CHUFSD Board of Education Regular Meeting 6/11/26
Two, one. >> Good evening everyone. I would like to call to order the June 11th, 2026 business meeting of the Croen Harman Union Free School District. Item 1.2 Here is our pledge of
to the flag of the United States of America for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Item 1.3 is approval of the agenda. Recommended action be it resolved. The board of education hereby approves the agenda as presented. I think we have the amendments. We do. Um if we could sorry if we could uh because of um unless that's Neal Haber, which is not because of Neil's schedule, if we could um because he has some updates that I think we like to share personally for him. Um move item um 2.6 six board reports down in the agenda so that it immediately precedes um or yeah I think it precedes item 8.2 to uphold the board so you can kind of work.
and then you >> can move it alone. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 2.1 is the president's report. This is our last regular uh scheduled meeting of the 2025 2026 school year. We are wrapping up um heading towards graduation. As a board, we are finalizing our evaluation of superintendent and at this meeting we are saying goodbye to our parenting board. Um, I think we'll save comments for when Neil is here towards the end of the evening, but I did want to thank this board for your collaborative work. I want to thank the administration, including our assistant superintendent, John Clifix. Is this your last board meeting,
John, I want to thank you so much for everything that you've done for our district. We were very lucky to have you.
>> and I want to wish you the best in your retirement. and I hope that you are not a stranger to us going forward.
>> Um because the agenda is so long, I'm just going to limit my my comments to that right now. So I will uh wish everyone a safe and happy summer, restorative summer, uh a peaceful summer, um and move into item 2.2, which is hearing of the public. If anybody is here and would like to address the board, please approach the podium. State your name and address. You'll be limited to three minutes. [clears throat]
>> Uh good evening, Don Leard. Sing one. Uh I want to thank the board for their communication of the new uh school uh technology uh plan they released yesterday. It's great. It looks like a really great place to start. and I'm very interested to learn about the monitoring and enforcement of the policy and plan as it is now. Um, but I really want to speak just quickly about the updates that I saw of the internet enabled device policy. Um I two concerns about the just the two paths that they were presented as like a false dichotomy of like path one is no change and path two seems to be purposely unrealistic and I just I trust the board to find another path and help the district create one. Thanks.
>> Thank you. >> We can take an opportunity. We can take an opportunity to clarify just so that you know in a way we don't we are departing from convention here. So the material that you're commenting on is actually being presented to the board this evening by the district. The board has not had an opportunity to review in the public or comment on that material. >> Thank you. Thank you.
Good evening everyone. My name is Iris Budlocei on Woodl. Um I was hoping Neil would be here as well because my comments are really directed towards Sarah and Neil, but for the whole board of course. Uh to Sarah and Neil, you served with distinction, honesty, and integrity. Thank you for your dedication to the students of this district and for your tireless commitment to serve the clothing community. [clears throat] I witnessed firsthand how seriously you took your oath as a BOE member to work for the betterment of every single child every single day. You did not do this quote points with the administration staff or the public show if it would support the growth of our students is all that mattered to you. For Neil, his historical knowledge and neverending belief in this district was quite impressive. He used policy to help shape and structure strong foundations for our students. And Sarah, from the beginning
of your service, you spoke of educating the whole child. You emphasized the importance of emotional growth and support that's needed for a student to thrive. You were both always thoroughly prepared. You saw the big picture. How does this information, data, or staff hire propel this district to fulfill its mission for not just those who progress quickly through a subject, but for those that struggled as well? You understood the ex that excellence is defined differently for each student and must be equally supported to fulfill your fiduciary duty to the taxpayers. You appreciated that the work for board member is to run the business in school district by striving to provide the best staffing and resources available. You are powerful voices for this community. The district [clears throat] is not perfect. You welcomed criticism and you sought to build consensus with the administration and to make change where
change was needed, not just for the sake of change. I will end my words by offering words by my daughter, a proud graduate of Croin Harmon High School. She stated, "My Cro education taught me to explore things that I find interesting, like how to be intellectually curious. We had so many independent projects and I was never required to take any specific course. I was interested in physics so I got to take physics extra credit with glass." My daughter was not validictorian or even saludiatoran here. But do you want to know something? She told me she felt more prepared for college than the other freshman in her class at one of the top schools in our country. She learned critical thinking skills here in Croin Harmon. Our students thrived because of your work. You should be proud of your body of work. I am well done and thank you.
>> [clears throat] >> Hi, Andrea Furey, 14 Morningside, also a former board member. And I just wanted to take this moment to to appear before [clears throat] the board in gratitude. I wanted to say thank you to Sarah and Neil who have given so much of their hearts and their time and their minds to this district. And I just want to also say how grateful I am to every board member at this table right now because you're doing this for the children. I know you all are. And that is one thing that I'm very grateful for in our district from the time I moved here many years ago. Um this has always been a district that um honors and uh recognizes the incredible value that education has. And I just want to thank you for your service and for the two um Betsy and Jake who will be coming in. It will be a new era, but I know just from hearing them speak and all the efforts that they put in that they are going to
be on the same path of children first, children in the center of everything, every decision. So, thank you so much and again thank you to Sarah and our team who's here and I also wanted to give you reassurance that life can be so excellent about the school board. You'll be finding that and [clears throat] I think you'll you'll you'll be kind of surprised [laughter]
if there's no one else. Um, I will close hearing of the public and we'll move into item 2.3 which is the superintendent report for the over superintendent. Welcome.
>> Thank you, Anna. Good evening everyone. Good evening to those who are here in person, those watching at home. Um, as I think everyone who follows the school district is aware, this is a a stunningly busy time of year in our system in all systems. Um, and really a wonderful and special time because we get a chance to kind of go from event to event celebrating the amazing accomplishments and success of so many of our Tiger students. So, I wanted to spend just a couple minutes tonight. To Anna's point, it's a very busy agenda, but I want to do just kind of a quick whip around of some of the events that have occurred just in the past week and a half or so uh in celebrating some of our students and then make sure the community is aware of some upcoming important events uh and dates within our system. So wanted to begin with last week's uh athletic awards banquet. I had the opportunity along with several
administrative colleagues to attend uh that evening. It's a really special moment to get a chance to bring so many of our uh senior Tiger student athletes together along with their coaches and their families um to celebrate their accomplishments, their incredible commitment uh to our system and to representing our community on on the field of play outside of the classroom uh over the course of what for some of them is uh beyond four years of JV and varsity participation in our system. So, I want to thank athletic director Christine Drago, Carla, and the entire athletics team as well as the booster club, Joe Verilo and Lorie Zelman, everyone who's a part of making Tiger athletics such a wonderful experience for so many of our student athletes. Uh, and it was a privilege to get a chance to be there that evening. Also, obviously, the board was in attendance last week before our work session at the annual volunteer
appreciation event. So, I want to just take another moment publicly to thank Tammy and Trudeell for her work in organizing the event, but most importantly wanted to thank all of our volunteers, the hundreds and hundreds of people who give thousands and thousands of hours of their own personal time to make the lives of other people's children better in our in our system. Uh that is again a remarkable gift uh that so many people give to make our schools uh the incredibly special place that they are. Uh and so one evening's event um there's no way we can possibly encapsulate how appreciative we are uh for all of you and your contributions. Uh but it was a wonderful and well attended evening and so we thank everyone who was there that evening and again thank you to to Tammy and for putting that together last Friday morning had the opportunity to attend the annual CHHS awards uh assembly. again in terms of developing a
culture where students celebrate each other and celebrate success in all manifestations of what that means across our system. Uh that's a really special annual event when you get a chance to bring all 500 CHHS students together with the entire faculty and staff. Uh I want to thank Rose, our our new CHHS principal secretary for all of her work in organizing the event. of course Laura and Erica and Mark uh for their leadership and all of the the faculty and staff who were uh a part not only of giving out the awards but more importantly of facilitating all the opportunities for all of the students who had a chance to be celebrated uh that morning. So again a true and genuine privilege to get a chance to be there. We also had a chance to celebrate the members of the CHHS faculty who are retiring uh and again a really bittersweet and poignant moment and we've got it captured in the upper right
hand corner of the screen there. Uh but thank you to to everyone again who was a part of that event. A really special tradition at CHHS. Earlier this week had a chance to get some dinner at Fenos along with uh our Rotary Club uh and four outstanding members of the class of 2026 Jonah Brunwin and Maya who were awarded Rotary scholarships. So I want to congratulate again them and their families uh and all the members of the Rotary who were a part of supporting our school district and of reading uh the scholarship applications. I want to just make mention that um something that struck me that evening is each year what happens is they go around the table and and are for uh scholarship recipients get a chance to share their work at the high school their contributions to the community and what they want to do next. And I think sometimes for those of us who are around our high school kids all the time, it may get um it may become
routine how impressive they are and how well spoken they are um until you get a chance to to hear their message received by folks who don't get a chance to engage with our kids all the time. And it was just fun for me to sit there and listen to our amazing kids and watch their response of the ro the Rotarians the members of the community uh to just how incredibly articulate uh well positioned for success in life uh and ready for what's next our kids are. Uh so it was a a really enjoyable uh evening. Again congratulations to uh those four outstanding scholarship recipients. Also, last week we had a chance, several of us uh from the board and the administration to attend the CHHS alumni panel. Uh this was uh originally scheduled to take place just before the winter break, but got um rescheduled. And I actually think this was a really um appropriate time of the year for this event to happen. And I want to thank
Zoha Nadim and the rest of the uh counseling team at the high school for putting this together. And we had a chance to speak about this previously, but just the range of perspectives of experiences of um the graduates from I in 2008 up through last year. Um and the the various panels really I think gave our kids a terrific perspective on what when we talk about what success means in school, what it means after high school. uh the incredible range of experiences that our students have left our system with and the ways they're using those experiences and skills to contribute to the world. So um again another event where it was it was genuinely a privilege to get a chance to be there and to experience that alongside our students. So thank you to everyone who put that together. Also wanted to make mention to um several of our outstanding students who participated in the CHHS uh science research uh event at Smers. uh this is
for first and second year science research students. I think there are over 850 students altogether from across the region who've participated and presented research in a range of categories. We actually had three students uh receive awards. So I wanted to mention them publicly again. Vivian Chen second place in the physics category. Alana Harris sorry Harris third place in the bioinformatics category and Jess Catz third place in engineering. So congratulations to them. That is a fantastic achievement representative of the continued positive trajectory of the science research program uh under new leadership and facilitation from Daniel Berggo and Laura Lynch. So thank you to them for continuing to breathe new energy and life into what was already a growing program at CHHS. Also last evening had a chance to join several members of the board and many many members of the community at the taste of culture event. I want to take a
moment to publicly thank Rachel and Craig Campanero from CCT uh who um picked up the mantle from Arena who's done such a wonderful job with us for for many years. Um and this just continues to be one of the gems of the system of this community on an annual basis. Uh we were reflecting today on just some of the the beautiful and poignant moments and how this event has brought together members uh from across the community who may not have otherwise interacted with each other. um coming together, finding commonality uh and the pride again in uh the adults and the students in in their cultures and getting a chance to share them. Uh all of it's just stunningly special uh and one of the things that makes Groven such a a unique u and remarkable place. So thank you to everyone who who was a part of that. Again, just the food is unbelievably good. But more importantly, it's it's the people, the the
camaraderie, the coming together, the community, all of that is amazingly special. So, thanks again to everyone involved, everyone who volunteered, everyone who participated, and to Rachel and and Craig for making it all happen. Also, last week we had a chance, Anna and I, to join Laura at the Lower Hudson Council School Superintendent's uh validatoran saludiatoran uh celebratory achievement dinner. Uh congratulations again to Jeremy and to Maya uh to outstanding representations of of success in our schools. Um special shout out that evening to Maya who won one of 16 extremely prestigious scholarships across the entire region. Uh so congratulations to her. Uh and again just a wonderful annual event to get a chance to come together with superintendents, with board presidents, with high school principles, and with tremendous scholars from across uh the entire lower Hudson region to celebrate
academic excellence in our schools. So, it's a a privilege to be there as well. Also want to make mention give a shout out to our friends at Chef. Um if you haven't yet, make sure you get tickets uh for the upcoming fundraiser. Um and again, thank you so much to them. They um of course are are incredible annual and regular supporters of ours. Had a chance with Laura to meet with them very recently to talk about how we can continue to improve the the process of reviewing grants uh and making sure that those grants continue to fund systemwide innovation. So look forward to seeing as many members of the community uh as can make it at this upcoming event. and wanted to close just by of course mentioning and making sure the community is very aware of three of the really special rights of passage that take place each uh each spring in our community. Um beginning of course with CHHS graduation on the 23rd down at Cro
Point Park, PDC graduation on the 24th the following morning and then the CCT moving up celebration in the auditorium on the 25th at 9:00. Please continue to check our website and social media for further information on that. and has any questions, please contact the appropriate building principal. But those are really unique and special moments in our system each year. And so we look forward to seeing our entire community there to celebrate our amazing young scholars. Thank you.
>> Um I just want to say I attended the culture night event last night and Rachel, you did a fabulous job in making it a very inclusive event and very positive. So thank you. Um, I also just wanted to bring up a thought that I don't know because when I was walking through the rooms, I mean, families put so much effort into the stations and I'm always thinking from an equity and access perspective. I'm I'm wondering if there's any possibility like in the future on maybe to reach out if there could be some sort of maybe collaboration with PK or some sort of way so that if like might need some funds so that they can like I just it would be a shame if any family is not stepping up to represent their culture because they're concerned that they don't have it's a financial constraint. So I just wanted to bring that up because maybe that's something that can be thought about in the future. Maybe, maybe not. But I
thought it was really really a beautifully inclusive event. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Fidel. Highlighting all of those wonderful events happening right now. Um, item 2.4 is a report on our math performance data, and I will again turn it over to Superintendent Walker who will provide an update on that.
