July 16, 2026 Board of Education Organizational Meeting
Yeah. I, Elizabeth, do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of The United States Of America and the constitution of the state of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of trustee of the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District Board of Education for a term of three years from 07/01/2026 to 06/30/2029 according to the best of my ability.
I, Jacob Day, do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of The United States of the state of New York, and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of trustee of the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District Board of education for a term of three years from 07/01/2026 to 06/30/2029 according to the best of my ability.
Thank you. I, Anamika Bhatnagar, do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of The United States Of America and the constitution of the state of New York, that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of trustee of the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District Court of Education for a term of three years from 07/01/2026 to 06/30/2029 according to the best of my value. Thank you.
Item 1.04, appointment of the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven student ex officio trustee. Recommended action, the Board of Education hereby approves the appointment of Nikhil Mukherjee for a one year term as ex officio student trustee, effective 07/01/2026 to 06/30/2027.
Can I go or I can go? I'd like to just I'll just offer remarks to the community and to everyone who's joining the board this year. So this year, as one of our board goals, the board of education this past year focused on centering and elevating student voice. As you know, the Croton-Harmon School District is one of the first to actually one of the first in New York State to bring aboard a student of ex officio trustee. This year, we've sort of improved our our governance and our elevation student voice by inviting two student trustees to join us at the table. Going forward according to changes that we implemented in policy this past year, we will have a rising junior who will serve as an associate student ex officio trustee and a rising senior to serve as student ex officio trustee working together to help represent the voice of our entire student body at the board table.
Opposed? Opposed? Abstained. Motion carries. 99.05, recommended action be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the appointment of Madeline Kramer for a one year term as associate as a fiduciary of student trustee effective 07/01/2026 to 06/30/2027 and a subsequent one year term as an fiduciary of student trustee effective 07/01/2027, to 06/30/2028.
On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. Directors the Board Directors of of first. This evening, we have the privilege of officially welcoming of Nikki Mukherjee and Madeline Kramer as ex officio Student Trustees of the Portland Harmon Union Free School District Board of Education. Nikki and Madeline, by serving in this nonvoting capacity, we know you will provide valuable insight and perspective, helping to shape policies and initiatives that impact students across our district while ensuring their voices are represented at the board table. At this time, I invite each of you to affirm your commitment to these roles. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your name.
I, Madeline Kramer. Do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully serve. Do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully serve As ex Officio Student Trustee
As ex Officio Student Trustee Of the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District Of the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District Board of Education Board of Education In accordance with board policy twenty one twenty five. In accordance with board policy twenty one twenty five. I will represent the interests and concerns. I will represent the interests and concerns. Of my fellow students fairly and to the best of my ability. Of my fellow students fairly and to the best of my ability. With integrity, honesty, and dedication.
I, Nikki, do solemnly affirm I, Nikki, do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully serve as ex Officio Student Trustee that I will faithfully serve as ex Officio Student Trustee the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District Board of Education of the Croton-Harmon Union Free School School District Board of Education in accordance with board policy 2125 In accordance with board policy twenty one twenty five. I will represent the interests and concerns of my fellow students I will represent the interests and concerns of my fellow students Fairly and to the best of my ability Fairly and to the best of my ability with integrity, honesty, and dedication. With integrity, honesty, and dedication.
On behalf of our fellow trustees, congratulations to you both. We look forward to working with you. Item 1.7, approval of the agenda. So moved. Recommended action being resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the agenda as
nomination for someone to serve as president of the board of education, and that is Anamika Bhatnagar. I think many of us know very intimately, very closely the strengths that Anamika has brought to the school board from day one and even before that as a member of the Croton community. And, you know, I think we've seen that she's firmly, firmly grounded in in this community, in our school system. I think she's very, very accessible to our community. Many people know Anamika. I know that she's a resource for not only the school district, but just our our community as a whole. And I know firsthand so many people that really see her as a partner, a valuable partner in just making our communities better, our school district better. And I think we've all witnessed firsthand how when she first joined the school board, now her second term, but how deeply she dealt in school work with the district and with the school board. I think now has served as a puppet and the company's policy committees, the board development committees, liaison to many other committees. I'm sure I forgot some committees too that you've been a part of, but I think we've all experienced firsthand. I know I have just the the strength of which you've you've really dealt very deeply into the work and not been afraid to do the work and oftentimes really shepherding us along just to to be there with you, right, and to be with you. And I think it's been very clear to me how passionate Anamika is about our school system and really the top of her priority list is the best what is best for our our young people, the students of our district as top of mind. So I
would like to nominate Anamika for the role of president. She has, of course, very large shoes to fill in previous presidents, of course, in on the take. But I'm hoping that she is willing to take this on. I have no doubt that she would do an amazing job, really continuing to be accessible and using her amazing leadership qualities to steer us forward into the next into the next year.
Give me a second. No. Because I have to make the recommended action. So recommended action, Anamika Bhatnagar is nominated for the office of president of the board of education of the Cortlandt Harmon Union for your school district for the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven school year to serve until the next organizational meeting or until a successor is appointed and fall and qualifies in accordance with the law.
On the question, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries.
I'm
So the nomination of the vice president of the board of education. Do we have a nomination?
I'd like to nominate Omar Mayyasi for the office of the vice president. Omar is someone I've gotten to know over the last several weeks and and helped me onboarding. I've seen him in action in several of the board meetings that I've attended. I think he's an amazing advocate for our schools. He's someone that I look up to coming into this position. So I think he would be a great vice president. Again, big Shustafel, following Anamika, but I'd like to nominate Omar.
Do we have another nomination? Recommended action. Omar Mayyasi is nominated for the office of vice president of the board of education of the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District for the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven school year to serve into the next organizational meeting or until a successor is appointed and qualifies in accordance with the law.
On the question? All in favor? I have. I have. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Item four point I'm sorry. 2.4. Recommended action be resolved by the Board of Education, elects Omar Mayyasi, for the office of vice president of the Board of of Education for the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven school year to serve until the next organizational meeting or until a successor's appointed and qualifies and includes such law.
Motion carries. I think we have to go back and do item 2.2. It's right. Item 2.2, election of the president of the board of education. Recommended action, be it resolved that the board of education elects Anamika Bhatnagar for the office of president of the board of education for the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven school year to serve until the next organizational meeting or until a successor is appointed and qualifies in accordance with the law.
Motion carries. Item 2.5, administer the oath of office to the president and the vice president of the board of education. The district clerk will administer the office the oath of office.
You just wanted to read it aloud enough? I have it read out for you. Oh, thank you.
I do so lemnly swear that I will support the constitution of The United States Of America and the constitution of the state of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of board president for the term of one year from 07/16/2026 until the board organizational meeting in July 2027 according to the best of my ability.
I do solemnly swear that I support the constitution of The United States Of America and the constitution of state of New York, and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of board vice president for the term of one year on 07/16/2026 until the board organizational meeting in July 2027 according to the best of my ability.
So if you could, before we move to the next item, we'd like to take a moment as board and recognize our outgoing board president, Teague. It's been a really challenging, exciting, and tough two years, and I think we wouldn't have gotten to where we are in these last two years without your leadership, your vision, your dedication to the students in this community, your dedication to your colleagues in the district, your respect and love for teachers, and your love for Croton and all the people in it. I would not be here doing this work for another term without you, and I know that many of us feel the same. So thank you. Thank you for your service, and thank you for your leadership these last two years. On behalf of the board, we have a little something to thank you. Thank you very much. Very kind of you.
Informal. We need a motion.
On the question? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Same? Motion carries. I wanna thank everyone who came to to to bear witness to our swearing in. And to be here at 05:00 on a Thursday, I know it was a big deal. Congratulations to all of the new position holders, to our newly elected trustees, to our reelected trustee. We're going to go into executive session. It'll probably be about ten or fifteen minutes. It shouldn't be too long, at which point we'll just return. So trustees will head out for right now. Thank you everyone. Item 3.02 leaving executive session. We're resuming now our the public portion of our meeting. Resolved that recommended action resolved that the board of education hereby leaves executive session to return to the organizational meeting.
Other questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. We will now move into our work session item 4.01, board committees and BOE Liaisons for District Committee twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven. This is a discussion as part of our annual organizational meeting to discuss our trustee interests in committee service and also our interest in board liaisons. Before we start that second part of the meeting, because that is a place where we have not this is a discussion we have not had robustly in this meeting in the past. I just want to clarify a couple of things about the board liaison position. So as people who have served on the board for some time know, the board of education generally supplies the liaison to our three building planning councils. Those are the joint decision making bodies of each of our three schools. We are actually generally, I believe, required by statute to have a board of education representative on the district emergency response team as well as the health and safety committee. The rest of the liaisons that you see listed on your agenda are liaisons that were instituted last year at the request and part of our community organization who wanted to feel sort of a stronger connection to the work of the board and also to have an avenue for communicating questions and understanding the work of the district, community member to community member. Last year there was some confusion I think about what the scope of those liaison positions is because different people operate in different ways. When Ana and I were working on this last year, we had sort of identified the fact that many of us attend PTA meetings as a matter of course as parents. And it was an opportunity for a board trustee who already was at those meetings to sort of connect with the group and share back whatever that work was to our larger community.
So as we're considering those liaison positions, in response to the feedback from this board as part of our annual self evaluation, the question has come up about just sort of the time commitment. And I think what I would propose for folks is please do not look at these liaison positions as something where you have to necessarily for these secondary liaison positions, not the building planning council, not health and safety, not the emergency response team, but for the remainder of these. Do not look at them as something where you would have to attend the meeting of that organization every single meeting, but rather look at it as an opportunity to connect with that organization and then perhaps come at their invitation or serve as a resource for them. So you shouldn't have this expectation or feeling that if you decide to be the PVC PTA liaison that you're going to attend PTA meetings every month. That's not actually I think what they're looking for necessarily and in terms of our capacity we're trying to be really smart about how we are using our time as a board and our focus this year is going to really be on our board committees. The other thing that I will say is the following and this is a quick discussion point. Coming out of our self evaluation there was a discussion of the fact that we have instituted again during our previous term two ad hoc committees. One on technology, one on hiring retention and tenure. Anamika the appointments to those committees in the prior term. There's one spot open for a new member to join one of those committees. We'll talk about that shortly. But with those two committees rolling on, this is also an opportunity for us to re revisit
whether all of our committees need to exist as they're currently constituted. Members of the board in their feedback on their evaluations have suggested that there's a possibility that some of the work of the advocacy committee could actually be folded into policy because that advocacy work is closely tied to legislative advocacy and policy creation. Another thought that has come up among, you know, out of our sort of self review process was the question of our communications committee. Because the communications committee focuses or has to date been focusing on board communications, there's a lot of overlap with board development and governance. So that is another thing that we're putting out for consideration. So we'll open it up for discussion for folks to talk about what their primary interests are and we can just go through it I suppose by committee. So I guess the first question would be Yeah, sorry, go ahead on.
I just wanted to ask if we couldn't consider as we're considering eliminating committees, changing the name of the board development committee to board governance committee. That's a good idea. Yeah.
