001Get back to work. 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. Welcome everybody to tonight's board meeting. It has been a a busy week with a lot of things going on and we are excited to share. We finally have some resolutions and clarity to a lot of things that we've been discussing for the last couple of months. So, welcome everybody here in the audience. Welcome to all of our students that are here to share their talents with us tonight. We do appreciate you being here. And to everybody at home that may be watching online, welcome as well. And may be watching later. Michelle, do we have any agenda changes for this evening?
002Okay, that makes it easy. All right, item C on the meeting opening is the canvass of the 2026-27 school budget energy efficiency project proposition and school board elections. We the undersigned inspectors of election for the annual school district election and budget vote held on the 19th, 2026 have delivered to the clerk of the board of education their signed statements and reports of votes cast at said election and budget vote. And such statements and reports have now been examined, canvassed as follows. School budget of the 2026-27 school budget proposition one, total number of yes votes 401. Total number of no votes, 257. Approval of energy efficiency project, proposition two. Uh, total number of yes votes, 465. No votes, 192. Uh, for the members of the Board of Education, William F. Wright, 442. Shawn E. Griffin, 449.
003John E. Cain, third, uh, 457. Writings for 81. There shall be it resolved that the 2026-2027 proposed budget and uh, election of Board of Education members have been approved by the qualified voters of the school district and be it further resolved that John Cain and Shawn Griffin are declared elected members of the Board of Education. They will each serve a 3-year term commencing July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2029. And that William Wright is declared the elected member of the Board of Education serve a 1-year term commencing May 20, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027. This district clerk and superintendent of schools have notified the successful candidates and will send a confirmation. Take a motion. Steven, I have a second. Go ahead. All right, discussion. All those in favor? All. Any opposed? None opposed.
004They are approved. All right, on to item D. We need to administer the oath of office to a newly elected board member. Um, so I do solemnly solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and and of the State of New York. and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of the board member for the Watertown City School District of the City of Watertown to the best of my ability. >> [laughter] >> Congratulations to my daughter Erin. Uh, I have a minute is this my recognition? For our class, please rise. >> [laughter] >> It was a wonderful opportunity that you organized last week at the Watertown City School District that offered opportunities for over 300 students. Sure, thanks for putting me on the spot. So, um,
005on the 13th and 14th we were um, afforded the opportunity to host this my major competition here in the Watertown schools. Uh, so we had 21 schools um, registered, 20 of them came. Uh, six of our uh, groups performed here. One band, uh, five choirs. And we took uh, one gold with distinction band. And we got The long and short of a gold with distinction is when you have a gold but basically everything in the gold is you you just couldn't do any better. It's kind of like the cherry on the top of the sundae. It's just an a they they can really can't find anything wrong. So, and they give very very very few of those out. They are very rare. So, uh, it's really a a feather in the cap of the Watertown
006schools to have one of those. So, I want to say actually that piece I think is amazing piece that it was her first year in the Watertown City School District. Um, most people get excited when they get the call with this sanction. She turned, I think, red or pink a different color. Um, you know, with being her first year in the Watertown City School District, and in a program, she's not new to teaching. Uh, we didn't steal her from somewhere. I suddenly said that to the person who gave me the distinction to hand to her, so I apologize Uh, but an awesome win for the students of the Watertown City School District. And it really does raise the bar, and it sets the expectation for what is to come under Fran and Yael's leadership in
007that department. So, congratulations. Okay. So, uh, three golds and two silvers in the in the vocal, uh, world, and I can I can speak to the fact that those judges were extremely that the bar was extremely high. Um, I knew one of them for many years. She worked at Ithaca College, and when I I I was excited to have her, but at the same time I was like, "Ooh, she's going to be tough." And she was. Uh, the other one was a newer judge, but also was trained by that person, so I knew that we were going to have our hands full, and we did, but um, I think we all took home uh, some very valuable feedback from them. Uh, it was a great couple of days. It was a very busy couple of
008days, and I'd like to um, uh, commend my colleagues, Fran and Becky, for We had two sites. There was such a great, um, there was such a great response having it in Watertown. It's been in Indian River for years, uh, but having it in a more centralized location, uh, there was a great response, so we were a little overwhelmed by that. So, the vocal groups were here at Wiley. All the instrumental groups were at uh, Watertown High. So, having it split meant that I was going to kind of uh, spearhead the the Wiley piece, while these guys took care of everything at Watertown High. So, without their help, it would have been uh, impossible to run the show. So, I I thank Becky and um, Fran for all of their help making sure that everything
009ran smoothly while I was up at Wiley running the show up here. So, it was just a great couple of days, very rewarding, and they've asked us to do it again next year, so we're back for round two next year. So, thank you and thanks to all the support of the Watertown schools for letting us host the the event. It's kind of a big deal. It's really nice that our kids don't have to travel. In the past we've had to travel, which it makes it a little bit of a hardship. And I think it afforded us the opportunity of being able to go with some groups that have never been to go. I took my fifth and sixth graders, the large groups that I've never been able to take before because putting 100 kids on
010a bus versus just my smaller ensemble group. Um uh was kind of nice and it really gave them an opportunity they might never have, so it's great. What I would like to do, if it's okay with all of you ladies, is have you bring your plaques up plaques up and I get a picture with the Board of Education so if you can stand on this backdrop right here with this one. If you have the board members in the back and the music educators in the front. Kyle, how are you doing? Are you sleeping on the job yet? No, they're they're doing great. And your plaques need to be facing forward, not upside down. Got you. >> from our last week and is newer to the Water Sound scene is Katie Taylor's group at Case the
