May Board of Education Meeting

001One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. Wait for two. We waited for Sam. We got to wait for That's all right. That's fine. Um, want to welcome everybody to our May regular meeting of the board of education. I hope everybody had a nice holiday weekend and Memorial Day. Um, just going to wait on Mr. Emanuel and we'll get down to business. So, how was everybody's long weekend? Good. Fine. other than other than the weather. But hopefully things start to change. Victor's just retrieving something from Mr. Gman's office. Back home. I thought you were here. Okay, wonderful. Candyman. Thank you. All right, we're going to um begin. I would ask everybody to please observe a moment of silence for two former faculty members, Mr. Seymour Sai Fatel uh a

002former physical education teacher who retired here in 1994 as well as Mr. Robert H sixth grade teacher who retired in 1999. If we could just observe a moment of silence for their passing. Thank you. All right. Um at this time we're within the the recognitions section of our agenda moving on to something uh slightly more pleasant is recognition of tenure recipients. And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Gman. Thank you. Actually, as we begin the recognitions, uh we received um some notations from the New York State uh school boards association congratulating Chris Faresto uh on achieving the highest level of participation in board training. Um so with that he gets a several wonderful paper recognition certificates. This one is I'm sorry. Here we go. No one talk and which includes a one

003free complimentary training session which I'm sure you will use next year and I'm sure you have none of these at home. A uh notepad. Thank you. Uh, in addition, recognitions to Sam Pearlman and Jennifer Vardnoff for their participation in schoolboard training. Congratulations. [Applause] I'm sure as many of you know, the um the regulations, commissioners regulations uh around school school board members um and the the regulations that they operate under are continually changing. uh and the the requirements that are placed on board members in terms of staying ab breast with again current commissioner regulation education law uh changes and is quite complex. uh and our school board historically has been on top of uh attending all training sessions um to stay a breast on what what's taking place and we congratulate all of our board members

004for their years of continually going through schoolboard training through the New York State School Boards Association. So congratulations to all of our board members. I'd like to start off with our recognitions uh by introducing Chad Gleason. [Applause] Good evening. It's my pleasure to speak here tonight on behalf of our outstanding middle school assistant principal Sarah Palut. Sarah is a true Sarah is a true instructional leader committed to student growth, staff development, and building a positive school culture. One of the ways she's done that is through leadership of our nest period where she's helped transform our advisory into a powerful space for connection building and for community building. She's also the architect behind our master schedule and the coordination of all middle school testing work that requires not just logistical precision, but a deep understanding of

005how to balance the needs of students, teachers, and programs. She brings thoughtfulness, professionalism, and has a steady hand with all that she takes on. I've mentioned instructional leadership and scheduling and testing, but I haven't yet touched upon safety, student discipline, state reporting, building supervision, grade reporting, room utilization, or the dozens of other areas in which Sarah has a leading role. Being the sole assistant principal in a middle school of 838 students requires an extraordinary ability to balance competing demands of with precision and grace. It's a role that asks you to be everywhere at once. Know what's around the corner. And I can say that because I've done it. I know I know the rewards and challenges that come with the job. And Sarah does it better than anyone I've ever seen. I I know that

006she uh will continue to take great care and have a relentless focus on what's best for students, as she always does. What truly sets Sarah apart, though, is her understanding of middle school kids. Uh adolescence is a really interesting time in a kid's life. At the very moment when students need the support of parents and mentors and teachers the most, they have this really strong desire for independence. And sometimes that's expressed with a an annoying or a slam blocker. Um, but Sarah gets that. She has the experience and heart to always lead with kindness. She knows how to support her Jay-Hawks through it all and she always uh inspires them to do their personal best. In the spirit of transparency, I am also up for tenure tonight. Um and uh Sarah's been a constant support

007not only for source of support not only for our students but also for me. I couldn't be more proud to be uh recognized for that honor alongside her tonight. So it is my pleasure to recommend Sarah Palute uh for tender teeth this evening with my strongest possible recommendation. Ask Brian Cummings to uh join us up front, please. Tonight, I have the privilege of recognizing someone who's not only become an exceptional leader in our school, but also a friend, Dr. Michaela Finley. as she is granted tenure as assistant principal of the Jericho High School. Before coming to Jericho, Michaela spent nine years in the Comwalk School District where she began her career as a special education ENL teacher. She later served as a literacy specialist and then as an assistant director of people personnel services. That

008range of experience and her deep care for students became imminently clear when she joined us four years ago as a curriculum associate for secondary PPS. After just one year, she was named an assistant principal high school, a role she a role she has truly flourished. And I had the great fortune of working closely with Michael Kayla first as a fellow curricum associate and then as assistant principles together. She's she's someone I rely on, learn from, and trust completely as she does everyone as does everyone in our school. Her insight, her tenacity, her elegant toughness, and her ability to handle even the most complex situations with clarity and care have been invaluable. When I started thinking about what to say tonight, a few words came to mind. When you think of Michaela, you quickly realize she

009is meticulous, always thinking ahead and ensuring every detail is handled. She's tireless, showing up at every event, always supporting students and staff. Brilliant, able to approach challenges with a clear mind and a full heart, and above all, genuinely kind, someone to build relationships that last. Beyond her role here, Michaela is a proud and devoted aunt, a cherished me member of a wonderful family with many friends as we see here tonight. Um, she brings a quiet strength and grace to everything that she does. Accommodation that makes her not just a strong administrator, but a love presence in our school. Muel, I'm proud to call you my colleague, our partner in this work, and my friend. Congratulations on this well-earned milestone. You make Jericho a better place every single day. We so lucky to have you and

010congratulations if you get to the tenure [Applause] tonight celebrations are so nice. Uh I have the honor to talk briefly which is not my strength about Chad Gleason. We uh tonight will honor Chad with an appointment to tenure. Uh before coming to Jericho, Chad taught at the school of the future. Foreshadow. Yes. Um we sold him from White Plains as a middle school principal in White Plains in 2018. And after his stellar job as being a assistant principal in our middle school, it was a no-brainer for us to very quickly promote him to become principal of the Jericho Middle School in July of 2022. He's an incredible instructional leader. He deals with strength, conviction, and always with a commitment on what's in the best interest of students. Chad always leads with warmth, sincerity, compassion, a

011gentle giant. Yes, Chad always takes great pride in const constantly and regularly celebrating his students and celebrating his incredible middle school staff. Under his leadership, Jericho Middle School continues to be rated as the very best middle school on Long Island and in some cases has been rated the number one middle school in the state of New York. We can clap with that. Jericho Middle School is always on the top of the list on schools to watch and his support and encouragement for National History Day um brings our middle school students to the forefront of local competition, National History Day, state recognition as well as national recognition. So wi with that brief statement, I congratulate Chad on being a great Jericho family member and we recognize you this evening with granting. And with that, it is

012great pleasure that I present schedule J ID 15174 administrator tenure appointment. Do I have a motion? Second discussion. All in favorations. So car congratulations everybody. [Applause] This is a tremendous milestone in your careers and I have full faith that you will continue the just outstanding work that you've done with our children. So, thank you again. [Applause] Moving along, Mr. Gishman, I believe you have a recommendation on an appointment of high school co-principal. I am more than thrilled uh to recommend to the board the appointment of high school co-principal Brian Cummings. As all of you know, Brian has been in this district, I think, as long as I have been in this district. He has earned tenure in more areas than I think there are written in the books. Um Brian Brian started out a beloved

013teacher of math science who worked his way through curriculum associate high school assistant principal and I could not be more proud of the work uh that Brian has done the support that he has given to so many kids over so many years and it's uh again my my extreme pleasure to recommend Brian Cummings to the position of high school co-principal. Thank you, Mr. Griman. And with that, I present schedule G, probationary administrator appointment ID 15213 to the board. Do I have a motion? Jill second discussion. I think Mr. Manuel had a letter to be read on this topic. Yes, sir. [Music] Dear members of the board of education, Mr. Christian, Mr. Emanuel, Dr. Sherman, Mr. Cohen, and Mrs. Nash. This is from Robin Merkelsky. On behalf of a group of Jericho parents, please find the

014attached letter expressing our strong support for the appointment of Mr. Brian Cummings as the permanent co-principal of Jericho High School. As parents of students in Jericho School District, we have witnessed firsthand Mr. Cummings exceptional leadership, dedication, and positive impact on our students and the school community. His commitment to academic excellence, student well-being, and the cultivation of a welcoming and inclusive environment has been truly invaluable. We believe that appointing Mr. Cummings to this role permanently will provide much needed continuity and steady leadership as the district transitions under the guidance of a new superintendent. We hope you will take our perspective into consideration as you make this important decision. And we thank you for your continued dedication to the success of our schools and students. [Applause] Yeah. Um, my concern with this proposition has nothing to do

