They're learning with the one with one another. This is a great moment that I just happen to catch um because she's doing everything that
017we talk about in our reader workshop. So, this is an example of partner reading. Um, in the book, as they're reading, um, they kind of do a couple of different things when they partner read. Sometimes they will take turns reading a page. Sometimes they'll coral read together. Sometimes I'll read a book, then you'll read a book. So, in this one, she's kind of doing a little bit of both, right? Like they're kind of each reading a page, but they're also reading together on the page. She's using her pointer power, which is one of the skills that we're teaching. And as she's doing the pointer power, she realizes, hold on, wait a minute. look at that letter. That letter that that's that word that you said doesn't match the sound. What is that letter? And he
018tells her it's an S. Oh, we have to go back and reread. She goes back, she rereads it, and she then tells him, now you practice. You go back and read it. So, this is kindergarten, by the way. Um, so this takes a lot of time. September, October, our teachers work very diligently at building these routines and structures. But in kindergarten at 5 years old, uh they're learning together, they're playing together, they're enjoying one another, and they're teaching one another. And this is the goal in a very quick video of what we want from our readers workshop. Um and I feel like it looks like I staged it, but I didn't. I just happened to catch this magic moment. Uh part of why it's so noisy is um so the other kids are also doing
019their partner reading, but we also have small group instruction uh taking place. That's Mr. Rosa who's also here right now working with a small group of students. Um so as their partner reading, as they're independent reading, that's our teachers opportunity to continue to build um our students um by addressing and giving them feedback in the moment as they're reading with their partners. Um so now we're going to just talk about writing a little bit and I'm going to show you another video of Lucas, also a kindergarten student. This is my And this is the P. This is the computer. Where's mommy in this picture? >> My mom. [singing] And this is the Um, so in writing, we're working with our students on building their volume. And volume looks different. So it could be writing, it
020could be drawing pictures. Um, it I'm sorry, there's we're increasing their volume. So it could be within a page, it could be across pages, so filling up one page, it could be filling up three pages, or it could be filling up more books. Um, so when we talk about increasing our students volume, it looks different across different students, across different classrooms. Um this is a great um example of a student that's um touching and telling as he's reading. So we're working on our students their illustrations are part of their story. So a lot of our students are able to draw really detailed uh pictures and we tell them to go back and add more details because ultimately that helps them tell a deeper story. So for our younger students, it starts with those illustrations and
021then it builds up to uh labeling with letters. If you notice, and it's hard to see a little bit, but in some of these pictures down here, Lily has um labeled me in her bottom picture, she has some letters on the left hand side, labeling each of the family members that's in that picture. So, there's a C, an S, an N, an L. Um, and then some of our students are able to label with words. Some of our students are able to label with words or sentences. Um, and this is all part of the process that we're building in writing to increase their skills um, and promoting the details that they're using both in pictures and in their stories. Um, they both go back and and um, uh, Lily goes back and she says that
022she was able to add to her story. So, um, we never stop working on it. So some days we start with the illustration and then the next day we'll go back and we'll add the labels and then the next day we'll go back and maybe add some words to the stories. Um our stories are never done. They're they're always evolving. Um so we're working towards creating a culture of rigorous talk and you've seen a little bit of that in some of these videos that we've shown. Um we want our students to continue to build on their conversational skills, their student discourse. Um, in the bottom picture on the left hand side, that's a picture of one of our math classrooms. Um, our students are engaged in um a collaborative activity on the floor where we're
023using math games in order to um uh build our students skills, but also to uh support our students in that collaborative discussion and and discourse in math. Uh, Miss Alana is at the back table working with her small group. in math or small group could be um more support on the standardbased lesson that we did that day or it could be an enrichment activity for students that the standard based lesson is uh something that they've already mastered and they're ready for a challenge or it could be reinforcing prior skills that are necessary to access that lesson that they did today in class. Um, all of that takes place within our small club instruction and we're working to meet with all of our students in math, reading, and writing each week to ensure that we're meeting
