March 2023 Board of Education Meeting

001see what it says okay Welcome to our March meeting can everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance 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 okay I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent for moment of silence this past month uh the prior superintendent of schools Dr Robert manheimer passed away he worked in Jericho from 1968 to 1998 serving as high school principal assistant superintendent superintendent and then director of the Jericho Foundation I would ask that we have a moment of silence in his memory it sounds good thank you this evening we have um several recognitions and we'd like to start off with a recognition of tenure recipient again earning

002earning tenure in Jericho is a challenging task and comes with much hard work four years of hard work um and this evening uh I think serious Ari is with us this evening sorry Sam please stand up and Terry grubstein congratulations and thank you for being with us this evening um also this evening we are excited to recognize uh one of our incredible Superstar teachers from the high school Matthew D marinus Matt is uh Matt please stand up Matt Matt has a uh has been recognized more times than our high school soccer team but I want to congratulate Matt on being recognized by the Harvard Club of Long Island for being a distinguished educator which he is and has been for the last 20 years congratulations Matt [Applause] thank you Hank um we um I'm going

003to take a motion to have public comments tonight limited to District residents and school community members only do I have a motion to be a second Chris discussion okay so we'll vote on it um all in favor all opposed okay it passes three two so tonight we're gonna take an opportunity for public to be heard we're going to only hear from District residents and school community members um next up Middle School student council nimisha divanji and Helen Wong good evening my name is Helen Wang and my name is namisha devjani we are Jericho Middle School student council Representatives pleasure to be here this evening February and March have been very busy months with a lot of wonderful things to report on on February 17th the Middle School celebrated Personal Best Day the point in the

004year where we reaffirm our commitment to doing our personal best the day began with activities reinforcing The Importance of Being good digital citizens next we took part in an assembly highlighting the dangers of addiction lastly this year saw the return of the student staff volleyball game the staff played well but students came out on top again Jericho Middle School hosted their annual Cupcake Wars on March 16th led by student leadership Cupcake Wars was a fundraising idea created by the student leadership back in 2012. it has since been a tradition at the middle school Cupcake Wars is a friendly competition among students to see who is the most creative and has the best tasting cupcake this year's theme was spring into action with what you love students were definitely ready to spring into baking as we

005had over 90 entries the student leadership group raised over 1 200 which will be donated to Saint Jude's Hospital Cohen's children Medical hospital and Partners in Health winners were announced and will receive their Awards prior to spring break the 7th grade student leadership group collected five bags worth of donations for North Shore Animal League leadership members were able to visit the animal shelter and learn how the animals are taken in and cared for the Middle School play spring production of if the shoe fits was on March 16th and 17th audiences were entertained by our talented cast as they brought to life a modern day version of Cinderella the mock trial teams competed at the annual BOCES tournament at Suffolk Community College on March 22nd students argued their case in front of actual judges and Jericho

006was victorious in 10 out of 12 trials congratulations to all can you spell amazing Helen Wang our Supreme speller representing Jericho Middle School recently ranked number nine in the Nassau County Regional spelling bee after passing a very challenging preliminary rounds in vocabulary word decorations and spelling congratulations Helen we are so proud of you [Applause] four members of the math counts team traveled to Saratoga Springs New York with Miss Morrow for the state level math counts competition as a team they came in first place here are the names of the JMS students that competed Kevin you in 8th grade Hunter Zhang in sixth grade Ryan Zhang in sixth grade and Banji is out in an eighth grade wanji was awarded a trophy for placing third during the Jeopardy style countdown round en was awarded a trophy

007for coming in fifth place individually for the entire competition on March 11th JMS had two teams compete in the regional Science Olympiad they placed 11th and 17th out of 37 teams below is a list of individual medal winners anatomy and physiology first Chloe Lewin Sanya Tariq bio process lab third Helen Wang and Adrian Zing Forestry first era zoo and Sandra Chen bio process second Chloe who and Jolena Wang ex are expensible the design third Jolina Wang Chloe who and Selena Chang the sixth and 8th grade CSL classes hosted a KitKat for kindness challenge last week students were given a choice board for which they were challenged to complete 15 of the 24 acts of kindness listed students who accepted the challenge were asked to record information about which acts of kindness they had completed on

008a Google form students who accepted and completed the challenge will earn a KitKat and a certificate on Friday March 24th 75 8th grade students participated in the National Spanish exam after school The Faculty advisor Elisa Waters is very proud of all the students who chose to participate in this language competition yesterday the Jericho Middle School screened A League of Their Own in celebration of women's History Month well that's all for now have a great evening [Applause] thank you nimisha and Helen and Helen maybe we could get your autograph after the meeting um high school student council Ruby Shanker and and some pan [Applause] hello oh okay sorry good evening Mr grushman board members Administration and the Jericho Community my name is Ruby Schenker and I'm Anson pan I will be filling in for Patrick and

009we wish him the best of luck tonight on February 13 students from our very own School newspaper the Jericho attended the Adelphi University press day where they were presented with quill Awards a big congrats to Madison Kane and will lefkowitz for winning first place for best feature article fill them up Zara Malik for winning most outstanding reporter Katie Tien for winning second place and best news article for controversy over illegal renting leads to change in board policy and the sports journalism staff for winning first for best sports story slash column for Friday Night Lights lastly we want to shout out the entire Jericho staff for placing third overall for the most outstanding newspaper if you want to read their articles look on the Jericho website [Music] our core students from grades 9 through 12 celebrated

010pop music by performing hit songs in a pop concert on the evening of February 15th in the show's Grand Finale all grades combined saying you can stop the Beat from Hairspray the musical it was a wonderful experience and so much fun for everyone of all ages celebrate Black History Month our music to partner with the Louis Ian to make Jazz history come to life here in Jericho during a daytime assembly our jazz band played for our students in the band's Orchestra on chorus however it wasn't just our students who had the opportunity to appreciate this music there was also a teacher Workshop where they were able to learn about Louis Armstrong and his Musical and cultural impact on March 3rd grades competed in the highly anticipated Battle of the classes 2023 combined with Wellness day

011students showed their school spirit while practicing healthy mental habits it was a lot of fun for everyone of all grades in the grand finals of the battle of the classes the seniors beat the sophomores to be crowned battle champions we also want to commend the cast and crew of Frozen for putting on an incredible show a few weeks ago Not only was the community impressed by the performances but the representatives from Disney were also blown away by the level of Polish and professionalism on display of course none of that would have been possible without Mr grishman and the Board of Education support and the countless hours of work by Miss Renato and her team of hard-working adults Jericho as a community strives to be inclusive and welcoming to all and we were able to show

012that to the world with Frozen Jericho's music department hosted this year's annual piano Nismo festival for Nassau County on March 11th close to 300 Jericho students participated and showcased their musical talents 12 of our students scored a 100 on level 6 which is the highest attainable score on the highest level the festival was a huge success because of the planning of Jericho's music staff and Triumph students throughout the week of March 13th our language Department hosted a World Language week every day in between periods or periods our students got to enjoy music from all over the world and the hallways were festively decorated by the language honor Societies in our school this is an amazing week this this amazing week ended with diversity day performance put on by the Jericho United Club teachers were able

013to bring down their students during periods 8 9 and 10 to watch the daytime show the auditorium was packed with students who were singing and dancing along with the performers parents and the Jericho Community were able to watch the show later on in the evening the event was surely standing room only it was certainly a busy week at Jericho High School with the spring Sports season starting during this season we have girls badminton uh boys tennis girls and boys golf girls and boys lacrosse boys baseball girls softball co-ed track and field and unified basketball we wish the best season to our athletes come out and support the nests go Hawks earlier this month 16 Jericho high schoolers took part in the 2023 fbli State leadership prejudged events conference it gives us great pleasure to announce

014that all seven of our teams placed top five in their respective categories and will be joining 35 other club members at the official state Leadership Conference held at Rochester next month a big congrats to the seven teams placing and business ethics business plan coding and programming community service project digital video production E-Business and website design here we would like to recognize not only the hard-working club members in fblite but also the diligent Club advisors Jessica rogowitz Nicole Izzo and Michael golden who have shown nothing short of dedication and compassion this past year we wish all of our FBLA State attendees the best of luck moving forward the choices and conferences uh consequences Junior driving meeting was held on the evening of March 22nd this meeting was mandatory for any Juniors interested in driving to school

015the next school year during this meeting our Juniors learn about the responsibility that comes with driving and how to be the best drivers they can be seriously clear the roads for these new drivers our mock tile team has has had tremendous first team in Jericho history to qualify for the semi-finals of the Nassau County division for the New York State Bar Association Mock Trial Competition this is Jericho's best performance in all of its years competing and would not have been possible without the dedication of the mock trial team and their advisor Ms Sultan we wish the best of luck to the mock trial team moving forward this past weekend the model Congress Club took a trip to the University of Pennsylvania for a competition this trip introduced an opportunity to speak with other like-minded individuals

