Minutes January 31, 2012

Date:

January 31, 2012

Time:

8:15 p.m.

Place:

Horace Greeley High School

Present:

Board of Education
Alyson Kiesel, President
Jeffrey Mester, Vice President
Randall Katchis
Vicky Tipp
Karen Visser

Staff Members
Present:

Dr. Lyn McKay, Superintendent

Mr. Eric Byrne, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction

Mr. John Chow, Assistant Superintendent for Business

Theresa Markley, District Clerk / Adm. Asst. to Superintendent

Visitors Present:

Representatives of the Chappaqua PTA, school PTAs, building administrators, faculty, and other interested citizens.

President Alyson Kiesel convened the public session at 6:30p.m. moved to enter into Executive Session for the purpose of the discussion of the employment history of a particular person or persons. Randall Katchis seconded. The motion passed unanimously. At 8:26 p.m. Jeffrey Mester moved to adjourn the Executive Session. Randall Katchis seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

At 8:28 p.m. Jeffrey Mester moved to reconvene the public session. Randall Katchis seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

President Kiesel welcomed the community. She reported on the Westorchard Elementary School (Learning Walk) this morning and commented on how much thought and effort goes into the teaching process. Each board member commented on the positive experiences in the classrooms and the enthusiasm that our teachers have for teaching. Their collective wish was for more parents to see what their children do, how they create thesis, reference materials, and provide resolution. It's put into the context of how the program has accelerated and grown and how the teachers are able to revitalize the program, tailoring the program to each child's needs. The dynamic allowed students not to be locked into the same group, but able to move into another area as they progressed.

Allison Wintner reported on the success of the Chappaqua School Foundation (CSF) Harlem Wizards basketball this past Sunday. She thanked the teachers and administrators for coming in on their day off to participate in the game and for being such great sports.

Work Session to discuss: Possible third strategic question.

Superintendent Dr. Lyn McKay opened the discussion by providing some context using the district mission statement as a starting point to talk about life skills and ask if the district needs to more clearly define what we are looking for and how to address those issues.

Lyn set the background of the existing two strategic questions, budget and operations and teaching and learning. She reported ideas and questions from groups such as Chappaqua Education for the Future (CEFF) R21K , Race to Nowhere. How does the district think about bullying, honesty? How do we enhance the social, emotional, and physical health of students? There is a community group composed of clergy, social workers, teachers, who asked how does the district bring these ideas to the community? For a long time the district has used a program to help build character development, but it has not been looked at it in a systemic way. Perhaps there is a need to connect all of this. Should we have a question and if we should, how do we gather the information from all the stakeholders in the community?

Board members offered varied view points and comments such as:

• My child's social and emotional health are my responsibility. Do I want to give these responsibilities to a teacher who may have entirely different values than mine?
• But we should come up with a community standard of safety and expectations.
• Another member felt we are not talking about values, but respect for each other.
• Student's emotional state reflects how he or she feels in school and supports a good feeling that he or she can succeed. We can teach about personal space and behavior about boundaries and how to enforce them consistently.
• We are not just about doing well in school, high grades, good job, but teaching "to be able to manage their lives within the world" to help them succeed in life, be resilient, confident, develop good relationships, how to cope with stress. It's about teaching them other than academic skills and you need more than that to be a functioning human being in this world.

Do we focus on these other non-academic aspects? Do we make them into a third questions and how do we assess it? Do we teach kids to have these other emotional skills, but how do we do it? Are we clear with our students? Do they know what honesty means so we can give clear feedback? Dr. McKay stated that we can measure them and we can create core standards to ensure this.

What is the difference between having a mission statement and strategic question?

Dr. McKay explained that a question is actionable. It becomes a goal level and the questions can be actualized. The district can move forward in a consistent way. We need to have three questions to make sure that we can see that we support our children academically, emotionally, and then fiscally. The elements are there to be developed and the strategic questions have been very powerful in guiding our work.

Eric Byrne, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, noted that we saw it on display in the classroom today to help focus on the discussion and work. We could develop a question that would help us with the social emotional needs of the students.

Comments: There were several positive comments from the community to support a third question initiative.

President Kiesel summed it up by saying that there is lots to talk about and we can share ideas and input.

President Kiesel thanked Principal Jim Skoog and the teachers of Westorchard who participated in the hands on experience today.

1.

Information Business Affairs

2.

Personnel

Superintendent McKay made the following recommendations:

3.

Recommended Action: Other

4.

President Kiesel gave Notice of Future Meetings -

Tuesday, February 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 2012, which we anticipate will go into Executive session for discussion of the employment history of a particular person or persons.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 8:15 p.m., at Horace Greeley High School

5.

Adjournment

At 10:00 p.m. Vicky Tipp moved to adjourn the meeting. Jeffrey Mester seconded. The motion passed unanimously.