024their specific needs. On the right hand side, we have some pictures of our steam program. Our steam program continues to uh evolve and grow. Um, so our students in kindergarten have started to use Kado earlier this year to work on their coding skills. And now they're applying those skills to use those little box, their little robots. So they're able to use those coding skills to get those robots to move across the desk. Okay, so this task is interesting, right? There's some symbols and some numbers. Um, this is a challenge that was given to uh one of our math groups by Mrs. Mimi. Um, and I'm just going to show you the end of um about 15 minutes of um some productive struggle that our students went over. >> Does that work? >> Yeah, it looks
025like it does. >> Yeah, it does. Because if we did 11 - 11= 12. >> Wow. Good job. >> We did it. >> You did it. >> So the that's the outcome of 15 minutes of giving our students this task and saying work together to solve it. They spend 15 minutes trying different solutions, going back, trying it again. And at the end, if you heard, they're able to not only solve the problem, but explain the problem. Um, so all that play that we do throughout the day, right, that unstructured play, that structured play helps to facilitate the opportunity to have these collaborative discussions, that student discourse, and in order for them to um attack a problem that is a little bit challenging for them. Um this is part of um this uh particular lesson utilized
026vertical whiteboards which is part of um the thinking one of the tools from thinking classrooms where uh we create tasks and create opportunities for our students to think critically um and engage in more productive struggle activities. This is something that we're working on throughout the building. Um we've had some classes last year use vertical whiteboards with great success. Um and we're continuing to use them as a tool this year as well. So you'll see if you're in the buildings there's um command strip hooks throughout the building because we actually take the kids out in the hallway as you can see from this one. Miss um Sim took her and enrichment group outside into the hallway and they were doing this so that they could have some space. Uh so we too as adults learn. Um
027and uh that's something that we're very proud of here. Our teachers are lifelong learners. They're working really really hard and I can't say that enough and I can't say that to enough people. Um throughout these images you'll see a few different things taking place. So our teachers work collaboratively together in our building in the classroom and both outside the classroom. So you'll often hear Miss Shuna was in my classroom today. Miss Pi is in my classroom, Miss Samimi. Um, sometimes our reading teachers, um, Miss, uh, Trean is in one of these pictures. Um, our teachers work collaboratively so that they can grow in their instructional practice. Um, those ladies that I just mentioned will push in and model. They'll co-e. They'll plan a lesson ahead of time and then visit to support. Um, we also
028have some images from some of our data meetings and PLC's, so our teachers are able to work collaboratively once a week. um for an extended period of time so that they can plan and implement uh changes to the curriculum. During those times, we also meet either with teachers individually or in cohorts of teachers to look at our classroom data, to look at our grade level data, to look at individual students to see how we're meeting our students currently and what we could do differently. Um it's a lot of work that we ask of our teachers here, um that I ask of our teachers here, that they ask of each other. Um but it's all in order to grow in their practice. Um to reflect, to learn, um and to challenge our students differently. Okay, so
029this looks a little familiar. Um we asked our teachers to actually engage in um quite a challenging question. Um we presented this to teachers during a faculty meeting. they had an opportunity to engage in a vertical whiteboard activity. Um, some of the takeaways from this opportunity, um, and this, uh, was facilitated by Miss P, our math coach, and Miss Simini, um, was that all of our teachers who were playing students in the moment, um, and learning and playing together, um, were able to all access this problem from a different entry point. So part of the beauty of these tasks is that we all come to the task with a different knowledge set. Uh this question says create the numbers 0 through 9 using four fours and any mathematical operation. I invite you to try that
030one at home. Um initially you think about it and you're like that's a tough one. And then you might be able to throw one problem down and two. Our teachers found that by working collaboratively together, they were able to attack the problem from different uh vantage points. Some teachers um used square roots. Not my go-to for how to approach this. Um but it was a great opportunity for us to see the mathematical thinking within the group across the room. Um after having some time to work on it together, they did a gallery walk which is part of the process for using this tool. um and they were able to kind of then go back to their work, revisit it and see how they can shift and change and modify it. Um so we had the
031opportunity to do this with our teachers so that we could see uh tools and resources that maybe challenge our students differently and allow us to uh think differently. Um but we can only do that by engaging in it ourselves. So, I wanted to share tonight briefly um as a district, I know we've been talking a lot about the wonderful progress that our um students that take some of our state assessments have been making. And here at WIN, we don't have state assessments, but we've been doing a lot of work to analyze the data that we do have. And the data that we do have is showing that the instructional practices that we're putting in place are yielding great results for our students. Oh, no. >> Um, in this video, uh, in this image, um, this
