001there we go and i will go live so if you guys pause for about 10 seconds and then start the meeting uh we should be live on youtube okay okay well i'd like to thank you all for being here those of you who i can see and anyone who i can't see i would like to call this meeting to order and we'll start as we usually do with the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you uh it's good to see you all everyone's looking well um it only took me a couple minutes to figure out who kali was my uh my wife wanted me to shave my beard so i
002did i just missed a spot yeah she forgot to be more specific all right michelle are there any um changes to the agenda no okay all right um i did not receive any emails um for public comment which would take us to communications if we have any no communications okay um well then we will move right along there are no board or staff reports listed so i have having trouble i can't i'm not able to hear you i'm sorry okay but i can hear you now um this would take us to the items for consent agenda can you hear me yeah yeah okay now i can hear you i don't know oh okay good job like that i'm sorry all right um well we're we're already at the um items for consent agenda okay um
003result that the consent agenda items a and b are hereby approved can i have a motion michael and susie's raising her hand as a second yes any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand any opposed same sign motion carries resolve bit sorry well i was just going to say that i did ask patti about this the committees on preschool education and special education continue to meet virtually and so this is not a backlog this is uh you know actual um uh minutes that are still being uh being created all right items for board board action yes resolved at the board of education the watertown city school district jefferson county new york is hereby authorized to expend the sum of 77 million six thousand nine dollars for the 2020 21 school year and to
004levy the necessary tax thereof can i have a motion on that jason and a second maria any discussion josh is there anything that you want to add um any um guidance that you've received from state ed or any other governmental entity that would um tell us what's happening i wish i knew what was going to happen uh we haven't really received a whole lot more other than what the information that we had at the last board meeting um you know it's coming up 431 i think is his first review and in talking with some of the other business officials would probably think that's where the largest cuts will come hopefully hopefully not and if it does then we'll just have to sit down and take a look at it you know i think we have
00515 20 new positions that we have kind of penciled into the budget and some significant capital physical infrastructure and i.t infrastructure upgrades um hopefully there are no cuts but in the event there are you know we're going to have to sit down and really look at some of those and prioritize everything okay but we um but we have contingencies built in so that we'll be able to continue um with our existing programs yeah i mean it depends on the size of the cuts but yeah i'm hopeful very hopeful that we don't have to slash very much okay any other questions or comments all those in favor please raise your hand any opposed same sign motion carries michelle you're muted if you keep checking your keyboard there might be some yellow lights that you just have
006to push there you go it keeps popping on i'm sorry i'll start over it will keep doing that resolved that the watertown city school district school property tax report card for the 2020 21 proposed school budget is hereby approved can i have a motion okay i think i heard a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand any opposed same sign motion carries okay resolve that the agreement as per the attached by and between the rensselaer columbia and greene county's boces also known as questar3 for certain internal audit services for the 2020-21 school year is hereby approved can i have a motion michael and a second susie any discussion all those in favor any opposed motion carries whereas the board of education of the watertown city school district has
007considered the effect upon environmental and proposed work consisting of the following replacement of damaged original vintage jet and return lines as well as possible other mechanical repairs at the high school pool whereas the board has reviewed the scope of the project and has further received and considered the advice of its architects with respect to the potential for environmental impacts resulting from the proposed action and whereas the board has reviewed the proposed action with respect to the type two criteria set forth by six set forth in six and y c rr part 617.5c now therefore be it resolved by the board of education as follows number one the proposed action does not exceed thresholds established under six nycrr part 617 state environmental quality review act number two the board hereby determines the proposed action as a
008type ii action in accordance with the seeker regulations number three no further review for the proposed action is required under secret and number four this resolution shall be in effect immediately can i have a motion auntie and a second chloe any discussion is this a new discovery on the pool uh well this is our this is the you know how we did the capital outlay project this year was for um some asbestos abatement in the sidewalks in front now we're going to keep those rolling year over year so this will be for the 2021 project when i asked jason i said is there anything glaring and he's you know originally we were looking at uh playground at nick though i don't think a hundred thousand would touch that overall project because of the cost of
009some playground equipment this one came he was a little bit nervous um to coming into school one day with an empty empty pool and a flooded flooded school so he wanted to put this one up there and i know it was on i have to go back and look but i know it's on king and king's that list the school project list that they gave us for future capital projects i know it's on there i don't know if they had a cost associated with it we don't actually have a hard estimate yet as we're still waiting for the pool people to get out there i know king and king's working with jason in that vendor to try and get out on site to double check he did put the pictures in there but he says
