Board of Education, Regular Meeting

1. 0:28E e un States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all.
2. 1:35Thank you. Mark dep here, Amanda grer here, kirston Guston here, Willette Jones here, Calvin Lewis, Matt ma here, L Walker here.
3. 2:01Thank you. I'll make a motion to accept the agenda as presented.
4. 2:09Second. All in favor?
5. 2:15Doent represent a report. Hi, good evening.
6. 2:19Good evening. Uh, so I'd like to start off with something we did today. Um, the student council today hosted uh a mock election, well actually we host did the election on Election Day and the ballots were all counted during the school day today.
7. 2:34Um, cona Harris won by around 40 votes. Um, and yeah, it went well. Um, I'm pretty sure we had very good turnout. I think we had a total of like 400ish votes, which is, I think we were missing a little over 80 something, so we had pretty good amount of voting.
8. 2:57Um, also today is the last boys varsity football game, it's going on right now. Uh, to back up a little bit, on Sunday model un had their first conference in New York City of this school year, went very well. I was there. Um, yeah, had a good time.
9. 3:15Uh, on this Thursday the 7th is the Powderpuff football game, which again is the senior girls against the junior girls. Um, they've been practicing quite a bit. Um, and on the 23rd of November is a volleyball tournament hosted in collaboration between Varsity Club and um National Honor Society, so if you want to sign up I'm pretty sure you have to contact Miss Flint. I don't, I don't know the exact details on that.
10. 3:49Um, oh also coming up are the auditions for our musical. Our musical was decided to be Annie. Um, the auditions are between the 19th and 21st of November from 2:45 to 5:00 p.m. Um, there's instructions if you get the the uh Parent Portal or whatever the uh emails are, then you can see the instructions on on the auditions.
11. 4:15Uh, oh yeah, also today the uh Hudson High Wind Ensemble was invited to play at high and mighty farm for a Veterans Day breakfast. Um, we marched uh around and played the Stars bangal band and a couple of army hymns and songs, a lot of fun. Um, that was a setup by Mish Schmidt and the kindness Club. Um, she teaches life skills and they go over there uh I think every Wednesday. So yeah, that's it, thank you.
12. 4:47Very cool, thank you very much.
13. 4:55No need for early executive. Um, make a motion to accept Personnel agenda items a 1 through 7 and B 2 through 4.
14. 5:12Second. All in favor?
15. 5:15And then uh make a motion to accept Personnel agenda item uh B1.
16. 5:25So I'm going to rescuse myself from that item. I'm also going to Pro to myself on that one.
17. 5:33Second. Oh second, sorry.
18. 5:33All right, all in favor? Great, thank you.
19. 5:46Okay, public phone. Okay, um, ladies and gentlemen, about to convene into the public comment period of our meeting. Although state law does not require us to hold a public comment period, we have chosen to do so because we believe it's crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues.
20. 6:24Having said that, please note the board is here to listen. The public comment period is not designed to be a discussion. Accordingly, please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions tonight. This is because we take your concerns and questions seriously and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be.
21. 6:40We will however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting uh or have a proper staff member get back to you. Also want to point out that under state and federal privacy laws were unable to entertain any comment or questions about school Personnel. Uh, each speaker has three minutes.
22. 7:00First person up is Linda f.
23. 7:10Hello board members, my name is Linda fix and I'm here to make sure that you and the public are aware of an extremely important issue of food insecurity in our community. I run the backpack program with a team of volunteers, some of whom are here tonight. This project has has been in effect since 2010.
24. 7:31Every week our team meets to pack up groceries from the food bank, we get a delivery once a month from the food bank. We currently pack these bags at the junior high school every Thursday morning. We also get generous Community donors to make sure that the elementary school family that needs it has food for the weekends when our students don't receive breakfast and lunch.
25. 7:55We pack each bag with easy to prepare items which always includes two breakfast items like cereal oatmeal or instant pancake mix, three Entre like soup peanut butter and jelly or a pasta dish. We also put in Fruit canned vegetables and even some snacks like granola bars pudding or crackers. Every other week we Supply the bags with egg and milk cards from stewards.
26. 8:25The recipients of this program are kept conf confidential and is decided by the teachers and Jason Hanley. Last year we served 55 families from our elementary school and we know that especially in times like these more and more families benefit and depend on our program.