To me, that makes sense because I think the function has been a little bit less on, like, professional development because all of us take part in that in our own ways and a little bit more on things like onboarding, bringing, you know, our student trustees on board this year, etcetera, and also sort of, like, our best practices and developing our retreat so that would make sense to me if people are comfortable with that. Sure. We don't need a formal motion. Just if there's a general consensus we can do. That's a good idea. I'm gonna do a thumbs up. Or Sure. Thumbs up. Okay. So we're gonna go through for the for the trustees, you do have as part of your executive content, BOE committee leadership and interest form where people have indicated their preferences for where they'd like to serve. I'm gonna try to match this with what we see up there. And I'm gonna start with the committee that has the most people who are interested in it because I think we need a clarification about what what board governance is. So we do have interest from several people to join that committee and I just wanna sort of clarify that it is a committee that does involve a good deal of administrative work including maintaining the calendar of board events, coordinating those board events in attendance, running and creating evaluations, timelines, sign ups and other sort of keeping the trains running kind of work. The function of actually board governance has really fallen to us as a board as a body. So the board development committee in the past two years that I've served on it, Omar has served on it as well. Theo you've also served on it previously. So many of us have served on it before.
It has always been to sort of like recommend governance practices so it's not a body that's determining governance practices but just surfacing questions, doing the research and then bringing that stuff towards the full board. But with five individuals having expressed interest in serving on that board, that committee I think we need to sort of clarify for folks, you know, for whom it's if it's a strong first choice for you, would be a good time to state that because we have to sort of, by consensus, land on three committees for one trustee, two committees for every other trustee to get a fair balance here.
So I think for this committee, it's important to have one board officer on it. Yep.
Okay. So we need one more. Are you okay being on it for how many years in a row now? It'll be a third year in a row, which, again, I think I should also clarify that one of the things that we've talked about is if we serve if an individual has served on a committee for two consecutive years, we have talked about having people roll off. I've also served on policy for two years and I'm definitely going to roll off of that committee much as I love policy because I think it's one of the most important committees in terms of the work that we're doing. So if I have opportunity to choose a a committee to continue on with, it would be board development for the purpose of the continuity of some of the cleanup work that we've done. Yeah. And, also, you know, I think that we also have an opportunity to sort of establish practices where have a little bit of support with some of this day to day stuff. And I know Denise has actually volunteered to sort of help with some of the organizational stuff that's fallen to that committee. So it would be an opportunity to work with her a little bit also because she has the capacity and the interest and is actually doing a lot of this stuff already in terms of helping us keep our trains running. It would be an opportunity to help transition some of that where her
workload allows for a little more support for us. So that would be my proposal. I still got three other folks who have their names listed on it. So if there's anyone who feels like it's not their first choice and would be willing to roll off and sees another committee that is their first choice. This is an opportunity for you to speak. We don't have, like, a super organized way of doing this, so we're gonna go through each committee just like this.
So I I'm happy to serve on it if that would be helpful, but it's not my first choice. Okay. The other thing I'm gonna say is we're talking about this just in terms of like makeup, I would like everybody to consider is the following. Some of the committees it is important to have a board officer on just because of the function of the committee. Because we're sort of operating in a couple of different tiers. We've got folks who have served officers, we've got folks who have never served as board officers, we've got folks who have just started this year. An ideal committee would have like a mix of all three of those when possible, so I'm putting that out there. As this committee constitutes itself right now, it would be me, Betsy, and Jake. So I'm gonna put that out there for you, Betsy, and Jake, to also think about whether whether this is the place that both of you want to be this year or whether someone might make space for Allison who is in her second year to roll on. I'm fine. I mean, I'm fine deferring to you guys in terms of what makes sense in terms of the makeup method. So, you know, Betsy, you know,
I think I was particularly interested in governance because this is something I do a lot of work. Okay. And I was interested in seeing how the processes that we operate work. So I'd really love to be on this one. But if you
No. It's not. Okay. Okay. I think that Maybe I'll come back. Yeah. Figures it up. Yeah. Okay. So submitted Allison Yeah. Anamika and Betsy here, and Jake thank you, Jake, for again, this is, like, the exact way that we need to be working. And guess what? This is one year. So next year, it's a change. Interesting. We'll we'll have we'll have we'll have opportunities.
And Anamika, I know we're not focusing on comms right now, but did you say that that was one of the ones that would be folded in? Yeah. So we were thinking about actually folding that into board to into board's development.
But but communications, it really does intersect with actually everything that we do. And so I think in terms of, you know, policy, it's like it's really there's a piece of it everywhere. I know that that was it was an area of interest for you, Theo. So
Well, I mean, I I was just gonna say that if it does get rolled in Mhmm. Then we have the crew, and so then I would pick something else. I I mean, I I think it does make sense just given the, like, time constraints that that, you know, that we collapse them into each other. Yeah. So I'm fine with that, and I'm fine pondering the the the my other choice. Okay.
Audit, I I'm I just haven't served on that since my first year. So I thought it was my my time, but now I see four people there too. I can take myself off of that since I'm on two others. So Okay. What I would say for for the folks who are in their first year, this do not feel that you need to take on three year first year because there's a lot of other learning that you're going to be doing. So if that's a way to sort of lighten the loop. Two is fine. Yeah. Two is fine. So advocacy and communications community, we're gonna leave blank then for now. The next one I think a minute ago had a lot of takers was actually audit. But it sounds like we may have landed on Jake, Omar, and Theo for audit. Does that line up with people's interest? Yes. Okay. Next committee is policy. And currently the expressions interest are Ana, Allison, Jake I know you had said that it was not your top choice but I would invite you to look at it as a real opportunity because for me I feel like it is where I've learned the most about the workings of the board And I think also with the intersection of your legislative advocacy work, it could be a really interesting opportunity in terms of building those relationships. Know for me, the first year that I served on advocacy and that function will now be folded into policy. The opportunity to meet with like our state senator and our assembly person and sort of like intersect with regional advocacy was really interesting. So if that is something that is of interest and I would also I am gonna say really formally here that I know that each committee will meet and convene an elected sound chair, but I would like to make a strong recommendation for Ana to have an opportunity to lead this committee because
last year when she and I were on that committee together, we jammed through some policies and I think that level of sort of like expertise and that eye on what the priorities are for the district was really, really helpful. So I'm very appreciative of the fact that you've agreed to take on being on this committee again because it's a tremendous amount of work. But I think if you do it wisely, it it can also be done efficiently, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll do with that. I'd just like to say, I would be thrilled if you'd be sharing this. Thank you.
this is the first year that we're we're having this committee without Trustee Haber here. Right? So it's going to be a huge undertaking of looking at everything. And I know I've said to some of you, I'm not completely convinced that we won't need an ad hoc committee to just actually review existing policies so that creating additional policies installed by the review of that.
So there might be an overlap or there might be an ask for people to come in and do some of that work. I'm happy to take that on. Thank you so much. Right. Right. Well, I actually I thought I just want to highlight that proposal because I think what Ana is talking about is actually very, very smart. Is we have we have gotten in the way of moving forward on timely things because of some of the cleanup work. And it will it will be it will be sort of on all of us probably at in some way to to take a chunk of those outstanding policies and figure out and help each other figure out what the priorities are because it is the it is our core responsibility, actually, setting and establishing and improving policy, working in coordination with the district. And I know it'll be a change for all of you on the district side, but I can imagine, you know, I say this with love that we are all gonna be happy for meetings that on time. And and I say with a tremendous amount of love. But, you know, some sometimes meetings have to end when they're supposed to, and that's gonna be that's gonna be a new thing for all of us to work a little bit differently. Ad hoc committee on technology as if for for those following those board meeting videos, know that this committee was constituted during the last term. This is a committee where Ana has
in her as board president last term appointed Allison Omar to serve at their they expressed interest in serving on this committee. The ad hoc committee on technology has a charge to complete a certain portion of the scope of its work by the end of this summer. So it is a committee where there will need to be regular communication sort of immediately. The delivery date of a report or a recommendation to board can of course you know be shifted but I think that we wanted to set for ourselves a sense of urgency and so that is why the date was it was an aggressive date. So Allison and Omar have been appointed, and we have a spot open. Betsy, I think you've expressed interest. Yes. If that if that sounds okay to everybody else, we would move in that direction. So that would be Betsy for that one. Ad hoc committee on hiring retention and tenure, these appointments were made during the last term. Currently, we have Ana Anamika. That's me. Ana Teague and Theo. Sorry. I'm just reading this. Does that that that I mean, that's actually closed, so I don't think there's anything to discuss there. I'm just looking at our numbers on here, and I'm seeing that Allison, this does put you. Oh, no. We haven't done audit. Sorry. I have to go back up to audit. No. We just don't. What am I missing? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. He wants to talk. Okay. But I've got I've got I've got Allison on three, and I have Theo. I'm seeing his name's still on communications. That's why. Okay. So, Allison, you'll be doing you'll be doing a little bit more of a lift, but I know you are you're a very efficient and thoughtful worker, hopefully. Hopefully. We'll
Part of our part of our charge with our ad hoc committee on hiring retention and tenure, there is a it's a, you know, it's a limited scope and also limited time frame. So some of that work will be coming to a close by December, we're thinking. At which point, you know, to honest point, that might be an opportunity also to either open up other areas or whatever work comes out of that committee if that leads to something else. For the for the group, I guess I'm gonna ask a question with all of these board liaisons. The group has not fully expressed interest in all of these positions in in our sort of planning conversations. And I'm wondering, again, I'll just put this out there. There is no urgency to filling all of these positions at this meeting tonight. So if we would like to have a little bit more time to consider now that we know our committee assignments where we like to slot ourselves, we can certainly come back and revisit this. If there are folks that feel that we should go all the way through this, we certainly can. But I feel like we don't none of these things are actually going to be meeting until really September. Really quickly, just like a final point on the liaison thing. One of the initiatives that Ana and I had talked about last year, we'd also talked to Steve and the administrative team about this was trying to hold some sort of like open house or something for our community organizations that have been providing grant support to us just because I think that we meet with them individually. They don't all meet with each other. And so they don't necessarily have the clear sense of, you know, amongst the community, what does chef do versus what does champs do? What versus what do boosters do? There's so much overlap, and it's also the same volunteer pool. So as we're sort of thinking about this, another thing that we'd like to think about and we're gonna, I think, try to revisit now for after the school year starts, because we honestly ran out of time this year, was some sort of
some sort of bringing together of leadership from those organizations to have an opportunity to meet district team and then also trustees just separately so that everyone knows and for the benefit of the public. The leaders of some of these organizations also feel it would be helpful if we could, if the Board of Education, even like the Board of Education website or a portion of the district website can serve as a resource for where we can just find all of these organizations and find their websites and like a link so that you can click to go over and get to them. And I think it'll just make it easier for things like planning their events and making sure that everyone's not trying to reserve the grant for the same night, which has happened a couple times already because it's such a wonderful venue.