Thank you again an uh so in followup to our November, December and January presentations on English language arts achievement across the system uh we wanted to make sure that we also took some time to give an overview of where our students specifically at this moment in grades 3 through 8 um have been achieving relative to math. Um so I wanted to begin just by providing a quick over overview for the community of some some terms and then where we access this data from. Um, beginning with GRE, beginning with um when we use the term proficiency, right, we're talking about um students performing at level three or four on what are the mandated annual New York State assessments in in mathematics as part of the required federal testing program uh for all students on an annual basis. So this means that students are performing either at a proficient level in terms of standards or excelling beyond uh that level for uh mathematics
at their particular grade. In terms of access to the data, the raw data uh can be accessed publicly through the New York State Education data dashboard. What Ellen and the Edgitech team, the data team do so well for us then is to take all that raw data, compile it, create graphs, and then help us do some comparisons. So that part of it isn't going to be publicly accessible off of the SED data dashboard. That's what we've done with the data, but the raw data themselves, the score them scores themselves, they're all publicly accessible. Uh and in terms of regional comparison, certainly there are folks um who are of course interested in how we're comparing to districts uh within our region. And so for purposes of tonight, we've again done that comparison relative to put northern Westchester Boseies which by and large reflect the majority of the districts that we would say internally are what we
would what we would look at as comparable districts. Right? We've gotten some requests from some community members and others to say all right can we expand beyond the PNW Boseis region to look at all of uh Putham and Westchester County. So the answer is yes and we will and we're in the process of it. Um because again this isn't done automatically through a system. This is manual stuff. So there are 18 districts in partn west Boseis. There are another 32 or 33 in southern westester Boseies. So our data team is going through all of that. Um so as soon as we have that ready we'll share that with the community not only for ELA but for math as well. And just in terms of context we don't get into specific names of districts. It's kind of one of the norms that we would agree upon as a platinum room west region. Uh but what I would say is in general what we look at is we try we see ourselves as part of a a
cohort that includes Chapelqua, Brier Cliff, Kona, we look at Yorktown, we look at Putham Valley that typically is our group that if we're somewhere in the top six or so that's normally going back years and years and years where our students tend to land. There are years because there are very very small districts with really small cohorts. Calane, Garrison, North Salem, their scores tend to vary greatly and there are years where their cohort of 17 students scores extremely high and others when it doesn't. But in general, that's typically where our our students have landed just for some broad context. So you take a look at grades three and four math proficiency dating back to precoid and this has typically been the way that we've been looking at this uh and up through of course the 204 25 school year. Obviously 25 26 data is not available and as soon as it is we'll update all of that and share with the
[clears throat] community right but you see there is a generally consistent trend u we've spent a little time looking at the 22 23 grade three math data we haven't of course this year but we did when it occurred um and talked to you know Carrie and Craig obviously about why that may have happened and you'll see in a couple of other places where there are some low or aberant scores but in general what we try to do is make sure that we've got excellence across the board and I think as you'll see as we get to 2425 that that becomes much more the norm. I think this is an example then on the next slide of grades 5 through eight at PBC dating back to precoid you see some aberently low scores in certain years but we feel good about in 24 25 obviously it's not not only the consistency of the of the proficiency levels but also the fact that they're consistently hot and so we feel good about both of those things as we look at
where things are trending grades three through eight. So this again is all six of the mandated testing grades in mathematics going back to 201819. You see the trend line there uh generally up and again across grades 3 through 8 and 24 25 consistently strong with no particular cohort having an aberly uh low achieving year. And then looking at average math proficiency over time, grades 3 through 8, uh, over the past five or 6 years or so, again, you see a a quality increase there, but generally consistent performance year-over-year, which is when we think about math performance in our district, what we anticipated to see going back some years. And so, um, I'm not overly surprised by seeing that that trend. The next slide in average math and ELA proficiency. This one was interesting just to put both of them on the same graph and see if there was anything that was uh significantly different. Again,
no. What we would say is that um average ELA and math proficiency in 38 and 2425 is the highest that it's been in the recent history in the school system, which is something again that our students should feel and faculty should feel great about. uh we like the trend uh but also know that that's a place for us to a foundation for us to build upon and continue to do uh improved work over the course of time. looking at rankings again within the PNW Boseis region that's grades three and four last year right so a little um lower right than we typically are again without getting into a lot of detail again there are years when some districts with some really small cohorts perform very well and years when they don't uh but that's that's somewhat low for us on a on a more normal basis grades 5 through 8 ranking in 2425 that's typically where we as we know in both the LA math and grades 3 through 8 overall math
rankings. You see that compared to the rest of the region as well. Again, more or less where we typically reside as compared to the entire region. So, I'm happy to take questions. Again, this is a a broad overview. What we're thinking about of course next is updating this and we're going to go back and look at uh both the LA and math from the entire Putinham and Westchester region uh and then take a deeper dive into math regions results. We were thinking that that makes sense in the context of the broader conversation around New York inspires right. So, how do we help them in part of the broader conversation about what success means in schools? Because regent exam data particularly has been such a metric for the [snorts] basis of comparison within our system and others for so long. As we start to transition to a moment for all New York State schools where regent exams no longer become uh the main
conversation point, how do we leverage that and have a yes and conversation about regent data and where we're heading? So we look forward to that uh with support from Erica, from Mark and from John Bahanic along with Laura under the new administration at the high school as we move into the summer. Happy to take any initial questions that I can see Nicole is here if there are PBC related questions. If not, happy to field some and we can do some followup.
>> I guess okay. Uh for me, I think the question is it's like so we're looking at these numbers, but what does it mean? I I I' I'd like to sort of get a sense of like, you know, what meaning we attribute to this as um as like in each building honestly. It's like what what was meaning? Because you see these numbers that go down drastically and it's not if you if you sort of track them as a cohort, it's not necessarily telling a story. So is there aberration? Is it like tests are harder some year? People, you know, like schools closed one year. I don't even know which year that was on this chart because I think there's no data for that because testing didn't happen, right? So, um, so I think it's just I think it's helpful for us to sort of like understand when you're looking at this data and you know, we've asked you to look at it, of course, but the next step is is like yes, that the yes and is and so what does it what does
it tell us and then how are we sort of interacting with that information to determine um instructionally like whether what we're doing is working. We've talked about a lot of new math sort of approaches at CCT and um I don't know that I mean someone can correct me if I'm wrong because they don't catch everything but I don't fully have a clear sense as to like what the rationale is for you know for example like math and movement like why that versus other things that we're doing. So I guess those would be some of the questions.
>> Yeah. So I think broadly what we look at is um when do we have sort of aberant scores u and we haven't at least in the past year or so what can we attribute those to is it a change in personnel right is it u and often frankly it's that it's something that we look at is we have new faculty we have faculty that are taking on a different position leave replacements you know those sorts of things uh what what's the contributing factor of student makeup and how we're aortioning kids among various classes in grades is in a particular class or two that's impacting the the grade significantly. What we look at and feel good about is that in 24 25 and to a certain extent 23 24 there isn't that sort of really aberant um grade within within the system. Uh and generally the trend is increased in terms of overall performance. And so we said, okay, when we look at it from a 30,000 foot view, um we're heading in
what we think is a reasonable direction. And now it's how do we get down into drilling into what are the individual classroom practices uh and student practices that help us to continue to improve those those areas, right? What are what are the curricular resources? Um, so all of those things happen on a regular basis during the year through our curriculum coordinators, our math department, conversations with our principles, conversations with Rachel about how we're supporting students with special needs uh in various models. Um, but you know, all of those things are are ongoing conversations and one of the things that we start to do more regularly is devote time during our summer administrative retreats to looking at this data and starting to ask questions about it and then circling back as the as the faculty return and the teachers return in August and September saying, "All right, you've
spent time looking at this. Let's start to break this down and think about it from a curriculum perspective." That's also a great strength of Laura that I look forward to her um continuing to contribute to the to the system overall. now outside of the high school.
>> Um thank you for preparing this. Um I think what I would like to see as you said this is an ongoing um process is for me I would like to see a breakdown of threes versus fours. Um because I think particularly I mean I recognize that um there can be a lot of reasons why you know like they've indicated them before sometimes it's like who's in the class both the student instructor sometimes there's a shift in the curriculum it's been a hard year all the things but I really think having >> um more refined sense of proficiency versus um you know higher achieving is is important for us to know from a resource allocation perspective and also for the students who are aspiring to go into like higher level math or STEM for us to have a more um refined sense of what's happening. The other thing that would I would be interested to know that I am not on top of but I know that there are some years where they reset what is
the baseline of what's considered proficiency or or not. So to have some indication if there's other things from a curricular um testing perspective that might be shifting what we're we're the data that we're looking at would be helpful. Um, and then I think as well, um, you know, we saw some information earlier in the year about what's been happening at the high school. And one of the things I did like about your presentation is how you talked about the progression and how, you know, we're looking at how students are progressing over a period of time through the curriculum and how different things are experiencing uh, impacting their experience. So I think having a consolidated moment where we're seeing as a system what's happening in math, not just grades 3 through 8, but also what's been happening across the high school would be very helpful for us to be thinking about like curricularly and
also to do this before the budget presentations so that we can make sure that how we're spending our money is aligning to best supports with these resources. Like it's been very impressive to hear earlier in the year the presentations about the team collab teaching and the team teaching. So having um a better sense about how these pieces may be fitting together would be I think beneficial.
>> Yeah. sort of on some of those points. So um threes and fours I think yes absolutely something that we have done and can do and I think it sheds some light on >> and also ones and twos because I think >> I mean I think it's helpful to know you know maybe >> yeah we can I mean we have that data it typically you know becomes more of an in-depth classroom based conversation around how students are are performing how teachers are performing u but we can certainly share that with the public in terms of the cut scores right that's something that SED does every year because They look at all right how how are these questions behaved um across the state and so they do some shifting on a regular basis. One of the things that we look at then is over the course of time, are there huge ups and downs based on how our kids are achieving? The answer there is no, right? For years and years now, they've been generally on the
same trajectory with some increase over the past few years. And so that lends itself to our feeling that from a resource perspective, the resources that the board and the community have allocated toward intervention services, instructional coaching, classroom supports are working both from ELA and math. Right? So that's something we can confidently say to you like we're seeing a trajectory that lends itself to feeling like that's the case. Um and so yeah, we can absolutely follow up on on those conversations. Can I just piggyback on that because it's um that's where I was going to go with with my comments. This is very helpful to have. Um it kind of describes where we were and where we're going. Um, but it doesn't doesn't tell us why. And that's the next layer that I think we've all been kind of talking about is, you know, why why are the results the way they are? Um, are there instructional
practices that that um are working better than others? And and then just to bring it back up from a board governance perspective, it'd be helpful to know. >> So the averages kind of mask the nuances of the data, right? And so it'd be helpful to know if we have this data by subgroups uh of the student population [clears throat] grade subgroup or cohorts also exist then allows kind of do we need to invest more in or where the gaps are right is it more do we need instructional coaching do we need like is the curriculum doing what we thought the supposed to do and then like that's the the level of presentation that I think we need as a as a board to better inform our decision-m around budget priorities and structure curriculum and so on so forth. But yeah, just repeating what everybody's etc. Thanks. >> I guess also maybe some looking back like I'm looking at those eighth grade numbers from 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022
which are inserted like the like the the percentages are 53 and 58%. And then you know 2 years later post no one year later I guess um they they're up sort of like where I think we feel good about seeing them. So I think also it's like you know because again we haven't at least in this configuration of the board we haven't looked at this information in this way. It would be interesting to also to be able to just sort of inform ourselves on like so what changed back then to um you know again to to cause such a significant shift. I just been thinking about the fact that like even now with our eighth grade math having changed to um algebra for everybody obviously algebra for all as we're calling it. Um you know it's like that like we're going to have it's going to be interesting to see that information after this particular school year as well to see what the impact of that was. But I think again so we're all in the
same place which is it's wonderful to see the numbers but I think we need to have an understanding a little bit of a a deeper understanding of how it relates specifically to curricular practices. Yeah, that's good feedback for both Laura I and the team to hear. Yeah. And so we're happy to follow up on that. I know Nicole would say in terms of algebra for all, we spent a good chunk of every one of our meetings this year talking about that cohort and how that cohort is achieving um how we know it and how the teachers are adapting instructional practices to to meet those needs. And so I think most recently we've heard some really really good feedback from uh the eighth grade faculty about how that's looking. So we look forward to what the uh standard FD team is going to tell us. That might be a that might be a thing that I mean I think if you if you could take it back and think about it but I
think reporting on that just because we know that there was a significant investment and we know that our algebra teachers also uh took the you know challenge accepted very seriously in terms of their commitment to ensuring that everyone um was able to rise to the occasion of being in algebra and I I know I've heard that and the students are definitely feeling that as well this year but they've been very well supported overall on that. So be wonderful to hear a little bit more about it. That's good. Thank you for that feedback. We'll take it back and then continue to add to it.
>> Yeah. >> I just want to say this because um it is something that stood out in my mind when we were we were hearing from from Carrie at CCT about some of the instructional practices that were happening there and some of the special events that were happening in certain classrooms and not in others like Mr. Shapir's amazing trip to the blue page of the video that was made and how well every teacher was doing that. When I start looking at this data, these are the moments when things like that uh concern me, not because of what he's doing, just because not everyone in that grade is doing that. So, you could have classes that aren't having the same experience educationally, that aren't being reached the same way, and it could impact learning for for students across that. in that classroom across the grade.
>> I know that that wasn't, you know, an instructional math class or anything like that, but but what we've heard from parents at CBT is that they would like the experience per in per grade in every classroom to be similar. So, and I I hate to say this, but to avoid the whole like we got the good teacher or we got the you know, when you've had these conversations to be candid. Um so again just like in in considering all of this and in informing the process that's again something that I think uh we should consider.