016from across the country building valuable relationships understanding various issues from unique perspectives in our nation and honing leadership skills in the process congrats to all the Jericho students who won awards Elaine Zhang won best delegate Tara karami Vivek carpalani and asaha Sharma all one honorable mention the club wants to give a special thank you to their advisors Miss Hines and Mr Bodie for taking them on the trip and they can't wait for more in the future also this past weekend the environmental Club helped out with Jericho steam day to Foster community and collaboration in the field of science in total around 150 visitors and volunteers had the opportunity to interact with hammers machines and old musical instruments throughout the day the environmental Club provided Swag Bags bracelets pencils and water bottles the attendees and feedback

017garnered from faculty and students was overwhelmingly positive on Monday March 27th the Jericho jazz band under the direction of Michael uh Michael bloodman performed a variety of pieces in their concert their set consisted of pieces with Styles ranging from Disney uh with The Incredibles theme to Old classes Classics such as nostalgia in Times Square by Charles Mingus their intentions with this performance were to show how vast of a style jazz is and how it is often mixed with other styles such as Latin and Funk this show was able to Spotlight their talent and with many improvised solos overall it was a huge success this past Tuesday and Wednesday were the art and try M Honor Society induction ceremonies students officially become members of the Honor Society after completing a Year's worth of induction requirements the

018thespian and National Honor Society will be hosting their induction ceremonies next Monday and Tuesday in the middle and high school auditorium third quarter ends tomorrow Friday March 31st the PowerSchool portal and campus reads will not be able to be accessed after 3 30 PM you will not be able to see the grades for the third quarter after spring break this year has flown by and we can't wait uh we are already in our last quarter of high school on April Fool's Day be sure to check out the chair uh-oh edition of our school newspaper the Joe Rocco publication will have silly articles written by our award-winning writers and in this special volume our creative writing classes have prepared satire videos about the latest and most ridiculous things only found here at Jericho High School only

019the best videos from each class will be posted and it's definitely something that you don't want to miss thank you for listening to our updates and we hope you guys have the most fabulous spring break happy Easter Passover and Ramadan to all those who celebrate and we will see you soon thank you Ruby and Ensign um PTA Council reporter Allison Edelman good evening Mr grishman Board of Ed members Central Administration faculty staff and community members I'm Allison Edelman and I'm the president of the Jericho joint PTA Council and it's my pleasure to be here tonight the Jericho joined PTA Council has had a busy month at our last joint PTA Council we hosted Dina and michellini from Aramark Xena has done an excellent job meeting with staff parents and students getting feedback on our school

020lunch programs she has updated our menus to include foods that are more appealing for our students we now include pizza every day at the middle school and high school enhanced our salad bar adding turkey and other Cola cuts and even have fresh baked cookies the Aramark Edition has been very beneficial and we hope it continues along with Deena's leadership in the future at this point all of our units executive boards have met with Mr grishaman Victor Manuel Ivy chairman and Denise Nash these conversations have been very constructive and beneficial we share ideas and learn from each other we're grateful to have this open line of communication between parents and central office this month the PTA Council has also met with our Board of Education we talked about community relations student stress Security in our buildings

021and more we'd like to thank the board of education for meeting with us listening to our thoughts and ideas we look forward to more dialogue in the future each of our units are putting together their nominated committees to build new leadership for next year we welcome and encourage parent involvement at every level research has shown that students do better in school when parents are actively above children generally achieve better grades higher test scores and better attendance if you have any questions about getting involved in our ptas please speak to your building principals and they will direct you to the right place after three years parent volunteers were thrilled to serve lunch to our teachers faculty and staff for the middle school high school staff appreciation lunch we called faculty Fiesta it was such a nice

022celebration including food from the guac shop a local Mexican restaurant live music and fresh guacamole were the perfect way to say thank you to our staff and faculty we are very appreciative for all you do for our children the Elementary staff luncheons will take place later in the year book Fair's Multicultural performances Park game nights and other events that our ptas have been working on and our children have been enjoying finally we'd like to congratulate all the faculty and students involved in the production of Frozen I was lucky enough to attend and have to say it was an amazing performance from the sets costumes musical performance to the acting the show was a hit thank you to everyone who supported our theater program we look forward to many more shows in the future we wish

023everyone a very happy Easter Passover and a restful vacation thank you and have a good night [Applause] thanks Allison um presentation of SEPTA Grant Gina Levy thank you hi good evening everyone that's here um it is my privilege as president of SEPTA to be able to announce the Jericho SEPTA Grant initiative Awards um the emphasis of this is to fund technology projects programs that Inspire enhance and enrich the standard of education for students in the Jericho School District we look for creative ideas that utilize Universal Design in learning augmented social emotional development learning intricate technology in the classroom or to promote equal access for students with disabilities this year we have received three wonderful grants that we are so happy to propose uh that we can that we're proposed that we can fund thank you

024and with me I just want to to introduce our co-vp for SEPTA another co-vp Cindy Margaret and Venita and we're all here to help represent these wonderful things um the grant for 268.92 for a differentiate differentiated scavenger hunt in the Jericho school science for enl section of a small group that was presented to us by Ms Friedman is a wonderful project for Hands-On and visual site recognition to learn the process of photo protein I'm sorry protein synthesis Excuse me while looking for Clues and the color-coded messages in teams the students will be Hands-On learning in various ways and they will be very well prepped for their tests Miss Friedman are you here this evening can you stand up I thought I saw you thank you so much for helping our students in every way and

025coming up with these original wonderful ideas can you please stand up we awarded you a grant for 352.25 for sixth grade Living Museum for the Jericho Middle School the program is a Living Museum that helps students be highly engaged and motivated at the end of each of their units of ancient civilizations they will share their knowledge with others with the ability to choose a topic for their Museum station while running the museums they are also working on a common goal and have a feeling of ownership community and cohesiveness as students interact with visitors speech and language and SEL goals are targeted while having fun we can't wait to see the museum thank you so much [Applause] the last Grant is from Miss Pascarella okay she's okay the grant for 420.34 cents for the Jericho Middle

026School skills development class coffee crew project it's a unique idea to help Foster interaction interaction skills in the school community and support relationships with peers and staff featuring guest Baristas to model interaction and pairing up students in various classes will incorporate student speech Health Ela and life skills lessons all at once the goals for the students in this program that has been described will help set the students not only in school settings but in real life outside world situations so we'd like to congratulate all of you for doing so much for our students thinking out of the box and making these proposals happen and that we can are proud through our SEPTA membership that we can support you on this and to everybody else have a wonderful break in holiday thank you thank you Gina

027and thank you for the grants on behalf of the students and the teachers really appreciated and they're going to get a lot out of those programs um we're going to try to move through the business portion pretty quick some of the business quickly so we can just make sure we get that done um there's a resolution but we already did approve it so we don't need to do the resolution again but our April board meeting has been moved to April 19th it's the Wednesday before the date that's in the calendar which was the 20th so just Mark that on your calendars but we don't need to um do that tonight we're going to do um a few resolutions together um we're going to do numbers 6 through 11 execution of agreement with scope be it

028resolved that the Board of Education authorizes the board of President board president to execute an agreement by in between the school district and scope for after-school child care for the 23-24 school year acceptance of two donations 100 from cantiac and 75 from Heist Jericho High School PTSA for Cool Beans catering um intermunicipal agreements with Port Washington ufsd herrick's ufsd Franklin Square usfd be it resolved at the Board of Education approve the attached 2324 intermunicipal agreements to offer maintenance and repair services in the Jericho Transportation facility for the three schools I mentioned and okay and those do I have a motion to approve those three those sorry six through eleven resolutions Sam second Jen any discussion all in favor thank you now I'm gonna do 12 through 17 which is um Federal single audit report June

02930th 2022 recommended motion the Board of Education acknowledges receipt of the federal single audit report of school district external auditor Colin Anthony for the year ended June 30th 2022 um the State Environmental Quality review X sequra where is the Board of Education desires to Embark upon the following Capital Improvement projects and there's a whole bunch listed there and be it resolved at the board hereby declares itself lead agency in connection with the requirements of the State Environmental Quality review act and you have to review the proposed action declares that projects are type 2 actions which requires no further review under Secret number 14 proposition number two May 16 2023 be it resolved at the Board of Education hereby authorize the following proposition to be included on the ballot of its annual meeting on May 16

0302023 the Board of Education authorized to spend expend a sum not to exceed seven million 243 795 for a bunch of Capital Improvements listed on this on the resolution number 15 notice of annual meeting be it resolved that the Board of Education adopt the attached notice of annual meeting and election of board members for the Jericho ufsd Board of Education and for the Jericho Public Library trustees and Adoption of the budget for the 23-24 school year be it resolved that the Board of Education adopt the proposed budget of 135 million 149 020 for the 2023-24 school year and be it further resolve at the voting machines appropriate appropriately reflect that amount and the last one the library budget be it resolved that the Board of Education authorized the 2324 Jericho Public Library proposed budget in

031the amount of 5 million five hundred ninety one thousand nine forty six and the amount to be raised by taxes for the 23-24 to be 5 million three hundred eighty six thousand nine hundred eighteen as approved by the Board of Trustees on March 14 2023 and the voting machines appropriately reflect such amounts do I have a motion to approve all of those resolutions Chris second gen any discussion just kidding Mr manual talk about the difference between the amount raised and the tax amount the amount the budgeted amount in the tax amount sure the um the full budget amount is what is shown on the ballot and on the uh resolution tonight of 135 million one hundred and forty nine thousand and twenty dollars which is a 3.9 percent increase on the expenditure side of the

