CHUFSD Board of Education Regular Meeting 11/5/26
Okay. Good evening, and welcome to the members of of our community in the audience watching the livestream and listening at a later date. I'd like to call to order the November fifth two... Twenty twenty six business meeting of the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District's Board of Education. Item 1.2, please rise for the pledge of allegiance.
K. We'll move into item 1.3, the approval of the agenda. Be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the agenda as presented. So moved. Second. On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstaining? The motion carries. We'll move right away into item 2.1, the president's report. So today, I'll just start with a quick overview of our agenda. We'll open, the meeting after this brief report with the hearing of the public. We will be getting, today reports from the superintendent, student trustees, and our board committees, and then we'll, move over into, reviewing the superintendent's goals for twenty twenty six, twenty seven, and close out with other ongoing new business that is detailed in the full agenda. I wanted to take a couple moments just to highlight a couple of things. First, to members of our community who have written in and, had conversations with us over the last couple of weeks, thank you so much for the feedback. I think what we've been hearing is that the community is feeling
a good deal of confidence in the way that we have been shaping these meetings and the topics that we have been discussing. And for us and as well as for the, administrative district leadership team, it's really helpful to get this feedback because it lets us know that you're listening, and it lets us know that you're paying attention. And we welcome your ongoing engagement and feedback on what we can be doing to, demonstrate the success of our educational program, where your resources are going in our schools, and the overall student experience. So thank you again to everyone who's written in, and, you know, we welcome, your correspondence, your letters, and your calls, and your conversations. We do appreciate it. I also wanted to give just a quick update on board operational goals, which is something that, we wanted to talk about a little bit because there's a little bit of a difference, I guess, this year in terms of how we're looking at the year. And I wanted to clarify that board operational goals are basically goals about how we operate and conduct ourselves throughout the year, and they're kinda the same every year. So the biggest goal is to, of course, work closely with the community to make sure that our actions and performance take into consideration what the community is looking for. We are also,
committed to identifying educational needs and making sure that those needs transform into the work I'm just gonna focus on those first two to say this is our ongoing work, and it's definitely what we're, committed to engaging in this this year and in perpetuity. What we're gonna hear about a little bit more today is the, board priorities that we established at the beginning of the summer for the work of the district this year. You've now seen that those goals have informed, the creation of, very, clearly articulated and significant goals for the school district as well as for the individual school buildings. And today, we're gonna hear from superintendent Walker about his, position in terms of ensuring that all of this work is moving forward in support of continuous improvement and, again, ensuring that our very strong educational program here gives every student the opportunity to achieve and to get the most out of their educational experience. So we're looking forward to having a good meeting today to talk about all of this. And, without further ado, I'll turn it over,
to the next item, which is 2.2, hearing of the public. So if I can just remind, members of our audience, we believe that effective dialogue can occur only in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Therefore, it's our policy to conduct our business at meetings and in all communications in a manner that models respect and civility. We invite you all to share this commitment with us. Please step up to the podium, state your name and your, residence, and then you are invited to address the board for three minutes. Thank you.
My name is Ed Riley. I live on [street omitted] I have a list of things I would like to discuss with this board this evening, but I only have time for three at this time. One is that this board has been heavily represented, at the idea committee, which is the former DEI committee. That's diversity, equity, inclusion. Of course, this committee has never been diverse. It's never been involved in equity, and it's never been involved in inclusion, whether it be the people on the board or the philosophy of the people on that committee. Yet this board of education has participated in a number of their events. Their headquarters, you know, off... When they're off base, not in municipal building, is the Black Cow restaurant. And you've insisted in holding events, multiple events, committee events, board events, and a legal board meeting in the black cow, which at least a third of Croton never goes in that place because it's like, this is the headquarters of the left wing, the DSA.
The idea committee never ceases to amaze me. They never run their committee by the rules that were put down by municipal government, are contained in writing. And yet, their committee meetings are attended by three trustees of the village of Croton. Two former, one's a crazy woman, and two others, one sitting trustee. And this board sends a representative to there. One sane person, and I think the next person is sane, I hope. And so it is a scandal to be involved with that committee. You will notice that that committee was so incompetent that when a full request was made to the village about the contents and the character and the conduct of that committee and the minutes of that committee, the chairman was so incompetent that she sent recordings to the village of Croton, which then become village property, which were then foiled. And in the in the course of going through that that recording,
and I sent it to you all. I'm gonna give it to the to the secretary so I know you got it. It mentions the connections with this school in staging student walkouts, in special relationships with a health teacher, in special relationships with a guidance counselor, special relationships with members of this board, in planning activity, in planning social unrest in Village Of Croton. You should cut your losses and get the hell away from the idea committee. It is the committee that just keeps on giving. And I'm not gonna mention the names that came out. You can read it for yourself and the secretary. No excuses, but I did send it to you all. In there, by the way, they call me a lunatic. I am a a a very fond of moonstruck. Perhaps I qualify. But when they threaten me or my property, that's a different subject. Thank you.
Thank you, mister Riley. If I may just appoint a fact, and it's it's not our practice generally to respond to comments from the public, but I would just like to remind, the public, because this did come up last year, that to date, the board of education has not convened a meeting of the board of education at any, local business. So just stating for the record, that information. Is there anyone else here to speak for the public? Okay. With that, we will close our hearing of the public and move into item 2.3,
the superintendent's report. Over to you, mister Walker. Thank you, Vanamica. Good e... Good evening to everyone, watching in person and at home. I wanna begin this evening where I think we should always strive to begin our presentations, is by highlighting an example of outstanding student achievement in our schools. I wanna begin by congratulating our talented student musicians who have earned New York State School Music Association or NYSMA all state and area all state honors. For us, those students are [student musician names omitted] [student musician names omitted] [student musician names omitted] [student musician names omitted] Student musicians are selected for all state rec... Recognition based on their individual performances at NYSSBA solo festivals each spring, earning the opportunity to perform alongside other top New York state student musicians at regional and state level concert performances. Performances. The area all state concert took place last month at New Rochelle High School, and the twenty twenty six all state concerts,
will take place at the historic Eastman Theater in Rochester, New York on December fifth and sixth. So we... On behalf of the entire school district community, we're incredibly proud to see these tigers recognized for their musical excellence and grateful to the incredible faculty, family, and community who have supported them and inspired them along the way. Congratulations. As part of our ongoing efforts to invest in our facilities, make responsible use of resources, and create learning spaces that serve both students and local residents, we're pleased to be joined by Ana Tak from the board as well as Len Simon the village board to thank senator Harckham for his support in securing us a $100,000 community resiliency, economic sustainability, and technology grant to help fund new playground equipment at CET. The playground improvements include a rope climbing slide, triangular orange rope climbing web, a handlebar zipline track ride, and a rope climbing jungle gym with monkey bars. I've seen all of them. They are impressive.
This playground equipment was also made possible in part by the generous support of the CETPTA, and we thank them for their ongoing support and partnership. We look forward to seeing our Tiger students at play on the new, equipment actually tomorrow, weather permitting. We celebrated Halloween across the district last week, and as always, one of the highlights was the Halloween parade around the bus loop at CET. It was wonderful to see the spirit displayed by students and at least one board member. Thank you, Jake. Throughout the district, and I wanna make special mention, and thanks to the district office administrative team who, as always, were very good sports about embracing this year's costume themed toy story. Alright. So to infinity and beyond, gang, always. This week's been an exceptionally busy one for our administrative team as we are currently hosting a group of about 20 administrators and teachers from across the region's schools as part of our three day tristate consortium visit.
The tristate consortium, which our district has been a member of for many years, is an alliance of public school districts committed to systems thinking and collaborative inquiry as pathways toward continuous improvement. Our focus for this visit is teacher leadership as we examine how our current teacher leadership structures help to advance the work toward our goals and vision and how those structures can be improved going forward. The visit concludes tomorrow where we'll get a chance to hear the group's reflections and takeaways after having spent three days meeting with groups of faculty members, administrators, board members, visiting classrooms across the district, and reviewing documents. I wanna thank Ana Tatyana and Betsy for making time to represent the board in discussion with the tristate team and to Laura and Ellen for the tremendous amount of time they've spent in preparation for the visit and to our amazing faculty and administrative team for always embracing a mindset of wanting to improve what we do on behalf of all of our students.
