001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Yep. >> All right, it is 5:30. I'm going to call this special meeting to order. And we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance >> to the flag >> of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All righty. Uh I'd like to welcome Mr. Michael Ruolo, who is uh district superintendent at DCMO BOCES, and he's going to give us a presentation with community survey results. Hey Michael. >> Nice to see you all again. Uh on the hottest day of the year. Thanks for letting me in here when it's so like crazy >> That's all right. >> Oh, I'll take it myself. >> Yes, we're all the same, for sure.
002So, it's good to see you, and thanks for uh giving me some time this evening. So, I'm uh here's here's kind of my agenda for us I I to take just a couple minutes to review the survey results for you all. Um, a set of questions that helps me when I meet with candidates. Uh, so I just want to elevate that um, across across the entire board. Uh, I do want to review the community survey results as well because I think that that information from your community is really important uh, as you plan tonight to dig into the application packets and make some decisions on who you think are candidates worthy of an interview with the board. And so no better night than tonight to make those ideas really fresh in your mind. Uh, as
003we as we then would transition to an executive session uh, to have some confidential conversation about the candidates. Right? And so those are really those are there's a a couple of other layers right that that will work on um, with respect to the candidates themselves um, but but really those three uh, major areas tonight. So, um, I don't mean to belabor the point but I do think it's important um, and I'm sure that you've had some sleepless nights just wondering what did my board colleagues say? Um, you know, in response to that survey. Probably not but um, we'll pretend. So, um, notice I received uh, survey results from six board members. So, thank you for uh, providing that information and we'll just quickly run through this. My intention here is not uh, to read all
004of these things to you um, but just to give you some uh, some high-level information. Um, again for your consideration. So, in response to the question compared to 3 years ago, what three what three things at Tri-Valley have been significantly improved? And uh, this is kind of consensus uh, that I have bulleted out here. If you could just scroll just a little bit, there's four bullet points on that first section. Thank you so much for helping me. Made this way more more than it needed to be, so. Here we go. Thank you. So, you can see stronger school culture and morale, improved staff retention and support, expanded student opportunities in career and college readiness, and positive impacts from the capital improvements. And so, those are those are items identified by this board as things that
005have improved. The next question, what are the three greatest challenges or areas that you believe need the most attention? And what you'll notice is there's a lot of overlap. Not atypical when I when I do this work with boards, right? Because it's an acknowledgement of, hey, we've been working on some things here. We've been making some progress. We're not quite there yet. Right? And so, I think you see that reflected in this next section, right? Um where in summary, it says that the board identifies student achievement and academic performance as the district's most pressing challenge, particularly in a few areas there, right? Testing outcomes, curriculum continuity, competitiveness with peer districts. Uh and then there are some additional concerns listed there. Lots of credit to the board for saying, hey, this is where the the rubber
006meets the road. Right? We need to deliver on the the student achievement side of things. There's a lot of great things that we have going on here, but let's make sure that we're fulfilling that promise first, and you acknowledge that here. Right? In addition, some other areas of concern, well, let's keep working on the communication, the transparency. Let's keep working on the financial oversight. We know that finances are a challenge for just about everywhere. Right? I think Tri-Valley no different. Um and so, uh so, we know that we have to continue to give that some attention. Always looking to recruit and retain high-quality staff. Right? Again, significant issue in just about every corner of New York State. Uh and you've talked to me before, all right? And here it is again, some declining and declining
007enrollment. Um, and I think that's really a nod to let's make sure that the people in our community know that this is the best educational option, right? Here at Tri-Valley, with us, your staff, right, and all the opportunities that exist here. The next question asked, uh, in the next 3 to 5 years, what three major goals would you like to see accomplished at Tri-Valley? Again, continuing, uh, to improve student achievement as that top priority, particularly in the areas of literacy, uh, testing outcomes, career readiness opportunities, and then you can see some additional goals. Um, let's let's always have an eye on our facilities, make sure that we have the best teaching and learning environments possible. Um, continuing with that strong financial management and transparency associated with that financial management. Paying attention to our staff, keeping
008them here when we get them here, right? And then that community, uh, sense, right? That acknowledgement that the school is really important to our community, and we want to enhance, uh, those connections within the community as time progresses. Right? And that that summary statement at the bottom, I think, is really important. We want to strengthen the educational experience and the long-term stability and reputation of the district. Lastly, the most important personal characteristics that the board is looking for in the next superintendent should be no surprises here, right? I see this consistently from, uh, from school board to school board at the compliment, right? That, uh, that we have some clarity around those personal attributes that the person sitting in the chair labeled superintendent needs to bring to the table, right? And and, uh, you will
009see some overlap here with what your community said. That's good news, right? Um, obviously you know that you're elected to represent, right? The things that you're putting on the table as a board really closely align with what your community said as well, and we'll take a look at that in just a moment. Any questions, comments, anything anybody wants to add? Okay. If we could take a look quickly at the community survey results, I would appreciate it. That's great. Right there is perfect for the moment. Um, so really good response rate. All right, so you had 86 people respond to the survey. Um, and so I don't know if that sounds like a good number to you or not a good number. I tell you it's pretty good number. Right? Um, and there's a whole bunch
