001God, for all. Okay, just a quick fire code announcement. In event of emergency, be aware of your exits to the rear and to your left and to your right. Just want to thank everyone for attending tonight's board meeting. And we're going to start off um with our Friday presentations. Um I don't know if anyone's been noticing on uh our social media, we do have a new um public relations firm. It's Arc AK and we actually have Chris Ficaro here and he's been doing a lot of the feeds that people have been seeing and I think it's really it's really a positive that everyone's getting really showcase all the good things that are going on around here in um you know at the school district. Dr. Har, I don't know if you want any comments about
002uh the first opening of school. >> Sure. Be my pleasure just to say that we had a terrific opening. Um great to see all the students. It's a a quiet place in the summertime to work in a school district, but um students are terrific. Uh special thanks to custodians and clerical and buildings and grounds really. Um they do all the work without fanfare, get our buildings ready, keep us going over the summer. Uh teachers hit the ground running, students hit the ground learning, and we're really excited to be back. So, thank you. >> Great. I bet you got more. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, that's all we have tonight on the part of presentations. We're going to move on to our agenda items right now. Are there any questions from the board on any
003of the items that we like on this evening? Any questions from the public on any of the items we voting on this evening? Okay. Uh, with that, I'd like to get a motion and consent items 5A through 5m. Can I get a motion? >> Some is Mr. Buer and the second is Mr. Leio. All those in favor? I opposed abstain. Any in favor will all carry. Okay. Next on our agenda will be item number six which will be public questions. And I do have two public comment cards. Um the first card I have is Megan. >> Hi everyone. Good evening. Um so um I first of all I'm very proud to say that my son in sixth grade has survived his first six days of middle school. Um and those of you who know him
004who have known him since the day he walked into wing as a kindergartener in 2019 in the 201920 school year it is such a huge accomplishment. Um Mrs. Stern um Mr. um Wodner Dr. Carbonaro and the six purple teachers have all bent over backwards to roll out the red carpet, not just for him and his classmates, for us as parents as well. My son enjoys having the ability to physically change classes and rooms every 40 minutes, having a locker, and getting to eat pizza almost every day in the MTO dining room while sitting amongst his six purple friends. All very typical responses you'd expect from a middle school boy. With that said, now that we are actually living the Icelip Middle School experience, I've returned to this board of education meeting to continue to implore
005the district to consider making changes to how the current IMS schedule fits the needs of all middle-level learners in Icelip. Last year, I had the privilege following speaking at a board meeting to sit down with members of central administration, members of the ITA, and another parent in our community to discuss the limitations of the current 8 period structure at IMS. So, um the um we explored possibilities using other Long Island middle schools bell schedules as models um including those of the middle schools where I and the other parent who is um sitting in on these meetings teach. Um ultimately at that time the change was unable to be implemented for this current school year due to what was at the time potential cuts to education funding at both the state and federal levels as well
006as a desire at that time to present a budget to the Icelip community that did not drastically increase our property taxes taxes in such a tumultuous financial time. There would need to be some additional hiring in order to make a change in bell schedule a reality as well as some adjustments to middle school transportation in the morning. Not insurmountable, but you need money to be able to do these things. Um, as a middle school music educator and now a middle school mom, I am beginning to really feel the impact that scheduling all music ensembles at IMS during zero period has on our middle school music program. relegating band, orchestra, and coral ensembles to before school status despite the fact that these are academic courses that receive a grade weighted as equally in calculating GPA and
007determining National Junior Honor Society acceptance as ELA, math, and the like. Meanwhile, in the majority of music, middle school music programs on Long Island and quite possibly New York State, music ensembles take place during the school day. they are given equal importance during the structure of a student's day. And now that I'm a sixth grade parent with sixth grade parents, I've been, you know, anecdotally and have and had several hard conversations about participating in music ensembles with some of my fellow um sixth grade parents. Um, I am already hearing of sixth graders who are discontinuing their participation in music ensembles as we speak due to the way that we are forced to schedule them at the middle school. Um, on a personal note, a friend of my sons, um, who is in a single parent
008household, lives right across the street on Lumu Boulevard, um, expressed to me a couple of days before school that she was really concerned about having get the ability of getting her son to orchestra rehearsals. Um because I don't know about you, but I would not want my 11-year-old crossing Union Boulevard, especially since the time that zero period starts happens to coincide with when the crazy traffic trying to turn from Union Boulevard into the front of IHS is happening. Um although I encouraged her to reach out to the amazing IMS orchestra teacher Julia Bartlett, who is phenomenal. She is a gem. Inevitably, a decision against my son's friend's participation in orchestra may have to be made at home. The inequity in this scenario is staggering. No musician at the middle school should have to base their
009participation in our music program due to the zero period extra status that is unintentionally placed on our academic ensemble classes at IMS. This problem would be essentially eliminated if we shifted our mindset instructor structure at IMS to a 9 period day. If that is still impossible, another thought that was put on the table by um the other parent in the committee that I was fortunate to sit on to start discussing this would be to find a way to um insert into the structure of the m um the ensembles into our 8 period day already. Um, additional, um, it is also my understanding that due to the structure of our eight period day, students with multiple special education needs are often shut out of taking electives. Instead of equitably including all IMS students into every other
