Video Transcript 7/28/20

00:03

okay welcome everyone good afternoon

00:04

welcome to the Tuesday July 28th special

00:07

meeting of the board Chappaqua Board of

00:09

Education

00:10

i may have a motion to call the meeting

00:12

to order

00:14

i'll move second

00:18

all in favor say aye aye aye

00:22

okay uh may I have a motion for the

00:24

board to go into executive session

00:27

to discuss the employment history of

00:29

particular persons and matters of health

00:31

and safety

00:32

so moved

00:36

I have a second Hilary seconds okay

00:39

thank you all in favor please say aye

00:42

hi okay we'll move into executive

00:44

session

00:46

okay good afternoon everyone uh welcome

00:49

back

00:50

the board has been um an executive

00:52

session discussing the employment

00:54

history of particular persons

00:56

and matters of health and safety may I

00:59

have a motion

01:00

to reconvene the public meeting

01:04

and okay holly and uh Hilary seconded

01:08

a second okay all in favor please say

01:11

aye

01:12

hi hi okay and I'd like to ask everyone

01:15

to please stand for the pledge of

01:16

allegiance led by Holly McCall

01:18

i actually have a roaring or a Bell

01:21

assistant

01:22

okay

01:25

all right all right pledge of allegiance

01:28

okay here you go ready

01:31

I pledg allegiance to the flag of the

01:36

united States of America and to the republic for

01:39

which

01:40

it stands one nation under god

01:45

with liberty and justice for all

01:47

thanks for your help

01:48

thank you all right thanks for the

01:51

assistance to our assistant

01:54

that was very helpful um

01:59

okay before we get to

02:02

our item four I will go to public

02:05

comment

02:06

I'd like to ask if there's anyone in the

02:08

audience who would like to make a public

02:10

comment

02:10

our public comments we encourage public

02:13

comments

02:14

um we ask that you limit them to three

02:16

minutes

02:17

and um our public comment is not a Q&A

02:21

session

02:22

but the board may discuss items or

02:24

issues that are raised during public

02:25

comment

02:26

after the period so please um

02:29

raise your hand and we'll call on you in

02:31

the order in which your hands are raised

02:34

so I see we have one comment right now

02:36

we have Robbie Gottlieb

02:38

uh can someone please bring Robbie in

02:45

i don't know hello Robbie nice to see

02:47

you again

02:48

you too how are you all right good

02:50

thanks

02:51

um so I just have a couple uh

02:55

i have two questions uh I know you this

02:58

is not Q&a but I just want to

03:00

pose them because I'm hoping that you'll

03:02

discuss them

03:03

I wanted to see if the board

03:07

and this and Christine and tony and Adam

03:11

have seen the hatred att Greeley account

03:13

and

03:15

what the district response is to

03:18

allegations that have happened and then

03:21

separately I wanted to pose a question

03:22

to the board

03:23

um and uh Christine Tony and Adam

03:27

about what Chappaqua values are and

03:30

how you determine that

03:32

that's my comment okay thank you Robbie

03:42

okay is there anyone else who'd like to

03:45

make a public comment

03:52

I'm just going to give it just a few

03:54

more seconds so people have time

04:00

[Music]