>> Yeah I think that's that's a conversation in every system right is how do you balance um what you want in terms of teacher creativity with consistency across the system. And so we go back to how are the standards being met? Are they being met? um do they have to be met in exactly the same way for each group of kids and should they be uh I think we've certainly heard that feedback continue to hear it are doing work around having conversations around that but one of the things we look at is when we look section to section across the grade is there an aberant situation in terms of how kids regularly achieve and so if we were to see something like that then obviously it lends itself to to further conversation around practices and consistency but we definitely heard that >> [clears throat]
>> So like as you were just describing that um I think that it got me thinking that you know a lot of the times parents are concerned that their student their child is a learning but b in in a way that makes sense for their pro like progression throughout the year. So um I think also like I would be interested to know more like how do you do this checking like what [clears throat] is the you know like other times we've gotten presentations on team teaching models and things like that but um maybe and I don't know if other board members you know agree with this but it might be helpful to understand a little bit about like on the back end what is the like what what are the checks and balances like you as administrators and teachers are doing um to to make sure that every like all the sections are equitable enough and that you know how the data is being used to like make sure that all students needs are being um you know
taken I seem like being supported as as best that they can you know like if if there are certain points in the year that you're particularly looking at things or maybe it's an ongoing process. I'm just thinking about like I know there's times as a parent you receive grades and there's a rolling thing but then I'm like better understanding like as a system or like how how are what are what things do you have in place to kind of take these things into consideration
>> and that you know might open up to a work session or a series of conversations on that topic that relate to how do we think about it administratively? How do we think about it from an instructional coaching perspective from an interventionist perspective? from a classroom grouping perspective. Um, you know, that could potentially be an interesting work session when I think about her boarding for the fall or [snorts] winter next year.
>> I'm just going to interject by my my regular pitch here. There's a lot of questions that we're asking as a board and there's a lot of information that we want and I just think we need to prioritize and plan like definitely put it for lack of a better word like in the parking lot. we should definitely at some point, but there's so much that we want to take on um next year. So, we should definitely look at that and talk about it as a board uh and prioritize um those things as a board.
>> Yeah, >> I would just you know, one of the things obviously as I mentioned that we do every summer when we get together administratively is take a look at this data and then dive deeper into it. that might be a fun activity for the entire group to engage in board and administration uh with potentially some of our faculty if we can have them come as well. I think that's a really valuable way we can kick off or deepen some of this conversations too. So,
>> Thank you. >> You're It's your next [laughter] >> because moving into agenda item 2.5 uh the district committee update. I will again turn it over to Superintendent Walker who will provide an update on the district committee.
>> Good evening. Um so as the board knows and I think over the community knows we made a shift to begin this year in how we thought about the structure uh and approach of our district committees. I [clears throat] think for the better part of probably a decade we had fairly consistent committees. I think all of which serve the district's um work and direction very well. One of the things that we've been talking about as an administrative team and as a board is how we can better leverage the committee structure to advance some more timely conversations and work related to the vision map and other uh more broader priorities and conversations within the system. Um so we changed the structure around that uh for this year and obviously anytime you roll out this kind of um substantial change it's it's important for us to look at how did this work? What worked well? What do we need to improve upon?
Um, and so what I want to do is just give kind of a broad overview for the board and for the community of some of the work, some of the highlights of these committees, what at this moment, um, the facilitators of those committees are thinking about in terms of next steps, knowing that we're going to spend time this summer, looking again more closely at this and thinking about what we want the next level of work to be, obviously along with recruiting um, some new members of this group. So um starting with an overview of the technology committee obviously uh for a number of reasons we're very pleased that we u made sure that this was a a priority committee for the year given um that the technology conversation is certainly having an important and necessary moment not only in our community but across the country. U so you see a broad overview summary there. Um, I think one of the the more potentially impactful
um things that the the committee spent some time on this year was thinking about AI guidelines and and beginning to work with the policy committee on structuring what could be a a policy on that uh really important topic. Um, as we look uh to the future uh and next year for the technology committee, obviously implementation of the the statemandated technology plan, but beyond that, more specifically, refining the software evaluation process, right? How we're thinking through what ends up in front of kids uh in our classrooms. Uh as well as how we're monitoring now some of the changes that have been announced as recently as yesterday with regard to what technology is going to look like uh in our classrooms beginning in 26 27. How are we monitoring that? How are we getting regular feedback about [snorts] how that is is working? Uh and so we look forward to the continued iteration of the technology
committee again as we talked about at the work session last week in alignment with in concert with uh the board's ad hoc committee on technology as well. looking at uh literacy. Uh the goal there was to begin developing a literacy framework. Right? As I think about it is we should be able to summarize on one page how we're teaching the youngest people in our system how to learn to read. And so uh that was part of the charge of that committee. Uh they worked on developing a shared district literacy philosophy. Uh took a look at some of our current approaches and practices and began designing that framework. That work will continue into next year. uh which is something we're we're fine with and comfortable with because we think that that definitely needs some more in-depth study uh through the summer and into next year with this committee. And another key part as we think about next year I'll offer my opinion to the
committee which is we've got to be thinking about how we're aligning resources, practices, and assessment and identifying quality assessments that allow us to find out whether or not the things that we're doing in classrooms are working across all aspects of literacy, not just one or two. uh and so that committee will most certainly be continuing uh into next year as well. Assessment and feedback. I have I think three facilitators of this in the room. So if anybody wants to join me in in summarizing but um this was one of the kind of broader uh and and really more u critical long-term uh committees in terms of conversation about um how we think about assessment and feedback within our system. Uh that group this year developed and refined a district-wide assessment philosophy. Uh did some good work in gathering student perspectives from students across all levels. Um spent some time looking at
various research related to assessment and feedback. I think shared some of their findings through elevator pitches. Um and next steps I think really now it's it's time to talk about how we align the work of the assessment and feedback committee with the work of the success means in schools committee. And we knew going into it that there was significant potential overlap there. Both committees operated independently in terms of having separate meetings and separate charges for 2526. But I think both committees would say that for 2627 we need to think planfully about how to to overlap uh the work of those two committees. Uh in terms of what success means, this was one that I had the privilege to to serve on and I thank Laura for her great facilitation of this. Um that committee during the course of the year has now identified really four priority action areas um including um thinking about and
actualizing a way to engage in some parent guardian education uh panel discussion and otherwise about success grades and how that gets messaged uh particularly to our youngest families and students. I think there was a lot of discussion uh among both the parents and the students on the committee about um just doing this work by the time students get to high school. Um they've already seen school as a place where grades are the most meaningful thing. And so how do we start that conversation with students five and six years old and their families about the yes and right you got this grade and what does it mean in terms of your learning and what can you do to it? Uh so that will be that planning is underway for an event to occur uh next year. uh as well as a couple of different surveys. One of the community about their beliefs and values related to success, grades, uh homework and post-secondary planning and another
surveying specifically our alumni in terms of how I think now that they've left our system um how prepared they are for college for any their post-secary opportunities. And so all of those things are being formulated and worked on now. and we'll see those surveys launched um by certainly by September uh and then the event uh to take place probably later in the winter. Uh but most certainly this committee will um continue significantly in the next year. Uh the committee also did some uh good work in engaging with challenge success as many members of the board were able to attend the the evening conversation and facilitator from challenge success also led uh a staffwide professional learning opportunity in March at [clears throat] one of our superintendent conference days. The athletic advisory committee um is one that had been a standing committee and will continue um to be a standing committee moving forward. Uh the theme
for them this year was uh connection and and really the focus was how do we um improve connection between the school district's athletics and the community's various um athletic groups. Um and so in doing so is that a way for us to be able to increase numbers in terms of interest across the system but particularly in modified and JV athletics. Um and so there were some good conversations there that we know will need to continue um into next year. Uh obviously one of the things that our our students I know contributed significantly to the conversation was the importance of utilizing our varsity our older student athletes as role models for younger potential student athletes. And so, um, some of our events in Tiger Showcase and otherwise are designed to kind of create those opportunities, but how can we further that so that our students when they're in fifth and sixth grades just starting to think about potentially
participating in athletics can see and regularly interact with older students as role models and helping them to inspire them to become part of athletics in our system. Uh and obviously uh in terms of next steps with the transition and leadership within that department uh one of the key things that I'll offer to the committee is we want to be looking at uh our practices and protocols related to athletics in general. What are the best practices in terms of how we should be engaging in things like how do you tell a student that they haven't made one of our teams, right? How do we assess and evaluate and provide feedback to coaches? uh we provide feedback to our student athletes about why you're getting the playing time you're getting, how you've [cough] play time, how you can better contribute to the overall environment around the team. You know, there are best practices in that in all those regards. And so, how do we
identify those practices, implement them, and then use structures like the athletic advisory committee to assess where we are in terms of the progress there? So, that will most certainly continue into next year as well. Uh the SELK committee led by Rachel um so well as always um had a couple of significant uh goals for this year both of which were met. One was to introduce families to the Little Spot curriculum at CCT through a principal's coffee and that occurred as well as the development of a comprehensive communitywide list of resources to help connect parents and students with community agencies and support. Uh and so both of those uh took place this year um as led by that community. And so moving forward, one of the priorities for next year um will be to look at our protocols and family supports related to the families of students who are experiencing school refusal. Challenge is getting young
people to go to school as well as hosting a district-wide event related to mental health and wellness. >> Good for you. >> That's great. >> I'm going to pause and say we're going to try to keep using the word school avoidance, right? That's our term. >> School. >> When I say school, >> that's what I used to. >> No, no, no. It's okay. I think because it's like there's been a there's been a shift, but I know from our our friends at SEPTA, I think that that is a term that they they've reminded us. It it's it's like it helps us sort of right. It's avoidance. It's not like a there's no finality to it. It's part of a work in progress. So, I'm trying to remind myself, >> you know what? It's like we're all right. We're all we're all in it together. So, that is like a thing that I'm also working on remembering to to try to change my vocabulary. >> Yeah. I didn't know that. Thank you, >> Greg. you change that slide. [laughter]
Um, and then also want to give an update on the school counseling advisory committee. This is long-standing because it's for a number of reasons, but one because it's required by commissioners regulation. Uh, and so that group met uh this year to conduct their annual evaluation of our program based on national best practices from the ASCA. um [snorts] examined um best practices related to overall programming, discussed our counseling program related to its needs and strengths and opportunities for growth going forward. Um I would offer to this committee and I'll speak more to Mark and Rachel obviously that going forward I know Rachel has raised this already some questions about the school counseling role at CCT uh and what that can and should look like and continuing to build on some strengths there um some potential staffing implications as well as I think a deeper dive into the continuing
implications of the changing college application landscape right and how our system needs to continue to evolve to meet the the needs of students uh and their families who are going through this process and feeling I think increasingly um challenged in terms of how to navigate it because of how quickly things are shifting um and how in some cases opaque the communication is about how you go about best positioning yourself to get into the college you want to get into. And so um we'll be continuing conversations with Mark and and of course by Rachel um to get more deeper that work. as a parent who just went through this process of for the first time. If if you could add a component that is a financial education component to that because to so many people I know it was a bad school that you could get into and then they found out that they would have to go into huge amounts of debt in order to be able to go there and then you're
halfway through the process and you're having to backpedal and look at more affordable options. Um, so I just I put my two cents in for that. You know, I think that we should be taking kids to to schools and buses and and getting tours set up and because I think it's an equity issue. I think there's a lot of cost involved in going to visit these schools and um to the extent that we could help, I think we should. I would say so broadly uh obviously when we when you implement something new again you want to make sure that you're thinking um planfully about how we assess what worked and what didn't. Uh and one of the other things that we know is when you have this many different groups uh facilitated by this many different leaders you're going to have different structures around how u the the committees function. And so one of the things we're going to do again this summer going to be a busy summer u is
thinking through how do we better standardize some of the experiences across the committees right we certainly heard feedback from um from participants across the committees about varied experiences so it's going to be first surveying [snorts] let's get some feedback from all participants we very much encourage the board's voice and thank you for your participation in all of them uh we want to hear from you and others about how this went for you and then reflect on that feedback and how do we buildings and protocols so we've got again substantial similarity across committees in terms of how the experience um should look. Uh and then we need to recruit new energy right new um new voices particularly on the student from but beyond the students as well um to make sure that we've got new perspectives on this work. We obviously want to try to maintain the the participants we have to the extent
possible and then add to these and then part of that's the discussion about how do we best schedule these logistically so that folks can participate. So we've got again the students who are able to be there, the faculty who are able to be there and uh our parents uh who have of course really complicated schedules. So trying to find that balance um and haven't quite found it yet but are having some good conversations about how we can continue. I want to thank Greg for a second for u creating our district committee's landing page where uh this presentation and other committee information will live. Um and so thank you for putting that together. We encourage the community to to regularly check that and as we update it, we'll make sure that we share that out. >> Has has that landing page launched already or is it about to launch? >> It's live now. >> It is. Okay, great. Um just in in terms of planning for next year and thinking
about um adding to those committees and and um when do you expect that the like application process or whatever the process will be will go out to the community to to add to those communities? >> Yeah. So we so one of our our retreat is in late July. So, this will be a prominent topic and so we're envisioning probably um first or second week in August, probably the first week in August um to get that out there just so that we're able to be really specific with the community about are there going to be any new uh committees, are we changing anything, what are the charges, you know, what's the the thrust of the work of the of the committee that folks will be signing up for and then giving folks some time as we lead into September to express interest.
