July Board of Education Meeting 2025

001Good evening everyone. Would you please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance 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. Thank you everyone and thank you for the warm welcoming that I have received so far in the last 10 days in the Jericho public schools. I'm excited. It's a great place and we'll talk more about that. This is the reorganization meeting of the Jericho Union Preschool District. And as this reorganization meeting goes, we start with me as a superintendent introducing the meeting and then we say, do I have a motion for a president of the board administration and I want to say welcome Dr. Kravitz. Very excited to have you and welcome to

002the board for a fresh school year. Um I would like to make a motion for Sam Brolman to be president this year. Do we have a second? Seconded by the other motions on the table. Do we have a vote? Please. All in favor say I. Raise your hand. You can vote. Yeah. Okay. Well, motion carries. Congratulations, Mr. Pman and the president of the board of education. [Applause] Well, first I want to thank my fellow board members for the confidence they're showing in in me. Um, and at this time I would like to accept nominations for board vice president. Then I will go ahead and nominate Mrs. Jennifer Bartnoff for board vice president. Do I have any seconds? Mr. Jen seconds. Um, are there any other nominations for board vice president? Thank you. All in favor.

003All opposed. Motions carry. Congratulations, Mrs. Bartnoff. Studio vice president. Um, moving on to the agenda for the reorg meeting. Unless anyone has any objections, um I'd like to go and try to move resolutions number three through 37. Um do I have a motion to move 3 through 7? Mr. Cron, thank you very much. So I have a second. Second, Mrs. Barkoff. Thank you. Discussion. Um pardon the point of order. Go ahead, sir. on resolution of new business [Applause] ST 202501. I believe that's the attachment. That's in the regular meeting. We're in the reorgan. Okay, good. Thank you. I have a question. I just want to see. Go ahead. Sure. Anyone have other questions while we otherwise I can start with a couple of points. Um first one on uh resolution number 12 which is the

004board meeting schedule for the upcoming school year. The August 7th regular board meeting is being moved to August 4th with a start time of 7:30 p.m. The August 7th meeting will be moved to August 4th at 7:30 p.m. with a location to be dictated by the status of construction. Unless we know the status of construction, right? Okay. It will be at Robert Seven School based on that status of construction. Um the second thing while we're Mr. Citro whenever you're ready let me know. But um if anyone looks at the schedule of board meetings you'll see that we now have two board meetings a month. We are looking to get rid of what some find to be a misleading title of work session. All board meetings will be formal board meetings as all the work sessions

005were open to the public. All the board meetings will be open to the public but there was some misunderstanding about that. Everything will be a board meeting. Um we will put out the agendas beforehand so you know as we always do the exact topics that will be decided hopefully well in advance whether it be presentations or votes um or anything like that. So for all months except for the month of August we will be having uh two board meetings a month. And the last part on that is I'm sure over the next few months next two months you will start to see listed several executive session meetings. Um those will be, just so you know in advance, mostly I would expect tied to interviews that the board will be conducting for any variety of administrative

006positions that we're going to need to fill um over the summer. So if you see a whole bunch of executive session meetings pop up, do not worry. We have everything under control. We are just doing some interviewing. Um that's it. Mr. Citro, did you find your question yet or am I good? Okay, I'll keep going when you have it. Um Mr. manual. Uh number 24 is new to this year's um reorg package where it authorized the assistant superintendent for business to make budget transfers for June and July. Why is this authority needed this year and it wasn't in the past? It was always in the past. The last time we did it was it wasn't last year. I just didn't say it wasn't on the agenda last year. It was two years ago, but it

007covered two years similar to this. Got it. Ah, my mistake. I apologize. Um can you miss Mr. Co Mango Dr. Kravitz the difference remind me I know we discussed this last year between uh the healthc care providers detailed in number 32 and the district physicians that are detailed in number 19. What the different roles are. We I know we discussed this last year and I apologize. I just didn't have the chance. 19 is district physicians. Healthcare provider is like the big company. I think the health care providers uh as you can see some of them are psychologists um consultants. Okay. The the the other one you said was the physical the district. Yeah. Those are the physicals for athletics. Um, and anyone who uh requires a need for a physical who may not be able

008to uh get it on their own. Got it. Cuz that would Okay, I understand. That was the physicals, the immunizations if they need it, those types of things. Got it. And and the district position also helps us if we just have any general questions on uh policies or they'll they'll be our expert in that area in case we have any. I'm sorry, that's the district physician or that's the healthcare providers. District physician. So again, that's Mount Simon, correct? Okay, got it. And then my last question, um, depositories, I saw we have there JP Morgan Chase. Um, we have some money at Capital One and Flushing Bank as those are not, um, category one institutions. We keep, I assume, minimal amounts of money or certainly under FDIC limits there. Yeah, actually Flushing, I don't believe we

009have anything deposited at this point. most of our investments um if you recall it was in NIA which was a New York liquid uh asset fund NLA and class which is a similar um tool it's a uh investment tool for school districts and municipalities they both merged so now instead of NAF you'll instead of NAF you'll only see NLClass and most our reserves and our investments are in that because it's still paying upwards of 4% Number 22. Um, we need to change the educational agency data protection officer for the school. I think we should maybe change it to the director of technology. It should it should be the title, not the person. Number 22. I have a question regarding number 33 official school district newspapers. Um I know that um we always do News Day

010and Jericho News Journal and SAS Jericho Tribune. Would we want to consider removing news? their viewership has extremely declined. Um and very one-sided, you know, views. No, for a couple of reasons. We um our bids, when we advertise for bids, news day is probably better because it does have a much wider circulation for contractors or whoever is going to bid on whatever we're going out. So, we have to put legal notices in a um in a newspaper that has larger circulation. Um as far as the budget, um we've always traditionally done Newsuesday and the two lo local ones and I'm not sure if it's a regulation, but um we also do in the status one. Yes, you're correct. I don't know who said that. I said that. Yes. Thank you. I feel it's a large

011kind. Yeah. you some districts do, some districts don't. Well, I'm sorry. Have newsp why newspaper that we don't know about they use you want to have more people be able to see 100%. Yeah. And then we put the any budget information to go into all three. Actually, no. Yeah, they do go into all three. News F4. Yeah. So, news I know is a paid So, Newsuesday is a paid service. So, not everyone has most people don't have access to it unless you're paying for subscription and most people don't pick up paper newspapers anymore. Everything's digital and unless you have a paid subscription, you can't view anything. So, I don't know if it's really worth it to do anymore. music. I know, but other school districts don't. They use internet. Again, again, for the bids, I

012need music. Bids, you need so for the budget information. We want to eliminate news day. I believe we can. But how do other I just I'm just trying to understand. How do other districts? I think what Yeah, you need to. I think what Steve was saying it's a mix. Some district a lot of districts I think do use daily official in addition to their local paper. Okay. And there are some districts I think you use as an example that only uses the local for the for the budget. Again I think for the bids. Okay. Most districts are using News Day because it's a wider circulation. If we don't use them for the budget, what do we need to give them a notice? What how does that work? Just don't just don't do it. Got it.

013Okay. Thank you. But are you going to give them direction? Yes. That's what I thought you I think what we'd like to do is for for bids to for bids. Can we do what what Mrs. I guess do for bids? Use Newsuesday. For budget and other voting things, use the local newspapers. Sounds good. Is that correct? Yeah. What's the negative news? It's Well, there's definitely cost associated with putting in news. Um and if our community, again, the budget is very local. Um, so I don't need the large circulation of all of Long Island like I do for bids. Um, so if we want to just use the local ones, we can. And we would have to also because it's still the law use the uh Spanish as well. So how can the Spanish one is

014written on our resolution thing here? Great question. I was just thinking that as I was speaking without everyone knows that that's why a reorganization meeting with your methods of communication. Right. for bids. So this language is going to change for news day for bids. That's fine. Local newspapers for elections and the name of the paper that Miss Dole knows also for elections. We don't need that for bids. Correct. Correct. All righty. Um anyone have any other comments? Mr. Jin, Dr. Balachander. The last thing I would say about this um you know, President Look, we appreciate as you can see here from these contracts um all of our service providers and the work they do. Um, but as we've talked about for the last few years is as a point of bre best practice, um, I

015think sometime during this year, the board will be addressing all of our service providers and and looking to see if it's appropriate to put out RFPs for anybody except for, of course, Colin and Denowski, who's on a normal 5-year cycle, and we're in year two or three of that. So, um, but that is that's all good. Um, do I have a all in favor of the of the resolutions? as amended. 50 as amended. Sorry. 50. Great. Um, as all business on the agenda for tonight's reorg meeting is complete, do I have a motion to adjourn the reorg meeting? Dr. Kravitz is all about process. Do I have a That's fine. That's a great idea. Do I have a motion to adjourn the reorg meeting and open open the um regular meeting for July? motion. Thank

016you, Mrs. Citro. Do I have a second? Mrs. Martinoff, all in favor? I. Thank you very much. Someone wanted to Great Americans here. Someone wants to do it to do it. Yeah. Do you want to sing? You don't want me to? Mrs. Brightenback is here. She might want to sing for us. She did not bring any of her lovely students. Um, as we do this on a on a nice sunny Thursday evening in the summer, I want to welcome all of you to our 25 26 in regular school board meeting. It is great to see any crowd, especially this large crowd that we have. Um, it is my pleasure to welcome two new faces, Mr. Kenny Jyn, our newest board member, and Dr. Robert Kravitz, our new superintendent. Um, moving along, we'd like to begin

017with the approval of the minutes from our June 12th meeting. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Martin, I have a second. Second, Dr. Balichand are all in favor of approving the minutes as in there. Wait, Mr. Citron. No, Mr. Citron 50. Thank you very much. Um, I know it's not on there, but uh, superintendent, would you like to deliver a superintendent report of anything you have to report after a full 10 days in the position? Um, absolutely. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Pearlman. Good evening, everyone. Again, this is my first meeting in Jericho and I've been those 10 days and they've been incredibly welcoming. Everyone I have met. Staff is just fantastic and I appreciate all the help that I have received during the transition. Uh Jericho has a well-earned reputation for excellence

018and I am proud to be part of this great tradition with the goal of helping it take helping it go even further. I'd like to share a light-hearted moment from today. I conducted my first interview with Mr. tone with a teaching candidate and I asked the teaching candidate why are you interested in working in Jericho. The candidate smiled and said Jericho is Jericho and by the way you just interviewed here too. So I guess the same reason applies and that moment reminded me of the pride this community holds. As I continue learning more about the district inner workings I look forward to developing an action plan that outlines my goals and I will ensure regular updates to maintain full transparency along the way. Now to address some concerns I've already heard from the community. Mr.

