One nation, under God, indivisible, liberty.
In November, I am accustomed to speaking a few minutes about what I'm grateful for,
and I've got to tell you right now, I'm truly, truly grateful for the collective
Psi-Asset School District and our community, because I know we're seeing an uptick in numbers
members out there, but the plans that the, my fellow board members and the school district
have put into place have really allowed us to say that we have no close contacts within
in our schools and the collective because our staff in its entirety is so on board with
adhering to those safety precautions and we've put in place every precaution that we've been
able to and that is available. So I'm truly grateful for that. I'm hoping that everybody
out in the community who has COVID has a speedy recovery and I'm grateful for
all of us who are in good health right now. We're going to be taking one of our
business items to the front of our meeting because it is the appointment
of an assistant superintendent for human resources. It's a it's a big job
And so, we'd like to do that before we continue with the rest of our meeting.
So may I please have a motion for the appointment of Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources?
Mr. Feldman, seconded by Mr. Gershon, are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
Okay, I'd like to congratulate Mr. Edward Escobar.
Please
stand so everybody can see you.
You know, your experience and your reputation of knowledge preceded you, obviously.
But your enthusiasm for the work itself as well as your enthusiasm for coming into our family is what struck me the most.
and I'm so happy that you're here.
And so we'd like to welcome you officially
and we hope that you enjoy your stay.
Yeah, thank you very much, babe.
Fabulous, thank you so much.
Okay, we will start with the approval of the minutes
of October 8th, 2020.
May I have a motion please?
Susan Falcove, seconded by Mr. Ulrich.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed? Any abstentions? Approval of the minutes of meeting October 19, 2020, may I have a motion please?
Ms. Levitan seconded by Mr. Feldman. Are there any questions? All in favor?
Opposed? Any abstentions? Dr. Rufo, please give us the treasurer's report.
Okay. As indicated in the Treasurer's Report, the cash on hand for the month and September 30th, 2020, was $108,716,062 and two cents.
It shows that all cash accounts were reconciled to the book balances and were collateralized in accordance with the district's banking agreements and investment policy.
Thank you, Dr. Rufo. Are there any questions for Dr. Rufo?
Okay, may I have a motion to approve the treasurer's report?
Tom Artolo, seconded by Ms. Chang.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any extensions?
Dr. Rogers, please give us your super intense report.
Thank you very much, and I'll add my thanks to that of Ms. Frankel
for all of the hard work that everyone has put in.
Today is day 47, and yes, we are counting.
We're obviously incredibly pleased that we're able to be back in person with students and we're working hard to preserve as much of that time together as we possibly can.
On Wednesday of this week at seven o'clock, we're going to have what I'm calling a family conversation.
And when I was a kid and I was eight years old, we lived in Syracuse.
And my dad walked into the house one night after work and told everybody in the house that we needed to assemble in the kitchen and have a family conversation.
And as an eight-year-old, I had no idea what that meant, but I found out it means we're moving to Binghamton.
So I think we have to have a family conversation because we're definitely seeing things change around us.
I do think that it's within our control and our ability to make things better, but we're all going to have to link arms figuratively only
and find a way to work together as a community.
So we'll talk a little bit about the contact tracing process
because we get a lot of questions about how that works.
We'll talk a little bit about how we work with the Department of Health.
We'll have our school physician on hand,
and what we've done is compiled a lot of the questions that have come into us,
and he'll have the opportunity to answer those for the public in his own voice,
but he obviously advises us on a very frequent basis.
And we'll go through some of the statistics that we're following closely.
And I know there have been a number of questions around the metrics that New York City is using
and that the state is using. I'll allude to that a little bit later on my presentation tonight.
And we'll end on an upbeat note.
And that's the only tease that I'll give you.
But there will be something a little special at the end of that family conversation.
Unlike there was nothing special at the end of my eight-year-old family conversation,
I realized I was going to have to lose all my friends, so that was no good.
If I can, for quantified, have the slides please, it'd be great.
Oh, why don't we do the student council report first, especially since you have it queued up.
So every month, a different school reports to the Board of Education.
This month, it's H.B. Thompson's turn.
We have Salem Pryor and Hallie Fishbind, who are eighth grade representatives.
Good evening, Representative Board of Education, Representative Administration.
We are happy to present to you this evening.
My name is Sarah Pryor.
And my name is Hallie Fishbind.
And we are eighth grade students at Harrie B. Thompson Middle School.
Tonight we are here to tell you about all the great things the students and staff at HBT have been doing since school started back in September.
Obviously, this year has a little different, but the staff and students of HBT are striving
to make the 2020-2021 school year a great one.
Our Student Activity Club brought back our fun Fridays, where everyone dresses in theme.
We have Flannel Friday, Sports Day, Saturday Friday, and every time the day.
Our clubs are up and running and the students are so excited.
We have two new clubs at HBT this year, Sign Language and Thompson Mosaic.
Some of our clubs are meeting virtually like the cooking club and the book club and others are meeting at school.
In true HPT style, we celebrated Halloween with so many students and staff dressing up.
Student activity club is once again sponsoring the food drive.
We are partnered with Long Island Cares to help Long Islanders in need.
Students will make donations to their advisors.
We are excited for some fun activities that we will be having in the near future.
Soon, Activity Club will be hosting a holiday movie before the 7th of April.
Students will go on a movie of their choice through a advisor.
An annual favorite around HBT has always been Spirit Week.
This year, we are hoping to try it out virtually.
And we will be having a big enhancement soon about our spring musical.
HBT is also looking forward to our multi-cultural week.
It will look different this year, but it will still be great.
We are so happy to be back in school and are looking forward to the great activities HBT always has for us.
Thank you and have a great night.
Thank you to Salem and Hallie, and we will have them back again. There was a problem with the video, so I'm sorry that we didn't get to see them, but we'll arrange another opportunity for them to give you an update on what they're up to, so you do have the opportunity to see them.
I'm also very proud to announce that we have a number of NISMA All-State and All-National musicians, and I believe we have a little recognition for them as well.
Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Members of the Board of Education, it is my great honor to be able
to introduce to you this evening 29 students who have been named NISMA All-State Musicians.
29 is a very large number of All-State Musicians to come from any one high school. And I'm
often asked, how is it that Sir Acid has so many All-State Musicians year after
the year. And the answer is twofold and simple. One, we have an administration and a board
of education that is enormously supportive of its music program and really understands
the value of music in the lives of its students. And two, we are part of a community that
would accept nothing less than excellence in performing arts. So with the support
from the community, the administration and the board of education, we have a wonderful
formula for continued excellence. At this time allow me to please introduce to you some
really outstanding students.
Autumn Avery is an alto selected to this year's All-State Treble Chorus. Elizabeth Byrne is
a soprano also selected to this year's All-State Treble Chorus. Stella Chen plays the violin
and will be in the All-State Symphony Orchestra.