010that goes all the way to the pan both on the bottom and the sides of the pool so i don't know how i'm assuming they're all in as bad as shape as what those pictures show so because we've already done some work on a high school pool in previous years this is something that's already been noted and so we're just looking to fix that at this point is do i have that correct yeah and we won't know on some of the stuff until we actually get in there like for the drain and they start chiseling it out and stuff like that we might run into other issues okay thank you so this is a necessary step before we start um putting bids out and doing the work yes um last year we likely should have
011had this in place before uh before everything happened and we kind of did it backwards this year we're getting the secret in ahead of time um and that's how it's supposed to be uh before the budget's approved uh and it will be a line item just it was a line item last year but there was nothing spelled out it was just in there very vague this year it's at least spelled out we know kind of which direction we want to head assuming it's approved and can go from there any other questions or comments all those in favor any opposed motion carries whereas a resolution passed at the board meeting on april 7 2020 is amended as follows resolved at the watertown city school district combined with immaculate heart central ihc school for the 2020-21 school
012year for the form to form a varsity boys ice hockey team and be it further resolved that the students from the watertown city school district will become members of the ihc varsity boys hockey team the team will compete under ihc colors can i have a motion and a second jason any discussion we just got this turned around last time so our kids are still playing but they're playing under ihc's colors all right all those in favor any opposed motion carries whereas a resolution was passed by the board of education on october 15 2019 approving the 10-year appointment of lisa blank as k-12 administrator be it further resolved that this amended resolution reflects a correction of the 10-year appointment as follows resolved at the amended tenure appointment of lisa blank to director of stem programs is
013hereby approved can i have a motion susie and a second michael is there any discussion is this still considered an administrative position yes okay all right any other questions or comments this is awesome thank you for your hard work if you're watching [Music] um all those in favor any opposed motion carries and that is the end of the resolutions thank you all right patty we're looking forward to hearing your updates okay well i'm going to start off with the celebrations um and talking about the incredible amount of work that the watertown city school district students staff and community have been doing together despite the current situation of covid19 i'm really in awe of the work that's been done over the past six weeks overall people seem to have settled into their new routines and the
014feedback has been fairly positive i continue uh to encourage everyone to check out our website facebook and the announcements that come through peach jar if people have any questions or concerns there's actually now a form for feedback on the website and as always people can feel free to call or email us tonight i want to take some of the celebration time to really think about and celebrate the students our students six weeks ago came to school on a friday friday the 13th you know our students from pre-k through the seniors and they left school to go home for the weekend and then with really little to no warning over the weekend they were told school would be closed and then that was extended again and yet again with new york paws currently being in on
015pause until may 15th so our students are trying to navigate their new normal every day and i commend them for all of the hard work that they're doing you know they've been separated physically from their teachers and their friends and you know often if they're at home and and the news is on in between you know they're at home learning they're hearing some sometimes some scary news but they continue to just keep persevering throughout and you know i'd like to really give a special shout out to our seniors right now because they're they're going through a time where this is supposed to be you know they've worked so hard for so many years to get to this point but really for right now i just want all of our students to not focus on you
016know what we should be doing right now or this is the way we would normally do this because the new focus right now is here is where we're at today and this is the perfect place to start and i'd like them to just keep that in mind as we continue to go through the next few weeks together i'd also like to celebrate our administrative assistants in the district that was on yesterday wednesday april 22nd so thank you to all of our administrative assistants for their dedication and service to the district um i'd also like to continue to thank you know i said it in the beginning all of the districts staff students and community but i continue to be in awe with the food service department when i think about the number of meals that
017they've served over the past six weeks it's incredible 47 628 breakfast and lunch meals so far they saw a big increase this past monday i think the the previous monday we had high winds and a lot of rain so i think this week um we did see a huge increase anywhere from you know up to 50 to 200 meals depending on the site and we continue to work with the community action plan community action planning council to serve at all of those other sites as well one of the other celebrations for this week is for the teaching and tech staff they're offering parents guardians and students extra support with technology for use at home for their at home learning we offered a session on tuesday night and we did have eight staff members attend and
018no students or parents tonight a session is actually taking place right now and i got a quick update a few minutes ago that there are a few parents and students and quite a few teachers in that session as well so once again kudos out to the staff for that hard work and extra effort that they're putting in to make sure that all students needs are being met i'm going to move in from celebrations to some updates and things that are in progress because as i stated at the last board meeting even though we're in this time it's still business as usual and right now it's kind of business in the new normal so even though it's business as usual in the past uh since the last board meeting i've actually had two virtual meetings with