019Manuel, would you like to speak about busing issue? Yes. Um, as we know, uh, in June, we had a little bit of a heat wave, a lot of a heat wave, uh, for a few days. And the concern was that 18 of our large buses through First Student, uh, do not currently have air conditioning. Um, I'd like to give, you know, a a little history on just the district as a whole with respect to air conditioning. Um, our first priority obviously were the buildings and the facilities to make sure our learning environment during the school day uh had air conditioning. We were one of, if not the first, um, on the island to fully air condition our facilities and not just by putting a square in the window or a wall unit. We did it

020centrally while inclusing while replacing all of our univvents districtwide. Uh, so every classroom, every instructional space, every non-instructional space at this point is fully aironditioned in the district. Um, as far as transportation and our buses, uh, in the last 10 years, we've grown our fleet, uh, district-owned vehicles with our own drivers. Uh, when I started here, we had two. Uh, we currently have over 20, uh, buses and close to 20, uh, drivers. All of our buses are fully aironditioned. Most of our buses are the 44 passenger. They're not the big large uh buses because our facilities um do not uh have the capacity to repair the large buses. The only two large buses we have are the ones that are the coach style uh buses. Uh and again, all of our 22 uh buses are

021for the air conditioner. Um the concern came with uh for student buses. Uh there are 18 large buses that do not have air conditioning. All of the others uh do with First Student and we have probably a total of close to 50 buses that we contract uh through First Student. So the um the directive came to at least research and talk with First Student and see what kind of options uh were available. Uh we did have a meeting with them uh over the past week. Um, what I can report back of the 18, there will be two new air conditioned buses for this September, which is great. That brings the number down to 16. Um, I don't know how many people are aware, but there is a new law in place that beginning in 2027,

022all um all school buses, well, I'm sorry, new school buses that are purchased must be zero emission or electric. uh first student um and Jericho partnered and to get a grant in order to cover the difference because electric buses are much more expensive than a regular school bus uh to cover the delta between the cost of an electric bus versus uh the cost of a regular bus and um the grant was awarded uh I can report by second quarter of 26 which is springtime uh that we will be receiving the first student will be receiving receiving for sole use in the Jericho school district 10 electric buses with air conditioning. Um so that'll be in the spring of 26 and that brings the number down to six. I talked about the two these 10 out

023of the 18 and there's six left. Um, and I discussed with the board the cost associated with uh retrofitting those six buses, which is approximately $15 to $16,000 per bus to retrofit them uh for air conditioning. Um, no matter what, they would not be retrofitted by September. It's just time- wise it would not happen. So the board um will uh will look at the uh numbers and discuss it uh in the coming months and uh go from there. Thank you very much. Excellent job. Thank you. It's a pleasure working with you and meeting having met with a student with you for knowledgeable and I'm very proud to be here with you. Next on the other side oh you have a question. I was just I was just going to say thank you for doing all

024this work really quickly. I know concern and I appreciate you addressing the community's concern quickly. Thank you. I know Mr. Con is going to speak about science. Good evening everyone. Um, so I know at the last board meeting uh some uh questions and concerns were uh raised regarding uh the new versions of the earth science and biology regions uh that were offered by the district uh this past June. Um so I wanted to give uh some updates regarding uh some data. I want to be able to talk a little bit about uh some uh steps that we've been attempting with the state uh provide some clarity on past practices in regards to new curriculum and new exams uh and the philosophy that the district has had um and certainly provide uh a re a recommendation

025from the district as to how to proceed forward specifically around uh two more new uh science regions. uh and curricula that will be offered next year. So in regards to uh data uh I met with uh both uh Ivy Sherman and Kim Latini. Um Ivy was unable to be here tonight so uh she apologized and she asked me to present uh in her absence. So uh from a uh a bare minimum passing percentage and I specifically state it that way uh we actually saw some uh strong correlation similarities to what Jericho data has typically been over the last three years. So prior to this exam our passing percentage on the earth science regions was uh approximately 83 to 89% given uh uh any given year over the previous three years. This year it was 84%.

026For the biology regions previously called living environment, uh our passing percentage was typically at 98 to 99% in the previous three years and this current year it was at 98.5%. Where we definitely saw a decline in our students performance is when you talk about mastery percentages. So mastery is a score of 85 or above on the exam on a 100 point scale. So for the earth science regions, the previous three years we typically saw our students scoring at mastery between 69 and 74% rate. Uh this year was at 41% and in biology we typically have seen for the previous three years 81 to 92% of our students performing at mastery. This year it was 56%. Um the data analysis that uh Miss Libertini was able to do uh included comparison to local districts that we

027were able to uh gain access to their data as well. What we saw was that from a passing percentage standpoint uh we were uh either at the top or towards the top of those passing rates in comparison and significantly higher than every other Nassau County district. uh that we had data on for the mastery level. Again, our mastery levels were down, so I'm not trying to tout that as uh some major success, but in a comparative uh we saw that uh Jericho did better, our Jericho students did better on these two exams uh than our neighboring NASA uh districts that we had access to. Um in addition, Miss Libertini's extensive analysis included um data comparisons both historically and to other schools. So historically to our own scores as I mentioned in previous years and to

028other schools. Um, Miss Libertini also did a tremendous deep dive into uh analyzing the curriculum as it was laid out by the state and how it then led to the percentages of each of the areas that were supposed to be tested uh on the region's exams. Um she also did uh a comparison of uh Lexile levels, reading levels um and uh what would be considered appropriate past practice as well as new practice. Uh her analysis led to looking at question analysis. So interpreting the quality and the number of questions. Um so in uh for instance in her analysis she found that many questions were vague uh included a lot of jargon and misleading information often graphs and charts that had a lot of extra uh external information that wasn't relevant and pertinent for the actual

029question itself um and therefore making those questions harder than uh what we believe they needed to be. Also in both cases, book their science and biology uh felt that there were uh more questions uh than uh needed to be uh provided on the exam, especially given the time constraints for uh for all students, but specifically our students. Um, Miss Libertini has been in communication with both local and state science administrators um to do analysis and to express clear concerns with the state um as well as Jericho sending uh clear direction to the state uh regarding specificity of where we found uh issues uh with the exam. Um based on uh Mr. Libertini's analysis. Uh most of the issue really was uh around the areas that I just highlighted the jargon uh the extra information um

030and uh making the questions uh confusing for our students for all students uh as we saw uh neighboring uh districts um and their scores as well. Uh we have found that it's been difficult to communicate with the state on this issue. uh we've not received any clear acceptance of flaws and issues and therefore uh it's been a bit of a lack of support and guidance around the potential needs for corrective measure uh moving forward for the exams. Um and certainly uh in uh looking ahead to next year's uh chemistry and physics exams. Um uh we also felt it was important to give a little bit of history around why Jericho uh chose to uh be at the forefront of the new exams. Uh historically Jericho has always been at the forefront of uh uh new

031curriculum and new exams. We philosophically feel it's really important to make sure that we're providing our students with the most modern levels of curriculum and instruction. Um and uh in addition to wanting to make sure that we're providing them with that on state curriculum and state assessments, it plays itself out in broader ways. Uh so uh obviously at Jericho High School, we have an extensive advanced placement program. Uh AP exams are often aligned with these new standards even before regions exams become aligned with these standards. So to make sure that our students are being exposed to new content, to new curriculum, to new methodologies, to new ways of expressing their thinking and their understanding uh has something that we have historically always valued and typically uh performed very well on. Um for instance, the algebra

032and the geometry exams that were offered in the last two years were also equally uh new versions of these exams. Uh certainly we haven't heard the concerns that we've heard on science. Um but from a philosophical standpoint, Jericho uh moved forward with providing those verses and those exams uh in kind. Um uh we certainly heard from the public and we certainly saw in our own data uh the concerns with the exam, the concerns with our students performance levels. Um, I know an email went out to the community in terms of uh some options that families had in terms of how scores would be uh uh able to be listed on transcripts. Um, and then finally, in terms of recommendations for moving forward, because I know that there's a really strong question out there as to

033what should happen with chemistry and physics for next year. Um, in keeping in line with everything that I just said about what the philosophies of the district have been, uh, we do feel that even with the difficulties that we've experienced with these two exams, uh, that it's in our students best interest to, uh, be at the forefront of uh, the new chemistry and the new physics curriculum and hence the region's exams. And to sort of put context on that, uh there was only one group of uh constituents that were really excited about this year's earth science and uh biology regents and that were our advanced placement teachers of the subsequent courses. So our AP uh environmental studies teachers and our AP bio teachers uh felt that there was much a much stronger alignment between the

034way questions and content was being presented in those exams and hence that our students would be better prepared in the future hence next year when they sit for for those courses and those AP exams. Similarly, in kind, if we made a choice to go back and stay with the older version of the chemistry and physics regions, uh we wouldn't necessarily be best preparing our students when the year after they take regions chemistry. They might be in advanced placement chemistry class and not being as prepared as some others may have been uh if not exposed to uh the new curriculum and the new forms of assessment. Um I have a question. So if we go with the AP next year with the new the new regions can't we uh I mean like if we wait out

035a year can we see the data on a school and what they what they would do and what is the question better prepared the data that we can see can only be either what uh schools themselves are willing to share with us. Um, I think it's often easier to share data with schools when you have data of your own to be able to make it a comparison um, even for good or for bad. So, uh, we may not get school-based data as quickly. Um, eventually when the state releases it, certainly it would be available to us. So, we might be able to do that. Um, I guess part of the question is whether that's truly going to provide advantage for our students or disadvantage. I've outlined where we feel that there might be disadvantage for