032budget um on the tax levy or recommendation for that budget would be 111 million eight hundred and twenty six thousand fifty three which is a 2.77 increase year over year let's talk about the library budget the the my apologies the library um approves their own budget they bring it to the district and what we're doing basically is not necessarily adopting their budget we're just approving it to be allowed to go on the ballot in uh on May 16th and so I guess where's the other two hundred thousand dollars coming from sort of the for the library yeah I I couldn't answer that we don't do the library budget okay uh I have a question uh regarding number um the external auditor um can you just explain how um do we do how do we approve

033the bid you know what are the factors that we take into consideration as far as when we um approved you know which one's a bit um the number 12 is the actual that's in the schedules that's later this is this is the audience sorry okay any other comments questions all in favor thank you approval of schedules id13231 through u352 do I have a motion Jen second Chris all any discussion all the schedules well we always do all the schedules at once Jen this would be the yes yeah so same question yes um I guess my question is you know how do we choose so um we drafted an RFP I don't remember the exact date but about two months ago um we sent it to approximately 10 if I remember correctly 10 auditing firms uh

034known to have school district experience throughout the state uh there were four respondents and attached are the results of those four respondents and I forwarded the actual um detail of the respondents um I think yesterday when when I was asked for it um as far as the decision right there's different amounts for each year right um there's a total uh total hours and there's an average cost so right which factors are we taking into consideration because the numbers with respect with respect to cost um for the most part I think the top three were relatively well the first one is 242 500 then you have 231 700 then 230. so so but then we also have hours and then average cost per hour so I'm not sure so the way we looked at it first

035of all with RFP don't have to take the lowest um amount but when you when we looked at it again the top three were relatively even on the annual dollar amount of forty six thousand forty four thousand forty five thousand um they also provide we asked for this in the RFP how many hours they anticipate that it would take to do the audit and that's indicated in the total number of hours and then on the right column is basically the annual fee divided by the hours to come up with what the hourly uh rate is we've had um Colin danowski from for many years um I I find them to be extraordinarily thorough um they they look at everything they're here for five days during the month of May just doing some preliminary work uh

036they're here for another week week and a half early August again looking in depth at our closing entries and our financial statements there's tremendous amount of work between that time in August through the end of September when the audit report is presented to the board they have usually some types of recommendations for us to follow through after those recommendations are presented we provide a report back to the board and to the state saying what are we going to do to correct those items they listed in the recommendation and that's how the audit process works and again um I've had experience with three of the four listed here um I I find Colin endanowski uh to be again extremely thorough um they look through literally everything all right so we don't have to go with who's

037weren't the cheapest they were all around the same and I would argue actually they maybe they are because they're putting in a tremendous amount more hours than the other companies what factors okay that answers my question thank you I have a question about the um the cafeteria report um I don't remember exactly but I know that we had been operating at a gain and now it looks like we're at a loss and I know this is for January and that's the first month that we had the outside context didn't you just explained sure uh January actually included the payment to a remark for both the months of December and January so it was a double payment during that month um going forward it'll be just the single payment for each month going forward on the

038cafeteria report um and again when we brought in our Market it wasn't uh it wasn't for the reason of we're going to save a lot of money doing this it was for the quality um and to bring the school lunch program to uh to another level um I I it's difficult to turn to determine at this moment two months in because again the first four months we didn't have them and now we have them to determine specifically where we will end at the end of the year um but again the the product is the reason why we went to this and so far we're hearing very good reports back um from the community you heard it in Alison's report earlier uh and from the students Gina has been meeting with student groups uh in every

039single building uh multiple times at the high school to get feedback and she puts that feedback into action uh pretty quickly so we're we're extremely satisfied with the uh with the product at this point thank you great thanks to to Mrs point is the hiring of the Otters the approval of that contract time sensitive tonight or is that something that can wait till May until May I'm sorry until the April meeting sorry I forgot what month we're in sometimes it's well I don't know if they're if they need to do work or they need the approval uh I put it on tonight and I timed it this way so we could begin the process of scheduling them to come in and moving the process forward I only ask because as you said it was only

040this week that that we got the um the proposal so I've only gone through them a little bit it's just for a five-year contract for something that's important I was hoping we could get some more time if it's possible if it's a time sensitive thing we need to move forward then we'll move forward I do I do want to say it's not a locked in five-year contract it's one year with the ability to re-up annually after that I just wanted to make that clear then that solves most of the problem great thank you I have a question regarding the revenue status report um the can you just explain what is the government narc program the AAC that's the The Oasis uh drug free program um that it's a grant uh through the state we've had

041it since before I've started here for many years probably 20 years um and it just provides allows us to provide programs um to talk about drug-free schools and you know not to do drugs and the social workers involved and part of their salary is paid through that and can you also explain for the medical uh asst I don't know if it's medical assistance health related we had a zero budget for that adjustment of 120 000. that's Medicaid reimbursements um it's impossible to track what you may get in any particular year I have a question on the um it doesn't matter the schedule number there there's a one month emergency transportation contract for the month of sorry there's a one-month emergency transportation contract why did we need a one-month emergency um and at one month emergency

042contract allows us to go out to bid uh for that contract so you need to provide transportation immediately you do an emergency contract and and during that time while you're in that emergency contract you go out for bid for it no I understand that but what don't we already have a contract for transportation so this is an additional this is probably I don't know the specific specifics of this but 99 of the time it's a student that's going either to a special school or to a private school that we weren't currently going to or um or we actually weren't currently going to so it would be a new route that we would have to go out to bid for um I have a question um Care Act Administration agreement are they acting as a broker

043what role do they play they act as a consultant to assist us with um putting forward what we need to do for the Affordable Care Act they're not a broker they make sure that we're meeting the regulations that we're meeting the 95 percent of people of employees receiving health insurance so they they track all of that for us and they send out the 1095s so wouldn't our wooden our CPAs be helping us with the forms 10 the 1095s No No completely separate these the the all of the Auditors are auditing they're not providing a specific service other than auditing what you've done any other comments questions okay all in favor of the schedule approving the schedules thank you um superintendent report with that vote Sarah you now have tenure congratulations again [Music] congratulations and welcome

044to your family I I can't believe that uh we're about to start the third quarter um it's it's amazing how quickly this school year has unfolded uh and it is the third quarter and we are going to uh move into April and start to wind down um I'd like to start off with our enrollment report our enrollment uh as of March the 24th was 3 346 students that is an increase of 14 students over the prior report in February um again we mentioned that the last board meeting I just want to re-mention that uh we have expanded our upk program that will be running in the Ratner Seaman school we will be running five classes uh starting in September uh and we are already uh working on planning for uh the opening of two additional

045classes in September and we're looking forward to that um over the last month of March I can't believe the number of recognitions that we've received from our students and from staff members um and just a you know a quick list of um of recognitions and um notes of accomplishment to regeneron finalists New York State diving Championship jaredco uh receiving awards at the Adelphi conference the uh the the musical production Frozen was just absolutely over the top um kids uh attending and um finishing in the top in isaph and liseth competitions sending three kids to the uh Long Island spelling bee finals uh sending kids we're about to send some kids to the Vex Internationals in Dallas um a number of kids that finished and I think the number may have even hit 30 in the

046National History Day going to the state finals uh the number of students the large number of students who participated in the Long Island piano festival and did so incredibly well uh same thing with FBLA the state conference and how well our students did that's a smattering of the the March recognitions and I'm sure I'm leaving out another half a dozen but again so proud of the many many recognitions um and accomplishments of our students throughout the year and especially over the last month um earlier earlier this evening and let me start off with just talking a little bit about security obviously uh the the issue of security uh is on all of our minds um are we safe are our kids safe in the Jericho schools what are we doing to I ensure the safety

047and that has always been a a very high priority with our Board of Education and in our school Community um we have worked very closely over the probably over at least the last five years uh with the Nassau County Police Department who have been a huge resource for us walking us through drills and activities and giving us constructive criticism on our security measures in addition to the the tremendous support we receive uh from Nassau County Police Department uh we also entered contract about five or six years ago with Altera salteras is a private security company that comes in and does a an evaluation of your facility and in addition to that they do staff training they do administrative training teacher training regarding all the aspects of state requirements above and beyond the state requirements earlier

048today the Board of Education met with the Deputy Commissioner of the Nassau County Police Department along with the deputy CEO of the second precinct to give us a brief update on the security measures and the response rates for Nassau County Police to the school districts and also to houses of worship um one of the the outcomes are where we are right now is we have asked the representatives from alteras to re-review all of our practices and all of our facilities and to make recommendations to the Board of Education uh they're currently wrapping up that process and we expect that we will have a written report from altaris before our April board meeting additionally we've requested um and again Ben Ben has coordinated that we've requested from the Nassau County Police Department and and their Homeland

049Security affiliate uh also a complete review of our district facilities our practices and the policies that we have in place uh they will be beginning that process for us once again on as soon as we come back from our April vacation uh so we expect that we will have information from them also uh in the in the month of of April so we look forward between our April board meeting and our May board meeting to report back to the board uh the specific recommendations that we receive from both a agencies and some administrative recommendations in terms of what is what is the work that we need to do to our facilities over the summer to prepare for September based upon the recommendations uh so again that that is a a high priority and one that

