Joshua Zusmer, East Islip

Great job East Islip in passing the Budget and the Capital Reserve!

Congratulations to Tim Sassone for winning the seat of Board Trustee!

This has been an interesting race for East Islip School Board and I’ve been asked by a number of friends who I would support. After reading numerous social media posts and reviewing (and digesting) our Meet the Candidates session last Thursday, it is a very clear choice:

Rachel Ackerman.

Why? Representation matters. With Mrs. Walsh leaving her seat, there will be no women on our school board. In a year where we have had more mothers than ever before addressing the board, it would be a shame for there to be no women on the board to hear those voices.

Involvement. Mrs. Ackerman has been involved with the PTA and she is on the executive board for eiMAPs. She has found many ways to help the children of the district in a positive way. She doesn’t just talk the talk.

What about the other candidates?

I can’t say that I dislike Dominick Barbato, but by comparison to Mrs. Ackerman, I would hope to see a candidate with a better understanding of the role and reach of a Board Trustee and a candidate with more experience as a parent and taxpayer in our district.

Charles Kalinowski said in his opening statement and his mailing throughout our towns that he has attended 90% of our meetings. I attended at least 50% of our meetings over the last year and I can say with certainty, 90% is not accurate. Also, claiming that the last election was stolen from him is inaccurate. There was an error and he accepted and clarified this himself last June, both in a letter to the Islip Times and in a speech at Board of Education Meeting.

At Meet the Candidate, Charlie’s concerns about “scary things coming from the state,” sounds, to someone who knows education, coming from a person in education, a lot like fear mongering. It sounds like someone with an agenda, and I don’t think that helps our students, our district, or our town.

Tim Sassone was the only candidate that blocked me from seeing his page when I ran for the board last year. As a voter, I would like to know what our candidates stand for, so I asked again this year and was accepted ,not by Tim, but by another member of the group. Then only a few weeks ago was at removed from the page. I will note that I had never commented or said anything on a single post. What does that say about transparency?

Tim’s responses at Meet the Candidate tells me that he’s willing to say things that, as a person with his certifications and experience, he knows to be false, only to garner attention and votes. The district is legally required to function as an arm of the state and federal government. Having someone like him on our board wastes our money, and resultantly raises our taxes if it were to decide to take on the state with frivolous lawsuits.

I sent an email this afternoon to Mr. Dolan, Mr. Manzo, and to our board. If you share my concerns, please reach out to the board as well.

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I was interested in some of this information earlier in the year, but in light of the discussion on masks, it was recommended that I hold off. Now that we’re done with all of that, I wanted to ask about some more typical subjects that should be covered during these meetings.

I have several questions for the board and administration and one point of consideration.

First, I had a conversation with Mr. Ruland following the board meeting last week, and I wanted to follow up on the subject. I couldn't find any listings on our district website regarding Trade Programs available at the High School. What trade programs do we offer in-district and is there an agreement in place to allow students access to the substantial range of half-day trade programs available through Eastern Suffolk BOCES?

Second, I had a conversation with a friend who lives in Three Village about the fantastic experience his son had participating in his middle school's Science Olympiad program. Since, as it was mentioned recently that we are beginning to discuss budgets for next year, where is East Islip on making Science Olympiad teams an opportunity for our students at the Middle School and at the High School?

Those are my questions, here are my concerns.

We do not have a culture wherein we follow a policy.

Last quarter, in a decision that showed some forward thinking in terms of modern pedagogy as well as in light of the situation of staff and student quarantine, Mr. Dolan stated that “there will be no midterm exams.” In a district that followed its own policies, this would suffice. Fast forward to next week and we have students at the middle school instructed to cross off the work “Midterm” and write in “Quarter 2 Exam” next to it.

What happened there? Culture starts at the top – we need to have a BOE and upper Administration setting a tone where we work as one district instead of just “talking the talk.”

We see the same problem with technology. We don't use Google Classroom. We don't use Infinite Campus. We don't use technology at East Islip.

Don't get me wrong...we pay for these things. We paid for Google Classroom. We paid for IC. We paid for laptops and we delivered them to all students.

Why isn't there a policy about HW and assignment posting on Google Classroom? Where is the policy for posting club meeting schedules? Where is the goal, accountability, and culture of doing this? What PD was/is offered?

