• kids rolling up their sleeves, exploring,
• the environment, exploring nature,
• learning things about,
• the world around them,
• how they see themselves as learners
• that intrigue them, things that aren't associated with the grade or the chase of of how to be the highest academic
• achiever, but simply about what interests
• a young person and what
• lights them up with curiosity, giving them time during the course of the school day to
• to
• great work of so many teachers and students over the course of time. Thank you to Danny Virgo and Laura Lynch
• for continuing
• would we be thinking that there would be an interview team that would interview and recommend to a board
• based on their interviews?
• Or
We wouldn't be able to conduct interviews Right. With more than three years. Unless we
special meeting. Which would be in public, and that really wouldn't be fair to Correct. Students. So So so could we could we put this to board development since it sort of relates to that, like, function and then come back to you all with the recommendation? We'll do that before Yes. The application process is over. Yeah. Sounds weird. We're just waiting sort of on the timeline
• Mhmm. From SFC, which I think is great that we have now. So we'll be able to get that done and then get back to you.
• Great. What is board development meeting done? Well, it's gonna be meeting now. Now that we have the information.
• Schedule We it right now. This is the time. Don't wanna schedule it before we have, like, a sense of what the timeline is because it'd be silly for us to meet before we have their dates. So So we're we're next meeting on May
• Right? As a board. Yeah. As a board. So hopefully, we'll be able to Maybe not to meet have a discussion.
Yeah. So let's do let's not not do the calendar stuff right at this time, if that's okay. We'll do it after. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Yep.
• Alright. Thank you, Fabiano.
• Oh, can can we ask just, like, a quick question here?
• Is that alright right now for questions for Phil? So, Phil, I just wanted to say also just because I had a chance to attend. It's, like, very rare that I get to do anything as a parent in the school district. It's such a pleasure to be able to go to the National Honor Society
• event on whatever night that was, Tuesday. So I just wanted I wanted to just add to everyone else's praise for how well it was run, how lovely it was. I know that this is very old school of me, but I really do like to have, like, a program that I can take home, but in the folder, because I still have a folder even though there's very little in it.
• So it was really nice to sort of have that. I think the way that you all ran the event. I also wanna commend, obviously, mister Vogel, I think was, like, very, you know, supportive of getting you, like, for everything we've all got together. But it was just really nice to sort of see
• see the seniors really supporting the juniors and talking about their accomplishments.
• It was just like a really nice, I think, night for everyone. So thank you so much for all the thought that you put into that. I also wanna thank you in terms of like something that I feel like you have had such a specific focus on as our student ex officio trustee this year, which is your recognition of the fact that like not everybody sees themselves as a leader. And so the fact that you're doing this outreach in terms of, like, doing the table to invite people who aren't part of student faculty congress to be part of it, I feel like that's been such an important part of your role for us on the board, so thank you for that. And then also in terms of the PVC
• outreach to help people understand that it's like you don't have to be, you know, like a student here in PVC to actually be able to do it in high school. I think in this small community, we get these fixed ideas of, like, we're an athlete or we're a theater person or we're a whatever. And it's really like the type of work that you're doing breaks that down for kids.
• And so I love that you're doing it. I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of all of us. Think this is exactly what we're looking for when we're talking about how we can be a successful student ex a physio trustee. It's going to be really sad.
• sorry.
• thank you for you coming but just really I'm just really grateful for the work. It's been very thoughtful, so thank you. Yeah. I'm definitely really glad to be able to, you know, provide the job that I do. And also, I agree with your point. I think it's very important that, like, everyone can understand the concept that they can have a voice even if it's they're starting in tenth grade or even if they're starting as a senior. Like, I think it's so important for them to realize that, like, they have they should have and do have an equal opportunity in our school to stand up in any way they want to. You know? And so that's why I think it's very important to make sure everyone knows all the opportunities that they have so they can, you know, jump on it. Equity in action, Filmina.
• You've done a great job. Thank you. We
• which is board reports.
• Advocacy.
• Alright.
• met yet,
• but you will see later on tonight's agenda
• that we
• have had a letter
• in support of the LAGC's
• petition to the Public Service Commission
• for a
• for an evaluation of the electrical grid for its readiness
• for
• the
• bus
• electrification.
• So we will see we will discuss that a little bit later on in meeting. I do believe
• as a community expert, I've reached out to the committee to schedule our next meeting so that we can also discuss
• a board
• either a board letter or board resolution also in support of the of the PSC
• filing and also to discuss
• resolutions for NISPA for the coming year.
• That's it for us. Thank
• Audit.
Audit presented at the last meeting. We are not scheduled to meeting until, I think, June before the end of the year. We'll meet you one more time.
• you.
• Actually we do have a real update
• for members of the board.
• You will be receiving
• a timeline very shortly
• for the beginning of our superintendent evaluation process which takes place
• throughout the year as we all know and we have talked about. This initiation is
• of the annual review that takes place at the end of the year.
• So after
• superintendent
• puts in his self review, that will be sent to the full board for us to input our comments. And then we will have a timeline. We'll have sort of like a deadline set for everyone for that. We'll come together then for the next step, which is the formal review conversation,
• and then the
• official sign off and public review will be posted
• at some point over the summer. I haven't put all the dates together because we just talked about this, so I'll put those together and we will actually be
• sharing that with the community as well through our
• board development meeting minutes or through our committee page on the website just so that everyone knows what's coming and what the time frame is. Thank you.
• Communication?
• we go. So communications met at the beginning of this week.
• Yeah. That was this week. So
• we
• met and we discussed some
• we discussed the hearing public preamble that we had been working on at the last meeting.
• Thank you to Allison for her suggestions for some revision to that file.
• We discussed that as a committee made
• a revision. I will share that updated finalized
• draft with the full board.
• And then assuming no further changes, we would share that with Denise in order to update
• the agendas and also
• print and laminate some copies of that along with the cited policies that are within that that document. So that was the first thing we discussed. We also discussed
• the
• board survey
• that we would like communication survey that we would like to put out to the community. That will be done
• tentatively. We discussed launching of that May 26. So at our last meeting prior to this, we had
• made a lot of changes based on some based on board feedback that we've gotten from everyone that we shared with the full board.
• So we are finalizing all that. That will be shared back out to everyone,
• and then we will, like I said, tentatively aim to launch that survey on May 26 so that we could close it by mid June.
• And that way, we can provide,
• you know, time for the committee to gather and analyze those responses and share it with the with the full board with the new board in July.
• And then we also discussed the board section of the website.
• I will also send that back out for any any additional
• feedback
• to the board from the board,
• and we will try to get that finalized and aim to get that launched as well.
• And, yeah, other than that, we discussed upcoming of the current and upcoming district communications.
• You know, budget communications are in full swing
• after
• we're hoping that we will have a budget newsletter out in the mail
• tomorrow, and
• that will start showing up in in everyone's mailboxes very soon.
• And there have been several
• videos and articles posted on the the nature space,
• leaders of tomorrow, tiger success tales,
• the PVC pageants, and graduation.
• That was it.
• Thank you.
• Policy?
• will be meeting next Monday.
• The agenda has been
• included in the
• announcement of the meeting so that the public
• can see what is on that agenda.
• The first item on the agenda will be
• discussion,
• if any,
• on policy zero zero zero zero that we discussed last month and
• have made some revisions to and will be discussing as a board tonight so that that can be finalized and presented for approval
• in the
• next meeting as appropriate, whether it's
• the nineteenth or the June 5 meeting.
• The
• second item on the agenda
• is
• a policy
• on
• artificial intelligence.
• I guess this might sort of be a polling issue, but I attended yesterday
• the
• three hour
• NISPA
• webinar
• on
• artificial intelligence
• and
• I don't need to interrupt you. They do think that is a polling issue. Well, but it relates specifically to what's gonna be discussed,
• which is they
• provided
• an updated
• NISPO suggested
• AI policy
• much different than what they had presented previously
• based on
• new laws,
• etcetera.
• So we're basically gonna have to look at that tomorrow or or rather on Monday and then, you know, decide how we proceed. So it'll be some time before the group will have an AI policy
• for its consideration.
• And then we have
• other policies that you see on the agenda of the meeting
• for meeting that will be available,
• you know, we discuss as much as we can get through.
A quick PBC update. I know we've already talked about Friday night stripes. It is tomorrow night, but it's an opportunity to highlight also for our CET families.
• Fourth graders from CET are invited to join
• their soon to be
• school meets at PBC on Friday night from 05:30 to 7PM. That's the session for grades four through
• four, five, and six at Friday night strikes. If you don't know what it is because you may not be able to tell from the name, it's a fun night of basically
• I don't say it's a free for all. It
• a
• very
• active night of being in the school after hours. And
• being in classrooms and doing great activities with
• parent volunteers and teacher volunteers, usually it includes karaoke,
• basketball,
• outside games, trivia, arts and crafts, which is my favorite room that I will be at. There's snacks. There's food. And
• the PVC PTA, I just wanna commend them because, again, thinking about how our student our parent teacher organizations are supporting the work of our schools, there was a very specific change a couple years ago to use this event in the spring as a way to help transition our fourth graders up to
• the middle school basically by coming after hours,
• seeing that those big fifth and sixth graders are not so bad, and actually that you can have a lot of fun at the middle school. So it's part of the overall process of getting them ready for that transition which is ongoing right now. So I just wanted to point that out for everyone because I think it's a really
• it was a really smart decision that they made, and it's gonna make it a really fun night tomorrow. That's all. I just wanna add. I believe our newly appointed PVC principal, Maylene Herm, will be there tomorrow at this point. We'll continue grading
• so far, I might just talk over this thing about messing around with the microphone at all. So
• alright. We're good. We're good. Good evening, everyone. I want to thank the district and the school board for the opportunity to present the library's twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven proposed budget.
• As always, we value the continued partnership with the schools that help us work together to benefit the students and all residents of Croton.
• Before discussing the numbers, I wanna highlight the return on investment the community receives from its library.
• In 2025,
• visitation reached a four year high with over 230,000
• visitors, a 41%
• surge since 2022.
• We currently lead nearby libraries and checkouts per patron averaging roughly 22 items per call.
• The library has evolved into the central meeting space of the community.
• In 2025,
• we facilitated about 850
• live programs with over 16,000 total attendees, and our adult programming saw extraordinary growth skyrocketing
• by a 163%
• over the last three years.
• Highlights from this past year include the pop popular Riverview Jazz series that we co sponsored with the village's arts and humanities council,
• as well as Croton Reed's and our end of summer concert series with Peter Kahlo.
• By hosting monthly blood drives, donors help reach 1,173
• potential recipients, and our two vaccine clinics protected over a 160 residents.
• We foster connections through weekly mahjong,
• canasta, our grief support group, and we even cater to your kitchens with our spice of the month kits, which essentially sell out every month. Neil knows about it as well.
• For our younger patrons and families, we continue to offer everything from music and movement and yoga to creative bracelet and earrings making classes.
• Our connection to the Croton-Harmon Schools is also something I think is worth mentioning, especially tonight. In 2025,
• we hosted personal library tours for every incoming kindergartner and ensured every fifth grader upon entering PVC was issued their own library card during their tour as well.
• Our partnership deepened further when ninth grade classes were brought to the library to select picture books on social emotional topics and build specialized lesson plans for the younger CET students as part of the pass class.
• We continue to foster peer to peer growth through homework help where nine through twelfth grade volunteers
• provide weekly academic support to k two through eight students,
• which has been going on for over three consecutive years in its current form.
• We are constantly finding new ways to serve our patrons and the community as well. This past year, we joined the village as a bike share location with project mover initiating a 140 rides from library grounds.
• We also launched our library library of things funded by a grant from assembly member Dana Levenberg's office.
• This collection allows you to check out unique objects like a sewing machine, air quality monitor, or specialty cake molds,
• thus extending the sharing economy concept beyond just a printed page. In our lobby, we opened a community pantry with input from the local food bank and the school district.
• The turnover of donations has been remarkably high, proving it is a vital daily resource.
• While some think these initiatives may step outside the traditional scope of a library, we feel that as a trusted non stigmatized space for neighbors support neighbors, it's important to ensure that every resident has the tools they need to thrive.
• For decades, the library has operated with extreme fiscal caution,
• strictly adhering to the state mandated tax cap without one seeking an override.
• However, getting by is no longer sustainable.
• In recent years, the rising cost of health insurance and utilities alone often consume more than half of our permitted tax cap increase.
• This left the operating budget stretched paper thin, forcing us to use $30,000
• in fundraising monies last year just to cover basic operational costs.
• The proposed budget includes a one time 55%
• adjustment to the library tax levy bringing into $11,526,158.
• I want to be entirely transparent about what this means for our taxpayers.
• This is a pivotal one time transition to move the library from a state of survival to stability.
• This shows you the gradual increase we've had while remaining under the tax cap and what this one time increase will look like going forward, where their red arrow is pointing up there.
• This new level becomes our permanent baseline. This does not mean the tax payment will decrease next year, rather we intend to return to standard tax cap compliant increases in the future when needed to keep pace with inflation.
• For the average home in Croton, this adjustment represents an increase of about $10.50
• per month, roughly the cost of one digital streaming subscription
• with ads, I might say, or two cups of coffee per month.
• As you can see, even with this substantial increase, we will still have a smaller budget than many of the nearby libraries.
• For residents outside the village but within the service area, the annual increase is similar at approximately $116
• per year.
• The specific change in the tax rate for Cortland is $15.15
• dollars 22¢ and $14.12
• for Yorktown.
• Our
• proposed expenditure of this significant increase is driven by three primary tenants,
• infrastructure,
• staff equity, and core services restoration.
• The largest driver accounted for nearly 79%
• of the levy increase is a 425,000
• debt service line item.
• This is the foundation for our upcoming interior renovation and long term infrastructure upgrades.
• Our building is our home and it requires a significant investment to remain safe and functional.
• Building debt service directly into our operating budget is a fiscally responsible move. It creates a sustainable cycle where down the road, refinancing
• can provide the free cash flow needed for future maintenance without requiring another major tax adjustment.
• The second tenant is our staff.
• I've said to our board for years that if we ever elected to override the tax cap, a portion must be devoted to bringing staff salaries more in line with the rest of the Westchester libraries.
• To retain these skilled professionals, this budget includes equity pay adjustments that averages out to about 5% for professional librarians and 8% for support staff.
• We are positioning ourselves to hopefully bring back a full time head of children services following the renovation to ensure our youngest patrons are well served.
• Finally, we are restoring the core services that make the library so valued.
• We are increasing our investment in physical material for the first time in years, ensuring our collection remains current and diverse.
• We are bringing the beloved museum pass program back as an operating expense and restoring $15,000
• for special events to support all the popular program that I mentioned earlier.
• This also accounts for the uncontrollable increases in the reality of the current economy, including a 10% increase in health insurance premiums, an 8% increase in Westchester Library system fees, and a 7% hike in utilities.
• Beyond daily operations, we must address a building that has not seen a major renovation since the late nineteen nineties.
• This is where the 425,000
• debt service line I mentioned earlier comes into play.
• It supports a comprehensive 9,000,000 renovation
• plan developed with Butler Roland Mayes architects to finally address our primary needs, infrastructure,
• better accessibility,
• and an expanded children's room.
• By building this debt service directly into our operating budget and combining it with private fundraising,
• library reserves, and grants, we aren't just fixing our building, we are creating a sustainable fiscal cycle.
• This approach ensures our building remains safe and functional while protecting the library and the taxpayers from future major adjustments when maintenance or other needs arise down the road.