015with co-principal Brian Cummings. Mr. Cummings has been an outstanding administrator, teacher, coach, advisor, and mentor in this district for decades. My concern has everything to do with the timing of this proposition for Mr. Gishman and the lack of customary process followed by Mr. Gishman. In 30some days, for the first time in 30 years, we will have a new superintendent, Dr. Robert Kravitz. Dr. Kravitz is the full confidence of this board. His appointment and contract received unanimous approval. In 33 days, he will be responsible for directing this district. He will receive some credit for any future success, and he will receive all the blame for any failure. The high school principal is one of the most important appointments. It is integral to the future success of the Jericho School District. The importance of a constructive relationship

016between principal and superintendent cannot be overstated. Consequently, it is Dr. Kravitz who should be making this proposition to the board after thoughtful and thorough evaluation. It should not be Mr. Gishman as he walks out because he prepares to walk out the door in one month. I cannot agree or object to Mr. Cummings appointment to this position as I do not have pretty much relevant information to make an educated decision. The der of information includes a well-informed opinion from our new superintendent. I've made my feelings on this topic known to the people at this table. However, if a majority of my fellow board members, including retiring trustee Dr. Festo believe that this appointment must be made this evening. Be assured that I will give 100% effort to ensure the success of Mr. Cummings as co-principal of

017the high school and the success of Jericho High School. Thank you for your comments, Sam. I one thing I I will say before before Mr. Griffin uh speaks is um I'm not going to speak for Dr. Kravitz who who couldn't be with couldn't be with us this evening. Uh but Dr. Kravitz has been on campus for for several days has had the opportunity to meet with a number of indiv individuals, administrators, uh building uh leaders as well as Mr. Cummings. That being said, I'll let Mr. Gman speak to that. One thing I will say is that, you know, we over the the last several years, uh there's been a kind of a resounding call for for community input into board decisions. And that's something that I I take very seriously. Uh we talk about transparency,

018we talk about community input, and I think this decision in particular um has has really met with both of those standards. We've received tons of community input uh supporting Mr. Cummings in this position. Mr. Cummings is a loyal, longstanding member of the Jericho community. uh he has put his heart and soul into this school district. Uh the children of our school district have spoken loud and clear. So I wholeheartedly support this, but I'll turn the microphone over to Mr. Thank you, Chris. I just would would like to state um and again uh reiterate uh some of Chris's comments. We have had universal support uh starting from this winter from students, staff, and parents um commenting on the outstanding job uh that Brian is doing in the high school. Um similar comments in terms of the

019the strength of the administrative team in the high school and how smoothly the high school has been operating this year. We feel the administration feels strongly uh that for the sake of the of the students and staff of the high school uh that the sooner there was a permanent appointment for the high school principal, the better that would be uh for all who live and reside in in the high school. Uh I've had two lengthy conversations with Dr. Kravitz um and had specifically asked him outright um as early as I think March uh of this past spring um how do you feel about appointing at this point um Brian to the position and he said I strongly support your recommendation. The timing is better now than it might be over the summer. So, in two

020conversations I've had with the incoming superintendent um who I am most eager uh to welcome, but in two occasions, he reiterated and supported the administrative recommendation to appoint Brian at our earliest possible time. So, appointing Brian again works in terms of administrative recommendation uh and in the incoming superintendent's recommendation as well. And just one other thing I want to touch upon and we did talk about community input and the community input into into this conversation has has been from from all facets of the community and I I mentioned this earlier. We've heard from the students. We've heard from the parents. We've heard from central office. We've heard from Mr. Cummings colleagues. We've heard from everybody. So we're not going into this lightly. This is something that we have been considering for months. But we've been,

021you know, taking this slowly to make sure that we're making the right decision. And I'll speak for myself in in saying that I am 100% confident that Mr. Cummings is the the right person for this position. And I know he's going to go forward leading this high school to even greater places than we've ever been. With that, uh, do I have a motion on the schedule? So that's why we're discussing. Yeah. And we're at the, uh, the discussion and we'll move to the vote. All in favor? Any opposed? Any obstensions? All right. Motion carries. Mr. [Applause] C. All right. Wonderful. And lastly within recognitions is recognition of school board representative Mr. Max Sharp. Max um you've just been a a tremendous tremendous board representative. You have been a you know integral part in a number

022of decisions that we've made. uh specifically your research and surveys into your uh your classmates, their feelings on several board policies, the feedback of of how potential board policies would impact life as a as a Jericho student was was really instrumental in in helping us shape a number of policies. Uh specifically the the cell phone policy, which we'll we'll talk more about at some point, but just not until the summer. I thought so this summer, but just your your your intellect, your your professionalism. You are a young man well beyond your years, and I know you're going to go to great places. So, I just want to on behalf of the entire board of education want to say thank you and congratulations on your upcoming graduation heading off to college. And we only wish you

023the best. [Applause] They are good. They are good. I'm sure. So this afternoon, um, I just received the high school diplomas and the superintendent of schools is one of the signatures on the high school diplomas. Max, I don't know how to tell you this, but I ripped your diploma. It's an words. Firstly, thank you so much. That those words really mean so much. It's been an incredible experience and I really truly appreciate that. So, this time I don't have any more surveys or presentations. Sorry to disappoint. Um, but I'd like to talk about something. So, one of the most rewarding aspects of my experience as board of education representative has truly been the relationships I've been able to build this year. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank some incredible people that I've

024had the privilege of working with. So, firstly, thank you so much to the board for this opportunity and for the true value that you place on student input. It's been really apparent tonight and throughout this whole year, and I appreciate that. Thank you to my adviserss, Miss Schmidt and Miss Khan. And thank you so much to the amazing high school administration, Mr. Cummings, Dr. Finley, and Mr. Me, who we've heard so many great things about tonight. Um, thank you as well to Mr. Gishman and the assistant superintendent down in the central office. And thank you to Miss Nash, who I don't think is here tonight, for always keeping me in the loop and keeping me out of the board meetings. I appreciate all that. Uh, so with that being said, I'm very excited to pass

025the torch on to the incoming board representative, Cynthia Tion. So, please stand [Applause] up. As many of you know, the state of New York recently passed a law requiring school districts to have a student representative on their board. So, of course, Jericho has been ahead of that curve for quite a while now. But that also means that Cynthia will be able to sit up on that amazing deis every meeting with her own uh name plate, which I'm a little jealous about, but I know she's excited about that. Um, I've known Cynthia for years. She's an incredible incredibly hard worker, an amazing debater, and I'm more than confident that she will excel in this role, even with the extra meeting requirements. So, congratulations, Cynthia. And thank you so much to everyone. Thank you, Max. Again, we

026wish you all the best in college and and please don't be a stranger. Come back and visit. Thank you. All right. With that, we're going to move into recommended actions. Approval of minutes. Recommended motion be it resolved that the board of education make any necessary corrections and move the approval of the minutes of the Bosey's budget meeting dated April 23rd 2025 and the regular meeting dated April 24th 2025 the executive session dated 5/825 and 5 2025 annual election budget vote do I have a motion on the minutes second discussion all in favor Oh, okay. So, Carrie, thank you. What was that? The 520 one. That was the election 520 annual election budget vote. Okay. Uh we'll move into reports discussion. We'll start with uh middle school student council. Angel [Applause] Sha is yours. Thank you.