Evan Chang also plays the violin and will also be in the All-State Symphony Orchestra this year.
Joseph Chung is a bass who will be singing with the All-State Mixed Chorus.
Alexandra Cleary is an alto who will be singing with the All-State Treble Chorus.
Alexandra Donak is a soprano selected to this year's All-State Mixed Chorus.
Esther Hahn plays the flute and the piccolo and will be doing so in the All-State Symphony
Orchestra. Alexander Hahn, a violinist, will be a member of this year's All-State Symphony
Orchestra. M.O.E.M. plays the oboe and will be doing so in the All-State Wind Ensemble.
Sophia Jaffe plays both the E-flat and B-flat clarinets and was selected to this year's
All-State Symphonic Band. Alex G., a cellist, was selected as an All-State
Alternate. Sajal Joshi is a soprano selected to this year's All-State Mixed Chorus.
Kayla Kessler was selected as the bass player in this year's All-State
Instrumental Jazz Ensemble. Michael Kopatch is a bass who will be
singing with the All-State Mixed Chorus and was also selected as an
alternate to the NAFME All-National Chorus.
Stella Koo, a cellist, will be playing with
the All-State Symphony Orchestra. Zach Levine will be playing drum set with this year's
All-State Instrumental Jazz Ensemble. Eric Liang, a violist, was selected to the All-State
String Orchestra. Bori Lu, a double-bass player, was also selected to the All-State String
orchestra. Jay Maricic is an alto who will be singing with this year's All-State
treble chorus. Grace Mundt, a violinist, will be playing with the All-State Symphony
Orchestra. Augustine Park, a violinist, was also selected to this year's All-State
Symphony Orchestra. Giselle Reschina is a cellist who was selected as an
alternate for the All-State Orchestra.
Nicholas Sayage, a bass, was selected to sing with the All-State Mixed Chorus.
Oscar Shabayev plays the tenor saxophone and will be in the All-State 2020 symphonic band.
Nicholas Thomas, a tenor, was selected for the All-State Mixed Chorus.
Austin C. was selected to play timpani this year in the All-State Wind Ensemble.
Michelle Yang is a cellist who is selected as an alternate to this year's All-State Orchestra.
And Joshua Yoon is a cellist who is also selected as an alternate to the All-State Orchestra.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these students will be rehearsing and performing virtually
with students from around New York State, and NISMA has arranged for what promises
is to be a spectacular virtual Allstate concert.
Congratulations to our Allstate musicians
and thank you for the opportunity to recognize them.
The arts are still alive and well
and the pandemic has not dampened our spirits.
If anything, it's caused us to find even more ways
to be creative and what a better way
to be creative than in the arts.
So we're very proud of these young people
and I'm actually looking forward to seeing
what the final product looks like as they work together across the state to put something
together.
So not only are the arts alive and well in sci-acid, but the science curriculum is alive
and well and one of the questions we got over the summer was how on earth are we going
to do science labs in the pandemic if we're back in the school environment and the
answer is there's plenty of ways to do that so we're going to talk a little bit
about the progress we've made in our science program,
already a rich program, made even better,
and the ways that we're addressing science instruction,
notwithstanding the challenges of the COVID pandemic.
So I'm going to introduce our science coordinator,
Mr. Ray Laversa.
Good evening, members of the Board of Education
and members of the administration.
We are very happy to present to you this evening.
Our district mission calls upon us
to prepare students to thrive in both the future we imagine
and one in which may involve in ways that we've yet to envision.
Well, I was originally scheduled to present to you in March.
As we all know, the world has changed a great deal since then.
In essence, we all have the lived experience of preparing for a future that we've yet to envision.
Whatever that future holds, science is uniquely postured to equip our students with the skills
and the practices that they need to thrive.
So as we've done work to accomplish this vision and to achieve our district goals,
we've strategically supported our teachers and our students in a number of ways.
First, we've realigned our science curriculum to the next generation science standards.
Our focus has been on phenomenon-based teaching and three-dimensional learning.
We started in our elementary schools.
We've also deepened our professional learning
and engaged with our peers across the region.
We have a new STEM specialist that works
in all of our elementary schools,
and you'll be hearing from Barbara in a moment.
We've enhanced our facilities.
When I first arrived in Siasset,
I met with the Board of Education,
and we toured the science labs and mutually agreed
that we needed facilities that better supported
the work of our talented students.
I'm looking forward to showing you how these enhancements have had an impact on our students.
And lastly, we've remained laser focused on an instructional ramp that aligns our curriculum K12.
So this evening, I'm excited to present a window into science education at all levels.
We're going to show you how we're working to prepare our students for the future that we've yet to envision.
But before doing so, I want to set the table, so to speak, and provide some background regarding the new science standards.
When we say that we're teaching science in three dimensions, this is what we mean.
There are three dimensions that we address in our science instruction.
The science and engineering practices, the disciplinary core ideas, and the cross-cutting concepts.
So if you think of science as a meal or a science instruction as a meal,
the science and engineering practices would be the tools you're using in the kitchen.
The core ideas are the ingredients.
Turkey is still turkey.
Cells are still cells.
And lastly, there are cross-cutting concepts,
which are like the seasoning we use to flavor meals,
and you could use them differently to achieve a different flavor profile.
We use cross-cutting concepts to connect science disciplines,
but we also use them to take an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving.
There's no one discipline that can adequately address the challenges of the future.
Science alone cannot address the challenges of a record-breaking hurricane season.
Although research and science is largely seen at the forefront of defeating the current pandemic,
we know from experience that there's no one discipline approach
that solves all the problems created by the novel coronavirus.
Our students will need to draw upon skills and practices that they learned in ELA, math, social studies and science.
Over the next few minutes, we will show you some examples of how our students practice this type of problem solving,
where they have authentic opportunities to engage in process-oriented work of scientists and engineers.
We're going to begin our journey in elementary schools.
Last year, we had the opportunity to make our STEM specialist a full-time position.
Ms. Barbara Fournier serves in this role.
Over the past year, Ms. Fournier has worked with our teachers and our elementary school students to deepen our work in science.
She has done model lessons with teachers, supported our curriculum modifications this past summer,
and has addressed the three dimensions of science through phenomenon-based teaching.
This allows our students to engage in the actual work of scientists and engineers.
It's my pleasure to introduce our STEM specialist, Ms. Barbara Fortier.
Good evening, administrators, trustees of the Board of Education.
Thank you so much for inviting me here tonight to talk to you about some of the exciting things going on in K-5 sci-acid science.
I've been doing pretty exciting work with all of our elementary schools using phenomenon-based learning.
We use Phenomenon to engage students and make them curious about the world around them.
Students think it's just cool.
There are many great examples of Phenomenon-based learning in all of our grades.
The one I'm going to focus on tonight is from third grade.
Our third graders are studying forces and interaction through the engineering Phenomenon
of bridges.