>> All right. Well, um I thank you for putting this together. I know um I know I will say having been on two of the committees, I feel like I have a sense of what the two that I have participated in this year have been doing, but haven't really had as much of an eye to what's been going on in the other committees. In part because I think, you know, it's year one, so we have we have not established or developed a real cadence of reporting. And I think going forward next year, it it would be I think it would behoove us to also get some sort of like interim um reporting somewhere through the year so that we' sort of have a check-in to ensure that um first of all that the goals of each committee I think are shared very clearly with the board because I think that was a little bit of a gap for me in terms of my understanding of what the different committees are and what the you know what the expected outcomes
were. I think we started with like sort of like a framework but >> um I think for me it would be helpful just again to to hear a little bit more about sort of like what are the questions being asked and what is you know what's coming out of it. I think I we heard a lot from each other as board representatives of these committees but that's sort of like limited perspective because we're not the educators and we're you know in some cases not even like the parents or community members who are participating and as trustees I think we sometimes have that responsibility of you know serving kind of like a a moderating kind of role. So um I think again getting just some of that survey data um and sharing it with us I think would be really helpful just to hear sort of you know some of the raw feedback about people's experiences I know we have heard a lot about scheduling of course and um that does
remain a challenge. Um for me I that you know one thing I would just be upfront about and say here is that I'm seeing a little bit of a disconnect between sort of some of the highlights presented and what I experienced as the work. So, I'd love to figure out like how, you know, where the right place is to have the conversation about how to sort of true that up. Um, and I think the other thing I will say is I'm very pleased to hear that there's going to be a discussion of how to sort of make the committee service experience more consistent because I was really jealous of the people who had homework. I know that some of the I know because I'm a nerd but like some some of the groups did have like readings and things to sort of focus on and work on to inform the work and on other committees it was you know for example you met two times and it was 45 minutes and it's you know it's it's it's like a it's a little bit of a
different experience in terms of just sort of like what your participation is. And for many of us coming to this work with like a deep commitment to you know this or that um that commitment wasn't always necessarily [clears throat] in alignment with what the scope of the scope of the committee was specifically I think about the counseling committee. The counseling committee as it's described here has like a very specific charge that doesn't actually reflect any of what we just talked about um this evening at the table in terms of direction. So I think that that would be a thing we'd want to prioritize looking into and I know we've talked about that sort of separately as well. Um yeah it it just just to close it's like I'm thinking about the fact that like in previous years for example we know that some of the work into discussing um counseling at C led to like the creation of leadership tomorrow which was like a
wonderful outcome of like things that were surfaced in that conversation. And so I think you know that that seems to me to be like a really cool model to think about like you know what are we seeing and then like sort of you know what how can we sort of creatively address that. I think that that was sort of um that was that that was probably an unusual outcome to be able to come to that so quickly and it required some innovative thinking and of course student voice also but I just think that that's a great model you know to think about.
>> Yeah. So let's if we can talk a bit more as a team about how to get feedback to us and the facilitators of the various committees about your experience as a board separate and apart from board inclusive of the broader feedback from surveys of the the participants more broadly. Uh, and one of the things that we did as an administrative team was every time we were together this year at administrative council meetings, we did an around the table summary of where are we with each committee and what are some of the practices that we're feeling good about in terms of producing engagement. Right? I know one of the things we did was ours was definitely a homework based committee. Right? There's a lot be on Dr. Kback's committee next year. >> But I think that one of the things that we've heard from you and others is that folks like that, right? they want someone to be thinking about in between some of the sessions. So then the
process beginning the summer is how do we go from some sharing some high practices to consistently applying those practices across the the various committees.
thank you. Um yeah, just echoing some of what Anamaka said, uh like so like for example hearing um the uh like the the um committee on what success in school means hearing the what the perspectives are there was like some some reference that you you did do some sort of survey but we haven't seen those yet as a board. So like I think as it's great there's this landing page the site but the more that we can actually see some of these um results and reports and the data that's collected would be very beneficial. Um just to be clear we we haven't done survey yet. >> Sorry I misunderstood that. >> We'll share that. >> Okay. Um and I I guess the other thing that I would just like to bring up is um when like I was on the technology committee and in terms of like looking ahead um what I don't see and this is any discussion about data like data privacy and I think that's like been one of the things that has been it's like they're
all intertwined and um that might have been assumed to be tucked into the words but I think it's such an important issue to articulate that as a priority >> um is is an important thing. >> Um >> and you know I would just say like because I think um it's it's good to hear there's going to be some reflection on like what worked well and what what could be shifted moving forward. Um I think there was some some tension between the the whole process on getting people to be part of the committee in terms of how people were selected you know and what that process was. So if and I think you know we're later going to be talking about forming ad hoc uh sorry an advisory committee for on the behalf of the district and we're going to have to figure out the same thing as well but making um a little bit more transparent like how how you're what is what if you're using any evaluation criteria to choose who's on it or not to
make that a little bit more explicit I think um would be helpful. Um and then the other thing I would just say like my you know my experience being part of the committee as well as um in my own work being on a number of committees like sometimes there's some committees where the assumption this like the role is it's more of a hey we've already done a lot of this pre-work but we just want to run it by you and it's like you know realistically it's about 95% >> baked right so that's one type of committee now there's other types of committee is that you're really from a a moment like collaboratively building something and that takes a lot more time and effort. So I think maybe you know I know it was the first year of doing this but being a little bit more clear going into this a year ahead of like what is the nature of this work like that we're trying to do here and and what is the um yeah what is because it's also can be um
hard when people think they're going to enter into a committee and they think they're really doing it and then that's not the the the experience and vice versa when you're like oh my gosh I didn't know this was going to be so much. So getting a little bit clearer about that I think would be helpful moving forward.
>> Yeah, I agree. I think um across the system we had committees on that that reflected both of us. Yeah. >> And so um some of that is reflective of the nature of the work. Some of it's um the facilitators and their level of comfort with engaging around some of the conversations. Um and so part of our work again in reflecting is how do we best prepare everybody who's leading this work to be of a similar mindset in terms of instruction. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Fair point.
>> I think this connects back to uh what Allison was talking about with regard to the the technology committee and the and the like who's in it, how it's selected. But just I guess in a broader way saying that because we're setting up these ad hoc committees, I think the public might wonder like what is the difference between the ad hoc committee and the district committee and just sort of like articulating that for the public and also just like it even if someone is not on a district committee because there's a only a finite number of people that can be on it that there are opportunities via the ad hoc committee process especially as we're doing the community feedback piece of it. that is another meaningful opportunity to weigh in on technology use um feels important. So sort of articulating what the differences are sort but like also the like common opportunities and also like are there moments when the committee
should talk to each other to look to sort of be very like to be aligned right across across both bodies um so that you know where there is um I don't know just there might be need for discussion and alignment throughout and that might be kind of a useful thing to I have a question on the technology um plan. So there was there was wording that was part of the the the full spectrum of of the meetings that I don't see in the latest iteration of it and it was that technology will be used in pursuit of specific curricular objectives. That isn't in here. And again, it was it was there up until this later iteration. What I do see under five, number one, curricular integration. There there's a version of that, but
mandated like compliance plan, right? >> Yes. which is a little bit different from some of the other >> this is an instructional technology >> plan right >> um >> which is a yeah state compliance document >> sure but we can still have we have a little bit of leeway how we implement stuff as long as we meet the the the standards um or am I wrong on that >> no you are you're Wow. >> Okay. So, um I think cuz this what the way this is reading on technology current harm is a transformative catalyst uh integrated through the lens of adding enhancing and enriching the curricular curriculum. >> Great. But I think it's it's broad
enough that it it it could be used in a way or at least I'm trying to think about it from again from a governance perspective in in terms of being very clear with um the community and and and the faculty around what the expectation is around the use of technology. It it deviates from what we were talking about in that in that committee meeting. And then the next phrase of that paragraph where we prioritize active over passive use, they're still passive. So what what criteria is the teacher going to use to say, okay, this is this is appropriate and this is not. I think it'll help teachers in the classroom just make better decisions if they if we're have a little more clarity around around that piece in particular.
>> Yeah, I think um I I don't disagree. I think the purpose of a document like this is compliance. And so what happens is these go through state review folks who say >> we want this language instead of this language. We're looking for this instead of this as we approve your plan. Um, so the more I think when we look at a at a plan at something like this that is about state review and meeting certain parameters, our goal is can we create a big umbrella under which all of the necessary work needs to happen. Right? So the communication more specifically about what our expectations are in classrooms through things like yesterday's communication and otherwise come through [snorts] much more intensive conversations. This is
>> thank you and I think it's important that you ask that question Omar because I think we've received a lot of correspondence from the community after this instructional technology plan was posted and I think one of the things that unfortunately happens is when things show up on the website we don't always have the full sort of context for it so I don't want to speak for Ellen I'd really rather have you know you Steve if you can sort of like explain this but my understanding is that that some of the language of this plan was developed actually months and months ago because it's had to go is that correct? It's had to go through a review process with the state. And in fact, what is here does not reflect even where we it doesn't reflect where we were two months ago in terms of how we're talking about technology. And it definitely doesn't reflect statements that were made this week, right? I mean, is that is that
like a fair assessment of what this is >> in general? And I say this with with great respect of the state. >> Yeah.
When you go through processes of needing to comply with certain state mandates around language, whether it's APR, professional learning plans, technology plans, it's a substantial and lengthy review process with folks whose it seems as though their entire role is to review language to look for key terms to make sure that they're either there or not there depending on what their priorities are. Uh and so it is while valuable in terms of its thought in in internal discussion of the system inherently a compliance process. So um it we're not we never live and breathe by these sorts of documents. They're valuable in terms of the conversations they elicit in the system. They should provide broad vision and values for the system. But the logistics and even the the the approach itself changes and should like we shouldn't be planning 2029 in anything let alone technology based on May of June of 2026.
I just wanted because I'm trying to orient myself to I heard what you said about the the perspective on what [snorts] this document actually is and how it functions. or what were you looking at when you where you were bringing up the point about >> so in the presentation >> okay >> there is a I the right one >> I closed it um >> it linked to district which then links to the technology committee which then linked to the instruction you can go back in that document yeah I have that open then five >> yeah 51 okay there critical integration And you know what? I should probably be on the record saying I um femally object to device use in K through2 if it doesn't tie to to this state. This is the state addressed comment. Um again, if it doesn't tie to a curler objective, if it does, wonderful, but just for the sake of like using technology for the sake of technology isn't really beneficial for students. So
I guess that that that prompts the question of like so we've done some work on what we're actually doing in terms of technologies within Croenheart schools like these buildings since this plan was put together. Is there a mechanism for providing or is it necessary to provide a revised plan to the state that more accurately reflects where we are or is that like a question that we could discuss like we could find out a little bit more about because I I think what we're hearing is like if we're confused then people in the community are also going to be confused and maybe it's just a matter of either clarifying the positioning of the purpose of the compliance document relative to again information that just went out to the community yesterday that's not even reflected on the website yet that more specifically articulates what's happening by grade level and right that's supposed to be a work in
progress. So it's like there's a lot of moving parts I think is what we're recognizing. But I think the fact that again these questions are coming up at this table and because they come up in in in conversation it's an opportunity for us to just clarify. Is that kind of what we're we're saying here is >> Yes. Yes. And I would just like to build on that. I mean I hear what you're saying about because I I deal with like crazy bureaucracy during compliance issues at CUNI. So I understand what you're saying about that. My concern is though if there's not this is the what we submitted. So if there is something that's really for some reason off like this is what we're going to be held to. So I I I would just like to better understand that whatever we're doing aligns enough with this so that we're we're like we're good you know it's not going a little bit too much like this you know. So, >> I think held to is a relative term as it
relates to long-term compliance plans for for the state. But, um, what we'd be happy to do is do a crosswalk between where we are now, more importantly, where we'll be in September, what this document says, and then some research into if we were to submit a a revision, right? What does that mean in terms of the state's review process? We want to have an approved plan of this just like we want to have an approved plan on everything >> without devoting an inordinate amount of time to dealing with the bureaucracy. Um but we're happy to to do across Oregon and if there need to be changes make them and then share the publicly. >> So this is something that is approved through 2029. >> Yeah, this is a state requirements. >> Otherwise, there's no need to like submit annual anything. It's just got it. >> Well, I just I'm sorry. In conclusion, I want to say thank you for taking on the creation of all these committees,
convening them, finding facilitators for all of them. Um, I know that on the committees that I saw on the materials were extensive and I can't imagine how long it took to prepare. So,
>> I do just want I want to thank uh the administrative team who did u an inordinate amount of work, spent a significant amount of time thinking through to how to make these u as successful as they could be in year one. um took on these challenges with energy. I've been excited about it from the beginning. Um and so I can feel uh great and and just terrific appreciation to to each of them for their leadership on that. And I want to thank the board uh for making time on your busy schedules to be a part of it. Uh as well as all of the community volunteers, the faculty, the staff, the community members, and the students who are a part of it. I think what what we've done foundationally in year one, while it's not perfect, not near perfect, is demonstrate that this sort of model can work, can build some momentum around good conversations in the system. And so we feel good about that in year one, now
it's on to how we make it better in in year two. Thank you. Can I can I echo that because I think it's important to say that [clears throat] when doing something new, it's not going to be perfect, right? And there going to be bumps in the road and I just want to acknowledge that and want to thank um so I was on the feedback and assessment um with with Nicole and um technology with Ellen and just it was it was a wonderful experience to go through it. Um and yeah, I think we're better we're better for it as a district and then we'll learn from this and that year two will be better and year three be even better. So thank you for everybody for participating and putting it together.
>> Yeah, thank you very much. It's really exciting to see So, we had moved board reports um into the the eighth section of the agenda earlier. So, we're going to skip over that, but I do want to move to amend the agenda again at all possible. Um I want to move to uh move item 5.2, the tenure recommendation, uh before item 3.1.
>> Final question. All in favor? I >> opposed. Obstain. Motion carries. So, moving into item 5.2, which I guess is now the new 3.1. Um, recommended action be it resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby grants tenure to Nicole Kelly, middle school assistant principal tenure area, Pierre Van Courtland Middle School, effective June 26, 2026. So moved.
>> Yeah, if I could. Um, it's my genuine pleasure to recommend Nicole for tenure as assistant principal at PBC. Over the past four years, Nicole's demonstrated a true care and devotion to the students of our district, for their families, for the team of adults that we work with, and for PBC overall. Um Nicole Uled with warmth, with poise, with grace, with class, with professionalism and positivity. She's led the district's committee work on assessment and feedback. One of the many ways that Nicole has ensured that her voice and her vision helped to shape not only PBC, but the work of the entire district as well. She's also a leader in our region as co-f facilitator of PNW Bosey's regional forum for assistant principles, helping to mentor and support colleagues from across our area. Nicole knows the students and families at PBC tremendously well. And when we came to her this fall with really no
warning and asked her to take on a new role as interim principal, her response was whatever is best for PBC. Uh and Nicole, your response in that moment to us exemplifies who you [clears throat] are, a leader who puts others first, ensuring that the people around you have a chance to shine. Uh during that time, you not only kept PBC moving forward, you helped to advance the culture of that wonderful building under your leadership. Um thank you truly and sincerely, not only for the way that you stepped up for PBC this year, uh but for everything you've done over the past four years. It's my honor to recommend you for 10.