We recently held the first two of what will be several parent and family learning walks this school year with both CHHS and CET opening their doors to over 20 parents in each session. Participants began by receiving an overview of what they might look for as they toured classrooms as well as reminders and information about the importance of confidentiality. Members of the administrative team then led the parents in smaller groups through a series of classrooms and other spaces throughout those schools. And I think the parent experience was very well captured by the pictures that Emily took during those visits. We see smiling faces throughout. We look forward to continuing this new practice in our district with PVC's fall learning walk taking place on November 20. I also wanna make mention tonight of our upcoming musical and drama performances. This weekend, make sure to come to CHHS to see the CET Tiger Club Theater present Shrek junior the musical.
Performances are tomorrow night at 06:30. I'll be I'll be there. As well as two shows on Saturday at two and 06:30. You can get tickets on our website, where you'll find a pop up with show information and a link. I wanna thank Marlena Horton and Ana Maria Stratner for their time and talent in getting our young performers ready, for these outstanding shows this weekend. Then the weekend of November 19 through the twenty first, join us again at CHHS for the fall drama performance of 12 angry men. Thank you to Jonathan Kaplan, the show's director, and Sean Callan, the set designer, for all of their hard work. Actually, Sean designed the sets for both shows, so we wanna give him a a specialist shout out and appreciation. I, of course, also wanna thank and recognize the CHAMP booster club for their wonderful support of both shows and of all of our student performers. I look forward to seeing many members of our community at both shows.
Laura and I are looking forward to hosting our first community conversation on Monday, November 16. Thank you to the 31 community members who have RSVP'd for that conversation so far. We're trying to keep those group sizes to about 20 people, and we still have room for a few more people to join us for the evening session if anybody listening might be interested in participating. We will plan to discuss some updates around elementary curriculum work as well as provide a review of high school AP and dual enrollment opportunities and student outcomes. We've received a number of other topics of interest to discuss from the families who RSVP'd, so we'll make sure to incorporate those topics into the conversation and leave plenty of time and space for organic conversation and questions from those to attend. We hope that these conversations will be an opportunity not just for us to share the work of our schools, but to engage in conversation,
listen, and learn from each other. We will hold other conversations throughout the year and are earmarking February for our next opportunity, and we'll share more details as that gets closer. I also wanna highlight an important upcoming event at CHHS, our counseling department's annual college symposium on Wednesday, November 18 at 06:30. The evening offers students and parents the opportunity to hear from representatives at a range of colleges and universities about topics such as tips for writing a standout college essay, finding the right college, navigating majors, and utilizing the application process demonstrate what makes each student unique. I've had the chance to attend this event several times, and every time I've left having learned something new about the process. I wanna thank our guidance department and the CHHS administration for for coordinating this event. And finally, I wanna give a quick shout out, to the varsity field hockey team. This was a merged team with Henhud this year. I think it was last week in my weekly communication.
I listed a series of teams who were participating in sectional play, and I heard from a parent saying, Steve, love the communications, but you forgot the field hockey team. So, Meredith, my apologies to the whole team, and congratulations on a fantastic season. Thank you.
Thank you. Any questions from the board or comments? Okay. Then we'll move over into item 2.4. Oops. It's, like, cut off on my piece of paper. Report from our student ex officio trustee, [student name omitted] His colleague, [student name omitted] is unable to be here, so he'll be representing. Thank you, [student name omitted]
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And and and as such, they are actually not gonna be joining us at our next meeting because they will actually be be in the middle of tech week. Yes. So we're looking forward to the... To that perform. I'll just quickly, comment on something just, because for for some of us who have served on the board for a few years, the climate survey is something that, has been delivered annually for the last couple of years to sort of check-in with students on how they're feeling. And I think you do you do bring up a point that we've actually discussed before, and I think everyone on the administrative team is aware of as well, which is that, reporting on surveys doesn't always accurately reflect student experience. So I think one of the things that I would I would ask you, both to sort of consider in your roles actually is to think about, you know, whether there might be an opportunity to get feedback from your fellow
high school students about whether... What other mechanisms they think would be helpful. I think that the administrative team is definitely open to understanding, you know, where you all are on this topic, and, it would be... I I just think it's worth I think it's worth sort of inquiring into that because we just we just know that, that surveys are are... You know, they are... They depend on who answers them and who feels like, you know, answering them in-depth. But but the other piece of it is, I will say, I'm... I feel very grateful that, you know, as a parent, in the school system who has two kids in the school system, that there are multiple ways that we are surveying climate beyond the actual physical survey. So I think the other thing to keep in mind is that it's one element of that review and not sort of all of it. But, again, I think it's... As we're... As we have, like, our next work session on this, which will be coming up at some point during this school year, be we'll be looking at those results. It's an opportunity for us to sort of talk about that as a group to determine whether there are ways now that we've been
sort of engaged in this practice for a few years. If there are ways that we wanna think about improving or changing or modifying or expanding, I think there's a good deal of openness on the on the on the part of the administrative team to talking further about that. So let's keep that conversation going, and thank you for highlighting it. Any other comments from the board?
Building upon what you... Anamika was saying about the survey, I mean, I guess I'm also curious, you know, if it yes. People sometimes rush through surveys because of time. So then I guess the question is is... Because I have to do things like that in my classroom too. Is it that people can be dismissed after they can do it? Or, you know, like, there are mechanisms. You know? So I'd be curious a little bit about how how it's being deployed. But then also, I know in my institution, sometimes students are concerned, like, how anonymous is this really? You know? So if there's other things that are kind of preventing or or in people's mind that makes them not fully engage in it, it would be interesting to hear what they are. Thanks.
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Good feedback. And I think we'll... You know, again, I think we'll keep it in mind as we're moving forward. So thank you for that. We'll move now into item 2.5, our board reports, and we'll start with committee reports. I'm gonna skip over audit until Omar gets back and, I guess, go right into board governance. So very quickly, the board governance committee met on October 29. And, just as a continuation of what I sort of started talking about with, our board operational goals, part of the board governance committee's charge is to ensure that we're moving those, annual goals forward. Among the, items that we touched on, were drafting committee protocols for our committees to ensure that, each of our each of our board committees are sort of operating in the same way. This has been a work in progress for us for a couple of years because, you know, it's just... All of this is frankly, like, a tremendous amount of work. So it's something that's still a work in progress. I'll just be blunt about it. But I think we're in a place where we'll be able to present to the full board what we're thinking so that we have... That we can ensure that the community is aware of the work that we're doing consistently across all of our committees.
We also had a good conversation about potential, work session topics and other informational sort of conversations that we'd like to have over the course of the year. So we're looping back to the administrative team about that. And finally, we determined a date for our fall board of education retreat, which will give us an opportunity to come together as a, as a team and talk about our, our governance practices. It's not a place where we make decisions, but it is a opportunity for us to talk about how we're approaching the work and, and also sort of to connect with one another since we do spend a tremendous amount of time with each other over the course of every year. So we're looking forward to that on Monday the ninth. That's all I have for board governance. We'll loop back to you in a moment. Omar, if you have anything to add on audit or you wanna do it now? Okay. Audit? Yeah. Okay. Great. It hasn't been. Okay. Great. So then we'll go over to,
policy committee. Over to Ana.
Good evening, everyone. Policy will meet tomorrow at 05:00. It will be a meeting of just the members of the board. We had decided the cadence of the meetings this year would be one with administration and then another to kind of do more preparatory work, out of consideration for how taxed your schedules are, I think, with all of these additional committee meetings. So we have, three pending, I think, policies that we're gonna look at tomorrow. The agenda is forthcoming. The meeting will, again, be renoticed tomorrow. And then I think the remainder of the work tomorrow is to set the cadence for the rest of the year, and regroup. We've had a very busy fall. And that's it.
Next, the community advisory committee on technology. Anything to report at this time or during the later items? For Okay. For our new business? Okay. Great. Over to Theo then, who is chairing our ad hoc committee on hiring retention and tenure.
