001Good evening everyone at home. We're now standing for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible for all. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us for our first of two October meetings. Before we jump into the business of the day, just a quick reminder, this Monday, Columbus Day, Native American Day, whatever you'd like to call it, we shall be closed. Have a good time celebrating however you would like to celebrate. Um, with that, would you like to go first? >> Sure. >> With that, I would love to turn it over to Dr. Kravitz for this month's or this one of this month's superintendent report. And since he has a slideshow, I I'm
002going to move over there. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening. >> Uh today is my 101st day in the district and there was some questions about what you've been doing. So I thought it was a good opportunity to share what not only me but central office and a lot of people out in the audience, the administrators who are here and not here as well who have been working on. So, you know, make incremental progress. Sorry, I have here making make incremental progress. Change comes not by the yard, by the inch. That's from Rick Patino, very famous basketball coach. So, we're starting little by little. Okay. Where are we starting? So, one of the things that I've shared with the board is we created an organizational chart. There was one, but
003it wasn't very clear to the lines of communication and the lines of who was responsible for what. So, thank you to to Mr. Con, wherever he is. >> Oh, you're hiding. Good to see you. Who helped put this together? Um, and recognize, you know, so we know. And the reason why I do something like this is to make sure everyone understands that there is a chain of command. You you've heard me say it before is that if there's a concern, the first thing you do as a parent is always go to your classroom teacher. From the classroom teacher, you go to your principal or your curriculum associate, and then you work your way up, right? that makes sure that everyone knows what's happening and that's where we figure out if there's a deficiency how we
004address it. If you're suddenly jumping to a board of education with a concern, you're really bypassing everybody and a true evaluation of everyone including myself is not done well. So I always remember and that's the first thing we do create that organizational chart. So uh so this is a pet peeve of mine when I was when I was hired here which you know I thank you to the board. This was the the document that I had to fill out. So many of you might remember from like 90s and the 80s that there was a document that you would fill out for your application process. And when I got here, I realized how inefficient that was. And one of the things I I like to my themes are always data and inefficiency. And for the new
005people who are smiling, they know that they fill this form out and you have to take out a pen and you fill it out. But most of the time in most of the other schools I've worked in and most of the schools in Long Island, there's an electronic version of this that you would put in and that would help you populate everything along the way, including all the way up to registering someone for payroll as opposed to doing it by hand. The more people that touch a product, touch a piece of paper, the more errors that possibly could happen. And we don't want that. We want a seamless integration from the moment we advertise for a position all the way to when you're hired. And now we have your file fully and complete with your
006certification, with your experience, with everything. So Frontline is the company that we're using that's used in many school districts around the country that helps organize this and again from the human resources part of it. Again, Mr. Con, thank you very much. And also Ivy has been doing it because this is the same program that offers teachers videos to watch if they're struggling with something. So if you're struggling with student management in your classroom, we can recommend a video for you to watch on how to benefit yourself. Those are the type of things we want to become efficient at. So you might have heard at the last, you know, few meetings, we've talked about our website. We recognize that there are some difficulties with our website and we are looking to address it. We use Parent
007Square as a form of communication that along with our new website should help ease some of the concerns that people are hearing, we're hearing from people. you know, which one do I log into? How do I get that information? Thank you to Mr. Larkin in the back and and Victor and I met with some of the companies and we're trying to figure out which is the best one and we think we've narrowed it down. It also helps us save some money so that there's not a redundancy of how are we communicating. Today we were at a PTA meeting and we recognize that one of the concerns the parents expressed was will I email a teacher by email? Will I contact them by parent square? Well, how I I contact a parent by canvas. We want
008to be efficient. We want to make sure we know how to every parent knows how to contact the teacher and how does that teacher respond accordingly and for all the information because we recognize also there was a concern with a lot of the archived information that was on fair square just when I arrive people were trying to access everything once we do this we will have a one location where all of that information will sit and everyone will have access to it additionally I've been talking about assessments and SEAL and data warehouse and how do we differentiate all of our instruction putting all of that information we have a lot of things that children are are utilizing in the classrooms they're using they're using um and they're taking assessments with NWA there are other programs
009that in the district there's freckle in one school there's other programs we want to put them all together and start to look at all the data so that we know how your children are doing and we want to keep every parent informed of what they're doing how they're doing and what they need to work on if they're struggling. That's the end goal here. How do we help every child whether you're at the top top or struggling at the bottom? What can we offer for interventions that make sense and are measured and we can adapt if they're not working? Because at the end of the day, we're here for children and help every child. Every child. Thank you to the board of education because when we had our retreat, we talked about creating a strategic plan.