This unit was modified from our regular forces unit from our Carolina curriculum
to adjust to the COVID world.
The challenge of getting to the other side turns out to be a pretty complex problem that students attempted to solve in this unit.
For our third graders, this involved first learning about balanced and unbalanced forces through research, exploration, building, and testing.
First, they built one-story structures to investigate how the structure responded when weights were added to them.
I think they used index cards.
Then they built two-story structures to withstand the force of the air particles of the wind,
and we used a hairdryer for that.
They also learned about the engineering design process,
which involves defining a problem,
how do I get my car across this body of water,
planning and sketching out their designs,
deciding on the best materials to use for their bridge,
and then building and testing their designs,
and really most importantly revising their designs after they see what doesn't work.
This is a really rich process for students that builds creative thinking, problem-solving, and perseverance, and it's really fun.
The video we have for you tonight shows Walt Whitman third grade students building and testing their bridge designs,
and we hope you agree that their creativity and ingenuity as well as their joy of learning shines through.
World problem can be solved using just one subject alone. And through this process, students
are researching, measuring how much weight their bridges hold and their writing. Students are
writing to reflect the merits of their design and to convey complex ideas, information, and
information clearly and accurately. This aligns perfectly with our math and ELA standards.
So learning forces through bridges allows students to learn and brainstorm collaboratively
yet build independently.
I appreciate the opportunity to represent our great work.
Our elementary schools are doing in science,
and I look forward to sharing some more exciting projects
with you in the future.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Ms. Fournier.
The third grade team at Walt Whitman made that video for us,
and I wanna thank them for that.
I don't know about you,
but that song has been in my head all day.
I was humming it online at Dunkin' Donuts.
I'd like to introduce now
Now, Krista Hachadorian from HBT, she's a middle school teacher, and Ms. Hachadorian
is not here with us this evening, but she's made a video that showcases the incredible
work taking place in our middle schools.
Here again, our students are engaged in tasks that require them to draw upon skills
that they learn in a variety of content areas.
They're using ELA, math, and science as they tackle different challenges.
You'll notice the first part of the video, students are working last year before we
went virtual.
The second half shows how our students are doing science this year and adjusting to the challenges in the COVID world.
Good evening everyone. I am Chris Hachadorian, one of the seventh grade science teachers at HB Tape.
I'm fortunate I could not be with you this evening, but I did not want to miss the opportunity to share some of the great things that our students have been doing.
I would like to start by asking everyone to take a moment and think back to middle school science.
What do you remember?
Chalkboards full of notes?
A teacher lecturing as you write copious notes in your binder?
Rows of desks with lab stations around the perimeter?
Maybe you remember your lab partner?
And the labs with a series of steps to follow and questions to answer?
These are the vivid memories I still hold to this day,
and I am sure there are many of you who do as well.
Now let's walk into the seventh grade science class at HBT.
Upon entering the room, you will see groups of students at various stations around the room.
They are collaborating with each other, gathering data, drawing models on whiteboards,
sharing their findings with the class, or perhaps using their phones to capture a phenomenon in slow motion.
This is the science class of today.
These are the experiences that are guiding our students to not only become better learners today,
but to prepare them for their future filled with limitless opportunities.
Our students of today are our future innovators, thinkers, and change-makers, and the duty falls
on us to provide them with the skills they will need to reach their true potential.
As a part of our ongoing shift to the NGSS standards, we are asking our students to be
the creators of knowledge rather than just consumers of facts.
In the classrooms, we remember our teachers would bestow facts upon us and we were
We're then asked to memorize this information and one day repeat it for a test.
Our students today can gather this same information through a Google search or by simply asking
Alexa or Siri.
Success today is not marked by what you know, but rather how you use it.
These new standards are shifting the focus towards why things happen and how this affects
the world around us.
So now, rather than reading a textbook and memorizing facts, they are using phenomena and hands-on experiences.
These experiences are then used to create models that would help them make sense of the world around them
and explain what it is they see and don't see.
From this, we are building within them the skills that cross-cut through disciplines,
skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, and communication.
By now, you may be asking yourself, but how is this happening?
With all our precautions, how can our students possibly complete these activities?
The answer to these questions is simple.
Like our students, the science teachers must be innovative.
Rather than tossing the towel and go back to antiquated teaching methods,
we are iterating our methods to meet the constraints that we are met with.
With social distancing and the use of technology, such as Google Meet breakout rooms, Jamboard
and others, we are moving forward in true sci-acid fashion.
This year marks my 24th year as a member of the sci-acid educational community, and these
changes that we are making are some of the most exciting and fulfilling that I have
been a part of within the science department.
I am proud of these changes we have embarked on, and even more so to be a teacher and role model for our future scientists and innovators.
Thank you very much for your time, and have a nice evening.
There's a great deal of wonderful work occurring in our elementary schools and our middle schools,
and this work is really the foundation of our instructional ramp to high school, college, and beyond.
As I mentioned earlier, when I first met members of the Board of Education,
we discussed science classrooms and our research labs.
We agreed that they were antiquated and did not support the high level of work of our students.
Your support has helped create a space for students that's really more like a college lab as opposed to a high school lab.
We now have an even greater capacity to support students with our new facilities.
The level of lab work our research students engage in is on par with what most students
experience in their second or third year of college.
The work is remarkable.
You always hear from our research students at the end of a successful journey.
And just to give you some context, the pandemic has changed the landscape of what students
could actually do in science research at the high school level.
Due to COVID, many of our students have had to reconsider their project focus and
their goals.
Tonight I would like for you to hear from a student who had to change course in the middle of their journey
and adapt to a future they definitely did not envision a year ago.
The student is Giovanna Napoleon and she's prepared a video that summarizes her journey for you.
Good afternoon. My name is Giovanna Napoleon and I am a student of the Science Advanced Research Program at Siasset High School.
school. In 11th grade, my original project focused on my interests in neurology. It involved
incorporating an antioxidant called hydroxy tyrosol within the food source of C. elegans
and microorganism as a model for Parkinson's disease. However, as I finally completed my
research plan and was able to go ahead with experimentation, New York City schools
announced in early March that they would be closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I admit this announcement frazzled me at first. I would no longer be able to perform my experiment
that I spent an entire year planning on and looking forward to. However, through the amazing help
of research teachers Dr. Hendrickson, Ms. Loraca, and Mr. Allen, I was able to read up on all
sorts of scientific literature and come up with a new project's idea.
Through my independent research, I came across an online public database called IVGAP which
provided tumor histological data on glioblastoma or brain tumors in human patients.
Through noticing necrotic growth patterns presented in the images on the website, I
decided to download them onto my laptop and analyze them using software such as Image
and fracklack that can be used on my computer in order to assess the growth
patterns of necrosis. Through the amazing help of Ms.Ade and Ms.Levin over the
summer and email correspondences in Google Meets, I am proud to say that I
was able to complete my project by early September and become an SCS
applicant for the 2020 to 2021 school year on my project on prediction
analysis of glioblastoma multi-form tumor spread through necrotic growth. I'm so
grateful for all the opportunities and support that I've gotten through the
science advanced research program and I hope to continue making scientific
advancements in the future. Thank you.