Okay. Thanks, Ana Tika. So I will share just, a piece on tenure, because I think... How many times have we met already? Three times? Four times? And over that... Over those meetings, we've... We focus on a variety of topics and... But I think each one has involved tenure in some way and I... And some back and forth on ideas and also the admin team, just going back and seeing what's feasible, etcetera, as far as changes to our tenure review process. One thing that I I think it's... Is important to note is that, our work did not have anything to do really with tenure itself as that's governed by, state law and NYSSET, rules, but really more on our own board process on, on tenure review, and what information we have access to and sort of, like, the the process for us to evaluate tenured tenured candidates. So that's that's one piece. The other piece is that, I think one of the things that we we noticed very early on from feedback from board members, etcetera, was
that we really just needed more kind of time, space, and information that went to the tenure review process. Right? So I think we all, as board members, wanna feel sort of fully informed and have the the sort of time and space to really carefully review tenure recommendations. Right? And so I think that was loud and clear, and and we know that, right, tenure is an important part of, teachers' lives, students... Like, impacts our students as well as our district as a whole. So this was a a a major focus area for us. So at this point, I think we're ready to sort of propose some changes, and I'll I'll go over those changes, and then we can, talk about next steps. So I think the the the biggest change here is really in the amount of time, that we have to review, tenure candidates. So currently... So from... For folks that haven't done it yet, we, have typically done this over one very, very long night of reviewing,
candidates. Right? And, of course, right, lots of information there, lots of, in... Good intention to really review, in in that process, but we really realized that we really need to spread it out out, over more and additional days. Right? So what we're proposing is that instead of having one night focusing on all candidates that we break it up into three separate sessions between the months of November and December. So, the way... You know, we we would, break it up likely by, by school building, but, every year, we have not only... We review not only the, the probationary staff that are up for tenure that year, but also just all probationary staff that are up for tenure generally. Right? So we would still do that, but what we would do is review the, probationary staff that are up for tenure that year as sort of, like, one unit and then also all of the other staff, probationary staff, throughout those three exec... Through... Throughout those three executive sessions.
And then we also proposed to add in a day in January where we sort of, like, take all the information that we've gotten and have an additional conversation on all of it, to further discuss to the tenure class, hear any updates, that have happened since the last meetings, also to be done in in executive session. We know that also people, we all need information, right, sort of ahead of time to understand who we're talking about, what their roles are in the district, and so we propose that that, you know, the superintendent send, the BOE information ahead of time, ahead of those meeting dates on the candidates that we will be reviewing in that session, and some things including, not limited to, the names, of course, of the candidates, buildings, grade level, subject area certifications, not only their teaching roles, but any other additional formal roles that they have in the district, as as pieces of information that is helpful for us to have to be informed ahead of,
presentation and then discussion on tenure candidates. After that, we propose that we actually change our vote to happen, on the on the tenure class for that year to April, as opposed to May. So we have, that happened in earlier in the spring. That would happen at a public meeting. And then the fun part, right, the celebration where we're able to come, you know, see our our our new tenure class, their family members, all the loved ones that are extremely proud of their achievement to then happen as we typically do in May, which I think is usually the same day as, the date of the election, and the art show. So so that's, that's the plan. I mean, that's the proposed plan. For this year, we do have an idea of some specific dates, but just generally, this should work year to year, right, regardless of, right, like, what meeting dates happen when. But the idea is that we sort of, like, start earlier,
spread it out, have much more time to have the discussion, evaluate information ahead of time, and, an additional session to have further discussion, ahead of the vote in April and celebration in May. So I don't know if any Ana, Namika, Steve, Laura, if you would add anything to any of that.
Okay. I think you covered everything. And I think, I would just add that what... I think what you what you sort of articulated is that by by sort of spreading out the time frame for us to be having these conversations, we get to have sort of more in-depth conversations. It also honestly takes the pressure off of our administrators at a very busy time of year to not sort of all, you know, have this sort of, like, one big conversation, for all of us that ends up being just, you know, a lot of information. And I think in terms of just being able to sort sort of support the process also of of, like, you know, building a staff that wants to be here and wants to sort of have opportunities to, you know, grow and improve, it gives us a chance to really have those conversations in a way that gives that gives every sort of individual person, like, the opportunity to be, you know, heard and considered and and and
and discussed and in a way that I think is is positive because it's like we're we're really focusing in on this stuff in a way that, I don't know, that just sort of like... That that allows us to sort of get to know who our educators are. And I think when we know who our educators are and we know the work that they're doing, it also helps convey to our community that when we're making these are people that we want to see in our school system for years to come, and that's what's gonna happen. So I think it is a way also to help demonstrate to our community that it's a thoughtful process, and it's one in which we have confidence. And as a result, it's one in which our community should also have confidence. So I'm really appreciative of the time that we spent so far to sort of give ourselves a little air, right, to be able to do this at a cadence that sort of works better for everyone. And I think we'll also keep our eyes open till... You know, if things need to change or improve further. Does that sound right? Yeah. Yeah. Sounds right. Fabulous. So any other questions
for Theo?
Not a question, but just, a comment that I really am excited about the direction that this is moving in. I feel like it it allows us to get to know all the tenure candidates more holistically, because, yes, like, many of teachers and staff do play multiple important roles in our district and wear many hats. So I think that's really going to be exciting for us to all of us who haven't... Don't have kids as older or, like, don't know some of the younger teachers, or more new teachers, to get to know some of the candidates more holistically. And I do think that the timing of this will allow us to be much more intentional and thoughtful. So thank you.
Anything else? Great. Okay. So then we'll move into... I think that's our last one. So we'll move into liaison reports. And just in the interest of efficiency, we'll start over there with Jake and work our way this way. Thank you.
Hi. So on Monday, the health and safety committee met at the district office. We reviewed the status of ongoing health and safety initiatives across the districts. Specifically at CET, Brad Kennedy, the facility director, walked us through the new tennis court lighting projects that is up and ready to go. So you can, go to the tennis courts behind CET. There's a button that you can press to get the lights on. That's up and running. We also did a walk through of the playground equipment that Steve showed us earlier, so we got a little, sneak preview on that one. And we went through a couple other health and safety improvements to the High School Auditorium And Welcome Center. We didn't walk through that. We just did the the playground and the, the tennis courts, but some other things we discussed. We had a meeting after the walk through with the High School auditorium and welcome Center. New doors, that's been completed.
Recent lead testing of new water fixtures at PVC produced results below applicable limits. Updated AED cabinets have been connected to the alarm monitoring system throughout the district with one remaining installation on PVC's 4th Floor. Building entrance signage has been updated to reflect AED locations. The district is investigating the cause of a fire alarm activation at PVC associated with the water main water main break in the village on October 23. So these were the just high level things that we discussed, with the committee, and we anticipate to meet again around winter break while there are ongoing PVC air conditioning improvements that we may, take a look at. So pretty much it from the, the meeting.
So did you wanna tell us anything about what you did last Friday? Last Friday. Oh, last Friday, I had the, privilege of attending
the CET, Halloween parade, which was awesome. And I didn't think to check with Betsy whether or we should wear a costume, and she did, and I didn't. So I got there. And, fortunately, I live I live I live close enough. Yes. But it was it was it was a costume nonetheless. It's not something you would have worn to a meeting. That counts as a costume. So I was able to race home, get my costume, Wayne's World party time, excellent, and join the rest of the CET kindergarteners. And I I wrote, miss Bianchi an email this morning thanking her and Steve, obviously, too for putting on such an awesome event and for letting us go. So it was a lot of fun.
Great. Thank you. Over to you, Theo. Were you Wayne or Wayne? You could do that too if you want. That'd be great. I I was Wayne, of course.
One one other thing I did wanna mention, in terms of of continuing development and and bringing, info back to the to the to the board. So, oh, so that's what you meant on last Friday. Know. Like, not the parade. Okay. So after that amazing parade, I went to a West Putt, Ed Law webinar on social media. So this was an hour and a half, webinar put on by West Putt on social media, the First Amendment and parental rights. So this presentation examined, First Amendment boundaries for official versus personal and social media accounts. I am gonna talk a little bit more about this, I think, with the policy committee tomorrow and some of the things, that I learned, but this was just an opportunity to engage in some of the ongoing education that West Putt offers. I think that a lot of the things that were covered in this presentation, I sent the slides around to the team, is stuff we already do a really good job at in terms of
defining who's authorized to speak for the district. I think we're we're pretty good about that, making sure we're not crossing our our personal and professional, you know, social media accounts. Some of the other things that were more at the district level are providing advanced notice and alternative lessons when parents request religious opt outs for planned instructions. I think a lot of this stuff was just sort of like a refresher. Some information on state vaccine requirements. So, apparently, there was a federal executive order recently sort of making different recommendations about vaccinations, and this was a reminder to look to the state the state requirements, obviously. But this was a great a great webinar.
I sent the the slides around. I encourage you guys to take a look. We can talk more at the policy committee tomorrow about it, and I'll continue to attend those as those come up. So Thank you. And, yeah, thanks thanks. I I sort of put you on the spot there, but I think it's important for the public to understand that professional development is part of our role here. And so, you won't necessarily hear from someone every week, but part of our commitment to each other is that if someone's able to cover something, they go, they represent the board of education, and they bring their learnings back either to committee or to the full board. So it is important, and we appreciate you spending the time and also bringing back the info. Did you have a question, [student name omitted]
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We have to we have to once again extend our huge thanks to Denise and to Brad and to the entire, the entire business office for their careful stewardship of funds that allowed us to actually take this as an add on, something that we hadn't planned for, but we had leftover funds. We were able to make it happen, and it's fantastic. So thank you. Yes. Yes. Yes. The entire the entire facilities, planning team. Over to you, Theo, now, I think.