I just wanted and I'm surfacing something that you and I had talked about Sure. Before. So this is actually a point that you had raised with respect to the CHHS student faculty congress. Yeah.
I don't I don't know if you wanna speak to that. No. But I actually, what I would like to do is is since I I and I'm sorry. I didn't have a chance to mention this to you. Mukherjee We had our onboarding meeting with Madeline and today and we had a conversation about student faculty congress. I don't want to put you on the spot. We did talk about this a little bit. Would you feel comfortable sharing some of some of what we discussed about what you feel might be the most useful for student faculty congress in terms of a board liaison? Just for the historical background for everybody else, a board liaison was established for Student Faculty Congress so that there would be a connection between the board of education and Student Faculty Congress before we had student ex Officio Trustees. That situation has changed a little bit. Do you feel like you all have anything to share about that yet? No. It's okay if you don't.
Yeah. I mean, I think Maddie and I, we both agreed or Madeline and I, we both agreed that a effective, I guess, board trustee in that rarest would be someone who's more there to listen and to watch what we're doing and less of inserting them themselves. And, obviously, we would call on them whenever we need clarification or questions. And we also feel that it's important for one of you to be here so you can bring a actual trustee perspective back. So when we do our report, we get both of the student perspective coming from us, but also what you guys have seen going on in the room. Yeah? Yeah. I think keeping it,
obviously, like, a very student guided to conversation, but definitely having a trustee there to listen and, like Vicky said, give clarification on any topics.
So I think that lines up a little bit. Yeah. That lines up a little bit with with what we had talked about in our previous iteration of board leadership. How does that sound to folks here in terms of that? So the other thing I'd like to say just again for the benefit of everyone, there have been a lot of emails about Nikki and Madeline's onboarding, but we're very, very fortunate that Ana has agreed to serve as their board mentor as part of her transition off of board leadership to take on this additional responsibility for meeting with them and helping making sure that they're prepared for meetings. And our guest in the audience, Mr. Banek, has agreed to be our CHHS mentor for our student trustees as well so that so that they have a contact person on board and a contact person within the district. And I think for our conversation today, I feel very confident that they already have amazing ideas for how they're gonna interface with not just CHHS, also but PVC and CET students.
And they have some interesting ideas about how they would like to contribute to our work sessions and present the work that's happening in the high school. So I'm super excited. Can I just ask and to have this conversation in public, would it would and just I yeah? I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I'm just thinking about this now. Would it not since you're saying that you would like to have trustee input there and to have that, would it would it not benefit the board to have individual trustees go to meetings? Like, so it's just a role lead because you would sign up as a board of, like, having each of the trustees at some point. Is is that I like that idea because I know I can't commit to the time that we're doing That's the thing. It's, like, in the middle of the day to have somebody you know? It's great. But it it then you would have a board trustee at each of your meetings. We would each have the opportunity to see the work that you're doing. I know some of the meetings are different than others, especially once you get the end of the year and playing the ping pong. What
do you all think?
Yeah. I think that's a good idea. I also think it's a good way for students to build a connection with the entire board instead of just having one person that they know. So it's like a couple familiar faces. I think that's a great idea. And I think we we also mentioned in our SFC, the officers of the SFC create the agenda a few days before our actual meeting. And so we thought about definitely sharing that with the board in advance so the trustees can pick and choose which timings work work for them and which, I guess, topics that are on our agenda might be might pertain the most to you that you can provide your input for if you need
That'd be great. That sounds amazing. For you to call on Doctor. Bisaccia. Thank you so much. Thank you. And thank you, student trustees. Already on the case of it. Mhmm.
Point to for fellow board members about the liaisons. Mhmm. One of the practices we've adopted over the last few years is having somebody has limited time or is interested in more than one thing that there's a primary liaison and a secondary liaison. Mhmm. And you can coordinate you know, for example, Sarah and I were on the PVC a while ago last year. So if she wasn't able to go, I'd I'd jump in or vice versa. So don't feel like it's just, like, one name. You can have you can have one.
Great. Splitting is actually really helpful because I think it's it you know, a lot of these meetings take place during the workday. Mhmm. And they don't and it's not all Fridays. So sometimes it's a day that it's really actually got quite a challenge to attend. The village bicycle pedestrian committee actually meets at the same time as our meetings almost across the board. So that's a super difficult one to attend. And that's not why I think to them. They're actually meeting right now, and there's stuff that I owe them and that I have not done yet. So so do we feel like as a group, we feel like we we wanna have a little bit more time to dig into this with the context
of, you know, needing to come back? Is there a schedule that they have on their website to at least say, okay. This one I know I could go to every month, and this one I know I could go to every quarter just to get a sense, like, on a daily, weekly. I know there are a few that seem like they're pretty frequent during the day. I'm not sure. So for for the building planning councils, do we don't really do we have a sense yet from the admin team of, like, what the cadence is going to be? We haven't discussed that before the treatment. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's that's been on our list as well. Store to then on Thursdays before board meetings. Right. So Right. Can report back at the board meeting. At that board meeting.
Student faculty congress, due to the change in schedule, it used to be at 07:55 in the morning, which was fabulous because before work, but that schedule has changed. And so the rotation idea will probably make it easier. The meetings will be on Tuesdays, generally, I believe. Right? Because we're still having is that right? I'm saying it like I know. Is it still on Tuesdays? Tuesday. Or is that date gonna change maybe? It's still gonna change. So it's we have Thursday. It's Thursdays? Okay. Okay. Okay. I didn't get to go last year. So if it was Thursdays all of last year, I did not know. Well, is. You changed me. Yes. So yes. Got it. Got it. Got it. Thank you. So Thursdays. District emergency response team, that meets, like, a a I I can't speak to that. I've never served on it, so I need somebody that is actually in on it. Anyone in It's during the day. Quarterly? During the day. Health and safety committee tends to meet again immediately after school. It's four times a year, and there's a walk through in August. Village bicycle pedestrian committee, we need to sort of have a conversation about what our capacity is for participating in village committees. I mean, for a couple reasons. What's the sort of, like, the purpose? And then another piece, I guess, we'll just quickly highlight here. I think some of us have been part of these conversations and have reported back on it. But last spring, board officers had a meeting with the village trustee representatives at our quarterly meeting with the district, and they had broached the idea case. And
case. That's that's begin to begin a process to, like, select student representatives for their advisory committees. So this is an initiative that they're gonna wanna move forward. I think the reason that the village asked to have board of education liaisons was to foster connection between the village and the school, but I think students would probably do a better job of doing that in some ways because they actually attend the schools. So this might be a place for us to sort of as a board dial it back a little bit. In terms of the PTAs, those are those generally meet after the PVC and CHHS PTA meet after school hours. CET, I am not sure about CET is sorry. It's evening. It's e it's evening, but also sometimes morning, I thought. But I could be wrong about that. So I'm getting that it's evening. Sept, generally, is after after school and work hours as well. Booster club, I haven't It's evening. Evening as well. Champ Champs and chef champs, I don't know what their cadence is yet, but chef is definitely evenings as well. So, again, the idea being that it would be important to establish a connection and then sort of determine on whether your attendance is at their invitation. Or if it's an organization you're already part of, you're gonna be doing it anyway, and that's just a benefit for us. Yeah. Thanks.
So I like the idea of cabling pinning this down until, like, maybe the next meeting, but I signed up for the to do the advocacy liaison. I'm concerned being able to attend every single meeting, so I would definitely welcome somebody to partner with us.
Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about that for a second again just for the benefit of our two new trustees because we haven't had a chance to go over all this in detail. We don't have write ups on all these. It's a that could be a new job for board development or board governance to do write So in terms of that particular role, we do actually need to we don't have to do it tonight, but we do need to confirm an assignment of an individual to serve as our advocacy liaison to the national the New York State School Boards Association because their business meeting takes place in October. And at that business meeting, we as a board need to vote on which resolutions that advocacy committee is moving forward as legislative priorities. And it is a meeting where that person who's our designated representative attends that meeting. In terms of learning about like the advocacy initiatives going on within Westchester, Westchester County School Boards Association has an advocacy committee. Our former trustee Sarah Carrier was very very involved and actually carried a tremendous amount of weight for this board by not only chairing that committee but also serving as a representative. Theo has served as a representative as well. And it's it's a really great way to learn about the issues facing public education. It's also a great thing where you can sort of dip in and dip out, so sharing it would be a great idea. Yeah. Any other questions on this before we move on to the next item? I don't think there's anything else for us to discuss on this. Denise, we will have to get back to you on for liaisons after our next meeting, and I'll connect with you about
about how to sort of get this information published because I think we have some ideas on how to make it more clear to folks who's serving out of each community. Okay. We'll move on then to our consent agenda. Item 5.01, approval of the consent agenda. Recommended action be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves all items under the consent agenda for the organizational meeting as presented.
One question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Same. Motion carries. We'll move on now to the next portion of the agenda item 6.01 policy review. Recommended action be it resolved that the Board of Education review the board policies as follows. Parents and family engagement policy nineteen o one, school board member ethics twenty nine sixty. School board member ethics regulation twenty one sixty r. School board member code of ethics exhibit twenty nine sixty e. Is it conduct fifty three hundred? Two thousand sixty two forty. Purchasing 6,700. The board shall
review the open meeting's law with officers law article
we have an exact con the the the slide of the federal chronic hazard case. And I was just wondering if you could talk us through, like, what we're I'm not I'm not quite sure what the numbers
a superintendent. People are self purses. Yeah. Miss Rachel DePaul is going to take us to that, and then we can move back to the policy discussion after. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you.
Every student the Every Student Succeed Act requires that every school district report chronic absenteeism as part of their indicators that they report on annually. So chronic absenteeism is when a student misses 10% or more of the school year, which is equivalent to a 180 pardon eighteen me, days. So if they miss eighteen days or more, they're considered chronically absent
Yes. It does. Excused and not a lot. So, yes, it includes both excused and unexcused absences. So the national rate is about twenty two to twenty three and a half percent, and we are on average about six point one percent. So we are very, very low compared to what our national average is. The region, county, and state data has not been released yet. It's still a little bit early. But for this current year, we are significantly lower than we have been in the past. So over the course of five years, we've had a reduction of, like, 1.3 percentage points, which is equivalent to twenty one point three percent. And that's since the year after COVID. So the 2122 school year through the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six school year. So our attendance is improving. So so as required by, you know, a policy, we don't have to review necessarily attendance policy as it states. But any students that do fall within the chronically absent kind of category with each one of our absences, there's been many interventions put in place at the school, you know, not solely at the end of the year as it's noticed that a child may be considered at risk for increased attendance and being deemed deemed as chronically absent. So
and I apologize if I'm being down from yourself. No. Don't know. The the percentage, this is not the the numb doesn't represent the days. It's an
a student. Yeah. This represents the school's overall attendance rate as it relates to chronically absent.