27. 8:44I also want to make you aware that there is a food pantry project for the high school students managed by wette. We do not use any District funds for this program, so we are incredibly fortunate to have amazing donors like Richard and terz of atola, the Elks Club, Hudson Correctional Facility, Columbia Children's Foundation and rystrom Hill and many individual donors throughout our community.
28. 9:10Of course we are always looking for more donors. We have made up some flyers to share our program and anyone wants to know more about this program they are available. We invite anyone to come down to view our Volunteers in action. Uh, there are, we are there Thursday mornings between between 9 and 10:00 a.m.
29. 9:29Just on a side note I had a mom call the school to say little Johnny did not get his backpack but Susie did. It turned out that the bus driver did not remind Little Johnny to pick up his bag at the front of the bus. The mom said they really count on this food each week, so you can imagine the important of feeding these families. I'd like to thank you for allowing me to talk about this very important program.
30. 9:56Thank you very much. Kathleen Clark.
31. 10:13Good evening, my name is Kathy Clark. I signed up to speak as a volunteer of the backpack program in case Linda ran out of time actually. Um, and if we had to share some more information, first of all I'd like
32. 10:27to recognize Linda for her for 14 years of service leading this program she started the program with nothing and her passion continues to lead us today I do know most of the board members but I'd like to introduce myself to the administrators my husband and I are proud graduates of Hudson High School we recently had our 50th class reunion so we're old we've seen a lot in many year our many years supporting the district my children graduated from here my grandchildren currently attend MC Smith Elementary.
33. 10:59I was the after school program director for 22 years until I retired a few years ago as the Director I oversaw the 21st century and My Brother's Keeper grants including the budgets I recently reviewed the New York State education department website and observe that Hudson City School District is currently a recipient of both of these grants in the past New York state would approve the funds to offset some of the backpack program costs under code 40 of the fs10 I'm guessing These funds have all been allocated for this year and we are hoping we could be included in next year's fs10 budgets for ,000 per Grant to offset our yearly cost of appro approximately $116,000 well that has my phone number if you need to have any questions.
34. 11:47but before my time runs out I want to comment on the school board meetings I love that the meetings are online I watch them all and I believe it allows many many people to participate and form their own opinions instead of getting secondhand information currently there are a great deal of changes I believe Change Is Not a Bad Thing more necessary action to move forward when done correctly for me the thing that gives me hope for my grandchildren's educational future besides their wonderful and caring teachers is your student representative Thomas I don't know Thomas in my opinion he's the highlight of the board meetings he gives in informative updates on the students thoughts and needs he listens to all the presentations and gives valuable feedback he is well-rounded and appears to represent all students in my experience when you listen to the students tend to their needs and gain the respect everything else falls into place congratulations and keep up the good work Thomas thank you for your time thank you
35. 13:03Rocky pay good evening everyone um I'm Rocky P I wear a lot of hats but most importantly school counselor I want to talk about something positive tonight and about positive relationships that teachers have with their students and I'm going to talk more specifically during my time as a mentor for the my brothers Keepers fellows had the opportunity to serve as a mentor in 2018 and last year and what was so unique about it was that these young men had a chance to engage in leadership activities across the state and their teachers were very uh supportive of the times that they would have to go to trainings they'd have to go to sessions and most importantly the building administrators have always been support of these initiatives the teachers were flexible and they also supported the students.
36. 14:02I know in the last couple board meetings we talk about grades and we talk about scores and we know that's important but being here for 16 years our students are more than that and just as an example a couple weeks ago we had the opportunity to take some students on a field trip and one of the students had a hard time on a campus and another student said oh we have to help so and so and that's what Hudson students do they look out for one another I had a couple of students had a November 1st deadline for a college and I was writing a letter recommendation not to embarrass the student but what was so nice about writing the letter was that the students want to make a change in a sense that the students actually want to tackle the concept of chronic absenteeism because they want to make a difference so as I'm talking about the positive the relationships that students have the teachers but also our students are very unique and I think that they are the shining star of our District thank you thank [Applause] you
37. 15:11okay superintendent update [Music] so um tonight's update is just a brief uh view about a couple of things that have been happening in the district so just a little background information starting in 2023 the district Pioneer to plan to record students names from grades K through 12 in East School we are the very first district in New York to have accomplished this there are other District districts that have attempted but they didn't get finished however we accomplished the goal why is this important a person's name is a major part of their identity and when we pronounce a person's name correctly it creates a sense of belonging and cultural respect so our goal is to promote a positive inclusive environment for all stakeholders which is the third key of the six keys to school Improvement.
