Board Of Education January 30th, 2024

001I good evening and welcome to the January 30th 2024 meeting of the spill un3 School District Board of Education i' ask you to rise andite the pledge of alleg to flag of the United States of America for it stands one nation God IND okay our first item on the agenda is 2.01 public comments on consent agenda items only again public comments on consent agenda items board discussion I had a quick question regarding 5.02 the uh policy workplace violence prevention policy so my question is just for clarification uh as to how this relates to other policies other school district policies relating to harassment um violence is obviously serious especially as it's addressed in this this policy but it's it's part of a broader you know concerned about harassment so I'm just curious as to how it

002fits into the broader Patchwork the broader I guess framework sure the workplace VI violence policy had to be in place by a certain time which was this month that's why we're waiting for the second reading so at the moment our our attorneys are reviewing other policies rela to harassment some of them are one is employee sexual harassment and then also there's equal opportunity policies that we have in place Nisa suggest that we either consolidate some of the policies into one or to to update the regulations when it comes to there's a complaint form that is also Incorporated in the policy so they're reviewing it um at the moment hopefully by the next board meeting we'll have updated policies for a first reading so right now they're they're reviewing all of the updates that MVA had

003suggested to the school district so the one we're approving tonight will be and then the other ones will be updated based on the one we did tonight so they all are mesed that helps than okay I have a motion to accept the consent agenda all in favor okay this evening uh item 10 we have a number of presentations our first is 10.01 our duess B superintendent welcome back to it's good to see you good to see you thank you for having you appreciate it hope everybody's new year was well thanks again for having we'll take up a lot of time I do want to give you your uh baseball card results uh as of January uh so right now spacking kill in Dess County bosis uh 15 special and alternative education students uh you have

004four in Sal Point Center that's our K8 uh one Alternative High School student and you have 10 in District students around the county uh you have 53 total Career and Technical Institute students uh 10 in cosmetology seven culinary arts six automotive technology six Welding and Fabrication four in in to health electrical trade security and law and 12 in assorted other programs uh so I do see your students taking advantage of one of our growing Pathways which is Welding and Fabrication and also obviously Health occupations has been growing dramatically uh this year hbac also has been uh hard uh to get teachers for because we have so many students wanting to join and as you recall from last year we're now in our second year of our fashion and Merchandising program that we partner with maristan

005uh so that program has continued to grow as well so we're excited about that and appreciate your support um did want to mention something as you know there is a high demand for CT programming uh and it keeps growing so uh we are advocating to increase uh the salary that's available in the state um we're working with different organizations including the Chamber of Commerce uh nisba a bunch of other organizations to try to pass a new uh salary cap at I think it's around 65 instead of the current 30 which was set I believe over 20 years ago um so obviously this would benefit all of our components in regards to what we could what you would get back in Aid uh so we'll be pushing that this year uh so far looks pretty good

006so we're hoping uh that will go through help modernize career in technical education know to drop that that is also one of the U top four or five things that the county uh County boards Association wanted to uh po Mr Cohen and Dr horth know that that was actually adopted by our County so one and I know I'll speak for Paul on this we want to thank the County Schoolboard Association because they've been wonderful Advocates uh for the last two to three years uh and the follow up on an important piece that they were advocates for last year which was making dual enrollment aable um that is going through at the state level yes it's taken a year welcome to it andyc uh just had a conversation with commissioner last week it falls in line

007with all our priorities so you're going to see a big change uh within starting next year in regards to uh dual enrollment and tuition being able for once uh uh so that's a big plus and a big win for Duchess County because I can tell you straight out we are the only County advocating for that so uh large appreciation for Dutchess County School boards uh we did our second annual job Seeker survey results um Dutchess County Workforce investment board dutes county bosies and the New York Department of Labor work pretty closely uh to launch a employer employee uh survey every year uh 20 23 2020 results were very similar to last year if you recall last year one of the biggest changes uh and it was it's been the same for over 15 years people

008number one request employees is salary last year that changed it was time off so we went to number two uh that actually stayed the same this year uh in regards to what employers are looking for and we have been discussing this uh at our superintendent meetings uh basic computer computer use computer literacy is still important on their list software proficiency and Excel is important um obviously email fluency and and etiquette in email U mechanical technical engineering software Proficiency in word uh data analysis and typing are are your top the list uh in regards to skills uh most employers now are are are wanting in communication skills as a number one problem solving critical thinking timeliness and attendance attention to detail time management ability to take criticism and personal awareness and rounding off that list was

009teamwork uh all things that as you well know schools are working on and have integrated into curriculums for the last uh few years uh finally we're also discussing um the science of reading which I'm sure you've heard a lot about um I'm sitting on one of the working committees what I did and have been emphasizing I know the governor came out there and used certain language uh around getting back to the basics um you know we're trying to stay away from that language if you've been in this field long enough you know that was a uh bit of a controversy about 20 years ago um so what we are are trying to emphasize is the fact that the science of reading it's just a collection of what works in regards to literacy um and it's

010more than Des phonics right I mean an element we know as phonics when you make awareness fluency comprehension and vocabulary there's your five parts of literacy plain and simple uh so phonics is part of a bigger picture um and we also want to emphasize the fact that it's not a program we've been hearing a lot going from school to schools that you know the science of reading program we have to purchase it's not a program it's just a collection of best practices 48 other states have passed the exact same legislation over the last 10 years we're just a little late to the game so it's it's it's nothing different than what 48 other states have done already it's just really defining what good literacy uh and instruction looks like plain and simple um for the

011regions very quickly um one of the biggest issues obviously it's budget time uh some asks for the regions are it system at the state level uh they want to put some funding towards that and update such things as the certification software that they're currently utilizing and and a few other things as you know if you've gone online to NYS it's it could be problematic and a bit of a headache so they're they're looking to upgrade the it infrastructure um modernizing and streamling school aid formulas which we've talked about for quite some time uh that is getting a lot of traction uh raise the know skill and opportunity of all people in New York State uh and that's starting at prek so that's funding prek and also prek disabled uh so that's something the the regions

012is also pushing uh in addition to pushing Career and Technical education as well as cultural education Early College programs are also pushing that is a big piece of uh the Commissioners and the regions agenda uh and also obviously advancing diversity equity and inclusion uh which has been a big push uh for the commissioner uh in addition to also emphasizing and providing more funding for students uh with disabilities so we'll be down in Albany February 28th it will be olster olster orange Sullivan and Dutchess County bosis doing some advocacy for our counties uh that entire day so I'll look forward to reporting that back to our superintendent so they can share with you questions for me I know this is a busy time of the year thank you all appreciate your time I have quick questions