019a bunch of different people that are working on the entrance and security for the district through the capital project so as we finish up that capital project we meet with bernie carr construction associates um bill hayes comes into the meetings dave campbell there's a whole team of people that are continuing to work together in addition to the contractors because that work is continuing so we do status updates and we take a look at where we're at and then in the next two weeks where things will be moved and how we're progressing and that project is pretty much right on target to be wrapped up before the end of the year in addition to that i continue to have superintendent meetings with the jefferson and louis county superintendents and we're working really hard together as we
020hear about a new update or when we start to think about end of the year activities how we can be really thoughtful of all students in the north country on monday night we had our community advisory committee and all of the information is being posted on the website if you look under quick links so if you go onto the district's website it's the quick links are over to the left this past monday night we met for two and a half hours virtually and uh dr paul siverski went over the highlights of the pupil capacity and enrollment projection and the demographic study as well and then king and king jason benedict and jim king of king and king presented and discussed the bones of the building and i would encourage you to take a look at
021those studies and the drafts and then we'll have further discussion on those you know in the upcoming board meetings we are not scheduled to meet with that committee until mid to late may because there was so much data to digest and meeting in a virtual format was actually not really challenging but it was just a lot to go through in two and a half hours and really figure out all of the data um i had a meeting with fort drum we had a teleconference with colonel jeffrey lucas the fort drum garrison commander and tina and stacy were able to join me on that call as well as the superintendents from indian river carthage and then mr todd the district boce the super superintendent was on the call as well and we shared with um the
022colonel the continuity of education plans our communication plans what does registration look like during covet 19 for incoming students or in the case of some of the military they were in transition and some families didn't get to their destinations so all of us are working together to make sure that those students are those students needs are being met because what happened is they either went to uh maybe transfer to a state where school was already closed for the rest of the year and then they reached back out to us and so we're making sure again that um we're all being consistent in the north country but we're all again doing what's best for kids we also met with um glenn incorporated in the past actually yesterday we met we had two different virtual meetings we
023took our leadership team and divided them in half and we started our work on diversity equity and inclusion and we're taking a look at the leadership structure of using the four c's confidence competence courage and calm and we started the conversation um by having me go through my first three years as superintendent and talking about some of the major events that have happened in the district throughout that time from starting in my first few weeks on the job with the pipes bursting in watertown high school to a few months later having five inches of rain and then just going through a series of different unplanned events that happen throughout the district and how can we take a look at using those four c's confidence competence courage and calm and reflect on those events and kind
024of putting it to the framework that courageous leaders have double vision and they see the world as it is and how it could be and so using those four cs of leadership how the administrative team in the watertown city school district can work together to be the model district for you know diversity equity and inclusion and we you know took a look at we've done a lot of work on poverty over the last couple of years we you know have done a lot of work um in many other areas but when we start to think about any of the past events that have happened or even the current such a situation that we're in and what does equity look like in in kovid 19 for some of our families it's time for us to all
025dig in and work together and really figure out a good plan for the district so we'll have a lot more updates for you on that as we start to go through the process but both meetings were were done yesterday and they really great feedback with the administrative team something that i'm really excited about another first for us tina has been working really hard to set up our first virtual interview and so tomorrow we will be interviewing for the case assistant principal and we'll be doing that tomorrow morning and it's another first experience for us so i just want to close by saying you know the question of the the hour of the day actually the minute that i get asked most frequently right now is will schools reopen this year and you know as of
026this minute new york state pause is on through may 15th and we're waiting on governor cuomo's order for further information but it's really important for everyone to know that our district has been working on a re-entry plan for whatever date that will be so we kind of have a plan a if we return back this year but we also have a plan b if we happen to come back in september but other plan that we have to go with a or b they both need to address the end of the year routines that would take place during a regular school year so when we know the date of the return and when we finalize those plans we plan to share them out it's really too early right now because we're just developing the plans and
027again it really it really depends on the return date and we know that the heavy lift although i feel like we've done an incredible amount of work over the past six weeks i know that the heavy lift is going to come for that re-entry there's a lot of things to consider but we want our students our families and and staff and we want our board to know that our administrative team has been working extremely hard on this and we're going to continue like we always have to make you know decisions that are in the best interest of our students so that's it do you have any questions um i i think i know the answer to this but the re-entry plans that you're talking about would include something for the summer um whether or not