Giovanna submitted her entry to STS last week. I've got a chance to see that and
it's really incredible. We're all very proud of her work. In addition to
During the renovations in the research lab, many of our classrooms were newly renovated
as well.
This has fostered even more collaboration and engagement as our students do the work of
scientists.
We've made significant shifts in instruction to address the new standards, but we've
also made shifts to address the unique circumstances of this school year.
As always, knowing the content is a bare minimum for us.
Learning how to use it as leverage and apply it in novel situations is the most important
skills students get from a sci-acid science course. When we began the school
year, one of my colleagues shared a great quote with his staff. I thought it
struck the right tone for us and I decided to use a two. It was from Maya
Angelou and she said, do the best you can until you know better. When you know
better, do better. We've all been so worried, wondering, even hoping that our
best would be good enough. We wanted our best to be good enough to meet
the level of excellence SCIACID is known for. Well, let me assure you it is better than
good enough. The creativity of our teachers in all buildings and the high school in particular
has been inspirational. I see classes every day where our students are actively collaborating
whether they're in person or virtual. Our teachers had systems for collaborative breakout
rooms before Google released them in October. We're still doing labs. Some of them are
hands-on, some of them are simulated, but we've learned to make all of them promote critical
thinking and problem solving. Some of the best teaching I've seen in my career is taking
place in our schools on a daily basis, and I'm very grateful to have the opportunity
to represent that work this evening.
It's been said that one of the best things about
science is its ability to make the invisible become visible. And when you're working
to prepare students for a future that we've yet to envision, you need to be able
to make the invisible become visible.
Our teachers do this every day.
Their work allows students to see hidden relationships
and patterns, and in the middle of one of the most
extraordinary school years of our time,
I've seen some of the best teaching in my career.
When you see our students in action,
it makes the joy of learning visible.
I hope that we've made the excitement
for science education in Sayasit
visible for you this evening.
I want to really thank you for your continued support, and I hope you have a great night.
Thank you, Mr. Laverso, and thank you to Ms. Fournier and Ms. Hedgidurian, and everybody
who worked so hard to put that together.
I will take a moment and just reflect that this is a point of personal pride for me,
both as a science major myself, and seeing what a tremendous shift this has been
for Sci-Asset to really build on not just acquiring content but applying content, moving
beyond memorization, moving beyond procedural labs to experimental labs, and the idea that
we have cross-cutting concepts like the design plan build test revise cycle that is not
not just applicable to a STEM project, but it's everybody's applicable to trying to write
a new song or a poem or a piece of literature. You plan it, you build it, you test it, and
you revise it. That's common to everything that we do. That's where excellence comes
from. And so it's no surprise to me to hear a science teacher say she's so proud of
the work that she's doing, because I think we all recognize that this has really
taken it to the next level. And so Mr. Laverso, your leadership in that is to
be commended because it really has taken an exceptional program and made it even better.
So thank you for that.
With that said, I don't know, were you planning on commenting, Ms. Frankel?
As I saw your green light on and so I didn't want to step in, but just it was a very impressive
presentation what a daunting task it must have been in the beginning, especially in
March to try and figure out how you were going to engage kids virtually and then some virtually
and some in class and by the looks of it the kids are really enjoying themselves and just
give you and your staff a ton of credit for making that happen. Science is exciting and
innovative and to be able to innovate the teaching methods on the fly is
It's just very, very impressive. So thanks.
All right. And Parkway, now we'll do my presentation. Sorry.
Thank you. And I'll take the next slide, please.
So I want to give you a little bit of a reopening update on where we stand.
As we said at the beginning of the year, we would replace where possible in all of our air handling units,
the filters that were in place with MRF-13 filters.
That process is nearly complete.
There were obviously shipping delays because we were not the only entity that was looking to try and upgrade our filters to this standard.
But as they've come in, they've been installed and my understanding is that there's a round of filters being installed even this week.
With the ventilation project, we've been in frequent contact with the State Education Department.
We've gotten some information from them on how they'd like to see the project presented to them.
That way of presenting it, we have to get the State Education Department's approval.
They have suggested a path that will streamline their approval, but it does
require us to invest more time up front in getting the project to them.
That unfortunately is going to delay when we can get the project started.
So our plan B, as a bridge, is going to be to purchase HEPA filters
for the classrooms that don't have mechanical ventilation
other than the use of windows.
So those filters should be here shortly
and we'll start putting them into rooms
that don't otherwise have mechanical ventilation.
And then obviously we will still work as quickly
as we can to get the ventilation,
the actual mechanical ventilation in place.
So in terms of the return to the classroom,
we have opened the portal for parents
to who are currently have children who are studying 100% virtually if they want to come
back to the in-person environment as part of our reopening plan this summer.
We said that we would let elementary students come back after the first trimester, let secondary
students come back after the first quarter, not really knowing what this fall would
look like or how many people would opt for one option or the other.
We just knew that we would have to have some sort of a point in time where we
you would give people the opportunity
and then see what happens.
And see what happens is a lot of what we've been doing
this year.
So the good news is at the secondary level
we will have no difficulty accommodating all
of the students who want to come back there.
We had always said that this would be
on a space available basis.
There's obviously limitations to the space
because we're trying to maintain social distance
in the classrooms.
But the good news is at the secondary level
we should be able to accommodate everyone
at the elementary level, we're close to being able
to accommodate everyone.
We don't have to make assignments yet
because the first trimester is not over.
We did the survey early and we are still seeing
some attrition from the in-person environment
to the virtual environment that frees up space
for virtual students who wish to return.
And right now we believe that there are six grades
at the elementary level, kindergarten through five,
and then there are seven buildings,
so that creates 42 different grade levels
at the various buildings.
And we believe that all but six of those 42 grade levels
will have room to accommodate the students
who want to return to the in-person environment.
So that obviously leaves the remaining six
that are a challenge and about 20 students
that we're going to have to figure out about,
I guess it's more like,
yeah, about 20 students that we have to accommodate.
So, we've been talking to the building principles about that.
There are some creative ideas out there that we need to explore a little bit further.
Again, we do have time, and there is still ongoing attrition.
So, it may work out more easily, if not,
we'll probably have to entertain something like a lottery system
in order to be able to allocate the space that we do have as fairly as possible.
And then the last bullet point on there is addressing rumors.
And over the course of the last week, we fielded rumors that all of the superintendents had
met with one another and made a decision.
All of the superintendents had met with the county executive and made a decision.
All of the superintendents had met with the governor and made a decision.
And my secretary actually poked her head in my office and said,
said, did you meet with the governor this weekend? And I said, I couldn't possibly.