• This will be our new entryway showcasing a much more open intuitive
• layout providing a clear line of sight from the front door all the way to the back of the building.
• On one side, you'll see our new children's room while the other houses our dedicated creative space, ensuring the library feels welcoming and easy to navigate the moment you step inside.
• Our redesigned children's room provides a dedicated space for our children's collection collection and active reading as well as a separate comfortable zone specifically
• for toddlers.
• By slightly expanding into the central garden area, we're able to create this protected environment for our youngest learners without encroaching on the rest of the library's footprint.
• These renders highlight new reading nooks and quiet study areas, which have been strategically relocated
• to the building's perimeter to maximize access to natural light and views.
• We have prioritized window side seating over central tables to provide the peaceful productive environment
• that our students and remote workers increasingly demand.
• This
• budget renovation are about ensuring our physical buildings as strong as the community it serves. We are asking for your support to ensure the Croton Free Library remains a vibrant resource for generations to come. Please remember to vote on Tuesday, May 19 between 6AM and 9PM at the high school. Thank you all for your time today.
• Just
• assistant superintendent for business wanted to remind the community
• that
• the library is of course a separate and independent legal entity and their tax levy is presented as a standalone resolution on the district's budget.
• With our community voting on both budgets on May 19 this is an annual opportunity that we have for the entire community to hear again as we presented so eloquently at your library annual meeting, I think, last week. It's an opportunity for more people to hear about the good work at the library, the proposal, and the provision that you have for Sorry.
Could the members of the audience please It's a it's a phone someone left on the side here. I see. Okay.
• Yes.
• To to say what Anambas says, yes. The library the the school district is very, very nice to include the library.
• Yeah. Guys handle the vote for us. Yes. But we but you guys are voting separately. We are just the equivalent of the proposition on the ballot. One has nothing to the other. You can vote yes to vote, no to vote, yes to one, no to the other. It has one is one, one is the three. Just clarifying that. K. But we can ask questions as community members, I think. And I did have a question, Jesse, which is you said that the that the museum passes are now gonna be part of the operating budget.
• So I didn't even know that. Does that mean that they had gone away or is this something that's gonna happen? So the best thing to to clarify is the graphic you saw earlier on average, our tax level gets us about $22,000.
• This past 2025,
• just once I put in insurance,
• we already spent 18,000 of that. Wow. That has been what we've been going through the past several years.
• So every budget cycle, I've been, you know, penny pinching everywhere I can. And in the past three years,
• we have been technically dipping into our fundraising money. Things that are for renovations,
• special projects, and stuff like that just to make minimum. So museum passes have been technically being paid for by our book and make sale earnings for the past three years now. So but the to me, that's a collection thing. That shouldn't be paid for by the people that for the fundraising things that should be operating. So we've slowly been taking away from our fundraising and adding it to cover certain operating costs,
• and we can't just keep doing that. Yeah. So it's we haven't changed museum past. It's been going on. It will continue to go. No change to it. It just means technically
• where where it's being paid for. Thank
you. Then what's happening to the that room in the back where the three d printers are? That's one of the ones that's being moved right to the entryway now. So
that's that space currently because for the most part, the entire renovation, we're trying to not change the footprint of the building at all. We're not going up a floor. We're not going not going crazy with it. We're doing what needs to be done.
• That's gonna be the new teen area where the creative space is. The creative space now is gonna get moved right to that main entryway. So you walk down the corridor. You have a fully glassed in children's room on the left, and then the creative space is there. So the students have it up. There's gonna be a lot of not just students, but we're trying to make it so that you have everything right readily available. You're not walking through an entire corridor and going through all these things to go to the back of the building or stuff
I just wanna thank you for hosting the the Homework Hub. Yeah. Because it offers our CHHS
• students opportunity
• to
• to work on their community service hours
and to do it by helping, you know, other students in the district. I'm happy to host, but I can say there and I'm not gonna name names, but there are several teachers and people involved in school district too that make it possible.
• So it's yes. We're hosting it. And, yes, we have people that overlook it, but we couldn't really kinda do that without without the partnership with the school. So yeah.
Just wanna add one thing. It's not really a question. I had the opportunity to attend the architect's presentation
• on April 6
• where a lot of questions were asked, very specific questions about some of the facilities.
• Jesse, you kind of glossed by a little bit some of the real infrastructure
• needs, leakages,
• the stucco, and so on. But I just wanna say, I was very impressed
• with the work and care that the architects have provided. I before the nineteenth,
• I would suggest that people can go to
• the
• website of the library if they wanna see the presentation and things in more detail, that they should do so. I was just gonna ask if people buy additional information,
where should Yeah. On our on our website, we have an entire whole drop down menu based side. That's just the renovation, and it has kind of the story that led to here and the breakdown of the financing, both income, expenses,
• you know, the tax impact, all the things we talked about earlier, including the renders and everything like that.
• I do invite you to go to website, but please don't go on our roof to look at the the.
• Other question?
• I want to just make a note for the public. Our
• assistant superintendent in charge of business, Denise Harrington Cohen, is dealing with a private matter tonight and unable to be here.
• She would be here under any circumstances possible were it not really something that would be keeping her away.
• So
• that's
• an explanation for why she's not here. Usually she is here to be here for this for this public hearing.
• So recommended action be resolved. The Board of Education hereby opens the public budget hearing.
• All in favor? Aye.
• Opposed?
• Abstain? Motion carries.
• So if anybody would like to approach the podium, if they have any comments regarding the budget.
• On the question?
• Aye. Opposed?
• Abstain?
• Motion carries.
• We will now move into
• the discussions portion of our meeting and our work session with our business today.
• And five point one is our technology
• update, and I will turn it over to director of technology and innovation, Doctor. Ellen Moskowitz, who will be providing us with a technology update.
• Thank you so much. I'm just going to give Greg a minute.
• Can I just
So welcome to the technology department update for the twenty five-twenty six academic speaker? I'm Doctor. Ellen Moskowitz. And I'm grateful to have the opportunity to share with you the Board of Education, the administration, the Larva Tigers community,
• the amazing work that has been done over the last eighteen months. Tonight, we will discuss the current state of technology used in our schools, the research guiding our decisions, and our goals for the future.
• We began by reflecting on where we stand today. It's important to set a baseline for our initiatives as we move into the next school year. It's my hope that through this presentation that we gain clarity on what is
• schools and the systems and structures already in place.
• While I've
• only been here for eighteen months, here's what I know that we all, those that work here,
• We believe that learning is active
• and happens by doing.
• We value hands on experiences,
• collaboration,
• and social interactions.
• We prioritize person to person person contact, discussions,
• critical thinking,
• and believe strongly in the power of the arts in all forms.
• We believe that students learn best by reading physical books, writing across genres,
• and by physically doing math with the visuals and hands on materials.
• With this, we also believe that technology should never replace the wonderful and high level of instruction that can be done by our wonderful teachers.
• These beliefs are reflected in the district vision map as well as the newly adopted technology department vision.
• Tech tools are just one of the many tools available to our students and teachers to facilitate learning,
• as are whiteboards,
• paint, manipulatives,
• magnetic letters, etcetera.
• Our vision is to ensure that all of the tools that we have access to are purposefully used and in a balanced way.
• What software tools are students using, and how long are they on devices?
• In an effort to share this information with families, I
• I'm I'm
• and gonna their work grade levels they have access to those apps.
• They are categorized by area, literacy, math, productivity,
• etcetera.
• And while this list is based on usage data for the first eight months of the school year, it is very least a snapshot
• of what our students are using. Question.
Yeah. The usage data you said. So where does that usage data come from? Is it from the software itself, or is it self reported, or how does that work? Just so we understand like Yep. What the baseline is. Perfect. I was gonna get to that in a minute. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. We could jump the gun right now. It comes from our our
• filter.
• Right? So anytime
• a device
• uses our Internet,
• right, it goes through our Lightspeed in the company that we use, our Internet filtering system. Mhmm. And so that gives us data on not only how long students are on devices,
• but what they're using on those devices.
• it it makes it confusing to hear this back,
• and we can also hear you up here.
• So please,
• will the audience please remain silent?
• Thank you.
I'm sorry interrupt you. Yeah. So sorry. Because I think this is one of those things that
• Mhmm.
• You know, people are very concerned about. So I think, like
• and also if the plan is to better,
• you know, to come up with what we're planning on doing to move towards, it would be helpful to understand
• where which what
• the data actually represents and which moments. And is there a way like, can you tell? Is it from a student versus a teacher Yeah. Versus staff? Because these are all very different moments. Yeah. So that's definitely something that I, over the last eighteen months that I've been here, have been working diligently
• is that you have
• devices in groups,
• and those groups get certain permissions.
• Right? And so I'm not
• a kindergartner does not have the same access as a twelfth grader, just for example, which does not have the same access as a teacher. Right? And so
• and information
• websites get filtered differently at different levels, right, based on the developmental age, based on their role, if you're clerical,
• if you're right? So
• I've been working over the past eighteen months to segment
• our population and segment into the filter. So the data I'm presenting on tonight is just student devices,
• not teacher devices,
• not staff devices.
• I'm looking forward to hear the rest of the presentation, but I think that
• like, this is a hard thing for you to figure out, like, how to present this data and how to it's like it's and, like, it sounds like this is a a good way to get started on it, but I think
• a lot of people when they're thinking about
• screen time or data use, even though this is like one moment, we're look like, I know with my kids, thought about it collectively over the course of an entire day. Yeah. So,
• you know, this is a helpful snapshot.
• And I I guess it's like it's very helpful to understand, like, what this can capture but what it also does not. So, you know, I'm just wondering too, like,
• you know, there's moments like these are this is app usage, but are these devices used offline so that would not be captured in the so it's always online? Okay. As
• Internet.
• And so and everything is filtered.
• Everything is controlled.
So Okay. And and I guess the other thing is because I know this slide is up about the frequently used apps.
• I mean, I know my my like, these are apps, but then a lot of content is also looked at through, like, YouTube and other, you know, media channels. So are we able to also
• look at Sure. Okay. Thank you. Yes. And
• when I was creating
• the the data on
• for the tech website of what, you know, students are accessing,
• I zoomed in for this presentation on just the last month to give us a snapshot of what students were access accessing over the last month. And I
• segmented them by grade band.
• So as you can see, the apps that are listed on the board and and by apps, also mean, like, software, right, things. So it's a kind of one in the same language.
• So
• of
• what students are using at each level. And as you can see,
• they're all very
• learning,
• research, and creation forward apps
• across the board.
• I was very pleased to see that Library of Congress and that museum being
• accessed so frequently to have a great history.
• if I may,
• a quick question on that. When we see the apps here Yeah.
• I know that if I go if I go to where you can find out about those apps
• Yeah. What we have on our or what the district has now on its technology website is a listing and a kind of a very
• brief
• description
• of what those apps are. Sure. What they provide? Yes. Okay. For
• members of the public or the board, parents who might be interested in
• learning more about them because they may say,
• well,
• Pebble go for grades
• k to two. Yeah. I don't know what that is. And other than a description, you know, which might be in one sentence.
• It we don't really describe that. How would a parent other than contacting you be able to find out more
• about
• the that application.
• Yeah. And is that something that perhaps
• we could provide
to Right. For parents to see it? Information on what the app is, but I you know,
• how it's implemented in every classroom and how it's used is
• really a conversation with the classroom teacher.
So that's also a conversation with the instructional coaches and and the print building principle. And ultimately,
• it falls to us to be you know, make sure that that oversight
• is
• happening
• so that we know you have to be used appropriately.
• Yes. And, you know, we'll we'll hear more about that, I hope.
• top five to six apps per grade band, I wanted to take a deeper dive to understand how much time students are actually spending on their one to one devices. I looked at usage data from January to April,
• and as you can see, the usage data maxes out at about forty two minutes per day in eighth grade.
• So in almost our seven ish hour school day, six and a half, over
• the course of the day, students are most in our KA experience spending forty two of those minutes on a device.
• Something I would like to point out, this is the aggregate average. So that means they could be spending a few minutes in ELA,
• a few minutes in math. Right? It's not a consecutive
• time period. And I don't have data about the
• chunks of time, like the duration.
So, gosh, before we go off that slide, can we just go back to it for a second? I think we've got some questions on it. Sure. You want to go first?
I'm under jet lag, so I'm sorry if I'm being dense. But I just want to double check. So again, this is
• student
• one to one device. So this does not represent what's happening in the environment within the class and other forms of instruction. No.
Okay. Thank you. Right. So for me, I guess, because I looked at this information I looked at this information before the presentation.
• And
• I'm struggling a little bit just personally to understand
• how these numbers
• I just have questions, I guess, about the numbers because we think about some of the things that are sort of standard practice in certain classrooms.
• Like for example in eighth grade
• in the morning during learning lab they have to get on and do
• what is the name of the math thing? I don't know what it's called. Delta Delta that they have to get on for twenty minutes, right? So that's twenty minutes that everybody has to do at the start of the day,
• every day. And so if we're looking at that average number, for example, for eighth grade, and I can only speak to that because I personally have a student in that grade,
• The implication is that there's only twenty two more minutes on average over the course of the day that's spent on one to one device, which doesn't actually reflect
• the coursework that we're seeing and how that's delivered. So I guess my question is is
• methodology of using like the light speed Internet
• data, if that's where this is coming from,
• it may not be capturing everything.
• And I think that that as we're I I understand it again. You know, listen, this is gonna be a tough 90 because there's a lot of questions coming, so I apologize.
• But if but I think since we're at the start of this process, this is an opportunity for us to sort of surface. Here are the things that sort of seem like it could be a disconnect.
• And then going forward, try to determine, you know, if we're if if we're feeling like we're seeing something that isn't quite reflected by what we're hearing reported, for example, let's use this as an opportunity to also think about, like, how else can we slice that data and how else can we access that data. Because from my perspective, I'm seeing things that don't quite line up with, you know, the things that have been reported and, you know, my reporting is like a it's like one notes. I've got the one that I'm using as my reporting sort of pool. But I think, you know, I just wanna put that out there that I think we have to sort of be open to understanding that
• this is like a this is like a starting point, but I don't know that it's it's not there there's there's just I'm seeing disconnects. I'll leave it at that. I think that's the best way I can I can articulate
• it?
• And I and I appreciate it. I wanna be very clear. I appreciate that we're having this conversation and that we're looking at it because I think that's what we're all here for is to understand, like, what we can see in terms of data, how that connects what's happening in the classroom, and then how that connects to what we're doing going forward, if that makes sense. And I think I mean, I don't know if other people either wanna comment on that because I know that that's
you know, folks have different opinions about it or maybe don't. I don't know. I I would agree with that. I like, I think again, I just I know this is a hard thing to try to, like, figure out the methodology.
• So but and it is good to have a start, but I I feel like this is a small slice of what's that probably happening. And just I'm thinking pedagogically and just, like, kinda mapping up even seeing some of the images I see for assignments
• and projects based that from social media feeds, and I just don't see how, you know, as a teacher, you would be able to accomplish what I see happening
• documented in social media with the with these numbers.
• So
• yeah. So I think it's a good start, but I I would like to see more of a whole
• over time, like, more of a holistic sense of what's what's happening. And, you know, and
• yeah. I'll I'll leave it at that. I mean, I'll just add that
• think the concern that we've been hearing from the community
• is around
• screen time in the classroom, not on one on one devices.