013um if you're able to uh you mentioned P at the last Dess board meeting um is there any information that you could share about that us shared some information with the superintendants on Friday uh we'll be releasing information to the public in less than two weeks we have the website in the sandbox right now we have our one pager that's going out I just did a big Spiel over at kipy and hi Park uh So within two weeks you'll get all the detailing information around PC so we can move for with that that's something we're very excited about sounds great thank you thank you all thank you sir good to see you all appreciate it thank you okay item 10.02 secondary Administration update hello everybody thanks for having us uh we're just going to do

014a brief present presentation on attendance and some of the policies we have in the building some of the ways that we mitigate attendance issues we created some visuals pretty basic visuals up there um just to kind of give you just a little overview of some of the policies and procedures that we have but if you really want to dive into everything that we do you would you really to do case studies on individual students and really get down to uh each specific uh circumstance that would require the conversation about attendance um so some of the things that I'll start off saying would transfer translate to the middle school as well and Mr cor will come up and talk about the middle school but as far as the high school um well we all know that

015attendance number one the key to great attendance is relationship building uh so much of the work that we do in class in school all day is creating environments in the building that welcome students in uh set high expectations uh maintain the Integrity of the instruction and and what we do every day in the building to make students feel welcome and safe um and we would hope that at home that message is given to that it is a student's full-time job to be in school and education is their number one priority so uh right off the bat that's how that's our Focus um to get that message out there and the work that we do every single day is rooted in that um as far as how we address certain uh situations with attendance we really

016follow the RTI structure the framework which is response to intervention so if it's attendance or if it's discipline or mental health it all kind of falls under this umbrella of Art RTI and at spacking Hill I know in the middle school as well we have RTI committees that meet every week so with regard to attendance uh there's three different tiers to RTI so I'm just uh I'll be reading a little bit from that sheet it's a little small at there but on the left side so tier one we just highlighted in a nutshell what those are um engaging in school climate positive relationships with students and families uh and educating students and families on the ABS or or the um that the impact of absences on a child's development uh educationally so from there tier

017two would be more of a personalized early Outreach and I'll get into specifics what that looks like uh and then tier three is more of a coordinated response with outside agencies and other resources that we can use in community to address the really these are really specific uh situations in the school that would uh would mean that there's chronic absenteeism for whatever there's a there's a pleora reasons so um so tier one you really have Universal strategies uh so that that second box down there would be talking about all students what do we do in the building for every single student uh and that's recording attendance timely at the beginning of every single class period just having systems in place in the building on a daily basis that don't change so there's familiarity with it

018um and their structure and routine uh echool uh there's a portal in there that student uh parents can see uh in real time and they get notifications if a student is absent from one class or for a full day so sometimes there will be situations where you'll get a call in the morning because there was an absence first period and then you'll get a notification that it was a full day absence there's a lot of little caseby casee things but that the communication is key there it'll come out through the the preferred method email or phone um and then at the end of the day our attendance uh clerk gives a report to the entire staff so that we can review it see who is absent um and then we kind of look at that

019and review uh just any anomalies that we might see um so that's that report is is viewed through different lenses so I would look at it differently from the teacher the teacher may look at that and say who who do I have to reach out to that was absent for whatever reason I may look at that like what uh what is the cause of the absence and address that from there um once we notice that there might be a pattern that would lead into a tier 2 conversation so that's where we have our RTI committee meetings and we're bringing up individual students that uh something is standing out about their attendance so we start brainstorming what may be going on at home often times s a teacher or a guidance counselor may know something or

020myself or Mr maler may know something that other people don't so we can fill that Gap and we can provide that background information that will clarify some of the misconceptions or or some of the questions teachers might have so in in that committee meeting we'll either clarify you'll have an answer for why there's an attendance Gap or we'll start discussing a plan to address it um in that that tier level so there that's I would say roughly 20% of our population is brought up at some 25% is brought up at some point for in RTI because that's not your chronic absences but you know kids are absent for reasons and and whatever may be if there's medical issues or um emergencies things happen so that's when those conversations are brought up just so that we're

021all on the loop um we also would put in some plans so if we know Noti that there's a student that is uh that is having a pattern of attendance and we understand why and we feel that it's necessary to have a plan we would bring in the family we'd have communication with them we have done in the past some of the uh examples would be like check-ins where a student has to come in every day and find and we assign them a point person whether it's the counselor a social worker myself we all kind of have that role at some point depending on the relationship with the student uh and they would be required to check in with us to make sure uh everything is good for the day and that's that's the point

022person um they also have we also have like mentors that would require a little bit more of a check-in it's May maybe a couple of periods a day where they will stop down maybe during lunchtime they'll sit down and just have a meeting about uh their day and how it's going and just try to get try to be proactive in addressing certain things that may come up uh later on on rather than reactive and try to have to understand it later I'm being a little vague but there's so many different um scenarios that come up that would that would fall into this conversation um we also have weekly academic reports that involve the teacher so if a student is showing attendance issues that really they don't have specific reasons for other than they're just really

023struggling to get to school or they're not motivated this uh tends to help because there's an accountability piece to that with their grades so they will have to fill out a report every week and then we're in touch with the family the family confirms that they receive that report with signatures and that also helps on the the um grade end because it's uh keeping the student organized and giving them some education on their organizational skills uh so they'll meet with every teacher individually and go over what they need the teacher will talk to them about their behavior or their um for their attendance and then sign that report and they have to bring it home they have to get a check by Mr maler myself um you'll notice on there there's a there's a comment

024about restorative discipline do want to focus on that a little bit because restorative discipline in this sense it's important to um note that if we're going to use the code of conduct to address attendance often times the discipline that's on those the code of conduct is is uh something that would remove the student from the classroom and we're trying to get them into the classroom so when I say when we use restorative discipline it may be more of like an incentive program where a student can attend certain things as when they need a certain threshold for their attendance or if they don't need a certain threshold they can't uh we don't make decisions using the code of conduct that would prevent a child from coming into the building if there's an attendance uh concern ER

025so it be it becomes a little bit of a uh you have we have to be creative but that's one of the beauties of being in a smaller school is that we have that time and we have the ability to work oneon-one and and create those plans um then you get into that tier three which would be the chronic absenteeism so these are at this level we've had extensive conversations at home we have typically buying from home and they're reaching out for help uh from the school and we start developing really specific plans and often times uh as I said it's coordinated inter agency respon or legal intervention intervention and that I that's not to be said in a negative way what what we're saying about that is that we utilize the resources out in