Yeah. So I'm just trying to, like, translate how the students are being impacted versus because, like, one student could be out, like,
a very long time, and that could see what a difference is. And that's where we've seen at one of our schools in particular. There are some students that just suffer from school avoidance or school refusal, and those numbers, that will increase the the percentage for that school overall. And it may be representing two to five
20. Fewer number of absences, but a larger number of students. Indeed. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for clarifying. Yes. The building principals and I also have plans to look at, you know, specific students that we may have missed or, you know, some of our interventions may not have been as effective in planning with the development of school avoidance or people handle
that we are developing as far as protocols for our clinical and support teams to implement in the upcoming school. That's really great to hear, actually, because I know that that has been an ongoing topic at our counseling committee and then also a a top topic through our special education PTA. And I wanna say that I think their partnership with Rachel and Rachel's Rachel's support of those families in terms of both providing resources and guidance and also sort of developing, like, clear standards, which I think have been communicated to all of our buildings. But what is I think is gonna be really powerful is to have them sort of, like, documented in a way where folks also can feel that consistency of, like, this is what happens when we get here, and this is how as a building we're approaching that. I know that that's been an ongoing conversation, so I'm really so grateful to hear that this is something that's now coming together. Denise, I do have one question, like, in terms of this just because I just wanna be clear on it. I this data is it is based off public data, the absenteeism rates. So I think probably this should move into public content. It's right now not. Am I wrong about that? But this is this is actually just, you know, for the benefit of the public, it's it seems to be in the wrong place in our agenda, but which is why you can't view the slide on the screen right now. But when the agenda is republished, it's this is just Rachel did a lovely job of putting it together and giving us a longitudinal views that we can carry year to year. And what we're seeing is essentially nothing that requires us to review and visit our attendance policy or any of our practices.
And that is that is a governance function. So that's why we do this in the public meeting. Yeah. I have say, to like, you see articles about how this is, like, a really growing issue nationally. So this is, like, really great to see
here. Thank you. Are there other questions on the policies that we have to review? So for the benefit of the public, just important to note that each school board member actually has has signed our code of ethics as part of our annual recommitment to upholding our ethics as school board trustees. And every school board member, again, has every new or newly elected school board member has also received a copy of public officers law article seven that outlines the requirements for us under open meetings law as well as part of our our first off-site retreat as the board will be going over those requirements again to ensure that we're in in compliance with open meetings law. We actually do need to resolve that we've done this. So we I think we've had a motion. If there's no further questions, all in favor?
Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. Okay. We'll move on now to item 6.02, the twenty twenty six to twenty seven health and safety committee community member selection. Be it resolved recommended action be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the appointment of Teri Lukin as a nonparent member of the health and safety committee for a term of one year from 07/01/2026 to 06/30/2027.
Good. Allison. Second. Other questions? I just wanna say that we're very grateful to our community members for stepping up and volunteering for this position. The board was able to consider all of the letters of intent and interest from our community members, and we're appreciative that former school board trustee and active community volunteer, miss Lucas, is willing to step up and do this for the next ten year. We appreciate that. So we need to have to leave a mic. In favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. Thank you. Next item, item 6.03, be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the appointments of twenty twenty twenty six, 27 health and safety committee members for a term of one year from 07/01/2026 to 06/30/2027. Not fully as presented because we do have to actually fill in a couple of blanks for you in terms of parent members, Denise. So I'm gonna provide those names to you after the meeting. K. And, of course, I don't have them all, like, right in front of me right now because that would be, like, way too easy. Just give me one second. I don't wanna spell anybody's name or state anybody's name incorrectly. For CET, Ryan Metzler, n e t z l e r. For PVC, Bobby Bissells, b b a I c e l s. And for for CHHS, Jordan Humphrey. So I'll provide you the correct spelling of those names.
Okay. That's right. Thank you So so that that is just the the missing names. You'll see on your agenda as well that not all the positions have been filled because we're still awaiting appointments for nursing staff and other clerical and sorry. Other, like, bargaining unit representatives. And those will be supplied as, I guess, we get closer to our first meeting. So with that said, on the question, anything further?
Up? Today, I don't even know if I would remove this. I don't think we did. No. Something Sorry. Yeah. Thank you.
She has. Thank you. On question. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Same. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you again. I'll just say really quickly we had we had a we had a nice number of statements of interest from various members of our community. Some of them have served in this capacity before, and we thank them for their service. We'll be reaching out formally to everyone who reached out to us to let them know the outcome, but we appreciate the commitment that our community makes to ensuring with our amazing facility staff, our health our health and wellness staff as well to ensure that all our students and buildings are safe. That's a Thank you for that. Do we wanna offer anybody the opportunity to leave as we have made a decision to Sure. We are at a little bit of a breaking point also. Okay. Openness. So Yeah. But that's where we're actually gonna shift shift from our organizational meeting, our appointments to a regular meeting, and also just recognizing that we've been at two hours. And some folks folks need to stay, like, a two minute does anyone need a two minute break? Please feel free if you'd like to use this opportunity to to, you know, do that. Yeah. Otherwise, we'll move right into we'll be right into your.
Thank you. It's a good suggestion. These things get very long. So we're transitioning a little bit now from our organization meeting into the business in our regular meeting.
Thank you. Thank you. You. Okay. Moving into item 7.01, hearing of the public. I don't know that well, for the first meeting. Do do you have nutrition? I
We'll just say really quickly for the hearing of the public for our first one of this new term. We believe that effective dialogue can occur only in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Therefore, it's our policy to conduct our business meetings and all communications in a manner that models and respects the way we invite and expect members of the public to share this with us. We welcome public participation at this meeting. If you could, speakers, please identify yourselves. And if you would like the board to follow-up with you after this meeting, please provide your contact information to Denise Bisaccia unless we have it already, which we might for some of the folks in attendance you take a you a to moment you you
Good evening. First, I'd really like to congratulate our two new board members that are also CCC members, Betsy and Jake. You were elected to the board of education. And I would also really like to congratulate our new board president, Anamika, and vice president Omar. I'm really, really excited for what the future has to hold. You guys donate so much of your time, your energy, your commitment into serving the community. These positions require countless hours of reading, meetings. I cannot believe how many committees you just showed on that screen. Difficult decisions, thoughtful discussion, and we, as parents of the community, truly appreciate your willingness to volunteer in such an important role. I recently learned that members of the Los Angeles Board of Education earn a $127,000 a year for being in this position. Needless to say, your compensation here in Croton is a little different. So while the paycheck may be zero, please know that your service your service is is really valued and appreciated. You do know that I am the founder of the grassroots group, the Croton Community Collective, and we've grown to 400 educators, parents, community members, and local business owners who all share one common goal of helping our children, all children, thrive. Our members come from many different backgrounds and perspectives, but we're united by a belief that childhood matters, and we want to help children build healthy relationships with technology, spend more time in independent play, discover real hobbies and interests, passions, read more physical books, strengthen human friendships. We now live in a world where I'm gonna keep saying human. Connections with human teachers and develop the confidence and resilience that come from real world experiences. And we know that schools absolutely cannot do this work alone. Families, schools, businesses, and the broader community all have an important role to play, and that's why our group has focused on building connections, creating opportunities, supporting initiatives like the book boxes.
Just wait. I'm gonna get a phone booth somehow in this town to help children flourish both inside and outside of the classroom. And I know our district's motto is what schools can be, and we believe Croton has an opportunity to become a true example and leader of what schools and communities can be when everyone works together with children at the center of every decision. So the CCC would like to just let everybody know that we really look forward to building a positive collaborative relationship with the board of ed, district leadership, teachers, staff, and administrators. We know that we may not agree always on every issue, but we are committed to approaching conversations with respect, listening to one another, and always putting the needs of children first. That's what's most important. Congratulations again to so many of you here on the board. Thank you to our previous president, Ana. You you worked tirelessly. I I hope you get a little of a reprieve now. It doesn't look like it's out from the those committees. We're excited for what lies ahead, and we look forward to working together to make Croton a true model community for healthy childhoods and what schools can Thank you.
Good afternoon. Ed Riely from Truesdale Drive. I'd like to welcome a new member support, new assistant superintendent, and the superintendent for finance. This board has been interesting in that many people in the board, not have been open to evaluating things that were sacred cows and laying on the line when when they when they worked or didn't work. So I'd like to say address three things. One, this board should not follow crazy ideas and crazy fashionable things. I've lived through in this district probably six or eight campaigns are gonna make education revolutionary better, and they all failed. The most notable being common poor. We've seen the electric bus process where they act people in this community push this board do that. To that We're minimize the impact financial impact to the village and to the school district. But the taxpayers of this state paid $3,000,000 for buses that should have cost less than 1,000,000 because it become a fashionable idea that people demanded. It. And this is the one I really am disappointed with and and and people in general, educational professionals in general. We've known for twenty five years that cell phones have had an incredibly negative impact on students having cell phones in classrooms, etcetera, and overuse of technology. With the founder of Microsoft would not let his kid go to a high-tech school with that kind of stuff. We've known it for twenty five years yet. In all the committees, the people who served in this school board attended statewide, countywide, looked like never said boo. They may have said boo, but they never implemented boo. And they had to drag their feet until the state instituted a state law to change what happened in this district and other districts when they knew they should have done it ten or fifteen years ago. So let's be humble. People that are professional with degrees, oh, I got all this business experience. In many ways, we failed our students dramatically. Just another
fact. Remember, no standardized testing. You don't have to take the college board. You don't have to have an ax test. It was a total failure. College professors are saying these people now mean, major universities. They're not prepared, and and they don't trust the marks that come out of these districts. So they've implemented they've doubled down standardized testing, and I and go on. But let's be humble because the last ten years, in many ways, have been very disastrous for a lot of people. Thank you, mister Wong.
Any masks from the public? Thank you for for coming in and for sharing your thoughts. We
And I think we're all I think we can all say wholeheartedly, we are looking forward to digging in with you on your the the impressive, ambitious, and I believe fully achievable plan that you put together when you came before us for this position, and we can't wait to be your partners in moving that work forward. So thank you very much for being here and for joining us. And we know she's been halfway point in this meeting, so we're gonna get there. So just just if we could take a second, Omar and I had a chance to have a brief conversation having assumed the roles that you have, our fellow trustees have elected us to. So we want to thank you all for your vote of confidence and for your trustees to serve as the president and vice president of the board. On behalf of the board of education, we actually would also like to say a few words to our community. As a board, we are going to be identifying priorities for the district, and we're gonna work with the superintendents to develop clear measurable goals to address those priorities. It's important to us and to our community that these goals need more than statements of intention. They need to include clear measures, timelines, and regular reporting to the board and the community. Later this month, the district and board will be holding an administrative administrative retreat to further develop and operationalize these goals and all of us are looking forward to this renewed collaboration on moving the district forward. As a community, we know that our students are capable of exceptional work and we're committed to supporting our students. We look forward to discussing these priorities together as a board with the district administrative team and for our community at our August 6 board meeting.
That's really okay. So I'll I'll move it over to actually the next item on our agenda.