• I think, you know well, one on one device, when you go home, you control it little bit. So
• It's how is the technology and I'll say, know, stick my question again. But my my point is, like, how is the use of technology in the classroom
• furthering the furthering instructional
• the or meeting our instructional goals for that grade? That's
• the way we might be able to learn about that would be
• to really have
• a more extensive
• discussion
• of,
• for example,
• here's a third grade class.
• We see
• forty minutes.
• Okay? So let me go through and talk about,
• you know, third grade teacher saying, this is what we do during the day. That forty minutes on average
• consists of this. To remind you that as you pointed out, it's only the one on one device.
• This is what I how do I use tech in the average day. And
• that's kind of something that's hard to present. I I appreciate it in a presentation like this. I think we all and the community would like a better understanding
• of how the tech that is used
• actually
• roommates to
instruction. And and that's what you know? And that's and that is an is a curriculum conversation.
• That's about curriculum and lesson planning.
• And so
• while I've been talking to Doctor. Dubag extensively
• about this, this is a much larger conversation
• about
• how just what you're asking how are our teachers using this? But that's about curriculum.
• So I'm just I'm reporting out on the
• data that I have access to, but that kind of leads into
• the the other category.
• Absolutely.
I think it's I think it's really important that to highlight that because we're this is like we've been talking about this is like a slice of a larger picture. And it can't be cannot be your only conversation about this. That I mean that wouldn't just be a realistic view of course.
• was just going to say it's to your point
• the technology department
• that's not a particular decision that have that happens at the grade level.
Brad, I would just add, I think one of the interesting conversations that needs to occur after tonight's lecture tonight are taking a look at this data with the faculty. And I'll admit, from a place of kind of institutional humility that these numbers appeared lower to me than I thought they were gonna be. I haven't spent a lot of time in our buildings.
• a situation where a student could be on a on a one to one device or their own device and not have it recorded in this state. And so to your your point, Anamika, somewhere in here, there feels like there's a disconnect. Disconnect. Right. I think, again, from a place of I'd to turn that institutional humility. We have to understand
• that us, like all other school districts, I believe, have done some things with screens involving kids that are not good. Right. We have to come at it from
• that is one of the realities. Right? That is factually true. And I think we come at it from the place of there is value in exposing kids to technology that aligns with the broader goals of New York State Learning standards. And so how do we continue
• to move into that direction where we're able to say, when kids access technology,
• it's for the purpose of advancing state learning standards and not for some of the other things that we do hear about
• that nobody feels necessarily
• terrific about,
• that's where we need to get to. Right? It's a process, and part of the process is being vulnerable enough to say, here's where we are. Right? Here's the state of of of play, the state of affairs, and then let's figure out, does this reflect what's actually happening in the classrooms? To me, the
• bigger screens, right, the choreography boards, those things that have evolved or
• other terms from chalkboards
• to whiteboards to now those screens that are ubiquitous part of life
• in a lot of public institutions, including schools. That is
• not reported here, but as much a concern about how much time they spent looking at that. And that gets into balanced by curriculum,
• classroom design, structure of of learning spaces where
• a board, a single fixed place, digital or otherwise, isn't what everyone's looking at.
• But I think the next
• step after that
• is to say, and I think we've heard this from some members of our community, is that once we've seen how it's being used and how it aligns
• the use aligns with the state learning standards,
• then we also need is that
• the best way?
• Right. And is the
• use of the technology
• perhaps
• should, you know, be additive
• and maybe
• as we heard from a member of the community,
• you know, reading a book might be better than showing
• a video of somebody reading a book that makes both align with standards,
• but what's
• best,
a best way to deliver for our community. And that's a long discussion. Sorry. That's a long discussion. It's an extensive discussion involving technology as a resource like many other
• resources.
• And so the questions that get asked of faculty are about decision making. Right? Why choose this resource to apply to the circumstance of this group of kids as opposed to other alternatives. Right? So data like this, conversations like this better position all of us to continue to elevate the conversation
• so that when we have those sorts of discussions with faculty, it comes from everyone's place of shared understanding of what it is we're trying to do here. And that goes back to I just wanna again wanna make the point of the technology vision
• is perhaps an underrated part of this, but it allows us to anchor in a shared
• understanding of where it is we're trying to go. Right? So, yes, while we address practices that we don't love,
• more importantly, we're talking about practices that do meet that vision. Right? And so allowing faculty to have that sort of barometer of, okay, I understand what the goal is here.
• Does this make sense around that? And then when we come to them and say, it doesn't,
• then they understand where they question.
• So that would be.
Okay. And then Just just a brief note that I wanna remind the board and the community that
• for our policies,
• specifically policy 4,200
• curriculum development, that any changes to the curriculum needs to come to the board.
• So to the extent that the curriculum is changing as a result of state standards or any use of technology,
• that really is a governance
• matter that needs to be discussed at the board level.
• receive the data that we need
• so that we can be involved with those decisions as per our
• policy.
• Guess,
• well, I'll save it until because I know you have more to come.
• Okay. So throughout the year, we've also been having
• a lot of thoughtful conversation
• about student data privacy, which is a very important topic to me. In an age where we are all more vulnerable and malicious act are exponentially getting harder to detect,
• these conversations are necessary and welcome.
• As a school district, we are guided by New York State education law two d.
• This law guides us in protecting the private personal information of the students and staff within our system. Over the past eighteen months, I've been working hard to not only improve our network security
• following the NIST framework,
• but also improve our vetting practices for vendors based on our legal responsibility outlined in the education law to date.
• With all subscription apps, the process is the same according to New York State law. We vet the software,
• receive a signed contract with the vendor,
• monitor its usage, and review their policies.
• If there's
• an infraction,
• we also report that.
• We haven't had any. Follow-up here.
• In Croton,
• to even get a piece of a software
• approved,
• we have an extensive evaluation
• process that is undertaken for each new tool.
• I wanted to share this process as it is now. So I'm just gonna walk you through all the steps
• that are laid out here. So when a teacher or an administrator
• finds a tool that they're curious about, they usually send me an email or put in a help desk ticket
• explaining what they're looking for. I follow-up with a staff member to schedule a meeting.
• While I'm waiting for that meeting to come inevitably a couple days later,
• I run that
• software or tool through
• a resource called Educational Frameworks,
• which gives me
• lot
• I
• And
• example of it. Software is. And I also think look at, just like we do for, you know, that's is this movie appropriate for my students or
• my children, I look at Common Sense Education to see what the site says about the value of the tool. All of these are just data points for me.
• I also try the tool myself
• to make sure
• that it's educationally sound.
• After this, I meet with the requester.
• I discuss how they view the tool to be used,
• how it enhances their program,
• and which, if any, the new tool is replacing.
• If all is copacetic, I check the budget, reach out, and request the signed data privacy agreement and work to set up the onboarding of the tool, whether it be in pilot form or full implementation.
• While this is the current process, I'm looking forward to evaluating this process and looking in greater detail with the tech committee next year to tweak and refine
• this process further for better execution and communication.
• Yeah.
• So
• I guess to me,
• I'm seeing that there and I know you wanna look at this more closely moving forward.
• I see there's holes in this
• in the sense that,
• like, if you go to the previous slide in terms of the, you know,
• data privacy,
• this if you look down, it says, like, student records, discipline, health, a, PPR data. There's also the issue that a lot of parents are concerned about
• images of their own kids.
• And,
• I mean, the reality is right now is that no matter what data privacy somebody the company signs,
• we really have very little control in terms of what will actually happen if there's a cybersecurity attack.
• We all know with AI digital tools that
• how I think an image can be used. Who knows what deepfakes or other things can happen. We live in a very politically extreme environment. There's ICE rates. Who knows how student data can be used?
• I'm very concerned that this doesn't capture
• images of kids, and I see a lot of the apps that are being used.
• And I understand from a pedagogical
• perspective why this is of great interest and to students. And it includes storytelling,
• narrative engagement.
• But there's also the underbelly of this is that we're capturing real realistically biometric data of student images
• and
• going into another world. Right? And,
• like,
• that's, you know, that's the images of kids are not being protected by this framework, and that's not a new thing. That's an that's a larger issue.
• So I I am concerned about that and I'm concerned about the use of apps that encourage
• the collection of these images of students.
• You know, the yeah. So I I I just wanna put that out there. And then the other thing is, like, I know that none of these apps
• are social media. However, a number of them do
• include components of, like, social media, like, and gamification
• that
• and I I don't think we should particularly in the lower grades have apps that are kind of
• normalizing social media behaviors, getting students to become content creators,
• you know, like that. So I I understand particularly at older levels why that might be appropriate. But from particularly from a younger perspective, my feeling is, like, we should be really as a district because we don't we are in this learning process.
• You know, the process that, you know, Neil, you talked about, Steve, like, I think that's great. That's gonna take months.
• That's gonna take months, if not over a year. And in the meantime,
• we are if we continue to, like, to kind of
• if we continue along this path, we're still collecting the data.
• You know? And that worries me. So I I would just say, like, I think this is great. We're doing this, but to as much as possible.
• Know, later on, we're gonna be talking about professional
• development.
• Like, you know, once a teacher comes and approaches you with with an idea, are they aware of the full implications from a data privacy perspective,
• from a student safety perspective?
• I don't know if, you know, I'm I'm not clear. I mean, that's a lot for a teacher to to learn about and that's like more than usually a thirty minute professional development, you know, session. And it's kind of boring stuff too, you know, like, frankly. But I I am worried about this. Mhmm. So alright. I think Alison brings up a good point. I think perhaps
• you're at step two, I think it was in your six steps.
• You you said, I look at them. I go and I look at this. And then step three is I meet with the teacher and I say, well, why are you using this? Why do you wanna use this? What does it replace?
• But I think the step two
• provides
• perhaps an opportunity
• to deal with that social media gamification
• to be able for the district
• for you to say, I've seen this. The way it operates
• is to,
• I guess, you'd say foster
• unhealthy
• habits. Yeah. And if that comes
• now the other question it comes up in your work during that process.
• The other question about
• you know, and and other biometric data that might
• compromise
somehow is another very important question. I think the two are separate but related in your work. And in full transparency,
• you know, this process
• gets to yes, right, like that I lined up, that I laid out on this slide, like this is how you get to yes. There are many points along this process that gets you to no. Right? There are many tools that teachers have requested just this year that have not made it past our initial email, right, and me looking into the app. So there's,
• you know, whether
• it's popular amongst the staff or not, whether it's, you know, a gamified
• moment. Right? I just had one today where it went to know, right, just right off the first email
• because it doesn't support our technology vision and our vision for how technology should be used. So
• so when I'm looking at new apps that we
• do get to know
• very often in many in every all the in between parts of this progression,
• there is a no.
• That's that's possibility. And I explain the why. And sometimes it's because it's gamification.
• Sometimes it's because it doesn't have a data privacy. Sometimes
• because it doesn't align with some of our
• beliefs as a school district.
• So there's etcetera. Right? There's many more reasons. So
• while this maps out to how do you get to yes,
• every,
• you know, instance has a how do you get to no also.
• to the portion that we talked about contracting
• and vendor agreements and plans. And I guess this may be a broader question
• for the district
• But these vendor contracts and agreements,
• I'm assuming they're
• counsel.
• So a lot of our
• agreements are done through our BOCES. I have moved a lot of our software agreements
• to,
• like, our BOCES,
• you know, PNW or Lyric because we're a member of both.
• And so
• they have statewide
• data privacy agreements. And so whenever when in doubt, that's
• who I procure our software through.
• And I think with that,
• correct me if I'm wrong, Gail, with the BOCES contracts, right,
• the the policy says can you fill in the blanks here? The policy says that the it doesn't need to be reviewed by policy group. Because they probably
Right. It's a broader Right. Add them. Yeah. Contractors are and a contract with you. Yeah. So then if you're attaching yourself to that contract, you're giving yourself protections
of that. Yes. And so many However, I just wanna add the you know, speaking as a member of the board, yes, we make sure that every
• contract has that. But the other questions about the gamification
or k. Other I'm not talking about that. I specifically was talking about the contractual. Yeah. The two the two days.
When you're done with that, do you have another comment on the contract specifically?
• Yeah. Okay. I just wanna chime in just because and I know Omar, you probably have a question also, but just since I raised the contract issue. So I think one of the things that we absolutely need clarification on is the following. And we have talked about this as relates to
• licensing agreements that the district has undertaken
• in recent years. So what we're seeing up on the New York State software flow is
• contracting.
• Would like to come back to vetting, I wanna make sure other people have a chance to talk too. But specifically on contracting, there's like two things that I think we also have to sort of have visibility to. The first is is that we're relying on both these and lyric to do the work for us, which is great. I mean, I will say, again, like
• convention
• And this is not gonna be, like, a super popular thing, but it is sent to us by a person who works in an upstate
• who,
• you know, does this sort of job.
• We have to sort of look at the decision when we're when we're outsourcing our decision making to whoever we're outsourcing it. The decision is only as good as that person. We're not hiring like, Croton-Harmon Schools doesn't hire the BOCES person. Croton-Harmon Schools does not hire the Lyric person. So we're we're subcontracting
• out that decision making authority and licensing to a person we have no control over. Obviously this is part of how works, I get that. We step out a lot of stuff to BOCES, we pay for that. So all true things but I think we have to sort of understand that. I think the other piece we have to understand is that if we're making a licensing
• if we are undertaking a licensing agreement as a district ourselves independent of BOCES,
• one of the things that we're not seeing if you could switch to the next screen in terms of your workflow, we're not seeing that as anywhere on here contracting.
• We see data privacy agreement, which as we've discussed in our policy committee is not the same thing as a contract. And we've also discussed the fact that any new contracts need to come before the board. So I think we need to we need to sort of reinforce and shore up that practice,
• know, figure out how we're operationalizing
• the policy that tells everyone here that when something is procured
• and it's a contract that's being signed by us, it needs to go through the board. So I think we need to see at some point once this is sort of like it's a work in progress, once it's revised
• that before before we even get to the data privacy agreement, there needs to be a contract that comes before the board before the license before the product is licensed. It's being licensed through both. He said it's different. Does this reflect our conversation at the policy committee in September?
• The question is to whether, you know, how we would do that. Whether in fact the board wants
• every contract
• No. But policy says that that that the that the board does. That's what the policy says. Right? Yes. Yes. And and now our question really is is can we have discussed in the policy committee but not
• come to a resolution
• in discussion with administration
• is
• how
• okay. We have to do that
• under the
• concept that this is not a competitively
• bid contract. Mhmm.
• We it probably falls within the lines of a contract for professional
• services
• under policy six seven four one.
• And as we discussed, it seems
• that
• since that
• requires
• everything to come to the board,
• these should be coming to the board. The manner in which we would do that, the degree to which we would have that
• oversight, we haven't
we haven't ironed out, and that's what we need to do. I do just wanna add color to this in that. I know that our our business official, Lisa
• Cohen,
• had input on this in the process and and hindrance sometimes on the business office. Now that would be an indicator, but I don't think you can't have a complete conversation about this property. That's
• policy implication in the business office than it is for Helen in terms of her workflow on the other things. What what the but the workflow does require that a contract exist. Right?
• Yes. Normally, that's executed though more through the business office than it is through through that. That's, again, that's why Denise has been and will continue to be closely involved in how that gets operationalized.
• Okay.
I do have comments on vetting that I don't have anything else that think can comment the contract question.
• So I guess my question on the vetting is this, Because it sounds like, again, in terms of our desire to support teacher innovation and
• choice in terms of bringing in approaches or
• new programs and things like that, what I'm hearing is that some of this decision making is driven by individual teacher choice. And I think that that also, again, is like this is an opportunity for us to tie it back to curriculum.