026the community whether it's Youth Services um sometimes it's CPS but there's a lot of different agencies which we've brought in over the past year to educate our staff on uh that we utilize that can help get into the home so so uh that may mean that an administrator a social worker might go to the home and do a home visit um or it may mean that they enroll in a youth service program which we work with a lot where they do counseling at home or with the family the family meets them uh at their offices and we work in tandem together to address the concerns and that is typically how we become successful solving The Chronic absenteeism um in those cases by utilizing all three of those components the school the home and uh and

027other agencies when there's not a Buy in from one of those three um then it becomes ineffective so we really try to keep those relationships and the trust built um to make sure that that happens so that's just kind of in a nutshell like at the end of the day it's it's really about our RTI committees and the conversations we have in the school and the relationships we're building and communicating with home um on top of just maintaining what we the Integrity of what we do on a daily basis in school and making it a welcoming environment you have questions for me you want to take questions just on high school now have Dustin go and take some questions I take questions you got talk a little bit about this success stories and how yeah

028so when we think about success stories that we have it's it involves years of of the child being um in the building so when we're talking about chronic absenteeism there's a lot of different reasons that that exists and sometimes it's just that there's data that's put out there that doesn't really um it's not necessarily accurate to the child's life they may have moved they may have there's a lot of reasons but when you have that case of a child that is struggling to come to school for a very specific reason that's causing them to be chronic absent chronically absent it has involved a lot of extensive conversation and like I said in in in the tier three using a lot of time Youth Services uh as our right-hand man so um we we have cases

029all the time like we're having I met with a student two days ago and talked about a plan for them uh coming out of college and my my personal style is I try to uh use my own experiences and then try to get into what motivates them outside of school um so one of the cases I've had recently and it's still we're still working on it uh is trying to get them to see Life After High School when you choose certain paths and try to really um try to paint that picture as best as we can uh and I I think one of the most important things is you have to establish trust with the student because at home um they there's everybody has different relationships so the relationship with Mom and Dad may not

030be the same relationship that I may have or their guidance counselor may have and that allows us to be sometimes more honest or less honest depending on the situation but in this case I have to talk about uh if you choose this route this is what you could be looking at if you choose this route um and we've had a lot of the times uh success in that sense because they have a realization at some point where they want to do better I know I'm being longwinded but I I can't stress that it's not just a one person it's not just the school it has to be a team effort it has to be the parent communicating with me so in this case I had a conversation with the parent about what we were going

031to talk about I make it clear that honesty is best and I I may have to say things that they may not like that the child may not like um but we know what's best and it and that often times creates that uh that situation where they have that Epiphany um and then you utilize resources that will help them with accountability outside of school so we've had to use that in this case where I can't go to the house and bring them to school but we have resour that can work with that to to make that happen um so yeah it's just there's a lot of different right now we have a number of students and it's it's it's conversations happening all day uh I tell new students that come in every student hears the

032same thing especially if they're coming from a larger School in this area uh I say this is a smaller school and there's pros and cons to that but I'm telling you right now you you may feel like I'm on top of you and you may feel like you're like getting harassed all the time getting bothered because we just know we know where you are and that's the culture that we have in the high school we know where kids are and then we uh look at those scenarios and we figure out the best path of success for them and every student is different and and um every student needs to have a a very specific plan and that's the work that we do every day whether it's the teacher in the class goes all the way

033up to the principal okay just a couple of quick questions um very quick definition wise chronic ATM is considered 10% right missing 10% of the of the school days and so I'm not looking for raw numbers but you know just U you know in a general sense you know how many of of the students that you you know see at tier one level kind of eventually escalate to tier three um Pro about that I would I would say we're pretty consistent with the standard of that 10% um but what I find is that off there's not an easy it's not just that we're not going to school like it's it's and it's I don't I don't know the best way to um say say that but it's there's there's specific reasons almost every single time

034why the student is in that uh pool of students and uh it's not something that can that's really created by a district because it's that's pretty standard um there's a lot of different uh outside reasons why that happens um but I would say it's pretty consistent with that it's encouraging it's very encouraging to hear you know you take the conversational approach and build relationships just know how important it is when the kids gradua and going to college uh you it's a homey world out there no one's on their back necessarily you know to make sure they're going to class every day and so if they've develop meems to be responsible themselves that pays off I think yeah and we we have those conversations because we have to be honest and you know we we say

035these are the tools that we're providing you to be successful but we also have to walk that line of we're trying to teach skills that are going to be lifelong skills that are going to make students independent um so we constantly have to walk that line and you know do right by them in that sense very interesting encouraging to hear thanks all right good evening everybody so I'll talk with you about uh kind of how we do things at Todd for attendance um which a lot of it is very similar to what Mr Lewis just talked about um especially with our tier one and tier three interventions uh where we differ a little bit and and where I'll probably spend most of my time talking tonight is on our tier two interventions because we do

036things just a little bit differently so as far as tier one goes though you know we our teachers take home room attendance that Home Room attendance is what drives our daily attendance um they also take attendance every period uh we have an attendance monitor who will then um not only check to make sure teachers have taken all that attendance uh she will do the close out at around 9:30 that then generates the automated message to any student who is marked absent for the day uh she will also make uh Corrections if you know if a student say comes in late get Mark abson in home room but comes in first period she's one that'll go in and Market the student is just Hardy so then that parent doesn't get an automated message saying that the

037student is absent for the day uh when it comes to tier two we like the high school we kind of run our tier two interventions through our r TI group um so our RTI group is uh myself Mr DH our two school counselors our uh School psychologists and our school social worker uh and we will meet four times a year usually for attendance um and when we do an attendance meeting we also pull our school nurse into the meeting because she often has information for us about why a student might have been absent or missed a whole week of school or something like that um and she can give us some some insight into that uh we keep a spreadsheet throughout the year that I manage and keep control of um and in order to

038get on the spreadsheet any student who has either five unexcused absences or five unexcused tardies or has 10 total absences or 10 total tardies that student gets put on our spreadsheet and we talk about them it might just be monitoring the student it might we might not have to go further than that but we put that student on the spreadsheet because you know we want to be proactive we want to talk about that student um and our interventions and what we can do to keep that student coming to school before it gets to be chronic absentees we don't want to get to that point once a student gets on the spreadsheet if you know we have our first meeting in October if the student gets on the spreadsheet in October they stay on the spreadsheet

039for the entire year and we talk about them at every single attendance meeting we have um part of that the biggest benefit to doing that is that um it allows us to actually uh kind of assess the efficacy of the interventions we so if a student gets on the spreadsheet in October and has seven unexcused absences let's say when we meet in December if that student now only has eight absences then we can talk about the interventions we've done and you know how how they' work um so once a student gets on there whether it's October December so our our spreadsheet in October doesn't have a lot of kids on it beginning of year most people are coming to school pretty consistently but then by the end of the year we have a decent amount