010of overlap when you look at how this is sliced, right? So you can see that 40 identified themselves as residents, 42 as an employee, uh, 44 as a parent of an enrolled student. If you add those numbers together, obviously it's more than 86 because some people were able to check multiple boxes, right? So I'm both, uh, a resident and an employee. Right? I live in a district and I work here, right? Or I work here and I have children in the district, right? So I would check both of those boxes. Um, but it was 86 distinct people that responded to the survey. And the way that I usually go about this is I just grabbed the top 10. Kind of, uh, a nod to watching David Letterman, you know, when I when I grew up,
011right? Top 10 top 10 list. So I've got the top 10 um, ranked from the the highest response to the lowest. And then I also tell you what the bottom five were. And I think that kind of tells the story of what your community, what your community responded. So if we could fit as many of those top 10 on the screen as possible, that would be great. I think it's across two pages, so we might only get the first five or six. There we go. Let's just look at those first those first five. A little bit of finesse there. Thank you. Okay. So, uh the number on the left one it like the very first one says number 10, that was the the number 10 attribute in the survey. All right, which is irrelevant. It's
012just how it was organized. Um and then parenthetically is the number of people out of the 86 that picked that as their response. Right? So, 37 out of 86 people said the that they value somebody who is approachable and able to communicate with people from all walks of life with honesty, integrity, and sincerity. So, right out of the gates, not really something like educationally technical. Right? It kind of is your community said what's right here. That's what we value the most in our leader. Now, 37 out of 86, you can decide for yourself whether there's a lot of convergence around that or not. All I'm telling you is that was the the the one that was chosen the most. Okay? So, good information. And in the second one again, I'm not going to read all
013these words to you. You kind of get the gist of of where things at, right? 36 out of 86 people said deals well with people and has the ability to communicate with all segments in the community. A little bit repetitive. Some good news there, right? Um so, we see some some We see some consistency in terms of the responses. And you start to see that fade a little bit in those top 10 in different ways. Right? So, your community is saying, "Hey, quality of the individual really, really important." Now, there is some technical that's sprinkled in here as well. Right? So, I'll just jump to the one that's labeled number eight. Has demonstrated success as a building principal, central office administrator, school superintendent. Right? We want somebody that has some educational background. Right? They know
014what they're talking about when they sit in that chair. They can lead the school district in those different areas and support the team of people that are here with respect to um you know where their area of expertise is as well. That's what I read when I see that. Okay? Um again, kind of couple with what with that last statement there. That's label number three. You know what's happening in New York State education. If you're going to be the super principal, the super educator, you got to know what's going on in New York State. Right? So um so we can start to dig for those things as you're looking at applications. Who has those qualities? Who may not. Right? And just quickly we'll look at the last five and the top 10. Okay, you see
015some overlap here, right? But with some uh slightly uh slightly different twists. Um experience as a teacher and administrator, a leadership style uh built on trust, integrity, enthusiasm, compassion, courtesy, common sense, attention to detail, strong moral and ethical values. Right? And then we start to see a little bit of a drop-off there for those last few. Um but I still want to get the top 10. Um again, I don't think it's it's so uh so the the the the delta is so great that we shouldn't pay attention to it. Um but uh a little bit of repetition. Now, notice uh the last two. You can kind of couple, right? Uh active and visible in both schools and community. Show up. Be present. Right? So when you start to take these things holistically, we want a
016person that is approachable, has a little bit of charisma, genuinely cares about people, and you're a part of what we're doing. Right? More than just standing at the fence at Albright Field. Right? But kind of where the people are, engaging with folks. Um and uh the last one, residency in the local area. That's a school district. Right? Residency in the local area to allow for participation in school and community. Any surprises there? I wouldn't think so, right? It's good. It's validating. Right? It's validating and it again, intention here is to really solidify for you what's going to be important to the community cuz they're going to have uh some input for us later in the process as well. Right? And if we could just very quickly look at the bottom five, these are the things
017um and these are ranked from the the least important, right? So you can see four responses. In other words, is a lifelong learner. Now that now that could mean that that doesn't really mean anything, right? Um but but there you have it. Okay? Energy and enthusiasm, right? You like the ricochet rabbit bouncing off the walls. Probably not something we're really too concerned about, right? Sensitivity to diversity. Um could kind of take that a couple of different ways, that we do a good job of that and it's not something that we need to really look into further because we do a good job of that or we're not very interested in that. I'd like to think about one of those more than the other, but that's not why I'm here tonight. Um positive approach to public
018relations. We saw some of this before, so this could just could have been, right? It was late in the survey. Um we've already checked that box, so we're not going to do it again. And possesses good management and problem-solving skills and a participatory uh leadership style. Right? Again, we saw some of that earlier in the survey all this is about middle of the road. So, um those are the bottom five that we just say, "Hey, that doesn't matter to our community very much. We're not going to dwell on that." Okay? Questions or comments about that? All right. So, we have our work cut out for us, right? We're going to dig through a pile of paper and figure out who you think might be the best match for your school district and ultimately make some
019decisions about who's going to get an interview with this board in just a couple of weeks. So, ready to work? All right, let's do it. Thank you. Uh we're going to go to B. I'm sorry, we're going to go to C. And um discussion concerning details uh really the superintendent Atkins and what we're we're which direction we're looking to go. I have a motion. >> Motion by Jerry. >> Second by Travis. All in favor raise your right hand. Any opposed? >> Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. >> We'll go executive. >> Okay. We'll shut that door. It should be nice and cool in here. >> And we'll do a