>> I would just echo those. Thank you uh for staying here for um continuing to do I'm emotional today because of graduation. I'm sorry. Um but I want to thank you for continuing to work hard for our students >> and I'm very happy uh to vote yes for
this. So um all in favor >> opposed abstain. Motion carries. [applause] >> [applause] [applause]
[laughter] >> And we have the apple and all that good up for you too.
[applause] >> Yes, you should all not [laughter] >> unless you want to. We'll watch the web. All right, we will now move into the previous new business, beginning of new business uh into former item 3.1, which is the update on the infinity device policy at Cartman High School. And for that, I will turn it over to Dr. Dubc. Thank you.
Right. Good evening. It's not up there. Thank you for having me here tonight to share a brief update on the internet enabled device policy at the high school as we wrap up our first year of implementation. And I'll echo what Omar said earlier about this being the first year and it's a it's first year in progress for sure. Um so in terms of implementation um and feedback so just give you an overview of what our oper how we operationalize the policy. So students are required to place their phones in a cell phone box um or cell phone stadium in each classroom. They put it in at the beginning of class, pick it up at the end of class and move to their next class. The phones remain in the box for the duration of the period including bathroom breaks. Um, students have their phones during free periods and lunches. There is not a central repository during those times. And so, while we encourage students not
to have devices out during those times for social or other reasons, um, our primary focus has definitely been to ensure distraction-free classrooms, which we feel pretty successful with at this point after some revisions throughout the year. Um, I know the policy committee specifically built in language in our district policy around um using devices for specific purposes during um in the cafeteria in particular. And you'll hear more about kind of um what that looks like in practice and some challenges just in terms of adult presence presence and monitoring um during lunch for example, what's appropriate educational purpose and what's not. Um, so I also just want to note regionally in terms of implementation, um, the successes and struggles that we're experiencing at the high school around this policy are definitely something that areas that are quite similar across the board in our neighboring high schools. Um, this is
actually just a topic on our principal group email thread yesterday. Um, where many surrounding districts are, you know, as I said, experiencing the same struggles, successes, and frustrations. And it's irrespective of whether whether those high schools have an off and away policy, a cell phone box policy, a yonder pouch policy. Um, and there are a number of districts who have abandoned things like yonder pouches because they're not working for a variety of reasons. Um, and uh there's schools going to offen away policies that previously had cell phone boxes similar to the ones we have at the high school and a range of other experiences. So that being said, I think everyone here in our district in the high school um is on the same page in terms of making it work as best as possible and primarily committed to students staying focused in class. So on the next slide, in terms of infractions, I know
Ellen had briefly shared some numbers last month and these numbers are slightly updated due to being a month later and collecting a few more infractions in that month. Um, so and just as again the students have their phones during free periods and lunches since we don't have that repository. So the infractions that are up on the screen here are infractions during class time. So to date we have confiscated 23 devices by either by teachers. We have had to call home to parents four times this year to confirm that when students don't place their cell phones in the box, they truly don't have cell phones or don't bring them to school. Um and uh the purpose of doing that is to ensure that we're not bothering students in every class about why they're not putting their cell phone in the caddy. Um we have had seven phones taken for an entire day or longer and that means that students have to leave it in the office
for the day because they've had multiple infractions. Um we've had five students who were directed to building admin for placing decoy phones and boxes. Um and just in general kind of the consequence letter is the first warning comes from the teacher because that's the person who is um interacting with students in the classroom. After that first warning if it happens again it goes to an administrative referral. The first referral is means that the device gets left in the office for the duration of the day. Um any subsequent referrals increases the amount of time. We haven't to date had anybody who has gone beyond one multi-day stay in the office. So, [snorts] so that's kind of, you know, nuts and bolts of what it looks like for us. Um, more broadly in terms of kind of our push pull factors and the bigger conversation around this, um, after a year of implementation and ongoing reflection, um, few things come to mind.
one, just a reminder that this was a fairly abrupt change. It went sort of from an all to nothing um very quickly through legislation. Um the law was sort of written without kind of developmental considerations by age and even within a high school. We've thought a lot about the difference between a nth grader starting high school and a 12th grader who is getting ready to go on to college and beyond. And there's not really um any nuance in the language of the law around that. Um, as I mentioned, we're doing a great job, I think, of implementing this in classrooms. Um, and I think we've said this all along, but and I f fully agree that kind of the focus of the distraction-free classroom is the primary in all of this and ensuring that kids are really focused on what they should be focused on in classrooms and teachers are very much on board in that regard and monitoring. We've had a few hiccups throughout the year as we do
with any other kind of implementation. Um but by and large we're in a good place in that regard. Um something to keep in mind in terms of realities of implementation um hallways and lunchrooms are not monitored by teachers and the communication when this law came out um but that the device policy was not something that teachers were expected to be in charge of outside of classrooms. Uh I know that NICE said and they actually I think Governor Kok also reiterated this too that this was not meant to be a teacher enforcement um situation. So given that there's limited staffing for the few adults in the building who are not teachers um to be enforcing this during free periods um and particularly lunch. So just as an example, during lunch at the high school, we have two lunch monitors with about 500 kids at lunch in any given time and we have three administrators. So just thinking broadly, um the idea of
enforcing during fully enforcing during the cafeteria when you have 500 kids free at lunch with five adults, um is challenging for sure. >> Um without thinking about diverting resources away from other work, right? there other ways that you can address this, but it's a it's a resource allocation question, I think. So, and just as kind of one background consideration, when you think about one of our goals with community lunch being slightly longer this year and having everybody all together, obviously that was done without thinking about a cell phone policy um being thrust upon us. Um but that community lunch has become a time for groups of to meet and plan when everyone's free and that includes groups of teachers, groups of students. admin to [cough and clears throat] teacher teams and groups of students during this time which has truly been one of the best parts of community lunch. So just
thinking about that broadly when we think about diverting resources I think we just have to be mindful of where those resource resources are coming from and what impact that could have. Um, we also have had experience throughout the year of students honestly just leaving when we have had more restrictive implementation in the cafeteria and free periods because we're an open campus. Um, students are allowed to get up and leave. Um, and so that did happen fairly regularly, especially at the beginning of the school year when we were all new at this. Um, and uh, trying to be very um, very on top of the devices that were in the cafeteria. And beyond that, we want our students to stay to stay here. The cultural shift that's happened with our community lunch and our new spaces, just the number of kids that are in the building has honestly been a real cultural game changer for our school. Um, so personally I would hate to lose
that. Um, and probably most importantly, our students have shared with us that they feel our implementation has been respectful and that they don't have a problem putting away their devices for classes and honestly do so willingly recognizing the positive impacts in the classroom. Um, and I think you see that in the infraction numbers [clears throat] that you saw. I think in the grand scheme of thing, they're they're pretty low um for the first year of implementing the policy. And uh we really do not see students on phones in classrooms in our building. Um I know at least one of you was on a recent learning walk at the high school and there was not a phone um in sight in the classes. So, um, outside of CHHS, obviously I won't name specific districts, um, but in conversation with our neighbors, um, discussions in some groups are around things like purchasing MacBook Neos for the entire high school in a couple of,
um, high schools in the region to kind of take the personal device aspect, the big bring your own device aspect um, out of the hands of students and families. So, the idea is investing they're trying to invest a pretty decent um sum of money into purchasing MacBooks for students so that they can ensure that that's the only device that they're bringing into school and that it's controlled by the school district. Um so, those are just some examples of things regionally that people are talking about in terms of putting resources um in. So, I think it's also really important to note and perhaps somewhat unique at at our high school compared to schools in our region. Um, but there is a genuine culture of trust here, I think, which is evidenced by our open campus [clears throat] and the fact that we have very little issues with that. I think I've said this before, like I think we're actually the only high
school in all Westchester that's a fully open campus. Um, and having worked in other schools that are quite the opposite, it's a very different different feeling. um the culture here. We don't have issues with students generally coming back late from lunch. It's just part of the fiber of what we do here. And I think that's a good reminder um that when we give students trust and responsibility, most really do rise to the occasion. Um and we see that with the classroom cell phone boxes too. Um, and then I think another factor that we've been talking about [snorts] a lot recently in our implementation is that as our current elementary and early middle school students get older, our current younger students are growing up in a very different environment and a different conversation around technology, different family expectations. So, we know that as those kids get older, the fight will be less in terms of um
having cell phones, not having cell phones. We think that many of our students are going to eventually come up to the high school with very little reliance on cell phones if if the way things are trending nationally and locally continue. So there's sort of a a gradual implementation approach that we've been thinking about a lot too and and recognizing that these changes are going to be coming. Um, and I think uh the last bullet around shared parental and school responsibility is something that, you know, I feel personally as, you know, as a parent of a child who's going into middle school um and dealing with seeing friends getting phones and not and then having worked um for 17 years in high school, I realize because I'm going to do it myself just how easy it is to shut down a phone and have absolutely no screen time or internet access whatsoever on that phone. Um and so it's got me thinking a lot about um the idea
of partnering and sharing responsibility with parents to help kind of encourage learn and support and rally around that together because if a student is coming to school with no internet access on their phone from 8 to 3, there's nothing for them to be tempted with um to look at. So you know we do that. >> Yeah. I mean, first and >> I will show you. >> Would love that. >> Yeah, it takes like two seconds. >> I will personally do a practice. >> The new iOS actually update makes it so easy to do and if you don't have an Apple product, there's a ton of different software. Bark is a software for my family. I'm not a spokesperson for them. Um, but um just the idea being it is very easy to do and I'm terrible with cell phones. So the idea of just rallying together so that it's not this is the schools or the district's responsibility that it's our shared responsibility because we want to do this together. So I think that's a a
place for us to work on. Okay. So future h we're in year one. We're at kind of a a reflection and you know possible changes in decision-m point. So I kind of I see it as sort of two pathways that we could go down. No matter what pathway we decide, our classroom practices remain and we remain committed to those. Um, so for pathway one, I think some things we can consider are advocacy with legislature to uh gradually make adjustments. Um, I'm actually surprised and maybe I just am not aware of it that there isn't a process for feedback to legislature some way to advocate for changes. Um I know something that we talk a lot about in our uh principal association and I think superintendent association has also spoken about this like how do we make it so that we can change the policy around lunch specifically for high schools and have a more developmental approach but there doesn't seem to be an inroad there
but I think it's one that we that's worth finding an inroad for. Um I think that we also have an opportunity with the trust in our school um to work with student leaders and strategically include student voice um in making plans for example to reduce use during free periods and lunch periods. Um I think student voice is something that was largely left out of a lot of the conversation not locally I think more on a broader scale um in this in its planning. Um, I think it also might be an interesting time to consider more deeply the voices of current high school parents. So, now that their kids have had a year of implementation, um, I know that we initially surveyed the entire community, but I don't think high school students were a part. I think it was just families that were responding at that point. So, I think that might be a good exercise to see what high school parents and students think.
um Freddy mentioned the idea of partnering with parents and and building a more shared responsibility and um and the idea of respect again I think after 17 years of high school kids the more restrictive and top down you get the less buyin there is and the less likelihood that you'll find success so I think that's something important to keep in mind then in pathway two this is another way to look at it you'll see considerations for operationalizing stricter policies for free period and lunch that would definitely allow for more adult oversight during those times. Um, so I'll be honest that I think some of these considerations are worrisome in terms of school culture, but they're considerations um that I think should be talked about nonetheless. Um, so some options that we can do um are to implement or assign study halls to all students, for example, grades 9 to 12. What that would mean is that no students
ever have a free period. Um, what that would mean is that you would be more guaranteed to be putting a phone in at the beginning of every single period and the end of every single period. No free periods with that wiggle room. So, that's an option. I don't think our students would love it. No, maybe weigh in on that, but >> I don't think so. >> But, it is it's a way to control the environment to ensure that, you know, you're doing it beginning and the end of the period. Um, we can consider things like adding staffing to collect cell phones. With an open campus, you'd have to think that that staffing has to be manned throughout the day because if you have free periods on an open campus, you have to be have somebody who can actually physically take them in and out through the throughout the day. And then there's always the option of having a single collection point and completely closing campus. Um, which would mean
operationally that students drop off their phone at the beginning of the day. it stays there till the end of the day and there's no coming and going from campus. So, all possibilities, different pathways. Um, so hopefully that gets us a sense of kind of where we are now, what some future possibilities could look like. Um, and I'm guessing probably through the policy committee if there are any adjustments or changes to the policy in the future that might lead us down either of these pathways or some combination of both pathways. um we're very open to it and and want to be in dialogue about it.
>> It would be fair to say that pathway number two is kind of like an ext like there's there's many iterations between pathway number one and pathway number two, right? It's like you're sort of articulating >> uh the most uh strictly compliant scenario versus sort of like where we are now, which is you it's not even like the most loose scenario, right? So, so it's almost like what you're articulating is possible pathway number one might actually be like, you know, like if it was on a scale of like 1 to 10, it's probably like three or four and pathway number two is really closer to like a 10 or even like an 11 kind of like outside of right just from what we're seeing here because I think >> I think you know I think one of the things like as certainly for me I'll say and many of us here are high school parents I think uh our families really value the flexibility and the trust. I I think our students I mean Phil you
should talk first cuz you're the one doing this and you just got through it. What do you think?
>> I mean I'm obviously going to have some bias here but uh speaking as unbiased as I can there I agree strongly with the point that I think students are a lot more willing to actually like focus in class and pay attention due to the current leniency. I'm going to be honest. I feel like knowing how high school students are, like if there is a tighter collar put on them, especially with free periods or even like suggesting that free periods might be taken away or open campus as a whole or whatever that case is, like I think people are going to be a lot less willing to comply in class. I think there's going to be like revoling in a sense of not only just against the free periods and stuff, but then kids aren't even going to want to pay attention in class or do that in class because I think that would be like impeding upon like something we've practiced here for so long with free periods and like
having the flexibility and as Dr. Dubac was saying like the trust of like having an open canvas. But I understand I understand the alternative perspective, but I think yeah, I think there has to be a sort of middle ground because I think it's extremely unrealistic the idea of removing something like free periods or something like that without expecting students to then act out against that. like the way it is right now. I think there's a decent balance between how students are now focused in class and willing to focus in class due to the current balance. That's what that means.