I'm far too busy. So I hope the governor never watches this. So my point is none of
those things happened. Obviously, superintendents are in touch with one another constantly.
That's part of how we do our jobs even in a normal year. And this is anything but
a normal year. And so we're all trying to learn from one another. But we're
not making collective decisions together.
So in the presentation, if I could have the next slide,
I can talk a little bit about some of what is going on
and how I believe the state is going to be approaching
the difficulty as we're now seeing cases go up.
So New York City, as I'm sure you read in the papers,
the mayor back in the summer had set sort of a standard
considered for the city of 3%. If the positivity rate went over 3%, he was going to consider
closing schools and going virtual again. That was a bold prediction very early on, and it's
kind of constrained some of their ability to do some decision-making.
The state, by contrast, has come up with more recently something they're calling a
microcluster strategy. They're identifying pockets where the positivity rate has
gone up sharply. They're identifying the localized reasons for why that positivity rate is going
up. And they're doing closures, but those closures are focused in either a yellow zone
or a red zone or orange zone so that they're not having such dramatic impact on the economy,
but they're really focusing on the places where it appears that community transmission
is occurring.
So it's a complicated formula.
It's not just when you hit 3% and you close.
It's three layers.
The yellow zone, obviously the least intrusive,
orange zone and red zone.
And so if there is a positivity rate over 2.5%
on a seven-day running average for 10 days,
then that's the first criteria that would be necessary
to get into a yellow zone.
If that positivity rate was over 3%,
orange zone and 4% red zone.
If you do hit the orange or red zones,
schools are not permitted to be open for live instruction.
It would have to be all virtual instruction.
But that positivity rate is not the only metric.
So there also has to be 10 cases
of COVID on a daily average basis per 100,000 residents.
And then there are a series of other criteria.
For each zip code, you have to have more than five cases
per day for zip codes that have more than 10,000 people,
more than three cases per day for zip codes
that have less than 10,000 people, et cetera.
So not all of this data is readily available to us.
We can see county level positivity data.
We can see zip code level case data but not testing data so we don't know the percentage of tests that are positive.
So we're a little bit in the dark in terms of knowing where we are.
But the overall numbers are such that it doesn't appear that we're going to be in a yellow zone immediately.
But obviously cases have been going up sharply in the last week or so.
and that certainly is worrisome because they can't go up
indefinitely without us going into a yellow
or an orange or a red zone.
If I could have the next slide, please.
So these are the data.
This is Nassau County's data.
They do provide the positivity rate by county.
And you can see that the county has entered
into the yellow zone in terms of the positivity rate
but not any of the other metrics yet.
If it were to go up from here some more, that would be the orange zone.
And the blue line is, you know, from day to day there's a lot of noise.
The orange line is the rolling average for the county,
but it has gone up very sharply in the last week and a half.
Next slide, please.
And then this is the number of cases per 100,000.
So this, again, has crossed over the metric line, but we don't, the state has not designated
any yellow zones on Long Island yet.
So the state does have these microclusters on a map that is on the state's website.
And there are clusters in Portchester, Westchester County, there's one in Orange County, there's
in Broom County, Tioga County, Erie County,
they are scattered throughout the state,
but so far they're on Long Island.
But obviously, these are worrisome trends.
On this chart, the top line is the county's
rate of increase of cases,
and the bottom line is Siocet's rate of increase of cases.
And so what you can see is that for much
of the summer and fall, we have been well below
that the county on a, you know, once you adjust for the size of our population here in Siocet,
but these last few days, this last week or so, our rate of increase is steeper than the
county's rate of increase, and the county's rate of increase is concerningly steep.
So for us to be steeper is ever more concerning.
And this is why we need to have a family conversation so that we can all work together
to try and wrestle that curve back to the ground.
Next slide, please.
So some other data points to think about.
And I take pride in I thank Ms. Frankel
for her compliments to all the administration
for the work that we've done to reopen schools.
And it is very fortunate that we have not yet seen
any cases of transmission that are occurring in school.
And it's also fortunate that our own internal contact tracing work in cooperation with the
Department of Health has allowed us to move very quickly so that we can ascertain what
we need to know in order to make decisions about school the next day so that, again,
we preserve as much in-person instruction as we possibly can.
There's a whole team of people that works very hard when we learn of a case.
but it's going to become more challenging as time goes on.
So, and the point I wanna make is that
just because we've moved quickly,
just because we have not had to have a lot of closures,
does not mean that all is well.
There have been,
every school district that closes a school
is required to report that,
so it's easy to track the data.
Since the 8th of October, there have been over 120 school closures in Nassau County of varying lengths.
So there are a tremendous number of closures. I probably get three or four of these emails daily.
The good news is that we have 17 cases that are more than 14 days old,
and for every one of those cases we have not seen any further transmission through the school environment.
Again, it's reassuring because it means that the procedures so far have held up, but it's
not an invitation for us to take more risks.
It means that we're just on the right side of the risk line, at least for now.
Since the start of school, there have been over 150 people that have been in some
form of quarantine, even if the contact was not a school-based contact, it was
family-based contact or as a party-based contact or as a sports-based contact. There has been a
lot of people who have been in proximity of COVID and again these are not our data to report
but we do follow it because we need to know who's not permitted in school yet so that we can
make sure they come back on the right day and we are tracking all of these individuals as well
and the point again is just because we're able to open school the next day
does not mean that there aren't that there aren't that there isn't a
significant impact from COVID there's a lot going on and we're trying to track
all of it and then the the last point is in the summer and early fall we were
seeing numbers of new cases on a daily basis for the county as a whole
in the 60, 70, 80 cases a day range.
The last several days, it has been in the 300 and 400 cases per day range.
And so our ability to work quickly with the Department of Health
is going to become more challenging,
not because they are less inclined to work with us.
Our relationship with them has been extraordinary
and they have been magnificent to work with,
so professional, so thoughtful, so on top of it.
but it's clear that the strain
of having 400 new cases a day
feeding into their contact tracing department
is it's going to have an impact
on our ability to move quickly.
So I do feel like we're entering a different phase.
The last two weeks have felt very different
from the first two months of school
and we're obviously watching things closely
but we're going to need as a community
to make some shifts and adjustments.
And then I just wanted to point out we do keep track of a dashboard on our website.
It's updated daily with any new cases that we have. The nice thing, as I mentioned, is that
we illustrate which cases are resolved, obviously not by name because of privacy considerations.
But it does let the community know that we're tracking when these cases go past the 14 days
so that we can see if there was any further transmission in the school environment. And
if not, well, we kind of close those cases and we can focus our attention on the cases
that are a little newer, a little pressure and obviously we're watching closely to make sure
that there's no further transmission from those cases as well. And with all of these,
and all of the plans that we've put together, the goal was because we know that there are people
who may have the disease but are asymptomatic, you may never know who is infected and so
the procedures that we have in place from the masks to the distance to the barriers
are designed to keep people protected
even if somebody were in our midst and had the disease
or is pre-symptomatic and become sick a couple days later.