So I'm gonna go through. Thank you. And I'm gonna go first on behalf of the administrative team to Madeline, to Nikki, welcome. And thank you for your leadership on behalf of the student body. To Betsy and to Jake, welcome, and and thank you for your leadership on behalf of the community. To Anamika and to Omar, thank you for your leadership of the board, and I look forward to the collaboration. And to Ana, thank you for the past two years of of wonderful and steady leadership as the board president. I did have a couple of things I wanted to share. We briefed tonight, owing to the fact that we're early in the summer and just to share my review agenda. But I did wanna share a couple of of highlights, certainly starting with this is the first time we've all all of them together in August, and we've experienced three wonderful graduation ceremonies. And I wanted to, again, thank everyone who's involved in making those such a wonderful series of successes. Congratulate our students, our rising fifth graders into PVC, our rising ninth graders into the high school, our class in 2026 who are ready to take on the world beyond our school district. Thank Brad Kennedy and the facilities team, all of our administrative staff, faculty, everyone who was involved in those three wonderful events. And also mention and thank Greg, who is doing a terrific job.
All of the post event production and editing. So all of those are available now on our website for review. So thank you and congratulations to everyone who's involved in those. Also wanna make mention that over the past year or so, there's been a great deal of discussion in our community about how we engage with our broader community, how we communicate as we would call it, tell the story of the wonderful things that are happening within our schools. And so as a as part of that process, we will be switching to a different communications firm. And I wanna thank Gordon, Communications, and Jackie Burton for the seven or eight years of of service that they provided to our district, and now look forward to engaging in the process of identifying the new organization or firm that we'll be engaging with going forward. So we put out an RFP back in the spring. Thank you to Kelly Lent and to Denise for coordinating that. I've reviewed the responses. We'll be meeting with firms who expressed interest next week. We'll be looking for work participation in that, and we'll share some information weekly tomorrow. And then look forward to bringing a recommendation to the board in August to award that that RFP. I also wanted to I also think we try to do this whenever the timing works. We wanted to launch our newest community update video this evening. It'll be shared with the entire community tomorrow, but the goal is to provide an overview of what a unique and important time to summer to the school district. It's busy in a very different way. I think the energy of the students and faculty and staff isn't there. But it does give us an opportunity along with the faculty to do some really high quality and important curriculum development work, professional learning, facilities
planning, goal setting. And so we wanted to provide an update early in the summer to our community on some of the priorities for the summer's work. And so I thank Laura for joining me in in the video and Greg for coordinating it. Greg? Thank you, sir. Hello, Tigers. As we reflect back on the close of the 2025, 2026 school year, I wanna begin by congratulating rising fifth graders from CET, our rising ninth graders from PVC, and of course, the outstanding CHHS class of 2026 on their beautiful and wonderful graduation ceremonies at the end of the year. It was an honor to be present to celebrate each of our exceptional Tiger students. Although the summer has just begun, we're already well underway and our preparations for what will be an outstanding 02/2627 school year here in Croton-Harmon Schools. First, I again wanna welcome some new members of our leadership team beginning with PVC principal, Maylien Herm, new assistant superintendent, doctor Laura Duback, and our new leadership at the high school and interim principal, Erica Fiorini, and interim assistant principal, John Bohuniek. Please join me in welcoming all these outstanding leaders to our Tiger team. The summer is also an incredibly busy time for our buildings and grounds and facilities team, and I wanna take a moment just to thank all of them and our director Brad Kennedy for their continued wonderful work throughout the course of the entire school year. This summer will feature a variety of facilities upgrades including the installation of air conditioning and more classrooms at PVC, additional playground equipment at CET, and the installation of lighting above the tennis courts at the Spencer Field Complex. Beyond that, the facilities team will also be engaging in work throughout all three of our schools this summer, including flooring replacement, light and ceiling replacements, painting, and new casework around our district. And now to provide an update on what the summer has in store for our amazing members of our faculty in preparation for the upcoming school year, it's my pleasure to introduce assistant superintendent doctor Laura Duback. Laura?
Thank you, Steve. This summer, nearly half of our faculty will be engaged in summer curriculum work. At CET, some of the highlights include diving into the Hegarty bridges to reading and writing work across grade teams. At PVC, several of our grade teams will be working on developing and refining interdisciplinary units of study. And at CHHS, teams of teachers will be working on reenvisioning and aligning our math and science courses, including focusing on alignment across sections and common assessments. In addition, the connections teams will be working on alignment across the four sections of the interdisciplinary humanities course. This is just some of the exciting curricular work that our faculty will be engaged in this summer as we continue to expand on the work of the vision map and bringing more interdisciplinary learning opportunities to our students across all grade levels and increasing alignment across sections of classes and sections of grades to ensure a more common student experience for all of our students.
Thank you so much, Laura. And to our entire Tiger community, I wish you a wonderful start to the summer, and please stay tuned over the next few weeks for further updates on our preparation for the upcoming school year. Go Tigers. And so thank you, Greg, for coordinating that to Laura for instructional contents that will be released tomorrow to our community followed up by another midsummer update in the first week of all. Thank
you. Great. Thank you. Because we're we're sort of, like, entering a a new term, I am gonna I'm gonna just ask because I think this is a great opportunity for us to sort of think about how we wanna do things differently. After Steve does his report, if folks do have questions, obviously, there's, you know, there's this is a lot of information. Things are lots of things are in progress. But if there are preliminary questions or things for future consideration that we wanna hear from, then this is a good opportunity to hear from the board. And I think we as a board should consider thinking about as we, you know, get together and talk about how we want these meetings to go if we feel it's appropriate for questions after the President's report or other reports as well, we'll think about a way to sort of work that in. But I think based off of this knowing that again it's just introductory, a lot of this work is about to come and we're going to hear a little bit more about it at the retreat. If any trustee does have a question for Steve or for Laura in terms of what was presented top line, obviously, because the work is coming, this would be a good opportunity. So open it up.
Yeah. Doctor, I'm just curious, like, how did you decide or what measurement or reporting did you use to expand the interdisciplinary courses across all grade levels? And you don't have to answer now. I don't wanna pick you on the spot. Just something I'm curious about, so if you have thoughts now or later. Just something I'm really curious about.
I can share some preliminary things. Sure. Mostly about the high school. Okay. Great. I spent most of the time. The interdisciplinary courses, the ideas for interdisciplinary courses come from student and staff interest. And so that's where the initial ideas came from and looking at where do we have opportunities to think a little bit differently about the core curriculum while still meeting the required standards. I think something that's interesting about curriculum development is the state gives you kind of like a scope and sequence of topics, skills, but in terms of how you meet those topics and skills, what books you choose, what units of study you develop, those are developed and created by teachers. And so that's opportunity to be creative, to merge content areas. The state doesn't give us, you know, here are the books you have to read or the topics you must do. So the interdisciplinary courses are a way of taking what's just sort of always been done and creating more authentic experiences. But there is not a specific number that we were looking for. It's more about that authentic process of where is there a moment in time where there's interest, energy, new research around what will work well for students. And we also look really closely at what's happening at colleges and universities, many of which are embracing interdisciplinary learning, like office of interdisciplinary studies. So we're keeping up with the higher education research too.
That's great. That's interesting. Looking forward to hearing more about it. How good it's.
Yeah. As a follow-up to that, Do we have any data on how interdisciplinary learning has improved or or not student learning? Or is it in the course of this change student learning? I think that's something that
we're gonna hopefully work on at the retreat, look at some program evaluation tools and some different models for sort of quantifying that through the qualitative and quantitative data. So, I think stay tuned on that after the end of July.
I think that's a great answer. And, again, I just wanna remind everybody because we are sort of doing a little bit of shift. And, honestly, I didn't tell anybody we're doing this. So I apologize for that. But I think the the great thing about being able to have these conversations is when we ask these questions, the answer sometimes is gonna be we're gonna talk about a little bit later, and I want everyone to recognize it. Of course. The reason I felt comfortable doing this is I know that Laura does have, like, an expertise in everything that she's talking about. Steve does as well. But I think for us, it's an opportunity to be able to really engage at this board table about things that our community is interested. Omar has point, then I'd like to go after him. No. Don't. Oh, that was you. I asked, did you? Sorry. Mental. Well, so what I wanted to say just really quickly is I'm really excited to hear because I think we have heard from we have heard from our community that and this isn't exclusive just to any particular building, but I think that that parents and students are are are sensing that sometimes an experience in one section of the class can be sometimes different from another from an experience in another section of the class, whether it's actually at CET in terms of, you know, we've talked about this as a board, access to certain extracurricular or co curricular. I'm sorry. Field trips. Those are neither of those things. But, like, you know, field trips is, like, one example. But then also, you know, in terms of how much of their curriculum you get through or what what choices we have for reading, etcetera. So that idea of sort having these conversations about the uniformity of the experience and determining what's important to be uniform and where there's latitude for teachers to be guided by student interest and also their own
interest in what they really enjoy engaging with, I think it's really great that you're looking at it. And I hope that we can think about a way after you go through that work to to report back on it because I think it's a thing that for me as a parent and also as a trustee to be able to understand how different approaches still get us to the goal of knowledge building and skill building would be really helpful. So Allison and then Ana?
Oh, I was just gonna say, as a parent, you just went through the college application process. I will just, you know, agree that this is what colleges are talking about right now. But I just wanted to say, as a parent and as a fellow trustee, if either one of you wanted to have a conversation, I have four children. They're each very different learners. I've had one who just found herself in the interdisciplinary courses. I have another one who painstakingly takes them. But I could give you some insight into my experience as a parent with some of those.
It sounds like the the question of the interdisciplinary courses, because they're not familiar to everyone, has bubbled a little bit to the top even within our community. So as we're thinking about the ways you know, one of the things that I know we're gonna be talking about is sort of like a way to do a deep dive into each of our schools and I'm sure that you all are thinking of interdisciplinary as like a thing to highlight in terms of CHHS. So we'll definitely have opportunities to honest points and also hear about, you know, student experiences. And I know we've got two people who have taken interdisciplinary classes who also have a lot to share. Allison? So two things.
Not to speak about now, but I'm definitely echoing Omar's request to and and glad to hear that you're choosing some program assessments. I definitely wanna learn more about that. What I would say from the interdisciplinary perspective, as a college professor who taught interdisciplinary classes and then also my kids going through the college application process, I just would hope that our guidance department is able to articulate to colleges, particularly colleges that don't have very robust admission staff, how these courses map onto some of the more traditional because a lot of the times, colleges are looking at rigor. Are the kids pushing themselves the most? So I think if that's not in place, we'd like to learn a little bit more about how that's being articulated in a very clear way, and also for students to be able to position this themselves.
Any questions for anyone else? Alright, thank you. Thanks again, Laura, for accommodating that sort of like, that responsive question. But I'm hoping that we'll develop a comfort level working with each other where we're able to actually engage on some of these issues in real time. Because again, it's like to be able to do the work here and to be able to talk about it here, that's kind of what we're all here for. And it's actually a really exciting, I think, opportunity for us. So thank you, thank you. We'll move in then to new business, item 8.01, twenty twenty six-twenty seven facilities use fee waivers. Recommended action be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the twenty twenty six-twenty seven requests for facility use fee waivers as presented. You can see the list of the committee's request.