38. 16:24Dr pressy and I want to thank the de community Community team the instructional technology department the teachers staff and students for making this a success and although that we recorded the student's name our next step we're working on and we're trying to find software is to record the teachers and staff's names next so just a little bit of a quick video really don't need the video it's just a couple of minutes let's see okay there we go it's very important that we learn how to prounce our students names our students their name is the first thing we learn about them it's how they're identified it's it's it's a part of them so it's very important and meaningful and purposeful that we know how to pronounce each and every student's name in this District it is
39. 17:51so here's a glance of some community activities recently last week I helped to chaperone the Junior High School pta's fun night then I a wonderful uplifting production of no cowards in in our band at the Hudson Hall I went there on Saturday night and it was the highlight of my day on Saturday um I want to thank Miss Sage uh Marie Carter for the invitation and it was a wonderful production and then I attended MCS recent trun or treat last week and if you haven't had a chance I don't know if if no cars in our band is still here it's fantastic I thoroughly enjoyed myself last week on Friday I visited the blue hawk Cafe during the lunch times and I was elated just to see how much enjoyment came from the new Cafe and the food options I also visited classrooms in the senior high school and the blue hawk Academy students and Miss
40. 18:59ostrander's Small Engines classroom were showing off their work under model V8 engines on Wednesday October 30th. I visited Montgomery Elementary Montgomery C Smith Elementary School. I saw the creative costumes of both students and staff Dynamic classrooms and dedicated talented work of the following faculty and staff and so I'm going to give a spotlight on Excellence tonight on Miss real Miss Anderson Miss Cox Miss Hungerford Miss actor uh miss shamway miss cumins and miss Su for.
41. 19:41Then on superintendent's conference day which was the 31st we held our second superintendent conference day of the 2425 school year involved our admin staff and faculty. We all spent the day focusing on professional development and collaborative Endeavors and we also had our our maintenance department facilities Department. We had it was just an entire District professional development day and it went very well. Thank you so much um uh for listening and thank you.
42. 20:20Thank you. Okay I would like to make a motion to approve consistent items a through L.
43. 20:43Second. All in favor.
44. 20:50New business.
45. 20:52Yeah so um excited to be including our new board goals um the first time that I've been on the board that these have been created and shared um and I think it's important that as a board we hold ourselves accountable um to continue this this uh you know sort of train of thought. We also undertook a robust evaluation process with Dr pennyman and I know her staff is also very dedicated to Improvement and you know we all feel strongly that if we want to grow as a district it's important that we set an example here at the board level.
46. 21:28Um short summary of these goals are uh recommitment to putting students first uh we love having Thomas here on this board with us and look forward to working with him to ensure that student voices are um heard and celebrated. Um it's commitment to a number of different policies including policy uh 310 which requires a board self- evaluation um also touches on a number of other policy issues and individual policies with like to review.
47. 21:59Um and finally Community engagement ensuring that we do whatever we can to strengthen our connections with the community all the members of the public who continue to show up be a part of these meetings um and support our students and our schools. Um anybody got any questions comments.
48. 22:18Cool so I make a motion to um accept the Board of Education goals and evaluations for the 2024 2025 five school year.
49. 22:28Second. All in favor.
50. 22:31Great thank you.
51. 22:47Okay important dates. The following dates are November 19th 2024 policy community meeting High School library at 5 p.m., November 19th 2024 Board of Education meet in High School auditorium at 6:00 p.m., December 10th 2024 Board of Education meeting High School auditorium at 6 p.m.
52. 23:22Okay at this time we do have a need for a executive session being resolved the Board of Education enter executive session at 623 for the purpose of reviewing matters leading to the discipline of a particular person or persons and of exemp subject involving the Board of Education roles in coai quasi judicial proceeding.
53. 24:02Second. All in favor.
54. 24:06All right there be no no we talk first. All right thank you all for being here there'll be no further business uh after this executive session.
55. 24:57E for.

Timestamps link to the corresponding moment on YouTube. Auto-transcribed, contains speech-recognition errors. Not an official record.