036our students. The other question is what might a secondyear iteration of an exam look like if there were flaws in year one. So our students may not necessarily benefit from being able to see what that exam was if the state goes ahead and makes other changes to but isn't they aren't they going to eliminate region by 28 or something like that? There certainly has been talk about uh eliminating the or creating alternative means for high school diplomas. They're not talking about eliminating them in its entirety. And based on uh history here in Jericho, I don't think it would be a stretch for us to anticipate that our students might still opt to sit for regions exams uh as a baseline for diploma and certainly could benefit from that. So uh yeah so in in the

037event that we do not get feedback the feedback we've been seeking from the state and we don't know whether this ch this exam is going to be changed um are we still going to offer to our students that the grade can be passed fail ahead of time um you're talking about for next year correct you know I know that based on the outcomes is the reason why that there was a decision to offer pass fail for the earth science and the bio um we we certainly haven't used that to uh anticipate that similar issues would exist I I would be concerned about uh using a broad brush to simply say that moving forward we're going to make pass fail uh an option for any and all regents or any and all new regions. Again, no

038one came forward and felt like there was a need to do that with the algebra and the geometry regions that we offered. So, uh I don't know that there's enough history to say that any and all new science regions automatically will present the same issues. I guess the difference between the math exams and these are just that the the science exams were largely um comprehension based or reading comprehension based and at a 12th grade reading level. So I think that I don't know that we can compare the two but so I um that might be why people aren't as well up the math as they are in science. I think each of those exams had their their their own issues and certainly Lexile levels were a big part. I mean, I see Dr. Sberg in

039in the room and I know that we're going to be anticipating new social studies exams and we've experienced that and certainly, you know, so again, how we start to look at the the purity of Lexile levels. I I I I worry about just saying that it's only going to be for all science exams. I think there's a broader conversation. So I'm not trying to be argumentative to say that no we shouldn't do it but I think that it's a comprehensive conversation if we are considering doing that. Hi so obviously a number of concerns and questions. Um do we have the data yet? How many parents chose the pass how many students chose the pass option? Has there have you seen you know a large number so to speak? It wasn't uh relatively speaking it was

040not a majority of the families that uh were already opting into that. Um, but again, I I wasn't I had said it wasn't an o overwhelming major. It wasn't a majority of of families that were obedient to that, but honestly, I I wasn't directly involved in seeing that data. So, I I don't want to give any misrepresentation to the board on that. You're going to be passing the mic back and forth. Um so the fact that New York State has not given us the support that we have asked for and what's it maybe I want to say pre-exam and post exam pre-exam I think the lack of support was probably having not enough information to prepare the students though we we knew the curriculum but we didn't know enough about the test itself. Is this

041accurate? You know, they they gave uh a series, I think it was two modules of uh sample questions, um that's not necessarily uncommon when they're coming out with new iterations of exams. So um again based on the experiences that we heard from our students um and the scores that we we saw clearly there was a flaw for me to say that it was merely because they didn't give out enough sample data. I'm I'm not sure that that that's not that's just maybe one piece of the puzzle. It's not the only piece of the puzzle. I'm just trying to put all as many pieces of the puzzle together as possible to make first of all to inform the community. I think there's a lot of people out there that um have the same concerns um and

042have questions and also just we as a board we approve curriculum. How do we go forward? What's best for the students? What's best for their future? What's best for their mental health? because walking out of the test, you know, um, last month, I know a lot of them were distraught because they felt, you know, they they weren't well prepared. Not because the school failed in any way because the school did everything possible based upon the information they were given by New York State, but New York State gave a lack of information. Am I correct? Uh I'm hesitant to be able to come to the exact same uh verbiage. There's clearly an issue with these exams. Uh and and obviously we find flaw in the the the version of the test that the state created. How

043that translates then backwards to curriculum and instruction and uh preparation. Um I I I think we stand by the fact that we felt like our students were very well prepared. Um some of the data shows that their performance levels meet that standard but obviously when we understand the mastery levels and and and and other forms of data we can see the flaws in it. So again I I I it's important semantics. So I'm not trying to be difficult around semantics. um we know that there were issues but I'm not so sure that I can then we stand behind saying it's it's a preparation issue. So they gave us sample um you said sample questions did we know how I think just actually I don't know the exact answer how many were written um questions and

044how how many were multiple choice there there were modulebased questions overall the old um uh the state reduced science exam from 85 total questions to 50. Um and again we felt that that number should have come down more towards 40. As far as a breakdown right now between uh long answer and short answer I don't have that information. But I'm sorry. So usual usually let's say in past years how how was the test broken out? Was there multiple choice on some long answer on some short answer on some? Uh again I'm not you know I don't want to that's fine. That's I know I know I know Dr. Sherman's on here and I know that um she probably has a lot a lot more of that information, but what I'm just trying to get at

045is from from my understanding is that the test was mainly composed of um long I want to say long answer versus multiple choice which is almost a little bit easier or you know you have the choices in front of you and the kids can make the choice and even if they're rushing at the end and there's a time constraint at least they can bubble something in and they won't is the question. So I think the best way I can answer that, Jen, is to say that the new standards, and this is something that M. Lartini provided to me, the new standards that are adopted by the state education department aim to have students apply their knowledge in new situations, analyze data that they have not seen before, and take in new information on the spot

046and integrate the new information with knowledge that they already have in order to problem solve and draw conclusions. So that's incredibly high higher order thinking. So that's the goal of these exams and certainly I think that there is there was preparation in our classrooms to get students prepared for that. But when you then also factor in the Lexile levels, the number of questions, um the way that there was information put into these questions and diagrams that was um could be misleading and and provide other challenges for students. they made questions that we believe went beyond uh meeting these goals. So, um certainly it's a it's a it's a change in format for the exam in order to meet these goals. Okay. So, can we just break down um each subject earth science right that was

047taken just now. Um, next year are we going to be doing the same exact test again or do we have the option? There's no option. It was a one-year option. That was a one-year option. So, there is only going forward with these versions of the curriculum and the exams for for earth science. For earth science and for bio. Okay. Earth science and bio. This is it. We're going forward with this. Okay. Everybody, I understand. Chemistry and physics. Now, there is an option. Correct. Because next year there's an option there's a one-year option as to whether it's uh districts want to move forward with the NGSS aligned standards of the exam or to remain for one more year in the old standards and the old footprints of the exam and if I can just add I

048think Miss Sherman would probably be the best person knowing that absolutely I just I I know that whatever we can get answered and whatever comfort we can give to the community tonight. Um, I'm not expecting all the answers. Um, but I do know that we we as a board, as a school, as administration, we need to make a decision soon regarding chemistry and physics because the school year is approaching shortly. So, so how do we handle this right now? What's the pros? What's the cons? We're in a very tough situation considering we have no support from New York State. I I mean at this point I think I've presented to the board what the district recommendation is. I I think at the next meeting when we have a disc here, we can have a more

049healthy conversation and we'll prepare for it and get some data. August fourth meeting, right? So, I guess y do you guys think it's worth it to have a public survey about opting out? No. Yeah, exactly. like optins for the next years of visiting kind of whether we want to go with a new version or stay with the old version. I think before we even do that we could have that conversation what everything entails and getting our data. Um so you know at the next meeting in Octo in August having the chairman here and being able to answer those questions and present that idea. Um I think would be the best thing because we are not you know obviously the person who kind of has a specialty in that area would be the best person to

050comment. Just one one last thing and then I'll um I'll give the mic over to everyone speak. When is the deadline to report the pastor Carol for students? What? I don't know that off the top of my head. I know that. It said September 1st. September 1st. I think so on the email. I didn't see the I didn't see the deadline. Was it in the email? I think so. Okay. [Music] Already when? I thought it was July. No, I think I think it was the July 3rd deadline for signing up for the retake. Yes, July 3rd. Yes, he's right. Yes, it was for the retake. Okay. So, we think maybe it's the deadline has not come yet for for the passer fail option. I guess we can send out an email. Yeah, let's let's look

051into that and just send a reminder. Hey, the deadline is X. Um, okay. So, I guess if anyone else has any questions, I know there are people who have comments. Right after we're done with superintendent report, we're going to move for the opportunity public be heard and I'm sure we'll continue part of this conversation. So, please be patient with us for two more minutes. Mr. Con, you're being very presumptuous, but okay. Um, the only the one question I just want to confirm that I've been told is that New York State has not published pass rates, mastery rates for the state as a whole and they've told us it's going to be or they've told others they haven't told us that it's going to be many months before that information is going to be available. That

052is what I've been told. I heard that as well. Okay. So, but if you heard it from a credible, I heard it from another board. I believe we heard it from the state uh that you know they're going to follow similar timelines of when they normally come out with that type of data and based on similar timelines. Yes, it would take months. Go ahead, Dr. Rabbits. Back to you. So, that actually concludes my very long superintendent report. Thank you, Mr. C. Thank you. Thank you to the board. Thank you again for everyone for the warm welcome. I look forward to working together to serve the students and families of Jericho. Great. Now, we're going to move ahead to the opportunity for the public to be heard. If you would like to make a comment or

053ask a question, please approach the microphone, tell us your name, and if you are 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. [Music] Good evening. Uh, my name is Scott Rothsteine. I'm a parent of a a student at George A. Jackson Elementary School. Um, I just want to have a comment and then a question about the air conditioned buses. Uh, first off, thank you so much, Mr. Manuel, for uh doing so much work on that. Really appreciate that. Uh, math might be not right. 12 buses are now going to have air conditioning where it was 18 before. So that's that's terrific news. Um on the six

054buses that will need to be retrofitted. I just wanted to express support uh to the board for for getting that done um as soon as possible, preferably before the next summer, especially if there's definitely another chance of more heat waves. I I did want to ask when we can expect a decision on those six buses. I I I mean I believe based on our conversations the retrofit time is sort of five to six months. Yeah. The obviously impossible for September. So the board does have some time to absorb uh what they learned over the last few days about cost associated with it. Um the first student did say that obviously there's a lead time with uh purchasing the equipment and then uh a lead time in individually replacing uh those. I would imagine if the

055board made a decision by the end of the calendar year, we'd be we'd be okay uh for uh next summer. Thank you. And I I also just want to ask if if AC doesn't get installed on the buses, will there be some sort of plan in place to either notify parents or or protect kids, you know, if another heatwave comes because uh you know a we weren't even notified. Yeah, I know. I know. It was um I mean they were expecting certainly it even got hotter than what they were expecting. It it was it was not a good um few days for um many students on on one end. Um, but we're we're looking at the retrofitting. We're looking at if there's any lower cost options that may not be air conditioning, but provide relief.