• Because for decisions to be make be made on an individual teacher level in terms of what's being used in the classroom, it causes, like, a couple of things that this board has talked about a bazillion times,
• including
• different experiences in different classrooms because one teacher might be adopting software x and the other five teachers are not adopting it. And so what you end up with is an inequitable
• experience in terms of learning and then also an inequitable
• experience in terms of how much time is spent on screen. So I think we have to figure out how to bring that back to curriculum rather than looking at it as like a licensing and purchasing. And that's what we're talking about here is, like, we have to sort of figure out how these decisions about technology are integrated into the bigger picture. You can't just be looking at it as like we bought a thing. Right? It has to be part of the curriculum. It has to be part of that decision making process. And I think as we're evaluating it, that that's that's another sort of what I see is like a pain point in this process. Contract, obviously, I've been I repeatedly expressed my pain about it, so I won't do it again. But I think also the vetting,
• we have to sort of figure out what that looks like
• building by building because maybe it's gonna be different. Maybe in the high school, there's more latitude because it's course specific.
• But I think when we're talking across grade bands,
• right, that there has to be that has to be sort of like in coordination with the curriculum,
• whoever the curriculum person is or, you know, like, for for the interest rate. Yeah. And and we've spoken about that, obviously, extensively.
The final product here should have a step two that includes then review by curriculum coordinator, building principal, existing superintendent.
• It shouldn't be that there should ever be a circumstance where an an app or platform can be used in the classroom and the principal
• is not aware of it having gone through the review process. Right. As knowledgeable as Ellen is in in curriculum instruction, and we're blessed that you have that kind of knowledge.
• Structurally, we have to build this. So that should be the new step too. Yes.
Yes. Can just ask one more question? I'm so sorry, and this isn't actually for you. But in Doctor. Dubak going into the role, is that something that would also encompass not just a building level leader, but, like, a district level approach? Mhmm. Yes. Sorry. If I didn't say assistant superintendent. Yes. Assistant superintendent. I'm sorry.
• I've also implemented this annual evaluation grants that I've only been attending to a month. So,
• yeah, the second time I've done it.
• We'll call it annual for the
• case of this. So where I sit with the building leaders and, you know, for example, the high school, curriculum leaders
• to talk about we had that conversation about active or passive
• screen time.
• And I had the staff look through every software tool that was used, for example, at the high school and categorized it as active or passive. And then
• if it was fell in that active category,
• they we had extensive conversations
• about,
• like, do we need this?
• How how much do we need this? I looked at usage data,
• and we we talked about impact on student learning. We also eliminated for redundancies.
• Right? Things like this. So I talked across the table, across the curriculum line you know, curriculum areas
• to to of streamline that. So this is a process that I started last year. We find it some more. This is how it sits now to look at the tools that we're using.
• And, you know, I've been open about how large of a library of software tools and how I've been working to curate that and to
• cull that over time. And it's it's a process,
• but this annual evaluation has definitely assisted in that. And as presented in the budget presentation we're able to cut
• 33% of our ed tech tools
• this year in our software line.
• So now that we have the tech tools that are ready,
• we have to seek out the research and information regarding what is best for students.
• One of the sources that we frequently refer to is the American Academy of Pediatrics
• and an array of educational researchers.
• So this is some of the international guidelines and recommendations on digital media and screen time usage for children and adolescents.
• But I'm going to zoom in to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
• The AAP gives us guidelines as a reference point on how much time students should be spending on screens.
• As you can see, there are suggested guidelines for students six and under with students that are four or five which are kindergarten students
• recommended less than one hour a day of high quality educational or pro social content.
• And then six or greater to have consistent limits but no recommended screen time,
• ensuring that this does not replace
• adequate sleep,
• exercise,
• and social interaction.
• There are numerous international recommendations regarding digital media and screen time limits for children and adolescents, and we respect and heed all of these.
• The most recent report
• from the most recent policy statement, I apologize, from the American Academy of Pediatrics was released just this past February 2026.
• And they have identified that there are both pros and cons of screen use.
• They identify that there are both benefits and risks to screen time.
• In an educational setting though, they say that there can be positive associations for children in both the six to twelve year old category
• and the 13 to 18 year old category.
• They say that for educational support, high quality, age appropriate content can improve language literacy and prosocial
• especially in preschool and school age children.
• Digital platforms allow some to explore identities,
• express creativity through digital arts, and find supportive communities.
• Some media can help maintain friendships
• and connect youth with peers who share similar interests.
• And engaging with digital tools, the American Academy of Pediatrics states that engaging with digital tools helps children build the critical thinking skills necessary to navigate a digital world safely.
• So also oh, I'm sorry. Before we leave that slide. Yeah. So just for clarification,
I I mean, I just wanna be clear because it's like so I did read all of them. So the slide that we're presenting here, the three things that are circled
• are literally the only positive benefits. All the rest of the stuff is negative. For sure. Right?
• Yeah. Just for clarity. It's like that's the balance that we're seeing there is the majority
• of
• of like, the majority of the research, it's myopia progression,
• disrupting sleep, greater risk for adverse digital media outcomes, especially for teens with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. I I just I feel like it's like we sort of have to recognize Right?
• Because what we just highlighted is the positives.
Yeah. I I circled the three that relate to school. Right. So the others don't explicitly relate to school. Oh, I would disagree with that 100%.
Also, like, the first one, like, I understand that. I'm somebody who's who is a I ran to EdTech's, like, technology as my Like, and I digitized
• all my teaching, and I'm going back to paper and pen, like, this this semester in the fall. The first bullet point says that it can
• improve
• things. It does not say it does. And
• I to me, you know, like, just harking back to the conversation, like, I think it was really productive to, like, map out what our contract process is and the policy. And there is a concern, I understand, like, to make it administratively
• too onerous on on, you know, a prop. But in my mind, like,
• I'm glad that we've been calling. You know, you've been spending time editing down.
• There should not be this many technologies that we're we're applying for, so it should not be so onerous, particularly with younger kids.
• Because going back to what we said, what we're trying to move towards is to
• only use it when it's really necessary and is a better choice than the alternative, like analog or, like, I'm not seeing it. Like, I I just don't and I feel like increasingly research is coming out
• that doesn't necessarily support that. I mean, I think, like, I I remember I, like, I've I've gone into your position, and I didn't have a formalized
• background in technology. And I learned, and it it it I came to learn it's like political parties. You know? Like, there's different there's different interests in this. And, like, some ed a lot of ed tech is is
• and the research is coming out of people who have different motivations.
• And
• I'll stop. But
• but I just like I I think that like I'm glad it's it's that you're presenting this and you're thinking and and the research about it, but I I think that
• I think we need to shift away more quickly.
• I think and, you know, to me, like, every moment where we're trying to figure this out, it's against students' data and safety and learning experience is being compromised while we as as adults are trying to figure this out.
• I think we need to move more quickly to reduce things.
• during COVID, you know, we were all very grateful.
• We now realized mistakenly
• for a lot of what was happening. Totally. And I think that a lot of these acts that you're talking about are leftovers,
• and it was. We were cheerleading
• innovation on the part of teachers who were finding new and creative things for our children.
• 1000%,
• Yeah. And thank you for bringing that. That's a really important comment. Yeah. And I just think for color, you know, we we we not and I know I don't mean to quote the district, but I know that in the past, superintendent Walker has spoken about, like, giving teachers
• whiplash. Right? Like,
• we were here, and we were praising them. And now we are shifting very quickly and necessarily,
• I believe. I agree with you on that point, but that's just to add the color to it. I think a lot of these apps are left over because
• until you do an initial assessment, which hadn't been done until Doctor. Mossman got here,
• they were lingering. And now it's a process of removing them. But we absolutely do need to do that as expeditiously as possible. Yeah. I would add,
in the context of anything within a school district, when you reduce anything by 33%
• in a year,
• that is a substantial change in a system. Right?
• So
• I think all of us would like to be
• moving more quickly in any number of different areas. And what I would just say, though, again, and we heard this term the other day that's resonated with me.
• In so many ways, we tend to glorify and we vilify.
• And so
• looking at technology in and of itself, which isn't how the system operates. Right? This is a curricular conversation.
• I think one of the things that Ellen shared with me earlier that came out of a conversation she had with, I think, in the Bronxville and other places today was the idea of regionally
• bringing together
• curriculum
• administrators
• and technology administrators to look at this broadly. Right? Because every district is in the same circumstance they should be. Right? These practices are
• incredibly common across districts.
• They it doesn't happen in isolation. I I appreciate you being here to present it from that lens, but this is a curricular challenge as much or more than is a
• device or app challenge Because what what we see is apps end up getting used
• in
• place of robust,
• hands on,
• rigorous curriculum. Right? When that's in play when that's in place, teachers don't have to look for apps to supplement because
• no one wants to be doing that. They're doing it out of necessity because there are places where the curriculum isn't as responsive as it should be.
• you know, I I these
• aren't so distinct. I mean, I I I do think that they I feel like it's
• I'm gonna say something a little bit more harshly that I mean it, but I feel like we're it it the situation is a little bit like of a whack a mole. And I think if we say, oh, no. It's a curricular. Oh, no. It's this falls on the technology.
• It's kind of passing the buck. I mean, I think that, like like,
• you know, to me, sometimes it's it's simple. It's just saying, like, as a district, we think that there we should be minimizing this and that we don't want to see apps being used in a K-twelve unless it's mandated
• by state. I don't think it can be very complicated,
• or else we can
• decide that we are committed to reaching a certain goal of minimizing and making it very specific.
So I think what what Steve, what you're getting at is also the reality of, like, where instructional material like, how instructional materials are being created. And so I think this is also something that we're it's like we are and we've talked about this we've talked about this last week, which is where I've been barking out on a shift of, like, it's not like we're gonna suddenly have textbooks again. I think that unfortunately has sailed. But we we I mean, it it's just it's a reality that no one's making them anymore. But I think I think, again, in terms of, like, what different school districts are looking for nationwide, we are gonna be seeing we are gonna be seeing a return to developing that type of curriculum and providing it. I think what we're all talking about though is it's like it feels urgent. Right? So it's like so and this is part of the conversation, I know you're like bearing the brunt of it because it's like it's easy to be like Right. It's the device. Right? It's the device. It's the device. It's the time. That is of course part of it. Again, I I think this is all coming from a place of like people wanting to solve for something that's obviously very, important. So, you know, again, thank you for that. And I think it's good that we're acknowledging that, you know, two things can be true at the same time. Right? It's like we want to do this.
• Can we really get that material? Right? I mean, honestly, can you, like, can you find a book that has you practice, like, your math your math facts, like, easily accessible that's up to date? Probably can. It's probably printed in, 1983.
You know? It's like it's a question of, like, where where are we finding these things? I would have to say I I let my my schools, like, open educational resources. Right. Like and so some of them do have, like, print versions of things. So, I I mean, I don't know.
• You know, I don't I wasn't focused on the k through 12, but there are things that are available. It's just it's also, like, how it's all the states' effort and resources. Exactly. You know, whether it's spending money on the textbooks or the labor to go into it. It's it's and it's a heavy it is a heavy lift. And then there's an equity issue. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
• I'll quickly go through the rest of this.
• So as
• educational researchers,
• we look to the seminal,
• you know, members
• of our research community.
• Doctor. Durran Hattie has been around for generations.
• He's,
• a Meredith Professor
• at Melbourne Graduate School of Education.
• He's most famous for his work.
• In 2008,
• he published his first work for
• visible learning. He said this is over 800 meta analyses relating to achievement
• and made several revisions based on his updated meta analyses.
• That's always a hard word to get out.
• And his most recent work,
• 10 Mind Frames for Visible Learning, was published to maybe
• 2023.
• It's often described as kind of the holy grail of educational research because it
• involves more than 300,000,000
• students globally.
• And so he talks about the complexity of our profession and of what we do as teachers.
• And he says he talks about how it's both an art and a science. But he dives into the science of what actually
• what effective practices is actually impact student learning
• really quickly.
• I'm fast forwarding.
• He if you dive into his research, and I spent
• lots of hours in it,
• he talks about there's a zone of desired effects, right? So where
• anything that has an impact,
• an effect size
• of 0.4 or greater,
• it's going to accelerate student learning
• in the rate of more than one year or one year's time in one year's time. Sorry.
• And so when we look at what actually works in our classroom,
• we look at practices that fall within that blue zone, that zone of desire effects. Right?
• And we wanna minimize
• and eliminate the things that that fall in the other zones,
• if that makes sense. Because we wanna make sure that what we're doing as teachers, we know that everything we do impacts our students. Right?
• And so we want to minimize
• the other
• actions that we take as educators.
• Now, I can talk about John Hattie's work for hours,
• and I would love to if anybody wants to.
• But
• since the focus is technology, I did just zoom in on a couple things that relate to technology and John Hattie's work and recognize that he has
• millions of teacher actions that impact student learning that listed out and their effect size.
• So
• and
• again,
• stating that, like,
• hands on learning,
• kids reading books, right, like, that is what we believe in. But since we're looking at the lens of technology,
• John Hattie's work speaks to that computer assisted instruction
• does have an effect size of 0.47
• according to his net analyses.
• Feedback
• is one of John Hennie's highest ranked
• ranked influences.
• And then tech tools that provide instant corrective feedback shift from the student from passive receiver to active problem solver is a point seven to point seven five
• effect
• size on student learning, which is remarkable.
• Interactive video methods
• where students are engaging and responding rather than just passively watching
• has an effect size of point five two.
• Creativity programs, digital programs that promote creativity and allow students to be creative digitally,
• point six two.
• When tech is used to pose complex creative problems and problem solve,
• point six seven. So
• just saying that there is while
• I am not denying all the negative impacts and effects,
• I'm also saying that there
• can be some high impact
• on student
• learning. Oh, boy. Okay. I'm
going to put my parents out on for a second. And I'm just going say, and I'm not an educator. And I quickly,
• in researching this
• presentation, googled
• Mr. Hattie Doctor.
• Hattie. I'm sorry. Don't remember that.
• But wearing my parent hat, I think that there is a gap here in terms of
• collection of some of this information.
• Because I can tell you that
• while it might yield 8.7 or a point seven five to get feedback via tech, there's also a social emotional element to that. 100%. That I don't know if it's measured through this work. So
• just all of that. Like, I'm reading this, and to the extent that we were talking about, there's sometimes a disconnect regarding
• what's reported and, like, actual
• experience with something.
• There's a lot of
• this that might look really good, but it I don't think that it's a it reflects the components of some or or even the trade off of balance in terms of some of the the very negative things regarding
some of this. But I understand that you're looking at it from the I'm I just feel I feel the need to say that. Sure. I don't wanna get ahead of Omar because he had his hand up first. I'll go after. No. I mean, I just wanted the the one item that has the greatest impact effect size was feedback. Right. Mhmm. Right? And I think what what what's happening here is we may be ascribing
• the effect
• to the wrong
• to the tool rather than to the initiative itself. A 100%. Feedback is known to have significant impact on educational outcomes. Yes. Right. Doesn't necessarily need to be via technology. Now I I haven't I haven't read this research in a long, long time. So I'd love to dig dig into this a little bit more. But again, I wanna stress, feedback is
• the mechanism that has the greatest impact on student student achievement.
• And you just talk a lot about about
• teachers acting as evaluators with their own
• the research that I was I'm familiar with.
• But I just want to point that out that I think the effect that we're seeing here is a result of the feedback loop, not the technology. I think it's Allison and then Adelica. Go for it.