050we will keep the board and our school community and our staff well aware of I will add to that conversation that consistently we get very positive reviews from both alteris and from the Nassau County Police Department for the practices we do have in place for the physical um accommodations that we've made to our facilities and I can sit here and and share with you as I've shared with the board uh that I frankly sleep better at night now knowing what we have in place and the feedback that we have received and continue to receive from our partners from the police department and from altaris we're always looking at strategies of how can we make that announce better a pound better and that will be the process that we'll look out through the spring uh we

051have begun the recertification process spent I wonder whether you can give us a quick update on where we are in the recertification we've mailed out all the re-certifications uh for the grades involved we actually did a second mailing this week to remind people we're at about a 37 response rate and quite frankly we're not thrilled with that we'd like you to uh try to improve that so those of you who are out there who are holding that um that re-certification documentation that we've sent to you we urge you to get it as quickly as possible um uh we really expected it to be a little better than 37 at this point we'll keep on reminding you we'll keep on bugging you but but the bottom line is we really need that done as soon as

052possible if you have any question within the document that you receive there's a phone number there's an email shoot us a phone number you know shoot us a phone call give us an email we'll be happy to help you through the process but please we need to respond okay thank you Dr shifa do you have the breakdown between fifth grade and eighth grade I do someplace okay so right now the Middle School um has one here okay 101 out of 287 responses uh in the elementary schools have um anywhere between 27 and 49 responses at about 100 each okay uh Jackson is leading the pack with 49 and 49 uh in the middle school is at about 35 right now so there's about 100 out of a total of almost 300 at the middle school

053so about a third it's completed at Middle School foreign thank you Ben are we sending we're sending reminders out where we've not received uh responses great thank you Ben the last item that I have is that I mailed a um I sent out an email to our parent Community about two weeks ago uh talking about an investigation um the school district has hired an independent investigator to review um the issue that we spoke about or that we mentioned the investigation is currently ongoing Again by an independent um out of district attorney um they've been over 30 interviews that have taken place so far and the report back that we've received to date is that the investigation should be concluding within about the next week or two and the Board of Education should receive a report

054on that investigation uh sometime in the month of April hopefully early in the month of April um and that concludes my report now we're going to move to the opportunity for the public to be heard as we voted earlier in the meeting we're only going to be taking comments from District residents and school community members if you'd like to make a comment or ask a question please tell us your name and address and if you're affiliated with the group the name of the group if you'd like your statements to be included in our board minutes you must hand a written copy of your remarks to Victor immediately before speaking as always public discussions on matters relating to staff and students at which their reputation privacy or due process or those of others could in some

055way be violated is prohibited thank you madam president just a couple of other comments please with reference to that that statement statements concerning individual students and individual staff members should not be entertained by the sport of education and I caution the board that such rule also has to be applied uniformly across the board must be Viewpoint neutral meaning we cannot accept comments concerning an individual staff member they're positive and say we'll hear from you we will not consider negative statements that is not permitted so my recommendation to the board tonight is that statements concerning individual staff members or individual students not be entertained by the sport of Education thank you and Chris I just wanted to um if you could just point out what were what we aren't allowed to discuss with respect to the

056investigation very little it's an ongoing investigation part of your responsibility is to maintain neutrality until the investigation is before you so you can make some critical decisions concerning that matter thank you okay so as I said if anyone wants to speak come up to the microphone and state your name address and affiliation thank you yeah um a high uh good evening I'm happy to be here uh this I'm Ethan Brown I'm a junior at Jericho High School so I want to bring the attention to uh to the board about uh snow days and the fact that we didn't have so now this is sure while it uh yeah or so um so Monday Night February 27th it snowed it was a major first major snowstorm uh this year and by Tuesday Morning the the grad

057was covered with snow but still we had school like normal it was as if the snow was insignificant however many schools across Long Island uh either had a delayed opening I had delayed openings according to News 12 Huntington schools delay their their opening on Tuesday morning why didn't we have one too I I wish we did uh uh driving the snow results in an increase our risk of accidents and car crashes it's necessary to place that risk on our a beloved teachers students parents and custodial stuff when we could simply have a delayed opening and avoid this problem altogether there's nowhere for students to wake up in finding snow no school too and adults as well yeah nothing beats it yeah while the state mandates 180 days of instruction we're on target to complete more

058than that I believe it's 186 or 185 uh you probably know that more than me but well more than the required number uh so next snow storm for the safety and well-being of our community I and many other students ask for delayed opening or snow day depending on the severity of the snowfall uh next snow storm I asked Sarah Coast School administration to consider uh giving us some time off foreign thank you it's interesting I've heard that from many students in the district including some relatives in the school district as well um in uh making the decision for snow days is a very difficult one and it's one that starts at about three o'clock in the morning with an assessment um from our bus company from the police department on the safety of the roads

059uh on that date there was not one delay in Nassau County Nassau County every school district opened on time that morning believe me I would have loved to have been up the three o'clock four o'clock five o'clock and gone back to bed for a couple of hours that morning but we felt that the uh the roads by the time our buses were on the roads and our staff were driving it to school that the roads were safe um again probably one of the most difficult decisions that superintendents make because they're making that decision uh three four o'clock in the morning based upon weather forecasts based upon temperature variations based upon you know the Topography of each district and I have to tell you that if I had a look back on the snow days that

060I've called over the last 30 years uh probably a third of them um we're we're called one way or the other way that I would love to go back and do it the other way around it's a difficult decision we do the best we can but thank you for your comments and I appreciate them yeah [Applause] yeah thank you um Edge uh yeah thank you so much for you know and and at this point we are not expecting any additional snow days between now and June I hope so too I'm Juliana feigenbaum do you need my address no I just want to ask what were the regulations and the rules about that investigation that we are and aren't allowed to speak about can you repeat those well it's an ongoing matter that's under investigation uh

061just be clear what the investigation is about investigation that was into certain issues concerning a staff member here I'm not going to go into detail as to what the investigation has unveiled revealed at this point the Board of Education upon receiving that information will be making some critical decisions but that's not the kind of thing we talk about here in a public session this is not a Personnel matter that's for public discussion tonight so as parents where what is the proper platform for us to discuss you can actually communicate with the Board of Education via email okay thank you but but again to underline the the board is is at this point because the investigation is ongoing is constrained in terms of of how they can respond to you know but as parents we feel

062constrained I feel uncomfortable sending my children to class I know who you're talking about I know who's being investigated she she is a bully a bully and as parents this is exactly we're not allowed to speak sure I have this is exactly what I was I had four children in this district four four and I don't feel comfortable sending my children to class because I don't think in the spirit of transparency you guys know what the teachers are teaching I don't think there's any control and I do not think I do not think that our children are quote unquote safe they might be safe because there are these amazing people keeping our children safe but what they're being fed is poison and on top of it it's not the teacher's business to teach those things

063to our children that's a mother and a father's right [Applause] thank you I wrote a whole letter but obviously I'm not allowed to read it but I just want you to know as a parent I feel constrained I feel compartmentalized and unsafe our children have been silenced they have been called names they shouldn't be called they've been told not to speak they've been called told not that they're not allowed to say certain things which is terrible it's terrible we are teaching our children to be scared thank you I appreciate your comments and I feel compelled to respond um Administration in this District stands ready to receive specific complaints as we do on a regular basis and I encourage somebody who has a specific concern to please contact your building administrator if you have a specific

064concern please contact your your your students teacher one of the strengths that I believe exists in this district is the open communication that exists between our parents our kids and our staff and I think one of the one of the strengths that this district has been built on is the relationship that exists between all interested parties in the school district I truly believe we are who we are based upon that communication I will also say to you um that in our elementary schools our teachers are our administrators are in classrooms multiple times a day there is supervision that takes place especially and I'll start with in our elementary schools for 18 months for 18 months we were teaching our kids in your living rooms you heard every statement and every lesson that our teachers shared

065with our students kindergarten through 12th grade you had an opportunity and our parents did have an opportunity to watch the quality of instruction that our teachers delivered to our kids and again the number of compliments we received during that time period for the incredible work that our teachers did during the most challenging time in my lifetime um again I think speaks to the relationship between teachers and kids and speaks to the the philosophy of the school district um our priority I talked earlier about the priority of security our security the priority of security also includes the health safety of our kids and and again the the priority that we support all of our kids in our school district yes we are swimming video for on our team continually but not everyone is perfect and you

066don't control everything [Applause] you know as this goes look I I think everyone's aware of what we're referring to and clearly based on the emails that we've received as a board there's there's an issue of trust that has been damaged over the past few weeks and I think it's up to this board and up to this Administration to take comments like we heard in comments that we've seen and take them to heart and figure out how we do better and how we rebuild that trust and how we instill in everyone in this community the right types of procedures and processes to make sure that the types that those concerns are addressed and um and if necessary corrected [Applause] can you come to the microphone please thank you and just tell us your name my name