056Um, and obviously um we will communicate um if we know a heat wave is coming um going forward and which buses may or may not have carriage. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Hi, my name is my science in high school. We took the bi. My one uh suggestion is if we move forward for next year for the physics in chemistry, can we give the case like more time? Then most of the cases they don't have enough time to finish it. after my son said after two and a half hours he just get whatever he can. So if we can give him like around hours of the test help I think that feedback is really important and it goes along with uh our analysis that there were too many questions on the exam. Unfortunately though

057we don't get to dictate how long students have to take state exams. That's clearly directed by the state. we wouldn't have the ability to provide them in more time. But again, it's important feedback. I think we feel the same way. So, I appreciate that. Well, the time it was by state I am Joe Lynn. My son's in second grade right now to 10. So speaking about the regions, um I'm going to speak about biology since that's the one my son took. So the first comment I want to make is anything I say now is not a reflection on the teachers. My son actually loved his biology class. He loves his teacher. So this is actually more commentary of the situation itself, right? Um so and the second part is I actually believe that the new

058standards are great. Um that these nextgen standards are more reflective of the situations the kids will face in the real world, right? So it's not a commentary on whether this is the right direction or not. Um so with that being said some points I want to make. One is I really felt after reviewing with my son the process leading up to the regions that there was a insufficient resources in terms of preparation. So the example I want to give is on the biology exam. They weren't given any samples that reflected the exam they would actually see. And that's very important. What they were given was a 200page booklet that was the living um the um the the previous standards, right? So what they were practicing over and over in class was what they would see

059if they had been doing the old saying. Then they walk into an exam with a completely different format. Right? That is problematic. And the fact that the teachers don't have the resources to support these kids, that's a problem. the fact that these kids aren't given the resources to succeed, that's a problem. So, I think that's the first thing that has to be addressed. If you're going to give them material, it should reflect what they're going to see, not what they would have seen if it had been a difference. Um, I also want to make the comment that in terms of our student body, this is a very ambitious group of kids. They set very high goals and I go to events for lives and when they said go to go to the world championship this

060past season and they failed, you don't you don't want to see their face when they fail. It is just they are broken down because they really believe in setting goals because these things are measured of what they've learned and they believe firmly that if they do well it means that they succeeded and they've achieved what they're trying to do. So whether it's competition or regions that by having them not reach their goal it really has a mental and emotional impact on these kids. It took me three months after they failed to get to worlds to get them back on track, right? And now you're talking about an entire grade that is impacted by it. And then how many kids will be impacted not just immediately but long term because they can't get over the fact

061that they fail. And I know from a past fail or from, you know, what the region says is it's not the standard our kids measure by. It just isn't for them. They're not getting mastery. That's a failure. So um you know the other thing is this new approach it's a big paradigm shift for these kids. This isn't just oh let's word things differently. Let's slightly think about things differently. You know my wife is in education. This is phenomena and clusterbased questions. They're asked to read and comprehend things than problem solve using information that they've learned. that is dramatically different from the memorization and regurgitation approach that they have been previously taught and is being taught in every other class. So for thus not to give them the resources to achieve success that's a major fail

062of the system itself. You know I took computer science uh computer engineering in college and that's a mix of electrical engineering and computer science. And one of the reasons I did it was computer science was too easy for me. Electrical engineering was harder. But the combination was actually even harder. You know, when we looked at the average GPA for computer engineering, it was actually lower than both electrical engineering and computer science. Why? Because the thought process for those two things are dramatically different. And for a person to navigate that requires a tremendous amount of discipline and requires a tremendous amount of mental agility. And for us to put them in that situation where they're preparing for something completely different and expect them to make that mental jumping the time constraints of a timed exam. It's

063just unrealistic. I understand that the school district made the best decision they could a year ago in terms of biology based on what they knew and what they had vote and based on the historical practice. But we already know what the results are based on what happened this past year. Why should we repeat the same mistake if we don't have the proper resources in place for the next set of exams? That's us just banging our head against the wall and hoping for a different result, right? Like we already know that this is a major leap and I know you mentioned geometry was also new. This nextgen science standard is a paradigm shift. This is not similar to other changes that have come through and even other this is not new standard. I think it's been

064around for a few years. There are states that have adopted it earlier but it's still new to a lot of states. Um I heard you mention earlier comparing it to other schools. What I'm more interested is not other schools that took the same exam and how we compare because I know we have smart kids. So of course we're going to do well compared to other schools that took the same exam. What I'm more interested in is how do we compare to the schools that didn't take the new exam? Did they have consistent data relative to their history while we didn't? Right. That's more interesting to say, hey, we did better than other schools that had the same exam. That's not as surprising to me at least. So, what I'm urging the school district to do

065is to have a more conservative approach when it comes to this decision and not base it on, hey, we need to be at the forefront, right? In technology, I know Kenny, you're you're from technology, right? We have a phrase, beyond the cutting edge, don't be on the bleeding edge. Right? And the the reason for that phrase is sometimes you get so far ahead, you're taking such a big risk that you're actually hurting yourself, right? And I feel like with bio, that's what we did. We went on the bleeding edge. We went a little bit too far. I think it's great to be on the cutting edge, but let's just not go to to the point where we're cutting ourselves. Um, the other thing is I understand that we took this risk, but it's a high

066price to pay for these students. They get one shot at these regents after they take the class. They get as many as they want. They get as many, but realistically, let's be honest, retake. You can retake it once. You can retake it once. I I get that. But expecting them to retake it two years down the road to try to cover up make up for it is unrealistic. They're not going to be restudying this two years down the road to retake this. And this is now something that is on their transcript, right? So for us to take that risk and for them to be the one that has to live with what's sitting on their transcript, I think it's a high price for them to pay for a decision that they didn't make a situation

067they have no control over. I think if I think the students would be able to live with it better if they had a choice in the matter, but they didn't. So again, just urging the other thing I just like to note right now on the course catalog and what the students use to sign up for physics and chemistry, it states the old standard class. It's the physical settings. It's the chemistry settings. It's not the physical science and it's not the chemistry science. So, if that's already what we've communicated out to the students and to the to the parents in the community, take a conservative approach. Maybe just stick with what we already communicated instead of saying, "Oh, well, we're going to go with the new standard just because we want to be on the forefront."

068Thank you for your comment. Just are you recommending we don't go towards a new test for unless unless I'm saying I'm saying I'm saying that stay with the existing standards unless we are certain that we have the resources for the teachers and the students for them to succeed. Okay. Just a couple question and propos Mr. Lyn and I have talked about this previously. So, um, when you talk about the other states having adopted these, are those exams available for our students to learn from? Do you have any idea if those tests were structured like the New York State test where we did that and we should have gotten our hands on those tests and use those to prep our students? Um, I my wife would know better because she's in education. Um but I believe

069she said that she was looking at if there was options out there for Pearson for others in terms of material that is available. Uh there are a little bit of material she said that you can find but it's just these standards that they're still new that it's just not a ton of material out there. And in some ways uh I think that the state is leaving the school districts themselves to come up with material. No. And then and for Mr. Cohen, do we know if the state has committed to providing any additional information for earth science and biology for this coming year given that now it's going to be mandatory? Have they said anything about providing more of the material that Mr. Lynn is talking about? Okay. So, um and then for for Mr. from

070my understanding from our conversation from my other conversations the issue was the format like what what they're asking students to do is it would and again you know more about this your wife knows more about this than I do so I I'm asking you because I I don't know the answer to this question the new format that we saw for earth science and biology this year will that not be the new format for chemistry and physics next year where now between our teachers and our experts and our students students, tutors, um we are going to now better understand the format for those questions so that we shouldn't expect this type of and again this type of problem in the coming year because now the format and this you know the distracting information and all of

071that is going to be more readily available for our students to study from. Well, first of all, I don't see an issue with sort of the jargon or even the, you know, extra information. In fact, for me, that's actually a good thing because um in the work environment, I don't get problems that are like, oh, these are exactly the facts that you need to know. I have to read through all the information provided, dissect it, and figure out what is pertinent, what's not, and apply the logic to it. So the fact that that's there doesn't bo bother me at all. What bothers me is they're not experiencing that beforehand. They're not experiencing that in a timebased situation beforehand. But now we have the ability to do that because what I'm saying is all the students

072who are taking chemistry or physics next year have now just experienced that on the bioam. Kids who are taking chemistry next year have just experienced that on bioam. And now that our faculty and our administrators understand what's going to be asked of the students, we can now whether it's from other states from our state or self-created create a better formatted example of what students are going to face when they take these exams next year. And I'm asking my well one my understanding is bio and and you know is is much easier than chemistry or physics. Those are harder exams that are coming up. So that's one, you know, one factor to take into consideration. The the second thing is it because it is phenomena based, meaning you're identifying a situation and you're answering a cluster

073of questions. I don't know how they're going to adjust that, you know, like I'm not even a teacher right now. So, but if I'm looking at this, I I can't guarantee that that the wording is any this is going to be the same as bio. Physics and chemistry and bio are very different subjects and but we're talking about the format like it sounds like from what Mr. Con said, what Mrs. Latinia said this that it's really the structure we were talking about about getting faced with information you haven't seen before and being able to know what to extract from that problem where it seems like our students who took the bio test yes they did it under fire but they now are have now become accustomed at least a little bit certainly more so than

074anybody else to what that format is and so if our teachers still can teach the content and now we have a better understanding of what that format is isn't it better to get that format out there especially if what Dr. Cona is said Mr. going to say about is better preparing our students for more advanced exams like AP chemistry or AP physics not if they are not giving materials to practice but we can but if our administration thinks they cannot well that's why I said if unless the school feels that they have the materials to empower the teachers and the students to succeed my recommendation is don't put them in a situation where they're on an island trying to figure this out and then then just the last point just I just want to get

075your view on Um I I fully understand your point about about what it is. I think the numbers Mr. Cone gave us were that that pass rates pass rates and I understand I I agree with you. I think from the standpoint of judging Jericho students pass rates are garbage. like we're you know it's like it's not for some students it's very important but I think overall when you look at the averages whether it's you know 69th grade we had extremely high pass rates as as we always have and the issue is with mastery and let me be clear as as you know I'll let so I had no kids who took these exams this year there are board members who had students take those exams and they are much closer to the situation than me