• would say, like, I I appreciate, like, how you like,
• why you chose this and that you're saying that he has all these other nontechnology
• indicators as well. I mean, it's this goes back to to me, like, with my experience doing a role somewhat similar to your like, in terms of the professional development.
• I'd be curious to see
• how the non technology versions of these play out and what these numbers are because, again, it goes back to if they are more effective, then we should not you know? So, you know, like, I I think seeing those side by side might be helpful. And also, that might convince a teacher to be more open to shifting their practice if they're saying, wow, this actually is not as effective.
• there's
• hundreds, I don't think, I don't actually know the number of strategies
• and tools that he has researched on. Right? Teacher self efficacy
• collective teacher efficacy, I'm sorry, is the highest impact on student learning. And what that looks like is teachers working and learning together. Right? And that and and and building each other up and sharing practices and all that. And that's something we do really well here in Groton.
• Again, I just zoomed in. So to to just the pieces where he talks about technology and
• a couple of them. Right? Direct instruction
• has a really high right? Like, response intervention has a really high effect size, even higher than some of these. And so not discounting any of those. And
• systems wide,
• those things are very important.
So I was just snipping out a little bit. But I think that's ive. Right? So just again to to play off of because I agree a 100% of what Omar said and Alison said, I mean, the exact thing I was gonna say, is look at all these exact same factors with the human person doing the same thing. But
• I think just to sort of take it up a little bit. So when we're talking about this, it goes back to the same conversation we keep having. We can't be talking about technology in a vacuum. We can't be looking at the data. We can't pull out a snippet because that's not how we're operating in real life. We can't be we can't be looking at just like that little trench bit if, like, none of the rest of it is also happening. And so I think as we shape this you know, trying to turn it into, like, a how do we take this forward? We have to take it forward with if we're looking at data, we have to be comparing
• technology versus the nontechnology
• because that's what we're that's what we're arguing for here is it's like, what is the benefit of using that specific tool versus using the other tool, which is the actual human teacher? Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
• One of the things that he mentioned is immediate feedback. Right. Right. But not necessarily
• most,
• I'll call it, efficacious feedback Sure. Which may come
• if it's not quite as immediate,
• but it's more
• meaningful. And so that's a question that really is part of the broader conversation
• that
• marries
• curriculum feedback and assessment,
• the committee I'm on, and,
• you know, and curriculum
• I
• was just gonna say, I can't remember the dinner that we were at the fall where they had the AI presentation. And one of the stories that I was left with at kind of scribbling was about a student who kept running her essay through an AI detector trying to get a higher score.
• And
• the
• impact on it was actually an educational professional who was speaking on AI. Was her job, wasn't it? Yeah. It was just the impact
• on
• the mental health of that high school student trying to and I mean, to the extent that you're talking about feedback from
• apps or from any kind of feedback and I know that you're talking more about, like, how high you got on stack The states or something like that. But some of this, it's really weighing weighing on kids. Yeah. Mhmm.
• you know, can offer AI generated feedback on my students. You know? And students kind of can tell,
• you know, maybe, like, you're bullshitting them. Yeah. And that you're not really the reason. You know? Yeah. And I'm
No. I'm not saying no. No. I'm I'm just I think I'm, like, honest enough. You're definitely not promoting that. Definitely. Yeah. No. I also just wanna say to you, like, a lot of what we're saying, we're saying because we're trying to publicly voice, like, our opinions on some of this through your presentation. Yes. Certainly not a criticism of you individually or anything like that. It's more a criticism of technology and where we stand as a world,
• as a as a county, as a district Yeah. Right now in terms of all of that. And it's an important conversation. It's a conversation
• It's a two day event, and this was a conversation
• all of us were having. Right? All of us throughout Rock like, the representative districts are, like, Rockland, Westchester,
• some of Putnam.
• This was a pervasive conversation
• through all whether it's teachers Gerber's there with me. Whether it's teachers, whether it's administrators
• at the ASI level, whether it's administrators at my level,
• everybody in every district is having
• conversation.
• So it's it's it's really important that we have this conversation.
• That being said, New York State
• does have standards and skills that rely that align to computer science and digital equivalency.
• At the top of their skills,
• like the list from the the page from their skills I'm sorry. I'm
• stuttering over my words now.
• New York State says, for New York State students to lead a productive
• and successful lives upon graduation, they must understand and know how to use digital technologies.
• Technology,
• knowledge, and skills are vital for full participation in twenty first century life,
• work, and citizenship.
• So that's at the top of their
• page for the computer science and digital fluency skills.
• And they do have a set of standards, K-twelve,
• that
• run
• throughout
• our curriculum.
• They're broken into five pillars, impacts of computing, computational thinking, algorithms and programming,
• networks and system designs, and cybersecurity,
• and all of those five pillars are represented kindergarten
• through twelfth grade.
• What we have done here at Croton
• to make sense of those standards and to say what are the things that we actually need to teach students to do in order to actualize those standards is we took this progression of digital skills that was shared by ISTE,
• and I we worked with teachers
• to to say, okay.
• Like, the state standards gives us the overarching concepts, but how do we get there? Right? What are the skills students need to know
• to be able to get there? And so this is just a screenshot of one of the pages.
• So it outlines the specific skills necessary for students to demonstrate mastery of the standards.
• And just like in ELA, when a student is learning to fluently read,
• working towards the standard, for example, focus on oral reading fluence
• oral reading with accuracy, appropriation rate, and expression.
• Embedded in there, they learn the skills of matching sounds to letters,
• blending sounds together,
• blending sounds with short vowels,
• etcetera. Right? So those are the skills to get you to that fluency standard.
• For computer science and digital fluency, it's the same. We need we know we what skills students need to acquire to be working towards needed in order to achieve the standard.
• So collaboratively with teachers,
• we've taken the skills progression and aligned it to what we believe is appropriate for our students here in Croton.
• And then we cross walked it back
• to make sure that all the New York State standards
• I'm sorry, I'm missing my words standards were
• recognized and identified, ensuring that by grade five, students move
• through some level of exposure
• to
• some level of independence, developing an independence
• for the New York State Standards.
• Tell me. So There's still a few other ones. So for one here, just because I think we need to have clarity on this. Progression of digital skills by ISTE standards. Can you explain to the board what ISTE is? Yes. So it's the International Society of Technology
• And so it's,
• like, an international
• nonprofit group that
• kind of sets the standard for technology education.
Who funds it? I have to take question. We don't know the answer. We're asking a question we know the answer to. I'm sorry. It's part of the process. So who funds it? I don't have. Okay. Chan Zuckerberg Foundation, Microsoft, and Google. So that's who sets the standards. And, this is not a Croton problem.
• This is a, like, the entire United States Of America
• education problem. Let me, like, step up on my imaginary soapbox while I say this. But come on. I mean, it's like,
• standards are being set by the tech companies. Mhmm. So, of course, the standards are going to be up. And and I get it. We're in New York states. We gotta listen. Microphone? Oh, is my microphone not on? I'm not speaking.
• But it's like that's it's frustrating that, like and again, this is the this is the environment that we're in. Right? The frustration is that it's like, these are the standards that New York State and we'll get to it later when we get to the library slide also. These are the state these are the standards that, like, the state and the country are imposing upon us. But in fact,
• the the the like, all the research, all the grants, all that stuff, it's funded by, like, the the major
• technology corporations in The United States. So it's like Workers. This is a tough situation for us to be in.
• Right? I mean it's like,
• know,
• it's like if
• Alison and I, when we were talking earlier today, it's like you you so I mean it's like you can't you can't like not compare it to like the big pharma situation. This is what we were talking about. It's like, so who's gonna give you the medicine? It's the people who make the medicine. And who's gonna profit from that? It's the people who make the medicine.
• And it's just it's like we're stuck in this, and at the end of the day, what we have to do is figure out how to protect
• students from this because that's our obligation.
• This is like a like a mess. I mean, in my opinion. Yes. So
• we
• set
• the steps we need to take to comply with that standard at the right length of time. Mhmm.
• Getting kindergartners and first graders exposed to this quite frankly. I forget the term. What's that? The the fine motor skills that one is with with children? Yes. Yes. I
• mean, just play with goddamn Lego. Sorry. Play with Lego. You don't get the same skill sets you need to to click on a mouse and track pad and It's rough, man. I mean, I
• I I mean, it This is really It's ridiculous.
• I'm
• sorry. You're on the receiving end of this. All this frustration. It's it's frustrating. We're I'm frustrated with the system. I'm frustrated with
• how how we find ourselves in this position.
• And yeah. I mean, I think we we just need to be able to have a candid and open conversation about how do we move the needle on this. Right. How do we
• not expose kids
• this young to something that can easily be accomplished through regular play?
I think it's a I think part of it is great having these conversations of how we can meet those standards in a way that works for our community. Right? And that's a conversation not just with Ellen, but with Exactly. With everybody. Exactly.
• But then also and then also taking that next step and doing the advocacy work to go out to speak to speak
• with
• state ed, to speak with our legislators
• to discuss how some of these how perhaps these standards,
• need to shift and these need to adjust. Like a double
• Yes,
the advocacy work, but I guess I'm really glad, Omar, you brought those things up because that's what I was trying to get a little bit earlier about how it's almost political and how it's a really
• it's a complicated web of a lot of
• people who are motivated for their own, like, gain, whether, you know, whichever.
• So that's why I go back to professional development because this is how, like, I tried to handle it is like,
• I found that when I told
• my my the faculty and my institution
• that, listen, when you do this activity, it looks great, but the the the downside is that there's these images,
• and we this is where they're being stored. This is the reality of the protection about it. This is the reaction reality of, like, how much you may or may not be able to control it.
• This is who's actually funding
• by
• and, like, the intellectual property that's generated, who actually owns it, the company gets it.
• So who's actually funding these standards? These, like, these not like, nonprofits who have innocuous sounding names, but actually, if you look at who funds them, they're not so neutral.
• So I found that when you invest time in professional
• development to dig into the messiness of this,
• teachers
• start making
• more fully informed decisions
• on what they choose to do. Mhmm. So to me, looking forward, because part of this ties to
• next year's budget, what how we're going to prioritize things moving forward,
• is is really,
• like, even if it's boring, professional development on this. You know?
• Because it's really easy as a as a teacher to see you get flooded by all these materials that make it easier for you to adopt these these these
• these tools
• because it looks more, like, fun. It looks more, quote, unquote, engaging, and, also, it might make your life a little bit easier or and or it helps give you feedback on on for adaptive learning or this and that. So there's all these, like, sexy things that come with it that
• make you wanna do it. But then if you start understanding what are the other ramifications,
• you may choose to go in a different direction and lead to a richer conversation.
• what other districts do in this regard
• and,
• you know, find out
• which district is the most conservative in terms of exposure
• and see if we can
emulate what they're doing. I'm going to go on over here and just speak up for our trustee teachers and say that I don't think that even they want more technology in the classroom. I don't think that that's
• I think as
• a country, as a world, we're all moving away from that. I think it's
• unplugging it from the curriculum that exists,
• which can be challenging and maybe professional development
• on how
• and what the innovations are they're replacing,
• you know, the holes that are created once you start to unplug that Yeah. Is something that
• it wouldn't be boring. I'm sure you wouldn't make it boring. Yeah. Sorry.
• I I think there's also, like, what is the tool, but also once you have it, what are the assignments you're developing and how you're actually using it? And those are two different professional developments and and and so if the same tool might be,
• like, fairly neutral in one setting, but in other ways could actually have, like, some problematic implications.
• So,
• yes, I'm kind of going and getting all fired up that you're right.
I just go back to the the value potentially of the regional work on this. It isn't always that you have
• 18 or 20 or 25, 30 districts who are aligned on what it is they wanna be talking about at a particular time. And this feels like one of those moments among the assistance of human intervention and
• among directors of technology. So I think there's, your point, Omar about comparing practices, where we do a ton of that informally.
• But to get everybody in rooms to have these kinds of conversations could result in not only advocacy work Mhmm. But really good sharing of practices Mhmm. Across systems. So we should host it.
Can I do it? I would be totally good. I don't know if we have the parking for it.
• Well, you're right. I don't see any parking. We have a slot. I wanted to have the nighttime group here several times, but
• But the part that was logistic.
• Okay. So we are gonna dive into the library.
• And just a caveat before we dive into
• looking at library standards is,
• and I did this work in my last district
• when we were reworking our standards,
• reworking our libraries. Right? And
• part of the problem is that
• school libraries are dictated by
• the
• National School Library Standards, the International Standards
• for Technology Education,
• the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum. There is a conglomerate
• mess
• of standards that tell school libraries what they should do. Right? And so full transparency,
• as the board knows, I had the National School Library Standards
• initially.
• I put in the Empire State because although this is what mostly New York City uses,
• it's still more local.
• Right? But there Yes. It actually It's not just the city. It's the state also. Yeah. Context of this. Yeah. Yes. So there's there's a lot of standards that dictate our school library what's supposed to be in our school library. So just full transparency that is it's
• it's a bit overwhelming to look at their standard.
But as you're saying that, Ellen, like what standards do we look at? Are you saying we look at all of them, or are you saying that this is what we follow in programming schools?
• that's a good question. And
• again, I
• need to turn to our curriculum director. Yeah. But I do know that our
• we need to look
• as school library systems, they are guided by these standards.
That would just be a follow-up, I think, for us to understand what we're actually using because I think that was a point of confusion on
• what
direction are we following. Thank you so much. I would just add, I think one of the other resources on
• the SED website
• that I think we we have seen before but have not applied recently is the there's a rubric
• that speaks to kind of the broad skills and concepts that
• these various organizations have kind of come together with some consensus on with regard to what students should experience in in libraries.
• And so that, I think, while it's a lengthy tool, could be a good way for us to look at how our libraries are Yeah. Mhmm. Meeting or not meeting some of these things. Yep. Absolutely.
• So we've I know that that's something that doctor Dubag wasn't aware of.
• We've shared that, and so we look forward to follow-up conversation with our our team on that too. That sounds like a great idea. Thank you.
So we often see shifts in society back, like, reflected in our educational system as we should.
• As we learn more, we can do better.
• Currently, we're in this moment where the pendulum
• has swung,
• you know, in COVID as a side society, we've been ramping up the use and in both frequency and duration of technology
• use over the last ten years accelerated
• by COVID.
• And just like so many other movements in society, we are in this time of reflection
• and reckoning.
• As educators across the country, we've been encouraged to reflect on our practices and examine our impact.
• Society as a whole is moving away from the era of where technology was added for its own sake towards a more balanced and intentional model where tech serves the curriculum.
• But we are at this critical crossroads
• moving from
• this stage where EdTech for all
• to ban it all. And so we just have to recognize that we are at this critical crossroads and to move with caution,
• recognizing that
• the decisions we make now will impact
• a lot of future generations and
• our teachers as well
• to find a balance between
• those two moments in time.
• And so here in Proton, we think about not just how long students are on devices, while that is part of the metrics we look at, but it's also what they're doing on these devices, the screen use conversation,
• understanding that the quality of their activity matters a lot. Consider it the cognitive diff difference between passively scrolling for hours on TikTok and active tasks like writing a novel,
• video calling grandma,
• running physics simulations,
• or coding a game. They've fundamentally
• different cognitive experiences.
• And I presented this at my budget presentation. This is a slide I actually just
• snagged from that presentation.
• Our goal is that tigers are engaged in cognitively rich tasks that foster curiosity and engagement.