I mean, but to be fair, right, like this possible pathway too, it it there is a portion of our community that is asking for this. There is a portion of our community that gets very excited by children lining up and clicking beyond their pouches at the beginning of the day. Regardless of whether they're 18 as seniors, there is a portion of our community that is literally asking for pathway too.
>> But yeah, I was also going to say I just feel like it's kind of crazy that like especially for at least for the seniors like we're genuinely about to be going off to college like we're going to be 18 years old. We're not even going to be like under any sort of parental supervision for most of the students. So, I think like the fact that it's going to be like you're trying to implement something where it's like, okay, these 18-year-old legal adults are going to have to have their phones locked away all day because we don't trust them to have the discipline of not looking at it wherever. Like, I just think that's like that's just an almost like a unfair standard to have, especially considering you then want us in like 3 months from now to go off and like act as adults and you can't trust us with the phone. I just feel like the standards aren't really aligning.
>> I think that speaks to sorry before goes I think that speaks to exactly what Dr. Dubc was talking about which is that when this when this mandate came down there what there if there just was like no conversation about when it's developmentally appropriate and the fact that it is so sort of across the board. I think that that is that is definitely a challenge. And to to your point Dr. Dubc about sort of like the advocacy it is is weird that like that there was like one survey that was done by the state education department. I don't know that those survey results were widely shared, but it's like it doesn't seem to have impacted the conversation just in terms of like, you know, we don't have like a clear picture of this. So, I think those are all good points. Sorry. Now, I know you're about to ask something.
>> No, just a couple of obligations. I think what Philina said is very important to consider. are members of the community who would like to see what I will call an absolute cell phone pan looking at certain research on the subject of what is the purported because I'm not saying I necessarily agree with it um [clears throat] detrimental effect of the overuse of cell phones by individuals at various stages of childhood and early young adulthood. [clears throat] But in considering what is appropriate for our district, our community and what I mean by that our school community. I think it is important not to be swayed by some concern about the um what would be kind of the best in some people's minds but what is the best for the district and for the students. I think some one of the points that is contained in the um pushpull factors that are mentioned is uh that were mentioned in your presentation Dr. That is in particular
um what are we trying to do? And if what we are trying to do is make sure that students are not primarily distracted when they should be focused on being involved in education. That is no different than we would expect of anybody else. And if you are an adult, you don't have your phone taken away at 8:00 in the morning when you start work and have it given back to you when you leave work. You are treated as an adult. And I think particularly when we get to the high school level as more so juniors and seniors as you had said there is a culture of respect that we provide to our students in so many other ways that we should not abandon that when we are talking about this issue. I would add that the resource question that you mentioned is very important because when there are when you are talking about a confiscation at the beginning of the day and a return at the end of the day, you're talking
about resources. You're talking about time. You have 500 students who will be leaving coming into the building at 8:00 in the morning more or less. Okay. You have to have them line up. I will I will remind those folks and I know Dr. you back. You remember this when we had to do the um testing as people were coming back from uh you know after COVID and how long it took to get people into the building and if you're talking about students going to their afterchool activities whether it's athletics or club or work happens with all of that there's a whole lot of ramifications that an absolutist position um will make the district have to deal with in ways that are not thought about. So for a lot of reasons, yes, I agree that you know there's perhaps some ways between pathway one and pathway two, but that is to should be done in my opinion with the recognition that what we are trying to do is for what is best for students and
the community rather than for something that perhaps I would consider for perhaps even ideological. That's my two cents on this question.
Um, I'm really struggling with this topic. Um, because I I see both both sides to it. Um, I have an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old, so I'm deep in the thick of this, but now on the college level, I teach college, so I'm dealing with students in the classroom and and stuff, you know, and um I totally understand exactly filling in what you were talking about buy in and respect for students and cultural respect, I guess, but also struggling with is that we are adults and we do know that some of the technology, the apps that are being used are designed to be addictive >> and have had you know real social emotional implications um for children for teenagers and even adults and it can be um a real accelerant in terms of creating you know social drama problems disciplinary issues having that available so um I like so I guess I'm just want to put on on the record that I see both sides and I find it you know
how complicated. I I pathway 2 seems like a little draconian like without a doubt and um I do hear you know I do yes you are about to go to college and you do need these moments to stretch and and to practice self-regulation with these devices but it's also really hard when there's these technologies that are designed to make it hard for for a person any person to self-regulate as adults we find it difficult enough so um yeah so I just wanted to say like I put that on record that you know I you know I hear what you're saying Neil but I don't totally agree with it you know but I I I see why there's why this is really hard thing to do I guess to me some of the things maybe to like you know build this out in terms of thinking about this issue holistically I mean right now it's focused on the the confiscation of of funds right and the resource allocation yes that's a challenge but I think also
like the more that we as a district are providing students with an understanding of what are these technologies, how are they designed, the ethical implications of there, the data privacy, um, and also just like the benefits of, you know, in-person awkward weirdness of, you know, during those lunch times when it's easier to just go onto your phone and not, you know, um, I think those might be things to create, um, you know, more of a holistic environment so students are supported and maybe more a little bit more incremental. what's appropriate for a ninth grader may not be exactly the same thing that's appropriate for a senior.
>> Like for example, ninth graders next year generally aren't going to be assigned to study hall. They're not going to have free periods. And that's an adaptation that [clears throat] you all are making for next year to address the fact that there's, you know, that the flexibility it needs to be age appropriate. And I think it's important to point that out just because not everybody in the community may know that that's a significant shift that the high school is making that's really responsive to what you all were seeing [snorts] which is you know what we need to have like a little bit more structure for these people who were just eighth graders like a hot second ago right I also I agree with no point also I think like just to be very clear like I completely acknowledge and understand that technology is obviously addictive I mean any form of it specifically like cellular devices but also like any form
of computer and really any form of media I completely agree with that point and I'm not an advocate for people sitting on their phones during lunch and playing
video games. But I think that in in reality like the case like as someone who is well now about to graduate but has been in the high school for the past 4 years like a a strong majority of the students aren't sitting on their phones and just like staring at their phones the whole time. Like if I me or my friends are ever using our phone just to like if we're having a if someone's in a heated argument they're like, "Oh, that's not true." Then we look it up. something like that. And I just feel like um in terms of also like keeping campuses open and stuff. And also I just think that like technology is so addictive and like I it's extremely unfortunate that this is the world we're in, but this is the world that we're in. And I think like a lot of the things you're describing like like as someone who's like experienced like things on like happening on technology where it's like like obviously like not like cyber
bullying but something in that realm like that's never happened. I think at least I can speak personally to me and my friends that doesn't happen on a school campus like that's something that happens outside of school and that sort of regulation needs to be happening from like the families and stuff and I just think that a lot of the I think a lot of the parents that are arguing against this are just not fans of technology as a whole for their child or less than like not about technology being used really from a passing period because those things that are happening that are so extremely negative aren't and again the off cases but aren't usually going to be happening like in your passing period or like you know something like that and I just think that's I think it's partially fear-mongering also
>> but I think what you're talking about Phil is you're alluding to this like the like one of the bullets here about the gradual changes as our elementary students get older right and I think that's also sort of a little bit of what Alison's talking about which is if we're sort of like a couple easy ways to sort of like address this like as we're starting to think about what do we want to see in year two it sounds like you like the most strict draconian thing is not where anyone really at this table seems to be. Um, no one seems to be asking for that. But I think I think like a little bit more communication around sort of like the benefits and Phil you've identified it really the best for us. I think when you talked about how sort of like freeing it was to like not even have to think about your phone cuz it's like it's gone and that allowed you to have that focus. I think students are really feeling that way. I
think they are just you know from my observation it is true that that that the majority of people who are at at common lunch are actually interacting with each other and so what we think about is like what are the ways that we can support that in the culture like we just I don't know like like in our like west pet like newsletter that we got today there was an article about a school district in Washington state I don't know if people saw this it was like in some you know I don't remember what the publication was but basically it's like making like literally like board games and like interactive things it's like just having that stuff sort of like around and about because it's like if it's there maybe you're like oh you know what it is actually interesting and I think again also about people who are in the middle school right now because this has been so much a part of the conversation just in in the past year
I'm fairly confident that the people who are rising up as eighth graders first of all many more of them have waited until 8th so they do not actually have phones yet right that that's like a significant change from when Phil was an eighth grader I think it's like the the numbers have reduced so those kids are going to go up into the high school with a different perspective and part of our thinking in you sort [clears throat] of putting together this policy which I think we all have a lot of a lot of feelings about um was that there is there is a hope that like as the culture changes a lot of the stuff is going to feel smoother. I think the other thing just in terms of having been in high school there's some realities like as we know you know people come in and like do a presentation. We've seen people come in and present to our high school students and they're sort of like well here's the
QR code. You're like am I supposed to like hold my laptop up to that and take a picture to like you know to do the exit ticket or to fill out the survey. So it requires also adults who are entering that sphere to sort of change their thinking. Um the other day when we did the alumni panels there was there was an opportunity sort of to be like give us your feedback and reflexively there is still a little bit of a culture of like go into your back and that's what they did. They went into their backpacks they took out their phones to do it rather than using the laptop. So there again it just becomes a like what are the things as educators and administrators we can do to be more proactively prepared to be like actually you don't need to scan just go into your Google classroom. the thing is there and sort of prioritize. You know, it's going to be annoying to take out the laptop and do it, but those are the types of
like holistic shifts I think you're talking about that may sort of minimize some of this and sort of allow us to not have to legislate it. I think the other question though about sort of like the the staffing. I think it is sort of like an important thing to to for us to sort of talk about is like if we're not if we don't want people sort of spending their time focusing on it, how can we also sort of like message what we value as a community, which is we value community much. like this is something that's really important to us culturally in our high school. So if people if it's if it's accurate Laura that you were saying that when enforcement was stricter folks were going off campus even though like we also heard that people were staying on campus. So it's a little bit of like you know trying to sort of like dig down into like what actually is happening. I think there again it's like it's an
opportunity to sort of like celebrate like the things that make it special so that that becomes the alternative you want to choose, right? It's it's it that's I mean again I think that's going to be easier for younger students coming up because they're going to they they're going to have already chosen that alternative through their families. So I do see this as like something that's going to be minimized sort of like naturally. But I think if there's a question we should we should we do need to think about this summer if there's tightening up that we need to do or you know what what we want to see. Um, I also I mean there's a bullet point on here in pathway one that's uh working with student leaders and including student voice to create a plan. I really like that cuz I think that you know students and this goes to sort of like the do you want to have the like you know the strict control or not like
really students listen to their peers right and so >> it it feels to me like having [clears throat] student leaders sort of like influence influencing their peers around not only like the use of cell phones but also like we were speaking about the like dangers of social media etc etc like that could be a really valuable way to sort of raise awareness and potentially, you know, we were talking, we were in the presentation around our high school uh leaders going into elementary schools. You can envision something that's like that where you know high school students started talking to middle school students about hey you're so excited about these cell phones but these are the kind of crappy things about them right as well that like I think even our own students especially older high school students are starting to recognize and are actually like very conscious of right like they they get the the pretty bad effects of of social
media of a lot of different technology so um I I I think [clears throat] that I like that bullet and and and sort of like focusing in on student leaders and and how they can play a pretty active role is is uh is great.
>> I just want to add one additional component because I see this playing out in my own family. Like my seventh grader has never brought a phone to school. So she's in two years potentially going to be at the high school with the ability to be able to bring her phone to school. And I think there is going to be a point of of education that's going to be required there. Uh
>> because it's a shift, right? Like we dealt with the opposite this year. We dealt with kids who were used to bringing phones to school all the time and we kind of took them back. But you're going to have the opposite problem because they will they will not know what it is to be at school with a phone. Um
>> so I I would I think everybody raised some very good points and I just part of my statement before was really to address those absolutist focus. >> Yeah, I think I would add that when we within the time constraints that we had to develop a policy, we did try to include student voice as much as we could, but a lot of that work was done during the summer when students >> I know you met with Phil and >> we did. >> Yeah. But um I think as the board looks at how the policy may be tweaked, changed um that you know involving student voice even more would be would be very beneficial. Also, I'm thinking that with regard to our requirement to establish and put in place a digital fluency um basically curriculum if I can call it that. That is something where a lot of the issues that Philita talked about in terms of the addictiveness if you did the 12 steel should be brought out you know in all grades and that's part of
what I believe is looked at in those in those standards that the board of regents has and SED has set out so that we really should be working on that to make our students more um knowledgeable and more um attuned to what the bad stuff that they may be may be throwing at them. So I think it's a process and I sounds like we can have confidence that we will you all will be working on that.
>> I love the idea of collaborating with parents and educating them in terms of how they can shut the phones down and take away internet access remotely. But you know what also I was thinking about is like it also is requiring like that shift and I I will speak for myself like when the cell phone was really more prevalent like you might reach out to your child and be like hey remember you have a doctor's appointment tomorrow or like whatever and so even for me this year I've had to train myself to remember like all right I don't text this person during the day because I don't even want to give them a reason for having to like wonder what's going on. So I think beyond just like the controls, it's also again it goes back to especially for parents of high schoolers just as you know it's like we've lived in a a different way and now we're also starting to sort of have to recalibrate that. So it's part of you're
you're 100% right. It's just part of like rethinking all this. Well, I remember my first year on the board being SFC meetings and the conversation was actually about how students were getting text messages from their parents because parents were or not it wasn't parents is it was it was it was updating grades and then the parents were texting the students and the students were talking about how because [clears throat] the shift was then to turn the notifications off until after school day. Yeah. That's that's that's how much it's shifted. >> Yeah. >> And I will say there's been a big change in that regard. We don't have as much of that anymore with the cell phones policy in place for sure. Um so that's been a positive definitely a positive change. Um the other thing I know parents are sometimes worried about emergencies too. So even when you shut off your internet, you can make mom and dad an emergency
contact when your internet is off. Like again it's not an absolutist kind of thing when we talk about partnering. That's great. >> I think this was really useful and I really appreciate the frankness with which we've talked about all this here just because it sort of like um demystified things and I think also made it very clear it's like this is this is where we are. this is what we're struggling with and it sounds like it's a regional not struggle but it's like a regional conversation that everyone's trying to address and I think it's important for us to remember that it's like we want to do it in a way that supports students [clears throat] as you said and also that doesn't require like an investment in things that we may have to you know like the idea of like buying like MacBooks for everybody that's like it's different yeah I mean it's a lot of money and and you know it's like it's going to
introduce like a whole other slew of issues so we also find a way around it >> yeah Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah. >> Anyway, thank you. Really helpful. Thank you.