076but my question is this going back to your example on robotics and going back to your example about what your work experience is. You can put in all the work you want. You can do whatever it is you needed. You're not always going to get an A+. You're not always going to get a 98. And I understand like I I I was bothered more by the mental health impact of these tests because these students, as you said, they weren't prepared. And I was more concerned that afterwards the school district was doing enough to assuage their concerns that they were stupid, that they were not competent, that they were going to fail. But at the end of the day, do you agree that there's some benefit to knowing that you're not always going to get 98

077or 99 on a test? Because because as you said with your with your robotics club, your robotics team where they set a goal, they didn't meet that goal. That's fine. But you can't in essence, I'm hoping I'm hoping they make it to nationals next year or internationals next year. Trust me. But if they don't, I would think I would hope it would take them less than three months to shake that off and say, you know what, we're not always going to win. It's like you don't win the Super Bowl, you don't have like a year to recover from it. You got training camp in 3 months. You got the draft two weeks later. So, I I'm just sort of trying to understand. I understand what you're saying that yeah, a kid who thought he was

078going to get a 98 gets a 92. A kid who thought an 85 gets a 75. That's tough. I get it. I I I understand the mental anguish that that's involved there. But I think part of the district's goals are to build resilient kids. And some of that is you are not going to always achieve your goal. Nobody here is failing. Let's be clear. Now, I understand kids getting below 85 will see that as fail. I I I appreciate that premise. I I do I'm not discounting that. But at the end of the day, that's sort of what's going to go on in life. Like you could do all the work, your investment, it still goes down 20% even though you thought it was going to go up 50. So, I'm trying to understand how

079we're supposed to to play that in. So, one, I think there's plenty of avenues for them to learn that lesson without having it be on their permanent transfer. My robotics team is a great example of that. They'll learn the lesson. They'll become resilient and they don't have to live with it in terms of the opportunities that will be impacted. Now, you and I can go into a discussion whether the regent's exam or any other exam We have but we have had that. Yeah. You know whether that's going to impact but in my opinion that's for the parents to decide how big of an impact that grade or that performance is going to have on their own kids either. And because the school district can't know everything that we're signing up for and there are going

080to be things where people will say hey I want to see your transcript. I want to see your performance on YouTube. I'll look it up. because these are information that other students can eventually access and they're going to look it up and it's going to be on their permanent record. So, I I don't think it's right for us to make a decision on the format and not give the kids the power the the the utilities and the tools to succeed and have it marked on their permanent record. Um, I think if we were giving them the tools That's fair. Then it becomes a individual preparation issue. In this case, I don't think it was an individual preparation issue. I think these kids prepared hard. But they have nothing that would have prepared for what they

081was they were going to see. Even in the classroom, I get that we're teaching them that concept. That's not the same as being in a timeressure high stress situation. the closest you're going to get is the sample exams and going through that over and over again. That's the closest these kids can get to that. And without that and you're giving them old exams to practice, like I don't even know how helpful those old exams were. So Joe, actually the exam was released. It's on my regions.org. So you have the full exam as well as a key available. Yeah. So this coming year for biology, everybody will have at least one exam to practice unless they change it again. Well, they they'll at least have that version to look, it changes every year, but but they'll

082have at least one version to at least simulate what they're going to go through. The the big issue you have now is there is no pass exam for chemistry. There is no pass exam for physics. And without any without the people writing these exams or coming up with this material supplying some examples, how are we supposed to know what it's going to look like? I I just want to speak open secret for Jer. I mean obviously a lot of people that are smart and they do really well on the exam regardless of uh the format because we got a lot of smart people here but there's you got to understand that there's also a lot of kids that struggles they need help outside of school and when they need help they go to they hire

083tutors and when they do go to tutors they don't have that information because it's intense so people spend all that money on tutoring learning the wrong stuff and that's why I'm getting bad results I'm not I'm not talking about there's that they have results that They're bad results relative to what we had standard. Yes. But but what I'm saying is that look, like I said, I I have I don't think this board, this district has made a formal decision yet. So I don't want people to walk out of here saying we're done. But but at the end of the day, I think what we're ignoring a little bit, but Mr. Cohen mentioned it is that what have our students benefited from this process and how does that or does that offset the negative of them

084maybe having scored five or 10 points lower on the regions exam than they thought? I I can't answer that question objective. I can't because I don't know that. But to me, my understanding, and I understand what Mr. Lyn was talking about, there are programs that, you know, our sophomores, our juniors, our seniors are going to apply to where they'll look and say, "Okay, you want to be in this advanced biomedical research program for the summer? You know, how'd you do on your um bio regions exam?" I fully get that. I also believe that part of that can be through a, you know, a conveyance of information to these places that look, Jericho took the new reason that year. Our students are more sophisticated in their thinking. Now, did they score worse than someone who was

085in, you know, one of our neighboring school districts who got their 98 where all of our students would have gotten them? Yes. But I don't think that that makes it a cut and dry program because again, it's like when a kid takes AP Chem versus regular chem, you know, people understand that AP Chem is harder than regular chem. So, if two kids get an A or one kid gets an A, one kid gets an A minus, you may you're probably going to give more benefit to the kid who got the A minus in AP camp than the kid who got an an A in regular camp. And I'm saying that it's a more it's more complex in my opinion. And again, there are members of the board who have lived this and I, you know,

086in many ways defer to them because they're close situation, but I don't think it's just cut and dry. our kids had lower scores relative to other districts who took a different test versus what did our kids learn? What did they benefit? And what's the long-term benefit of that learning? And I don't know the answer to that. So, so there's one difference, right? So, your AP your AP classes are preparing you for the AP exam. They have material specific to the AP exam. So, what you're suggesting is, hey, let's sacrifice a year of work. get a bad potentially a performance you didn't expect, but it'll make you better for the next one which is properly toolled, properly resourced. To me, the best approach is to properly resource things, give people the best chance to succeed, and

087then make that jump. Um, otherwise what you're basically making them choose is sacrifice one year so you can do better next year. That that to me is not a a a fair decision because you're not giving them the resources needed to succeed. That that's the way I look at it. And next, no, I was going to let the next person speak, but I do just want to say while she's coming up that um just living it um with my two kids, my kids benefited nothing, nothing at all taking the test and they did not do as good as they wanted to and they studied their butt off and there was no benefit from the test because they didn't learn. It's not like they learned something that's going to help them for the next year. They

088walked out that test very upset. They they then found out their score. They were very upset. There w there at this point they're in the summer. They're they're enjoying themselves. They're not looking back at the test. There was nothing that they benefited from the test. If anything, it was just it was it was negative. It was a negative experience. It was mentally hard for them. And I think that it it was also traumatizing because now they're going to go into next year and they're oh, is this going to happen again? So, And I just want to add oh first I have to introduce myself right um my name is Lauren Malone Silverberg and thank you all we really appreciate all of you the board and welcome to the new superintendent and everything again I'm about

089to say is I hold our administrators our teachers all of you kind of um and what I just want to add to what um touched on a lot what I was going to ask Jen touched on a lot and you touched on a lot um I have a student in eighth grade who took their science test many of these eth graders This was the first region that they've ever taken. And when you get a unanimous when you have kids walking out of a regions, you know, our kids never all think the same thing or say the same things or agree on the same thing. When you have a 100% of the students walking out, whether it was the kid who always got 100 or the kid who was in accelerated and doing well but not

090as well as all saying the same thing. It wasn't just about the format, Sam. It was about the content and the curriculum. And I heard from some of our teachers, I heard from students that a lot of it were I can't speak for the earth science region that a lot of what was on that test wasn't based on the curriculum that was given to our teachers. So I think that's not on our teachers, it's not on our students. They were well prepared as well as they could. Our teachers prepared them as well as they could. Our students are hardworking. We all know about our students. You touched upon them. It wasn't about the format. It was partly about the format, but it was about the content that the content wasn't based on the curriculum. And

091again, I I don't want to repeat myself. That's not on the teachers. It's not on the administrators, that's on the state. So, what are we doing to work with the state for future regions, whether it's Earth science next year, biology, or if you decide to move to chemistry and physics, how are we working with them when we're not getting any answers from them? Like, how do you I I don't know if you have the answer to that question, but how do you move forward when if you look at the media reports to their spokesperson, they're taking no responsibility for this? They're saying that the curriculum matched the regions. At least that's what I saw in statements. But clearly, it didn't. So, how do we answer two ways? Again, all we can do is continue to

092advocate for our students and our teachers in the learning experience. You know, we've done that. We will continue to do that. I I I can't I can't sit here and tell you that I can make any promises on behalf of the state. Um uh I wish I could. Uh but I can certainly make promises in terms of how we go about making decisions and how we advocate for our kids. Um again, you do that. I know you're doing that. Um and we will continue. Well, I mean there are formats for which our our administrators uh you know and specifically in this case our curriculum associate of science uh has uh representation uh in local groups and state led groups as well as in the ability to directly communicate with state ed. So those are happening

093to what degree they're going to hear that information and to what degree that's going to amount to change. I wish I could tell you I knew the answer to that. you know, we're experiencing some frustration as well as far as the conversation about content. It's nuanced, you know, and again, I'm not the expert in the room on this, but I have sat with this and the team. When you start talking about content versus the way these questions are formatted. So, you know, I I I've heard the same things that many of the adults in the room and and and the parents hearing from the kids coming out. There was a question on congestion pricing. Well, clearly we can we know that congestion pricing as a topic isn't part of the curriculum, but sustainability is one

094of the key components of the curriculum in the content area. So when we talk about providing the students with nuanced situations in which they have to extrapolate information and problem solve, there is alignment. And again, I'm not defending the question. I'm not saying that it's appropriate, but again, I think it goes deeper than really calling it a content uh question or not content. Again, we're agreeing that there was a flaw on that exam, but I just bring that up as as how deep how deep the nuance and the analysis, but also I know a lot of the focus of curriculum was on the new um what is it called classification? Is it something classification that they studied and they basically had one or two questions on the whole test and that was a lot of