032is a snapshot of our, uh, buildingwide math and I Ready data from last school year. The green is students that are on grade level and the pink is students that are not on grade level. Um, I Ready is our benchmark assessment. We give it three times a year, beginning, middle, and end of the year. um and it gives us uh a little bit of data and information on our students. Now I already at the K1 level looks a little bit different, right? So uh usually you want to see more student. So two things about this data. It's assessing our students on the grade level standards. So essentially they're saying in the poll our a small percentage of our students are on grade level for K and one. That makes sense. They haven't learned the K
033and one curriculum. So we should see growth and we are seeing growth. Um but it also shows us that um in the beginning of the year 14% of our students were on grade level for math and we were able to increase that to 57%. And in reading our students started about 16% on grade level and moved to 70%. So the one thing about I Ready data is that it's on a computer. Right? A lot of times our teachers say it's aligned, but a lot of our students aren't necessarily maybe showing exactly um they're underperforming on the I Ready. And that's something that we're working on increasing our students um uh experience with I Ready um so that they navigate the platform a little bit differently. We're also trying to motivate them. For some of our
034students, they still think it's a play-based activity and they're not necessarily performing their best. So it's something that we continue to work with our children on understanding of the importance of um but we do see alignment through this and this tool is great for a few different reasons. So on this chart you can also see our growth from the fall to the spring in literacy last year. Um but it also shows us across different domains. So it tells us exactly what we need to work on and how we can support our students. It also allows us to look at each student and their areas of um growth and areas for next steps. So this is something that we use with our data teams. It allows us to group our students according to ability um and
035it allows us to come up with strategies to meet them at their entry point. Last year we saw that our students um were struggling the most in phonics and awareness. Um and those scores increased some of our targeted instructional initiatives that we've done um in the building. Um and we know that one data point is not the end all be all. So we also look and compare our Iring data with our reading assessments that we use in the building. So our quantis panel reading levels. We also track our students high frequency words, their letters and sounds. Um, so in this chart, this is our kindergarten growth. The blue is how our students were performing last year in the beginning of the year. And you can see that our students shifted significantly in their reading levels
036from September to June. Our high frequency words went up from six in September in kindergarten to 56 in kindergarten. And in first grade, you also see that trajectory increase from below to approaching and then on or above in our reading levels. Um, and our high frequency words also increase significantly. And then the one thing I want to mention about this, so in kindergarten, you start as a non-reader usually and you're expected to read on level D. We use a letter system. So four reading levels. Um, in first grade you're expected to go from that D to a J. It's a significant jump. Um, the shift is uh increasing in comprehension skills as well as their ability to uh decode. Um, so in first grade we had one student not show any growth out of uh
037180 students. So all of our students are showing growth and that progress is reflected in these numbers. Um in first grade our students last year an average of five reading levels across the grade instruction. So, I Ready comes um so our teachers do use the lessons um at K1. We don't necessarily I Ready recommends that they you do X number of minutes um per week per subject um at the kindergarten first grade level. >> I believe it's a little >> excessive. Um but our teachers do use it um in order to create some of their centers in literacy and math. So some of our students use the ready lessons. Um, we also utilize as we're looking at our instructional groups, it tells you what Yes. So, we use some of the lessons here in the
038teacher toolbox or just use that to kind of find, you know, our decodables and things like that that can help support students based on what they're sharing with us in that data. That's part of our data meetings that we have periodically throughout the year. >> And then just to highlight our math as well, we're seeing significant growth in math as well. So, um, this is a little confusing. I should have mentioned this before. The pyramid on the right is the full and the spring is on the left. To me, it's a little convoluted, but that's how they do it. And you can see the increase in our students that are on uh and above grade level in math as well. Um, we also see um this growth in our envisions math assessments that we're using.