040of kids on it and some of them are just kids that were just monitoring some of them are kids kids that you know missed a few days uh in December or whatever and they've been good since then uh but we we still talk about them every time we have a meeting just to make sure that the kid is still doing well attendance wise that the student is still on track um and we can avoid them getting to being a chronic absenteeism um so when we we meet for RTI um some of the interventions we'll do when we have the spreadsheet is you know um we'll put in comments what's already been done so sometimes the counselors have already reached out to the family or has already met with the student to talk about you know

041why they're absent or why they're tardy uh sometimes we've um already had a team meeting say with the with the parent Andor the student and teachers so we talk about what's already been done and then we decide on a path forward for that student um and it's very individualized you know we talk about each kid the meetings sometimes take two hours for us to get through through every single student sometimes longer so that we can really do what we think is best for each individual student to keep them to either get them back on track or if they're on track now to keep them on track um and then what we'll also do out of that that meeting usually is we also put off uh there's a column where we put a check mark in

042for our attendance monitor to send a letter home to students if we feel that's necessary to their parents and the letter home just basically tells the parent um how many absences and or Charities a student has and tell about you know the importance of the student being in school and sometimes that letter is enough sometimes we see that letter changes the kids attendance um sometimes we have to go past that and sometimes that brings us into the tier three interventions uh which is a much more individualized plan for students um that could be team meetings it could be counselor check-ins during the school days we've done home visits our counselors have done home visits I've done home visits Mr dh's on home visits um sometimes you know we've had a lot of success with just

043you know like Mr was mentioned having the kid have just a point person to the school that the student feels comfortable with um and has a good relationship with a lot of times that's a counselor sometimes that's me sometimes that's Mr dhy sometimes that's a teacher um you know we've had counselors who go out and get a student out of the car every single day and bring them into their office and just kind of preset them for the day with a friendly face talk about you know what they have planned for the day and sometimes that's enough for the kid to just get out of the car and come into school and and and be here all day so when it comes to our our tier three stuff much like like at the high school

044we really uh try to individualize it as much as we can for each student so there are things that work for some families and things that don't work for other families and we keep that spreadsheet so that we can try to figure out what we think is working and what hasn't worked that then we can modify our plans throughout the year that's pretty much it for attendance at that time questions than couple just to point out why you two are up there is uh what what I see here what we've talked about in our meetings is is is very impressive um the concept of having you utilizing the RTI model with three tiers and know multi-tier system of support um really provides the foundation of what you're doing and the way you individualize it is

045key right so you know our attendance rates are very good we always want them to be bet um and I think what makes them good and tie like in our region and stuff is because of the effort uh that you're doing teachers are doing and the staff is doing um but it is hard and can I think you alluded to it is very individualized right because when you talked about the students who might be chronically absent it's specific it's not like same thing right was your example you said talking about they not home just they're not coming in because they're playing video games because they don't want to come to school they just usually something there and it really needs to be tailored uh to that student in order to uh try to get them

046uh you know back on track so uh good job with that I just like to Second this I mean I it's not something I I guess I think we assume a t is responsibility of the district and I guess I just always assumed it was a kind of just bureaucratic kind of oversight but this has been really revelatory for me to hear you know the amount of work and effort thought and planning that that you goes into this on your part so I found this very interesting very elating very impressive I mean I can only imagine as you said larg school districts you might not be able to do as much as this you know I can imagine you know some of B bigger districts in our County what did some of the kids say

047transfer in from a big District uh they probably can fly they fly they they get a some some get a little shocked you know because I'm just stating the obvious that you're going to see a lot of us you're gonna see me a lot and I swear it's not because I don't like you but we just know like we know where everybody is the other thing about RTI and I know the same thing for the middle school is those meetings uh from my experience in education it's like the school day is is crazy some days and things change and emergencies happen and the RTI meetings that we have don't get cancelled like with like there's there has to be a real emergency for those meetings to be cancelled we put everything else aside and that's

048uh it happens every single week um so it's it's very important um and it's one of the most important things that we do and it's not just a tenant there's other things that come up in there but it's a big part of it I love that I love the if it's a model I love that we know where you are now Elementary really ech but we had talked about how we NE need an elementary report because they really covered a lot um but very similar in the elementary yeah certainly have a process track the Two element principles I to do much but it really does make a difference we found that over the years if we didn't have these efforts it wouldn't be what it is thank you gentlemen appreciate it great 10.03 is our

049Elementary Administration update all right uh good evening everyone so uh we have a few special guests here um that we're going to introduce but um just a little background uh the role of Occupational therapists uh in particular I I believe at the elementary level have always been crucial uh however I would say and certainly our kindergarten teachers would agree some of them that have taught kindergarten for 30 years uh coming out of the pandemic they've been even more essential with students who were um on devices more uh while their parents were on Zoom meetings and and doing different things so uh we have two outstanding occupational therapists that work at Hagen and Nassau uh Mrs Christina Howard and M Abby Kennedy um and Mr dusza and I thought it would uh be really nice uh

050for them to kind of talk about their their roles and what they do on a daily basis and some of uh the initiatives that we're really uh impressed and and proud of uh some of which that we've both spoken about um at updates throughout uh this year so hello I'm Christina Howard and I'm mostly uh work at Nassau I'm Abby Kennedy I'm at haen and then I also at the middle school and high school all right so to start off you probably all just when you heard we're going to talk about occational therapy I guarantee at least one of you when I have no clue what they're going to say because I don't know what occupational therapy is so we're going to start there um what is OT full disclosure I'm going to read this

051because we use Magic's tool to write it because AI is one of the tools that we use as OT so we figured we should probably feature it um so occupational therapy is a type of therapy that helps people of all ages improve their ability to engage in everyday activities to your occupations occupational therapists assist individuals in developing the necessary skills and techniques to overcome physical emotional or cognitive challenges that may be impacting their daily lives in a school setting OTS work closely with students teachers and families to support the development of essential skills needed for success in the school environment they may help students with tasks such as handwriting find motor skills organization attention sensory integration self-regulation and social interactions by collaborate collaborating with Educators and implementing personalized therapy plans OT drive to promote Independence