027Good evening. My name is Angel Sha. I'm an eighth grade student council representative. It's a pleasure to be here this evening. There has been going there has been so much going on in the middle school these past few weeks. The high school Jmax students facilitated a mental health presentation with SAT club members and brave ambassadors. This week it was a huge success. The eighth grade New York State math assessments were on May 6th and 7th and the eighth grade science exams were on May 13th. Thank you to Miss Creepstein, Miss Libertini, and the math and science teachers for your hard work and dedication in preparing our students. The Chinese classes visited the Taiwan Center in Flushing, Queens today. The Thai classes went to Little Italy on Tuesday, and the French classes went to Kerber Farms

028to learn how to prepare and bake crepes. It sounds like a great time. The sixth grade classes are preparing for mini Olympics scheduled for Monday, June 2nd. Good luck to all. The sixth, 7th, and eighth grade ambassadors did an amazing job welcoming our incoming sixth graders on May 14th, 21st, and 28th. The students had the opportunity to visit our sixth grade classrooms as they prepare for their exciting transition this fall. Recently, four GMS students participated in the Long Island Cup, a local chess competition at Jackson Elementary School. The event was hosted by Chess Sanity and Long Island Chess. Now, I would like to end this evening's report by taking a moment to congratulate Mr. Gleason on being awarded tenure as principal of Jericho Middle School and Miss Miss Beloo being awarded tenure as assistant principal

029of Jericho Middle School. On behalf of the student body, we would like to express our senior gratitude for your leadership, dedication, and unwavering com commitment to your students. You inspire us by fostering a positive learning environment. We are grateful for your positive impacts. You are a great team and even better role models. But you're also pretty cool, too. Fun facts about Mr. Gleason and Miss Beloo. Did you know that Mr. Gleon is a wilderness first responder, a certified rescue scuba diver who captained a 36 ft sailboat on a 4,000mi expedition to the Caribbean for 1 year. Wow, that's a lot. Yes, it's true. And this gets even better. We also learned that Miss Belute lived in the Caribbean for a few years. And when Miss Walut studied at the University of Pittsburgh, she had a

030semester at sea. Miss Walut traveled the world from the Pacific to the Atlantic to places such as Cuba, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Vietnam, and more. There were two ships that may have passed in the night. So to captain and co- captain of Jericho Middle School, please continue to guide us in our journeys. [Applause] All right. At this time, I'd like to move on to the high school student council, Rachel Lee, and possibly people. [Applause] Good evening everyone. I'm Rachel Lee, student council co-president, and I'm so excited to be here tonight to share some of the amazing things that have been happening at our school this past month. On April 29th, both our middle school and high school orchestras came together for a beautiful concert. And on May 2nd, student council brought Smiles and Caffeine

031to our amazing staff with the with the teacher appreciation breakfast cart. We had juice muffins and other baked goods. From May 5th to 16th, AP exams were taken. And just when we thought everything was over, AP site was moved to May 28th, proving that psychology really does like to mess with their minds. And now for some seriously amazing news. Our blood drive on May 21st collected 68 pints. That's a lot of potential lives saved and a lot of students who are braver than I am on Beatles. And we also held our senior safe prom assembly, helping seniors get ready for the big night on June 26th. So yes, the prom posals have officially begun. And now on to sports. Jericho made history. Both girls and boys basketball teams won the Long Island Championship. And the

032first time a single school has won both. And the boys team earned their 68th. And the boys team earned their 68th straight win, which fun fact matches our blood drive total. And in golf, Brian Zo is headed to the state championship. Congrats, Brian. In the arts, it's time for coro, which is actually happening in the auditorium right now. And this year's theme is icons, and the tickets are now on sale. And as we look ahead, we've got more exciting events coming up. On June 2nd, our talented musicians will take the stage for the band concert. And then on June 3rd, we'll be celebrating our incredible student athletes at the athletic awards ceremony. From gamewinning goals to record-breaking serves, it's time to cheer them on one more time. And on June 4th, seniors are ready to

033relax and have some fun at the senior party. Finally, an event required no studying. And on June 9th, we'll recognize all their hard work and accomplishments of our graduating class at the senior awards night ceremony. a night full of pride, applause, and probably a few happy tears. And on June 16th marks the last day of classes. And finally, I would like to congratulate Dr. Finley and Mr. Cummings on their tenure. Thank you for all your hard work. [Applause] So whether it's on stage, on the court, or in the classroom, there's something happening every single day, and we're loving every minute of it. Thank you so much for your time, and have a good night. [Applause] Wonderful. Thank you. We'll move on to PTA council for teaching. Good evening everyone. Um good evening Mr. Bushman, board

034of ed members, central administration, faculty, staff, and community members. My name is Pratiki Goena, and I'm the vice president of the joint PTA council, and it's my pleasure to be here tonight. Um, first off, wanted to express a sincere congratulations to three special individuals who have been honored tonight. On behalf of PTA Council, congrats to Dr. Finlay, Miss Balute, and Mr. Gleason on receiving tenure tonight. Jericho and our kids are so lucky to have you and we appreciate all of your hard work and your dedication to our children. The PTA council was grateful to have the opportunity to meet with Mr. Greg Sloan on Monday, May 12th. Mr. Sloan shared insights into the impressive 2025 college admissions outcomes for our Jericho kids. What an accomplished group. He also highlighted for us the many ways that

035Jericho continues to support student success, including the college boot camp held each August, the numerous college rep visits to our school, and a strong focus on ensuring every student receives the guidance that they need. As the school year winds down, our PTA units are busier than ever. Jackson PTA recently hosted a successful plant sale and a book fair. And thanks to the extra change they collected, they were able to donate one book to every classroom at Jackson. We're now gearing up for field day and ice cream treats tomorrow on May 30th, if the weather holds up. At Kantia, the students raised over $700 for all abilities month to benefit NSASA. Their incredible staff appreciation week concluded with an Allison Wonderland themed food truck celebration and they hosted a career day panel where parents shared insights

036about their professions including astrophysics career re cancer research financial planning and more. At Jeffrey Ratner Robert Seaman students enjoyed a special Mother's Day gift sale during lunch giving them a chance to pick out thoughtful items to celebrate the mom and mom figures in their life. A highlight of the school year is the annual visit from Holocaust survivor Maryanne Lison every May who shares her powerful and inspiring story with the fifth grade students. Thank you to all of the elementary schools who hosted their reunions this week. We know all the high school students graduating had a blast visiting their teachers and taking one last walk down their favorite hallways. At the middle school, eighth grade lawn signs were distributed and if you didn't get a chance to pick yours up, you can do so by the

037foyer in the entrance. And the PTA wrapped up the year with a successful final spring sale. At the high school, PTA is in full swing preparing for the much anticipated senior party on June 4th. The school came together to celebrate seniors with a spirited commitment day bake sale on May 1st. Raffles for prime seating at graduation is underway and senior lawn signs will be distributed soon with the support of the G JTA. SEPTA is proud to share that over $4,000 was raised in support of all abilities month. Their final meeting of the school year will take place on May 30th tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. here in the middle school library featuring a special presentation on preventing the summer slide with guest speakers Debbie Wanderman and Maricio Christopherson. And finally, one of the best nights of

038the year, they invite the community to join them for their recognition and scholarships evening on June 10th at 7 p.m. in the middle school library. Thank you to everyone and have a good night. Thank you, Patichi. At this time, I'd like to turn the microphone over to Mr. Cohen for his report. Sure. Absolutely. Turn over to Mr. Absolutely. Appreciate uh opportunity. um wanted to spend a minute introducing the staff members who will be appointed this evening um as joining the Jericho staff in the 2526 school year. Um when I call your name, please stand. Uh again, we want to welcome you. We look forward to you joining joining our staff um in August. Uh some of you actually are already here. Um, but again, if you're with us this evening, please stand up. Laura Simon,

039Dana Jensen, Jesse Natali, Alyssa Bibiato, Hannah Martin, Samantha Bush, Jacob Geyser, Samantha Tor, Toriel, James WGI, Lewis Cooper, Molly Murphy, to introduce you early in the uh agenda so that for those of you who are up and out early tomorrow morning, you can uh say good night to us all. And thank you all for being here this evening. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. We're moving into Mr. Superintendio. Really? So, our enrollment report, our enrollment as of May the 23rd was 3,333. That's an increase of nine students uh over our previous report in April. Um, I'd like to take this opportunity firstly to congratulate um our community on a budget pass of almost 82%. The the strong support that our district receives, that our students receive every year is a real credit to the support from

040our school community for the incredible job that our entire school community appreciates and our school staff delivers. So again, a sincere thank you on my behalf, behalf of the board uh for that strong endorsement for the work of our school district. Secondly, I'd like to congratulate Kenny Jim who's with us this evening uh as a newly elected member of our board of education and he will be joining us officially on July 1st. Congratulations and welcome Kenny. We we look forward to you joining us. Thank you. Um, additionally, I wanted to uh share with our board and with the community uh that Robert Kravitz was with us all day Tuesday and all day Wednesday um meeting with literally I think just about everyone uh in the school district through through the day. Um he met with