>> Are you glad I didn't do a long report now? Um, so returning to our agenda, moving into item 4.1, adopt on technology. Recommended action be a resolved. The board of education hereby establishes an ad hoc committee to determine the scope and charge for engagement with the community of a community advisory committee on technology. This committee will consist of three members of the board to be appointed by the board president. The committee will report its recommendations to the board of education no later than September 3rd, 2026.
>> So moved. >> Second. I have a question. Does board development want to talk about this?
>> We do actually. So board development met this week and we had we recapped a lot of what we talked about here. So um based off of that discussion, we just wanted to highlight a couple of points. It was important to us to make sure that the formation of this committee um centered the idea that community engagement is the job of this ad hoc committee to determine what the next thing is going to be. That was basically the takeaway from our um from our um our work session discussion about this last week. The other thing that I want to highlight is, you know, it your eyebrow may have raised when you saw the words no later than September 3rd, 2026 because what that means is this ad hoc committee is going to be charged to work over the summer, but because we have acknowledged amongst ourselves that there's urgency to this and because we've heard also from our community that we want to sort of get this community
engagement going. We recognize there's, you know, not going to be able to reach everybody in the summer, but this puts us on a cadence that um that allows us or actually forces us to prioritize the work because we'll have to report back to the full board on September 3rd. The other thing that development we discussed, we wanted to clarify is that we are looking at this ad hoc committee as sort of the the factf finding and we are going to of course engage in conversation with the district and with Dr. Moswood specifically to ensure that what we're doing works and sort of dovetales with the district the work of the district committees. I think um there's enough to bite off here that that like there's going to be opportunity for these things to sort of operate in tandem and um I think as we see what comes out of those conversations we'll ensure that they are not conflicting with each other and
actually ultimately supporting the work you know that each committee will support the work of the other. If it if it [clears throat] turns out that that's not going to happen or that's not the way it's going. will be reporting to this board that that committee will be reporting to the board regularly. So, we'll see that and we'll be able to address it. Um, do other [clears throat] folks have questions?
>> No, it just seems to me that since what the purpose of this ad hoc committee is is to establish the scope and the charge of the community advisory committee at which members of the community and board members and whoever else is going to be placed on that committee. that charge is or that charge of the ad hoc committee is relatively limited. The work factual work is to make sure that the charge and the scope are not overlapping or inconsistent or leaving out things that are properly within the board's purview so that the community committee that is established based on that recommendation will then do the work that the board wants done so that the board has its information to go forward. So I don't think it's a long-term project and I think it certainly should be doable you know in two months or so that you know has been established. >> So in the past members who were interested in doing not should email the
board president. So I would say because there will be a shift in the board in the meantime that if members who are going off want to be considered, they would be considered and appointed to the committee potentially until the end of their tenure and then we would have to reappoint or replace those positions after July 1. >> I'm not sure it's realistic for this committee to meet before July 1st. Just truthfully, that's one of the things that we talked about in board development. we proposed amongst ourselves if the board agrees that once if if this resolution passes that um that people could either uh uh write to directly to say that they're interested or that we use our community I mean our committee um interest form and but this is one of those committees that people could express interest in >> but we're not really meeting our reorganization meeting isn't until the 12th is that >> 16th 16th so that's
>> that leaves six weeks >> no it's like a month it's like a month and a few is >> no. I'm actually >> I love that idea though. >> Why would you not just start the work now? >> We can start the work now. >> Hey, listen. You guys have a lot more time. Sign up. I think we can absolutely do it. >> I'm just saying if there's no and if it if it if it's if it turns out not to be that either one of you are interested in doing that, then then it'll be the work of whoever is. >> Let me suggest one other thing to keep in mind. as of July 1st, the new board members may be sworn in even before the reorg meeting, >> right? But that's not usually our >> no and we have done that in some years past for reasons to start >> like so my point is that the board can either say three of us including Sarah or me if we desire can do this until June 30th and if one of the two new board members or two want to step in for this purpose you
can have them start in early July or you can have them start on July 16th or after July 16th. You just Yeah, it's you all decision. >> So, if you're interested, please email me. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Item 4.2. Recommended action be it resolved that the board of education hereby established an ad hoc committee to examine policy 9230 recruiting and hiring and related best practices. This committee will consist of three members of the board to be appointed by the board president. The committee will report its recommendations to the board of trustees no later than December 31st, 2026.
>> So second >> on the question. So here again um board
development discussed this earlier in the week and the um the um how can I say this? It's like so we we determined that again to um to help the committee understand that this work is timesensitive and could potentially result in a referral to the policy committee or other referrals to the board that we wanted to sort of uh lay out a timeline that again allows the board the board [clears throat] committee to prioritize the work. Hence the um December 31st proposed deadline. Of course an ad hoc committee whose work is not done can come to come back to the board and say our work is not done and we need more time. the um the goal with starting with policy is that is actually where this question for many of us started. So that is um that is right now um the key part of the charge but related best practices I think gives us the latitude to determine what else you know might need to be explored to fully
um revisit the policy. Does that sort of cover what we talked about? Okay. So that's the answer to the question. >> All in favor? [clears throat] >> Opposed? abstain. Motion carries. And again, if you are interested in serving on that committee, please email me.
committee is going to report by the end of December. You're not expecting that to start before July.
So, that would be the seven board members as of July that will be able to sign up for that. That's fine. Um, okay. Moving into instructional personnel. Item 5.1. Recommended action be resolved. The board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools hereby appoints Katherine Morris as a 1.0 FTE library media specialist. Library media specialist tenure area at the Pierre Van Courtland Middle School at a salary of $67,941. BA + 30 step one. Ms. Morris is appointed to a 4-year probationary term as a library media specialist commencing on August 26th, 2026 and probationary term ending on August 25th, 2030 in the tenure area of library media specialist. Miss Morris has internship internship certification as a library media specialist with provisional certification anticipated in May of 2026. in May 2026 when May last month.
certification anticipated in May 2026, I'm just asking before we vote on this, since it's now June 2026, has the question been posed on the candidate. So, do you have [clears throat] it notwithstanding it may not have been populated into the system or
we don't typically do that, right? We rely on what's reported. >> Okay. So this she's operating on on an internship certificate which isn't uncommon for young people in this circumstance. >> Okay, >> I will move it.
All in favor? >> I opposed. Abstain. >> Motion carries. Item 5.3. Recommended action be resolved. Board of Education hereby approves [clears throat] the professional development advisor appointments for the 2025 2026 school year as presented and that is for Jennifer Moore associator of critical friends and Tanya Tibido is a district-wide virtual learning coordinator VHS program that's so used by high school students. So moved,
>> opposed. Motion carries. Moving into our donations. Item 6.1 recommended action to resolve the board of education gratefully accepts the donation of $500 from the Croton River Artisans Gallery as a contribution towards the Croton River Artists Gallery Scholarship for 2026 at Cotton Harmon High School to be awarded to a graduating senior who is pursuing arts as a major has taken an AP art course at CHHS.
>> So move second. >> On the question, I had a question. Is this is this is this um a donation that's coming through then for an award that would have already been given for this year? It's just the funding for it cuz it says 2026. So I just wasn't sure. >> It's not for 2027. So it's >> it's just the money to >> right. It's just funding like an award that was already presumably awarded. >> It will be awarded Oh, it will be awarded for Got it. It will be awarded for 2026. It hasn't been awarded yet. >> Yeah. So this is so we have already approved the establishment of this scholarship. We are now receiving the donation to fund the scholarship and the scholarship will be awarded at the senior uh award ceremony on June 22nd. >> Okay. I found it. Sorry. Thank you. >> All in favor? >> I opposed.
Abstain. Motion carries. Item 6.2, recommended action may result the board of education gratefully accepts the donation of $1,500. $500 for each of three awards from Robert and Sarah Mills Cohen as a contribution toward towards the Cohen family awards for 2026 at the Corin Harmon High School. And three separate awards would go to um a student who demonstrates contributions to the music program, a stu a graduating student who has made a significant contribution to Corin Harmon High School theater and a graduating student with outstanding writing ability through their time at CHHS.
>> [clears throat] >> So >> second on the question, >> I would just say that to the Cohen family, Robert and Sarah Cohen have been longtime supporters of our district. Um, and I personally am very grateful that even after their their children have long since graduated, they are still committed to helping students um with scholarships in these areas. >> All in favor? >> I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Item
6.3 recommended action be resolved. Board of Education gratefully accepts a DNA a donation of $4,800 from the Coen Harvard Booster Club as a contribution to the booster club scholarships. four individual scholarships of $500 each. The Len Gober scholarship, a $1,000 scholarship, the Mary Brooks scholarship, a $1,000 scholarship, the William Billy Sha Scholarship, a $300 scholarship, and the Ste Steve Igy Aguad scholarship, a $500 scholarship at Cronar High School. Um these various awards would be given uh to students who excel in athletics and sport sportsmanships to um a student who exemplifies a warm and caring attitude towards others as well as outstanding sport sportsmanship. A senior student who has demonstrated outstanding dedication in a scholastic sport. uh a senior who has dedic demonstrated commitment to our actual work on behalf of the environment and a senior who has provided exceptional support to athletic
teams and their success.
>> I >> opposed abstain motion carries item 6.4 Four recommended action be yourself. The board of education gratefully accepts a donation of $2,000 from the Cland Harman Booster Club as a contribution to the
>> question is do we know where this bike shed will be erected? >> We sure do. >> We can very well. is going to go right next to the other shed. >> Where's the other shed? >> Where's the other >> by the basketball court? >> Oh, okay. Up there. >> So, that's that's where the new bike course has been. >> Yeah. >> Started to be painted as I saw when we went to the Bird a couple weeks ago and they're going to have a great time there.
>> I >> opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Item 6.5 recommended action be a resolve the board of education gratefully accepts a donation in the amount of $100 from the women's club of peak skill and Portland Inc. as a contribution to the women's club of peak skill and Portland scholarship 2026 at Croenhe High School to be awarded to a graduating senior student who is in the top 3 to 5% of the senior class. So moved >> second on a question.
Moving into items the uh the consent agenda. Item 7.1 recommended action be resolved. The board of education hereby approves all of the items under the consent agenda.
>> So moved. >> Second. >> On the question. on the question um for item 7.13 uh Denise could you or or Don um in in reading the agreement there are a couple spots and I can't find one of them but the they it's around data privacy it says that after the agreement is executed they'll provide um some certifications or some some more information about their data privacy and forgive me for not bringing this uh earlier in the week. I just saw this um and that they it says they'll submit a plan after execution of the contract for how they'll comply with state federal data security privacy contract requirements. Just I'm assuming we have to we have to approve this for it to take effect by July 1st. Um but when you get that information, can can you share it with the board so we can just make sure that it's in compliance? So these are renewal contracts, right? Or
>> yes, this is the final year of this RFP award. So um Ellen has already started the process for next year RFP which we're looking to move forward in October, November of next year. But so to your question, what exactly are they providing post execution of a contract in regard to data privacy? What they're saying in the contract is the plan that outlines how they comply with state, federal, local security and privacy requirements.
>> I'm sure it's >> got it. >> Boiler plate, but just >> make sure we're doing our government's responsibilities. Make sure it's there. >> It's an interesting way to do it. Like sign and then we'll tell you. Well, that's why I was wondering if it's because like is is this like some sort of different provision because it's like a contract renewal or something? I don't know. That's why that's what >> we already have. It's great. >> We just it'll be good to have it from the from the vendor. >> Absolutely. >> Um >> particularly with RFP going out. >> Yeah. So just um one quick question here just because I think I was a little bit confused about this for the um for the um the parent member of the committee on special education is listed as for being for this past year is it remainder of this year >> for the remainder of this year. Okay. >> She just completed training. >> Yes, that's what we heard. So I is there
a chance that she might then be able to continue for next year? >> I will reappoint for reappoint of July 16th. Great. Well, I think there I think there was um there was significant excitement in the community to have such a good community partner in this world. So, I was wondering if it was like the time was almost up or if there's a possibility catch. >> That's great. >> I would say you wouldn't go through all the training in June and then you say I'm not doing it next year. So, >> that's why he's asking mist.