052enhance academic performance and Foster overall well-being for students so it seems like a lot because it is we're in every aspect of a kids's day potentially so basically wherever they're struggling there's a role for ot to kind of come in and support so so kind of what Abby went over um in the description these are all bullet points of what we do in in school but how we really support these children is how we look at them basically from head to toe so Abby and I look at their posture we look at their seating we look at their um the height of their workspace we look at their attention their ability to uh maintain their space if they're sitting in a whole cre instruction on the floor um if they're fidgety if they um have

053a hand preference if they when they're writing if they use their non-dominant hand to hold their materials how their pencil looks um how they're writing so writing is a lot of different skills all in there you know there's the letter formation there's how you Orient the letters to lines as well as spacing between your words um we look at scissor skills we look at their organization skills can they find the materials that they need when it's time to use them um are they do they have the ability to um self-regulate throughout the school day are they seeking a lot of excessive motion um can they isolate their fingers so that they can count or type on the computer and then we also use assisted technology so we have kind of incorporate a lot of stuff

054all into um their you know to help them to succeed in class and we see them in the classrooms we see them individually um we've pushed into I've pushed into recess specials wherever there really is um you know a student having difficulty the nice part about that is that we can see um when we work with them individually we can see that those skills are generalized into other settings so a lot of um a lot of skills we work on and we're not always just teaching skills a lot uh sometimes there are things that can't be taught and in that case will modify or adapt the activity or the environment um to make them successful so these are some of like the common tools you might see that we use so you see like a

055rocking chair so a kid who might typically if they were in like a standard chair like one of these that you guys are all sitting in they might be bouncing and doing this and the you know so if we put them in a rocking chair now they can rock in an appropriate organizing way at their desk they're not out of their desk they're not going to the bathroom 17 times and they're getting their math lesson so you see a lot of different tools that often times unfortunately some people see as toys we talk a lot about the difference between tools and toys if you can use something to help you focus it's a tool not a toy if it's not helping you focus it's now a toy um but they can still be the same

056item so we'll talk a lot about those types of things and you'll see them in you know in classrooms in assemblies and lunch every Rec say everywhere um so to kind of jump back to what was just mentioned before with the pandemic impacting uh a lot of students um right now we're seeing huge deficits in handwriting I would say did my my Chromebook just di that's unfortunate um I was gonna look at my numbers let's hope I can see the screen um so we've seen huge deficits uh in handwriting kind of from K through about fourth grade so the current third and fourth graders were really really impacted by covid that was their kindergarten and first grade years where they should have then in a classroom cutting and gluing and writing and they were on

057a computer which there's nothing we can do about that but now we're kind of seeing the results of that where kids are supposed to be writing paragraphs and sentences and they can't um their writing is very poor so the teachers were concerned their parents are concerned we had a huge uptick of the amount of kids being brought up to RTI for handwriting um and so we kind of brainstormed over the summer like what can we do we started with we need information we need data so we've been doing these handwriting screeners uh we've been using the Handwriting Without Tears protocol um it's not necessarily either of our favorite but it works for the purpose um so we've been doing it with kindergarten through third grade so this is just one class's results so we we

058test them three times a year we tested everyone from kindergarten through third grade in September so this is Miss Thomas Ed's third grade class um in September 58% of her class was performing at or above grade level um in ter of handwriting so we were looking at you know their letter formation accuracy to the Baseline spacing between their letters and words um do they start their sentences with a capital do they end it with appropriate punctuation can they write their numbers um do they know the difference between capitals and lower cases um so 58% of her class was at grade level in September we've been doing some kind of General handwriting support kind of integrating it into the classroom on a very basic level um um in January I tested her class last week she's

059now has 79% of her class at her above grade level so that's four kids who are showing up below grade level two of those kids receive formal OT Services one of them likely will be coming across your desk soon um and so we're seeing one kid in a general Ed setting that really is still going to need some explicit instruction and some tools potentially to bring them up um so we're curious to see where this goes by the end of the year um how many more kids are kind of at that grade level and then with that what can we do to make these numbers higher moving forward because it is something at in September the fact that you know 42% of her class was below that's concerning like how can we prevent that moving

060forward um and we are um the reason we really came up with this screening was as a way to be proactive so that we can see what students um are struggling and if there is progress throughout the year or whether um we need to you know look more closely yeah and give more you know directions or um supports to the teacher can I just ask real quickly about the handwriting curious about that so the standards that you're comparing this to is that is that a standard standardized curriculum or stand Handwriting Without TI's version of what is standard part of the curriculum yeah so we and we don't necessarily use their curriculum to teach handwriting so it is flawed but it is still giving us some numbers of you know and even if you just look

061at the data like I just scored that class I can tell you right now that most of the issues that I'm seeing are very consistent that there's still some confusion between capitals and lower cases a lot of kids are not starting their sentences with capitals a lot of kids are not putting punctuation at the end of a sentence when they're not given direct like explicit instruction now put a period so if I say that's the end of the sentence they're just done you know so they still it we can still kind of look at the themes without the numbers and see what the areas that we need to work on are um this is printing I assume not we're not going into Cur at this just through third we decided the um the screeners for

062above third grade are not always us yeah yeah so interesting I mean so this you're talking about a population that is not texting obviously no but uh bu large greaters AR spent a lot of time I guess but uh I see students on the far end of this and I'll tell you I'd be surprised if some of my college classes would be at 58% in terms of some things you say and I think a lot of is the residue of texting they capiz anything Mrs Oakley is Mrs Oakley who's a English teacher at the high school teaches seniors and a she was actually at Hagen yesterday because she's the OM coach for the third grade team um and she was showing me some of the work that the OM students were writing for their uh

063play and uh she said this is better handwriting than my senior so yeah and test them it is you know it is 2024 so we we are aware that like we do we teach typing also you know but my kind of Catchphrase and you've heard it a thousand times in RTI is if you can fit it on a post it you need to handw write it um beyond that we can type it we can voice to text it but there is still definitely a need for handwriting in the world you're never GNA have especially an not framework control yeah it's it's not just handwriting there's a lot of other things that it shows and going into that um for NASA particularly uh last school year because of all these you know kids that are not

064playing the way kids used to play and there are a lot more tablet use and cell phones and things like that um that spy motor development uh is lacking and so uh last school year uh you know Eric had come to me because there was a lot of concerns with the kindergarten teachers with their fine motor skills and how you know could I help to uh you know provide them with some strategies so I pushed into every kindergarten class once a week um for about 15 minutes for four months and provided them with a lot of um activities and strategies um that they could Implement within the classroom and I also wrote down at the end of you know each month what what I did and how you could change it and I provided a