041um student council, he met with CSEA, he met with teachers, he met with administrators, uh he met with central office. Um he had an opportunity to tour all of the buildings. Um and again we'll have an opportunity to hear what his reaction was, but I will tell you that he was in awe of our school district. He couldn't stop complimenting. Oh my goodness, I can't believe how incredible the school district is. what I'm seeing in classrooms, teacher engagement, what I'm seeing in terms of looking at the at our school classrooms, our school hallways, they sparkle. It's almost the end of the school year and how many schools can show off their facilities with sparkling sparkling hallways, flowers in front of buildings. He literally toward the end when we the central office met with him at

042the very end basically the whole conversation we had with him was I can't believe what I've seen in the in the last two days the the warm welcome that I've received from everyone I've met uh and what I've actually observed. Um so again I think you know sharing from what he said uh it was a wonderful visit a visit that uh had him smiling for two days straight. Uh, I will also share with you that the feedback that we've received from everyone who spent time with Robert was extremely extremely positive. We uh we look forward to welcoming him on several additional days between now and June 30 and we all look forward to welcoming him here officially on July 1st. I'm sure that he will be a successful um a successful superintendent and will meet

043all of our expectations um for fulfilling that role. Um as as we heard in in our student reports, this is a very special time of the year where we spend much time celebrating students, celebrating staff. Uh and again I look forward to all of the celebrations, the concerts uh that will take place as well as the celebrations moving up to our elementary graduations moving up, our middle school moving up. And again, I think the highlight for me of the year will be our high school graduation uh at the end of June. So again, stay tuned for lots of celebrations and lots of good news uh through the end of the year. Victor, I know that you had mentioned something about the barbecue. Oh, sure. Yeah, I believe uh next Wednesday is the date where Aramark

044and in the high school we're going to be doing our hopefully first annual uh barbecue in the courtyard for the students. Um students may still choose to get the their lunches as they typically do inside the cafeteria, but we're adding this uh this option to see how it works. We figured something new, different, and exciting. Um, that'll be barbecue and burgers, hot dogs, chicken. Wednesday the 4th. Wednesday the 4th, rain the 5th. Only the high school. You said only the high school. So, thank you. So, I just wanted to mention that. Um, the we're going to look at the weather early next week and then ask Mr. Cummings to send a communication to the kids. Thank you. All right. Um I don't remember it was last month but two months ago. We talked about uh

045vaping and we talked about how we keep the bathroom doors open and sort of I guess the word is it doesn't really prevent anything. And you were going to go back and talk with building management about the prospect of potentially giving our kids students um some privacy and and close the bathroom doors like they used to do. We're still in conversation. Okay. And we're going to do chronic absenteeism as a separate outlet, right? You're up, sir. I don't know if you guys want to stay. It's Yeah, I know I had shared with you already. So, if you had the same thing, but I'll speak. Good evening everyone. So, um I know that recently News Day published an article highlighting chronic absenteeism rates uh throughout Long Island. And based on that article, there were some questions

046that came up about uh our data and uh request to have a presentation. So I had a chance to work with uh the building principles and to accumulate some data um not only about the specifics of chronic absenteeism but also uh some of the trends that we've seen in the last three years as well as uh some of the steps that are taken in each of the schools to uh address uh address the concerns and the issues. Um, so to back up a little bit, uh, first and foremost, uh, chronic absenteeism, uh, by definition is, uh, uh, the percent of students that are absent for 10% or more of the total school days in a given year. Um, and to give a little bit of history, um, during the pandemic, obviously, uh, attendance was, um,

047a bit of a nebulous thing. we had some you know uh online classes. We then had a hybrid model. Um and what we found typically was coming out of that uh was that uh absenteeism uh was uh thrown at a bit of a haywire pace. Um, and certainly our first uh focus coming out of the pandemic uh was focusing on student health and well-being from a variety of standpoints as well as making sure that we were educating them as comprehensively as possible. Um, so I think appropriately so, uh, we're looking at a three-year history here. Um, because if we even went back further, obviously during the pandemic, we would probably see some absenteeism rates. uh that would be even more concerning than some of the data that we're seeing here and obviously it was a

048bit of a new trend. Um I think the data speaks for itself but just to highlight a few things. Obviously 22 23 we see a high watermark in terms of some of the greatest concerns with chronic absenteeism rate. Overall for a district it was 12% at that time. Uh at the high school where we saw uh some of the biggest impact of that it was at 17%. And then uh each year we've seen uh those numbers starting to come down. And this year uh to date when we ran this report um roughly at the beginning of the month of May uh we looked at uh chronic absenteeism rate for the district as a whole uh just under 10% at the high school uh a reduction from the 17 from tutors to go down to the

04913%. So uh we asked each of our principles to do some data analysis. Uh I've done a brief summary here based on what the principles have reported. In the elementary schools we were looking at what we tended to think were the major causes for the chronic absenteeism. So uh at the elementary school certainly illness and uh a variety of medical needs that came up was primary as the number one reason. Um but we also saw that uh family travel uh certainly presented itself as a challenge um especially at the elementary levels where some of that chronic absenteeism uh might be families that were either extending breaks uh starting the school year a bit late um or even taking some time off throughout the year. Uh we've also seen housing status and PPS considerations as things

050that come up. Housing con uh status can be everything from uh issues that families may be having uh with their home, temporary uh moves to take care of issues um as well as uh some of our families in district uh that may have some uh some housing concerns and hence the reason why they're placed here. Um PPS considerations. Sometimes when we're dealing with some of our students with uh special needs, there may be things that actually impact their attendance on a regular basis as well. And then in the elementary schools, uh one of the things that came up uh not incredibly frequently, but it was a factor was some of our students that were starting to show some extracurricular commitments. So that might be some specialty areas in music or athletics uh where students were

051uh having some absenteeism throughout the year that can uh put them into this category. At the middle school um uh there was a focus on uh trying to track uh how many of those students were annual. In other words, it was carrying forward yeartoear. Uh it was reported that there's a small cohort of students that uh struggle with chronic attendance challenges throughout their entire uh middle school career. Uh the students in the middle school who missed uh most days uh and fell into this category typically it was based on long-term medical issues both physical and emotional. Um and that at the middle school they certainly have put it in added f added focus in recent years on making sure that there's supports in place uh for students but also uh they did identify that there

052were some students that were traveling abroad to visit relatives uh in other countries and that was part of the issues that they faced at the high school. Uh the data analysis that that they did was a bit of a deeper dive. Um, and in this slide, what you'll see is they actually broke it down into three categories. Uh, in in the most extreme case over on the right, they highlighted students that were absent for over 20% of total days in a given school year. Then they looked at over 15% and then finally the threshold of over 10% that falls into chronic absenteeism. Mr. What's the denominator for the high school in terms of how many total students? How many total days? The denominator uh total days is again roughly the 186 days that we have.

053Yeah. With 186 you have the two superintendent days you down to 184. But I thought the high school ends earlier than the elementary school. So in the high school region days count as attendance if you have so those days actually filter forward. So really it's the same denominator for all of our schools. So that is the numerator for the high school going to be suppressed because like you have you have a week you have a week if you have if you have a day where you don't have a regent's exam you have no exams then you automatically default as president. Oh okay got it. Thank you. Um so in the most extreme cases in 22 23 we see that the high school had 46 students uh that were chronically absent over 20% of the time.

054uh in a short two-year turnaround, that number this year was down to 20. Again, not suggesting that 20 is the right number, but obviously we see the trend. Um and we'll talk a little bit about what's been going on in each of the schools to try to adjust these numbers. Similarly, 15% uh in 22 23 uh was at 91 students. Uh and this year it's uh down to 49. And then uh for the 10% category, there were 220 students that fell within that threshold. in 2223 uh and this year it was down to 172 um when uh there was a deeper dive in fact I want to go back to this slide you'll see that just from a grade standpoint significantly higher numbers at the senior level um so there definitely seems to be a

055bit of senioritis that's driving these numbers over 50% of the total number of chronic absenteeism is falling within the senior year um in addition factors that impact this are chronic physical and emotional medical needs as the next highlighted area. Uh again, PPS considerations, housing status uh certainly impacts this. Uh family dynamics that uh could result in unexcused uh absences and school refusal is a factor that's been a consideration. The high school definitely has seen uh attendance issues leading up to AP exams with students that are taking extra time to study for their exams. Again, at the high school, we excuse them on days of their exam. Uh we don't excuse them leading up to sometimes students choose to take those days to study for their AP exams. Um, family travel, uh, I would say based

056on what I heard from the principal is not as significant an issue at the high school, but still it does occur. And certainly the extracurricular commitments probably this becomes a bigger factor in the high school than in other places where we have uh some students that have uh truly specialized experiences outside of our school experience that causes them to miss some time. Um, I was you just took I was going to give you the outlet. I think our demographics mean we have a lot more family travel, but you're saying that's really not the issue. So all those other issues would affect basically every other district on Long Island. And some of the family dynamic, the PPS, the housing, that seems like it would affect other districts more than it would affect us. And yet our