So our hope is to be able to keep doing what we're doing.
It appears to be holding up well.
Obviously it's going to go through the biggest test
that it could possibly have over the course of the next several weeks.
But I do, with this microcluster strategy
in other parts of the state that have made it into yellow and even orange zones, they
have been able to turn it around.
So we're not in a yellow zone or an orange zone yet.
And so turning it around should be easier for us than it was for these other parts
of the state that had an even bigger job to wrestle it down.
So I do think we can do it, but it's going to take everyone's attention and everyone's
dedication.
So to that point, just a couple more things, not on reopening, but on more of the operation of the school district.
On the agenda tonight is an agreement with South Nassau Mount Sinai Hospital.
If the school does go into the yellow zone, they're required to test 20% of the students and staff every two weeks for COVID.
And in order to do that, you need some sort of testing capacity.
So we are in the process now of building that capacity.
It will be here on this campus and we'll have availability through South Nassau.
Should the board approve this resolution this evening to provide testing on site,
it will be a convenience on the one hand.
And if we're in a position where we have to do testing,
we will already have that capacity up and running and in place.
And we have been approaching this and exploring a partnership with the Jericho School District.
Their Board of Education does not meet until later this week,
and so I certainly don't want to speak for them, but we've invited them to join with us in this partnership.
And if they so choose, they'll be welcome partners of ours, and we'll know about that later in the week.
And then lastly, I just wanted to update the board on the Amazon project that is going in in the former Siro Wire site.
We did meet, as we said we would at the last meeting with the developers.
They gave us what seemed largely to be the same presentation they made to the NASA IDA.
We got a fairly comprehensive understanding of what the site plan looks like,
what their intended uses for the property are and we identified unsurprisingly the same
things that we identified a couple of years ago with the Siocic Park project, worries
about traffic, worries about construction, dust, noise, et cetera, worries about how
the property would be remediated and questions about what the process looks like from here
in terms of the remediation plan, the community air monitoring plan, the construction plan,
the dust mitigation plan, et cetera.
So we don't have answers to a lot of those things.
We have foiled the town for a number of the documents that are in Amazon submission,
and we are sharing those.
We got one site plan, so we've shared that with our environmental consultant.
We're waiting for a comprehensive report from her.
And our intention is to do for the board what we did for you two years ago in 2018,
which is to do a comprehensive review of any documents that were afforded the opportunity to look at.
And then finally they have applied for a,
I've gone before the NASA IDA to apply for a tax abatement.
That's something the board wrote a letter to the IDA about back in the summer.
And we don't have any information other than looking for an abatement on what exactly that might look like.
But we are obviously trying to follow it as closely as we can with the documents that are publicly available.
And so just
making sure in my notes I haven't missed anything.
No, that concludes my report. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Do any of our board members have questions about the superintendent's report?
Yes,
Dr. Rogers, on the testing, are these the antigen, the COVID-19 antigen test that
will be, you're thinking of doing on the site?
Yes, they are COVID antigen tests, that's a rapid test.
There is a new test in the pipeline that is probably going to be available in December.
It'll be a less expensive test and will also require less equipment in order to read the results.
So we're going to go with the test that's available right now as we stand up the testing site.
And then we're going to convert to the new test in December when the test becomes available.
And South Nassau did indicate that they have an order placed for that.
And so they're anticipating they'll have some availability.
quality.
The state is offering, on their website, and I confirm with them, free testing kits,
the COVID-19 rapid test.
And they also talk about schools can become approved to do testing
using a wavered test if it becomes registered as a limited service laboratory, LFL.
Is that something that we're taking advantage of rather than buying these tests?
And if we do have to buy the tests, are they being covered by the members' health insurance?
Yeah.
We're not buying any tests.
This will be a community testing site
of the South Nassau Hospital that will be on our campus.
So the convenience will be that it's on our campus.
Our relationship with South Nassau already
is that they furnish us with the school physician.
So this will be an additional service through them.
The testing will work the same as it would
at a rapid testing and urgent care center
where you would go in, if you had insurance,
the test would be made available to you,
the billing would go through South Nassau.
The, my understanding of the tests
that are being offered through New York State
is that is for schools that are in yellow zones
and need testing kits in order to be able
to get to the 20%.
Given the size of our students and staff,
we would have to have probably 1,600 kits
every two weeks in order to meet that need.
So if it were that we were to become a yellow zone school,
I think we would need to supplement our testing ability with the test that the state has.
But my understanding is that those test servers are first for schools that are in the yellow zones.
We did look into becoming a limited service laboratory at the beginning of the school year.
Where we are now with South NASA was our fallback plan,
which I think is actually a better plan than our original idea,
which was to become a limited service laboratory.
There are a number of requirements to become an LSL
that we couldn't meet about having to have
extremely cold storage,
having to have certain types of people
with qualifications on site.
And it looked to me like the kinds of school districts
districts that might be able to get LSL designations would have to be very large urban districts
or districts that had health care. There are some districts that have health care providers
on site that do medical and dental screenings for students right there. They probably would
be better positioned to do it, but it looked to me like it would be very costly to try
and stand up all the capacity we would need to have an LSL here, unless the state
just changed the rules since the beginning of the year. But by using South NASA, we take
advantage of their testing license without having to go and acquire one of our own. So
in some ways it's easier to buy this license through them than it is to try and invent one
for ourselves.
And Dr. Rogers, I have one last question on the COVID. I heard some updates with
the vaccine. They're already designing that the vaccine is free, that there will be a
copay or small administrative fee if people don't have insurance. So that's, you know,
the reports out there are very high percentage of success. And if that comes about whenever
it does in the next few months hopefully. I guess we the school district needs to recalibrate
to determine if students get vaccinated and how that may impact.
Well I will say at a personal and professional level I'm very excited about the news of
the last two weeks and two different manufacturers that are reporting really encouraging results
for vaccines. I think the next question will be how quickly they can get approvals and then from
there how quickly they can manufacture large numbers of doses and then lastly where and how
those doses will be allocated among the population. So it may not affect us in the current school
year. I don't have a good sense of how long it will take for all three of those steps to
take place. But the one thing that I have learned since March is that every week appears
to be a new challenge to learn how to fix. And I think we will probably cross that bridge
as it comes to us, and it will require us to be nimble as it comes along. But I share
your optimism and enthusiasm.
Thank you, Dr. Rogers.
Are there any other questions for Dr. Rogers in the superintendent's report? Tom Otolo.
Thank you, Tracy.
And I'd like to radiate what you had said before that as a resident and as a school board member,
I'm very grateful for Dr. Rogers, the administration, the principals, the teachers, the security guards,
the lunch aides, the IT staff, the custodial staff, everybody who has made this possible.
Well, this is not business as usual.