028we return at the end of the school year correct right so the re-entry plans there's many layers to them because they go from thinking about everything that would need to be done in a building in the short term if you were to return to end of the year activities that normally would take place like graduation and prom and and all of those things that you know end of the year events that take place to looking into the summer and then also thinking about the fall a big piece of the plan because there's many layers to it is stacy and her team will be working a lot on the instructional piece and that is going to take a look at you know we left school in march and we did this at home learning and you
029know taking a look at where we left off and then where we need to be whenever that return is what will that plan look like so again many different layers from transportation to buildings and grounds to technology so the team is actually separated into smaller groups and then we will be coming back together because a lot of the plans have crossover too you know i'll give you uh the athletic director for example you know his plan whether we come back or not so we're taking a look at spring sports but he also has to start thinking about physicals that need to happen over the summer and that's where the nurses have worked on a draft plan so the the medical there's a social emotional piece that goes with this plan there again there are so
030many different layers that i can't wait to actually have that date so that i can share with you and say here's and so i just have to give my own advice that i gave to the students a little bit earlier here's where we're at today and this is a great place to start great thank you um well um i will reiterate what i've said before we really appreciate how hard all of you are working and um the the big picture that you're you're taking on this which requires a lot of flexibility so um we are you know we're we're behind you you just need to let us know what you need to be able to make things happen yeah the positive is you know we always find the silver linings right so as we work
031through the plans with our subcommittees and our sub teams we always tell them that you know right now there are no wrong answers because this is the first time we've ever had to put this plan together so we we do our best and we work together to come up with our best plan knowing that we will always have to monitor and adjust and and you know make things better as we go and that's exactly what we've had to do the past six weeks right well um looking ahead uh we have a um virtual finance audit facilities meeting uh coming up on may 5th at 5 00 pm um and that will be followed by our board meeting at six um and then policy you'll be meeting on the 15th um probably virtually as well um
032but we will uh we will take those one one day at a time [Music] um is this was a relatively uh short agenda and and conversation is there anything that wasn't on the agenda that any of the board members want to bring forward i have a question has there been any guidance about voting for the budget no so thank you for bringing that up josh has actually worked on an incredible newsletter it's really ready to go to the printer but the reluctance in sending it we're going to hold off until the very last minute it's based on the last guidance that we had so we're going to hold off as long as we can but i think that you'll really love this year's uh budget newsletter and in the event that we don't hear and
033we have to send it to the printer the only thing that could happen is that once we send it out to the entire community we may have to make some adjustments so that's why we're holding off just as long as we can before we send that out so the other thing that i did want to mention and i didn't mention it in my report when we're talking about end of the year graduation and things like that one of the things that we do as a board is that we acknowledge our valedictorian and salutatorian and that's coming up pretty soon so that's going to look a little bit different this year and there's not a board policy on that but there is a practice that has been in existence for a very long time on how
034that's determined at the high school and that will look a little different this year so i've asked the high school to share out their plan on how that's being determined so that as poor as the board we all know you know what their practice was for this year but we also know that that could have an impact on you know students for the next several years so we'll just have to keep an eye on that and that's just one of many these are all the kinds of things that come up on a daily basis and so i just wanted you to be aware of that that there will be further discussion and a board report probably at the next board meeting of what's happening because as you know from the way we did the grading
035we're basing a lot of the grades on the first two marking periods and to to go back to the um the budget vote um that would be no sooner than june 1st is that correct yes yeah josh is it june 2nd is what it's slated for right now he's still on mute the audio is muted i'm not sure that he heard me it's it's i think it's the second of june yeah okay yeah the second sorry i was muted i think it should be um technically the next board meeting would be our um what is it the uh the presentation community hearing the budget hearing i don't know if we still plan on doing that that far in advance or um again just what patty mentioned the way the dates are we're not really sure
036how it's how it's all going to play out quite yet josh and i had a conversation earlier today and if the board um this might look a little different under the you know under the current virtual meetings that we're having josh and i talked about it earlier today and looking at last year's presentation and having so many of us present josh may be able to present in a nice format where he takes ownership of it this year knowing that we would go back to the format that we've used in the past um when we have in-person meetings but it might make more sense for this year to do it just a little bit differently if if you're okay with that yeah that that makes a lot of sense and um you know there's all sorts
037of screen options for um for showing those slides and josh can just be the disembodied voice and just last board meeting so okay well we'll figure that out and we'll make sure we're within the um the the timetable that's that's set out for you know x number of days before the vote so anything else all right well then i will ask for a motion to adjourn susie and a second michael any discussion all those in favor any opposed all right motion carries meetings adjourned thank you all stay well thank you too everybody take care bye-bye see you guys you