095what they learned this year on tectonic plates. I mean you could ask the students um and you can ask the teachers. I mean they know there's plenty I I I'm in agreement with a lot of what you're saying. So and again I'm not trying to debate back and forth but again there's so many layers forward from this um because this was You know, I think we're hearing it tonight. Part of it is how we learn and prepare our students and and and how we try to gain uh understanding about uh the best content and the best materials and the best scenarios that we can put our students in to prepare them. And then there's also an advocacy piece and obviously there's a part of that that we need to let the state know uh that

096we don't think that the test was appropriately created and that it could have been it could have been done in a much better format. Thank you. Yeah, I'm sorry. Okay, it's okay. Before you go, Mrs. Lew, everything you're saying is true and I and I think when you say, "Well, what are we doing?" I think it's really going to be up to our administrators. Oh, no. I know you are. No, I I think it is going to be up to our administrators over the next I don't know if it's 3 to 6 weeks before we really have to make decision to get comfortable with what we can do to get our students in a better position and to convince this board that they can put our students in a better position so that this doesn't

097occur because you said as Mrs. Bartner said we need to have this answer as soon as possible and um I'm sure that there are other districts who are struggling with the same question. I'm sure or I know there are other districts have already decided I believe to to go back to chemistry and physics. It's about how do we prepare them for biology next year or earth science and 100% a lot of that comes from speed. It's not our and and that's what we need to figure out. The flip side the part of that though is everybody's going to be taking that biology exam next year. Everybody's going to be taking that earth science next exam next year. It's not just Jericho. Right. Right. So So 100% you have like one or two regions. I guess

098they have the August region and the January region that they can use now as a basis. They will have two more tests. The same way that we can take as I was mentioning in Mr. Lynn, we can take that format. I believe our teachers are capable of taking that bad for the kids and I feel we all feel bad for the kids and I feel bad for the teachers because it's our teachers are the best in the New York State. They're probably the best in the country and they really did everything they possibly could and everyone said about it. Absolutely. And everybody up here understands that. And as you said, has been doing a lot of work and a lot of conversations to try to get as many answers as possible. And this is why

099you've heard us talk about this for the last two years in many areas. We're not big fans. I'm going to speak for we. I am not a big fan of the New York State Education Department because of things like this where if you make a mistake, own up to it, talk about it, explain what happened, and tell you how you're going to fix it. Right. Exactly. You just want to fix. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, I'm done. Sorry about that. Hi. Hi, Tina Ley. And um although I don't have children that have done this, I just want to explain something to you. Um having had a parent, kids 10 years apart, some people on the board are part of this. My children were part of Common Core. You want to talk about a disaster and kids

100crying? parents hysterical meetings for parent teacher conferences to show parents how to help their children with math in particular. Okay. And actually I will say it I gave my child's homework to Mr. Gishman himself and I said you do this because we can't even do it and figure it out. The term back then was we are teaching our children while we're building an airplane in air. We had nothing. And as parents, our kids were devastated because they couldn't even pass an in-class test. I've also went through the rounds and some parents up here where the first time we gave regents online. And I remember a couple of classrooms the test crashing in the middle of a regent's test. Do you want to talk about kids crying? Nobody wants that for their child. I don't. They

101don't. Our teachers and none of you do. But I can tell you this one thing. We are the best in Jericho. We've pushed our kids. Those experiences have taught me my children did not get the grades that they thought they should have gotten or their teachers should have thought they gotten or how many hours they prepared for. But they grew resilience. They got great. They understood that not everything was going to be school and fed. And I can guarantee you that when I was sitting here with young kids in the school district as a parent, I know we had groups, especially for Common Core, where we wrote letters to the New York State Department of Education. We went to Common Core meetings. This regent is horrible. It's devastating. But again to what was said here

102tonight, our children, I understand they weren't the best, but they were better than anybody else because of our teachers giving them the forethought to do critical thinking out of the box, which I hate to sound cruel right now, but that's real life. That's taking the bar, that's being a doctor, that's doing business. There are things that are thrown at you. It's not what the kids wanted. And if I'm not mistaken, this final exam doesn't it's on their transcript, but it doesn't go into their GPA. Is that correct? Correct. Right. Okay. And the same thing that that happened during co so I think part of this lesson is if I remember correctly and the board will correct me when you were given the sample of this test it looked very different the sample versus what the

103kids were actually given. Is that I don't think there was a I don't think there was a sample question. There were two questions. But whatever you were given, right, it was very vastly different from the test that was actually received. That's correct. So your decision was based upon the exact information that New York State gave them that the that the school thought they were doing the best because we are Jericho and we want our children to do their best. Okay. So I think everybody needs to take a deep breath. I don't think honestly this is going to be resolved in a matter of weeks because from what I'm hearing correct here is that that test is going to be mandatory but like that is the test going forward in those two. So our teachers are

104a little bit wiser. They know better. They already did well on the last test whether you want to do more than a grade. I mean we used to have a saying when I was in PTA, your child is more than a grade on a piece of paper. So you need to believe in them more than that on a particular test. But it is devastating. But I also think what everybody's missing is your kids still did better than the average. Not as well as they would like to. But they're learning these resilience. And I know how you feel, Miss Julen. And other parents, even like me, I never want to see my kid cry. None of us. But they need to learn to, as Mrs. Barton has said, your kids moved on. They were devastated. They

105didn't learn anything, but they moved on. They're having a good summer, and they're going to be better next year because our teachers are going to be better informed. And I really trust this board and the district that anything that can be done, we are not alone in this, New York State's going to hear anything. So what I did back in the days of common core and other things that went on, I wrote letters directly and we had PTA write letters to New York State to let them know how you feel as parents. It's very great. We're not perfect, but our kids do need a little resilience. So we need to keep this in perspective. this is not affecting their GPA or into any college. They're going to see it, but they're going to know what

106it is, especially coming out of New York. Just one, um, we talked about the fact that these are nuanced classifications. That's actually exactly why you need practice when you're talking about nuance applications. You need to practice that to be able to identify these situations. What this is not the same as regurgitating and saying, "Hey, I memorize this." You have to sit there and identify and you don't have practice doing that. That's a very hard thing to do. Two, I don't accept the fact that just because it was bad for Common Core that we should accept that it should also be bad now when we have a choice that we can make. You know, it's one thing if you don't have a choice. You have a choice right now. So, you need to make the best

107choice that empowers the kids that are here now and are going to be affected by it now. Not the kids that are going to be affected but by two years from now, three years from now, but the ones that are affected by it now because they only get high school once. They don't get to be. If there are no other comments from people in the audience, Mr. Emanuel, do we have any emails asking to be read? Yes, thank you. [Music] Uh first one is from Samberini also about the regions. Can we simplify this? Has anyone compared the test to the actual curriculum to determine the gaps and are those gaps being closed this coming year or is the same curriculum being taught? So from my understanding the curriculum match is matching uh the curriculum is

108matching the standards that are required of the new the next generation science standards. the gap that occurred and I I appreciate everybody's comments about the assessment but if you look at historically throughout the country anytime there is a new assessment there's always a drop because no one is prepared for it there were sample questions or the resources what I'm being told that the teachers were using may it was not the resources that were going to or they were not the same assessments type of questions that were presented on the exam itself but this has happened as you mentioned common core it has happened nationally every time whether it was the park exam or any other exam throughout the states. That's what's happening and the best course of action is actually not necessarily the board of

109education but the government. They are the education departments from each state are the ones who dictate what those assessments can be and that goes back all the way to 2001 when we started this whole concept of testing all the time all of our kids. So that's one of the problems that we see. So, we can't even guarantee I don't think anyone on this board or anyone in the state of New York can actually guarantee what that assessment will look like a year from now. Can't. We can get some assessments that are practice assessments, but we don't know. And I don't think any publisher knows until we actually see it. And that's a problem for for scores for children, and we recognize that. We don't want children to suffer. But I I can tell you just

110in in listening and speaking to a lot of the teachers and the curriculum associates, they are they are doing a lot of work to make sure that there are no gaps between the curriculum and the standards. But the assessment is something that we something that we don't have any input on. Okay, next question. Uh also from San Bini bus question clarification. It's going to cost 15k to ret retrofit 14 plus or minus buses for Jericho that are first student buses. Jericho is paying for that even though we're contracted with first student for the buses or are these buses owned by Jericho and operated by first street. Um so a couple of clarifications there. It's not 14 buses. It would be six. Uh and the cost is approximately 155 each bus to retrofit it. It is

111not a Jericho bus. It is a first studentowned bus. And if uh again no decision has been made on the six buses at this point. It was just a um discussion that we had with first student and looking at the final six buses. How would we uh handle those? So no decision has been made to date. But obviously if the board were to entertain this, we would make sure in the agreement that those buses could only be used in the Jericho school district if we did move forward with putting in any expenditure to retrofit those six buses. And just one clarification just absent Jericho paying for those buses, when would First Student commit to providing us air conditioned buses that we were not as a district retrofitting the uh again out of the 18 um

112we're getting the 10 and the two but those 10 and the two and the six would be over um two to three years after that. Okay. So I would think but I would have to have a follow-up discussion. Okay. So that's not a committed that's Yeah. No, I would I would want to get a little more detail. It could be five years potentially. It could be but I would like to get a little more information on it. And last question, what's in our plans do you know off hand for the next few years in terms of how many more buses the district is going to purchase if any? At this point again we plateaued as far as the number of buses in our fleet. We've been adding two or three every year for the last

113um decade. So we're at the point where where while we're purchasing two or three additional buses, they will be replacing obsolete buses. So provided enrollment stays the same, we are going to need those six buses for the foreseeable future. Correct. Okay. Is is that all of the emails? That's all I had. Perfect. So, um, with that, we shall move on to new business. Adoption of district-wide safety and emergency management plan. Be it resolved that the board of education adopts a district-wide safety and emermergency management plan for the 2526 school year as shown in the attached. Do I have a motion? Thank you, Mrs. Second. Mrs. Citron, thank you. Any discussion? I will take it. Can um someone please explain the staff training that goes on with this? Does does every staff member in the building

114understand this, know what it is, has been briefed on it, how often, when and uh we have Al Terrace who I know has presented to the board. Uh they come in and they work with each of the um safety committees. So they work with district safety committee as well as each of the building safety committees. They do a bit of a deeper dive into trainings. Uh the main focus on trainings with the staff revolve around uh any changes in uh the policy each year as well as uh the different types of drills that becomes the crux of where uh safety presents itself most to all members of the staff. So they know they they briefed on it and they'll they'll be able to recite it and they know what to do in case of any

115emergency, any student issue. Perfect. Um any other comments? Uh all in favor of adoption. Thank you. 50. Appreciate that. Next, execution of stipulation ST2025-02. Recommended motion. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby approve special education stipulation ST2026-01 for the 2526 school year and direct the superintendent to sign such stipulation on behalf of the board. Do I have a motion? Thank you, Mr. Bartoff. Second. Yes. One point of information on that. Yes, it's a typo. Yeah, we're going to get to that. When we get to discuss handle that, but yes, thank you so much Dr. Kravitz already providing tremendous value. I know. I'm trying my best here to bring that up. We'll get We'll give you a layup. Feeling good after the 10 days, but now um Thank you. Do I have a second?