So my only piece is, a week ago, I attended a meeting of the district wide safety team, and it was a very productive meeting. It... Think two things. One was, obviously, the the tragedy in in Bend, Oregon was on our minds, right, and and really using that as a learning moment, right, for for districts on on, right, any lessons learned from that. Obviously, not using any full information, but on details that that the team knew about. And so that was a conversation that we had and sort of, like, evaluating the own... The district's own, you know, very strong safety protocols. And then also, using a tabletop exercise of another example, here in the state of New York that I don't think was recent, but that did happen in in sort of another way to sort of, like, discuss how would we would respond to a similar situation in this district. So I think very, very helpful meeting, sort of a working meeting to really understand, like, our protocols,
like, who does what, and really be as prepared as possible and use, you know, of course, very kind of tragic recent events as also learning moments to make sure that we're keeping our students and faculty safe. So, yeah, that was, last Thursday.
Thank you. Since I'm next in line, I'm gonna, take my spot in line and just say that on behalf of the board, I had the opportunity to attend the New York State School Boards Association's, annual convention through the wonderful virtual option and was very happy, to be able to actually maintain my workday and squeeze in some sessions when I wasn't working. So, I know Steve and Laura also participated virtually because, again, we are having a busy fall. And so the priority right now for all of us is to be here and to be doing the work. But we, we were able to all afford ourselves of, specific sessions on key topics in education, topics relating to technology, topics relating to board governance and operations. So there was a little bit of something for everyone. All the, information in terms of slides, learnings, etcetera. I'll be honest. There were a couple sessions that were a little bit boring, so I had some time to download stuff, and I will be sharing I will be sharing that with the full board, through our usual channels. But it was it was great to be able to just sort of, you know, again, use that as an annual touch base to hear about what's going on in education. Obviously, we do that kind of all year round, but this was a moment for it to sort of happen at the state level and people from upstate, downstate, you know, Long Island all the way over to the farther...
The furthest western reaches of New York. Just to hear those perspectives, think, was really interesting. So I'm glad that I was able to, participate on behalf of our board and, looking forward to also, upcoming opportunities that we have for local sort of networking and things like that next week. In fact, I think some of us have something to do for the school board every night next week, so it's gonna continue to be this way until basically the end of the year. Over to you.
I'm the liaison to CHUMSS, and so I I thank you. I acknowledge all the great work that that doing. And just also to remind people that, CHUFSD, who have given us funds and support for donation later today, they're going to be having their chef dine around next Saturday, November 14. It's a great way to support the schools. That's it.
The CHHS, Building Planning Council met on October 8. I unfortunately was not able to attend because I was traveling. My understanding from miss is that they discussed building level priorities. Their next meeting is on December 3. I was able to also attend the Meet the BOE session today with trustee Betsy Laird. We will fill out the form so that the information, regarding what community members came and what their concerns were goes to the entire board. And the last question I have is for our student officio representative. At the beginning of the year, we said that perhaps there would be a schedule established where trustees would be invited to your meetings on a need basis.
[Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.] [Student remarks omitted from this transcript.]
So I'm the board liaison, shared with Jake for the CET building planning committee, and they they have not met again since I... We last gave a report, but the next one's in December, which Jake will be attending. Yes. And the CETPTA met last night. I unfortunately was not able to attend, but I did go to Boofest, which was fantastic, very well attended, very cold, but that did not stop my children from eating shaved ice. So they had a blast. I had a hot chocolate. And I've also been to the book fair twice this week, and my children have been four times now because they've opened their classes and with me and my husband. We really like books. And that's been really great too. It's always nice to see the kids walking around holding books. In terms of the agenda meeting... For the meeting agenda from last night, they spoke about, the support grants that they've given, which were... One was related to a Native American Day assembly and one was related to a spoon of thanks craft.
And I just want to remind anyone watching or anyone here that there's a principal's coffee on Monday, eleven the sixteenth with Rachel DePaul about special education and the IEP process. So if that's something that you're interested in learning about, please, join. And, two other things, there's a winter craft night coming up on December 4 in the CET gym and then a Thanksgiving pie pickup from three to four on 11/24 at CET, and then also six to seven at Green Growlers. So if you don't have your Thanksgiving pie and you wanna support this... The school system, get your pie there.
That's it for me. Anything else for you, [student name omitted] Okay. Alright. Well, then we'll move into item 3.1, new business. Discussion and presentation of superintendent's goals for 2026 to 2027. So, again, over to you, superintendent Walker. Thank you again, Ana Tak.
For the past three months or so, the community has received information regarding the board of education's goals, the district goals, our school's priorities. And this evening, I'm pleased to share a series of slides which communicate my goals for the two thousand twenty six, twenty seven school year. For those who've had the opportunity to view the board and district goals for this year, you'll note a substantial similarity in the content and direction
of those goals and my superintendent's goals. That overlap is by design, as my role as the superintendent is to operationalize the district's goals for this year to ensure that the administrative team and the staff have the resources, direction, feedback, and opportunity to focus on completing this priority work on behalf of our students. The slides, tonight will be shared on my web page as well as the entire document for the community to view. But for purposes of tonight, I wanted to highlight and summarize some of the components of this important work for this year. This slide summarizes the five goals that I have for this year and demonstrates how they can be categorized essentially into four primary focus areas that align with the board and district goals, academic achievement and curriculum, data informed improvement, community engagement, and organizational leadership. Each of my goals for this year are intended to make our school system better, focusing on continuing to advance student achievement and the student experience
and to ensure that the goals laid out by the board of education and further articulated through the district goals are accomplished. This slide articulates the first of my five goals for this year, which focuses on continuing to strengthen the student learning experience across the district through ensuring a focus on curriculum development and refinement, prioritizing common student experiences and assessments k 12. On the right side of the screen, as you'll see on each of the screens, the plan deliverables are shared related to this goal and the anticipated timeline. For this goal, those include the completion of curriculum overviews in December and reports to the board and community on student achievement using both state assessments and RENSTAR assessments. My second goal focuses on establishing a predictable recurring timeline for regular reporting on student progress and achievement to the board and our community.
We began those reports during the 2526 school year and this year are seeking to develop an established calendar of reports that our board and community can learn to depend on each year. As the board knows, we presented the first of those reports on student achievement on New York State assessments, regents, AP exams at the October work session. We plan to have another data report at a meeting in late January or early February to review formative fall and winter renaissance star assessment data as well. We look forward to continuing reports throughout the year culminating with a comprehensive student achievement report in July. We plan we plan to create that report in a format which is both viewable in a board meeting setting and also one that can be readily accessed and digested by our community, and we're currently researching how other districts successfully create that kind of comprehensive report. So stay tuned for more information on that.
My next goal is to strengthen the ways that we engage with our community about the work of our schools. Already this year, we've seen several actions related to this goal, including the identification and onboarding of the Roklund Bozinski's communication services and our new full time communication specialist, the launching of our district wide parent learning walks, our new superintendent's weekly connections, and e newsletters. Looking ahead, we're excited about our first community conversation of the year on November 16 and the launch of our winter newsletter, which will be mailed to all residents in our school district community in December. The overall goal in this work is to make sure that our community feels informed and understood with regard to the initiatives and decisions of our district. The fourth goal relates to the importance of organizational governance and leadership and how I go about ensuring that our district goals drive our decision making,
including from the perspective of how those goals impact our budget planning, professional learning priorities, and reporting of progress to the board and community. In terms of what the community will notice that is different this year as a result of this work, we've already presented the 2,025, 26 student achievement data in October. In December, we plan to share with the board an overview of class size and enrollment projections as we begin the budget process in earnest. And in July, as we shared, we will, be communicating the new comprehensive annual report for our district. And my final goal is to continue to provide leadership to the ways that we help to prepare students for life beyond our school district, both from the college and career perspective. We included a review and analysis of AP and Regents scores during the October board meeting, and we'll be sharing data related to some of our dual enrollment and other new classes throughout the year with the board and in meetings.
We look forward to engaging our community in conversations about our district's commitment to growth, continuous improvement, and ensuring that every student has access to meaningful opportunities for success. As always, I appreciate the opportunity to engage in the process of developing goals and receiving feedback during the process from board officers on behalf of the full board. And I wanna thank Ana Tatyana and Omar for collaborating with me in the process of developing these goals as well as the entire board for your thoughtful review and feedback throughout the process. I look forward to continuing the work toward accomplishing these goals and with them, our district goals on behalf of our students as the school year continues.