010day or everyday half semester classes such as art, family and consumer sciences, digital geography, and the like. They are shut out from taking these classes because there is simply not room in their schedule due to their needs. Although unintentional, this feels extremely exclusionary and discriminatory to our neediest IMS learners from exploring and experiencing every opportunity that their typical peers are allowed. That equity can be easily achieved by offering a 9 period day at IMS. We would also be able to offer a broader range of elective experiences for our seventh and eighth graders in with this change. For example, in my building, we have a thriving electives program for our especially our eighth graders with classes to select from, which include science research, virtual enterprise, uh, middle school version, coding, a full year of high school
011studio art, theater exploration, and even a music composition class, which I am teaching for the first time this year. In addition to my orchestras, students are able to choose either one elective going opposite Jim, one elective and one music ensemble and gym, two electives and one music ensemble, or two music ensembles and one of the affforementioned electives. I have many orchestra students in eighth grade who have maximized the potential of their schedules because they have the flexibility during our bell schedule, our school day to explore new interests while continuing to thrive musically. During last year's port of at meet the candidates, panning the course catalog was discussed um in those public forums and this is a perfect opportunity to see that come to fruition for our Iceland middle school students. In order for this to
012become a reality while maintaining the same breadth and depth of current elective requirements at each IMS grade level, a 9 period day needs to become a reality. I realize this cannot be fixed overnight or even in one school year and I would be you continue to be more than willing to sit as a stakeholder on any committees that are committed to finally seeing this change happen. The structures are already in place for a 9 period day at IMS with our zero through 8 period day and I hope we continue to make a concerted effort to tackle making this change a reality. Our middle-level learners in Iceland deserve to be afforded all opportunities to thrive and explore interest in an equitable manner which will result in a greater and equal opportunity to explore subjects outside the
013core 4 during such a crucial time developmentally and emotionally in their lives. Thank you. >> Thank you Mrs. Dr. Hammer though this is a good discussion. >> Yeah Mrs. Sari, first um thank you for the way you always present to us. I really appreciate it because it's uh it's well thought out and uh uh certainly we can feel the passion. Um I I think I'm going to for a second just take the liberty and speak for everybody who's sitting at this table. I don't believe there's a person here who would disagree with you. Uh I certainly support a nine period day. I know everybody to my right does and I'm pretty sure there's nobody to my left that would say we don't want to give our students more. Um, so I can give you some
014I think bad news and some hopeful news, right? The bad news is I don't think it's realistic in the near future that we will be able to afford a 9 period day. I I wouldn't want to mislead anybody and let you think that that that could happen. I'm not saying it's impossible. Um, I don't think it's likely and I wouldn't want to be misleading. Um, what I can tell you though on the positive side is we have a brand new principal who has a whole fresh perspective. We have a brand new dean who brings experience from another district. Um although we have Dr. Fitzgerald in HR, she has a lot of master schedule experience and we have a new uh K12 director of counseling. um and those people I mentioned plus me, we will put
015everything we have into looking at our current schedule and seeing how we can enhance things um within an 8 period day in the short term and and keep a hope and an eye toward a 9 period day at some point in the future. Um uh the other thing I can tell you which is really good news is despite the challenges of a zero period music program, our participation rates in uh band and orchestra in the middle school have been increasing over the last couple of years. You mentioned uh Miss Bartlett. She's a huge reason. Our orchestra is off the charts and performing at >> Wait for my fourth grader to have her. >> Yeah, she's really doing wonderful. uh and uh of course we have great teacher in band and uh chorus has has been
016held steady over the last couple of years. So in terms of participation that that's a the good news. Um I'm just looking at the notes that I wrote. Uh regarding special education students, I can tell you everywhere I've been that's a challenge. even in a nine period day. Unfortunately, sometimes their needs force force them into certain uh courses or supports and sometimes it's un unavoidable. But um I think I think in brief I think that addresses most of what you're sharing with us. But we uh we do 100% agree with you and it's something we would we would uh certainly keep working toward. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you again. and one of them comment card. >> Welcome back. Really quick, I just want to bring it up. I keep bringing it up. This
017year, we have over $1.6 million in the Smart Schools bond. We need additional cameras and security. Our security has outdated equipment. our camera. We don't have cameras in the hallways of all the the blind spots and places in the hallways where things happen like stairwells or just general hallways within the elementary schools. These are things that we need to consider and we don't have them and I know that there that money is there. So I feel like new budget, new year, new budget, we can start thinking about what money we can front for this year to start utilizing that money. >> Yeah, we agree again. So, we're two for two for tonight with comments and everybody up here in green. >> Excuse me. >> Thank you. Um, Miss Brower, can you just elaborate? >> Sure.