067is prachi Daria Madras 11 Stone Arch Road or Westbury um I didn't plan to ask a question I actually walked in late uh but I just had a and we've all watched the video that we're referring to my question was how does the school district plan to approach tenure and complacency hand in hand I just because you have tenure doesn't mean you can go in and just say whatever you wanna and think your job is safe thank you thank you every teacher in the school district is supervised whether they're a probationary teacher or a tenure teacher every teacher is supervised we are extremely Vigilant in our supervision the number of visits both formal and informal in classrooms um is regular and ongoing the granting of tenure in this district is a very rigorous rigorous four-year

068process where there is a great deal of supervision during those four years but that also continues after after the probationary period I feel very comfortable that the teachers to whom we Grant tenure as we did this evening are teachers who have worked hard to do to be exemplary in the classroom satisfactory and Jericho does not work and again our standard is satisfactory is not the standard the standard is exemplary and I do believe that the teachers the teachers in this District who've earned tenure are exemplary and the ones that we Grant tenure to have shown uh exemplary performance in the four years that they've been here that does not preclude that does not preclude that there are um that there are times where it is necessary to provide enhanced supervision or uncomfortable discussions which which

069our Administration does when necessary thank you really uh Jack Benson 16 Wimbledon Court who's exactly handling the investigation or are we privy to know who's doing the investigation is it a team of social workers is it a team of teachers from what I heard in the video it's a little bit appalling so I know there's an investigation going on but who's handling the investigation what are their qualifications the name of a company Mr Powers sure so it's an attorney um Stephen goodstadt from ingerman Smith who does investigations in school districts all the time he has jumped into this investigation set aside the appropriate time to speak to folks he is concluding that investigation hopefully in the next couple of weeks and we'll be reporting to the Board of Education good evening everyone John saraf first

070of all I want to say thank you for the police presence I feel very safe and secure here um my question is hope your inspection sticker is up to date my question is today is for the board uh has the board considered if this is a one-off situation where we have a systematic problem in our schools I mean this goes you know this whole incident with the project Veritas we had an ex-principal who's the founder of it in charge of hiring teachers a lot of Middle School teachers so this is what the board should really consider do we have a systematic problem in this school or is it one-off incident so part of the investigation is to see if there is a widespread issue but um in terms of hiring there are many many people

071involved in the hiring process including parents students peers administrators and there are always um there are no no set questions there we I mean we've heard the board is involved in the hiring of um administ senior administrators and we've been so we've see how the process goes let me uh you mentioned hiring uh and we've been asked that question numerous times um recently I will tell you that they're in the hiring of Administrators in the hiring of teachers uh they're probably on average of 20 people involved in the hiring process there is no single person who has the authority to hire outside of the superintendent of schools before uh central office reviews a candidate for a position they've gone through a process with teachers administrators parents um finalists are then submitted to the central office

072where central office the assistant superintendents and the superintendent conduct interviews we do our own independent reference work on those students on those um prospective teachers or administrators and I guarantee you that that process is a rigorous process where we are hiring the best and brightest and as an example of my belief of us hiring the best and the brightest is talk to me about the the teachers that your kids have had we hire the best we hire the brightest um and and I say that with confidence unequivocally Mr saraf the short answer your question is yes and it as someone said earlier I don't remember who's the superintendent or our president that is part of the investigation and has been a board discussion we'll continue to be a board discussion and as with everything that

073the board looks at including the hiring process we are constantly looking to make improvements to find areas where there is concern whether um from the community from us and to see what we can do to again rebuild that trust as well as improve what is going on in our district foreign I'd like to go back to the physical safety issue of five Richmond um I've been attending board meetings now for um 25 and a half years um and I'll say this um as safe as I feel here tonight because of the security presence it was extraordinarily uncomfortable driving into the circle with such a heavy presence um you know again I don't think we can do I don't think we could stop every bad incident um but we have a number of armed in the

074qualified security people here at night um and if we're going to have them here I'd prefer that they be here for 3 300 kids unfortunately Monday to Friday um and again I know you're looking into it each one of these instances makes it worse and worse and worse um it's kids it's teachers it's custodians it's Porters it's it's a whole building full of really really really good people and uh you know this needs to be an ongoing and high priority week after week after week unfortunately but but necessary thanks [Applause] my Army to her she wrote I wanted to find out more about edcamp and any other kind of conference or on conference as they call themselves um is there any transparency about which teachers attend these conferences and more importantly what the agenda is

075that is discussed in these conferences uh I want to make it clear that it's the most important thing in terms of gaining our trust is knowing which teachers attend these conferences and then having the detailed agenda disclosed to the board so that we can hold you responsible for what's going on in the school I like I'd love somebody to address that I will start to uh try and address that edcamp is a professional development activity um that has been going on nationally for at least 10 years uh if they are typically held on weekends um they are typically held in school districts again across the country uh they are events that school districts do not pay to support uh there are events that School District employees do not get graduate credit or in-service credit to

076attend they are primarily and not primarily their events that are run by teachers for teachers in an open format session um again they they range in discussion issues from specific curriculum discussions um special education literacy student scheduling um uh new strategies to teach XYZ um there is a a large host of of topics that are covered at those events uh again we have we have probably in in our district we probably have posted uh over the last five years six or seven Ivy um would you about that we all we are doing is again we are not taking a formal role um in all we are doing is providing space for the people that actually run the edcamp activity uh we do not uh require um an attendance sheet or a sheet on what the

077the room the topics of discussion to take place in those rooms um again we've been uh we've been it's been shared with us that those are activities that teachers uh attend on their own time mostly on weekends uh and covered by their first amendment rights I don't know whether anybody would like to add anything to that I'm just gonna um I guess it's a question for Hank are we gonna continue to host this in the in the next few years or is this are we are we saying no no more at Camp under our house yeah at this point in time based upon uh the volatility around the issue and again I do believe in my heart of hearts that that it is a quality professional development activity in 99 of the time um given

078the volatility of the issue uh I don't plan on hosting or recommending that we host an edcamp activity in the near future what was the event that we that was hosted by Jericho was it an actual edcamp because I thought the founders of edcamp said that it was not it was sponsored by a different organization and have they shut down Ed camp at this point so edcamp itself is a format it's not an organization and then there are organizations that use edcam so um yes there's an organization at Camp Long Island right that's but this wasn't at Camp Long Island this was a different organization but Ed Camp itself is a cons is a format so your question was I didn't have a question I was simply saying I think I thought they shut down

079a camp and as long as we're hearing that we're not hosting them shut down I don't know maybe shouldn't they shut down but the concept of egg Camp can't be shut down like people could use it or not we actually use it for students was saying that we're not going to be hosting any more ed camps is he saying we're not hosting any more ed Camp along the island events or any more ed Camp as you put Mr Citron at Camp style events that's the only clarification I was trying to to make uh Sam I'm I'm um I'm unaware that at Camp Long Island has shut down that I have not I've not heard that um again it would from my perspective again I appreciate the format the format has been used in faculty meetings

080it's been used by ptas uh within our district um and students have participated um I would review any requests for an internal use of that format uh within our district to run a faculty meeting um on you know on a topic in the high school I would approve that again I'm just trying to clarify what you just said about that we would not be hosting any more edcamp programs so so are we talking at Camp Long Island are we talking Ed Camp style that's all I'm trying to clarify I I would not see us hosting or sponsoring an ed Camp Long Island event in the near future okay but my understanding was that the event that we're that people are talking about that Jericho last hosted was not in Ed Camp Long Island event and

081that seems to be one of the events that have that have um raised the the ire of certain people I guess is right so I'm just trying again I'm not pushing a point I'm simply trying to clarify what you see the Jericho School District doing moving forward not hosting a at Camp Long Island event so so the event that we hosted two weeks ago that type of event you could see other other teacher events that are at Camp style that aren't formal at Camp Long Island events being hosted by Jericho that's what I'm trying to understand again I think we would review it based upon who was making the request and what is the focus of the event again I think I'm being clear that that a the Middle School faculty uh proposes having an

082edcamp style um faculty meeting um on a you know on a Wednesday afternoon we would look upon that favorably would it would it be fair to say given like you had mentioned the volatile volatility and the the sensitivity uh you know around the the most recent event that we would be you know closely vetting any request for use of of District property absolutely and again I think it you know if you look at at our history of of Hosting events um by and large we do that you know the the groups that um sponsor events or speakers in in our school district we will be um we will closely monitor requests for events to be hosted in the Jericho School District okay thank you is the board involved in that monitoring or is it an

083Administration role technically um on our and if the board would like to change that process uh technically the requests for use of facilities Jaa use of facilities uh that request comes to my office through my console office it's approved and I approve it very often those requests come through before our upcoming Board of Education meeting it then does appear on a board on a board schedule but I would say nine out of ten times those events have taken place before board approval but they require board approval they do not is my is what I'm trying to understand I understand that that often it comes through in between meetings and it needs to be done on short notice um but technically are they supposed to get board approval or not that's what I'm trying to understand

084again as long as I've been here it has appeared on the warrant on the on the board schedules Chris um I'm I'm not sure legally whether that can is a superintendent Authority or Board of Education Authority sure it's quite common for the administration um because the timeline involved to approve and then too thereafter go to the Board of Education um in the many board meetings I go to there's usually a uh section where the facility use is then presented to the board of education for their approval so the board does play an act of role Mr grishaman in it oftentimes unfortunately due to timing it's after the fact so again we can we can continue with the same process or the board could say Do not approve anything until it appears on a board agenda