Thank you, Steve. I will just... Before I open it up for, for, trustee questions and comments, I wanna thank you, for this very clear and concise presentation of, what your focus will be. And I wanna also sort of acknowledge the fact that we've had now a number of conversations about goals. But the wonderful thing is the work has already started. In fact, it's wonderful to be able to to sort of look at some of this today and say it's like we've done this. We've done this, and we're already seeing things that we're going to be able to anniversary. I think for me, specifically, one of the things that really stands out here is that much of the reporting that we're talking about is very specifically connected to, something that's of crucial importance to the board, which is to be able to help support the the development of a budget that actually allows for us to hire educators to develop instructional programs, to maintain facilities,
and to ensure that, like, our curriculum also, supports all of the educational work in the system. So I think just looking at looking at sort of what you've outlined here, we have a real clear sense of how, our planning going forward in some of these areas is going to be data informed, whether it's actual data in terms of student achievement, in terms of class sizes, in terms of where our resources go... Are going because, of course, the budget, the budget review and development process is also a significant part of what we'll be embarking on throughout the middle part of the year. And then to also be able to receive at the end of the year a picture of sort of a snapshot of, like, what happened in the district this year, think I is also gonna really help us to be able to inform our work for the following year. So, for me, this feels like a really, helpful way of articulating our work, together between you all as sort of like a governance team for the district and us as a governance team at the school board together,
to be able to look at all these things over the course of the year and really have a sense of where we're starting, where we're going, and where we hope to end up. I really, I feel, that... You know, I'd like to say thank you again because I know this has taken a tremendous amount of work on everyone's part. And I'm very, very pleased, and I think my, fellow trustees would agree that we've been able to approach this so collaboratively and that we've also been able to end up in a place where we're feeling like the questions that we're asking are questions that actually are helpful, that are informing the work, and that are, bringing up information results from which we feel we can improve and we can learn, and we can also actually feel really good about what we're doing. So I I I thank you again. I'll now open it up to, my fellow trustees If there's anything else you would like to query, ask, or comment on, please.
Thank you. I'll start off with one thing and then move around. If you go to this goal number two, you... Oh,
Hopefully, now is better. Woah. Okay. Okay. So if we look at the... Here. Focus on data informed continuous improvement. In terms of the deliverables and timeline, the report on progress under each goal is listed under February 2024 and summer. Summer is pretty expansive, and I know that there's a lot of work that's done over the summer to prepare for the upcoming year. Can you give a sense of when during the summer you're aiming for with an understanding that sometimes data comes at a different points? But, it would be helpful to understand what... To what extent this will be,
informing the work that's being done next year? Yeah. I think probably most realistically for that aspect of the report, we're probably talking about August, for a couple of reasons. But, the July the July 2027 timeline in terms of entire comprehensive report is going to be our priority in terms of developing that, trying to include end of year data to these... To the extent that it exists and has been shared with us. So I think probably what we can expect is a July 2027 presentation of the entire picture and then the follow-up in... At the August meeting. Also, understanding the board typically meets only two or three times during the summer. Yeah.
Then I would say, like, it would be helpful because I think part of this is creating a narrative about how all these pieces Mhmm. Combine together and inform our decision making and goal setting to be more precise about that if you already have a plan in place for that. Happy to do that. I'll give somebody else a turn. Other
I was mostly just going to echo what you said, which is that I feel really, excited to see how the goals and the priorities have built from the board goals into the building goals and and back up with the superintendent. I think it's it's really fantastic to see the through line across all of those pieces of work. And though I I like the, increased scrutiny on the exact timelines, I was actually thinking about how great it is to have very specific dates so that I know I can look back at this and go, okay. I should be expecting this to come soon. And so I think that, you know, it's really great and to Ana Tak's point being able to use this to build next year, I think will just make this district even stronger. So thank you for the work on it. Thank you.
Yeah. I'll I'll say the same. I really appreciate the work that went into this. I know it was it was a lot, but you can see the clear, excuse me, connection to the board priorities we put, goals at the building level. I'm really looking forward to seeing all this, and I know it's a lot. So I'm looking forward, especially seeing this comprehensive report and kinda kinda what's gonna be in it. I did wanna... I know you'll probably wanna talk about college and career readiness as a... But all all I wanna... All I wanted to to mention there was it seems like the emphasis on that is is, like, coursework and and and and grades and scores and things like that. Have you given any thought to the student experience in the schools getting ready for college and career, whether it's through guidance counselors or whatever resources that might be available that might fit into this this annual goal?
Yes. I mean, I think I thought about it mostly from what's inherently measurable, right, and reportable on a regular basis. But, yeah, our focus always is this is a yes and conversation. Right? We start with what are the the formal deliverables and the formal timeline, and then how do we determine those sort of softer, skills, the softer experiences, the the qual... You know, the qualifiable things as opposed to the quantifiable things. So, yeah, whether it's through climate surveys, pulse polls, focus groups, all of those things are things that we use that help us to to tell a story and paint a picture of what it's like at CHHS in the district.
So happy to to share some of that through the process as well. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be great. Just so it doesn't become about, like, scores and grades and this and that. And just thinking more holistically about what what are we preparing students for for college and career right now. But I think this is a a a great start, so I appreciate it. And
I think if I can just chime in because I know Steve and I, and Omar sort of talked about this a little bit today, so it hasn't sort been presented to the board. But I think that there are gonna be opportunities that we are planning to schedule very imminently this year for us to engage further in the conversation about digging into that so that we can also we can also sort of approach whatever the next steps are from a shared understanding of what is the information we're trying to sort of glean because there's... Sure. There's data, and that tells you certain things about performance. But some of the unmeasurables and the un sort of quantifiable in the traditional sense of, like, scores, numbers, etcetera, I think we need to obviously be talking beyond that. And I think, again, like, you know, again, Laura Laura has brought that up as well. It's like, I think in order to sort of to look at it, we sort of, as a as a body, need to have that conversation.
So we'll have to we'll have to determine, how we're gonna devote time to that in the winter so that we can actually sort of position ourselves to, you know, embark on sort of, like, the annualization of our review of information. It may take a little time to sort of ask the the ask the why questions before we can actually provide the sort of what answers is what I'm thinking. Mhmm. So I think, you know, just to fill you in on a little bit of a conversation that that, you know, again, we're talking about this even today. Mhmm. So, other questions, Allison?
So I guess I've read... Reread the last goal several times, like evaluate college and career readiness across pathways and then looking at the college runnings through the lens of interdisciplinary classes, AP, and I'm I'm not quite clear what that... I'm not I'm not... Like, can you can you talk to me a little bit more about what this means? Like, how do these relate to this
goal from Sure. Yeah. This also aligns very, very closely with the district goal in the similar in the similar vein. But, you know, we're think... One of the questions we get fairly frequently is with some of the the innovations that we've embarked upon over the past few years at the high school and elsewhere, what's the impact in terms of how it's preparing our students for what's after high school? And whether it's interdisciplinary classes, dual enrollment classes, investments in those, our continued investments in in advanced placement classes. So part of it is being able to track the student experience through our interdisciplinary classes, comparing that to students who aren't experiencing those same classes. What's the difference? Right? How are we, able to compare those experiences, measure them, and then share data with the board and community about how that... What kind of impact that's having as it relates to what's beyond twelfth grade. Right? We've obviously obviously also had a lot of conversations at this table and elsewhere about
how we communicate these things to colleges, to those who are looking to, to enroll our kids or to hire our kids after high school. And so, you know, that's part of... Gonna be part of our community conversations, part of board conversations. So to me, all of that fits into the broader question that we've we've talked about, which is all of these things, are calculated to create additional pathways to success for our kids. Are they having that kind of impact? Right? And how do we measure it?
I guess I just have a question regarding again on the... This evaluate college and career readiness across pathways. If there isn't a component that shouldn't be examined in terms of polling graduates. Right? Mhmm. And how... I mean, I know obviously because I have a recent graduate, like, how many of her classmates have semesters of credits that they're all given that allows them to take advanced classes instead of those earlier credits and just preparedness in terms or experience in terms of applying to different kinds of institutions, which institutions take those classes, how many students avail themselves of that opportunity, whether they thought it was helpful, whether they took the classes again anyway. Mean all of that exit, when you're... Because when you're looking at ultimate success, you're looking at lifelong Mhmm. Career success. So I'm just curious if there isn't, and I don't know if you have access to all of that information or or whether it's, like, self reporting. Or
Yeah. I... I'm glad you brought that up. I think that's a critical part of, how we think through this conversation back to Ana Tatyana's point about, I think there's... Needs to be value in us as a team having further conversations about what it is that we're looking for when we talk about that that term of college and career readiness or success post CHHS. Our counseling team, I think, has done a terrific job and even better over the past couple of years of, making sure that we're getting data from our graduates as they're preparing to leave us and then as importantly, those first couple years after. It tends to become more difficult after about two or three years to get that sort of information, but, we use, a company that helps us to do that life track, provides us with an annual report several years out on where our kids are and how they feel about, their experience here and their preparation. So, we'll be happy to to synthesize some of that over the course of years and and share that with the board also.