039Um, we started to implement last year spreadsheets so that we can track our students data. Um, and this gives us more data so that we can select students for our AIS, our enrichment, uh, so that we're using multiple data points instead of just I Ready. And then it allows our teachers to create their smaller instructions based on both the I Ready and their spreadsheets that they're using to track their students across um, different assessments. Uh and then the last piece of data last um that I wanted to share. Um so as we're looking at our data, we've actually received some really great feedback from some of our second grade colleagues. They've reached out to us to tell us um how prepared our second graders have been this school year in literacy and math in comparison
040to past school years. So, that's the best piece of feedback that we could receive when we're hearing that our students are a little bit more prepared and they're have the uh foundational skills that we were hoping that they would have. Uh this shows in 2024 um the entry assessment for math on I Ready and then it shows in 2025. So, as you can see, more of our students um left first grade and entered second grade approaching or on grade level. Um we went from uh 32% of our students below grade level at the start of second grade to 14%. Um >> um so that just shows that the work that we're doing here is setting a strong foundation for our students going off into second grade, which is our hope. Um we only have them
041for two years, but we want to make sure that they're leaving us with the strongest foundation they can to be successful. And then um we wanted to share with our students wanted to share with you some of the things that they love about Wing Elementary School. >> I'm really sorry about sitting here talking to the students and I sound really squeaky in it so I apologize. >> What do you love most about Wing >> School? What's your favorite part about Wing Elementary School? >> Learning. >> My favorite thing is coloring >> party. >> What's your favorite part of first grade? >> Um, I like having fun. >> I like doing math. What's your favorite part of kindergarten? >> Music. part about Wing Elementary School. >> My part is about recess. My part is about learning
042math. >> My My favorite part about Wing is >> What's your favorite part about Wing Elementary School? >> I like I like doing work. >> I like getting green smiling. Aisha, what is your favorite part of kindergarten? >> I like the books. >> Recess. >> What's your favorite part about Wing Elementary School? >> I like library and also swings. >> I like art. >> I like music. I like >> What's your favorite part about Wing? >> The swings. >> [clears throat] >> What do you like most about Wing Elementary School? >> I like I like decorations. I like my teacher. >> What's your favorite thing about Wing? >> Um, every every single [applause] >> Is it okay if I go to my tenure recognition. I have three teachers that we're honoring today. >> If any
043families want to leave, we have three teachers that we're going to recognize this evening for tenure. You're welcome to step out. I know it's late for our children. Um if not, this last part should be brief. Okay. I'm going to read a little bit for this one because I want to make sure to honor uh each of these ladies. Um tonight I have the privilege of speaking about three exceptional educators that we have here at Wing um for their well-deserved tenure. Uh first tonight we're going to recognize Miss Brady whose voice you just heard translating for us in that last video. >> [applause] >> Miss Bri has been a valued member of Wing for the past four years, providing exceptional service to our English language learners. She's dedicated to delivering instruction that not only meets
044her students academic needs, but also honors and celebrates their unique interests and cultures. Always reflective and eager to grow, Miss Brady continually seeks to refine her practice through thoughtful self-reflection and ongoing feedback. She works tirelessly to strengthen the connection between home and school for our students, finding meaningful ways to support her students and their families both inside and outside of the classroom. In addition to her instructional work, Miss Brady leads one of our most popular before school clubs, our craft club, which just grows and grows and grows each year. Um, where students engage in hands-on seasonal projects that spark creativity and joy. Miss Brady is truly dedicated to her department, our students, and our community. And we are so incredibly lucky to have her here at W [applause] >> [applause] >> Why on that? Congratulations.
045>> All right. Our next teacher that we're recognizing this evening is Mrs. Simei. Mrs. Samini has contributed her talent at both Sherwood and Wing elementary schools during her time in Iceland. As Sherwood, she served as a third grade classroom teacher. Since joining Wing in her second year, she has served as our math areas and enrichment teacher as well as our math instructional coach. Anyone who has the privilege of observing Mrs. Samini in the classroom walks away having learned something. She seamlessly applies best practice practices gained through professional development and engages her AIS and enrichment students in learning that encourages discourse, critical thinking, and meaningful student conversations. Beyond her work with students, Mrs. Samini is a tremendous resource for her colleagues. She offers tangible next steps during data meetings, provides professional development at PLC's and faculty
046meetings, and partners with teachers to design high quality instruction. She also supports our youngest learners in the early morning jumpstart program, which families tell me they were worried about their children getting up for jump start and they are so excited to be there with her each and every day. embedding embedding a comprehensive approach into her lessons to strengthen foundational literacy skills. Mrs. Sini is also a founding member of our Wing Wednesday committee, helping to create initiatives that strengthen connection, positivity, and pride across our school community. Her expertise, leadership, and unwavering commitment to both students and staff make her an invaluable part of Wayne. Congratulations [applause] Congratulations. [applause] And last, but certainly not least, is Miss Bar Rosa. For the past four years, Miss Verosa has provided quality instruction to our students across a variety of
047settings. Her experiences in these different roles have allowed her to develop strong routines, structures, and expectations that support student success. As you saw in some of those videos that were from her classroom, she builds warm, meaningful relationships with her students and families, striking a balance between consistency and nurture. Over the years, family families have consistently expressed their appreciation for her ongoing communication and the supportive learning environment she creates for their children. In addition to her work in the classroom, Miss Ferosa is also one of our founding members of our Wing Wednesday committee. one of the first people actually to come to me to say, "I have an idea. I want to start this." And she took it and ran with it. Which is dedicated to supporting, encouraging, and enhancing the overall culture of our school.