04:04

okay I don't see anyone else raising

04:08

their hands so

04:09

um we we will

04:12

move on um I do want to address what

04:15

Robbie asked and just to say that we

04:17

have talked about

04:21

rather extensively in the limited times

04:23

that we've had to be together in these

04:24

public meetings we've talked about

04:27

a plan a preliminary plan and the

04:30

district will have more extensive plans

04:32

in September

04:33

we are busy forming a committee on

04:37

anti-racism and equity and social

04:40

justice

04:41

will be working with the town

04:44

and specifically with their education

04:47

committee

04:49

and the administration is working on a

04:50

detailed plan that we will

04:52

have to bring forward in September will

04:55

be we'll also be working on our mission

04:56

statement

04:57

on our code of conduct on the board

04:59

strategic questions

05:01

and um many other aspects of the school

05:04

district

05:04

and of course curriculum and hiring

05:06

practices so we will have a more

05:08

extensive plan to discuss

05:10

with the community in September but

05:13

um I thank you Robbie for bringing this

05:16

up again it's very much in the forefront

05:18

of our work

05:19

the administration and the board have

05:21

been involved in extensive

05:24

um professional development which will

05:27

carry over

05:28

to the faculty and the staff so that's

05:31

happening as well

05:32

but we will have a lot more to report on

05:34

this in September

05:36

so I hope that that answers the

05:38

questions for now but know that this is

05:40

ongoing and we're going to be doing very

05:42

deep work

05:43

that we expect to be to have

05:45

long-lasting impacts on the school

05:47

district

05:48

um is there anything that anyone else

05:50

would like to say about that

05:55

okay all right thank you everyone

05:58

so Christine I'll turn it over to you

06:00

for recommendations on item four

06:03

so we have a walk-on item tonight we are

06:05

recommending the appointment of our new

06:07

Roaring Brook

06:08

principal so Tony um normally we would

06:10

be doing this at a regular business

06:12

meeting but we want to make sure that

06:14

we can start the school year off with

06:15

our new principal in place so

06:17

tony do you want to just provide an

06:18

overview of of our of our candidate

06:20

tonight for the board

06:21

even though that they've had the

06:23

opportunity to interview her I think

06:24

that would be nice for the community

06:26

sure um so we we are excited to present

06:28

to the board for their consideration

06:30

uh miss Tonya Wilson for the

06:34

position of elementary principal at

06:36

Roaring Brook Elementary School so Tonya

06:38

is currently

06:38

principal of Colonial School in Pelham

06:41

School District she has been the

06:42

principal there for

06:43

10 years prior to that Tonya was a

06:46

teacher at the Colonial School as well

06:47

she taught

06:48

second grade and fourth grade she then

06:50

became the lead teacher in the building

06:51

which was a quasi-administrative

06:53

position like an imminent assistant

06:54

principal

06:55

she's also worked at schools in Georgia

06:58

tanya went to school at Florida

06:59

University and Penn State University

07:01

she has extensive experience at the

07:03

elementary level both as a

07:05

classroom teacher and as a leader we are

07:07

really excited we've heard some

07:09

wonderful things about her both

07:10

in informal and formal reference checks

07:12

about her dedication to students

07:14

about her capacity to build

07:16

relationships about her ability to

07:18

leverage those relationships

07:19

in very strategic ways to move

07:22

instructional initiatives forward in

07:24

sustainable ways as well um so we are

07:26

really excited to present Tonya for your

07:28

consideration tonight um and are excited

07:30

about the prospects that she brings to

07:32

at the Roaring Brook community in uh

07:34

transitioning us moving forward

07:37

so with that said I um recommend number

07:40

four

07:40

instructional as presented

07:44

I will move instructional number four as

07:47

presented and may I have a second

07:49

second any discussion

07:55

well I will say that we are so happy to

07:57

welcome Tonya to our school district

07:59

community I think she's

08:01

a wonderful person to bring our schools

08:02

together and to have on our

08:03

administrative team

08:05

and we're all so looking forward to

08:07

working with her

08:11

so all in favor please say aye all right

08:14

bye great okay it's unanimous thank you

08:17

so in terms of notification to the

08:19

community we have to coordinate with

08:21

Pelham so we'll put something out

08:22

um mid morning or in the afternoon

08:26

tomorrow

08:27

and I'll also meet with the Roaring

08:28

Brook faculty in the morning to let them

08:30

know but I want to thank the board for

08:32

meeting today so that we could make this

08:33

appointment

08:34

we're really excited to have Tonya

08:36

join us so thank you

08:38

okay okay terrific thank you and thank

08:41

you to everyone who participated

08:43

in these efforts as usual um

08:46

okay so we'll move on to notice of

08:48

future meetings our next meeting will be

08:49

Wednesday August 5th

08:51

at 7 30 p.m uh for the tax warrant

08:56

and um the following meeting after that

08:58

will be Tuesday September 1st at 10 a.m

09:02

okay so may I have a motion to adjourn

09:05

our meetings

09:08

you have a second second

09:11

all in favor please say aye aye aye so

09:14

our meeting is

09:15

adjourned at 6:43 p.m

09:19

thank you everyone very much everyone