Where is "time between an assessment/assignment and entry" policy in Infinite Campus? Why are some teachers all over this and some don't have their gradebooks set up with proper weighting to 100%? Where is the accountability and culture for this? What PD and support was/is offered?

Why do we have laptops? All of our kids are going to be either jacked and/or more seriously have back problems by or before the end of HS if we keep this up. My kids have to carry 2 binders for notebooks, folders, and paper AND their laptop.

Pick one! Either have us leave the devices at home, or use them more effectively in the buildings AS A POLICY - AS A PLAN, and develop a culture of this in the district through repetition and accountability.

We have 1:1 devices, we have our software packages – it’s time to use them.

I e-mailed our Board of Education and administration regarding tonight's meeting.

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I have a scheduling conflict and will not be able to attend the meeting tonight, but I was hoping these questions could be addressed.

I was interested in some of this information earlier in the year, but in light of the discussion on masks, it was recommended that I hold off. Now that we're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I wanted to ask about some more typical subjects that should be covered during these meetings.

I have two questions for the board and administration.

First, I had a conversation with Mr. Ruland following the board meeting last week, and I wanted to follow up on the subject. I couldn't find any listings on our district website regarding Trade Programs available at the High School. What trade programs do we offer in-district and is there an agreement in place to allow students access to the substantial range of half-day trade programs available through Eastern Suffolk BOCES?

Second, I had a conversation with a friend who lives in Three Village about the fantastic experience his son had participating in his middle school's Science Olympiad program. Since, as it was mentioned last week, we are beginning to discuss budgets for next year, where is East Islip on making Science Olympiad teams an opportunity for our students at the Middle School and at the High School?

I sent an email this afternoon to Mr. Dolan and to our board in response to last night's meeting. If you share my concerns, please reach out to the board as well.

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During our last three meetings, a member of our school board has neglected to wear their mask.

To disregard the posted signage regarding mask regulations, or to pick and choose which mandates and laws we follow sets an awful example to our students and community as to how we behave in society as well as how we show courtesy to those around us.

Members of a school district are held to a higher standard of accountability to the public. They represent the district and the locality, and have higher expectations placed upon them as compared to other businesses or private citizens.

This applies just as much, if not more, to our district's elected Board Members.

Smithtown and Patchogue-Medford School Districts adjourned their December meetings early due to non-compliance in audience mask wearing for the benefit of the health and safety of the community as well as to adhere to the governor's current mandate on masks in school buildings. Bayport-Blue Point and West Babylon nearly did the same. Since then, Smithtown has continued to hold their last two meetings virtually to ensure the health and safety of their community.

Leadership and culture start at the top. Once again, during our last three meetings, a member of our board has neglected to wear their mask. This is a source of embarrassment, and it makes me question the seriousness with which we take our commitments to following mandates and to promoting the health and safety of our students, staff, and community in the current moment.

I am sharing the statement/questions I brought forward at last night's board meeting regarding communications. If you agree, please contact the district in kind.

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Last Thursday, parents received a notification by phone, e-mail, and on parent square to notify us of a 2 hour delay due to weather. At the same time, the district's Facebook and Instagram accounts displayed that Friday would be a snow day. Following the confusion that this created, the district removed the posts and sent a message clarifying the delay, along with the statement "There is a post on Facebook and Instagram that was not posted by the district." Unless I am mistaken, at no point in time was anything posted on the district website.

Who manages the district's social media accounts if not the district?
Why is this the way in which we are organized?

I have stated before to Mr. Zachry and numerous times to Mr. Dolan, we need to hire a Communications Officer in central office to manage the district's communications efforts.

I know I have seen times when information on a building's website will contradict information on the district's main website. I've also received numerous poorly phrased, misspelled, and clearly rushed communications from various staff members at our schools. This is not the way for an academic institution to carry itself. Having a central point of contact to disperse information will reduce inaccuracy and improve our ability to effectively know what is going on.

Additionally, the district's current solution seems to be to add the communications responsibility to someone's already full plate. When you do this, you always, always see a reduction in that person's ability to attend to all of their other primary responsibilities.

I had a professor once tell me:
You can't do more with less;
You can do less with less.
You can do more with more.

When you have someone try to juggle responsibilities, at a certain point, something is going to drop. What important "juggled balls," what wasted funding, what lost student opportunities are getting dropped?