048Miss Verilos's commitment, compassion, and positivity make her an essential part of the wing community. Congratulations, [applause] >> [applause] >> So I am >> I am Cynthia Fitzgerald. I'm the assistant superintendent of HR for uh ISIL schools. And we have one more person that we need to honor tonight. And I need our students who have been such good listeners to help me honor Principal Glazer. [applause] Tenure is uh is [applause] quite an honor in the eyes of schools. It is not a right of passage. It is something that is earned. Congratulations to our teachers. Um and Dr. and Ko is going to help us celebrate this place. [applause] >> Tonight, it's my honor and privilege to recognize a leader whose impact on Wayne Elementary School over the past 3 years has been nothing short of transformative.
049We are here to celebrate the tenure of Mrs. Blazer, an exceptional school principal, a thoughtful instructional leader, and a colleague who exemplifies what it means to lead with integrity, resilience, and heart. One of the most impressive aspects of Mrs. Glazer's leadership is her extraordinary instructional insight. She is without question one of the most intelligent and reflective instructional leaders I have had the privilege to work with. She is constantly learning, reading, researching, asking questions, and seeking out ways to better support her teachers and students. She models the qualities we want in our students, which is curiosity, humility, openness to feedback, and an unwavering desire to grow. Perhaps one of Miss Cla's most notable ac accomplishments has been her work to transform PLC's into powerful engines for teachers learning and student achievement. Research tells us that teachers
050are the most underused resource in any school. And Miss Glazer believes deeply in unlocking the incredible talent in her building. She has restructured and strengthened PLC's so that they move from just meetings to learning laboratories. She has brought coaches, curriculum leaders, and staff de developers to the table. She has helped teachers examine data, identify patterns, and connect the written curriculum to what happens in classrooms every day. Her work directly addresses what Michael Foland calls the collective leadership approach where students success grows from shared expertise, shared responsibility, and a shared commitment. Mrs. Glazer's leadership is grounded in data, not as numbers, but as stories about students. Our data support team meetings held multiple times each year have become one of the most important structures in the building. These meetings allow for early identification of students, timely
051interventions, and shared sense of ownership over every child's progress. Her leadership reflects what is considered to be the hallmark of effective principles, which is strategic management, instructional insight, and the ability to force our climate where teachers collaborate around teaching and learning. Mrs. Glazer is a creative leader, one who is who sees possibilities in others while others see limitations. created a digital staff handbook streamlined communications and expectations. She designs she's designing and pushing mind you for an outdoor learning garden to expand hands-on learning. Implemented mindfulness sensory bins across instructional spaces. Strengthen ruler implementation to support emotional learning. Led implementation of steam initiatives for our students at wing. Enhanced data collection systems for incoming kindergartens and AAS. And expanded family engagement through newsletters. PTA collaborations, curriculum nights, and community events that bring learning to life. Leadership is
052not about titles, and it's not about authority. It's about influence, relationships, and the willingness to grow with others. It's about courage and standing firm in your values while being open to new thinking. It's about purpose, knowing why you do the work that you do. And it's about heart and believing deeply that every child can succeed and every teacher can grow. Mrs. Glazer embodies all of this. In this work, this demanding, complicated, and deeply human work, it is incredibly incredibly important to have colleagues who challenge you, support you, and make you better. Mrs. Glazer is one of those colleagues. She is bright, thoughtful, principled, and honest. She has questions that push others thinkings. Her lens, her insight, and her way of approaching problems have made myself as well as others better at the job that we
053do. Colleagues like Mrs. Blazer elevate a district because they elevate people around them. [clears throat] Tonight, we recognize just not just the years of hard work that brought her to tenure, but the promise of what lies ahead. We are incredibly fortunate to have her as a leader in the ISP school district. And we celebrate her continued journey in our district with admiration, gratitude, and tremendous pleasure. Congratulations, Mrs. Glad Glazer. you are uh you your well-earned tenure, your leadership makes us stronger, your vision makes us better, and your heart makes all the difference. And I want to thank you [applause] [applause] Congratulations. [applause] >> [applause] >> I just want to say that was a wonderful presentation tonight. Congratulations to your tenure teacher, Miss Blazer. Thank you to you and your staff. Um, and to all the