065closet of tools for them in um the kindergarten wings so that they could access it uh you know at any time just to get them to you know learn a little bit more about how to incorporate manipulatives and those kinds of things into the classroom um for strengthening purposes um and the other thing that I initiated in nasau is Shu time which is another long lost skill um I found that the majority of kids in NASA uh wear she that don't have laces uh so far I have worked with the second and the first grade it started with the second graders I pushed into the end of gym class for four weeks it took about four weeks most kids picked it up right away but just for the continuity stake so I could say that

066they really learned that skill um I did it for four weeks when I first started with second grade 22 kids out of 92 knew how to Sho uh Tyler shoes and right now there are 89 of 92 so and a few of the students that are still working on it are ones that receive OT so I'm working on it with them um in first grade there was 15 of 102 students who knew how to tie their shoes and now there's approximately 85 um with I'm still working with them because we had you know um early dismissals school closings of the holidays so uh it's taking a little bit longer but um we are getting there and then we will go to kindergarten and so um and the gym teachers were great so every time uh

067because that happens a lot in gym class with the shoes un tied so every time I I know a class knows that they know how to do it I let them know so and I'm stopping them in the hall all the time reminding them that their their laces are untied and I taught them how to tie them and it's not just Sho tie right it's like it's batal integration bilateral coordination skills is generalizing to other tasks that they do have to do as humans in the world right um so some Hagen announcements um we have introduced kind of universal handwriting language and support um it's on the next slide so you'll get an example of that I'll talk about it again um as well as some executive function supports largely related to organization um and

068in the spring I'm going to be uh facilitating the extended faculty meeting um focusing on handwriting and sensory supports so all of the teachers will be like trained um so um on the left you'll see my handwriting rules this little poster is taped on so many kids desks and it's in every AIS room and all the ICT rooms um so it's the basic rules of handwriting um my kids that I see for it we go over this every single time at the start of the session and they can recite this back to me um but a lot of the kids have kind of taken to it so you'll see like spaghetti and meatball spes they're very concrete um so I have pieces of spaghetti that I hand the kids and I say can you fit

069a piece of spaghetti between your words you should be able to fit one if you can fit five spaghetties between your letters that's too much you need one spaghetti between your letters and then the meatballs is a popsicle stick with a meatball drawn on it and so they can take it to their papers and they can have it in their pencil boxes at their desks and they can check their work independently and kids who need it are using it and kids who don't need it are using it because they think it's fun so it's not necessarily singling out a kid and making them look like the odd man out because they can't do their spaces um but it's just some very concrete things and we're trying I'm trying to make it so they're hearing the

070same like little phrases from everyone so it'll eventually stick and then the take five to organize another big concern that teachers have been coming to ourti and saying they need a because they can't organize their desk is a mess have you seen their desk it's a mess their backpack looks like it's exploding um and so before we jump into like Services um we we try to do some little steps some visual some things like all right have everyone at the end of the day on Friday take five minutes and look at this and do these five things in five minutes and see if they just maybe need a little bit of a helping hand to get there you know and then if it's still an issue we can look at it a little further but

071just kind of some Universal supports to be proactive um all right so uh the other area like we had discussed um that OT falls under is assisted technology so assisted technology is using any piece of um equipment a product software um to to assist with students that have deficit areas um currently I am taking and Abby started um an assisted technology certification I'm going to be receiving an assisted technology certification through the University of Illinois um it's a 13 credit program I'm currently I've taken 10 credits so far um right now I'm at the um level where I'm learning to be able to assess students for their need for assist of Technology um that you know it can be it can a um system technology can be recommended it could be implemented students and staff

072can be trained and it can be monitored for Progress um a great you know important part of that is that um we know our students we know our staff so we're able to train them you know as much as needed and it's a great um it really save the cost for not having to have an evaluation outside of the school district so it's been a nice way to um know continue to evolve and assisted Tech it's really not just for like you know your your you know lowest scoring kids um it's I had a kid last year who I evaluated who was going to take an AP exam and we all knew he was going to fail the AP exam because his handwriting was completely alleged and it's not that he didn't know the information

073he just someone outside of this building would not have been able to read what he was writing um and so when I assessed him he you know his scores were significant enough that we were able to get him you know access to a word processor for his testing and he was able to type his responses and he did very well on his test so it's it's not just like one group of people who's benefiting it really is kind of running the gamut of every student can potentially benefit from it which is nice and that kind of go goes along the lines of our future projects one of which um we want to collaborate with um Marcel burn regarding Universal Design for Learning so that is something that we've been learning about and Marcel as has

074as well and that is kind of like Abby said taking um you know taking any of these things that you use in OT maybe any student could could benefit from it they don't need ot to benefit from it but um finding different ways to engage those on their learning Styles um the other thing in in um nasau that we're going to work on um I I've talked to with the health committee is making fine motor boxes for each of the classrooms so kind of like we did for kindergarten um each class could have uh fine motor go-tos that they can try to implement within the classroom um and we've also talked about um evolving to have collaboration with the upk as far as um students that are that will be coming to kindergarten whether or

075not they're receiving um OT what that looks like prior to them getting to us um and then I will be doing the Orton Gillingham training which um all of the teachers are receiving but it's you know you can't separate reading and writing they they are one and the same so um just to kind of have that shared language with the teachers but also to kind of learn what their approach on handwriting is um and see if they kind of collab like if it overlaps with what I'm teaching um or how we can kind of combine those two to make it you know the most effective um so that's on the horizon and that's it questions all right thank you very interesting thank you thank you just to add as you're as you're walking away um

076the word that comes to mind with with both both the secondary and the elementary presentation me sophistication um really what's what's behind what you're doing and what we're doing at SP and kill really is is purposeful and is is done uh you know in a way that that you know benefits our kids and I think I Christina and Abby talked about how you know tying shoes and what you say bilateral like it's tied you use tie Sho it's tied together with a lot of different things that we not re we not we might not realize right and I think part of the purpose of today is to really kind of give the board snapshot of almost the sophistication and the thought that goes into interventions which is really you know kind of a a theme

077you know of our guest speakers here of the interventions that that are um Lori you want to talk a little bit I know that of the intervention just want to say that um Abby and Christina are so passionate about what they do and they are always looking to improve um outcomes for students and if you remember they were consultants for the district a few years ago and then they became employees of the district and they are integrated and Infused in everything that we do in our schools and you know we've had some referrals from upk for OT specifically and they jumped right on and said well let's work with them and see what they're doing at upk and see if we can work with them to improve outcomes before they get to kindergart so we