I just wanna add in speaking to some of the parents that I know being the parent of a recent graduate, we were all a little shocked to sit down with other parents to see the sheer number of credits that so many of our students graduate in comparison to their counterparts around the state and around the country. I mean, it's it's impressive. And to not talk about all of this in terms of of the the cost saving measures, but even just the opportunity to then take higher level or to make a dent into, like, a a graduate degree post college or something like that, I think, is is huge. Yeah. Think I think one of the great things is I think we all recognize we come at this not from a place of weakness but from a place of strength as a system because of the amazing faculty, the great families, the phenomenal kids,
The work that... That's been done here historically up through today is remarkable. So the question becomes just how do you continue to build on what's already excellent about everything that's involved in the k 12 experience here, and what is it that... What we can do to help better define what that readiness term looks like and how we develop programs that help kids to get there at an even greater level, and then how we evaluate the ones we have now and then make refinements as we need to.
You know, just building upon that, as parent of recent grads Mhmm. Getting the data directly from the graduates is tough, but parents of out... Like, recent grads who are paying the bills, we might have some insights in terms of what actually got Some impetus there. Yeah. Transferred or not. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess for what I... Like, I'm I'm glad we have these these goals, and I think gathering this data is important and lays a very strong foundation from which to move forward from there. I guess I would like to get a sense of, like, what is the momentum we're moving towards particularly in the high school, you know, just beyond this year, you know, as as as we move forward. And then also as we're analyzing what we're doing here as part of this to look, you know, like, what are the other districts doing Mhmm. Particularly with... In terms of the college readiness because reality is our students are competing against other
students in other districts. So, you know, is what we're offering... Like, there's from the learning standpoint, which, of course, is fundamentally important, but a lot of families are also concerned. Like, you know, like, for example, if, you know, Briarcliffe has ninth grade, a lot of honors options and we don't have this many, how does that land when it comes to the college applications process? So I think it's really important to look at that, but then at some point to also be looking a little bit holistically.
Yes. Sorry. No. I'll let you go ahead, and then I'll I'll I'll sort of offer a a perspective as well. Yeah. That... That's a regular conversation, obviously, among the superintendents. I would imagine among the assistant superintendents and high school principals as well in a region, especially like ours where there are, incredible schools and incredibly talented kids seat after seat, high school after high school. It's how do we create programs that help our kids to stand out. Right? And and, yes, part of it is what's on paper in terms of the number of AP courses, dual enrollment courses, all of those things that that help us to be able to inherently measure against other districts, but it's also the narrative side of it. Right? And we've talked about the value of academic concentrations and interdisciplinary courses and things like that in enabling our kids to establish a narrative that is different than those that are coming out of other high schools. So,
you know, I've had superintendents express a great deal of interest in coming here and learning more about what we're doing. We'll be doing the same thing in other regional districts. And I I know that the assistant superintendents are having that same same conversation. Everybody's in the same boat of... It's become... It's an increasingly murkier process as it relates to to college admissions, and how you navigate through that. And so all of us... All of our work is targeted toward trying to provide a greater level of of certainty and confidence around, how students navigate through our through our system.
The other thing I was gonna suggest is I think because... Mean, clearly, we're hearing is that this is a topic of great interest for all of us. And I think the way that it sort of connects to Steve's goals in terms of what we've articulated as district goals was a little bit covered, but perhaps it merits figuring out again sometime this year, you know, before the year is too far along to sort of have, like, a larger check-in just in terms of this question. And then I think because it does involve so many different parts beyond just sort of the instructional program, there's also the piece about, you know, where things have developed with the counseling program. I'm thinking specifically just in light of what Ana was saying about the different types of information that we can get from from kids who have gone out beyond surveys. I'm thinking back to last year how... I mean, many of us found that, alumni panel that we had a chance to go to, like, pretty incredible.
And I think, you know, for that to sort of also iterate this year in terms of I I was very clear last year, I'll say it again. My my, thinking for this that I would love to see is, like, an opportunity for parents to also be able to join in that conversation because I know for all the students who are able to participate, they really came away thinking like, okay. This is what I could be doing in two years. But we had grads who had actually graduated ten to fifteen years ago, so we we were actually getting anecdotal information from not just recent graduates, but people who were established in there. I mean, there were people who were, you know, parent age who were also coming back to talk. So I think that could be really interesting. And I think the the piece that you're, alluding to, though, also, Allison, is the the piece of sort of, like, the parental feedback and then also informing parents. So it's like if... You know, that that might be something for us to sort of discuss further in terms of what we'd like to see to make this visible to the community,
like, the way that we're asking these questions, but then also to sort of find a forum for making that information more transparent to families. I I I think it's something we should turn our minds to actually, like, maybe even on our on our board governance committee to think about what we would like to... What we would like that conversation to look like and then bring it here so that we can actually have it this year, I think, would be great. If... I mean, again, if you if you all feel like it's you know, we can bring everybody together to do it. Think we could we could make something of that. Go ahead.
Yeah. Steve, my final comment is just that these goals look very good, and I'm very excited to see, all of this play out. I think it'll highlight your strengths as leadership and communication and reporting the data. I think it's great work. Thank you so much. Thank you. And thank you to board officers for working so closely with Steve on getting this out.
Alright. Okay. Well, then we are going to... If there are no further... One more. Sure. Go for it. And this is really more a point of clarification. So just going to the
strength in academic achievement through curriculum review and align. So at the building priorities presentation a few weeks ago, we had a lot of curriculum discussions, so CET, the Hegarty curriculum, k through two, three four ELA program review. Is that curricular review gonna be part of what you're working on there sort of overlapping it? Do you guide that? Are those two separate tracks? Or... Just just for sort of make sure everything's kinda covered. Yeah. I think we're gonna be talking more about some of... An update on this work at the November work
but, yes, my goal, obviously, is to just broadly ensure that when we've committed to these district goals, we then deliver on them. Right? So, some of that comes from leadership through through Laura, some through instructional coaches, some through the building administration. But my job overall is to make sure that we put the right people in the right places to get the work done. Thanks.
Okay. Great. So if there are no fur... Further questions, I think, now that we're done talking about goals, we're just gonna all go back and start accomplishing them. But before we do that, we have a little bit more of a meeting to get through. So we'll move us into item 3.2, which is an amended resolution. Oh, hold on a second. An amended resolution. So I'm just gonna go into the recommended action because I think the name is a little bit confusing. Yep.
Sorry to go backwards for a second. Yep. I just wanted to say, you know, like, as I'm thinking about this and looking, I know it's not, you know, we've been trying to be very precise in terms of what we're... Like, the reporting and things like that. But I also just wanna acknowledge because I've been thinking about this because of my own work is that, you know, you know, like, students coming in and how they perform on an assessment, that's a reflection of, like, the student and what they come into the classroom with. Right? And it's also on their, their instructor and the curriculum, but also, like, their executive functioning to... You know, at home and things like that. So I think that as much as we're focusing on these very specific things that I think are very important is to also notice because I know there's been a lot of other work in the district through social emotional learning and other, you know, just guidance and think... You know, that we are kind of recognizing that there's all these different components that lead into what we're seeing today. Yeah. So
Thank you. Okay. Moving back now to item 3.2, which is a, which is in fact an amended resolution to something that we, we discussed a few weeks ago. So I will first just introduce the recommended action. We'll give a little further, explanation of that after that. So item 3.2, be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves an amended resolution to establish... I mean, this is, like, weird. I I should probably say hereby hereby amends the resolution to establish a community advisory committee on technology as presented.
Actually, can I suggest Yeah? Board of education hereby amends the resolution that had established the committee, the community advisory committee on technology because we're not revisiting that decision. We're just, amending certain aspects of that resolution.
Yeah. Wanna say it again? Yes. Say it again, please. Because we're gonna actually need to enter this into the into the Resolve that the board of education hereby
approves the amendments approves amendment... The amendments to, I had it now. I lost it. Amendments to the resolution that had established a community advisory committee on technology.