010A strategic plan helps our goals for the next five years. That's what we want to do so we can stay focused. One of the key components is everybody working together for a common goal and we will embark on on the idea of creating a strategic plan for the district and we will listen to everybody's input and share everyone those goals and how we how we plan to achieve them. And it is my job to actually keep everyone updated. What do we do? How are we measuring our success along that way? And that's the journey. And I again I I really am proud of the board of education because when I did arrive here, first thing we did is we had a retreat and we shared what our goals were and what we want to do.
011And one of those goals, which you'll see in a few minutes, was to create a strategic plan. So I'm big on standard operating procedures. How do we do things on a regular basis? Everyone should know what is their responsibility. Whether it's how do we post things on a website? We don't need to know the names of the people. We need to know the title of the people, right? The title of that position. It should be positiondriven, not well this person does this or this person does that. What position in that organizational chart I've just shared does what. Human resources, standard operating procedures. I've shared with frontline what we're doing and we continue to look at how we can become a more efficient. The board of education, we're talking about creating more policies and a level
012of transparency and updating those policies regularly. And thank you to the board of education for looking into that as well because that is their lane. The board's main goal is to hire a superintendent is to create policies and have oversight of the budget. That's really the key things that a board of education is responsible for and so far they've been fantastic working together to create that policy curriculum instruction every day Dr. Sherman is working with her staff with the curriculum associates with the administrators making sure that we're meeting the state standards and how can we achieve let every student achieve more and more and again as I said the board of education is doing a fantastic job of oversight. So, these are some of the goals that we created out of our um of retreat
013that we had over the summer. The Jericho Public Schools Board of Education will be creating a manual for the standard operating procedures for all board members. The Jericho Public Schools Board of Education will select and complete the superintendent's evaluation tool and evaluation on time. So, they had signed up for a super evaluation, superintendent evaluation online services that help me drive what I'm doing on a daily basis and a fair evaluation of me. Did I meet my goals? Did I communicate? All of those things are in that. There's some district goals for this year. The school district will leverage district technology and other appropriate resources to increase community engagement and positive perception of Jericho public schools. As you well know, we have been pushing a lot of stuff through Instagram. Maggie Rose Molo has been doing
014a fantastic job. We've increased our number of followers by over 350 and we keep getting more and more hits. And we're happy to know, happy to say we will continue to grow because we want everyone to know what's happening in our schools. The district will participate in the process of developing that that three-year strategic plan by the time it is complete. Those goals will be listed everywhere. And lastly, the district will be creating standard operating procedures for various functions within the district, including hiring practices, employee accountability, and student tracking. Making sure that every student is getting every service they need. That's my where we have been on day 101. So I want to say thank you, but I I really want to say it's a team effort and I really appreciate working with the board
015of education, my staff, Dr. Sherman, Mr. Con, Mr. Manuel, everybody here, the community, the community, the curriculum associates, the principles, everyone, the teachers, they've just been great. And as I said the first day I got here, the smiles. Smiles continue every morning when I pull up. I see all the kids get off the bus. They are very happy to come to school. We have a lot of things to do to get better and better every day. We take your advice. We listen to you. And we want to grow with you. And again, the center of our our universe is our is your kids. They're our kids, too. We want to make sure every day we do things better and better. So, thank you for the opportunity. I'm happy on day 101. I'll let you know
016on day 202. But, uh, I'm very happy. And I do have a joke cuz I I like to make jokes. So, I did put rulers on there and I heard this on the way here. Do you know they're not making 12-in rulers any longer? >> Thank you very much for all of you out there. Thank you, Mr. Pman. To you. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Superintendent. And um I don't want to speak on behalf of the board, but I'll speak on behalf of myself and I think the board will probably shake their head that we'd like to reiterate that that there has been an extremely smooth transition over the first 101 days. Um and that Dr. Kravitz has been a pleasure to work with. Um I'm hoping everyone has found him to be a
017pleasure to work with whether uh and he's been doing great with all the employees, assistant superintendent, CAS, building heads, union heads, as well as every teacher and staff member. So, um, at day 101, we were extremely we're extremely happy at day 101. We'll see. We'll see what happens at day 202. >> And I I will I will one other point. I'm sorry. While I'm in that, if you sometimes you take the liberty to add some comments to your don't read the Long Island Press that says it's Hank Krabbits. It's actually Dr. Robert Krabbit. >> Old habits die hard for some people. Um, thank you very much for that. Uh we will now move into who is doing all these recognitions of the board of education? >> Anyone? Anyone? No one wants to recognize people left.