I want, I just want to stress that.
And I want to thank also the students enduring all this
and the parents making this happen.
I know it's been very difficult on everybody.
So I just want to, I just don't want that to go unnoticed.
We are pushing forward and this is a very difficult time.
And I appreciate the testing.
I know again we're leaders in that,
like we were with pushing on the online education
before everybody else so I just want to point that out.
With the testing, I know we've had some
with returning students to school
with the rapid tests that came out negative
but then in turn were positive
after they were sent to the lab.
So any change on that to try to get the PCR test
to return back to school?
So there are, the PCR test is the most accurate test
that is available right now
but the turnaround time is between five and 10 days
to get results back, so the state requires,
the return to school protocol is in something called
the tool kit, the New York State Tool Kit,
and the tool kit explicitly states that you can accept
either the PCR test or a rapid test and antigen test.
So the advantage of the antigen test is it's very quick.
The disadvantage is that you do get some false negatives.
So the point I made earlier about having designed our school environment so that even if there
was someone unknowingly in the school environment who is positive, we still have three layers
of protection in place, the mass, the distance, the barriers.
Whether that person is in school and positive because they're just simply asymptomatic
or whether that person is in school and positive
because they're asymptomatic and the first test
that they got didn't show, it's kind of the same thing.
So I don't know that we would gain any additional protection
from requiring a PCR test because we'll still have,
if somebody has symptoms, they shouldn't be in school.
And even if you get a rapid test and you still have
symptoms, even if the rapid test is negative,
you shouldn't be in school.
If you're sick, stay home.
But I don't know that we will gain any additional, I think we'll
Force kids out of the in-person environment, possibly unnecessarily, without gaining any safety
in compensation for that.
Are there any other questions for Dr. Rogers?
Okay, great. Thank you, Dr. Rogers.
We will begin audience to the public today.
If you have any questions or comments for the board, please come to the register
and identify your name and your address for the board.
You must be a Psyosent resident to speak.
You'll have an initial four minutes in which you can ask questions but you cannot pull board
members on individual opinions.
We'll do our best to answer questions at the end of that first round of four minutes when
everyone has asked their questions and then if anyone wants to follow up in a second round
of four minutes you can have that and we'll answer those questions at the end of that
round as well.
We don't talk about personnel matters and we don't talk about we don't talk
about individual students for privacy reasons, so please respect that. And
additionally we never speak from the audience. It's just not allowed. Safety
is paramount here. So with that if anyone has any questions or comments for
the board please come up to the podium.
Going once, twice. Okay that closes
audience to the public today. For discussion items, the many members of the Board of Education
attended the New York State School Board's Association conference. We did this virtually,
and I invite any board member who has a favorite seminar that they attended to share that with
the board and the community.
Anna?
At
the convention this year, I listened in on an engaging conversation with the State
Education Department represented by the Interim Commissioner, Betty Rosa, and the Region
Vice-Chancellor, T. Andrew Brown, who provided a statewide view from the State Education
Department perspective of the key educational issues facing school districts and the Department
of Education during these unprecedented times, including new financial and state aid challenges
in equities, alternate graduation measures, and digital divide, which became even more
apparent during the pandemic.
While verbalizing the new challenges associated with navigating through these uncharted waters,
both speakers pointed out how all stakeholders, including state legislature, are committed
to working together to make sure public education now state remains intact and
and accessible to all children regardless of their zip code and socioeconomic status.
A special emphasis was made on making sure our students are not only prepared for furthering
their education or entering a workforce upon graduation, but also becoming good citizens
and contributors to our society.
In her closing statement, Commissioner Rosa expressed her sincere hope that as social
human beings, once we are through this pandemic, we remain connected, compassionate and kind
and our children learn the same.
I must say from my personal perspective, listening to all the new concerns, all the new concerns
during this unprecedented times, I once again felt extremely fortunate to be a CIS at
Paranova School-Aged Children, receiving quality education despite the rapidly changing
educational format and remaining uncertainties.
I must say our kids are really lucky
and we're lucky to be here thanks to, as Tom said,
everyone who made it impossible, possible really.
Kudos to the teachers especially and everyone involved.
Thanks for sharing that with us Anna.
Are there any other board members
that would like to share, Carol Chang?
Okay,
the workshop that I would like to share with everyone is bullying and students with disabilities.
Bullying has created a national public health problem such as mental health and suicide.
Research has shown long-term impact and effect on students.
Bullying has a marked impact on student engagement and attendance.
Students with disabilities may not understand the extent to which bullying behavior is harmful
or may be socially pressured to stay silent.
Responsibilities of districts to address bullying include
send a clear message of anti-bullying from the outset,
foster a positive and engaging school climate,
develop and implement policies,
investigate any reports of bullying,
as well as take both proactive and reactive measures.
In SCIA said, we put in tremendous efforts
in addressing bullying,
and we encourage students and parents to reach out.
And I find this very, especially during the pandemic,
this is something that the district
has taken a lot of measure on
and then we do encourage parents to reach out and speak up.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Carol.
Krista Filippo.
Thank you, Tracy.
As you know, I was the delegate for the board,
the meeting, I don't know, it was about five hours, it was, you know, very interesting
to go through all the resolutions and hear all the different conversations from the other
school districts and then last minute change, you know, some of them were articulated better
and then as a group we voted on it and, you know, that went very well.
I just thought overall whereas there was a lot of very good points doing it
virtually I would welcome back being in person and the conference to have an
interaction with people either in the exhibits or in the different workshops
stops. And I think that's where the trustees really get to the feel of how other schools
you know operate and work. But they didn't give a break. You had to take your own break
but you know you get a huge wrong judgment right. But I thought you know overall it
was, it was good, you know, given the situation we're in, it was better to have it than not
have it. So that's what I was saying.
Thank you, Chris. To your point, I do, I do agree with you that there's something about
being at a conference live that increases the impact that other districts have on
each other, and I remember a few years ago going on a lunch break to a restaurant, and
I sat down next to two people from, two board members from a very small school district,
and we were talking about some of the more, I guess, progressive policies that were going
going on in New York State and their school district when I say small, I mean like a hundred
or so kids in the district small. And the conversation that we had was really incredible
from where they stood at the beginning of the conversation on these policies to where
they stood at the end of that conversation. And I think, you know, they impacted me as
as much as I impacted them during that brief time.
And so we certainly miss out on those experiences
when it's not live, but grateful for NISBA
for putting it together and making the,
and making the seminars available to all of us
because we certainly learn a lot from attending these things.
Okay, with that, we'll go on to the next discussion item.
BOCES has a budget review committee every year and the districts that are within BOCES are
allowed up to two school board members to attend.
I believe that there are three meetings, one in December, one in January.
I don't recall when the third date is, but if we could have one or two volunteers to
attend those meetings, and then report back to the board.
Eventually, we all vote on the BOSI's budget,
and so it's always important to be informed.