054students here tonight. Your presentation was wonderful. You know, we always talk about student trajectory and it's wonderful to see the foundation that you're doing here at this level because that's really going to carry on. student success through all their years here at ISIL. So, congratulations to everyone. It's a wonderful evening and we're just looking for a lot of good positive things. This is one of the wonderful things that we love that we do when we take our our meeting our school board meetings to different schools. We get to showcase all the good things that are happening here in Iceland. It's it's just a wonderful place and thank you to everyone. So, stay safe and everyone wants to save continue on our board meeting, but if students want to get home and study or whatever you
055have to do, Awesome. [applause] Wow. I've been here before. Okay, we're going to get going again. And like I said, That was a wonderful presentation and we're still going to continue on with our part of the presentation. This is going to be the um required updates to the 202526 districtwide safety plan. I'll turn that over. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um I'm just going to read a statement regarding our updated districtwide safety plan. After our board of education approved the 2025 20226 district-wide safety plan in August, New York State passed uh DEA's law which added a new requirement for these plans to include emergency response protocols for sudden cardiac arrest. Last week, our district-wide safety team reviewed an amendment to the plan incorporating this requirement, as well as corrected contact information under the workplace
056violence prevention policy statement. Per New York State Education Department guidelines, this updated draft is subject to a 30-day public review and comment period. As such, any interested parties may view the draft uh may view a draft of the amended plan through the link on tonight's agenda in board docs. and it will be posted on the district website tomorrow through parent square as well Wednesday uh tomorrow through Wednesday November 19th. You may also request a copy through my office. Any comments from the public should be emailed to district clerkisf.org no later than Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025, the final day of school before winter recess. A public hearing on the amendments to this plan will be held prior to the January 13, 2025 board of education meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Har. Okay, that concludes
057everything on the presentations. Uh we're now going to move on to our agenda items. At this time, there are any questions from the board on any of the items voting on this evening? Any questions from the public on any of the items we'll be voting on this evening? Okay. Okay. Uh, with that, I'd like to get a motion to consent items 5A through 5P. Can I get a motion? >> So move. >> That was Mr. Buer. Can I get a second? And that was Mr. Le. All those in favor? I >> opposed. Stayain. >> And they will all carry. We do have another item that we need to vote on that was not part of consent and that was item 5R, approval of the CPSE schedules. Can I get a motion? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm
058looking at my 5T. Sorry. Thank you. Uh, item 5T. Can I get a motion? >> That's Mr. Cory. Can I get a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Trusty. All those in favor? I >> opposed. >> Abstain. >> For the same reason stated at the August 26, 2025. >> And that will carry. Okay. Uh that concludes our agenda items. We're now going to move on to our public questions. I do have two public comment cards. Uh the first one is Joshua >> Rivera. I'm back. >> Hello everybody. Um so quick my wife. So, um this past budget vote passed recently. Uh and within the budget, there were a few add-ons specifically greenhouse as well as uh which [clears throat] I the last I heard is that we needed the test needed to be done with the
059soil samples to make sure the soil was adequate enough for location of the greenhouse. Uh additionally, the installation and construction playground. The last I heard the playground was ordered and there was just approval waiting for a bidding. I'm putting it all together, taking the old one apart, and I'm a little concerned considering it passed last budget and now nothing's happening. Um, and I was told multiple times that the construction will be done by fall and now it's approaching winter and nothing's happening. So, my concern is that when is it going to get done? When is it going to start? When's the bidding going to be over? Um and when uh and our kids are using one playground and it's not enough space. Uh my kids come home to me every night. We talk about it
060when they have outdoor recess. Um and so my question is why is the playground not up yet since the budget was passed? >> Uh thank you for your question. Um so it turns out to do projects like this is really cumbersome with New York State Education Department and there is a lot of requirements and steps that we have to take. Um, so the I forget the exact date of the budget in in um May, but um the day after the budget vote uh and we knew we had approval from the community, we sent our paperwork up to New York State Education Department to start the process. So, we did not delay or direct our feet at all. Um uh we received uh materials back from the state that didn't have the proper um building permit.