On the question. Just for context, again, for our new trustees and also for members of the public, as part of our sort of fiduciary oversight, we do need to review the organizations that have applied to the district for a waiver of use of our fees. These are all community organizations that provide a lot of enrichment and activities, athletics, and drama, all sorts of things for our community, and we're happy I we we will now vote on and hopefully be happy to approve all of these. Favors. So I lost my train of thought. Sorry. Okay. Yes. Thank you. All in favor. It's gonna take me a while to, like, you know, remember all the things I'm supposed to say. All in favor.
Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Moving on to the next item, the recommended action be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the appointment of Bari Suman, interim athletic director, effective 07/17/2026 to 06/30/2027 as per the terms provided in the agreement presented.
Yeah. I just wanna say on behalf of the administration, how thrilled we are to make this recommendation. As we all know, that position is one that's gone through a significant amount of change over the past eight to ten years. We feel as though we're at a place where someone of Barry's expertise and experience can provide us with exactly what we need right now, which is a look at what our practices are and how they do or do not align with best practices regionally and beyond that. Barry recently retired from the Mamaronex School District where she spent twenty two years as the director of health wellness and athletics. She's thrilled to be in what we would call a real tiger. Right? So she's from the Mamaronex tiger to the Croton tiger to begin tomorrow. She's already done some preliminary work with us, with our team, with Carla, and has already made several recommendations that I think will be impactful in terms of improving how we think about our programming, our experience for our student athletes. So we're thrilled over the moon to make this this recommendation. I know she spent all obviously, also time with the board, and I hope the board has gotten a sense of that that quality of that experience. Other
board comments? Well, I I will just concur that I think we did have Barry and she seems to already be looking at where she can dig in and brings a level of professionalism, excitement, and also a sense of being able to, a desire to get to know and work with the community to to sort of get that support about centering athletics in terms of, like, our community life here in growth. I think it's gonna be a really good opportunity for all of us. If there's nothing further, I will just ask all you.
You. So all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Same. Motion carries. Congratulations to Barry. Looking forward to having her join us. Next on the agenda, transportation cooperative agreement. Recommended action. Resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the agreement for cooperative transportation between the Croton-Harmon, Garrison, Hendrick Hudson, Lakelandt, Ossining, Peekskill, Heaven Valley, and Yorktown School Districts as presented.
On the question. And I will say all in favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? The motion carries. Moving into the next item. It's a discussion item, class size at Gary E. Tompkins Elementary School, and I will turn it over to superintendent Walker.
Yes. Thank you again, Anamika. So as we know, this was a point of discussion. This is a high quality discussion among families and and faculty CET specifically. So we thought as we begin the summer, it was an opportune time to take a look at some historical data relative to class size at CET as well as an update on where we stand now. And then we'll be posting all of this to the CET website for folks to take a look at as well. If we go back five years, start looking from '22, '23 up to now, so we just Greg, we don't need to spend a lot of time, I don't think, on each one of these slides, but you get, I think, a broad sense that over the course of history, we're between about nineteen and twenty three students per class K-four over those past years. And again, what we see is in a small district, one of the challenges that we experience is there are ranges in the cohort sizes. And so we range from about 98 or so up to about a 130 depending, of course, on on birth rates and populations within the community. And so that then dictates conversations on an annual basis about really are we a a five section grade or a six section grade. There's been no time in the recorded history that I've seen where there's been a four section grade or a seven section. It's really a five or six section conversation. So what you see Greg, if can go back one slide. What you see here is our projection as of now. There's typically very, very little change between this point in the summer and September. The projection of 105 students for kindergarten reflects an accurate number as of today of 102. So frankly, 105 is probably even a little high unless there's a a family of of five year old twins out there that are about to enroll. Typically,
have very, very little change, especially in kindergarten, between the middle of July and and September. So what you see there again is range range that's very similar to where we have been traditionally. And one of the things, of course, we think about beyond, of course, student need and what research tells us is a quality practice in terms of class size is also sustainability of the model and how we're able to sustain this year over year so we don't have large swings in class size among the cohorts. And Greg, if you would, just the next slide. We took a look here at just average class size K-four over the past five years as well as the projection. Again, 20.8 probably is a little high based on current numbers, but you'll see we're very comfortable with where we are in terms of the the very recent history at CET. Happy to take questions on that.
Yeah. Had a question. Because, you know, the average is kind of masked the outliers. Could you guys add to this what the minimum and maximum was for the grades. So if you go back to, like, the earlier slides Yeah. I think we had a kindergarten year of about 18.6. No. So in terms of each section. So if you can just basically add two columns, like the minimum class size Yeah. Or section size and the maximum section size so that the average then makes a little bit more Yeah. Right. Gives it more context for it. Yeah. We can certainly do that.
It is a lot of information to look. I mean, I I I recognize that it would have been difficult to look at this sort of longitudinally, like, all on one side because it's lot a of information but I think that Omar to your point it does give us a sense of the top and the bottom. And I think for me I think what we sort of want to figure out as a board having engaged last year in some conversations about enrollment towards the end of school year and not fully aligned with our budgeting process. I think the question for us is obviously seeing these numbers now is to also determine what the appropriate time is for us to sort of revisit and check-in on this during budgeting to ensure that we're that we feel that we're, you know, sufficiently resourced in terms of coverage for these classes. Because I think it was it was good to be able to be responsive in the way that we were in the spring. But I think we also wanna make sure that we're that we're, you know, we're sort of planning ahead as best as we already do, obviously, in terms of our budgeting. But to connect those dots a little bit more explicitly, I think, will be helpful for Yeah. Exactly. To have it be an explicit discussion around class size and research allocation
and just talk about the priorities and where it falls amongst the competing priorities for the district. I would add, I think, one of the things that we have talked about in a robust way, even past two or three budget cycles is support. Intervention supports, counseling supports at and elsewhere. And so I would just add that I want to thank the board for your support of our students, K-twelve, but particularly CET where we've been able to add not only intervention, academic intervention staff, but also counseling and support staff over the past two years. And as we saw from the ELA data presentation at CET and the growth year over year over the past couple years, we see that there's a potential correlation there. And so when we think about resourcing the students, at CETs, yes, it's about class size and sections, but it's also about what the support structures outside of the general education staffing look like. And so to, Omar, to your point, kind of the entire constellation of of staffing and support. Yeah. So as we get into the you know, probably the December, January time frame, I would feel like that's a a good time for us to then take a look at this data again and be able to talk about how particular cohorts are performing as well.
Thank you. This seems like it will align very well to what we're doing, because I do feel like we do touch on sort of those changes in resources, and I think we have talked about the increase in counseling and support services, but 100% to web these things together, we have to have that sort of holistic view. So I think that sounds like a great idea. Any other questions from the board, Betsy?
Yeah. Recognizing that you probably don't have this data on hand, another thing it's very useful to see the longitudinal data, but I'd also be very interested to understand how this compares similarly sized and similarly budgeted districts in Westchester. For example, the 21 class size for kindergarten next year is actually quite higher than the last two years. Right? Like, 18 is a lot smaller for a kindergarten class than 21. So I would just be really interested to understand that better to see how we're doing resource allocation.
Yeah. It's not something that that we typically talk about as a super group. It's data we can look to collect. Sure. I can tell you from from personal anecdotes that there's at least one other district that's extremely well resourced that we would say is the district where we would love to be able to better than from a performance perspective on an annual basis, whose class sizes are substantially higher than this. I think it's also worth looking at research around when we say there's a substantial difference between 18 students and 21 students. What does the research say in regard to that? I think there's some competing but interesting research around class science at the elementary level. Mhmm.
So, like, I I understand why the information was presented in this form, like, this PowerPoint presentation. I think for me, one of the feedback we have heard from the community is is what what is my child's experience over from the year to year perspective? So if perhaps it would be helpful to have it attached first, like a like a some spreadsheet or some Excel so we could just look at this a little bit like what Just follow the cohort. Yeah. So you could see what the code because that's what a lot of people are responding to. Mhmm. And I I thought it was really interesting when you're bringing up the whole, you know, the the support, the additional support that's been provided. So, you know, I've been thinking about too, like, oh, a lot of the times, not only the students number of students in class, it's a teacher student ratio or the other thing. So I think I know this is annoying, but you've been getting a sense, like because I know that there's some, like, particular sections where you you need to have more support given the past. But to have some sense of, like, what is the ratio? Because I think, you know, if somebody sees, like, oh, there's, like, 21.5 students in a class, maybe that doesn't feel maybe that feels more palatable to a parent if they're like, oh, but in that class, there's also not just one teacher. There's either other other
adults with expertise in the room as well. So I think getting, like Yeah. Another way to tie in the picture.
Yeah. I think that goes back to the timeline about budget and broad staffing support. We certainly can put that together for the the beginning of the budget process and do it. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. Just quickly, is there anything in there that jumps out at you? You see a certain figure, a certain number, say, I see a decline on that, or is this pretty much From a class size perspective? No. Just in general perspective. Yes. For enrollment? Yeah. So I think you're looking at kindergarten grade one and grade two as compared to prior years. Those are small they're just slightly smaller cohorts. Right. So it'll be interesting to see over the next couple of years whether or not that starts to revert toward the the prior mean of one fifteen or one twenty or whether or not we are a smaller system in terms of the incoming cohorts. Yeah. That's one of the. Oh, please.
I will just add also that all of our kindergarten classrooms have an aid in each class. That is not the case in the office space. So
I think having that kind of detail in here really would communicate a different story for a lot of people in the community.
Yeah. To say, because I don't know that everyone heard what you said. It's like, so you were just highlighting that our kindergarten classrooms all have an aide. Yes. Which specific is staffing thing that we do here. I think that's important to note as well. Other questions or comments from the board? Thank you for putting this I think here again it's like this is great example of we identified something in the spring. We talked about sort of how we could evaluate it and develop a cadence of sort of regular evaluation to solve a position where we can speak with confidence about our staffing and also understanding and being able to communicate to our community, these are questions that we're asking of ourselves and looking at on a regular basis. So I think that's really helpful to all of us as a board. Thank you for that.
Great. Just wanna clarify, think that when we do it in alignment with the budget presentations, we should have it for all three schools. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Agree.
That's a good point too. I think for for us here, it's I think we we we did specifically ask for this. Yeah. Yeah. Still, it's important to look at PVC and CHHS. Yeah. All good points. All good points. Okay. So moving in then, if I may, moving into the donations portion of our agenda. We will now be discussing a few donations and I am going to invite one of our trustees to just give a little bit of context after I introduce the first recommended action. Item 9.01, from Robert and Mary Beth Sust for the Lacey Carr Memorial Scholarship. The recommended action is resolved that the Board of Education gratefully accepts the donation of $250 from Robert and Mary Beth Sustee as a contribution towards the Lacey Carr Memorial Scholarship for 2027 at Croton Herman High School.