What steps will the district be taking to ensure that district-wide communications are improved?

My wife Allison sent the following message to Mr. Dolan and the BOE. If you agree, please share your sentiments with the district as well.

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I wanted to address the board and administration regarding the upcoming midterm exams. I'm speaking from 21 years of experience as both a high school and middle school teacher, so when I list my multitude of concerns, I know what I'm talking about.

We are already recovering from a remote/hybrid year that saw a great loss of instruction. Currently we are battling with the Omicron variant of the virus which has caused massive amounts of both teacher and student absences. We're not talking about a day here or there, we're talking about quarantines; multiple consecutive days of instructional losses due to teacher absences. When it comes to student absences, the district has relied upon mostly asynchronous instruction until only recently, leaving gaps in instruction.

Are we seriously going to give up more instructional time for midterms?

This board has stated over and over that they're concerned about the mental health of our students. As a teacher, I see my own students extremely overwhelmed dealing with ANOTHER pandemic school year. Some of them are just returning to a physical classroom after a year of remote learning. I have spent the last few weeks getting kids back on track after being sick or quarantined.

My district has canceled all midterms for middle school and high school due to an already overwhelmed population of students and teachers. You already have a stressed-out school Community; why would you pile on another stressful burden? If you really care about the mental health of your student body, you would not allow midterms to be given.

Last year, the argument was made that midterms were necessary in order to gauge student progress. This argument is entirely unnecessary since my own two children have lost two days in math and two days in ELA instruction due to i-Ready testing. The district has already paid substantial resources for the purpose of assessing student progress.

Given the circumstances of this year and are currently above covid related absences holding midterms is not only ignorant of the reality but can only serve to be detrimental to our students.

Please reconsider this misguided plan.

I just e-mailed Mr. Dolan and our Board of Education the following with regards to the 12/09 Board Meeting. If you agree, please echo my sentiments to the district and board.

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Good afternoon,

I want to begin by saying that I was happy to see the recognition of student academic, competitive, and athletic achievements at last night's Board Meeting. That is what we should be seeing at our Board Meetings, and it was a wonderful return. Also a wonderful return was our concert series at the middle school. I was fortunate enough to attend the orchestra concert on Monday and Dr. Wottawa and the Middle School music staff must be recognized and applauded for this successful return to normalcy.

East Islip is a community and school district that deserves a Board of Education that conducts itself professionally.

A number of statements at last night's meeting were unprofessional and highly inappropriate.

When reviewing agenda item 9.15 Appropriation Changes, following Mr. Zachry's request for motion, Mr. Carpluk made a mockery of process in his motion, and when asked for discussion, he stated "boring."

These statements were unprofessional, inappropriate, and unacceptable.

In an e-mail responding to earlier, similar, criticism back in August, Mr. Dolan expressed that "BOE members are volunteers and they have chosen not to let their personal views impact their sworn obligation" and that "they have shown the rare ability to check their opinions at the door." At that time, I responded that if you believe Mr. Carpluk is checking his opinions at the door, you are mistaken. If this belief is still held, it continues to be mistaken.

At last night's meeting, Mr. Carpluk referred to Governor Hochul as "our accidental governor."

Mr. Nikolia was removed from his seat on the East Islip BOE. Did you consider Mrs. Walsh an "accidental Board Member?"

These statements were unprofessional, inappropriate, and unacceptable.

Further, Mr. Carpluk went on to pontificate that "democracy is not a great system" and his reasons why, primary of which being the control assumed by voting majority. I did not expect that I would be responding to a teacher of American History and government as well as an elected member of a Board of Education's statements against the workings of American Democracy. Using the platform as a member of the Board to make these statements should not be representative of our community and should not be representative of our school district.

According to East Islip BOE Policy 1000.9, the Board has the goal to develop a respect for public education and a feeling of responsibility for the quality of education that the school provides. Mr. Carpluk's statements are unprofessional, do not exhibit respect for our system or a feeling of responsibility, and have no place at the table at a Board of Education meeting.

As a community member, I expect our Board Members to conduct themselves in a professional manner.

Thank you,

I wanted to share a statement that I sent to the Board of Education and Mr. Dolan

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East Islip Board of Education and District Administration,

I am writing to ask for your consideration of a proposal regarding our mascot.