• Many of the times, the learning tasks are offline,
• centered on hands on learning, play, passion, classroom discussion, and creativity.
• And in the moments that technology is integrated into lessons, we want our students to not be just passive consumers,
• but adaptable ethical creators.
• So I wanted to share
• I got permission from all of Harris to share
• these
• examples of how technology
• is intentionally integrated throughout our buildings. Oh,
• I was oh, I clicked too fast. I'm so sorry.
• Hold on. I just wanna set that up before it starts playing.
• So here's an example of an activity assigned in one of our middle school world language classes where students are learning the vocabulary for emotions and feelings, although we don't speak French. So those of you that do, that can tap in.
• So rather than completing a worksheet, this teacher encourages students to draft a script, create a mini play that incorporated in a newly added words, and then act out. So I'm gonna show you just thirty seconds of that so you get it.
So as you can see and it and it went on, and the best part is actually the end where they put their bloopers in. It was it's hilarious. Right? And so I mean, they acted out with all the emotions and the dogs running through and all the things. Right? So it's it's very dramatic in seventh grade. And
• so I mean, that was a
• an example of not only were students able to use the vocabulary,
• but to think critically,
• splice together video,
• add mood music,
• change color scale from full color to black and white, layered text,
• all to convey the the message, the theme, the ideas, the mood of their of their script. It increases the cognitive load and rigor by doing that because
• even if they just wrote the script or even if
• way better than doing a worksheet, the acting it out and the layering of the multimedia
• really increase the rigor of that activity.
• Again,
• say it again. Sorry.
• We also see this amazing creativity in CET. This is an example of how digital media enhances student learning beyond what would be possible without it.
• In two of our second grade classes, the students dove deeply into their communities unit. So for those of you that don't know, second grade, you learn about rural, urban, and suburban communities. I'm sure a lot of you know that from your own kids' experience.
• And so to dive deeply into the suburban aspect of that unit,
• the classrooms decided to focus their learning on this wonderful town, Croton,
• and what makes it special. So they all identified small businesses and places that made the community so wonderful.
• They visited those places, found out information about them, photographed themselves at these locations, and mapped them out in a blown up map version of Frozen. Right? Great.
• To take it further, the class decided that their ultimate favorite place, it's not gonna be a shock, was the blue pick.
• Right? So the kids had so many wonderings about this local gem that they went on a journey to reach out to the owner with handwritten letters,
• schedule time to interview her.
• And in the meantime, they invited the video production students from the high school down to the elementary school. The video production students taught them
• interviewing techniques,
• not only just how to use the microphones and the technology, but how to ask questions, where do you stand, all of those things.
• So public speaking,
• they taught them about videos cutting and text layering, transitions,
• different types of shots with a camera,
• staging,
• video editing,
• things like that. So here's a really shortened version of the product of the project. Excuse my editing because I wanted to show put in some video some images of the high school kids being there and also what was happening outside of the the videoing. So I sliced it to the face.
• So this is some of the high school kids teaching them how to interview,
• how to do some, like, layered shots.
• So kids had different shots that they were supposed to to to get to enhance the options and quality of the video.
• There were stage managers, chairs for the client on the set.
• So that's just another example of how some of our youngest learners are
• utilizing tech in a really impactful way
• to take some project that could have finished from one level.
• gonna say something. I admire
• the teacher, like, the effort and the creativity.
• But
• to me, some of this
• going back to the issues of what I raised about
• particularly with our younger students not trying to
• encourage content creation.
• I I like, I
• my daughter's a film major. Like, I get, like, why this can be great, and
• I don't see why second graders need to be learning these tools. Like, I think the video production class, them doing the shooting and doing that to me is is age appropriate. But if we're trying to move away
• from the, you know, relying
• on the technology
• as as much.
• Like, it's yeah. It's it's it probably wasn't, like, a really meaningful experience and understood the value. But to me, you know, even the other project, like, it doesn't have to be filmed. I was a theater major. Like, it could just be
• left in that moment and some some
• photos, you know, possibly shared. So I think this is a little bit where the disconnect is because I think looking at this, on the one hand, I love it. It's totally creative. Like, there's a lot of things, but
• but the other side of me that's really concerned about student
• safety
• and
• that we were doing our best to to minimize students
• getting attracted to the use of social media,
• I I'm I'm concerned at this I I think that some of this to me,
• it's it it's like it may
• not be as appropriate for a second grader. Like, it they can do it. That's great.
• I love the creativity on one level, but I don't necessarily know if it's the most responsible
• choice
• or direction.
• I'm I'm totally fine with this if it's part of the curricular objective.
• So this is the objective. And quite frankly, I'm I'm surprised we don't have anybody here to talk about curriculum given the nature of this discussion, that you really can't separate technology from curriculum. So I think that was a big miss.
• But, I mean, that's the question. Are we using technology
• to further our educational goals and our curricular goals?
• Or are we using technology
• in a way I mean, I don't know. What are we using technology for? Mean, that's the fundamental question. How does it tie back to the curriculum? How does it tie back to our learning objectives?
• And this is great. I mean, again, it's wonderful. And if it it's tied back to
• whatever skills we're trying to learn, then then wonderful. It's great. But I think we need to ask answer get those
• a lot of this. Right? Like, that's it's I think it's even through this conversation that we're like, you know what? We really can't have this conversation without curriculum being a component of the an active component component of of the the conversation.
• And I would also add that I would encourage it to be an active component
• at the district and the board oversight level and not just the building level. Right. Right? Because it has to tie into the entire mission of the entire
• lifetime of a student here.
• Because maybe if it is more of a video production thing, then you could say, we don't have to do that in the second grade because they're going to get back later. I mean,
• to have those conversations as a district, which is a huge
• task, I understand.
• And I but I to your point, I think it's in having these conversations
• that we're realizing just how interconnected
it all is. Maybe that's naive or maybe we just have it looked at a time. Mean, I think I I just wanted to add this, you know, thinking about seeing this and thinking back to my child long time ago.
• Second grade did the same Front shot? Yeah. He went to interview the shoemaker.
• He probably took some pictures in, you know, the shoe maker on the registry,
• wrote a report,
• and then
• probably, I don't remember, they presented in class, they presented in the parents room there along with other students
• that has different skills. That's got organizing,
• interviewing, writing skills,
• not the video production.
• The video production
• may be additive, may be better
• in the end for a lot of different reasons,
• including the interaction with older kids and
• so on. But it's a question really of curriculum
• and whether that's the best way
• for both
• impart you know, what we're going to impart because each kid wrote
• and my my son's class wrote their report on their visit to their business.
• It's put to the group project. There are some advantages for group projects. It's all something to think about more
• rigorously than saying perhaps,
• oh, this is, like, a fun thing to do, and you'll learn something about
• the
• of business and,
• you know, just
• food for discussion.
For me, just going back to because I think where I sort of, like, got the disconnect
• I don't remember, Alan, if you said that it was, like, it was impactful. If that I like, that I think there's just, a moment where I you know, and it wasn't like a and I apologize because it wasn't like a positive like, was not a respectful reaction, but it just threw me off, so I apologize for that. I
• think, again, what we're getting at is like
• obviously, we've all said it's like we have to be looking at this in terms of curriculum, but the fact that some
• of what we're seeing with the use of technology is prioritizing
• the result rather than the process. And I think that that's a lot of what we're talking about when we're talking about instruction.
• We're prioritizing sort of like the finished product that we're seeing.
• Terms of mean, honestly, you showed us the finished product, so that is the finished product. There's no way that that video was edited by second graders. They didn't do you know, it's like they weren't sitting there, like, using, like, the editing software. They don't have the capacity for that. They also don't necessarily have those tools on their grade two devices. So that was probably a collaborative element, my guess is. Again, we don't know because none of us worked on it, but my guess is that was the high school students. And I think when we're looking at it again, it's like to think about when we're evaluating
• to to bring it back to the high level, it's like so the technology piece that comes in when we're looking at how that interplays,
• is it because we're because, like, stuff looks nicer when you do it in Canva? Of course, it does. It's like magic.
• But, like, when you do it with a marker on a piece of paper, you're actually the person doing it. And so we're talking again about sort of prioritizing process
• and prior prioritizing what you learn by doing it that way versus,
• like, you know, the speedy result. And the reality is is, like, these kids are gonna have their whole eyes ahead of them to figure out how to negotiate the shortcuts
• that are gonna be there every step of the way, whether it's AI or even things we don't know about yet. But without these sort of fundamental skills, especially in the early grades, I think that's why it's like it's it is really it feels like such a it does feel like such a disconnect, I think. It's really you know, again, it's like I think really useful conversation for us to be having, all all it's sparking is that we need to have, you know, like, frankly, another work session. Maybe we'll start it at, like, two so that we can go to bed.
• should
• I share this? No. Just two of them. I mean, points you wanna convey. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just another example of students collaborating,
• being creative,
• and
• and, you know, working together,
• you know, and there's
• there were questions about the Internet enabled device policy.
• And so I wanna first thank doctor Dubag for collaborating on this information as she, Mark mister Maxime, and miss Fiorini,
• and the whole team at CHHS are really on the front lines of this policy.
• As many of you know,
• this was year one of the policy rollout, and this was the implementation
• journey that we've taken thus far at the high school. In September, the admin team rolled out the policy and implementation
• plans at a school wide assembly and grade level assemblies
• that
• and students
• were told that they were expected to put their phones in caddies or in pockets in each classroom for the duration of the period, including bathroom breaks. Throughout the year, there have been refreshers on enforcement of this policy communicated at faculty meetings.
• In addition, this phone policy has been an ongoing topic at regional principals meetings
• with schools that are experiencing a variety of implementation
• challenges.
• Here in Chusty,
• we gather mid year student feedback informally on the topic
• and also came
• up naturally in our digital literacy panel in December.
• Students described a positive impact on attention in class and feel that the school has implemented the policy respectfully.
• Throughout the year, we have provided opportunities for staff to share best practices, including practices
• such as assigning slot numbers connected to attendance procedures, so cell phone compliance becomes part of attendance taking.
• Recently we ordered a new set of cell phones, we're calling them cell phone stadiums,
• that were just delivered
• so that teachers can collect the devices at the doors when students enter. The portable stadiums
• are a more efficient entry procedure
• and more effective.
• Ultimately,
• this is new for us and in year one of implementation, and we will continue refining and sharing practices
• moving forward.
• Some of the data related
• to this device policy,
• school wide based on implementation of the policy, a first warning comes from the teacher or admin.
• Before
• I'm sorry. Before we're being referred to admin,
• to date, there's been 21
• confiscated devices by a teacher
• or security
• personnel.
• We've had to call home four times to confirm when students don't place their phones in the caddy in class,
• but the students actually did not bring phones to school, and that was confirmed by the parents.
• Only five phones were taken for an entire day or longer. They were kept in the office.
• And only five students were directed to administration administration for placing a decoy phone
• in the class repository.
• Start on this. I think,
• There's there's a disconnect between some of the numbers that we're seeing here, which I think, like, are it's, like, a tally of sort of, like, direct
• violations. So can you qualify? Like, what is a direct violation according to this chart? What does that mean exactly? So
• to
• Doctor. Dubak,
• it means that 21 times a device has been taken from a student
by a teacher or a security personnel. Right. But what is a direct to candidate violation? Like, what does that mean? And and if this is, like, sort of outside your scope, then I guess the question is is why is the high school administrative team not here for this meeting to
• engage in this discussion? So I don't wanna put you on the spot. If it's that we need to postpone this and bring it back in two weeks. Then we should yeah. Let's do that. We should do that. We can't
• we can't expect you to articulate what's happening in high school, but it seems there's a little bit of a lack of preparation here in terms of, I think, what we were expecting to be able to do, which is sort of interrogate
• not interrogate, but it's starting to feel that way.
• To sort of question, query, whatever verb you wanna use, how what the discrepancies are between what we're seeing on the screen
• and what we're hearing reported,
• and also having an understanding of, like, what policy implementation means
• in the high school setting because community month wide we've heard that there's a disconnect on this.
• It's just
• I mean, when we're talking about the number of times a device was taken due to direct Caddy violation,
• I don't wanna call it anybody that lives in my house, but it's like, phones aren't going in the caddy. So it's like, what are we talking about? That's what we really need to understand, and I think that requires having our administrators here to be able to answer those questions.
• Sorry to my child too.
• I mean, do we do it what do we think about this? That like agree. Yeah.
• That that this this is that we don't you know, I don't think we have all the information here for you. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I I Thank you for thank you for, you know, for making an effort to present it and to sort of, like, articulate this, but I think we need context here. Yeah. I think that since
• six of us here
• agree that learning about this requires high school Yeah. Administration
• to be here. I think we should make it clear whether it's now or
• at some point
• before they
• are gonna meet with us exactly what it is that we want Yeah. To know Yeah. And what it is that
• we've heard,
• you know, administration
• know. We what we've observed when we've been in high school. Mhmm. We were given the opportunity I know. Like, this is what It's a more targeted question to people who, you know Well, I think we have additional questions. Yeah. Maybe we should be able to provide so that information
• can
you know, we can get information when they come visit. Thanks. The one thing that falls under you, Alma, is this order and use of new portable stadiums? So, like, what's what's the volume of that in terms of are we talking one for each classroom? What does that mean? Because that is a tech purchase. Right? Yes. So we
• a
• place for the devices in every classroom. Some teachers chose
• supply money, more of like a stadium,
• and then shared that it was how she was using it.
• Sorry, how they were using it. I don't know if it was
• so and other teachers wanted something similar, so I bought the requested number.
• So that's kinda how that came around.
• And while we we are in the messy middle, the very messy, clearly middle of this work,
• But we we have done a lot. We've established the technology committee, established a tech vision, set goals for technology
• that are not based on
• stuff, but based on a vision for student learning.
• We've improved infrastructure
• and AV in common spaces.
• We've reduced the total number of devices deployed throughout the district and shifted K5 devices to stay in school to promote a healthy homeschool balance.
• We've improved
• we've added three d printers, a poster printer, a laser cutter through our school's Thank You Chef to
• enhance students' access to tools that have a high impact on student learning promote creativity and creation.
• We've enhanced cybersecurity.
• We find data privacy practices, eliminated software tools that lacked impact by using 33%
• of the software budget.
• We've drafted an AI policy, but we're still in flux with that one. And corresponding
• guidelines that they put some teachers, students, and board of education.
• I want to thank you for the printers and the poster printer and the laser cutter because that's actually an equity issue. There are students that wouldn't have access to those items outside of the school giving them access. So thank you. Really excited for the laser cutter for PDC. Thank you, Chef, again.
• A big piece of this work is supporting our teachers with not only
• the with this mindset shift and paradigm shift,
• as well as providing them with the tools and resources necessary
• to think differently about technology.
• We're so lucky to have a
• rich team of wonderful instructional coaches that are working with our teachers side by side every day to both be thought partners and collaborators
• in instruction.
• Our coaches provide workshops throughout the year to help build the toolboxes of our teachers. The professional learning culture is flourishing here because of their relentless efforts and their openness of our and the openness of our wonderful teaching staff to continually learn, grow, and improve.
• This year, professional development has been organized around four main goals, innovative culture, interdisciplinary learning, collaboration, and feedback.
• As we've seen over this year, so much work has been done to support teachers' growth through the work of our instructional coaches, some sessions led by our admin team,
• and local experts brought in from the region.