So just in terms of context, Lacey Carr was a six year old in 2015 when she passed very suddenly. She was a student at CET. She would have been a member of the graduating class of 2026. I was at the senior awards along with superintendent Walker and
behalf of the board all of these contributions and sequels. Next, recommended action, resolve that the Board of Education gratefully accepts the donation of $200 from Cynthia and Arthur Neff as a contribution towards the Lacey Carr Memorial scholarship for 2027 at Croton-Harmon High School.
All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? The motion carries. Item 9.03, recommended action be resolved with the Board of Education, gratefully accepts the donation of $100 from John and Diane Podhaus, I hope I pronounced that correctly, apologies if I didn't, as a contribution towards the Lacey Carr Memorial Scholarship for 2027 at Croton Herman High School.
One question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Item 9.04, recommended action be it resolved that the Board of Education gratefully accepts the donation of $500 from John and Susan Currenti as a contribution towards the Lacey Card Memorial Scholarship for 2027 at Croton Herman High School.
On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained. Motion carries. Item 9.05, recommended action be it resolved that Board of Education gratefully accepts the donation of $700 from Jeffrey and Julie Ackman as a contribution towards the Lacey Carr Memorial Scholarship for 2027 at Croton Herman High School.
On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? The motion carries. Item 9.06, be it resolved that the Board of Education greatly accepts the donation of $300 from Patricia Caliento as a contribution towards the Lacey Card memorial scholarship for 2027 at Croton Herman High School.
All in Second. In favor? Favor? Aye. Opposed? Next day? Motion carries. Item 9.07, recommended action be it resolved that the Board of Education gratefully accepts the donation of $250 from Bryan Mahoney as a contribution towards the Lacey Park Memorial Scholarship from 2027 at Croton Herman High School.
On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. Just to make sure I just define it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. 9.08. Be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts the donation of $300 from Reed Woodmore and Alyssa Woodmore as a contribution towards the Lacey Carr Memorial Scholarship for 2027 at Croton-Harmon High School.
On the question? In favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. Item 9.09, recommended action be it resolved that the Board of Education gratefully accepts the donation of $500 Kevin and Judith Gallagher as a contribution towards the Macy Carr Memorial Scholarship for 2027 at Croton Herman High School.
On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Promotional hearings. On behalf of the Croton-Harmon Board of Education, we'd like to thank all these families, contributors, and donors for recognizing Lacey Card's legacy and thank you Ana for your remarks reminding us of what an important part she was to the class of 2027.
I'm sorry. Class of 2026. Information. But an important part she was she was in that class and again thank you to the families and the individuals who contributed in her memory. Moving on to item nine point one zero nine nine point ten, I don't know how you say that. A donation as well from the New York State Office of Information Technology Services. The recommended action be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District hereby gratefully accepts the grant of $38.04 $90 from the New York State Office of Information Technology Services for the purchase of multi factor authentication hardware tokens.
this is a grant that we applied for to provide us with the multi factor authentication tokens for staff. The staff have the option of using tokens to do multifactor verification, or they can use an app on their phone. So this just gives teachers and staff an option, which they would like to choose.
It did. It's a it's a little fob. Yep. Okay. It generates a code. Mhmm. Great.
Well, I I have not heard that before, but it sounds really cool. All in favor? Aye.
We can make her in person. It sounds very clever and a good use of seeking grant funding for something like that. Thank you. Moving into the next portion of our agenda, instructional personnel item 10.01, recommended action be it resolved that the board hereby approves the instructional personnel recommendations for tutors and home instructors at the rate of $60 an hour for $26.27 as presented.
On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? State. Motion carries. Item 10.02, instructional resignation. Recommended action be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the instructional personal resignation of Derrick Davis, math teacher, Croton-Harmon High School, effective 08/03/2026. Okay. All the questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Moving into the consent agenda for the second portion of the meeting. Be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves all items under the consent agenda as presented.
For the benefit of the public, again we didn't say this earlier, this is a list of mentor appointments, curriculum coordinators, facilitators, and other annual functions and other appointments that as well as special education recommendations. Typically, the consented board does review these materials in advance and is able to, in the interest of time and efficiency of our meetings, vote to move these things forward en masse, hence, their placement on the consent agenda. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Upstate? Motion carries. Moving in then to the closing of the meeting, we will now hold our second hearing of the public of the evening. The same preamble applies here, and we invite members of the public who would like to address the board during the second session to approach the invisible podium. Hi.
Jill Anderson, O'Reilly Court. Wasn't planning to speak, but I I just feel really passionate about this as a teacher talking about class sizes. I think that historical data has a place, but you also need to look at a cohort. So the current second grade, and I wanna be very clear, don't have a child in that grade. But if you've ever thought I've done things here for just my own kid, you don't know me very well. That cohort had the wonderful ability to have a teaching assistant in kindergarten and have six sections. And then they went to five sections without an a because we know there is no a. That was a shocking change for that cohort. That is why you got so many parent emails because if it wasn't a big deal, you wouldn't have gotten those emails because even though on paper it might look one way, that is not what the lived experience was for these kids. This goes against what New York City classes are doing. Many families leave New York City to get to a suburban school to have small class sizes. The benefits are very well documented. I did email you guys on May 16 with a bunch of research on the part of class size matters. I'm a part of it because I do think it matters. I'm a teacher, and I have to tell you, one of my students did move this school year. And I love that student and was sad, but one less kid, one less parent to keep in touch with because I believe in regularly communicating with parents, one less report card, one less comp like, it makes a huge difference on teachers' stress level, whether that can be documented in research or not, even though research does confirm this. A lot of times, I like to look at the most prestigious schools that, like, you know, the most famous people send their kids to, and this is where I come with the most common themes. What do they do? They have low tech. They have small class sizes. So these are things that are proven efficient, which is why the schools that
have, you know, very elite parents send their kids there. I think starting with a class size that high in second grade is a recipe for disaster because if anybody moves in, you now are already starting at the top. I also don't think that we should be higher than New York City, and the New York City goal is 20 students at that age. And on a completely separate note, because this is something only a teacher would think of, I was taken aback by how small the second grade classrooms are at CT, and that is something that a board member might not actually know. It is a very physical small space that just happens to be the makeup of those rooms. And I remember saying to my child, incredible second grade teacher, how do you do flexible seating in this room? How do you do like, I know that in my classroom, I don't have I have two meeting areas in my classroom, and I get it. I'm very lucky that my classroom is huge, and not everywhere can have a room that big, but it is very small. So now you're taking a small classroom, a physically small one, the teacher has no control over that. You're taking a cohort that struggled very much this year. You're starting at the highest number, and you're not leaving any room for new people. And as you know, that development on the river just finished, and we could get a new student. So I really think you should reconsider, the best time, of course, is the summer of of adding another section to second grade. And I do think it's incredible and wonderful that our kindergarten has a need. Please maintain that. That's great for everyone. Thank you.
Riley from Truesdale Drive. To the items I failed to mention, which were major disruptions handled poorly by school districts almost unanimously throughout the decade was the COVID the COVID epidemic and shutdown, which in the school district lasted a year and a half, almost two years, and other districts lasted three with impact for a generation of students, which they may not recover. The other is the handling of the after aftermath of George Floyd, which was the DDI frenzy. And what that caused is a wave of which I'm most concerned about for the students is a a wave of censorship as to what students could say, what opinions were palatable, what opinions were not palatable. Slurs like racist were thrown around, like everyday greetings, including one or two members of this board are no longer with you, who said this stuff in writing, what without mentioning names, which brings me to this committee of the village of Croton Hudson. The idea committee is a monolithic committee of thought. You send one or two of your high school students to be on this committee. It's so monolithic that they think alike and are only oriented in one direction. There's no conservatives. No Republicans. No non left wing people other than the representative of the school board. Thank god she's there. And a recent member of the board of trustees. Even though there are two other trustees on that board, one of the idea committee. That committee has dangerous ideas, and I'll give you an example of that. They think they think the newspapers of Croton and Hudson are dangerous to their ideas, and they were so impractical. That's not the word. They put it in the minutes of their agenda, which is the first time we finally got minutes out of this committee. That committee needs to be reformed. Last, I'd like to bring your attention to the fact that Croton
screwed this up really. Croton will have a marijuana shop where there should be a milk and bread store adjacent to a a highly trafficked neighborhood, a basketball court that's highly used, 200 feet from a church and 200 feet from one of your schools. It used to be a school. It used to send 10 or 12 kids there. The regulation and the experience of pot in this state and the regulation of pot is not one of of a high standard, and it I believe it has threatened your your students. Thank you. Thank you,
Thank you for your comments. We'll move in now to item 4.202, going over the board. Our committees have not been meeting. We've now constituted that. But if there's anything folks would like to surface, we will be moving back into doing board reports once we resume our regular schedule. So this is just an opportunity for any sort of update from trustees. Don't feel like you have to leave early. It's also.
Can I ask you a quick procedural question? Sure. So, like, for the committees, for for example, the Ad Hoc Technology Committee, we can just start
Oh, yes. Filling up. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I think we got I got a little wrapped up in just getting it all filled. Yeah. Yeah. So so looking at the cadence of and putting on my formal board development hat just what's going on for us for the next couple of weeks. As you know, we are gonna be joining administrative team for the first day of their retreat, and we will I will be sending out an email this afternoon having now looked at everyone's vacation schedules. It's looking very likely probably to confirm the thirtieth, which is the day following because most of us are available for an evening retreat. We'll try to think of a way to make virtual attendance possible because I know that there are some folks who are traveling. So my recommendation is that, you know, if if there are folks who are ready to meet in in the intervening time, we should definitely get that going. But certainly after that retreat conversation, we wanna make sure that we have the committees constitute themselves. What we have done in the past of these first meetings, and please correct me, or Omar or anyone else at Theo also if you if I missed something, is at our first meeting to review the charge to ensure that it still aligns with what the committee wants to be and is tasked with working on determining chair who will then take on the responsibility of scheduling meetings, creating agendas and minutes. We're we at one of our governance goals last year was to sort of, like, ensure that we're all operating the same way. So this is a great opportunity for us to really do that. I'm gonna be sitting with Denise and Greg because having looked at some other districts' websites, there are easy ways to sort of, like, make these things clean and and findable using board docs, actually. So we're gonna look into what our options are there to be able to store all of that information in a place where anyone can get it. And it will also, I think, make it less laborious for people as individual trustees to have to, like, you know, manage some of this stuff. So those are things that we're gonna try to roll out from a governance perspective.
Are there the other thing I think in this I just wanna also credit Ana for enforcing this last year, which was to ensure that the committees try to develop a cadence of meetings and even schedule a calendar for the year where possible. Because if we know the dates, we also know what the scope is, and we can try not to plan against it. There's nothing more annoying than having to reschedule a meeting with nine people in the policy committee. So it's like this spring. Right. Commit commit to your dates and try to try to live by them and understand. Guess what? If you miss a meeting, there's gonna be another. So it's okay. There's gonna be another. So so hopefully with that guidance, we can we can go through. I know when there's groups of three, it's unclear who should get the ball rolling. So I think, Anna, would you feel comfortable for policy getting the ball rolling? Sure. Yeah. I will do so for board development audit.