116Thank you, Dr. Balachander. Um all in favor? 50. Thank you very much. Moving on. Acceptance of first reading policy 7316, student use of internet enabled devices. Do I have a motion? Thank you. Seconded. Thank you, Mr. Lynn. discussion and I'll just start. This is a Oh, Mr. What did I say? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mr. Jim and Mr. Lyn. They can't be here. Just like me and Mr. Bahini shouldn't be here together either. So, it's just a horrible coincidence. I apologize, Mr. Jim. Um this is a reddraft of the policy that we dro adopted three months ago in response to New York state law the section of the education law 2803 which bans electronic devices or places severe limitations on their use in school. So we have to adopt the policy that we adopted

1173 months ago to reflect that rule. Comments. I have a few questions. So um paragraphs the the use of personal internet unlabeled category one devices um where it specifies that unless such use is included in the student's IEP comma 504. I think that we should be also including that it's medically authorized or school appropriate documentation. It says that elsewhere um in the policy that it's not necessarily just by EP4. Correct. If you have medical documentation supporting that you need to have a device, it should be permitted. Yeah. But I think later on you go right to the next paragraph later. It says for all students the building administration has prescription to allow students to use personal internet enabled category one devices during the school day. It includes number three or number two number one. Number

118two, we're necessary for the man. All right. Okay. So, you fine. And then on the draft I printed, they were Oh, no. You guys are looking at the mark when you looked at the one that they actually put into the board package that's online. All the numbers got screwed up. They got screwed the numbers. There was only one. I don't know why that happened. You have to hit show changes. I think when when it went through, you have to say show changes. No, it wasn't. It was It was more than just the field trip that we needed to vote on that was different. No, that was the only thing that I thought we I don't know why it was that that was the only thing that was inconsistent with New York state law. Not at

119all. It was totally different than Steve's policy. Supposed to show the only thing that showed up. No, I think what happened was when I sent it through, you have to hit show change. Like it was a word document. So, for whatever reason, I think you saw the change. Yeah. You had you had just hit show changes. So, it was a word document. you had to show changes. I apologize. I will get better at this. Um, but no, that was it. So, like if we don't want if people want to review this some more and and we want to sort of punt on it, we are supposed to approve something by August 1st, but but I understand why people when and by the way, Dr. Bel that language about 500 that's directly from New York State

120law. That's why we that's why Mr. Good that was part of Mr. Good says it was copied word for word. Um and I just wanted to know why we had removed in the numbered items about where the limited instances in which a you know a device is permitted um a personal device is permitted. Why we've removed it if authorized by a teacher principal or school district? Why did you remove that? Category one, category 2, which school uh both under well under elementary under high school it's not right but in the also in the paragraph before it it's just building administration has the discretion to allow students because I think under what we talked about um previous policy in elementary schools you were not allowed to use an outside device for any way shape or form

121and the teachers weren't having that discretion. If I remember properly, that's what I did here. That was going that was under our old policy the same thing that was going on in middle school. The only exception we made were for high schoolers were going to be allowed to use their own personal Chromebooks or computers. And so that's what I thought I was trying to mirror here. If I did that incorrectly, please correct me. That's correct. But this is I I think even in paragraph precinct you took out authorized by a teacher, principal, or school district. Absolutely. Because I I don't think we want I I think New York state law is they teachers can't just say, "Oh, take your phone out and use it because you just become this slow." New York that's what's off.

122So New York state law, you're allowed. So what you I understand what you're saying, Mr. But at the same time, yes, works. Um I understand what you're saying. At the same time, the law does give that caveat for teach me, but as a board, you can limit that. I would probably if you were going to limit it to prevent the prevent the issue that you're portraying that any teacher could take it on their own whimsical matter. You know what? I want cell phones out today. Maybe leave it up to building administration to give that ability if approved. Um for category one, yeah, I I thought as as a board we were pretty clear a few months ago that we just there was no reason for elementary students to have their phones. And I thought that

123was what it I thought that was the objective that at least that was one of the things we agreed on a few minutes ago. It's in the same paragraph as middle school students. Middle school students were only going to be allowed to use their phones in the hallways. They weren't going to be allowed to use them in class. Even with even I think with teacher I don't think teachers in the middle school were maybe they were. I apologize. I'm just not remembering. But but again if here's the problem with with middle schoolers. We need to provide them a place to store their phones. Under our current policy, middle schoolers are not allowed to carry backpacks. So, there really is no place for a middle schooler to store his or her phone. It has to be

124in their locker. So, I'm not quite sure like it's not like a teacher can just randomly say, "Okay, everybody pull out your phones." Because in my I don't want to say ideal world in under the shouldn't have their phones because they don't have a backpack like a high schooler does to put their phone away. So, if they're just wearing a pair of shorts, they've got no place to put their phone. So, from a practical standpoint, I was like, because that's what's in here. Like, middle schools have to put it in their locker room because I don't know where else they're going to put it. But again, this was this was and we can change, like I said, we can change it however we want to change it as long as Mr. Gette says it's consistent

125with New York state law. Can I just clarify? No, just to clarify, yeah, that's not a poor decision. You want to leave it that way. That is a way that you can. You don't have to. So technically you don't have to allow anything other than 504, ID, health plan, so on so forth. With regards to discretion, you have discretion. With regards to the point of the green, you know, it's the definition of school grounds. I've had this in other places. So I I'm glad you played the green because it really is discretion. What is school ground? So does field trip count as a school ground? That's up to you. During a school day, obviously is an overnight trip. you're not expecting people to not have their cell phones for for an entire weekend. But if

126they're going to say old bet page um and during the school day, it's only during the school day. Do you want that to count? That's up to you. And the only reason I was thinking is that um the one thing people know their kids are anything's going with their phones. They'll they may post it later on and then if they're going old page, I'd love for them to take a picture of whatever's an old page. I don't know. But if they went to Sag took Sarah Sagmore, Saga, wherever Teddy Roosevelt's from on that trip, you know, they could take some pictures there. Um, that's the only reason why I didn't like it on field trips. And and I do feel for the kids who will be on air conditioned buses for their field trips um

127that they're sitting there potentially for half an hour, an hour, two hours, that um if they don't want to talk to some annoying kid next to them that they can just get on their phone and play again. So that's poor discretion. You want to load that right now? No, not right now. Right now we you can still first read. I think we should personally in my opinion I'm not saying like they happened before or whatever but just for prevention purpose the phone can act as a phone or watches they can act as a tracking system in case kids get lost during the field trip or whatever you can track them and find them right away. So I think I think we should leave it. I'm good with that. Like leave the original but take out

128the green. Yeah. Okay. So just just piggybacking on you was talking about losing and tracking and all this stuff. I wanted to change. Sorry I lost my place now back and forth. But yeah, there's a place where it says shut off the phone. um versus it used to be um the original silent put on silent. I'm recommending we put it back to silent and not force them to shut it off because then you lose the tracking mechanism if they they misplaced it. At least you could do a find my iPhone and it shows where it is. My understanding and I defer to Mr. Bahraini probably who's listening. Um my understanding is find my iPhone does work when the phone is shut off for about seven days afterwards. Um so that's first of all. Second of

129all, that does your Apple Watch if you turn your phone on silent. I think you still get I don't wear any watch so I No, but I think you still get I still get notifications. No, no. I think it shows the last the last place the phone was right on silent. You still get notifications on your Apple Watch. Your phone [Laughter] once they turn the phone to them, they shut it off. If someone steals it, they shut it off. That's great until they turn it off. That's I was just No, I know. But I was like, "Don't you wrote that and I looked it up because I certainly didn't know because I don't I mean maybe I have to find my iPhone on there." But you just have the kids have Air Tags because my

130kids I have Air Tags on their phone. Like I know this sounds stupid, but I'm just saying the Air Tags are much more efficient than their cell phones if they lose their carrying. No, a field trip. They put it in their pocket or their backpack. I think she's talking Oh, I see what you're saying. You're talking about using phones on field trip. No, Mrs. Mart's talking about whether or not in school when you come to school and you have to store your phone like high schoolers are allowed to put it in their backpacks. She's saying should you shut it off or should you put on vibrate my my first issue is one your issue was about finding the phone. Finding my iPhone does work when the phone is off for up to seven days. Um

131two my concern is that um as Mrs. Citron was saying as Mrs. was saying the phone's still going to buzz, vibrate or something like that, which will then make the kid jitter. He's sitting there and he's hearing his phone vibrate in his bag. And third, um, one of the things that New York State doesn't want explicitly is kids using their phones anywhere. We will still have children who will try to check their phones as they're walking between classes, if their phone is on, they will quickly pull it out and they will walk carrying it, thereby breaking New York State law. Whereas, if the phone is off, it will take them at least a minute or two to power. I don't know how long an iPhone takes to power up. and it will then, you know,

132hinder their ability to do that. Again, at this point, we're under New York state law. So, that was what um was the thought process that went into why they should be off versus silence. But again, as Mr. Gess says, that's board that's board. Um I mean, I do agree with you having it on between classes. It'll definitely tempt them to just reach in and check it if they have it in their backpacks. Um, and I guess who's going to be policing that? And that's going to be a nightmare to police and deal with deal with Yeah. deal with the disciplinary action. And I see the disciplinary is in here that the teachers, administrators can take it away. Um, so I don't know. What do you guys think? I mean, I just know from my own