085thank you we will we will discuss it I'm not sure it's a discussion for tonight um but yes I I as superintendent says we will not and again my understanding just from other board meetings that the the event we hosted was not an ed Camp Long Island event so penalizing at Camp Long Island no issue I'm not arguing I don't know anything about them but um it seems like our our not doing them has to be broader than just at Camp Long Island at this point and then we can look at the policy going forward and as as Dr forresto pointed out um know I think he made a very good point again more than happy to have the conversation that the board would like to take over that responsibility as well as the responsibility

086of declaring snow days I would be more than happy to turn that over to the board and as Chris said it has both Chris Chris said um at this point with the volatility you know I think it's obvious that if there's something that is controversial or could raise an issue you know you won't just sign you know sign it without thinking about it or if it's an issue you'll bring it to us so I mean I think we I think we all have the same marching orders I think we're all on the same page welcome back Ira just one uh quick item um when I headed back to my seat I may have said that I love the armed Gods here I like the thought of security I'm not promoting on God's at school or

087on faculty or on teachers or on custodians I was supporting security and safety in the school district with respect to hosting meetings I believe we have a policy I think it's in the 3200 section on uses of school buildings I just try to look it up quickly but I do think it's in the 3200s thanks Aaron thank you for that clarification anyone else there was a question that got emailed in so actually about to ask if there were any email questions um one one question is um is specific to the investigation and again The boardwin Lappy addressing this manner this evening the investigation is ongoing and the board will make um the decisions once the investigation is concluded but the other question what additional security measures and precautions are being taken in our district to

088protect our kids with regards to school shootings and this question is from Hamida tobac thank you oh thank you thank you thank you I again I think we we covered that answer uh in the superintendent's report um again the the safety measures that this board has supported over the last five years uh we have continued on an annual basis to increase uh the safety measures uh within our school district and we are currently under two major reviews uh where we expect that we will have recommendations to further um further enhance uh the security of our students and our staff uh we want our kids to feel safe we want our staff to feel safe and we want our parents to feel that they're sending their kids into a safe environment and just on top of

089that we um will not be able to disclose all details about our safety and security measures for Safety and Security reasons again there was many of you have participated in the development of our safety plans there are there are significant parts of our safety plan our building plans and our um K-12 safety plans there are many parts of that that talk about training Etc that that is by and large a public document there is another document that again for the Safety and Security of our school district and on advice of Nassau County Police Department there are parts of our safety plan that we keep internally uh so that um again to procedures procedures and activities that we don't want to advertise uh outside of our school district in another measure to keep our kids and

090staff safe but many of the things we're currently some of the things we're currently thinking about are items that would be completely visible to the public and and hopefully will provide more um comfort to all of us parents who who send kids to school every day I I again but I think that's what I've said during the earlier report we are looking at upgrading we're always looking at upgrading and fine-tuning the policies and procedures and I fully expect that when we have public discussions for the parts of that that we can have public discussions at our April and May meeting there will be uh upgrades that will further um further make our district safer for for all good evening my name is Zara Malik I'm a senior at the high school just to Pivot from

091the whole safety conversation um over the past few weeks another incident that has occurred is a basically a massive cheating scandal that has unveiled in front of especially towards the senior class that occurred during an e-contest um a question I would like to ask is what are new guidelines being in place in order to prevent this major scale of event going on again um and yeah that's our first question uh obviously uh Integrity is a high priority within all of our buildings especially within the high school and we take we take the issue of academic Integrity very seriously um we are reviewing the high school administration and High School faculty are reviewing um procedures policies um to see where where they can be strengthened um obviously there is the the reality there is no 100

092foolproof system but we can always look at what we are doing how we are doing and can we do a better job uh I will share with you that again we take academic Integrity very seriously and we will deal with it um in the most serious fashion thank you and just to follow up um as we as myself and abreast of the other seniors we're talking about this um a question that often came up um from my peers was why was student voice not included in this decision which was the retest um why was student voice not included in that decision especially because it impacted us the most and that is a question that I would raise with high school administration um again because they were most intimately involved in the situation I mean I

093can sit here and um without full knowledge I could make a guess that in in order to maintain the academic Integrity um being that the test was compromised that a significant decision needed to be made regarding the test some of you know some of you won't remember but going going back um there there were years and then Ben and I probably were around during the the chemistry chemistry Regents the entire State took the exam and it was compromised in one school district and because of that the entire State um had the that exam removed from their record so sometimes again the the solution or the you know what the end result is is above and beyond what we'd like to see but sometimes that's necessary but I would encourage you to have that conference station

094with high school administration and ask them about the decision they made in the back and the back story of the background is why that decision was made um someone sent me a question because I guess they couldn't email it you have one so go ahead this just came in what due diligence is conducted six months or one year prior to giving tenure what can we do to report concerns or incidents during the consideration period of receiving tenure we always seek feedback from parents teachers seek feedback and that line of communication is open as well as a line of communication with Administration we say often we say frequently if you have a concern please talk to the teacher please talk to the building administrator all comments are taken seriously by Administration the processes I outlined a

095little earlier the process to earn tenure in the Jericho school district is a very challenging process and a complex process that involves a great deal of supervision professional development activities and overall supervision above and beyond just the classroom and again I think I can sit here with my administrative colleagues and say that the uh the earning of tenure in in Jericho is is probably the most rigorous or at least as it rigorous as any other school district in the state but but to the person who wrote that question is we appreciate everyone who comes to our meetings we appreciate everyone who comes and speaks at our meetings and we would certainly appreciate anyone who sends us or the administration um information that is relevant to the decisions that get made in the school district and

096that specifically and definitely includes um any type of Faculty questions so please stay involved get involved and send your concerns make them known or positives or negatives just not publicly here because Mr Powers doesn't want positives or negatives which is great um Dr fresh are you done with your question oh um question about and again uh I think they've worded it generally enough that we could talk about it is there a district protocol um oh sure Cheryl and Weiss what is the protocol for teachers um for leaving teachers in a position while under investigation is there a General District rule on that or is there a policy on that please there is no specific rule addressing teacher status or staff member status during investigation so that's a superintendent decision or is the board decision or

097is it a building head decision it is usually the superintendent's decision in that he is the one that makes uh deployment of personal decisions pursuant to his contract so it starts with him and then he reviews with Board of Education thank you okay thank you for everyone who spoke we always appreciate hearing from from the public wait hold on one sec one sec one sec um I mean there's somewhere here I'll read it I mean um question from Mr Garber what is the policy of the board of education related to sexuality being discussed in the classroom foreign what's the district's policy on um sexuality being taught in the classroom um I know that at the elementary level sexuality is not discussed in the classroom um health education is dealt with uh from a biological lens

098so we talk about things such as nutrition and hygiene um as far as the older grades and in their health Ed classes um it's again takes a biological lens um definitions are responded to vocabularies discussed when students ask so sometimes some of those things come up but other than that I truly don't believe that [Music] are children in the Middle School in high school ask what their pronouns are he she they it unicorn are they asked I well I would say that possibly some teachers might ask because some children prefer to be referred to um by specific pronouns so that so I don't think that's a practice because children sometimes correct teachers into getting to know you kind of I prefer to be called so-and-so or I prefer to be addressed by this pronoun I

099mean I don't think what about because you don't want to be asked what their pronouns are it's nobody's business so what about the kids who feel uncomfortable and unsafe because their teacher is asking them how they feel today do you feel like a boy or do you feel like a girl or do you feel like a unicorn what about those kids that just don't want to talk about it [Music] right so you protect one and not the other I'm just there is a greater problem here there is there is you are you are helping someone that might be vulnerable but not realizing that everyone is in a vulnerable state right now right especially children thank you I don't think it's a common practice we have uh one more question if you're finished Dr Sherman three

100children in the Jericho School District um one in elementary school one in middle school and one in high school just fundamental question having nothing to do with the investigation quite frankly I'm very happy to hear that there is investigation I think it's a really responsible thing for us to do as a school board and uh there was a lot of troubling things that were shared and who knows kind of what's behind that until the investigation is complete but independent of that when we have children who are going through the most critical phase of development of their life adolescent children are probably the most vulnerable children um from influence uh bullying uh all of the things that I'm sure you are intimately aware of right as a a father of three kids in this District I

101am very very concerned about What policies if policies exist at all that specifically kind of hone in on that development period and what's open for conversation and discussion as a standard course of the education curriculum in Middle School versus what might be an agenda item for an individual or individuals within a school I am hanged to your email that you'd sent out post this I completely agree with the fact that we need to be accepting of everyone in this district and I am that people know me in the district I coach kids I you know my children are you know super involved with many you know types of children race ethnicity beliefs sexuality it doesn't matter none of that matters to me what matters to me as a parent in this community is how is

102that governed by the Board of Education and how do you kind of think about that key development phase from a policy perspective again I think not only policy but operational perspective um again you talk about being sensitive race Creek color religion um sexual preference the highest rate of teen suicide occurs during the Adolescent years and the primary cause is kids who are having genetic gender identity issues so again on our minds and and I do believe in in the last many years uh the the pressures on our adolescent kids have grown social media peer pressure so a very very high level of concern is placed especially to our adolescent kids through the the period that they're going through our staff receives professional development our staffs talk about in a zeroing in middle school but also