To make sure that it's accurate to what we actually said, but that is what we're going to be doing. So, I'm going to just ask for, someone to move it, please. Thank you. And, on the question, I'll turn it over to Omar to explain. Sorry. I didn't mean to No. Please. So when we had originally contemplated
or developed the resolution, we had contemplated appointing six community members, to this committee. We received over 40 applications, and what became clear as we were reviewing reviewing them, was just how much interest and expertise there is in our community. And we also recognize that we have a fairly broad charge. And given the quality of the applicant pool and the work ahead, we felt that staying with the six... The... Limiting it to six members, would actually limit the range of perspectives that we're trying to seek from the community. And so the resolution before you amends the number of community members to include up to 18, which would provide a more representative group. The other couple changes are just around the dates. We were really ambitious with what we're trying to accomplish. We just weren't able to move as fast as we had hoped. Those amendments are, moving the date of the appointments or the approve... The vote today, so November 5, and that the substantive work of the committee would begin on December 1.
I I have a question. How do you propose mobilizing 18 committee members, six student members, BOE member? Like, how how... What what... If you could just explain how you actually envision the work happening
with a a group that large. Yeah. So the charge is broken down into three components, I'll call them, and we're going to break down those into three subgroups.
So the initial meeting is gonna be very difficult, obviously, trying to corral all the participants, trying to set the norms, expectations, and how we're going to be working together. And I will be leaning on the district administration to help with this process, but then we will break out into three subgroups and report back, at regular intervals.
Right. So I think from my perspective, just break... Sort of dividing the work up into these three, sort of subcommittees of the committee is going... It it... It's it's almost like the only way for, the work to happen in the time frame that the committee has... That that the ad hoc committee sort of gave this committee. So it's almost like having three mini, advisory committees sort of working in tandem, and it'll be up to you all to sort of determine how the group comes together and what the cadence of sort of reporting will be. But, we did have an opportunity as a board, in executive session because reviewing appointments is something that takes place in executive session. So two weeks ago, we were able to, discuss, and we'll be hearing about this in the next resolution, the results of our conversation about just the breadth of talent and interest that we have in the community to to move this, forward.
I will say also just sort of for the record that because this is a community advisory committee, it is actually, not subject to some of the same requirements of open meeting law because it is a commit... It is a committee... It is an advisory committee, and it is not a... Specifically a committee of the board of education in that we don't constitute the primary number of members. And so there's going to be some latitude in terms of scheduling things, terms of online access. We'll be hearing a lot more about that just, you know, again, when we get to sort of the next resolution formally to a point. The last piece of it I wanna also share because we, the, board governance committee did actually, spend a little bit time, and I didn't mention this, to help sort of develop some best practices for our community members who were asking to, participate in this work as well as our educators and our students who are going to be participating in this work so that everybody sort of understands
how we're gonna be working together and that everyone feels protected and safe to be able to offer their opinions and to be... Have... To have those opinions received with respect. So I think that the whole process of sort of bringing this group of people together is going to be one that, like, allows everyone to feel that they are are... They have a way to speak, they have a way to be heard, and that, their participation will be valued. So I think, you know, we'll hear more about that in a second. Any further questions specifically on the resolution, about changing the size and then just lining up the dates with the reality of where we are right now? Otherwise, I'll call for a vote. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? The motion carries. Thank you. We'll move now into item 3.3, the resolution to appoint members of the community advisory resolution to appoint members of the community advisory committee on technology.
Be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the appointment of members of the community advisory committee on technology as presented. So move the second. On the question.
With respect to the portion of it that says be it further resolved that the superintendent or designee shall coordinate reasonable access to district information personnel and other resources necessary for the committee to fulfill its charge subject to applicable confidentiality and privacy requirements. I just affirmatively want hear that there's no private student data that's going to be shared with community members or anything like that. Given the community's concerns regarding privacy data, I just wanted to take a moment and articulate that and get that verbal assurance from everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Ana. So just briefly,
about, the board liaisons to the committee, review the submissions, and considered applicants' backgrounds and experiences. With so many applications from our community, the selection process was was difficult, but we have narrowed it down to the list that you guys have before you that we are recommending for approval. And I have closing remarks afterwards. Passes. Any
other questions from the board? Okay. Then I'd like to just, call for a vote if I can. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? The most... Oh, abstain? Okay. Sorry. Thank you. Motion carries.
Over to you, Emma. Thank you. So I want to say a few words on behalf of the, the committee and the full board that we recognize that the limited number of positions didn't allow us to include everyone who expressed an interest in serving on the committee. We are grateful for the willingness of so many community members to contribute to this important work. We do intend to invite all applicants to participate in a feedback session later this academic year. This will provide an additional opportunity for, for us to share perspectives and the community here, and and hear from the community their perspectives and contribute... Continue to contribute to the community's work. Additional information will be shared once we have, plan... Those plans finalized for the sessions. Again, on behalf of the board of education, I would like to thank everyone for the time they took to respond to the survey and for their willingness to serve our students and community.
Thank you. Move into, section four, instructional personnel, item 4.1. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the instructional personnel anticipated leave of absence of Kirby Moesenthal, school counselor, Croton-Harmon High School, effective on or about 11/16/2026. On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? The motion carries. Item 4.2, another instructional personnel recommendation. Recommended action, be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the instructional personnel appointment of Carolyn Whiting. Apologize. It might be or. I'm not sure. Okay. Well, the second one. Okay. Boccia. I apologize again. I have a name that's hard to say, and so I sympathize, and apologize for not knowing. As a 1.0 FTE school counselor, Croton-Harmon High School, as leave replacement for Kirby Mohsenthal, MA plus 60, step 10, at a salary of a $110,004.97 prorated effective 11/16/2026
through 02/12/2027. On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstaining? Motion carries. Item 4.3, another instructional personnel recommendation. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the leave of absence extension of Elizabeth Stefano DiMasi, third grade teacher at Carrie E. Tompkins Elementary School to 01/29/2027. On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstaining? Motion carries. Item 4.4, instructional personnel leave replacement extension. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the extended the extended instructional personnel appointment of Christine Harris, 1.0 leave replacement position for Elizabeth DiSanto as a third grade teacher at Carrie E. Tompkins Elementary School effective 11/19/2026 through 02/01/2027 to be compensated at an annual salary. I'm assuming prorated, although that word is missing. An annual salary prorated of 110,680,
MA plus 45 step 11. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstaining? Motion carries. And we'll just make a correction to that resolution language to reflect to reflect the proration of the salary for that term.
You're correct that, can you correct to have, the names in off here so that it matches? Yes.
Yep. Some of these, I will admit, were a little bit, added a little bit recently to the agenda, so we may have missed a couple of things. We'll make sure that the names match as well for the record in... Between item 4.3 and item 4.4. I gotta write it down, so give me a second. Okay. Got it. Alright. Moving into the next portion of our agenda, donations. Item 5.1, donation from the Croton Care and Committee ACE grant. Be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation of a $111 from the Croton Care and Committee ACE grant program for sixth grade class trips to Sunnyside and to Connick outs... Outdoor Education Center. On the question? I'll just, note that, Croton Caring has always been a great supporter of, all sorts of opportunities for students, through all of our buildings, and this is to support a field trip of sixth grade classes both to Sunnyside and to the Taconic Outdoor Education Center, are annual,
annual excursions taken, by PVC sixth graders. So I'll ask, for a call for a vote. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Thank you so much to Croton Caring again for your support of our students and our school district. Moving into item 5.2, another donation, a chef's grant... A chef grant. Be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation from the Croton-Harmon Education Foundation, CHUFS, in the amount of $750 to fund the purchase of 50 Rubik's three by three speed cubes for Tiger Con sessions at Croton-Harmon High School.
the question.
So I will say I will say just just again for, you know, of... As as the public and members of the board review the the grant application, I wanna highlight that, that miss Lim actually was really thinking very thoughtfully about hands on collaborative puzzle solving opportunities for our students, especially as we are exploring different ways to do some of the sort of spatial reasoning algorithmic thinking that perhaps in past iterations may have happened digitally in using software. It... You know? And, again, there's the, of course, like, amazing novelty value of the Rubik's cube for those of us who may have gotten one for Christmas a long time ago. I think this this actually sounds... Yes. There's gonna be some frustration, but it's also probably gonna be kind of awesome. So we're really, really grateful to, CHUFSD for, making this opportunity possible. But, of course, before we can accept their donation, we do need your vote. So I just wanna go on the record as saying that that was a joke. I appreciate
miss Lim, and I understand exactly what she's doing now. If I could decide. For doing that. But I I did wanna just be living in. Well, before it gets quoted out of context of me not supporting somebody, that was a joke because of my frustration with a brother who could solve one in under thirty seconds or something. I I think I think it's... Think it actually speaks to the importance of Rubik's cubes in the lives of many people that we that we all have these sort of seminal experiences.