018Lovely gifts. No, I think the first thing we'll start off with, we'll start off um even though Congress is on hiatus and and not doing anything, we have a lovely certificate. Even during the government shutdown, Mr. Swazy. Congressman Suisi was able to uh deliver to us a certificate of special congressional recognition presented to Jericho Board of Education on the occasion of celebrating schoolboard appreciation week. So very much thank um the Democrat from Long Island uh Thomas Swazi our local congressman for that recognition. [Applause] Thank you Mr. Swans for kicking us off. So, next week I think is officially uh New York State Board of Education Recognition Week, but we we like to make October Board of Education uh recognition month. So, um my colleagues from from different segments of the of the workforce are here.
019Dear members of the board of education, on behalf of the Jericho Principles Association, Jericho Curriculum Associates Association, Jericho Teachers Association, Civil Service Employees Association, and Learning Center Instructors Association. We would like to thank you and recognize your contribution to the Jericho School community all month. In your honor, we will be awarding a scholarship to a graduating senior which will be presented at the senior awards night in the spring. And thank you all. [Applause] >> Thank you to all of um those bargaining units for that great idea of the scholarship and uh we thank you and we congratulate in advance the lucky senior who will get that on their way to college. So, thank you very much for that. Um, anyone else want to congratulate us with lots of gifts or things like that? No. Okay.
020Um, we'll close that section. We do have some gifts up here. I do not know where they're from. There's no cards, but thank you very much. If it was from the six units we just heard from, thank you doubly. If it's from someone else, thank you very much. >> From the district, >> the district, we thank you very much. >> Thank you, Miss Dolce, for putting this together. anyone who doesn't know the person who really runs the district, Rita Dolce, the executive assistant to Dr. Kravitz. Um, if you've never had the pleasure, you are missing. Please make say here, say hello. Be great. Also, New York State School Board sent us some certificates. I think everyone has one of those. Um, I'm sure that there are many people here who want to be heard. So,
021now we'll move into the opportunity for the public to be heard. If you would like to make a comment or ask a question, please approach the microphone, tell us your name, and if you're representing a specific group, your affiliation. If you would like your statement to be included in our board minutes, you must hand a written copy of your remarks to our district clerk, Victor Emanuel, before leaving tonight. >> Of course, this is hi. Um the the new um flowchart that you have organization, will that be posted someplace so that parents can see that and so forth? And just a question. Um I noticed that it went to um to you and then from you to the board of education. There was no loop for parents to write to the board if they had something
022of a concern as we've done in the past to their community members or voters to do. Is that something that you'll add or you just want that as a as a real like tight flow chart? So parents are always welcome to email anyone they want to. Um that's part of their their right. Um as far as the chain of command in the district within itself, it is important to understand that if you email the board of education, the best practice is for the board to then give it to me then give it back to whoever >> unless it's directed towards the board that that concern >> correct for it to be okay. That's all I was just cur wonderful chart otherwise I just think they pass >> and the way the way things are supposed
023to work is that if someone disagrees it's gone through the whole chain of command and someone disagrees with the correct ruling of the superintendent then you appeal to the board not >> 100% I was just saying if somebody just wants to write something to the board directly that didn't >> uh that superseded that particular flowchart that you can write to the board without writing to you and then say oh pass it That's >> so you can always write to the board >> otherwise you follow the flowchart >> right but you can always write to the board and and to Mr. point important process right so if you jump and the board acts right away they are the final decision maker and you're bypassing that whole process >> um and also Mrs. Levy as people don't
024I know Mrs. believe you probably know those on our website under the board tab you will see there's a cl a link to all presentations that are given at board meetings so this presentation will get posted up there in the next day or two and I expect somewhere on our new website there will be a separate link just to go straight to that um >> for next year >> yeah that organizational flowchart that that Mr. Con and Dr. Krabbits put together. So all that information is readily available. If you can't find it, definitely email the board. Um, everyone knows JBOSchools.org. Any other comments, questions, concerns, complaints? >> JBO, I'm sorry. BOE jerichoschools.org. Thank you, Mr. Citron. No one wants to commend us. Okay, so we are now closing. Oh, sorry. I got some I have