057numbers are meaningfully higher than other than Rosland and Locus Valley who are the highest in this general area. Have we come up with anything that we can attribute to other than a lot of senior days? I mean again I think the senior numbers jump out is tremendous. So you know I I as I share with you we see the trend is coming down. What I can attribute to in terms of comparative analysis to other districts we we didn't do a dive into reaching out to other juris districts to try to figure out why here and what the numbers are there. So I I don't have a you know an answer on that specifically. Um when it comes to steps to address chronic absenteeism, I think it's a lot of similar steps in each of the

058schools. Certainly there's been an added focus in the last three years on uh not only doing deeper dives into what the data is showing, but also uh trying to get ahead of when students are starting to show negative patterns, reaching out to parents. Uh there's an increased level of notification in all of our schools in terms of when students meet certain thresholds. Uh all of the principles reported greater levels of outreach from their offices as well when students are surpassing those uh those levels. Uh and even calling parents in for meetings. I think that's probably most significant at the high school level. Uh there's a series of things that have been put in place in the last few years at the high school. Um that has been everything from uh indications to families as well

059as indications to the guidance counselors and psychologists and social workers when students meet certain thresholds. And I know at the high school there's also been uh a pattern of calling in parents to meet with not only administration and counselors but also teachers uh certainly in classes where the attendance rates are uh exceeding certain thresholds. Um and obviously each of the principles talked about uh continuing doing deeper dives and looking at their process to try to move these numbers in better directions. What's the data methodology? like are you looking at a kid being absent the whole day or a class? So, it's it's a good question. So, uh I'd say that that becomes probably most significant at the high school. Um so, there are formulas basically that looks at uh how many periods they need to

060miss in a given day in order to be counted as absent from a state standpoint. I don't have that number directly in front of me right now. Um it doesn't mean that they necessarily were absent for the entire day. So, it's possible that a student is meeting some chronic absenteeism numbers. They're actually showing up for some of their day, but not enough of it from the state standpoint to be counted as present for the day. And pretty much if they're if they're out at least half a day or more, they're considered absent. Okay. If they miss two or three classes, they be considered late absent, but if you miss, I think it's five to nine periods, you're considered absent day. Yeah. Because the the and you know, we've dealt with so I've talked to both

061Dr. Finley in the comments about this, but um I'm curious if it's a systematic issue because like parents see something different and I don't know if uh did Dr. Finley leave or she uh she's outside of her family. Yeah, it's okay. We see something different and the triggers and alerts are very confusing like walking in the hall or marked absent. So, not that I'm questioning the data. I am curious like how you guys see the data versus how parents see the data. I've had with my team here, I've had this issue and um thankfully Dr. Sley and Delmore have been tremendous. Um I I question the data. So and and I say this because I think power data is just very flawed in terms of what we see. You guys see I think you you

062guys have a dashboard. We don't and the cumulative number is very confusing. Okay, I appreciate that input. Obviously spec um when you if you get if we had a student absent at the very beginning of the day, we reach out to you guys because if we haven't heard from you, it's a safety concern. So what we always do, we reach you you get an email on cut classes or any misclasses. Very often they're not miscl classes. They may be excused. And then we we work really tirelessly to make sure that data is accurate. Then the data that we looked at would be looking back after all those corrections are made. But yeah, we reach out a lot to ensure you know if we if we don't know where your child is and you don't know

063who each child is, then we have to figure something out. Yeah. No, totally. No complaints there. I've dealt with it, so thank you. But um I think like we I would love if uh I guess at some point Dr. Finley can validate, but I think we don't see what you guys see. Okay. So that's just my only question is I think power school data is flawed and then we're getting parent parent square notifications now in terms of absentee and even today I think um or the other day I had a trigger of an absentee and I'm like sitting there looking at find my iPhone like I I dropped my kid off I know she's there right so I question the data that's all I'm saying not not what you're reporting I appreciate question so the

064data that we're presenting is based on Power School. So Power School is our is is our warehouse of our in this case attendance data. So it's based on the teachers entered the data in the nurses or the teachers are the ones that are taking attendance. The nurses are ones that can be accounting for some of the descriptors. So if there is uh a medical note or something like that, they might be able to add additional information. But the teachers are the ones that are actually taking the daily attendance or at the high school level the period attendance. Yeah. When the teachers enter into the system, do they enter the reason of absence? No. If they I mean can they enter the reason of so that when you have the data you do the data analysis

065you would know what's the root cause of those. So so we can figure out the the the break. Uh so two things the teacher the teacher's responsibility in the room is to merely take attendance present or absent. So I think your question about the nurse is a good one. So there are other mechanisms that the school has in place. So for instance uh all the schools ask parents to call if your child is going to be absent to give a reason in which case those reasons can be entered into our system. But the purity of absent or present is when a teacher is taking attendance. It's just based on whether the student is physically in front of them. Yeah. What I'm trying to say is not trying to question your your data. What we're trying

066to say is that if we have more data, we can figure out the root cause. Correct. Right. If you have the breakdown in percentage of the factors, you will be able to figure out what's the root cause of those. So, so when we ask the principles to do a data analysis and they're telling us some of these resulting reasons, it's based on them having the information that you're referring to. Yeah, I think that's most important like if the the student becomes the illness that would be common for all the student correct if that caused by something else we need to consider that cause by such as environment of the school of the classmates or something like that. So we can have the recourse in the future that the pass forward to solve those issues. My

067my point is how to solve the issues. Yeah. Do you have information available about preandemic numbers district? We didn't I don't have that now and we didn't do that as an analysis. back towards that number to what it was prem I I don't I don't Yeah I don't have that right now in my head basically the reason we're so much higher than most of the other districts on setting aside is basically our senior class and some of our elementary school I think the high school senior class is a big part of it I and again I understand what you picked up on there is definitely a lot of travel that goes goes on uh with our families and our students. I think given some of the rigors at the high school, it may not be

068quite as extensive as we might see at the middle school and the elementary school, but it's certainly a factor. Our middle school numbers are great. So middle school and Jackson are great. Seen and um hands mostly, as you said, senior class. I mean, the the numbers show it. I mean when we look at that data it's over 50% of that data is solely in the senior year. Mr. Hi thanks for this information. It's very interesting. Thank you and I agree with you with all those reasons that you have for high school. I wanted to add one more reason having two seniors. I can tell you a lot of it is college visits. And I'm going to tell you and Sam I'm surprised you didn't say this yet. Um I'm not helping him out. You just

069keep talking. I thought you would say this. So um I asked the questions. Okay. Um so I just want to say that these these are unexcused absences. This is unexcused because the college visit is excused. So is this this is unexused absences. These are any absences. Any abs? Okay. So let's just think about this for a sec. It's my turn. It's my turn. I'm just saying like for example, right? So these kids, a lot of kids apply early to schools. You have to go see all the schools you're going to apply early to. Like you can't apply early somewhere without seeing it, right? So they have to see all those schools. The tours are during the week. You can't go on the weekend. They don't like you can't go. Then you don't get into your

070early acceptance school. You have to go see the schools that you got into to know where to pick the kids. It's a very big deal here where you're going to college. So I I know from experience from two kids, seniors added to that list is probably college visits. I would say. And and then you have like the siblings who go with you because you're not going to go with your older kid and not bring your little kid because that's a waste of time to now go twice when that kid, you know. So now you're I think that could be added to the list probably for seniors. 18 days out of school is a lot of days. They have to go to college. They have to tour and you have to go a day then you

071have to get there for the next day for the tour. I mean like it's a list. add something else to this. Um, I don't totally agree with Sher's premonition that you have to go and your kids have to go, but clearly clearly I would think college visits is a big chunk. I think extracurricular is a big chunk. I think family travel is a big chunk. Uh, attendance leading up to AP is going to be a big chunk for juniors and seniors. I don't think there's anything in the world that you could do to get rid of those absent absentee days. I think that it's that's that's just what high school is. And with families and again, if you go back to the elementary schools, if you count the number of um you know, days before

072holidays when there's a Monday holiday and people are taking an extra day on a Friday or a Tuesday, you're you're not you're not going to rid yourself of those. I do think I do think that um items two, three, and four are the things that we should be concentrating on as a district in terms of special ed, mental health, you know, family dynamics, like the rest of it, I think, is it's it's going to it's not going to change. That's not going to change. People, you know, people go to see colleges, you know, kids play tennis, they go to they go to uh you know, extracurricular things. That's not going to change here. That's never going to change. But um you you could have again a handful of kids, a handful that are chronically absent