061They had a building permit only for um some projects inside this building but didn't list the playground. So we had to communicate with New York State Education Department uh to get that information. Once we had that um we had planned on working on a bid that um Mrs. Brower can correct me if I have anything wrong here, but we thought we would be able to piggy back with um a bid list that the county uses and then we were informed that we're not allowed to do that. So, we had to go out and bid the project uh and the materials on our own. So, that kind of set us back a little bit. Um I can tell you that on tonight's agenda, we just approved a vendor. It's actually letter M in the consent agenda.
062We approved a vendor to um begin manufacturing or to order all the all the new equipment for the playground. And um our hope is that um at a meeting in December, we will approve the contractor who's going to install the playground. And if we can't get the contracts and so on done by December, that will happen in the January board meeting and then the construction and installation will begin right after that. >> So it's been very frustrating for us as well. >> So to say that in the springtime, February, March. >> Yes. >> Um, what was it just about did Mr. Rustin tell you to ask this? >> Um, just about three weeks ago, we received the building permit from New York State Ed for the greenhouse. So, um, I don't know if there's anything
063you could add about that. I know a little bit less about that one. after speaking with our and consulting with legal um there were some um additional items that we had to address. One of them being that um when the creation of the greenhouse um I'm sorry the creation of the reserve fund um it didn't actually specify a greenhouse. So, we are working with legal to see if there is any way that there can be any type of revisions to that creation um resolution. Otherwise, we have to find an other way to go about um moving forward with the greenhouse. So, we've been working with the state. We did receive approval from the state, but in order to utilize the funds, we have to make sure that we're doing it appropriately and we're complying with
064all laws. >> Wasn't the funds that were already allocated for that you guys requested or >> I'm sorry. >> The funds are requested because you said that there was additional um correct if I'm wrong, there was additional things that you uh that were not received. >> No. Also, when the creation of the reserve fund happened, um there's no specific language in there specific to the greenhouse. >> Um >> I think it was >> spring of 2022 when we created that reserve, right? >> So, in for the for the budget vote in May of 2022, we proposed to the voters to create a reserve fund to fund capital projects. That's the same reserve fund that we're using money now for the playground and for the greenhouse. So these projects require multiple steps. The first step is
065we have to get voter approval to establish the reserve. Meaning we have the community's approval to save money for a couple of years and when we have enough money then we go to the community again and ask for your approval to spend the money on a specific project. So, we asked for your permission to start the savings account in May of 22. And this past May of 25, we asked your permission to spend the money on the greenhouse, uh the playground, uh some plumbing issues under the high school, and uh some some issues uh near the custodian office in this building. Uh the dilemma that we're working on now regarding the greenhouse is that when we established the reserve in 2022, we listed a whole bunch of projects um uh pavement replacement, roof replacement, uh
066sidewalk replacement, and we listed anything we think, you know, would fit under a capital project that we might need to attend to in the future. Um we did not specifically list greenhouse And so now we're getting held up a little bit and we're working with our attorneys to figure out how even though we told everybody in the community that we're replacing the greenhouse with this money and we were very transparent about that. The original list in 2022 did not list specifically a greenhouse. It listed glazing, glass, roofing, but it had doors but it didn't specifically say greenhouse. So now we have another bur with state education department that we have to clear the greenhouse proposal. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> So you saying by play? >> I mean that's our that's our Andrew
067time weather permitting. Yeah. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> A couple parents will help out. So, thank you for your question. >> Thank you. >> And one other public public comic card, Victoria Hson. [snorts] >> Good evening to our families, friends, and board members. We would like to by giving a big thank you to all ISIL families, teachers, and community members who purchased the world kindness day shirts edition t-shirts. You helped make this project really special. We also want to give a huge thank you to all athletics screen printing for making our shirts look amazing and to our board members for always supporting everything we do best. Because of your kindness, 200 families participated and we raised for blessing in a backpack in backpack. Um on World Day, November 13th, it was wonderful to
068see students, teachers, and families wearing their shirts and spreading kindness all around their schools. If anyone still wants a shirt, the PTA has a few extras. Just let us know. And don't forget night of giving is tomorrow from 5 to 5:30 p.m. And our PTA including a special presentation from Dr. G. You can also still sign up to donate using the link on our Facebook page. Thank you all and thank you again to our board members for helping make our school district such a kind, caring, and supportive community. [applause] Thank you, Sophia. You're a wonderful reader and thank you for all that information. It's not to get up and speak at a microphone and you did a wonderful job. Okay. Um that concludes our public questions. We're going to move on to reports and correspondence.
