001Pledge of >> 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. >> Good evening everyone. [clears throat] >> Evening. >> At this time, it is our public input on agenda and non-aggenda items. I welcome any members of the audience to speak at this time. [snorts] >> All right. Okay. Mr. An update. >> Thank you very much. Just like to give a quick update on the Wine and Skill reorganization situation. So, it's been a busy week or so. Uh Mr. Styles and I were at Wine and Skills uh craft fair this weekend. Uh, Superintendent Yodas in the in the audience tonight. Uh, really well attended craft fair, 150 some odd vendors in their building. Uh, went
002from 10 to three and we had some really great conversations with the community over there. We brought the flyers. Uh, a lot of information that that we were able to share. Uh, so it it was uh certainly time well spent. Um, we also met with uh one of the senior citizen groups last week and then I came over, Mr. and I went over and met with the teacher age which was really the last um staff group that we had to meet with over in wine and skills. So, uh busy but productive uh couple of weeks. The next step in the process is actually on the board agenda tonight and I put it in the Friday report last week and it's the petition process. So, um both communities have to show some level of support to
003the state education department before any vote would happen. So that's the petition process which will start theoretically tomorrow. Uh and at the wine and skill board meeting tomorrow night, they'll approve a very similar petition process just with their name on top of the thing. Um and then so theirs can start on Friday. So it probably we go through the holidays. I would say you have to have um the number of petitions signed in support of this reorganization has to equal the average of the last three years budget votes. Uh yes and no votes. So uh for Troy that's about 715. For wine and skill it's about 175ish. Uh those are the averages of the last three budget votes. Uh so you have to get that many according to this New York State Education Department rules.
004you have to get that many um petitions signed in favor of this. So, uh we will start that tomorrow actually at our uh high school and middle school parent conferences >> and then uh I'll put something in the Friday report for an idea I have for the elementary parent conferences which will be in a couple of weeks, two weeks from tonight I think it is. Uh and then I'll also go to um Mr. Styles and I plan on going to the PTA meetings in December in all the buildings and the winter concerts and then um you know also the option of um you know going door to door like you do when you have to get your signatures when you're running for >> Miss Hecman does not want to do that part. >> That's all
005right. You [clears throat] don't have to do that part. Um but I don't see any trouble. Uh I think this is really a great thing for both communities, but uh certainly in Troy uh you know there's really no no downside at all to this uh to this uh possible reorganization. It's a as I said at all the community forums, it's a tremendous opportunity for both communities uh for some long-term financial stability and the ability now to add staff and programs and supports so that uh every student can can be successful. So, uh, I think it's going to be a great thing and, uh, this is the next step in the process. >> Awesome. Thank you. [clears throat] All right. So, the man of the hour, we'll have Dr. Ford come up and do our school
00616 presentation. [clears throat] Thank you to Mr. Mr. Carmelo and the board for providing me the opportunity to provide some updates regarding school 16 programs and data. The mission at school 16 is to prepare each child intellectually, socially, physically, emotionally, ethically to become a contributing member of our society. The entire school 16 community will provide a safe and positive educational climate that supports a challenging curriculum. Our vision will assist all students in improving academic achievement, making adequate progress toward reaching grade level proficiency utilizing measures and data defined by the district reading and math programs and New York State Assessments. This is my my favorite page, performance data. Uh I spent a lot of time looking at this data over the course of the past 10 years or so. Um with the goal of obviously increasing
007student achievement. As you can see with our timeline with student performance, our students and staff have done a remarkable job at focusing on building confidence within the classroom of our students and also maintaining high levels of expectations for student performance. As you can see with our most recent data from the New York State testing for ELA math and science, we've reached 63% of our students being proficient in ALA in grades three. 64% of our students proficient in math and 46% of our students proficient in fifth grade science. As you can see, there's our increases from last year with the exception of math. And I think this is the first time we exceeded the first time we exceeded the the state averages and proficiency in ELA and math and science at the same time in the
008same year. >> Thank you. [applause] And our efforts aren't in isolation. You know, I I look at our my colleagues and the conversations we've had over the years about things we do differently, the resources we bring into the classrooms we bring into the district, um conversations with Mr. Car Carmelo with our data conversations and um those all have made a huge difference in terms of our efforts. The state averages for proficiency this year for ELA were 53% for ELA, 55% for math, 44% for science. And as I said, we exceeded those averages in ELA math and science. So, these are some of the things we've done over the years. I shared this last year. I'm not going to go over all of these resources, but I will highlight a couple. um instructional coaches. We have