073for two, three, and four. And I I I really think that should be the focus of trying to fix. And I'll just go back to when my kids were in school. I have a dear friend who lived in this community who had a daughter that she literally couldn't get out of bed for a year and a half to come to school. Literally, the kid was suffering. And again, here it is now, 17 years later. She's she's married. She's got a career. She's a mother of four. And I would say that this district, they got her through that. They got her through that. She went to college and all of a sudden, you know, what happened here helped her succeed. The other stuff is is, you know, it's miscellaneous. I appreciate you saying that. I can

074tell you just from speaking to the to to the principles and also obviously from serving as a principal here in this district, the amount of home visits that we do, the work that we do with families, I mean, you know, the data isn't going to speak at all about the endless conversations that are happening on a daily and weekly basis about every one of these students. Um, you know, I can tell you that the principles know intimately the students that are showing up on these lists and where there are uh deeper issues uh that need to be addressed and whether it's our partnership with Northwell Health uh and quite frankly even working with uh some more extensive programs to get students the help that they need. Um there's phenomenal work that goes on but again

075I was asked to present our absenteeism. Obviously it's an ongoing concern and we going to get better. Just one last thing. Certainly at the lower levels, parents post pandemic are keeping their kids at home a little more often when they're ill. Before you had a cold, I got to go to work. I got to do this. They're going to school. today. There's clearly a reason the reason this was so I don't think you I think some people the reason this was brought up as a topic was because Jericho's numbers were so much higher than most other districts on Long Island like people keeping their kids home. Yeah, I I assume we're doing that at the same rate as others. Maybe not because some other parents aren't able to stay home with their kids as much

076as Jericho parents are. And so I'm just trying to focus on are there things here is there because there may be some inherent difference between us and all these other districts where our numbers are going to be higher and and so be it. There's nothing we can do about it. But if there isn't something we can do, please confer. Dr. Yeah, just a quick thing. I've been teaching seniors since 1993. It's the first year I'm not senior attendance has always been from it's the nature of it. Um students have always been involved in going and visiting colleges, going visiting colleges in the fall and going to visit college later on. And then you have the intensity of the APS. I can tell you as someone who's taught 10th grade the last 15 years against the

07712th grade, 10th grade attendance is very good. Senior attendance is poor. And that like I said has been the case since I've been here since 1993. Is that what is that? public school districts or is that a Jericho? It was. It was. I can tell you when I was in Hampton Bay, it was, you know, Hampton Bay was not the dramatically intensely focused school of education that Jericho was. And you have the paradox of our great success simultaneously leads to diminishment in senior year attendance. Thank you. I just want to thank my colleagues, principles who presented information. I appreciate you. You want to say something? No, I actually was just going to bring up, you know, I think it's an appropriate focus on those numbers two, three, and four. But I also wonder if the

078latter half which included sort of the family travel and um some of those other factors if there at what point um again only having school and elementary school kids do we as the parents get told okay you're at these number of days of absence which I'm doing the math in my head and kind of think okay 10% 15% and um I think some of it's just setting expectations for families you know I think there's a sort of a different experience of the benefit of travel family time experiential opportunities that you know bring communities together versus of course attendance in school and clearly that dynamic changes as they progress from a grade standpoint. But I'm just wondering if some of those latter pieces with like what is the family communication and setting expectations piece and then

079I was going to also just bring up I think those first three that you mentioned are very important and leaning into the mental health. I think right now our our work has been really at the grassroots level working with the individual families and you know at the older levels with the students themselves. Um but we're going to keep that in Thank you. Thank you. All right. We're going to uh move into opportunity for the public to be heard. Please note if you'd like to make a comment or ask a question, please tell us your name and affiliation if you are representing a specific group. If you would like your statement to be included in our board minutes, you must hand in a written copy of your remarks to our district clerk, Dr. Manuel, immediately before

080speaking. As always, although discussion on matters related to staff and students at which their reputation, privacy, or right to due process or those of others could in some way be violated is prohibited. We did have one letter that we read people in person. There were two additional Okay. communications that requested. Would anybody like to speak? Can I ask a question? Of course. Is policy 7300 going to first reading today? Uh, it it it will. Yes. Okay. Can I say something then? Sure. Sorry. So, um, you name Yeah, just sorry. Samarine. Um, four girls in the district. So, I had sent the board an email about this policy 7300, but I I wish I could have asked Max Sharp, I believe. Yeah. If he was asked about this policy because I know with the um cell

081phone policy, he was involved in surveys and data and a ton of other stuff. And I know multiple board members were very keen on getting data and input from the student body. And we're talking maybe a paragraph policy that exploded into something larger, but there was I think Dr. Harden and others did surveys, teachers, etc. We're talking about like a 60page policy now. And I don't know if anybody's actually read this policy. It's it's utter insanity. No disrespect. I think that not to cut you off, but I I I think discussion is going to be rather short with respect to that. That's fine. I just wanted so and one of the biggest concerns I have is there was a there was a section in there related to AI and specifically it said it said inappropriate

082use of chat GPT or other artificial intelligence. I just want to make this clear because I think a lot of people are seeing it now. The world is changing it in right in front of us like jobs aren't there. Careers aren't what they used to be. Computer science isn't computer science anymore. Our kids are going into this world. my juniors going in two years, kids graduating this year going into what they thought is computer sciences. I hope I hope and pray this board and the admin wakes up and realizes that these policies are going to hurt the kids. So the policy was in my opinion insane. It's too long. If anything, we can slice and dice individual policies within the board manual, but a 50 60page policy is overburden. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else?

083Uh I I have one question. Um I think if um we can have a few comments by um Ivy to talk about Earth Science regions coming up. I know that there's a lot of um concern regarding the the curriculum and the region. Well, not the curriculum, but the regions um being that it's a first year we're giving regions. I myself being an eighth grade parent have concern. I've spoken to to you about it. So maybe you can just let the public know. Sure. Um the new earth and space science regions is based on the new nextgen science standards. Our group of uh students who are taking this regions this year um have only been taught utilizing the nextgen standards. So if we we know they're prepared um we've been doing it for years. Um, we're

084testing them on what they t were taught, not on what they weren't taught. So even though the old regent is a common core based regent, our kids were not taught science in middle school based on the common core standards. So we're testing them on what they were taught, based on the standards that they were taught with. So So we shouldn't be concerned too much. No, I think we're prepared. Um, we've been prepared for years actually. Um, we've had resources out there. Um, our very own Kim Libertini has been training science directors all over Nassau County on the inquiries and investigations involved with the new NextGen standards and um, I think we're going to be just fine. Have we have we received any information at all as far as the um, examples of of questions or

085anything? No, we we don't have any um we don't have any hard data based on uh the new exam. Um we haven't seen it. The kids certainly haven't seen it. Um and we're waiting. We don't know what the state is going to do with the results as far as curves. It depends on the results. So, but historically with curves with first year, I guess test types. Yes. Are the curves usually greater? they they tend to be a little bit it's an unknown test um unknown questioning unknown structure so it tends to be a little bit higher and um our kids are going to be just fine we know they are if we would have waited till next year to participate in and I I understand we've been learn the kids have been learning this but

086if we would have waited because and I don't want to use the word pilot but if we would have said we're going to wait one year there's no guarantee that the would have had an extra year of of this year's um regents to practice regions. We're not even sure that regents would have been released. So, no guarantee because it is a brand new test and I would say more than half the state is taking the test now, but with the region, the reason we agreed to to move forward is because we're ready. We know we're ready. So, I think our kids are going to do just fine. Thank you. Victor, you have two letters. Yes. Um, two letters both by uh Sam Bini. First one, dear all, the Jericho joint council of PTAs is once

087again violating New York state law and binding court president by using school affiliated platforms to urge a yes vote in the upcoming school budget and proposition election. This is not neutral civic information. It is explicit political advocacy carried out under the banner and authority of Jericho public schools. Let's be absolutely clear. This behavior is illegal under Phillips versus Mau, the controlling decision from the New York Court of Appeals. It is also a violation of article 8 section 1 of the New York State Constitution, which prohibits school related entities from using public resource sources such as branding, perception, and communication platforms to influence the outcome of the vote. The post from the Jericho PTA Council was disseminated through a network of school branded Instagram accounts. These accounts name every school building, tag official PTA units, and