103Elementary School in high school in terms of maintaining sensitivity ensuring a safe environment for all kids um so again that's that's a an underlying goal um so so your first question that is something that is stressed to our staff we want to ensure that all kids feel safe we want to ensure that all kids feel protected um so in the in the the general notion that is something that we talk about and we guide in an age-appropriate manner elementary school middle school and high school and and I and I believe uh that that again talking about the strengths of the school district I think one of the strengths of the school district is the job that we do in supporting and protecting kids regardless of their age and I think based on staff size staff

104training the amount of time we spend with staff that that is a core belief um that that in my mind has protected your kids and my kids and will continue to do that um and and again I believe that that is the the primary focus um you know do we I guess to your question you know do we support you know an offshoot to that again age appropriate if it's not age-appropriate no we don't support it and we would correct it got it Mr grishman hi Brooke Deutsch oh I'm sorry are you not finished yeah just I'll follow up a quick follow-up question so from uh from and thank you Hank for that I think you know the the vulnerability of adolescent children sexuality for sure high in the ranks bullying high in their ranks

105getting to know who they are getting to know about this process of puberty and what does that mean for those changes that they're going through um potentially being classified you know at one time you know a girl my generation growing up who played a lot of sports was known as a tomboy that same girl I was at a party with hanging out and you know was not necessarily viewed as a tomboy making judgments or making you know statements that kind of in my mind seem more like a recruitment process and and let me let me be clear in this okay I came to parent-teacher conferences for both Middle School and High School this year and I sat with the teachers and I paid very close attention to what was in the hallways I was blown

106away by the disproportionate amount I'd say about 50 percent of recruitment into clubs that I saw in hallways maybe this is like lack of spirit lack of recruitment on other all other clubs but I'd say 50-ish percent and maybe it was just the hallways or a staircase that I was going to was sexuality in nature right in terms of Club recruitment to me that's like fantastic for those who you know that's important I support it 100 I think it's fantastic and they should be included and they should be celebrated and they should be proud of like what that is the same way someone who you know may not have that same sexual preference on the other side but I don't necessarily see or find the need to have that Amplified in my own children I've

107not seen it in other children and we don't discuss those things outside of like family and family structure so my my you know overarching kind of experience set off a Few alarms okay I hear you so so we should encourage attorney from an administrative perspective okay listen we have 37 clubs in the Middle School these clubs can put advertisements up and these clubs can't we shouldn't do that no I don't think if it is a sanctioned Club in the middle school if there's a sanctioned Club in the high school they should be able to promote they should be okay yes I agree with that I'm not saying I'm not saying they shouldn't I'm saying that there is a disproportionate amount of Airway that's going to what seems to be sexuality in nature like okay that

108that's that's an observation going through the schools we will hear that observation and we will follow up with that observation got it okay thank you thank you before you get to the search I think what Mr Garber was also asking about he asked for a word and to you know as you know we oversee in effect the curriculum that goes on here and I think one of the issues and Mrs Dr Sherman can correct me if I'm wrong I don't believe that sexuality other outside of the requirements under Aaron's law which was introduced last year and and you know you're more than welcome to see what the presentations look like that's really the only time in elementary school that sexuality is is is in the curriculum is is that I I'm asking I'm asking Aaron's

109law had to deal with um inappropriate touching inappropriate contact and Dr Sherman can explain it to you which as a board we thought was important for elementary schools and it was is also partly state requirements so it's like whatever we think we think but um it was part of a state requirement to get into sexual abuse and things like that in a very very gentle way for elementary schools age appropriate yes but other than that what what is to Mr garbageway what is the the sexuality curriculum in the elementary school there isn't any so what about Middle School Health traditional health class like I remember back in the day yes got it and I think that's is that eighth grade only does it start earlier than that seventh and eighth grade okay yes seventh and

110eighth grade thank you very much appreciate it and just from from the board's perspective we are we're not in the classroom but we get reports from from Administration and if we hear we do hear complaints and if we hear issues we will push push find push Administration to investigate we will be on top of it so it's not like we're um you know we're not in the classroom every day but if there is an issue that comes up we take it very seriously and we will take it very seriously Jill if you are taking it very seriously with this investigation and wanting to have children feel safe why is a teacher under investigation still in the classroom [Applause] without an aid are we let's sure so investigations can go a lot of different ways investigations

111follow the facts if there ever comes a point where there is an issue of substance for which the superintendent feels it's inappropriate for the person to remain in whatever their job is because instruct instructional non-instructional the decision can be made to have the person be administratively reassigned from this investigation which is ongoing at this point there's been nothing that's been raised to that level the board will be receiving the information concerning the investigators findings and making some decisions so there's no set process as to in a formulaic design as to whether or not a teacher or a non-instructional needs to be pulled from a classroom from their assignment there's no one else sitting in the classroom right now is that correct if there's an investigation going on Mr Powers as if there's an investigation going

112on with a person not teaching children would that person be reassigned I could answer hypothetical questions we're not going to drill down to the specifics of this staff member hello I'm Mike Hartnett I've been teaching in the school district for more than 30 years and I just want to make clear that the depiction of what goes in on our schools that have been hearing is so far away from my experience and I'm stunned by it we spend our life obsessed with getting curriculum out there we push through AP courses after AP courses all we see are teachers at in the morning at night going through papers going through curriculum reading working with students again and again and again and again that's what we do that's why you win these Awards that's why your life has

113been spent hours and hours hearing award after award after award how does that happen rather than there's some Sinister plan to you know turn over the state of the school to something else this is what we do and I want to point out one other thing parents have never been shy about complaining in the school district minutia about everything you know side dishes for lunches there have been complaints about my summer assignment in my riveting book salt that people have had problems with I will hear about everything I have not this don't get confused by the fact of a project Veritas report if all you have to do is Google Project Veritas and take a look at all the different ways they've been sued for misinformation please understand that it doesn't mean that this shouldn't

114be taken seriously if I was a parent I'd want it to be investigated and looked at but try not to forget what we do here and what our success has been thank you [Applause] Mike I I never got through Salt I only got about halfway through Salt something about teacher uh junwell from uh twelve Dollar World all right uh teacher is a profession highly respected in our culture from Chinese culture somewhat over the last few years this profession lost my respect somehow I saw a lot of things very bad happening to the teachers this is the name in our culture when a teacher comes into we all stand up right now I have to think twice what is this person what is person trying to do right trying to be a revolutionary Socialist Communist something

115like that no no be a teacher be respected thank you [Applause] Jill another question came into the uh Board of Ed um from Tracy Gagliano concerning who observes teachers and who observes administrators so that's the question who observes teachers and who observes administrators teachers are observed by curriculum Associates assistant principles principals and central office staff administrators are evaluated uh by their supervisors curriculum Associates are evaluated by central office assistant principles are evaluated by principals principles are evaluated by central office central office is evaluated by the superintendent and the superintendent is evaluated by the board we have I'm sorry oh and Chris who the the comment you read before I neglected to ask you who sent that in the email the previous comment yeah was Vanessa farrelli hi Fran O'Connor you can't turn someone gay just

116by teaching them about the gay community teaching children about people who may look or act different than them if you please be quiet and let her speak teaching children about people who may look or act different than them is teaching them to be kind and empathetic humans teaching them that it's okay to be indifferent and to embrace their uniqueness having a teacher who accepts you for who you want and makes you feel welcomed is Monumental for any child at any age and will only benefit them in the future as Mr Rogers once said knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people I just want to let the LGBT community know that I stand with them thank you [Applause] I think

117as as everyone here in this room would agree I think is everyone who stood up to speak has said that we are looking to build the most comfortable safe environment for every student here and I'm just disappointed that that for some reason comments are turning into discussions about lgbtq plus issues I I don't believe that has ever come up tonight and I think it mischaracterizes what this discussion is about what has gone on over the last three weeks across districts um in Nassau County not even referring to Jericho and and I think it completely mischaracterizes what this discussion is I think everybody here agrees with your statement that we stand with that community that we support everything that they want and do and that we want every child that comes to school here to be

118comfortable and safe Sam were like well I agree the conversation here this evening is not about the LBGTQ Community I will tell you that around the discussions around project Veritas there have been many uh tweets posts um and comments that have definitely been homophobic so again I I do think that there needs to be an awareness that there is some conversation uh some on in my mind some unhealthy conversation um some unhealthy homophobic comments and I'm not talking about our discussions this evening or from emails we've received from our parents but there have been some discussions within the county relative to the most recent uh Veritas posts that have been homophobic and I think it's important that we do make the statement uh that this district has always been and will always be supportive of

119our LBGTQ community absolutely and I think that has been said several times tonight and as we've said in whether it was Mr Hartnett whether it was you Mrs Citron you know we are a special place and we're a special place because of that inclusiveness and because of that welcomeness that we offer to everybody and and again I was just disappointed that for for reasons that I don't understand why it was even brought up given that we are limiting this conversation to the Jericho community and to Jericho residents and that is not something that I've seen from any Jericho resident during this process we do have another question that's all I have to decide okay we we do have another question from Mr Joe Grillo who oversees how classrooms are decorated and is there a district