078all appreciate you you guys do an amazing job and those assistant Tech vals we used to refer them out and we get them didn't really know what to do with them now we have in-house experts who are going to be recommen Rec recommending programs for kids that we know and classrooms that we know and it's just going to benefit everybody so so thank you both very much and then know our district Christina how long have we been uh working together with you um it's been seven years and little little people AB ab's a St grad so she knows the district very well awesome so fantastic people we found we switched over from Consulting to you know being hired here nice job thank you again appreciate it it 10.04 presentation from our business administrator good even

079it is that time again where we will start our budget presentation for too long thank you your whole system is quite sophisticated that word again this is the first of many presentations um that will be for the 2425 year budget say that yet um we're going to start off with a recap of where we are right now um the current 2224 budget uh 51 million 918 432 which represented an increase of little over 1.5 million from the 2223 budget or a 2.99% increase the current Levy that's supporting this year's budget 32 million 9337 which was an increase of 531 to 45 or a 1.66% increase just starting um thinking about what the 2425 budget could look like there are some assumptions based on information that um some of which we proceed so far some of

080which we be forthcoming um York state is estimating an increase for TRS um somewhere between 9.5 to two to 10.25 um compared with this year's rate of 9.76 so it looks like it may either be a tiny decrease or a decent size size increase um more than likely it'll probably be a little bit over 10% um ERS has estimated an increase from 13.1% of salaries to 15.2 uh% of salaries and that's pretty significant increase for ERS um it's been that's the biggest it's been in a couple of years the increase in ERS because it's over 2% benefits District in a little bit because now it gives us another exclusion for the tax cap calculation which helps um to calculate the maximum tax levy that we can impose to support the budget the CPI for 2023

081is 3.1% which is down from last year's uh which was over 6% so CPI almost dropped in half since last year another big assumption for this year is is all the federal stimulus money um all of those grants will end September 30th of 2024 so they will not be factors in the 24 25 budget so those expenses that we have been using those um grants for will now kind of have to roll back into the general fund other considerations are um salaries the ones that are already in place for collective bargaining agreements and there's a couple of agreements that will end in 2024 those being the healthcare workers and our Food Services Workers so we will be doing estimates for any salary adjustments that could conceivably be part of those new agreements B services will

082probably increase somewhere between 5 and 7% some of that is due to increases in their cost of services and some of due to our increase in participation value their services we're adding more services and um as the OC superintendent indicated we sent a lot of kids to CP CTI that was an increase I think the year before it was 32 kids and outs up to 51 so I'm anticipating that that number is going to continue to grow um tuition for special education students historically the increase has been somewhere between 5 and 7% and kind of carrying that forward to the 2425 budget um health Insurance again based on historical Trends it's probably going to increase in cost of 5 to 8% and we do not anticipate any additional borrowings for debt Services other things that

083can impact the final budget retirement breakages um we have some staff that's retiring and you can recognize some breakage in hiring their Replacements again once we get the final increases or decreases in TRS and health insurance costs those will be factored into the budget um transportation costs both contractual and for vehicles and the same with facilities we anticipate um purchasing additional vehicles for facili use and of course the biggest St is what is the final State numers the budget development process is I'm trying to make it of a collaborative process in the line by line budget I'm soliciting the help of building administrators and department heads for their respective budgets um give me what they anticipate Staffing changes equipment needs Supply needs so I can fa factor that into the overall budget based on that

084we will do budget modifications again taking into account the um budg request from the department head heads information from the state information from the Retirement Systems and from the insurance we will present in future presentations a draft budget finally Dr F will will bless the budget and presented to the board for the board to adopt at that point once the budget is adopted by the board um I will provide a thre part detailed budget format into the admin program and capital segments going forward for future board presentations um the next meeting we'll go into some details with some more of the assumptions um 27th we'll take a look at the key factors um if you remember from last year the key factors are things like health insurance salaries fies Debt Service um then provide a

085budget update in you implementing any changes or new information that we've gotten on March 19th Dr K will present the budget to be recommended to the board for adoption uh hopefully on April 9th the board will adopt the budget on May 7th we will have the required public budget hearing so the public can weigh in on the budget again it will be a detailed presentation and May 21st we will have Community to vote on the budget and the trust the election that's it in a nutshell um any questions or any information you like regarding any future presentations that you probably give you right now U Val if you would um kindly provide the board with some appro appropriation status report so we can have an understanding of where we are things for this current year

086and I'd also like to see for the previous maybe two years you could that way we can see if there's any Trends or anything that can be cost savings or sharpen the pencil tighten the belt a little bit thank you you up in that last slide I mean we're here you know it's it's it's we'll be talking about this at every meeting uh pretty much you know from here on out um and it's okay I mean we're here actually you know it's gonna be February so we are definitely here um but uh you know we're ready okay thanks again item 10.05 presentation from Dr def more of a discussion um we probably mentioned it last year and it's might have come up in executive session over the possibility of the board adopting um and allowing

087for a tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers so we just kind of wanted to open it up you know to to questions uh Val has some information you know about uh the program and a little bit about maybe history or to talk about what an exemption is and and then maybe we could kind of just dive in and have a have a have a conversation about it sure um what other districts actually two other districts in the county and town ofy have um implemented is a exemption for 10% of the assessed value for qualified volunteer firemen and volunteer ambulance workers and what that means is if they have a house that's assessed at $100,000 the tax is only on $90,000 10% of that assess value is not taxed um there are some qualifications

088the qualifications that have been consistently implemented in Dutchess County is the residents of the fire has to be the primary residents in the district the fire department and Eng that they serve have to serve our school district um they have to have been active in that capacity for at least two years to qualify and basically they also have to recertify with the town assessor every year to verify that they're still eligible to receive that exemption um going forward there's other exemptions for example after 20 years of service they are granted a lifetime exemption so they don't have to recertify if you after that 20 years um also if the volunteer deceases and his his or her spouse remains unmarried and in that primary residence they will continue to receive the exception also if a firefighter

089or ambulance P volunteer um unfortunately dies in the line of service and they have served 5 years they're surviving spouse as long as they remain unmarried and living in that primary residence in the district they will also continue to receive that extension I'm sorry the uh the 20 years so somebody already has 20 years as of you know the day that we do or don't do this are they automatically at that or is it 20 years from the point that we start this um that's a good question that would be something that the assessor would have to look at because they would have to I guess provide certification that it was for the 20 years and they were eligible for that entire time to receive that to receive that exemption so that's a that's a

090qualifying assessor would have to uh determine so the town assessor is the one who says whether or not they qualified each year yes they have to submit paperwork from the Department or the volunteer Ambulance Service to the town assessor and that a certified so the town assessor would let us know who qualifies for yes okay thank you we we would probably work directly with if we only have one firehouse um so it would be easier and uh there may or may not be a representative of the firehouse here in the audience so uh I think we would you know we would have correct information for that uh do we know is is it just like a standard qualifications that town of kipy has and these other districts have that or do we um all the