025some feedbacks from parents and students expressing interest from uh forming a debate club at the middle school. Um so I would like to take this opportunity and uh understand what is the current process of creating and funding the student club. For example, we have a lot of gardens club, you know, science and GSA and all those clubs get the full recognition and support while others um like eBay we haven't implemented yet. So um can we understand and review the criteria and process to make the opportunity consistent for all type of student interest and whether academic, social or identity based. So with any club there's a process and the best thing for anybody to do just going back to that same chain of command is for the students to reach out to their principal they'll explain
026it every year there's a budgeting process that we follow because with every club there's a cycle for a person to be responsible for that club. So for any student out there who would like to start a club, best course of action is to always go to your principal and there's a process. I believe the high school is in process of reviewing and the student uh student representative on the board is shaking her head because student government is responsible. They review, they create, they they invite everyone to come submit everything and then they review it and make their decision. And again, as we have a budget for clubs in every building, um it's important to recognize that if it we're in the mid middle of our season, we might not have that particular money available for
027that club. But if there's a club that is going to be removed, then that's how you would replace a club. Um so it all comes down to budgeting. It comes down to a process we want to keep consistent. to expand upon the debate program because we have a debate >> not >> at the middle school level. >> I think one of the issues just you know in the high school there's a debate class that a lot of debate club people take their freshman year. So >> a lot of people >> I I fully understand that they'll have to learn how to debate somewhere. It's perfect. Anyone closing opportunity for the public to be heard? Let's move on to new business. We have one very exciting um item on the board. Be it on the agenda.
028Be it resolved that Jericho Union Free School District retain New York NYS pool management to provide lifeguard services for the 2526 school year and directs the board president me to execute the attached agreement on behalf of the board. Do I have a motion? Mr. Jen, thank you. Second, Mr. Citron. Thank you. Any discussion? >> Yes. Who's doing it? Who takes these questions? Athletic director or facilities guys? >> Uh I want to find out is that the only company that we um we went through? >> Um this is the first time we are doing this. Normally it was staff in the past and um the staff members that used to do the lifeguarding for the community swim uh are no longer available. So we we needed to go out to agencies. I believe we got uh
029three quotes. Okay. >> Um from different companies and um this one was chosen not necessarily the least expensive. Uh but they fingerprint all of their um lifeguards ahead of time. So um we wouldn't have that concern that there would be someone uh working in the pool area that wasn't already fingerprinted. >> Okay. Um I I noticed there's like a lot of uh movements the pricing happen. Are we going to use them for maintenance as well or >> No, just for life services. >> Mrs. No, I'm sorry. Dr. Bach was saying that's why for the past last week and next week community was canceled because we were having trouble um hiring lifeguards or getting lifeguards. We have now Mr. Manuel has solved that problem and with Mr. Corn Bloom's assistance. We've now moved past that. And
030if anyone's interested, the three bids are actually in the board package this month. You can see the various pricings for those three things. With that discussion, do I have a vote? All in favor of approving. All against carries 40. We look forward to seeing everyone at Community Swim. Please sign up. Bring your kids. Um, with all the regular meeting agenda items complete, I have a motion for the board to briefly move into executive to talk about a personnel issue and um, do that. Shouldn't be long. When we come back to close the public meeting, we do not expect to take any action. We do not expect to come in and do anything other than close the public meeting. Do I have a motion for executive session? Mr. Do I need I need a motion to
031move into a Oh, sorry. I didn't say Mr. Jin. Thank you. Dr. Alman, thank you. Um, any discussion? Can't discuss it anyway. Um, all in favor 40. Thank you very much everyone. Have a good night. We will see you at our next meeting on Wednesday, October 29th. Wednesday. Um, that was moved from October 30th. It's now Wednesday, October 29th for our next meeting. It will be longer then. So, please bring snacks. >> Thank you.