Are there any takers?
Carol Chang and Anna Levitan, thank you so much.
And feel free to, you know,
coordinate with the dates,
so you don't have to all go to every single one,
but if one date works for you, that would be amazing.
So appreciate that. Fran, if you could note that Anna Levitan and Carol Cheng will attend
and then let Boci Snow. Thank you. Okay, there's no unfinished business, so we will begin
A items. A1 is the approval of staff changes for certified staff. May I have a motion?
Christa Filippo, seconded by Carol Cheng. Are there any questions? All in favor?
Opposed? Any abstentions? A2 is the approval of 2020-2021 stipends and hourly
may have a motion please. Ms. Durgershaw, seconded by Mr. Feldman. Are there any questions?
Call in favor. Opposed? Any abstentions? A3 is the appointment of interim Executive
Director of Human Resources Revised. May have a motion please. Ms. Falco, seconded
by Mr. Rotolo. Are there any questions? Call in favor. Opposed? Any abstentions?
Okay, A4 we did at the top of the meeting, but we can always give another congratulations
because that's exciting, so congratulations again at Escobar.
A5 is the ratification of stipulation of agreement with the STA.
May I have a motion, please?
Crystal Filippa, seconded by Susan Falcov.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
A6 is the appointment of a per diem substitute principal revised.
May I have a motion please?
Ms. Chang, seconded by Mr. Rotolo.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
B items.
B one is the approval of recommendations
from the committee on special education.
May I have a motion please?
Mr. Feldman, seconded by Ms. Levitan.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
B two is the approval of recommendations
from the committee on preschool special education.
May I have a motion please?
Mr. DiFilippo, seconded by Ms. Valkov.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
B3 is the appointment of attendance officer
and Title IX coordinator.
May I have a motion please?
Ms. Chang, seconded by Mr. Rotolo.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
B4 is the appointment of residency officer,
or attendance officer and Title IX coordinator.
May I have a motion, please?
Mr. Feldman, seconded by Mr. Gershon.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
B-5 is the approval of Student Club Charters 2020-2021.
May I have a motion, please?
Ms. Falco, seconded by Mr. DiFilippa.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
B-6 is the first reading of policy
is school district records, parent and family engagement, board member, school district officers
and employee code of ethics, student attendance, student wellness, student records, and the
code of character, conduct and support. May have a motion.
Mr. Feldman, seconded by Ms. Levitan. Are there any questions? Okay, this will be
voted on at the December 14th, 2020 meeting. C1 is the authorization for service contracts.
May I have a motion please?
Ms. Falcove seconded by Ms. Chang.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
C2 is the authorization for special education
and nursing contracts.
May I have a motion please?
Mr. Feldman seconded by Ms. Levitan.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
C3 is the authorization for contracts
for federal Part B funds.
May I have a motion please?
Ms. Falco, seconded by Ms. Levitane.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
C4 is the authorization for use of reserve funds.
May I have a motion, please?
Mr. Falcone, seconded by Ms. Levitane.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Oh, sorry, Chris, go ahead.
I have a few questions.
Is this going forward? Maybe I should read all the questions and then you can answer.
So is this the request going forward? Because I think we've approved the other use of reserve funds on October 8th.
So is this new expenditure?
And
what's the purpose of this? And do we know what we've
spent year to date per student on COVID related expenses?
Thank you.
The reserve fund that we talked about on October 8th was the capital reserve. And there are monies
in, there were $5 million put into that at the end of last year. That was funded from monies
that were unexpended last year partially because of the COVID related closure. And that money
has been allocated towards the ventilation project. What this item does is it allows
the school district to temporarily use reserve funds
to cover a short-term cash flow shortfall.
So there are two ways that we can cover
this cash flow shortfall.
One is to borrow in the marketplace
or to borrow from ourselves.
So this was actually something five years ago,
Mr. Gang suggested that we do,
he noticed that we were doing short-term borrowing
to cover expenses.
And he suggested that we borrow from ourselves since we have reserves.
The law didn't allow it at that time, but the law was changed this year because of COVID to allow this and other purposes.
But this is not going to be an expenditure from the reserves.
This will just be short-term borrowing from the reserves and then we pay the reserves back immediately.
And we're not sure we'll even need this authority, and if we do, we will only need it for a matter of maybe a week or two.
But the savings to the district of not having to do the closing costs of a borrowing, it's called a tax anticipation note at hand,
will save us quite a bit of money. So this really does make a lot of sense for us to do.
Are there any other questions on C4?
So
Dr. Rogers is,
well, that's what the anticipation that we could, I could understand, it's barring
it temporarily.
It has to be the intent is to replace it.
I think it's the guidelines, it's unlike the other one where there was a specific
purpose to that reserve and it was yours.
So would the, you would still need board approval, right?
this just facilitates it or what's the, you know, the framework around the approval process.
Using it is one thing, but do you still get a motion to approve if you needed to use that for something, right?
This motion is the authorization to allow us to use these reserve funds to cover this short-term cash flow issue.
As you know, we receive funds from the county for property taxes.
They collect the property taxes on our behalf, but the county has been offering delays in
collection in order to help homeowners.
And so those delays in collection are resulting in delays in sharing those monies with us.
And so to cover that timing gap, we absolutely anticipate that the county is going to
furnish us with those funds, they're just not going to give them to us as timely as they
ordinarily would. And so this is not an expenditure against budget. This is just replacing the
revenue that's necessary until the county furnishes the funds that we anticipate from them.
So this is just covering the cash flow need that we have in the short term.
You're
welcome.
So to piggyback on it, Christy Filippo, then once those funds come in, because this is a
timing difference, then do we reimburse the fund and replenish it?
Yes, 100%.
So whatever we use to cover this short-term cash flow shortfall will all be replenished
to the reserve as soon as the funds come in from the county.
And the way the law is written, we have to replenish it with whatever interest we
we would estimate would have been earned on the funds.
But again, the period of time,
it's probably just a matter of one or two weeks
is gonna be so short that's probably not much money,
but just for the sake of the board,
I just want you to know that we do have to repay it,
quote, with interest.
Just, I can't imagine it's gonna be very much.
Okay, all in favor of C4, opposed?
Any abstentions?
C5 is the adoption of grants for the 2020-2021
Anyone school year revised?
May I have a motion, please?
Mr. DeFilippo, seconded by Mr. Gershon.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed?
Any abstentions?
C6 and C7 can be taken together
regarding an inter-municipal agreement.
They are the approval of disclosure
and consent agreement
and approval of inter-municipal agreement.
May I have a motion, please?
Mr. DeFilippo, seconded by Mr. Feldman.
Are there any questions?
All in favor?
Opposed? Any abstentions? C8 is the disposal of broken surplus and or obsolete
equipment in books. May I have a motion, please? Ms. Falcove, seconded by Ms. Chang.
Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you all for attending
and motion to adjourn.