009our content specialists for ELA and math. I I think we're still the only school that has one instructional coach supporting ELA and one instructional coach in math, which has great greatly supported us over the years. Professional development. Um this is consistent and ongoing throughout the year. uh our staff developers coming uh into the school, working with our coaches, our coaches going into the classrooms, team teaching, collaborating with our grade level teachers. And the area we're looking at this year is the win time for ELA and math. It's an area we feel we can really make some gains for our intensive learners. Other programs of support, our stronger connections mentoring program. We currently have 11 school 16 staff members serving in that program. 63 total students with a social emotional goal of focus for each student
010and they meet with those students 20 minutes a week for individual mentoring extended day programs. We have our kids first programs, our basketball program, IC of the mind program, ELA and math enrichment program, our school 16 after school program with over 150 students participating throughout the course of the week. equity goal continues to be the rates of referrals for all minority males. We do see that our data for minority males for suspensions and referrals um appear at a higher rate than all other groups. Uh we do have a focus for that group of support with our mentoring program and after school participation in all the programs and extended day programs. school improvement. We are focused on the same areas of commitment at school 16. And the reason why a lot of these areas haven't changed
011is we feel like they're still contributing towards our success. So we want to maintain those areas. So commitment one is to strengthen student engagement to promote positive student behavior through implementing and scaffolding rigorous curriculum to meet all students diverse needs. Commitment two, to build positive homeschool relationships to improve student attendance and create positive proactive schoolwide approach to increase student attendance. Commitment three, using culturally responsive educational practices in our school community with a focus on each of the four areas. a welcoming and affirming environment, high expectations and rigorous instruction, inclusive curriculum assessment and assessment and ongoing professional development. And the final area commitment four is identification of tier 2 and tier three students in need of additional support who are not responding to tier one differentiated instruction to establish rigorous targeted goals and progress monitoring. Are
012there any questions? It's really fast. >> I promised Mr. Friend, he said he timed me actually on this. So he said you have to be five minutes or less. [laughter] >> Any questions for Dr. >> Trying to >> I would ask Dr. Ford just the obviously the data is great. You guys are killing it. Um just I guess a couple questions. Number one, you had a goal of the blue ribbon certification. you still working towards that? Do you need support around that? Are you looking into that? How does that work? >> Yeah, we still are looking at that area. Um we did try to schedule a visit to a school, but they weren't able to support us with that. We're going to look at that again. Um the um the targets for reaching that goal
013are pretty high. >> Okay. >> So, we know we have to at least reach 70 75% proficiency in ELA math to be seriously considered. Okay. >> All right. And then what what's your what's your biggest challenge? Uh the biggest challenge is is really trying to um support the students that need more to identify what that more looks like in the classroom from day to day. Um we have a lot of resources that we're using in in school. Um we're trying to target which resources are most effective at supporting those students long term to make the gains that we want to see. >> You feel like you have enough resources? >> Yes, I think um we we incorporated uh last year I Ready program. Uh this year we're using you fly program more. It was mainly
014intended for K2 but we see we're seeing that's been used in grades three through five now. So the conversations are how do we best use that program? So a lot of it is just us strategizing about how to best implement the programs. >> That's great. My kids go there. I'm tremendously happy with what goes on there. I think the community should be proud of what school 16 is doing, especially when other school districts are being compared to it and and really it's a bright spot for for our school district. So really appreciate what you do and what the staff does. I see some of the staff back there just excellent people over there and excellent teachers that really do care about the students. So the staff should be applauded as well. So really nice. >>
015Thank you. Can we have school 16 staff stand please? Staff, >> you're going so fast. [applause] Excellent. [applause] >> Nice job. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Motion on the floor for approval of minutes from November 5th. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> All those in favor? >> I >> oppose. Under superintendent recommendation, human resources staff matters unclassified and classified. Under unclassified motion on the floor for consent agenda items 1 through 10. >> Discussion. All those in favor? >> Opposed. Under classified motion on the floor for consent agenda items 1 through five. >> Discussion. All those in favor? opposed. Under superintendent recommendations, programs motion on the floor for consent agenda items one and two. >> Discussion. All those in favor? I >> opposed. Under superintendent recommendations, business finance motion on the floor