120protocol as to what can be posted in the classrooms Etc political religious Etc I think classroom decorations are supervised by Administration again there would be a limit on um inappropriate decorations which very frankly I've never seen within our school district either um derogatory in nature obviously that would not be permitted but I've not seen any decorations in any of our buildings in the 27 years I've been here that I feel are inappropriate look up good evening everyone Alex mocerino of a 16 old week old Wheatley Road Brookville New York um I have three kids in the school district two in the elementary school one in the Middle School uh my question is has the school district or the school received any threats concerning what's going on are they aware of any threats because I heard

121that they were on notice of specific threats regarding this so have they been notified has anybody been notified of any threats there are threats to the school district there has been a huge wave today and over the last several days which we've been informed by the Nassau County Police Department um in the northeast of threats to many school districts 20 or 25 school districts in the Northeast threats have been made to several school districts we have not received any threats any threats in the last month we've not been notified by the Nassau County Police of any heightened need for heightened awareness within our school district okay um is uh there was a question about having somebody supervise um a teacher that's under investigation and whether or not anybody's supervising them is there any reason that

122they wouldn't have somebody supervise somebody that's under investigation I mean would it would it be detrimental to the whole teachers all teachers are supervised but I meant under you know not just randomly supervised I meant during the process of the investigation I think Mr Powers answered that question earlier Chris you want to reiterate please or facts determine whether or not it would Merit a staff member to be administratively reassigned from the investigation thus far apparently there has not been sufficient facts to support an administrative reassignments are okay uh and to the extent that the school district does receive any uh threats regarding what is going on what steps are they planning to take to uh work on that like what would they do in that event it would depend on the threat we receive anytime

123we receive a threat we have a protocol on how to how to respond to a threat it is always in very very close cooperation with the Nassau County Police Department is that something that's disclosed to all the parents or we've made aware of any threats well when there's a threat there's usually a building is evacuated there is there is a reaction to when when threats are received so obviously parents are made aware students are made aware if if there is a reaction to a threat as I said we have received no threats in the last month probably within the last several months thank you okay we're just gonna finish up the business part of the meeting um I know that's I'm about to do the minutes thanks um be it resolved that the Board of

124Education make any necessary Corrections and move the approval of the minutes of the regular meeting date of February 9th 2023 budget Workshop dated March 2nd 2023 budget review and budget review meeting dated March 16 2023 do I have a motion the minutes do I have a motion Chris second Jen any discussion all in favor thank you okay now um new business first reading of the policy duties of school physician nurse practitioner be it resolved at the board except the first reading of policy 1338. do I have a motion Sam second Chris any discussion yeah um a couple things I'll go first uh we currently have a policy 1337 that addresses this point and I'm trying to but it was there the current policy is 1337. um is why are we adopting this new policy like

125what was the Genesis for changing this policy was this to go along with some recommendation or and why wasn't it marked against our existing policy I think it's marked against whatever the standard policy is these are policy recommendations from BOCES which is a resource that you use Mr Perlman why they did not cross-reference it I do not know what I do see with policy 1338 is that there are 10 different responsibilities duties for your school physician and nurse practitioner and this is basically eliminating two of them which is for bus drivers and also physical saying for new employees apparently you don't do that so they eliminated it oh that was my question and then they changed the best of the 10 conducting medical it was a valuation consultation with an employee so these are minor

126changes what we could do is take a look at if there is another policy 1337 cross-reference them so there's no um there is no difference between the two and so we have to have them aligned got it and and the part J about the consultation what would that be for medical issues if someone's fit to continue like if someone's been out for a while and you need to have your medical school visit I'm sorry School physician or the nurse practitioner speak to the person about their Fitness to return to work that's oftentimes where do they start got it thank you sure I am looking at 1337 and it looks like it's similar but the changes that were made to this were not made to that like it says conducts physical exams for all bus drivers

127conducts a medical evaluation on any so it seems like the 1338 should supersede 1337. so what I can do and a president is I can merge the two so it's consistent thank you that would be great sure and I also had a question um regarding G which states developing a the program of Health Service in accordance with policies approved by the board and as directed by the superintendent uh question is when was the last time um the program for Health Services was updated um is this something that happens frequently does this come to the board does this come to the superintendent because I've never seen anything like that and is there any way we could see those updates or when do we expect the next program update we could we could certainly talk to you

128about what the what the hell dates offer as an example we offer flu shots for employees that's part of the plan that we do um we offer testing for employees for um certain conditions um as a um both as a requirement of a law and some cases they're voluntary uh testing that we offer to employees um and uh during covid you know we offered covet testing for employees uh you know with um with Vans outside so those are the kinds of uh issues that that come under Health Service but we can we can be more specific for Adrian okay all right we should probably move to table that one since there are so many changes associated with it okay all in favor of tabling okay um be resolved at the Board of Education except the

129first reading of policy 56 21 fixed and capital asset inventory is accounting and tracking do I have a motion Jen second Sam any discussion can you just describe this part we're putting in there and just give an example of what we're talking about sure um as we explained last year with the first part of the the change gasby 87 changes required us to take any equipment leases such as our copiers in the district that were coded to BOCES and re-class them as a Debt Service so we're required to do that through Gatsby 87. the next on the list is Gabby gasby96 which is requiring us to take any type of subscription um that we have in the district for example um a six-year textbook subscription and would require us to re-class it in a different

130Manner and we're putting this in to put a uh dollar limit on it uh this way it takes away some of we have so many small subscriptions that are not Material so by putting this number in it will reduce the number of subscriptions that we would have to reclass I I think um the last I checked it was literally one or two that we would have to reclass that way what was suggested by BOCES or whoever we discussed it with our Auditors uh there is no uh specific mandate I guess it would depend on the size of the entity um that is doing it so you know maybe something for like New York City would be half a million perfect for us what would what would the under 35 000 that were not capitalizing if

131you added them all up for the current year would it be ten thousand dollars a hundred thousand dollars a million dollars yeah we're talking about um again some of the software subscriptions and again the textbook textbook subscription depending on the subscription in my mind for example if you're buying up a textbook you're literally buying a book that's most of the cost a physical book and then along with that comes a six-year subscription so we're not considering those at all because you're buying a physical item so it's you're not leasing the text the actual textbook and although a service that includes six years of going to the online resources included in it we put that in a different category then there's other categories where there's no physical textbook and it's solely a subscription and those are

132the ones that would fall into that from a methodology standard oh no I'm just trying to understand the magnitude of what we wouldn't be cat if someone were come to us and say you really should be capitalizing everything over a thousand dollars or five thousand dollars and we're only capitalizing things over thirty five thousand dollars right are we talking about an aggregate amount of of you know an extra 100 on our books 50 I mean that's what I'm just trying to get a magnet I would say magnitude less than a hundred thousand per year thank you very much we're good okay all in favor all right the first reading of that policy is accepted um accepted acceptance of first reading of policy 7610 special education District plan be resolved that the Board of Education accepts

133the first reading of policy 7610 motion Sam second gen discussion yeah again this policy exists and what we had here was not marked against the existing 7610 that was adopted in 2008. is there a reason why we're doing this I have no problem with the policy I'm just curious as to what we're doing yeah this is the form that BOCES gave it to us in so what we need to do is similar to the first policy that was before the board tonight uh 133a will have to cross-reference it I would recommend that you table this one as well so we can merge them so there's no inconsistencies there I I'd almost say I think it's word for word I think a quick scan is I understand what you're saying but as an effort to always

134move stuff along I I think 30 seconds of of reading it I couldn't I mean I you know what I take your advice I always take your advice so yeah let's just handle it but we also could accept the first reading and if there's a major difference or a significant difference we could not have accepted it the next time I'm any eager to do anything that moves this yes I suggest we accept the first reading so we can move it along and Chris if you could just I will do that in between thank you thank you all in favor thank you acceptance of first reading of policy 7680 independent educational evaluations be resolved that the Board of Education except the first reading of policy 7680 do I have a motion Sam second gen discussion anyone

135want to guess do we already have 76.80 that we're not marked against and trying to understand what the changes um really it again there's some things but I couldn't really get to the gist of it without being marked even though it's a short one so let's accept it and Chris you'll put that on the list to do as well this one's actually very different the the other the one we just did is is very very similar I think there's a couple word changes this one um does seem very different the old policy references a lot of regulations and Commissioner of Education part 2 200.5 granted it was adopted 25 years ago so I'm sure it's been out of date for a long time um but again Mr Powers is this what BOCES is recommending to

136us it is but I think sir what we should do is there are apparently substantial differences I would not accept this as a first reading this one needs to be reviewed merged and we will then provide to you what is appropriate as opposed to just accepting this for first reading so I would just table this one as well please okay all in favor okay I think that we covered everything doesn't Divya do you think I missed anything got everything anyone noticed anything I missed okay because we wouldn't order got out of order okay so I have a motion to adjourn the meeting Jen second Sam all in favor thank you we are adjourned everyone have a good holiday and nice vacation and we'll see you back here in April remember the meeting was changed