• This slide outlines just some, all that I can fit with probably, I think it's a size five font,
• of the learning offered to our teachers this year. And as you probably can't see, because the fonts are small, there's a mix of learning opportunities that strengthen instructional practice, enhance teacher efficacy,
• dive deeply into curriculum materials, promote classroom discussion discussion and assessment,
• support multilingual learners, enhance
• active learning strategies,
• and some on technology tools.
• So our instructional coaches and our district vision guide us continuously to strive for excellence in supporting the whole child.
• The next level of our work. Our commitment to all of you is this. We are in this work. We are deep in this work. Right? We will continue to work with you and
• alongside
• you and with you. Next year, the work of the technology committee will continue. We'll work to review and refine our software evaluation process,
• look at where and how we enhance data privacy and security practices,
• and look at creating a blueprint to assess the effective native
• of tools. That's just my initial brainstorm for next year.
• We will continue to invest in high quality professional development to improve overall practices of our teachers and support the development of lessons
• and curriculum that utilize technology with intention.
• We will continue to improve our network security and make tweaks to the Internet enabled device band.
• In k four, we are shifting our device model from a one to one model to an access based model where students will have access to the devices when it is needed for learning.
• I appreciate your time, collaboration,
• questions,
• and thoughtful work.
• We're all here for the same purpose, and that's to do right by our Proton Tigers.
• So I look forward continuing to engage in this really important conversation and timely work with all of you.
• comment of appreciation
• for everything that you put together.
• Thank you for being here and for walking us through it. And also,
• we know we're talking to a doctor when she has references at the end the slide, which I greatly appreciate.
• having the opportunity
• to
• think about what you've said, to ask
• what might be difficult or challenging questions
• in a with
• respect
• and with respect among our colleagues because this is something that,
• as I think we've said, every district is struggling with, we are struggling with, parents are struggling with,
• and it takes a lot of
• hard work to be able to get
• moving forward. And I think I I hear a commitment to to do that, and I think the board,
• from what we've said tonight, are going to be perhaps even somewhat more active
• participants
• in our oversight role and not to be critical, but to be part of a
• of a team of the community moving forward.
• It's this has not been an easy
• thing. So I just wanna go back to the last
• slide that says the next level of work. And I know you said that you're in the process of, you know, developing your plan. So
• looking at this, I would like to,
• you know, add some things, which is ours. It's like I
• to me, I don't I'm not sure where this lines, but I am concerned that we rolled out a social media policy. And
• I'm not clear that
• everybody in the district understands
• what the they should or should not be posting
• and also the ramifications
• of what those are. Mhmm. So I would like to see
• or get clarity maybe that is in the works or happening, like, what has
• what has been that
• how has that been operationalized
• in terms of everybody being aware of what that is? That's just And then what are the plans? Yeah. Okay. So question for me. Yeah. Okay. Talk about. Thank you. But but then, you know, to me, part of this is, like, going back to the whole thing is that this because this is so complicated,
• and
• I'm glad to see that you're focused on the student data privacy. But as I pointed out earlier, there are these other types of content that's created
• that does fall outside of that but is very problematic potentially for our students.
• So I think that, you know, develop that. Somehow
• making some
• professional development to increase
• awareness around that
• and would be something that I would think is important to develop. The images? Yeah.
• Yeah. Because also, you know, like, for example, the, you know, the the videos that we saw there, on the one hand, they're they're great, but the other thing it is capturing
• students' images.
• And I'm just thinking back, like, I know I've I've had I might have relayed this in the past. Like, I've had students who were dreamers or had, like like, immigration issues, and they were really didn't want their, you know, their images to be captured because it had and this was, like, decades ago that I became aware of this. So I think
• for people to be aware of, like,
• when you're when you're recording something, on the one hand, it's it can be this lovely product like you just talked about and make everybody happy and look great, but there also can be be these unintended
• consequences in terms of what is the image that's being captured, where is it going to.
• And also, like we said, like, you know, having some more
• district awareness of, like, we pointed out, there there are these different organizations that are out there that are promoting different tools that are, you know, providing these frameworks, but who are they? You know? So that we just like, we all sharpen our
• critical thinking skills and our now ability to analyze
• what comes our way.
• It's what we ask for our students, right, to have digital Exactly.
• 100%.
You know? And I think what you're talking about, though, is actually I mean, there's also, like, a policy implication to that when we talk about, you know, again, what we have sort of
• when we're not opting out, for example. Like, I'm not an opt out family, but what does this mean? Does this mean that
• by
• not opting out of having my child's photograph be used, whatever on social media and through district communications,
• what does that mean in terms of my child in the classroom? Like, is my is my child then gonna be prevented from participating in class activities
• because they're an opt out? You know, if if they're not an opt out and they're in the video and then the video gets shared with some person's family, you know, a family member and then that family member, like, posts it for their entire family to see, then my kid who, again, has never been and I'm saying this hypothetically.
• Has actually, my kids are not on social media, but like, then they they could end up do know what I mean? So there's so many layers to this when it connects to like a school project and the expectation
• and and then again, what we've talked about also in terms of policies, what is the student's expectation of privacy within the school? Mhmm. Which is like a huge question. Mhmm. Yeah. And and it also raises to some extent an equity question. Right. Because if you have students who will not who who will not participate because of the concerns that Allison pointed out. Or or that their has decided. Yeah. That's right. Well, they're gonna be on social media. Now you're in a situation in which you may have to consider echoing concerns,
• that, okay, I have to have that in the mix and maybe it's gonna be a different project because
• Right. This media is not is not gonna be
• fair to everybody, whatever those are. This is it's a matter for consideration.
No. No. I'm not shaking my head at that. I'm shaking my head at, like, as we start to kind of, like, peel back the onion on all of this to consider all of the layers Right. And start to to consider some of this, then you're looking at, to Allison's point, like, can have agreements
• in place regarding data privacy,
• but you then end up with enforcement
• once there is a breach. Right? So like, to your point, like, are we going to have
• every parent who receives a video of something that happens in the classroom sign something that says that they won't share it? Who's going to be policing that? It's that
• level of consideration.
• And are we then in the business of policing
• parents?
• Like, I mean,
• it's very it gets very complicated. I'm not suggesting that we are. I'm just saying, to your point, like, once the genie is out of the bottle, it's very hard to get the genie back. Right. I just wanna quickly build on that, and then I'll be quiet because I'm here. But Really? This is one of the reasons why I keep saying
• it's like the, you know, the kiss principle. Keep it simple, stupid.
• Like, this is why I'm saying to minimize
• because it's exactly what you said. It has this ripple effect. And then the other thing I would say,
• you know, students,
• like some students are really shy. Some students don't want to be like, to me, learning is personal,
• and it's messy. And I don't want that to be recorded all the time. Like, there are some kids who may not want that. You know? They're not coming to to school. Like, that's why you have picture day or different performances because the expectation is that's that's the day that you're gonna be more publicly visible. So that's why I I really like
• like, I understand, like, going back to the video and the importance of curriculum,
• there's all these unintended consequences when we start recording things and sharing them out. And that's why I'm very conservative
• personally
• on and prefer to, like, just keep it simple and minimize it
• even if it's can be fun,
• you know, and pretty. You know? Sure.
No. Just I think just just to go back. Did you have something else to add? Oh, I did. You did. Okay. So in terms of, like, the next level of work also, I mean, it's like I don't I don't know if it's useful for us to give you all of our points right now, but one point that we didn't get to touch on, because there's a lot to go through, is still that question of the data privacy officer
• position. And I know that's right now a function that you
• that is a function that you felt, but you're also the person who's doing the procurement. So I think that's one of the things that we have to sort of look at is in terms of checks and balances. And again, this goes back to a session that Alison and I went to. I think Neil also went to a later version of that same
• really excellent presentation that we have on
• on this issue. I think that should be something that's prioritized over the summer because we really did start talking about that in September. And, again, we we've we've had a whole school school year go by where we haven't really been able to deal with it. I think the other question for us just as a board is so this work is is super high priority. Our technology committee is presumably taking a hiatus for the summer because it involves teachers and it involves community members, but we really don't have the latitudes like that. I understand. So it's like so maybe that iteration of the of the committee, maybe that has, like, a certain scope of work. I think for us as a board, we have to sort of articulate for ourselves what the expectation is in terms of what we wanna see accomplished over the summer because, honestly, we're not you know, we we haven't gotten to the conversation about,
• you know,
• guidelines. We haven't gotten to the it's like we we this is just sort of like the
• the
• baseline of, like, this is where we are now. So we haven't really articulated for ourselves what we hope to accomplish before the twenty sixth, twenty seventh school year begins, but our community is expecting us to have accomplished AWOC by then. And so what are the steps that we need to put into place to be able to do that with it being, you know, May, whatever it is, set of today?
• Right? We're we're I hate to break it down, but it's like school, but it's in, like, less than four months. Sorry.
• Oh, to the teachers.
No. I mean, think very similar to what I was saying. I just I wanna thank you. I appreciate you coming tonight.
• And there's there was a lot of information here for us to reflect on it and really begin to to dig deeper on.
• And so I think, you know, recognizing
• as as we were having conversations that this is just sort of the the first step of of moving this forward and and moving forward
• with priority.
• So I just wanted to to thank you for that because I think it's given us a lot that we, you know, we need to think more about and we need to to get sort of the more systemic answers on and connect it back to real world. So thanks.
So, yeah, I just wanna thank you for for walking us through this. I know it's a very complicated topic,
• and a lot of our questions
• you answered some of our questions.
• I do
• believe that a lot of our questions were still unanswered
• Yes. On this.
• And
• while this was helpful background,
• I think we do need to have a follow-up discussion around
• the an understanding by grade level
• what are the
• the technology
• what technology being used as instruction are necessary, right, developmentally appropriate,
• and aligned with both curriculum and and work policies.
• And given the urgency of this and, you know,
• end of the year,
• summer summer around the corner,
• we as a board
• are elected by the community to represent their interests. Right? And,
• you know, and the superintendent is accountable to the board. I mean, at the end of day, like, the buck stops with us.
• And if you look at policy forty five ten point one, instructional technology,
• it it states seven goals. One of them is remote district educational goals through the use of such technologies.
• But then it also says, the board shall seek the advice of representatives from groups
• utilizing technology in pursuit of district goals, I. E. Board members, administrators, teachers, support staff, parents, and students, as well as
• from community members with expertise in technology and other resources.
• I I look at that and I was like, we don't have to do this alone. Right. Right? And I think what I would like to do when I'm looking at board officers, is
• given the sense of urgency around this and given how much time has passed,
• and we're still early on in the conversation,
• I would like us to
• actually propose that we form a committee, a joint committee of administrators,
• stakeholders.
• And we do have expertise in our community who want to help and who can help. We don't have to read nothing about it. So I would like to take that up. I don't know what the proper form of this would be, whether it means a vote or not. But I would like for us as a next step to say that the board shall convene or direct the administration to convene a committee comprising of the relevant stakeholders,
• including community members, who can provide input on this and
• gain consensus in moving this forward.
It makes sense to me as a practice only because I think the technology committee this year had a different scope right, and a different purpose in terms of the work. So I don't think it would be duplicative of that.
• And the question just becomes, again, maybe
• we need to sort of do a little bit of information gathering to see what makes the most sense in terms of how to operationalize it. But I'm not sure how we'd be able to tackle the urgency of this in any other way other than to start having these discussions
• with some regular cadence. Because otherwise, like I said, it's May 7,
• May, June, July, and then people are putting their classrooms together. I'm
• policy says that meetings can be formed Yeah. By by the president doesn't even need a vote. I believe the president can inform what charge
• will be and
• who the membership will be and how they
• the membership will be selected. It's something could be worked out
• and then, you know,
• go forth.
• I
• think the charge has to be pretty
• specific given the time frame. Mhmm. And I were talking about him not encroaching
• on other responsibilities,
• including responsibility of the board, but it is something to
• be figured out
• and,
• I think,
• actualized
• with this fact.
• I I think at 11:00 at night when we yeah. Sure. Can we yeah. Let me just put it out there and then we can I'll I'll be done.
• You said, how is the use of technology instruction necessary,
• developmentally appropriate,
• and align with curriculum
• with curriculum goals and board policies?
• That's what I would wanna see in the chart of this work model.
I think that's something we need to have a conversation with the administration about especially because we're going to we're we would want them to be an active partner. Absolutely. In the community. Absolutely. So, I would
• ask
• if everybody is accepted if if that everyone is accepting of this, that we put that on the agenda for our next board officers meeting. We could schedule a special board officers meeting
• to keep up with the urgency if you
• I don't I mean, to the extent that we would wanna just have that conversation, and then we could bring it back to the full board at the
• May 19
• meeting. Mhmm.
• So that would allow us time to to discuss that. Because I was just thinking that sounds
good, what Omar said, and maybe too broad to be done in three months. And It's so much
want I want it to be done at 11:00 at night after a very thorough presentation. And there's a lot of stuff going on in our heads because sometimes it's after a good night's sleep, you reflect on it and you can pinpoint things more accurately. But certainly, it would be something that we would have to Sure. Collaborate with the administration on. So my answer is yes. And
• please give us just one minute. Yeah. No. I won't do that. But, yes, was I suggestion. I appreciate everything. And and I
• last moment
• of the evening, would just like to say
• thank you to you for coming. This
• is a very,
• I think, healthy conversation. And I want to thank my fellow trustees for participating in it so thoroughly and bringing all of our collective experience to it as parents, as educators, professionals, and in different arenas looking at it through different lenses. That's the strength of the board. I also just wanna take this moment to say, like,
• some of the work that the district has done in terms of the vision map leading up to this of having instructional
• coaches, pedagogical coaches in each building
• will allow for us to have these pivots in terms of professional development, in terms of
• teachers having to pivot away from this technology. So we're well situated
• for whatever we are going to do. And I want to thank you for your foresight.
• I know Doctor. Dubak's foresight in terms of developing some of it, and the community in supporting the development of those positions
• in our district. So we're strong. We can do this.
• And this was a really great, actually, conversation.
• So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Ella. Thank you. And for your preparation, Niz. That was very extensive.
• So thank you so much. Thank you.
don't know if anybody needs a moment to stretch their legs or if you wanna take a two minute break.
• We won't. A very short break.
• Portion. Actually, Sarah, I'll let you speak to her if have something that you're Sure. Go ahead. So
at the last meeting, I think I had mentioned that LHEC had submitted a petition to the Public Service Commission.
• And
• for to do this informational proceeding to examine electric utility readiness to support the school bus fleet electrification.
• So
• we're looking for
• four districts that would
• that were supportive of that filing
• to submit letters
• in support of that filing. So I worked with
• Denise Harrington Cohen, our our assistant superintendent of business to draft this letter.
• Denise was very helpful in in adding in some of the specific steps
• and
• challenges
• that
• Croton-Harmon has been facing as we've worked through the electrification process.
• And and as one of the the districts in the state that is probably
• further along this process than many others,
• I think being able to
• lend our support to this filing would be very important. So this
• letter I actually think as I mentioned earlier, we would like to call in
• the advocacy committee meeting to discuss a resolution
• by the board,
• like a further resolution by the board in support of these measures as well.
• Did anyone have any questions on the letter itself,
• on the filing itself?
• As another note, there is
• there is a bill in
• in with the legislature right now that is actually it's a it's got sponsors in both the assembly and the senate
• that would seek
• to delay
• the timeline for electrification
• 2035
• for
• it would shift I'm sorry. '20 so '20 it would move from 2028
• to
• 2,032
• Okay. For the no new purchases of it, and then the shift to full electrification
• would be about five years from that. About 2037. '37. Okay.