>> All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. We will now move into our close of the meeting and our second hearing of the
unless Jimmy wants to get up and say something. [laughter] We will not go through the hearing of the public. We will then um Did you want to do polling at the board or boards first? Do
towards [clears throat] advocacy. Yes. Um, right. So, I advocacy doesn't really have an update from our last meeting. Um, we're looking to schedule that meeting again um in progress and working on some resolutions for next month. >> Hi. Uh, we're meeting Monday, I want to say April 29th. >> Mhm. >> At 1 >> at 1 p.m. Yes. >> Virtually for me. >> Well, for you. Yes. >> Board development. So, board development met on Tuesday and we had a very robust meeting actually was quite long. We went we brought um we uh reviewed several administrative items most of the information about which has been shared with the board in terms of timelines for the superintendent evaluation and other such things. You all have been copied on and received today um the application um materials for our two new student exeicio positions. So, board development's uh charge to you all is to please review those applications as soon
as possible over the next day or two because in order to complete the um the interview process, we would like to begin to schedule um candidate interviews next week. After having consulted with our legal counsel, it has been determined that the best way for us to do this is actually to have small um small interview committees. I think that that's also, as Anna suggested, going to be a thing that allows for like a, you know, nice intimate conversation with each candidate in a comfortable setting. Um, so we will be reaching out to folks who are interested on the board in um participating in those candidate interviews. They're going to be scheduled most likely for sometime next week. It is, as Sarah reminded me, still a very busy week um in terms of exams and regions. And Dr. Dubc also pointed out the same that everyone's got, you know, everyone's got a lot going on in their schedules. So, our main priority
is going to be to offer up times that allows them to opt in and if folks need to have special, you know, special timing since we all live here in Croat together, we can figure out something that works over the weekend or later in the week or whatever as needed. Um, in terms of that, you'll receive um a request from board development along with a couple other requests. I know you have a question. Let me just say what the other two requests are. We are also going to be beginning working on our board self-evaluation now that we've completed some of our other [clears throat] evaluation work. Uh so that will be coming to you over email. It is and it is basically going to be a duplicate of what we did last year which was the NISBO form and some specific questions about our goals. It's all online and our thinking is that it shouldn't take you more than an hour to complete. I mean that would be max in my
opinion. Um the last piece of it is that we um we would still like to um try to find a time for this board to come together to sort of talk about our practices this year and sort of have a moment to close on our work together. So, we will also be sending out to you an inquiry about your time between now and basically June 30th to have that conversation. So, please stand by. >> Is that like a I'm sorry, I don't mean to hit you up, but is that a retreat? >> Yes. >> Are we is it just board or we invite you? This would be just just for the seven of us who are currently serving to um just to sort of like reconnect as we have done in the past just to sort of you know talk about our governance practices for the year and highlight things that we think you know warrant further discussion in terms of all that fun stuff. So, it's going to be a retreaty summer because looking ahead, we will as we enter into the new term also be talking
about um do I are we able to talk about the fact that we're talking about having the board and the districts come together in the new term um for us to um to attend um the administrative teams retreat for a portion of that time over the summer to really kick off um a collaboration on um visioning and goal setting for the coming year and to also sort of uh talk about how we how we best um work together to move things forward for the district. So that is going to be very exciting and fun. I think
>> we have those dates confirmed very recently. So we'll get that immediately tomorrow so you're able to pencil in I'm not sure you have which of the dates but actually we can work around whatever the board's available.
>> Right. So yeah it's a little bit of a trying to the goal is to try to make sure as many of us as possible. Obviously summer people are traveling and their retreat date does have to be set because they don't do it at the district office. >> So they're going to go outside. >> Yep. You have to get out of their offices for the weekly tomorrow. >> Okay, great. [clears throat] >> Sorry. >> Um just two quick questions um about the interview and application process. Um did all the students who apply will they all be invited to interview? >> Yes. >> Yes. Our plan is to is to interview all the candidates um and person. >> Um I think for the most part unless someone has an availability issue or is not in you know is not able to do it in person, we' set up a meeting, right? Sure. Laura, I do have a question for you because I don't think that this has ever happened before, but like you would have students meeting with two board
members without faculty there. Would you want?
could just be I mean in theory we could get parental consent if we felt like we needed it. Um probably should >> I mean and certainly I think we were planning to conduct the meetings here at the high school and a classroom or the faculty room or someplace that's a comfortable space but we can connect back whatever we need to do logistically to make sure that that's comfortable >> and then that way maybe if parental consent is given then they would be knowing that there wouldn't be a faculty member >> or maybe even like the retunda somewhere very >> public. I think you'd rather get the consent than that. >> No, absolutely. But I'm saying even with that, >> so one of the things that we're trying to do as part of this process is of course like you know I think that um there are students who have applied but the but the but the um we want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to have like a private
conversation without sort of you know because the rotunda is like a very public place even if it's after school hours there's folks going in and out. I think I think we need to connect. Let's if we could try as a group just to determine the timing then Dr. Dubc and board development can sort of convene on ensuring that it's comfortable and covered uh for everybody in terms of that. But that's a good flag to raise. Thank you. >> That's I think is am I missing anything? Development. Okay. Thank you guys. >> Uh communications um we will be meeting on the 22nd at 5:00 p.m. policy
>> policy >> policy committee met on June 5th. Um, as you can tell, we had talked about having policy 580 on the agenda today, first reading, which you did not because there questions that came up. The um policy committee asked me to speak with the legal council to get answers to them those questions that have been posed. Um I have spoken with council this afternoon and have reported to um the committee um and the superintendent that information. available for the next meeting of the policy committee to uh consider as they continue to work on policy 5800. Um as I reported at our meeting last week, we did not talk about educational philosophy policy 0000 nor did we talk about the artificial intelligence policy. Um both of those um are as you could hear from some of the adopt committees that have been established [clears throat] or at least one of them um the things that the new board will pick up um as part of the
work that it will be doing. The committee also asked if I would provide some kind of a how should I put it kind of a ideas on what might be prioritized in the coming year by the policy committee as it is reconstituted or newly constituted as well as kind of a kind of a primer on policy consideration and formulation. I will attempt to do that before June 30th, but I guess it really doesn't matter if I don't do it until after June 30th. Logistically, it would be useful um to share maybe get some uh information from the policy services uh group that we work with through uh VISBA to provide some of that primary information and information for >> well the board. There may be some things and I can check with them. envelope. I think a lot of what >> we're talking about is kind of >> the all the stuff >> all the stuff in my head and in my files um and so on and how that might be used as you know the newly constituted
committee decides how it desires to proceed in dealing with um you know its priorities and its um uh and its mode of how it wants to operate. and things to look at and things to know because quite frankly and I will say that we had a discussion about this at PMW Boseies today when we met don't always trust and I've said this before don't always trust VISBA policy services as the most um accurate um guide for uh what you might learn or might need to know. So there is more work that must be done beyond accepting just what they say. So but I I can actually and I will make it a point to touch base with policy services to uh let them you know to see if they have something that I can provide. I will add for what it's worth as a member of P&W Bosey's board I think since I won't be doing this here that I will be working
on policies there so >> but it's very different >> just when you think they're out >> back in right >> well no I I volunteered >> I barely continues >> also just as you know describing some of this best practices affords us the protection the collective choice to subscribe to that. So, >> well, and it is a service restorative. So, >> absolutely good to take take advantage of those resources.
>> Can I quickly just chime in on policy just Neil because I think you know like the last meeting we had together just on behalf of Theo and me as as your um fellow policy committee members this year. We've gotten through so much this year. We've had some very robust conversations and some arguments and some you know they've all been but they've all been very constructive and productive. Um so thank you for thank you for steering us through so many policies this year and just keep keep you you've pushed us you have kept us there longer than we want almost every time. >> No no no you definitely if we are late you do get your time back at the end so you do keep us honest. I appreciate that. But I I just want to say thank you because it's been for me a good two years on the policy committee learning a lot about policy and um and you know how we develop and the consideration. So I really appreciate that um that education
um in policy over the last two years. Thank you.
>> Thank you for that. >> So on that note, we will move into polling our board. somebody wants to start.
So I guess I will start because I've been thinking a lot about in the role of um polling and in my role that I guess after this time the next time you see me if you do I may be at that podium and my role will be completely different but I just wanted to say a few observations from my years on board and going to start by saying how thankful and appreciative I am have been for all of those that I have worked with the four superintendent Marjorie Castro, Ed Ferman, Debbie Oonnell, and Stephen Walker. Um, also with all of the central office and building administrators over the years and lead directors and um and um supervisors in our various component, various departments and as much with the faculty and staff and other folks who have been employed by or connected with the um district and with students. I think the thing about this role for me that is most emotionally um affecting is the relationships that I've had with all of
those folks and members of the community, parents and non-parents. um non-parents of parents of former students um who you know I have worked with and I've listened to and I have responded to and I have perhaps sometimes argued with but I think that's the part of this job if you can call it a job that I will miss the most. My other reflection is that I'm a member of the what does success mean for schools committee which I'm hoping that I will have the opportunity to continue that work as a community member as well as on the feedback and assessment because there we've had some very rich discussions about what those things mean. But my reflection on what does success mean in schools is our success is defined by our students and what they achieve which is not necessarily measurable in numbers. It's not necessarily quantifiable. So, for example, at the alumni um at the alumni um event or with high
school juniors that I attended and Sarah attended and Anamaka attended, one of the things that really impressed me was that the success that can be defined by the alumni members who spoke with us is not just those who went to prestigious universities. and not those who necessarily followed a remuneratory a remunerative career path. But our success was also with the students who were first generation college students who went to WCC and came back to talk to our high school juniors as members uh you know as as alumni who were at WCC finding their pathway to move to higher education. Our success is also for someone and I'm going to mention a person by name Maiden Geodano who was a a great athlete softball player who I guess had a chance probably to go to a lot of different schools but she decided to stay here. She was a mentor for those students who were uh those student athletes on the softball team at a
college career and is now a high school coach in uh a school in Long Island. That is a measure of success to me. success is someone who I saw last night who I didn't know a student in our schools who um had a lot of difficulty went to Boseies graduated from Boseis and from the high school and is [snorts] now an employee of our um village department uh department of public works. He is a success. So are the the students that we have had who we got through to the point that they received vocational training and so that they could leave here and do as much with their lives that they were they are able to do. That's how we measure success. And we measure success not on what we might find in test scores, how we might compare to other districts, as I know was in the math department 3A presentation before I got here tonight. Um, I mean that is a measure and it's something we should strive to and it's
something like we want to be, you know, high [snorts] up in the US News and World Report numbers because some people care about that and it is important for um, you know, showing the health of our district. But I think everything that this board looks at and continues to look at going forward for every grade should be to ensure that every student is able to have the best possible success that that student is can have in life wherever it may take them. and it won't be seen necessarily at any particular point. We cannot tell whether somebody who took a dual I took an inter disciplinary course in high school um will have been successful in that course or compared to some other course that could have been taken. But if that gave that student a spark to go into environmental work or to go into civic uh engagement or to go into the hard sciences and they won't we won't know that for years but that is all a measure of our
success. So that's the work that I commend the board, the district, the administration, our incoming board members and board members who will serve years going forward to keep in mind first and foremost. Thank you.
>> you know, obviously, um, it's been a pleasure to work with both of you, you know, and Sarah. Um, alongside you, with you, um, doing hard work, doing the fun things like graduation. Um, we wish you all the best. Uh, we do hope to see you on that side of the podium if for as long as we're here, if we're doing something that you think we shouldn't be doing. Um, and I want to wish you happy Thursday nights going forward. So, we did we did get you guys 3 minutes at a time on this public [laughter] think that through >> cards.
>> Thank you for you for a Thursday night in the near future. Thank you very much. Um, >> thank you.
>> But I do want to just acknowledge your service and your commitment to students and to the district and thank you both >> for your leadership. >> Thank you.
>> We'll just ch and say thank you both so much. I think you know in terms of in terms of um well, as I said before for Neil in terms of policy and his vast repository of information, I know where Neil lives so I'll be there anytime that I have a question. And Sarah, [clears throat] I think just in terms of your in terms of your uh very balanced and fair sort of direction and really your really important contributions to the district during probably what was the roughest time for our schools, which was going through the entire co experience, the closure, the re-entry task force. I just remember that was for me actually my entry point into um like um real intimate engagement with the school district and hearing you uh lead those meetings and also help sort of guide us through what was a really really tough time. We we all wouldn't be here doing the work we're doing if we hadn't gone through that. So I think our
entire community is grateful for your leadership at that time and for all of us support. I think you both have just done a really wonderful job of exemplifying care for students, good governance practices, and a real faith to the role and the promise of what a great a good board trustee can be for the community. So, I really want to thank you both as well. Thank you.
>> It is, yeah, I'm not going to be able to speak in the way that Neil did. Um, but it has been an absolute pleasure uh to serve on this board um to serve this community. I've learned so much from so many of you sitting at this table. Um my forward colleagues here throughout the region um and the administrators and staff and faculty that I've gotten to work alongside and learn from. It's been an incredible incredible opportunity and I will treasure the work that I have done here. I'm proud of the work that we've been able to do. Um, I looked and saw, so when I was first elected to the board, um, uh, my my son happened to be in Patricia Lynch's classroom, and Patricia Lynch had, uh, the students, uh, during their writing, uh, practice, uh, one day right after the election, go through it and write me a set of letters and wish list letters. Um, so I'm very happy to see that many of them included
turf fields. Um, and we were able to check that off. Um, but it was just really wonderful to to think back and look at that and look at all of the work that we've done. Um, and and where we've gone and so many great uh things to look forward to. So, thank you all.
>> There's one thing that I just want to add because I [clears throat] miss my laundry list of all those [laughter] is my board colleagues. My board colleagues here, my board colleagues over the years prior to the folks who are at this table tonight. I mean, I think without exception, every board member that I work with in all the years at Arizona board, whether whatever their opinions were, they had the best interests of students and the community in mind. And I think from my experience having that kind of record for that period of time is rare and it is something that I think this community should be proud of and this community should endeavor to keep that going for many years of future.
>> On behalf of the administration, I this is a bittersweet moment for us. I think it's for all four of us. Uh we don't know a board here without the two of you on. We feel like we've grown up here alongside the two of you. Uh, I know that I can speak for the entire administrative team in saying that we knew what we were going to get every single time we engaged with you on a topic, which was people who were smart, curious, of goodwill, and we're going to make sure that every decision was made with students at the center of it. And uh, to us, you exemplify the finest of what board of education service looks like. Um, and I think for any of us when we give our time to something, we want to know when we're done giving that time that it's been worth it, right? That we've made the thing that we touched better. And I just want to say on behalf of the team that as you exit the board, I hope you know that you you have,
right? The system is better, the student experience is better, the faculty and staff are better, and we're better for having worked for you. So, profound thank you.
We will um move on to item 8.3 and the next board of education meeting which is uh scheduled for July 16th 2026. That is our organization meeting uh and regular meeting. It starts at 5:00 p.m. at the district office. There's a good chance we may have a special meeting before the end of the year just to close out a little bit that I am aware. Yes.
so we are now at the close of our meeting. We the board will actually go into um executive session to discuss the employment of a particular person or persons after which we will leave executive session and immediately adjourn the meeting. Um, I want to wish everyone a happy graduation and a happy summer [clears throat] and a safe and happy summer and um, thank you all for watching and for everything you do for your students. [clears throat]
Uh recommended action be it resolved that the board of education hereby enters into executive session to discuss the employment of particular person and persons.