133Apple Watch that when my phone silenced, I still get the notifications. Yes. On Apple Watch. Yes, you're right. Even if it doesn't. So I I feel like if you silence it, it defeats the purpose of the whole Yeah. So you think so my iPhone? I didn't look into that fact where it's seven days. So I don't That's the only What? Do I not have iPhones? Let me let me It's a joke. It's a joke. It's a joke. Um, so while you're looking at that, I don't know why I'm not f I'm not following this, but Sam, if you could explain to me why you have the separate the separate three paragraphs that repeats number one through six. They look What am I missing? Number the first one. The first one is for all students and

134it deals with category one, right? But the one through six is the same for all of them. So what's No, no, no. Category one only has one through five. category. The first one for all students only has one through five. So it has where necessary for me students health in the event of an emergency translation services case by case when required by law. That should be the five that are there. I see it. from the clean copy. The first first section has to do with just category one, iPhones, watches, smart glasses, and um tablets. So, but the second part is exactly the same too. No, but the second one is this. Yes, the second one is the same. So, you could So, you could make it simpler and say category one for all category one

135for all students and category two for up for high school. I'm sorry for elementary school and middle school. Yes. So the only difference is you have more high school. You could correct streamline it. You absolutely could. I just didn't know. I I I I again am just very regimented in thinking that I'm like okay here's all students, here's elementary and middle school students. Here's this makes it easier. I thought for parents, but again I the drafting I leave to whoever wants to change it as long as that that's just the objective of it. And the two things we'll say is for people who haven't read education law, um probably by the second week in August, you want to be at your cell phone provider buying your child a non- internet enabled phone. So they do

136exist and they are allowed under the law. So, um, this only deals with internet accessible devices and, um, there are, you know, prehistoric phones that only have that that and and I'm not saying it to tell people to do it, but I know I'm going to get this phone call and email and text, I'm sure we all will, from 25 parents each. um that yeah there there's nothing in this rule that deals with uh the old style phone that just takes phone calls and texts where even the text you have to hit a number three times to get the letter you want. So again I have not dealt with that here. Um clearly that is going to occur. I don't know what the board wants to do about that but this was simply to bring

137us into into alignment with New York state law and we don't have to answer that question. I just I I have two other comments on the policies. Um for where we start with high school students and category 2 devices. Um our previous policy said we were permitting students who were taking high school level coursework to also be able to use these category 2 devices. So should we amend this statement to set I I thought what we decided was for those kids who were taking it I thought the school was providing them advanced devices was our last conversation. For some reason that was in my head because I remember when we had that conversation I was shocked by the fact Mr. Goodstad who you know is paid not to agree with me is shaking his head.

138Yes. So um so so it's I thought we were allowed to use I thought it was my recollection that you was Chromebooks. No no no no Chromebooks. Yes. But for eighth graders or seventh graders don't accelerate that was a conversation we had. So as I said it's like if they do a good degree then you know something's got to be there. We could both be wrong. Don't get us wrong but um that was it. But no again Dr. about if if I'm wrong about that then then absolutely we're going to need to change it about them allowing them their own personal computer and then the uh accelerated double accelerated and single accelerated um then it's just making the policy it's just killing the policy that's why there was definitely a meeting where we talked about

139where we were when they went into that advanced math class we were providing them whatever whatever computer power they needed to take that class at the middle school. How do you control that? You can't, which is why which is why the school said they were only to have to have those things just for the middle school. Yeah, just for the middle school. High school kids 9th through 12, they can bring their own. Absolutely. They can do whatever they want. But if you're an eighth grader taking advanced math, you're in geometry, you know what? The school will provide you with whatever necessary hardware you need to take that course. So it's like whether we're putting carts in there with the 20 whatever device you want to use. That's that was my understanding of what we said

140we were doing last year. I think we Okay. So I got three people here. All right. And then the last thing was just in line with uh what New York State has said for where it comes to code of conduct. Do we need to be including something about how we will not be suspended as that was my comment too because in the sample policy gave it said if they're not otherwise there's not no other so yeah if you want to add that line yes right yes the district may not impose suspension from school if the sole ground for the suspension is that the student access internet enabled advice that's prohibited by this policy. Yeah. I mean that that should be that should be it. Yeah. No, I agree. Yeah. No, I'll make I have all

141the answ that that that is what we do. Yes. But this policy is is overriding whatever we agreed to. That's what I thought this policy is just overriding everything we did before. No, it's it's making it comply with law. Yes. But if what we've agreed to before fits into the current law, the new law, then they could both be there. Okay. So it's okay. So it's not overriding. So it's is this a separate policy? No, no, this will be this policy like the paper of this policy replacing that policy, but the concept the content the content is still allowed to be there if it doesn't violate the law. So going back to my previous comment, I think it would seem much more clear if you said for all students. I mean the building administration has

142discretion to allow students category one and category 2 and then just separate because that's all the same for everyone, but the only difference is high school for category 2, which I think do you understand what I'm saying in terms of I could No, I understand what you're suggesting. I think it's streamlining. I can go make it just just to clarify when you say streamline you want to say then you want to say for category one and for elementary school and middle school category 2 1 through five yeah just one separate paragraph for category for high school category high school category three in addition you could just have that number one I obviously defer personally as I read it I I saw I thought it was clear I thought it was clear and you We complied

143with point headers instead to make it more clear. So you do point header one, category one devices. You have the one paragraph and then point header two, category 2 devices, and then you have elementary, middle, and then high school. Even though we're going to sort of violate law, we're going to we're going to do the first read, we'll do the second read in August, and at that point, you'll have a clean copy. And if it's not clear on the clean copy, then I'll change it. But if you could make it, I'll make it clear. Yeah, I don't care. Does that sound better to understand always? They do. Oh, I know. Uh, so without any other comments and if anyone wants to talk, please. Um, I'll break protocol, but don't think anyone's getting excited about this.

144Um, do I have a vote? Do everyone in favor of adopting for first read the new approved policy 7316 with the changes we with the with the changes we discussed. Thank you Mr. I mean first uh we already did that 50. Thank you very much. Um I apologize to the people in the audience. I've had a request from a board member if we could have a two if we could um if we could go into executive session for about a five not more than five minutes five to 10 minutes. Okay, Mrs. Mrs. 5 to 10 minutes. We will be coming back in 5 to 10 minutes to finish um the agenda where we will be approving and discussing the schedules. Um but there is an item that's come up during this meeting that um the

145board would like to discuss for 5 to 10 minutes. So do I have a motion to go into executive? Anyone second we move into uh executive? I'll I'll second it then. Um, all in favor of going to executive session to discuss this information by vote. Thank you. We will be back. It is now 9:10. We hope to be back by 9:20. Sorry. Everything we see on the email discussion discussion all the time. That's why you post the thing on Facebook. It gets it feels like I have [Music] while they're on intermission aspect now. section. I'm going to necessary necessary. Okay, that's four. How is that? Are we back on? Thank you. Um the board's apology for taking longer than the 10 minutes. Um we have a walk-on resolution that uh we're going to consider now

146before we move to the schedules. Um, I'll read the the resolution. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Jericho Union Free School District hereby authorizes Ingram Smith LLP to commence litigation against a former employee of the district. Be it further resolved that the BOE of the Jericho Union Free School District hereby authorizes Robert Kravitz, Superintendent of Schools of the Jericho Union Free School District, to sign any document necessary to effectuate the above referenced litigation. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Discussion. Um, okay. Then we'll move to a vote. All in favor? All opposed? Vote is 3 to2. That then brings us to the end of our new business section of our meeting. Um, unless anyone objects, do I have a motion to approve schedules A15333 through U380? That

147is all the schedules in tonight's package. Motion. Thank you, Mrs. Ragoff. Do I have a second? Second, Mrs. Citron. Thank you. Discussion. Um, Mr. Bangal. We knew we were going to have a little bit of a conversation just about the cafeteria numbers and performance year-over-year. Um, just quick recap of why the numbers look so bad even though they really matter. Sure. Um, question. Okay, same question. So, uh, as you know, last year we had a pretty, uh, sizable surplus in the school lunch after the first year with Aramark coming on board. And we had decided at that time to use a uh portion of that to redo all of the lines at the middle school and the high school uh which cost upwards a little over 250,000. Um which the board approved the contract to

148go forward with it. Um if you look at the report under equipment uh I believe this year it's about 259,000. last year was about 7,000 that we spent in equipment and that's was for that project. If you take that onetime expense out of the equation, it's uh very comparable to uh last year's results, slightly lower, but um not overly uh material by any means. Um our plan is uh over the next one to two years to do some um improvements at a couple of the elementary schools that we feel need some improvement. Um I'm confident with the new regulation from the state uh providing uh meals to all students that our reimbursement rate will be greater than what it is currently and we will probably have more participation. Um my only concern and challenge is

149uh especially at the middle school where the lines are um difficult to get through to have more students now because the meals are free. Um, I think the lines that we did will probably help that situation. Um, but that's my concern for next year, but I think we'll uh overcome it. We also joined the breakfast program uh at all the buildings at this point. So, we will offer breakfast as well um at each of the elementary schools, middle school, and high school. Uh I don't anticipate large participation um for that only because of the timing of when the kids come in, especially the middle school and the elementary schools. But we will offer some type of bread and goals um for the breakfast portion and that's why you see a difference between this year's results

150and anybody have any follow-up questions for this manual on that. Um one quick thing on the treasures report. I know there was a revised treasures report. I tried to the best of my ability on the five pages to figure out what the difference was between the original and the revised and I failed. Yeah, there was it was like a l literally like a $300 um discrepancy in one of the numbers that was transposed. It was nothing $300 material. Perfect. Um do we need to adjust HRT15292 instructional resignations or is that uh an activity for the August meeting? Thank you. Um, those are all my questions. If anyone else has any other points for discussion, um, if no one has any other discussion points, uh, do I have a vote? All in favor? 5. Thank you

151very much. Um, as all the business on the agenda for tonight's meeting is complete, do I have a motion to adjurnn? Mr. Citron, thank you. Second, Mr. Jin. Thank you. All in favor of adjourning. Five. Have a nice evening. See you August 4th, 7:30 here.