I mean, I think this makes sense. We've been talking about this, literally for the last few years of I mean, since I've been on the board, which is we don't have the charging capacity.
• And yet you know? And and I think I think also this is an opportunity just for also for people in our community to understand because
• there there seems to be I don't know. It's just like having talked to people and even have these conversations birthday
• about the overall electrification
• situation. We can't increase our commitment to electric vehicles if we cannot charge electric vehicles. I think Joe did an excellent job of explaining this at his budget presentation.
• And so, you know, it's like the information is there. And this advocacy, it it seems like it's necessary even now to deal with, like, what we have now, much less what we might have to purchase if this mandate goes through. So I think we should also have the board write its own letter in support as well. I agree. I would also say that
• would have passed to postpone five years, it's not gonna change the issue for us and other districts.
• And the fact that Con Ed has said to us repeatedly,
• hey. It's gonna be two or three years. And they said that two or three years ago, and they're still saying that Mhmm. Shows that there's not a a sense of urgency
• with those who
• in the
• in the utility industry or in the state to get moving if this is
what we want to do. In fairness, I don't know that there's a lack of a a sense of urgency,
• but a a a real limitation
• of of the electrical grid in
• New York state that that is and the and the volume of school
• districts and municipalities
• that are that are, you know, reaching out to
• our our utilities
• like ConEd and others. So
• yes. I wish they would be more I you know, I I Yeah. But I think there's it is somewhere in the middle. Like, there's there's a lot ConEd of
• we we're not we can't
• do this because of the lack of capacity.
• We can't get the transformer.
• They've just said it'll be two or three years. So
• two or three years to get the transformer.
• If they had said, you know, we don't have the electrical capacity
• from where we're getting supply,
• that's a different question, which we haven't heard. It may, in fact, be the case.
• You just caught me off guard. Yeah. Because I we haven't heard from you in a long time. Haven't been here.
• carries.
• Fourth and fifth, worth of iPads for the coming school year as presented.
• Second.
On the question? On the question, given the last the last thing the discussion just had with technology,
• I'm not comfortable proving this at this point in time absent the further understanding of the curricular curriculum implications
• of these iPads and how they're gonna be used.
• seeing also just, like, for the benefit of the community who made you know, I think folks saw this agenda item earlier, at which point the
• budget transfer was listed as covering the cost of second grade and fifth grade. And that has since been amended to say fourth and fifth grade, so it would be helpful. I mean, it's if it's if it's not gonna pass, it may not be ultimately relevant, but I think we do need to sort of understand, like, that that was obviously, like, the shift. And I know Alan has left, but is there guess, can we understand what the shift was there? Yeah. Of course. I think to it's very reasonable to postpone
• The shift reflects,
• I think, where we are in terms of evolving about our thinking relative to moving away from the one to one model. And then what that means for
• what has been kind of a long term
• resource replacement plan that began under doctor Blair and has continued under doctor Musculars for these devices. Right? So shifting away from a one to one model that has implications in terms of shared carts and other
• ways that these resources get allocated,
• but to not replace any of them, obviously, has a different implication too. So I think let me get back with the team, get some further clarity from the board, and I'll bring it back to you. Makes sense. Yeah. So given that, I would like to move to table.
• if
• My laptop has died.
• Yeah. So Wow.
• I died, like, pretty early on in this evening. So I don't have a copy of
• that document
• in front of me. I don't think forward.
• So
• we'll make notes
• to deal with it
• on Monday.
• So
• as you can see
• from
• as you can see from the red line, based on the discussions
• discussion we had at our last meeting
• and based on comments that we received in writing, mainly
• from Allison,
• we made the
• suggested
• revisions
• to
• the policy that had been considered.
• This policy is right now deemed
• educational philosophy.
• The words at the beginning of the title, vision, state, and are not shown in red line, but they would be added
• if the policy is adopted.
• So
• I guess
• it's really up to the
• committee
• I'm sorry, to the board to see
• what questions we have Mhmm. What discussion we wanna have on this policy
• as
• revised for consideration.
You're right. So I I the reason I think, Neil, that we brought this, if I can, since I have sort of been,
• you know, assigned this policy to help shepherd through,
• I think where we are is this. The reason we wanted to bring it, you know, I talked about it, we felt like it wasn't ready quite ready for a second reading is because we got substantial feedback that I think brings back some of the elements, and this was Allison's excellent suggestion, which was this idea of if we don't articulate in policy
• certain elements of what our value system are, it's easy for those to not be prioritized. So it's important to have
• I think the effort to sort of condense this vision statement and educational philosophy into something that was easily readable,
• easily digestible,
• that it was over condensed. So the effort here has been to bring back some of those key points mentioned by various trustees,
• both in the meeting and then also via feedback.
• The big question for the board is really
• relates to some of the language here because one of the things that the board, you know, really did not do, frankly, is the board did not adopt the
• formally adopt through a resolution
• the district's revised vision statement. It was sort of presented as this is a vision statement, but it hasn't been incorporated as board policy.
• Part our
• effort here was to say, if we're saying that the vision statement is a thing that we believe, shouldn't it be sort of foundationally
• part of our policy? If if you disagree philosophically about that, then we should talk about it because a vision statement does to be constantly revised, but my counterargument
• to that is that also policy
• needs to be constantly revised.
• I think for me, the approach of ensuring that the vision statement is enshrined in a more formal way is that it then guides the shaping of all other policies. But I can also argue the counterpoint to that which is I mean, this is why it's a discussion. And and this is why honestly, like, discussions about really important policies, I don't know that it's effective to have them in a room with three people.
• I really don't. So I think that that philosophically, that's why we wanted to bring it here to get the full board's perspective on whether that's the right approach. And it sounds like it could be that could be a no, that'd be great. Let's talk about it. Let's start with that. I
• from my context,
• like, the typically,
• like, I would assume that the educational philosophy
• in policy
• is something that has a long shelf life, like, say, like, ten years. But something like a vision statement, to me, is like a strategic plan that typically gets a refresh every five to seven years. Correct. Yes. So to
• me,
• the educational
• philosophy
• does not need to
• include like, the vision statement should stem from what is articulated in the in our educational philosophy.
• But to me, I don't think we should be making
• we should retrofit
• our educational philosophy to
• a vision statement. Right. And I'm not saying anybody's suggesting that, but that's just so I just wanna be clear that
• my thinking about this
• was typical in this setting.
• I like it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
• I was I was looking at this earlier today, and I jumped out some notes. So just taking a step back, what makes a good policy?
• Right? It's one where the superintendent administration has the ability to implement it. Right? And it's one where us as a board, as a governing body, we have the opportunity to evaluate that implementation. Mhmm.
• So what's there are a few things here that I that are missing that I would like to
• either remove or aren't at all that I think we have an opportunity to add to put them back in. I think the parent community partnership language Mhmm. Was stripped away a little bit too much. We'd love to see that put back in.
• It does about some research and evidence, but I think we need some accountability
• mechanisms.
• I think aspirationally, it's great.
• Right? What's missing is it's too theoretical.
• It's too philosophical.
• We need some actionable
• okay. How are we going to do this? How are we going to measure the effectiveness of
• of this whatever that this is?
• Yeah.
• Because I think if we don't have it there, then it's not no. It never
• becomes a priority
• to to do it.
• Like, it this this is, like, typically, I like, it please.
• It's kind of the what what guides, how we fund things, what we prioritize, what we support.
• So I I do think it's important to
• not make it too didactic, but to mention certain things that are key elements that we think need to be part of a a process.
• Yeah.
• I I have some specific
• feedback if anybody else has anything
that they want. Well, before we go into specific feedback, think there's a question then because again, this is one of my challenges I feel like with our policy work is that we start moving in a direction and we're not having the discussion here first before we move in that direction.
• You know, I think this is a learning opportunity in terms of how that work is being done with key important policies like this. So the other question I would ask before we start sort of, like, giving specific feedback is whether it's worth it then to go back actually to the previous version of zero zero zero, which is much longer, is much more prescriptive,
• does actually again, I think some of the language is, like, pretty outdated, and it's a little as drafted.
• There's not quite a through line, but, like, you know, it may be worth thinking about going back to that original draft that's at the bottom and saying that these are the things that we feel like we do want pulled out because the intention in terms of how this was revised was for, like, specific purpose that's not necessarily the purpose that we're talking about now. And I and I appreciate that what we're talking about sounds to me like the right thing to be talking about.
• For what whatever it's worth, I the feedback I gave last night, that's exactly what my process was was that I did look at the previous version. So I think that maybe it's a maybe between now and the next meeting that that would be helpful to do is to look at it. Well, that's what's in there now just so you know. It's like I went through it line by line, do your draft and put all that stuff Yeah. Except for, you know, except for what was listed as, like, as amended or what was not included because it either was a cross reference or
• or was actually addressed later, like, later in the policy. So that you know, just to clarify that that work was done, but it sounds like there's more to do to me. Can I ask what happened to the word impact
• changing high impact to effective.
• It's my suggestion only because
• I wasn't I thought
• that high impact was not
• didn't
• I didn't think that word
• accurately
• conveyed
• what we want. Something would be high impact but not in a positive way. So
but, you know, it's just true sense sort of words and a thing. I don't think so. Can I inter I have made that suggestion? And we don't have to keep it, but it like, from my work, like, lot of the times,
• at least in higher ed with this, we talk about we use that term high impact cross practices.
• I guess because I was thinking about it too after reading that comment, like, effect it is supposed to be effective, but I think sometimes,
• at least in my context, people bristle that it's it's like sounds too much like efficiencies.
• And so high impact I don't know. It feels a little Impact is also directed at students. Yes.
• Not about what's effective for
• from a budgetary perspective, but it's what's a high impact. So it's more student centered.
• So that's why I'm not
• We'll
send additional notes to the Yeah. If there are additional notes, what I'd say, if there are certain specifics such as
Omar, you may have mentioned or Allison, if you can get those thoughts to us I was supposed to. So we can talk about it on Monday, we will talk it. Okay. We do wanna try to get this through because we've been talking about it for some time. So it would be yeah. We're just again, I think
• I don't know. And and if it's helpful also, like we we had talked about before, we on the policy committee have the context of what other districts have done in terms of, frankly, for many of them, substantially
• briefer policies. And that's one of the reasons, again, that was driving our thinking about whether it's again, if we just go back to educational philosophy
• and call it just an educational philosophy, I think that eliminates
• some of those sort of like yeah. Well, I mean, basically, it does. Right? And so and that and that might also then allow us to feel like a little bit more,
• you know, tied into what we're talking about in terms of accountability measures because it's very specific. I do wanna surface one
one thing that I that I feel very strongly about in this version to for other people to consider is
• I I appreciate
• that this term has been used in other
• other
• things that we have in the district. But I feel very strongly in the first line that
• it says, you know, all members of our learning community will demonstrate an enduring curiosity,
• engage in the pursuit of inspiration,
• and develop the habits of mind to promote personal growth and the well-being of society.
• I think it should say pursuit of knowledge.
• To
• me, pursuit because we're an educational institution.
• I think inspiration,
• to me, that's like very midlife crisis,
• potentially. Like, you know, I think it's important to me that we're here
• to encourage knowledge Knowledge. Nice. And to not keep it
• because also inspiration
• is like
• it's spark. It's not like the yeah. Yeah. It's like where you end up. It's not
I feel like it's not the noun that we need. So the good news and the bad news is that's actually the district's mission statement vision statement. I'm not saying I'm crazy about that phrase either. I'm saying that this is what's in the district's vision statement. And so I think, again, that's the reason I query that is is is that when we're talking about also how do we wanna articulate the vision for the district. Obviously, it was part of a process in terms of the strategic planning work. But if we're at a point now where that term doesn't feel like the right term, we also have to determine what the mechanism is for of thinking about how we articulate that as a board in the district. Right? Because if we're taking the vision statement out of this, that line is gonna go away from this policy. It's that is literally what that was literally the line that was added to bring the vision statement into this policy.
I don't think they have to be totally disconnected. Like, I think I think it's to me, like inspiration and knowledge? It I
• think if we say not to me like a a vision statement, it's in how you interpret our philosophy. Right. And it's so
• it's kind of so it's so I don't think they have to be very inherently oppositional.
• Although
• I'm not opposed to revisiting that because I do think that we should be focusing on the pursuit of knowledge along with it, like, along with, you know,
• hoping for inspiration.
• But I I would want to see that we if it's a part of it. Like, I do think a lot of what we have in the first paragraph is important to say about our educational philosophy.
So I would be okay keeping most of it, but to me, I I I really would think that we need to mean that we're pursuing knowledge. Mhmm. Yeah. I understand that. Mhmm. Yeah. And I I agree with it, actually. I I guess what I'm saying is it's like, you know, let's talk about the vision statement, but that's right. Mhmm. Right. And and talk about before because, you know, vision statement
• came into being, however, did some time ago. No. Twenty twenty two, twenty three. Well, okay. But that's still three, four years. So we may be talking about is there something else has
• board in this community
• that needs to
• be in a vision statement, but that's not a discussion for now. Yeah. And that's not necessarily a discussion with anything else that said for
• this policy because
• the vision statement can grow and change.
But I think what we're getting at is that there's elements of the vision statement that we wanna have incorporated here. So maybe it's what you're saying is not it doesn't need to be verbatim, but the essence in terms of the points is what we wanna pull through. So I think that that's where we landed. I think if maybe people have other feedback, if we can just make sure that we get it, It's Thursday,
• policy committee's meeting on Monday. So we would like to be able to just consider it by Danielle? Yep. Perfect.
• Recommended action to be resolved by Board of Education to conduct a second meeting of policy
• Aye.
• Abstained?
• Motion carries.
• Item 8.2,
• instructional personnel recommendation.
• Recommended action, the result of the Board of Education hereby approves the instructional personnel recommendations
• of Amanda Frioli,
• Allison DeCarlo,
• and Lauren Gonzalez as tutors slash home instructors
• at the rate of $60 per hour effective 05/08/2026.
• All in question?
Recommended action to get resolved to the Board of Education and thereby approves the slide letter of agreement
• between the Croton Hardiman
• Union Free School District and the Croton Teachers Association as presented.
• So moved.
• Second.
• On the question?
• Abstained?
• Motion carries.
• Moving into our donation section,
• item 9.1,
• recommended action to be resolved. The Board of Education gratefully accepts a donation from the Croton-Harmon Education Foundation in the amount of $8,000
• to fund the purchase of a Glowforge
• laser cutter at PVC Middle School.
• So moved.
• Other question?
• Of
• board of education gratefully accepts the donation from the Cortland Harmon High School PTSA
• in the amount of $2,000
• to fund the subject's various scholarships of the Cortland Harmon High School for 2026.
• Abstained?
• Motion carries. Thank you again to the PTSA.
• Every year they fund these
• scholarships,
• and it's, I mean, it's such a nice thing to do for our seniors. We so appreciate the wide of everything efforts, everything you do for that.
• Grant in partnership with the club for nine students
• to attend a peer and Portland Middle School class trip.
• So moved. Second. A final question?
• I think
• current care committee and the next of Columbus who developed that partnership to support students who who otherwise wouldn't be able to participate in these things.
• So I wanna thank them for their continued support of our students.
• I know
• I've been concerned about and I know I'm very grateful
• that
• our district does with our partners is being able to make sure that every student, regardless of their financial situation, have full opportunity
• to participate in all programs.
• And it's great that we we
• do this, and we do it in all of what we do.
• It is also the day of our school district
• budget vote and trustee election and our district wide