016for consent agenda items 1 through 4. >> Discussion. All those in favor? I >> opposed. Under board resolutions, motion on the floor for consent agenda items 1 through three. Discussion. All those in favor? I >> opposed. Under district announcements, our future board of education meetings will be taking place here at the middle school at 6 pm. On December 3rd and on December 17th, we will have our presentation from school 18. Future feasibility community meetings on December 2nd at 6 p.m. we'll meet at the Questar 3 Boseis um location. We'll also meet on December 17th um after our board of education meeting to discuss the future feasibility community um with the the community meetings for that and on December 18th at the after the wine and skill education meeting at 7 p.m. >> Ebony on that
017is a question um can we use communication to get that out to the parents in the district or other people in the district? I know a couple parents have approached about utilizing like parent square to announce that stuff. >> Um, I think we have done >> has it been? Okay. So, just make sure we continue to continue that because I know some >> people are interested and they've said, "Oh, I don't know when the meetings are, where you find all that." So, >> definitely you got >> All right. Thank you. >> Is there an update on the location? I think you >> um we decided to keep that. So, so that was a um we talked about making it closer. That's not very convenient. >> Yeah. Um, but that was actually a state ed recommendation
018that the David Elliot that came to that first joint meeting, >> uh, he's the state ed rep that we've been working with and he wanted uh, he thought it was important and recommended that we use a neutral site. So, >> okay. >> Um, Questar volunteered. So, if it turns out that it's not really well attended and we need another one, then we can always reschedu another one in that time. >> Okay. >> All right. under Troy Triumphs. Um, tomorrow night you don't feel like clicking, feel free to go to our time to donate at the recovery room supporting our sixth grade team. Um, that would be greatly appreciated and it will be all day. There's a barcode that you can have scanned or if you just say you're there for the Troy Middle School Dina
019donate, um, they will make sure that the proceeds get u sent to us. On Thursday, November 13th, school 18 held a well- attended 80s themed family dance from 5:30 to 7. The event highlighted student and staff leadership, high school English teacher Mr. Menstroski along with 20 high school student volunteers served as the DJs and they taught attendees various dances. >> We also had other high school dances. >> Yeah. [laughter] We also had other high school students contributing to the festivities uh by offering face painting services and the evening was rounded out with pizza and the students all had a really good time. Five members of the Troy High School environmental club traveled to Tupper Lake on November 4th to participate in the 15th annual Aderondac Youth Climate Summit at the Wild Center. Before arriving at
020the conference, the group stopped in Lake George to climb Buck Mountain. They successfully did reach the summit and at the event, students attended a series of workshops, explored the museum, and collaborated to develop their own climate action plan. >> Cool. >> With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, staff throughout the district are preparing to provide more than 100 families with food for Thanksgiving dinner. We are grateful to all our staff and volunteers who go above and beyond to offer support to many of our families this holiday season. Our Troy High School junior Natalie Astroski and sophomore Denia Bowen will sing the national anthem at the Troy Turkey uh trap for the grade school mile on Thanksgiving morning. >> Oh, cool. And this weekend, go under the sea with the Troy Middle School Drama Club as they perform
021The Little Mermaid Jr. performances are Friday at 7 and Saturday at two. Tickets are $10 for [clears throat] adults and $5 for students. Um, but I do know the first 20 students are allowed free if they um say that at the door for both events. The booster club's paying for that. Um, and they are also performing for the district's second graders tomorrow morning. So, we hope to see everyone there. We also are having a poinsetta and brief sale hosted by the booster club and that is to support the class advisors. So, if you're interested in making a purchase, you can reach out to Miss FA. [laughter] >> She's here tonight. You can tell her. >> She's like, "No." Okay. >> Um, no. To Beth Wilson. >> Beth Wilson. Okay. [laughter] >> Really? >> Miss Beth?
022Yeah. Um, and that's all I have. Anyone else have anything? >> It was great to attend the Choice um, community school fundraiser. A number of us were there. Thank you for hosting that great event. Uh, well attended from what I could tell. So, appreciate the opportunity to engage with staff and and, uh, children in that engagement. So, thank you so much. >> Jimmy, how'd you do this year? >> Really >> excellent. Thank you. >> All right. [clears throat] Motion to adjurnn a meeting. Second. >> All those in favor?