088issue a direct call to action. Vote yes. That is not education. That is express advocate advocacy and it is unlawful. Full stop. And the second one, um, it has been several days since I raised the issue of unlawful political advocacy by the Jericho Joint Council of PTAs. The lack of any public correction, response or removal of the material is not neutral. It is deliberate choice and at this point it signals complicity. Silence in the face of clear violations is participation. I also have it on good authority that district officials were directly involved in coordinating the PTA's newspaper advertisement urging a yes vote that ad was labeled paid for by Jericho PTAs and appeared at a local publication as part of a formal paid media campaign. If true, this coordination uh public employees with a nonprofit

089to influence a ballot measure is a violent is a violation of both ethics and law. To be clear, the actions taken by the PTA and potentially a district violate multiple layers of governance and regulation. Violations of New York State PTA standard bylaws. Article two, PTA units may not attempt to influence legislation, which includes school district propositions and budget votes. Article 7, executive board duties. The PTA board must ensure that the association complies with all legal and policy obligations, allowing or directing advocacy breaches that duty. Article 10, fiscal management expenditures must be properly authorized and documented. No public voter documentation has been produced to support this ad purchase. Article 11, transparency bylaws and officer lists must be accessible to the membership. Jericho PTSA has published neither. Violation of chancellor's regulation A660 used statewide as as a

090governance model. Section 1B PTA activity must focus on educational support. Political or legislative activities is expressly prohibited. Section 1D PTAs may not use school affiliated platforms or implied school authority to advocate. The Instagram accounts used include school names and branding. Section 2A. Each PTA must maintain and make public its bylaws and officer contact information. This has not occurred here. Section 4B. All financial transactions must be transparent and board approved. There is no documentation that the ad expenditure was properly authorized. Violations of law and president's president Phillips versus Mo. The New York Court of Appeals prohibits school affiliated entities from using any public resource to influence a voting elit. New York State state constitution article 8 section one public funds and affiliated resources cannot be used for political purposes. IRS 501c3 restrictions nonprofits may not engage

091in any political advertising or expenditure to influence legislation or ballot propositions. Despite these clear standards, the district has taken no corrective action. The PTA has published no bylaws. No contact information exists. No officer list is available. Yet it continues to function as a political mailpiece tied directly to school branding and perception. At this point, I have submitted a complaint to the Nassau region PTA and adii finalizing a federal IRS form 13909 filing. I have also begun preparing fire requests to uncover the extent of district coordination in these activities. If district personnel played any role in facilitating this advertisement or related advocacy, the matter was from PTA non-compliance to district misconduct. I strongly recommend the board and district leadership take immediate steps to investigate and publicly correct this behavior. I expect the board to take this

092matter seriously and provide a clear public response. Okay. Well, I'll read this one first and then this one is from Cherylyn Weiss to the board. Newsuesday reported the wrong result of the election. When Denise Nash, the communications and PR director, was questioned about this on a group email, I was CCd on. This was her email response in part when asked about the incorrect report and request to issue a retraction apology. I reported the correct information to News Day after the election last night. I alerted them to the mistake when it was brought to my attention today. I did not make a mistake. If you would like News Day to issue an apology to Kenny, please reach out to News Day and ask, "I don't have that authority." Isn't that Denise's job? How does she not

093have that authority? To make sure information is reported accurately and if not request a correction is made and a retraction apology be made. She should want Jericho to be represented accurately and by her job title. I believe it should be required in every way. I will comment that uh to my knowledge a correction did appear in new state investigation. I believe it Denise's. Okay. So, she wrote that and she did. Okay. Good. Yes. I know Denise contacted me for the correct. Okay. It appears correct. I'm using the online because I double checked it. This is from Alisandra Graco. Good evening. Given that Newsuesday incorrectly reported Jennifer Cammy as the winner of the 2025 board of education election, would the district or board leadership consider sending out the customary communitywide email announcing the official results? We

094were glad to see that as of yesterday afternoon, the accurate results are now posted on the district's homepage. This is especially important given that Kenny Jyn, a writing candidate, earned a seat on the board, a meaningful result that deserves clear public recognition. Thank you for your time, your service, and your attention to this matter. I was just going to ask, is it customary for us to send emails announcing results of the of the vote? I I believe we just added um it's in the board notes. It's in the minutes. Obviously, it's on tonight's agenda, the full uh item because it's the first meeting since um but you approved it that night and we put it on the uh website uh immediately. It was on under the budget vote vote announcements. When you clicked on that,

095the first thing that appeared the day after were the results. No, it was it was the someone people were calling me look for it. It was the bottom tab. You have to click to it. That's why I said Oh, it was under announcements. announcements is always in front of it. There was a tab for the election that stayed up for a week where you clicked on that. It was all about how to vote, right? So that's where people were going to. They didn't realize you have to go down to whatever. We will make sure it's much clearer next year. But I don't think they're going to pass an email communication. I don't remember. So that's right. Did we not live stream the the May 20th? We did. And I believe then we received an email

096saying the live stream wasn't available on our website. I think after the fact there was some technical issue, but I I I know for a fact we we live streamed from the auditorium that night where we congratulated Kenny and announced him the winner. So, just so it's clear that the the News Day issue was an oversight by News Day. We reported the the correct result 100% correct. All right. Wonderful. Two things. One, the election a year away. Hopefully remember in 12 months that we hopefully we'll discuss email that the April agenda next year. Two, with regards to Mr. Iranian's emails, is that something you can respond to now, Mr. Goodstead? Is that something you need to research and can respond to next month? What is the way through this? I I can respond. We first

097off the Jericho PTA is not affiliated with the Jericho school district. With regards to Philips Fau, that does speak to the fact that school districts cannot expend money towards budget elections and board candidates. When it comes to article 8, section one, that also applies to school districts only, not school, not not PTAs. With regards to IRS 501c3 regulations, PTAs and other IRS 501c3s can support a specific position in a budget. They cannot support specific people running for the board. With regards to PTA bylaws, I have no idea. I don't represent PTAs. I have no idea what the PTA bylaws say and nor am I going to look at them. And then with regards to the chancellor regulations, that applies to New York City only and has no bearing on Jericho School District. And then to

098ask the followup which I'm sure will come in a subsequent email. How do you differentiate between what is and is not a school? I don't know if the word is affiliate or part of it given that they have space on our district website given that they predominantly use district um assets. They use district property for for their events and they have um you you know have access to district classrooms and and things like that. How how's that differentiation made between what's school affiliated and what's not school affiliated? Well, it depends on Well, again, school affiliated is not a term used in the case law. That's what the term sorry school districts school districts cannot expend money. So, again, PTAs do have they do events on school district property. I agree with that. But when it

099comes to the payment for payment for ads and payment for stuff like that, they're the ones approving that. It comes out of their budget line. I I again, I don't I don't represent PTAs. I'm not going to defend the PTA. I'm just speaking as I defend school districts. That's my role. Um, and with regards to that, you know, just the fact that they have events on school property, so do a lot of organizations, but you're not responsible for them and whatever they do. So, the fact of the matter is just because the PTA does events on property. Whatever the PTA does with their own money is theirs. So, it doesn't matter that they have events on school property. It's how do they fund the how do they fund? But again, I don't represent the PTA.

100So, can I ask a followup? Sorry. Did No, it's fine. I I understand. I just want to make a point there. The PTA utilizes the the Jericho logos and purports to be the Jericho PTSA, right? And and in terms of the the actual account name, the colors, the logo, and everything. If you go on, and this is not specific to any of the elementary school ones because all those pages are available. If you go to the high school one, the page is blank. We don't know who the officers are. I'm a member of the PTA, but I've received no communication. No vote occurred to say, can we use this? And the post wasn't educational. It wasn't vote for this and here's what's happening. It was vote for this as if it's endorsed by the district.