Great. So if you could cover that as well. And then in terms of the hiring and tenure, I don't wanna necessarily force the o to plan one, but I think we could use you as a planner on that. That would be very helpful since I have something else as well. Does that cover all five? I think it does. So everybody has something assigned. And then as you meet, you can determine who your chair is and take it from there. But at least this way, we get the ball rolling. Yeah. I think it would be very helpful and at least, you know, other folks chime in. It would be really helpful for the ones that do not have a deadline charge to ensure that we at least get one meeting in before the start of the school year. We're already in the middle of July, but it'd be great to come back in September with a clear sense of what that committee wants to report back to us, and we'll we'll use our retreat conversation to ensure that committee work aligns with other stated priorities from a governance perspective. Yeah. We'll be discussing priorities, of course, in the meeting for our requirements. I have something else for a point. Oh, sure. So that's it on just on committee. Unless other folks have questions? Did they particularly have a a sort of, like, deadline for hiring?
December. December. And I and I was reminded to just go back to the charge that we have published. I did we do not have committee information for those two committees up on our website, so I will coordinate with that with Denise just to get visibility to them based off of the resolution. But then, like, the charge may be articulated more fully by that committee Mhmm. In terms of, like, what the what the scope is for that. Yeah. That would to you.
On something completely different. It's something that is bubbling up in our community and mentioned here tonight. So I know there's been talk about minutes from the idea committee. While I don't wanna speak to that, village manager, Healy, did say that part of that was that minutes that had been generated by AI hadn't been checked, and they were inadvertently put up on the website. We have had minutes from our minutes from these board meetings generated by AI, like some of the summaries and things like that. I wanted to speak to my fellow trustees to just highlight that that there is a nuance to some of that. I don't know how many of us have experienced that when you when you have them generated by AI. There's a nuance, and they do require revision. So I would just like to highlight for us as a board to make sure that before anything is put up, it represents our a summary of our work or anything like that while we start using these new technologies to make sure that it is reviewed again by human eyes, that we don't just trust the AI. Right.
Could you clarify just just for the benefit of, I think, folks here? So when you're talking about those those those reviews of our meetings, those were not generated by the board of education. They were they were generated by someone external Correct. To the board of education. And right now, we don't actually have we haven't articulated a policy on the use of AI in our meetings. The the our public meetings that are broadcast and recorded, you know, the way that those transcripts are generated, of course, on YouTube, that is actually AI doing that work. Yeah. And so if someone is using their own AI to listen to the AI of the meeting, that's, like, three layers of corruption. That's my bias, you know, term that I would use. Yeah. And so I think that's something to be careful about. One thing that we have to sort of think about, and I would say, I'm so sorry, but it's like, this is not the issue. Policy. But but I think I think, again, just for us, because this is starting to become an issue, is that when we're having these conversations that we believe are conversations between us and a of colleague or a fellow staffer, there has to be some sort of policy and clarity. I know from my own workplace that before a meeting is recorded, by anybody on Zoom or Google Meet that a statement has to be made and actually Yes. You have to have an opportunity to opt out of that conversation if they do not wanna be recorded. The same actually applies for the use of AI note taking tools, which are built into software now to automatically do that. And if as an individual, you're not comfortable or, like, it's actually, in some cases, bad policy to be having that confidential information go into an AI
capturing sort of platform. I think we will have to think about this. I know, Ana, you've already mentioned that the AI policy is very high on the list of things that we are gonna be talking about. But what you realize is that it's like, there's just so many parts to it, and it's everywhere. And I think, again, if we if we go to that piece of it from, like, a data privacy approach, that's, like, an easy entry point, which is, you know, what are we trying to protect in terms of our collateral, in terms of the work we're doing, and then also most importantly, student privacy because that is something that we all have such a big concern about. Yeah. We have to really sort of think about whether we need to, in the absence of policy, just have clarification across the board for staff. It is my belief that when I am having a conversation with any teacher, administrator, and committee that is not being broadcast onto YouTube or livestreamed, that no one is using to take notes. And if they are, I'm expecting to be told. But if that's not a shared understanding, we have to figure out how to make that a shared understanding. I think that's a little bit larger than what you were getting at. That far. No. No. No. I know. But it's also something that have talked about. It's come up in parent meetings. It's also come up for us individually in our own meetings. And just going back to that point that you were talking about, that's the situation in the village. It sounds to me, just from what I've heard, that there there's note taking of a meeting that was actually being done in that meeting by AI. It wasn't an external note taker. It was something within the committee. And so if that was part of that organization's agreements,
that's interesting. It's not part of our agreement here as far as, you know, any of us know. So it becomes a question of, is that a shared agreement? If it's not a shared agreement, that's what policy is for. Yeah. Great stuff. Something I thought. Yeah. Yeah. I I
don't know if it makes sense now, but, like, one of the things that I've had when I looked at the last few minutes, I I was like so but I'm like, is it worth it to really, like you know? But I realized I wasn't sure, like, who like, what the process is or the the the or who who I should call? Like, I guess, board officers or We were either, which is why we need a process. Yeah. So it's so so I think understanding, like, who who's doing what and where so that way we just understand what the process is would be helpful. But I would say, like, I I it's like it definitely, if we are using tools like YouTube, we we're using YouTube, like, to a certain extent. But I I do agree that I know my work like, you're supposed to before you enable and, like, the default should be that it's turned off, I think, here. Like and then you should like, you need to enable like, you need to ask for verbal
consent or something. Yeah. And so much of that has changed even in the last year. Right? Like, we discovered things even in the court system that was was transcribing things that we didn't we weren't even aware of what's happening. Like and I think that we're all caught up on the fact that some of those things can happen. But I was just gonna ask the administration because I know you're considering as you consider the communications RFP, if you could also just maybe proxies or, like, ask or probe, I guess, is the word I'm looking for in those areas in terms of asking. AI. Yeah. Yeah.
So I wanted to add to the conversation that what we had tried to establish as a norm is that we wanted to create minutes and agenda for each meeting so that there's visibility from the community to what the community is working on. And it makes me nervous that, you know, this AI involved because it's Yes. You know, it's it's not perfect. I know a lot of institutions, many of them are working with are are looking to establish an AIM policy. And the feedback I received around this is to your point, like, it is not at the at the place where really. Yeah. It can be relied on. Mhmm. And so I go back kind of the charge of the chair. Each committee is to ensure that there's an agenda, take minutes, make sure that the minutes of the following meeting are reviewed and approved before they get posted. And that has to be a queue. The chair means that that's the job of the chair. Mhmm. Right? And this is coordinating, and that's the job of the chair. And I think what we should establish is a process until we have a policy around AI. So we're not we're not using it because we currently don't have a policy around it. Right. Right. Yeah. I'm just gonna try to know that last piece because this was as part of our, like
this was on our board development docket for last year, and we had a draft, but it hasn't been finalized. So I will certainly see if I can turn back to that and share it. But I have a question just as I try to finalize that for board review. It'd be great to get everybody's input for those of us who have to take notes. One of the challenges is is that there's a gap of a month sometimes between a meeting and the next time that you convene to approve minutes. Does the approval of minutes have to be a public does it have to be an action? I don't know if it's for committees. For our minutes, for our board meeting minutes, it has to be an action. For board meeting minutes, it does have to be an action. But for a committee, does does approval have to be in action? I mean, I think I know that the I know the legal answer, which is that it does. And so what that means is that that In that committee? Within the yeah. With with I mean, it that then that has to wait. And that for example, why we're development. Minutes are like that up there because it's like it took such a long time to get to our next meeting. Or could it be an eval vote? I mean, I can consult with counsel on that to figure out. I think I know what the answer is gonna be, but I don't know if anyone has a board meeting. No. We will.
Nothing prevents us from we met today. Yeah. Just try to turn around because that's why I do all my committees and and, personally,
they try to try to turn around within the same week. Yeah. Because one, it's, you know, it's not consuming. Have other things to do, and it's crushing everybody's mind. Yeah. Yeah. Right? You don't want it to send it out like you send them a whole mess. Mess. So So you you get get a a thumb thumb up you there. Could do a thumbs up thumbs a thumbs up Via email. And then social media. Comments, we'll formally adopt it. Alright. I'm gonna articulate it that way. I'm gonna articulate it that way because, again, one of the things in terms of our own internal communications, and this has come out of our own discussions is and this is one of the reasons why we're thinking like, this idea of using BoardDocs is, like, a place where all this stuff lives is we're trying to minimize having to, like, let everybody know. Hey. I just did you know, it's like, I don't wanna have it's gonna be a lot to say, I posted these minutes. I want my board colleagues to know we're not on that committee, etcetera. But if there's a single repository and you're going into Word Docs all the time anyway, you're really dying to know what they talked about. Obviously, you can go find the agenda Yeah. And the minutes, and it's all in one place. And it takes the pressure off of everybody to be feeling like, how do I know what's going on? Yeah. Because so much of our work takes place in committee, and it's really it is important for us all to know. And it's on the website too because I was going back and looking at something. Is that different than what we're doing more times for the committee work? So I think what what I'm thinking of just, like, in terms of cleanup and, again, I'd like to talk to to Denise who is our board doctor expert because we've seen some things that other districts have done is a way to sort of, you know, determine, first of all, what records needs to be retained and for how long on those fronts and then prioritize
things that are this year in a place that's easy to find. There's a lot of examples of that. The stuff that's on the that's on the website generally, yes, those are those are meeting minutes and agendas. They're just not always easy to go through and find, and different committees have been doing it differently. So there's a policy page and an advocacy page, but there's no communications page, and there's no audit page. And so those are things I think we have to think about. That's interesting. Yeah. Other things to your polling of the board? Okay.
are on top of No. That is correct. That is correct. And so, actually, audit committee just as it's it is chartered, actually, and has in its charter the ability to conduct business under executive session. Yep. Because it is a it is a mandated and and operates under just like health and safety, operates under the Yeah. Yeah. That is correct. And, actually, this also goes back to Ana, I think, your point when we were talking about the scope of the scope of audit. I feel like it's you that I talked to about this, so correct me if I'm wrong. But looking into budget. Looking whether the scope of audit could include some certain discussions around budget, the answer is no because the scope of audit is very specific. There's only certain people who can be members of that committee, and then and there's activity that takes place confidentially Yeah. And reporting that takes place confidentially. So if we want to devise a place where there's more of an intersection with budget, I think we would have to think of a different committee space for that. So I think Yeah. I would ask that work leadership
or board officers pull the board regarding a space that maybe is not addressed by any of the other committees that would speak to budget or any of the other concerns
that we have. Okay. Yeah. So there are a couple of things that are on the back there, which were budget and discussion of curriculum. I think we need to sort of, again, use our retreat conversation as well to sort of surface not to decide, but to look at it in the context of priorities as a way to help our conversation with that. Mhmm. K. Okay. Moving into item 12.03, the next board of education meeting is currently scheduled for 08/06/2026, 6PM at the district office. And we'll have more information