069Our exeicio student board. >> Thank you. Good evening. It's nice to be back at Wayne where I went to elementary school 11 years ago. I look forward to returning again at the end of the school year for our senior walk. I'd like to begin by congratulating the ISIL girls volleyball team on winning the New York State Class A regional title. We wish them we wish them the best of luck as they head to the state finals this weekend. Next, I'd like to share a few ways families in our district can support our students. The high school business leadership and commerce club is hosting a breakfast with Santa at the ISIL American Legion Post 411 on Sunday, December 14th. Parents can purchase tickets or make a donation by visiting the IBUK shop and all proceeds will
070go to benefit local veterans. Additionally, Iceland Middle School is putting on a musical production of Disney's Descendants this Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Tickets can be purchased online for $10. We encourage everyone to come out and support the talented students in the production. Moving on to ways students get get more involved in school. Ice High School has launched a new board game initiative. Students are encouraged to bring in gently used non- electronic board games that can be used by their peers during lunch and free periods to help create more social screenfree activities throughout the day. Lastly, any students who would like to volunteer at the ISA fire department turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning, whether to help out, give water, or wear costumes, are encouraged to see Miss Clock in room 106.
071This is a great way for students to support the community and be a part of a new local tradition. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving next week. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Deutsch. Okay, next is the fall college trip. I know Dr. O'Hara and Mr. Austin attended that trip. >> On Monday, November 10th through Wednesday, November 12th, we escorted 67 students to visit five different colleges. Oregon State University, American University in Washington DC, George Washington University in Washington DC, University of Maryland, and Georgetown University. We ended Monday night with a night of bowling with everyone. Had a great time. Tuesday night, we ended it with a game at University of Maryland, a basketball game. U the exciting part about doing these student trips is you get to see these kids on
072the bus and they really don't know about colleges or what they want to do or where they want to go. And then as the trip goes on, you start to see them develop ideas of do I want to be in a city? Do I want a campus? Do I want a small campus? Do I want a big campus? and they talk to students that are there and they get an idea that money is not everything. You can go to a college even if you don't have the money because you have to get your marks and it kind of sets in motion that especially the 10th 9th 10th and 11th graders they have an opportunity to buckle down, get their marks and get themselves into the college of their choice. And some of the kids when
073we're getting back home are saying what kind of college they want to go to. Some of them even say that's the college I want to go to. So it's it's very productive. Um you get to see the kids changing right before your eyes in just a matter of two days. Uh it's it's worth every minute of it and I'm glad we get to do it in Iceland. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Austin. Okay. Uh That concludes our reports and correspondence. We're going to move on to dates to remember. Um, tomorrow, November 19th, 6:30 p.m. in the U middle school auditorium will be our school safety and security forum. Um, that was pre-registration required. Okay. Um, and then school is going to be closed on the 26th through the 28th for Thanksgiving recess. Just want to
074wish everyone and all their families a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy the time at your families and be thankful for everything that we have. And our next board of end meeting will be on December 9th. Uh 6 p.m. will be executive session with 7:30 p.m. will be public and that will be at the middle school uh auditorium. Uh folks, we're going to need to make a motion to move into second exec for the purpose of employee evaluation. Like to thank everyone that attended our meeting tonight. We'll see you in our next one. Have a happy and enjoyable Thanksgiving. I get a motion to move from open to exe for the purpose of employee evaluation. I get a motion. Can I get a second? All those in favor? I >> thank you everyone. Stay safe and we'll
075see you at the next board meeting. >> See you in two weeks.