101It just for me, do you guys want random accounts popping up with the district logo across other ballot measures? and and for or against. Like that's what doesn't make sense to me. Why the why there's like this cloak of secrecy, an anonymous uh Gmail account, you don't know who you're talking to. Like just make it who is the PTA? You're you're absolutely right because when I use the school logo for concerned Jericho parents, I got an injunction letter from our attorney Chris Powers many years ago. So that's all I'm asking is is I'm not trying to be combative. I'm right here. It's where the deal. But I don't know who you are. I'm supposed to How do I find out? So many people in this room know me. I don't Hi, Sam. Hi. Hi. This

102should probably be discussed at PTA meeting. In all honesty, I I just don't go to the I don't want to get into this now, Sam. I totally No, it's advocating for a ballot measure. Did a vote occur to spend that money on the paper? I'm asking a question. Can PTA answer? It's in the calendar. Do you get the district calendar? Did you have four kids? Did a vote occur for you guys to spend that money for the ad? It's a simple question. Yes or no? That that I don't know. I'm just lightly with you. We're not discussing it right now. Put the officer names on the website. They're on the calendar. You get the calendar. Please, ladies and gentlemen, calendar. Officer, this this is not something that's going to take place. I think this is

103an important discussion. The question is when is the appropriate time for the discussion? So when should it happen? At a PTA meeting at a PTA meeting. So so there's no oversight by the board in terms of what the PTA Sam to tell you the truth. He's saying there are legal questions but but Steve is not going to opine on them. I don't know if the PTA has but but there are cases there are cases and there are commission decisions on the No. There are cases there are cases and there are decisions on the use of district resources including logos including logos would be well aware of that I wouldn't get that's a different conversation and I think it's more than we want to get into post are not educational they're saying I have no problem

104with the ballot measure I'm just saying if you're the PTA stay neutral and educate the community on what's being voted on. Saying vote this is against like literally you can find the rules. It's not me making it up. I I'm just saying you are. It's just absurd that like the PTA hides and hides and hides and it's like make your names available online where the information is. You can't see bylaws. You can't see votes. And to tell me to go to Instagram and look at meetings or read a calendar, a paper calendar, then why are we using parent square? them. They can't stop the PTA. It's not Well, that's that's that's part my point. You need to speak with I just want to address one thing. This idea of a cloak of secrecy. There are

105myriad PTA meetings at every level in every building. There is no secrecy. The individuals running those officers of the main PTA. I'm speaking the officers. If you came to a meeting or looked at the calendar, you would know there are some available at the website. You also have access to all of your PTA information through the PTA sponsored give backs app. So you want it there's no information. If you are a paid PTA member paid there's no we will be happy to autoop populate which PTA you're part of whatever the main one is PTA let us know what the main the main account I'm not talking about the elementary school. What I'm saying is a cloak of secrecy is an inaccurate statement when there are many of us still here right now who are there

106spending time facilitating meetings conversations. There is an opportunity to get to know us. If you don't get to know us and don't come there it's inappropriate to use terms that are completely hold a vote for the expenditure. We don't discuss that. I'm not in the position Sam there are by minutes and all of those if I may I just I I appreciate the the spirited conversation you know with with respect to where the district stands on this. We're totally separate from the PTAs with respect to use of district resources. I'm sure the board's going to take a look at that. I do appreciate you using the but I but I but what I will say is I would uh you know prompt for a change in venue. Uh, and I think this would be best

107addressed at a PTA meeting. So, I'm going to move on if that's okay. All right. Uh, do we have any other communications, Victor? Nope. That's it. All right. Let's move on to new business. Authorization to execute agreement with scope 2025 2026 school year. Recommended motion. Be it resolved that the board of education authorizes the board president to execute the license agreement for the 2025 2026 school year by and between the Jericho Union Free School District and scope as shown shown in the attached. Do I have a motion? Motion. Motion. Second, Jen. All right, we have discussion issues. Yes, Mr. Superintendent. Are we still a member of the board of directors of the Scope organization? The Jericho School District is a member of Scope. Our superintendent has been on the executive committee for 20 years. I've

108also been in the role of president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary. I am no longer an officer, but I am on the board of directors. And do you envision be on the board of directors post June 30th? I plan on not being on the scope. And I will like to clarify that I received no remuneration for being any part of scope. I was going to help you clarify that. That was the next question. I knew you were going to ask that this way. I wanted to clarify before you asked. We're getting good at this after four years. We got it down. No, I know the allegations that you make. I just want to be clear. Allegation. Well, you see that's the wrong word. And then finally, you would you would classify this as an arms

109length negot arms length arms length contract. Absolutely. That's it. Absolutely. Yes. We receive services for our kids as does probably in excess of 75% of the school districts in both Nassau and Suffach County. And we appreciate Scope doing this for the afterchool program and we appreciate their other contract for the prek. So that's all I'm saying. Do we have a vote? All in favor? So car. Thank you. Acceptance of first reading policy 7300. District code of character, conduct, and support. Recommended motion be resolved that the board of education accepts the first reading of the following policy. District code of character, conduct, and support. Do we have a motion? We're going to do the motion then. No. No motion. Steve, what's the best way? I verify with Steve. Steve, your recommendation was to vote it down.

110So, do we make So, we make the motion and then and then vote it down. Don't make the motion. He's saying no. You saying don't make the motion and then vote down. What does that So, we can just That's an aspirational. Okay. So, we have the motion second divia discussion. So, I think the uh I don't want to speak for everybody, but I get a sense that the consensus is to scrap this policy and build one that's a little more straightforward from the ground. We don't want to say that to Mr. We're going to We appreciate his efforts, but I think we're going to move in in another direction. We appreciate it's not you, it's me. All in favor? No. They don't have that motion. Okay. You're right. All right. Opposed. Opposed. All right. So,

111unanimously unanimously opposed. Correct. Does not pass. All right. Authorization for board president to execute allied universal security. Recommended motion be resolved. Board of Education authorizes the president of the board to execute a memorandum of understanding by and between the jurian free school district and allied universal security systems as shown in the attached. So, I have a motion. 10. Second. Sam. Discussion. There's nothing material changing here other than the taking out of of Julius as as a now becoming a full-time employee here. So, it's just correct. That's the only difference. And and I'm not on their board of directors. Perhaps you should be. You'll have free time. In July, I will be and Julius is exceptional. We all We all love Julius. All right. Do we uh have a Do we have a All in favor?

112Unanimously, Carrie. Thank you. Everyone who wants to give Julius a standing ovation. Yeah. Julius is is is outstanding. The acceptance of donation. No. No cabinets. Always. Recommended motion. Be it resolved that the board of education accept a donation from the JF in the amount of $2,500 along with the yearbook club in the amount of $2,000 each to be used toward the purchase of Jericho flags to be hung on our light post throughout the campus. I just I don't understand what that means. What? There's a total of 4,500. It's it's it's two gifts in aggregate 4500. He had further resolved. Yeah. He had further resolved that the district increase budget code 82855501 uh 90000 in the amount of $4,500 for this purpose. Can we just take a first and foremost? Um the the board and and

113district is is always extremely thankful for these these generous gifts. Uh they're always put to good use and we we do truly appreciate it. Thank you for your generosity. Do we have a motion? Second. Jill discussion. So I just have a question. So how much is each flag and how many? I don't have the answer for that. We don't have a question yet. I think it's about 71 flags that are going to hang on the all the different light posts all around this campus. How many? I'm sorry. I missed. I think it's 71 light posts. Oh, yeah. It's the best way to describe it is in all our colleges, you may have seen different colleges on light posts like advertised in the schools. So, it'll be a lot of Jericho School of Excellence, Jay-Hawk stuff

114around the district. Ribbons. It's gonna be really classy. Yeah, it'll look great. Absolutely. Beautiful. All in favor? Yes. Oh, the kids are going to help design them. The kids are going to help even better. So, we'll have the the input from the students. All right. So, all in favor, thank you again for the generous gift. Conversations originally started in shared decision. All right. Uh now we're going to move on to approval of schedules. There's a number of them. There's going to be schedule G15213 as well as schedules 15175 through U 378 and we need to make sure that we add I took care of that. Y motion understand second discussion someone else you're always the first one to pick up microphone so I just get ready capital markets in the 10 of agreements um generally

115the same as last year same law firm same agreement it seemed like did we do 15 million last year on this part I didn't go back and look at this it's um the resolution was not to exceed 15 million And I think we ended up with 13. Well, we had pretty close last year. Yeah. And we're confident that's enough room. Um, we talked about that. I'm good. All right. I like to express once again my dissatisfaction that we have to use. I agree with you 100%. All right. So, and actually I do want to congratulate the superintendent on schedule 15194. Thank you for your hard dedicated work over the last 30 years. [Applause] Thank you, Jen. All right. Wonderful. So, we just need a a vote on the schedules. All in favor? All right. Unanimously

116carried. Wonderful. So, with that, um, before we close, I just want to congratulate our tenure recipients as well as Mr. Cummings on his new appointment as high school co-principal. [Applause] Congratulations. We have a motion to second. All in favor? Have a good night, everybody. Please get home safe. I'm a new wife.