018Mrs. Moon, um, I want you to know I've been in touch with um, NICE and have speaking about um, smart schools. um the contact that I had um we need to start to do a committee because anything that we need to purchase needs to be approved. We can't just make the purchase and then be recouping that money. So, I would like to start to put together a committee to speak about the actual items that are needed. and I've reached out to some of the prior administrators that were on that committee when um it was first discussed. So, I am looking at um trying to get that together as soon as possible to start plans to spend down that money. Um again, we have to have approval before we make any purchases. So, that's a key
019component to it. >> No, it makes perfect sense. I agree with having a committee. I just hearing the balls rolling is is a good thing. But we're hoping for next year to start making those purchases or the purchases will be made for this year. It has to be for next year, right? >> Uh it will probably be for next year because I don't see any um extra money that we can allocate for additional items. So it would have to be a discussion where we would start to think to phase in um items that we need. But uh please know that I am speaking with the d you know direct counterparts at the state um in order to make this happen as soon as possible. We still sorry we still do have the challenge of whatever
020um so it's a two steps right one is uh our committee we we come up with the plan we want to we want to um add more cameras we want to purchase radios we want to purchase a a repeater we you know any enhancement that would fit in that category right so we have to come up with that plan has to be approved by New York State Education Department so they know what we're spending it on so that after we spend it we can get the reimbursement um but we still do have the hurdle of coming up with the money. We have to lay it out. It's not that we >> I know it's >> that's still a challenge for us. >> I know. I know it's district, but if >> if the committee comes
021up with phases and prioritizes what's needed. >> Yep. >> You're not spending you don't have to spend 1.5 million at one time. We >> agree at least. >> Yep. >> More than the $300,000 that was spent because I brought it out to a previous. That's it. That's all. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay. Um that's all we have for our public comment cards. We're going to move on now to our reports and correspondence. And this I've been looking forward to. Um this is our ex official student member, Mr. Bro, and he's going to report back on his first week at school here. And so we're looking forward to it. >> Thank you. I just want to give a brief report on how the start of the school year is going. Overall,
022it's been incredibly positive start to the year. Um, students are getting back to their routines and reconnecting with their friends. As I know we're all aware, some new policies went into effect this year, such as the new distraction-free schools law prohibiting all electronic devices from bell to bell. I've spoken with se several teachers, students, and administrators at both the middle school and the high school level, and most agreed that that the transition has been easier than expected. Many have already noticed a positive impact with classrooms feeling more focused and students spending more time talking and connecting with one another without their cell phones. Although it has been challenging for the students to adjust to these changes, with the cooperation of students, parents, and the community, we can make this a great school year. Thank you.
023Great. Thank you. That was excellent. We really appreciate it. So, I think I'm gonna have to start standing. >> But anyway, and thank you again. >> And we are lucky this meeting is after school hours. Otherwise, you won't be able to read from your phone. Okay. All right. Right now that's going to end on their reports and correspondence. Uh this is going to bring us back to dates to remember. School will be closed for September 23rd and the 24th observant of rashada. For those who celebrate, I want to wish you all the best for your holiday. Um our next board event meeting will be on September 30th. Uh 6 p.m. will be exec. Uh public portion will be at 7:30 here in the high school auditorium. And uh that's all we have uh tonight folks.
024I appreciate everyone coming out to our board meeting. Thank you for the comments and uh stay safe and we'll see everyone at our next board meeting. Can I get a motion? >> Yeah. >> With that motion move second. >> Okay. Thank you folks. Thank you for coming and we'll see you at our next board