And I think almost all of them involve a great deal of frustration. And True. You know, it it could be... Yeah. It brings it back. Go ahead, Steve. I just wanna add both five point two and five point three are products of a new aspect of the grant review process that we've added this year where members of the CHUFSD board, came into the high school in that space, met with met with miss Lim, miss Butts, miss Kelly, Laura, and myself, and other members of the team to engage in conversation about the grants, their intent, how they're sustainable over the course of time, and how they align with the broader work of the district. So I wanna thank the entire CHUFSD board for devoting additional time to coming into meeting with the faculty and the faculty for making themselves available and sharing their ideas.
Can I say as a as a former speech to myself, I I value and appreciate both chef and miss Lenore their efforts on this? So
with all that said, if I could please call for a vote vote. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstaining? The motion carries. And, I will I will reserve my thanks, to CHEF for one... For us to review one more donation that's on deck for us tonight from CHEF item 5.3. Be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation from the Croton-Harmon Education Foundation, CHEF, in the amount of $4,200 to fund 12 sessions, two sessions per seventh grade health class for a total of six class sessions with guest speaker Jennifer Muness from JLM Wellness. So on the question, I'll just share that again, for the benefit of the community who may not have reviewed the grant application as closely as we did. This is another, fun opportunity for our PVC students to explore, to explore the elements of, cell phones that make them difficult for kids to put down. And this is... This has actually been part of sort of, like, ongoing work, I think, at PVC, but the
teacher who, submitted this grant, miss Butts, is our PVC health education teacher, has engaged in some work with the person who'll be offering these sessions for our students. And it's really a... It sounds like a very interesting sort of program and approach and very meaningful for us that it will be impacting students across the grade. So, again, that's the background information on this. Any questions? Otherwise, call for a vote. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Once again, as, Steve also articulated and on behalf of the entire board of education, thank you so much to CHUFSD for continuing to fund innovation in innovative ways. We are very appreciative of the changes that you all as an organization have brought to the practice of grant making, and I think that these, collaborative conversations are only going to strengthen the work both of CHUFSD in terms of supporting innovation and student experiences and the district in terms of finding these, innovative,
sustainable opportunities for our students to do something a little bit extra and a little bit special and a little bit different. So we're very, very grateful. Thank you again. Moving into item six, the consent agenda. Item 6.1, be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the consent agenda as presented. So moved. Second.
On the question. I have something on the question. With respect to item 6.6, I see, the basketball girls varsity head coach is listed as William Tom new, though he's not new to our district as the former acting head of athletics. So I I I just wonder if there's... Given that we have, you know, a new athletic director in place, if there's... If there have been conversations about the division between that role and the limited role of being basketball coach as opposed to taking on or perhaps assuming broader aspects of district operations as former athletic director?
Yes. I think what I can say on that topic is, Barry is, as the board knows, an incredibly experienced, athletic director and leader having come from a Maranac after having served in that role for twenty two years. So I think we've all recognized she's very quickly established herself as an experienced and impactful leader in the system. She and Bill have met on numerous occasions, prior to this evening's potential appointment. So Laura and I have also met with Bill. So I can tell you we've, between varied sources, been very clear about what the expectations are.
Wonderful to hear. I... Mike, I come from a place of really wanting Barry's success, and just really allowing her to explore everything that she's going to do here, hopefully, yeah, in the future. Thank you.
Any other questions from the board or any other comments from our administrative team about any of these items? Okay. And I'll call for a vote, please. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Thank you. Moving into, section seven, the closing of our meeting, we will now convene our second hearing of the public. So as a reminder, please approach the podium and address the board for up to three minutes. Please introduce yourself and state your residence if you're able. Hearing of the public.
I have to speak up for my constituents. CVS Corporation is one of the most prominent abortion corporations in The United States, not only policy wise, but distributing abortion pills like candy, which may wind up in your medicine cabinets used by your girls in an environment where there's a worldwide shortage of girls, which is interesting. Also, since the policy has changed in the state of New York, CVS will also be a depot for suicide pills, which also may wind up in your medicine cabinet like they do in Oregon. A person with gallows humor said that if Tennessee wanted to execute their female murderer efficiently, they should have sent her to Canadian hospital. But pretty soon, you'll be able to send her to American hospital for execution. So as part of this medication that will be available, including a new drugstore in town, you should prepare your students both in health class and your student nurses
or... And your, your school nurses, to deal with that. I wanna go back to the idea committee. This, the administration here has entertained some of the wackiest people from this idea committee and collaborated with them in the administrative offices. And the one person I'm thinking in particular, I've watched her for years. She's quite unhinged. And there's a temptation because of election results to go back on the progress you have made, and you have made substantial progress in concentrating on education and go back to social social issues or social justice issues, most of which are bogus. And I and I and I I wanna connect this. You have two political action student committees in a school. And from the record from the ID Committee, they targeted your schools to bring your students out to the street. One of their biggest programs, they wanted to get them involved in ICE activities. Think about that.
Students hopped up interfering with federal law enforcement in the two cases in Croton, one involving a double felon and the other involved in a... In two serious incidents. That is not good policy for a school district. And any attempt by your students, their teach... Their moderators or outside organizations should be stopped at this... At the door... At the at the get go. Thanks.
If there's no one else to speak from the public, we will close our second hearing of the public and move into item 7.2, the polling of the board. Questions, comments, or other additional statements from trustees? Okay. Then we'll... Yeah. Go for it. Yeah. No. Please. I
just wanna, commend coach Samantha Benjamin for the work that she's doing with the cheerleading team. She took what was a very late start team that that Jada Elder had had kind of found and pieced together and she just has reinvigorated the sport, I think, in our district. For the first time at homecoming, there was like a whole presentation which was really nice. She had to combine the modified and the high school team and she's looking at a at a winter season where she now has 10 varsity cheerleaders at the high school and she's able to split the teams up again. And she's just... It's it's it's just a wonderful example very similar to what we saw with boys volleyball a couple years ago to see how athletics plays out in our district and to kind of shift away from some of the academic elements of it. But to your point, some of like the good feeling that comes about that. It's just... It's really good work and I just wanted to highlight it. That's all.
So this is a little bit in a totally different non sequitur direction, but, so I, through my work, I'm, a faculty representative on our enrollment management committee. So it's... So I was in a meeting today with, people who head up the admissions at my... An enrollment at my college. And so, two things came up that I thought would just be of general interest. So one of the things that they were discussing now... So, like, we're in the process of revising our website, and what they were talking about is how they need to kind of rethink how they're creating their content in order to match SEO, but also for AI search engines and ChatGPT has, a college something, like, advisory thing. So I'm just bringing this up because it seems like if our students or people are using certain tools, it might be that the data that they're pulling is not matching all the current information that's on a website.
Like... So so the the the chat GBT information that's being pulled up there and and people are looking at may not be the... Like, optimized. So just to be aware, like, how we've been using... Used to, like, looking up things seems to be shifting today. And and just... Like, one of my observations and being on this committee, they're talking about a number of the technological tools that they're using, to help them in the admissions process and also to kind of figure out who might be a prospective student and this and that is, like, students are just being tracked all the time. And they're... And, like, someone they're on their website or checking out these things, they're actually looking at these, a lot of the institutions as demonstrated interest. So just putting out there that, like, the digital footprint in this area does does matter. Thanks.
Any other comments? Okay. Then we'll move into, item 7.3. Our next board of education meeting will take place on Thursday, November 19, 06:30PM here at the library, and that'll be followed by our next business meeting on December 3, again, at 06:30PM in the library. At this time, moving to item 7.4, the board will be entering into executive session. So be it resolved that the board of education hereby enters executive session to discuss the employment of a particular person or persons as well as details of proposed current or pending litigation. The board will, promptly, exit executive session and then after that, adjourn the meeting so there will be no further action taken after the leaving of executive session beyond the adjournment. At this point, thank you all, members of the public for participating and, listening to us at home. And we will see you in two weeks. Oh, shoot. I have to actually...
I mean, this has, like, been the longest week of my life, I think. Sometimes I have to write down what I have to say so I don't forget to say it, but luckily, you guys always remember. So thank you. I appreciate it. You know? Teamwork. So, can I get a motion, please? No. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both. And now can I get? Can I call a vote? All in favor? Anyone opposed? Anyone abstaining? Alright. We're gonna go into executive session. Thank you very much. Phew. Thank