Why is it necessary to make a change?I'm going to ignore the presentations, feelings, and opinions for or against that we have heard over the last year, the fact is in this social climate, keeping the mascot of "the Redmen" is untenable.

Just this month, the New York Education Department ordered the Cambridge Central School District in Albany to remove their mascot, the Indian, which looks almost identical to ours, or lose state aid funding.

Boomer Esiason, whose name we have on our stadium, on his WFAN radio show on Friday just referred to us as "the East Islip Football Team." Who wants that?

The facts are that we live in a litigious society and we live in a media heavy society. The news media loves to take up these stories. We are almost certain to see a bad outcome if we keep our old mascot.

This is something important.
This is something that we want to do under our control and not with outside pressure.
This is something we want to do right.

How should we address making a change?

Taking the symbol off of the high school without any statement or notice to the community was, in my opinion, an irresponsible and inappropriate thing to do.

If we're going to retire a mascot, let's do it right.

Hold a ceremony to retire the old mascot.

See if there is some way we can place a display in either the HS lobby or gym that would showcase "The Redmen." Include the origin date and story of the Redmen: This was our mascot from this date to this date. Detail some of the notable figures and achievements - coaches, players, moments - and then include details as to why we're moving forward.

Celebrate our history - take a moment to bring our alum, community, and students together - thank everyone for their traditions and share memories. Bring us back together on this.

What should we change to?

I am also proposing that we use the ceremony to herald in a new mascot. I propose we unite our town and our district with a motto that's already here: EI Pride.

The lion and lioness are the apex predators in their environments, and a group, or pride, of lions, working as a team is truly an aggressive beast.

A Pride is proud.
A Pride is powerful.
A Pride is teamwork.
Proud, powerful, teamwork - that sounds a lot like our town and of a mascot worthy of East Islip.

Thank you for your consideration.

I wanted to share the statement that I made at last night's board meeting:

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Good evening,

I was planning on speaking tonight regarding middle school clubs and activities, but a friend told me to table it for now as it will get lost in the mask discussion.

Tonight, Mr. Dolan stated that “if we are given a mandate, we will follow it.” Mr. Dolan, thank you for saying that. In addition to concerns for the health and safety of our children, as stated by our district attorney, the ramifications to the district for going against the mandate would be disastrous.

Last year was a rollercoaster ride of flip flopping, poor communication, and bad planning, which we've all had enough of. As for masks, we have known for a few weeks that the new governor planned on instituting a mask wearing mandate for schools - that's a done deal. It does not benefit students to have the board, in any way, add to the confusion about not following the mandate, no matter how much yelling and screaming you're hearing.

I want to thank Mr. Dolan, the Board, Administration, Committees, and our East Islip faculty and staff for soldiering through last year. There were a lot of bumps in the road, but we came out the other side. I want to thank my fellow families in East Islip - we don't all agree on a lot - nobody does, and that's fine - but we care about our kids and our community. We have a sign in our house that says "East Islip, where everybody knows your name." We're a unique town and a tight community, and we'll push through another year of this pandemic together and we'll see the other side.

COVID has been beyond challenging to say the least but if we want it to end, following the safety protocols and vaccines is the work that will ultimately end this nightmare. So this is what's going to make this end. You do the work. That's what East Islip does - we do the work. We're a hard working town with hard working people and people know us for it. The sooner we do the work, the sooner we can throw out the masks and move on to more important things.

Mr. Carpluk has mentioned our future Innovation Lab at the HS. Mr. Dolan has assured me that great things are on the horizon.

We have more to talk about that just masks.
We need talk about academics.
We need to talk about Music, STEM and Art.
We need to talk about extracurricular.
We need to talk about opportunities for our students.

None of that is going to happen if we keep circling COVID.

Thank you.

If you are looking for guidance for writing a letter - from the NY Chapter 2 American Academy of Pediatrics representing the 1500 pediatricians across Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn:

Template Letter for PARENTS to Send to School Boards
http://www.ny2aap.org/pdf/NY2AAP_COVID_Parent_SendToSchoolBoard.docx

Template Letter for PARENTS to Read to School Boards
http://www.ny2aap.org/pdf/AAPNY2_COVID_Parents_ReadToSchoolBOE.pdf

www.ny2aap.org