091the two districts that have implemented and the town have the exact same and so who sets those qualifications is that set within the district the district can set them but um once the town did it most school districts just followed the town okay so Town set the town set the town has set their own school districts have the option of following them or their own we we could Grant up to 10 so the board it's back say we X but the town and the county the town the town the county and the other school districts who have um implied this have done is there is there flexibility not that we want necess into it yes there's a lot of qualifications but is there fib with any of the other qualifications or just the percentage um

092flexibility with the with you can have flexibility and how many years that they have to serve to be qualified so most of them have SPL two you can make that two three four five that kind of thing and the same thing with the 20 years of service if we chose to make that 25 years or 10 years we have that options well but the numbers you've quoted us are what the other districts have adopted in the county and County yes well do you have any idea how many firefighters qualified for this exemption um that I do not have because they would have to apply to to do that yeah we do I mean we estimate 10 or under I estimated I did some number crunching with 10 and making a lot of assumptions assuming that

093were're 10 people who qu assuming each one of their homes were assessed at $200,000 and using the current year's tax rate those 10 qualifiers would be um a little over $3,000 that would have to be reallocated to the other members of of the group so they total taxs for those 10 qualifying firefighters would be a total of little over $3,000 that you have to spread out the 2500 other Homestead hes so any probably calculated that number for household I a lot of asss I know but given the assumptions you've said small number so when is the deadline the the next steps should the board want to go forward with this is at the next board meeting we will hold a public hearing and the board will be presented with a resolution to vote on once

094the board approves that resolution that resolution is forwarded to the town assessor um to be implemented in the next set of taxs all of that has to be done before March 1st in order to qualify for the school taxes for the so at the end of this conversation the board would like us to come back at our next meeting with a proposal that then you could still ask more questions and vote on then um where the timing is is is is fine or that we would we would want to vote next next board meeting so that we would get snowed out or something um but we we would also have a hearing and and could ask more questions again um maybe could be specific to what you actually see in the resolution um but we

095wanted to continue this dial out here and ask more questions and and anything we could do here and then basically ask the board if you want us to bring back a resolution and hearing for the next meeting that's our goal tonight so do you need to know how much like 10% years that kind of stuff now to be able to come back with that resolution for us or we would need a guideline and we could put them in the template and then the board could discuss again but I I would imagine the more clarity We Have Tonight uh the better um but if there's still questions out there we we do have a little bit of time figure that out too but yes in the perfect world we would have years of qualifying service that

096so the board could say we just want to uh be consistent with what the county the town and some others have done or you could say let's let's dive down into so we look at each specific thing so what's the flavor of the board here I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel with it already done the work for us um 10% being the highest that we can give in two years being the minimum amount there's really not a whole lot of other stipulations to change on that right yeah I'm concept as well yeah oh yeah yeah Ian I think the numbers you outlined I mean I stand their estimates their assumptions built into those estimates it's it seems like it's fairly small number so why why equivalent the details is my feeling could

097I just ask um if we could for the next meeting just knowing what the town Assessor's qualifications are I can forward you the actual resolution that was passed by the town which board we can send that to the whole board I don't think we need to vote but in I do I have the understanding that you would like us to bring back a resolution and hearing at the next meeting yes yes so we will do that again we can still have more conversation if we want but we'll have a hearing so there'll be input that we could take them and then the board could vote at our next meeting great thank you okay thank you very much okay item 11.01 public comment on non-agenda items public comment on non-agenda items hi rash Mento um actually

098B School Board president so um I don't know I know some of you from dutes County school board so uh anyway I figured I'd introduce myself um a mzo volunteer was referring to and I've been for 50 years in Arlington and I appreciate the support uh we do have a hard time finding volunteers it takes a lot of time and training and anything we can do to keep them in the district and there's nothing that keeps you in the district more than owning home so I I thank you for your help in that efforts so thanks on all the efforts thank you appreciate that okay item 11.02 board correspondents I have two we had an email with regard to some of the improvements that have been done to some of the facilities here at the

099school and based on the age of some of those facilities we often wonder whether or not there might be environmental considerations that have to be uh taken into the plan for those uh types of projects and um so that person had provided an email and uh Dr F had a conversation with that person I believe addressed all that did have a flood at the high school which everyone's aware of um and just kind of went over uh you know the removal process and now we kind of went through you know uh every every safety measure we could uh to to have the removal process in very well all right thank you and the other correspondence was specific to a students so we can't get into it here uh and that uh is being addressed by

100the administration okay so with that move on to item 12.01 do we have any comments from the board quiet grp I okay well with that I think I'll just move on to 12.02 then comments from the superintendent we had a bunch of presentations today so I want to thank everyone um who presented I do think our first presentation Mr uh Jason shell uh talked about uh the science of reading and the collection of what works and I think we follow a similar uh practice I see our elementary principles there right you know we're not looking for one thing we're looking to really Implement what works at stack and Hill and works for our students you know meeting students where they are so I thought he did a nice job of actually summarizing that uh there

101is uh you know a little more Spotlight on it because of what the governor said um so uh if there are any other questions you know may tonight but as as we go forward um we are going to forward the board uh an article that was in the bipy journal a couple weeks ago that I think did a good job of summarizing you know uh the kind of case that the governor is making so uh um I'm really happy with with we kind of hopped on this early uh we were doing this about a year ago and our elementary principles are into it full deep um and we we'll talk about that at a later meeting um about uh we talk a little bit about curriculum and stuff what some of our plans are with

102that every aware that um also we kind of entered a uh snow delay cancellation kind of period um you know we got hit pretty hard last week um knock on wood I think the next couple weeks are supposed to be okay um but just uh remind everyone you know we take that very seriously and try to figure out you know what's best for us um and we have a nice system that that I think works pretty well our new director facilities is an early bird so he's actually on the road he has a pretty big truck um which I think he which is fearless so he is out there um kind of our spy for the roads but then we also work with the Weather Group and and all sorts of things but uh you

103know uh that will continue but hopefully we have a little breathing room room for the next few weeks other than that you know uh next board meeting will come up quick we're here now we have one one cancelled so it seems like a little bit each other in a while but we will be uh we will be back and I even think the schedule as where we might be utive weeks as we uh get Clos so I hope you enjoy enjoyed your time off okay thank you with that I'll ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting want motion to adj the meeting thank you do I have a second thank you all in favor pass 5 thank you see you at the next