011Acapocalypse. Yeah, I I worked hard at that. So, she brought them here this evening and you if you want to introduce a little bit more about them, I will turn it over to you. But, we're excited to hear them tonight. This is my second year in the Water Sound District and at Case and I I'm in love with Acapella singing and I asked if I could start an Acapella group this year because I could see all the talent in what was last year's seventh graders and they didn't hesitate to create this program for me. So, I'm super excited. They've had a wonderful year and this is kind of their their last hurrah performing. So, we have almost all of our group here. We have three not able to be here. So, I'm going to be
012filling in for one of the tenors. Would you like us to stand back here? Yeah, that's fine and then that way the audience can see as well. So, we're going to do one of our pieces that we did on the spring concert called Scenes. Okay, line up you guys. >> Uh-huh. My appreciation for every student thing comes before us and takes the time to share their talents with us. We appreciate So just a little something to give you our appreciation. Thank you so much for allowing us to share your talent with us. We appreciate Nate. Thank you, Nate. Mr. Put me down here. Stella. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time, Sasha. Thank you so much. Marcus. Thank you so much. We appreciate that. Rochelle. She was going to be in the middle of
013the day. And Jamari. Thank you. And Eva. Eva? Eva. Eva. Thank you so much. I've seen you guys multiple times, obviously, because of Madison, but you guys have been phenomenal all year long. It's been a pleasure to watch you guys. What a great addition to our group. For real. And and He still have it. >> [laughter] >> Not that he's not otherwise, so thank you for bringing your students. Madison, I appreciate it. The only thing that's sad for me is I only get them for one year, right? And then they go on and they'll go on to do more great things in music. So I'm excited and very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with these young kids and I can't wait to watch them hand them off to Becky and get to
014go and and watch them on the stage. Thank you so much and I love you guys. You're all set. Great. Katie, if you need to curve before you leave, you can always We were listening at the concert to the a cappella group. My son, who has not said anything about wanting to sing a cappella, came home and said, "I want to join the acapella group. So, you may have at least one more application. >> I'm excited. I know we have 35 applicants right now that have said that they want to try out and I really would only like about a dozen. So, it's going to be hard to leave them out, but he's good. He's good. I'm excited. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Kathy, Amy, and thank you for being here tonight and thank you
015for all that you do to continue growing our music program. It was awesome this week to see all the music concerts. I don't want to steal Tina's thunder. I think she's going to talk about them later, but thank you for everything that you do for our music. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for always supporting what we do. We appreciate you. I feel like we steal a lot of your time, but it's your own fault for being here. >> [laughter] >> We love it. Thank you. Keep it up. Thanks. All right, that is going to be a hard act to follow, but we're moving on to our food food service department update with Mr. Dennis Stromer, food service director. Is there any song and dance involved? >> [laughter] >> Thank you very much for allowing
016me to take a couple minutes of your time. Uh this is going to be very quick. Um but what we've done a a lot of things this year and we're looking forward to doing more things as time goes along, but the first uh first one is our department. We have 42 uh staff members. Um you can see how it all breaks out in terms of porters, uh cooks, part-time assistant cooks, the uh uh elementary building to high school, uh pre-pack. Um I'm not going to waste a lot of time on that, but that is uh it's it's a hard working crew. All right. The next uh slide is uh what 24 25 were for numbers. Uh we did 282,014 breakfast, 441,321 for lunch, over 20,000 snacks, our supper meals at 2,700, and our summer feeding
017program 18,570. Um, hopefully all those numbers are growing and uh, in the future we'll be uh, reporting that out to you. Um, the next uh, slide is and you can see uh, the pictures of the uh, that's 7:30 in the morning. All fresh salads being made and there is a ton of them. That is one of the new options that we have for all elementary buildings uh, plus the uh, Wiley. Uh, and um, they there's a lot of them and I really have to acknowledge the people that are doing it because uh, it's it's just a lot of work. It's a lot of work. I'm very happy to see customer salads. We also are doing uh, a sub choice every day. Um, pre-pack is an animal that is very difficult to to really monitor and
018or uh, create, but we've pushed a whole lot of different menu items trying to get the uh, the kids uh, more active in in buying more fresh fruits, more veggies uh, and just so Dr. Schoonmaker understands uh, there is a new meatball, okay? Uh, but we've added things that kids don't often see with we we you know, we give them free ice cream one one day a month. Um, puddings and and whole wheat apple crisps and fruity jello, I mean they really go crazy over them. Um, our whole goal is and you're going to hear me say this a couple times offer versus serve. Offer versus serve is offering up five components that state and federal government says we have to offer, okay? So, in doing that, uh it also says that um um it
019it used to be all five components was on every single tray. Now, that's not because of the waste and all that. Kids have to take three of the five. I want them to take all five. So, what we've done is with the regulations and whatnot, I can make sure that what's on kids' plate, I don't put baked beans on because I want to, I'll put it up against tater tots. So, it's there if you want it. If they don't want it, they'll take tater tots. I'm not looking to put food on their tray for them to take it and throw it away. So, we're trying to increase the amount of of uh what kids are taking and we're trying to decrease the amount that's going in the trash. And we do monitor it. That in
020your interview, we had a student on the interview. And it was one of our student advisors. She I recall you making a statement about students and and when they look at food. Do you remember what that was? Sure is. Their eyes eat before their mouth. You need a lot of kids to look at it and like it. But then you got to make sure it's good when you put it in their mouth. Kids are very very and tough. They're probably the toughest client you're going to tell that you're going to go against. They want new things. And you're up against million-dollar, multi-million-dollar advertising schemes with Taco Bells and McDonald's and whatnot. You know, I'll springboard off that in some some respects, but the bottom line is if they look at it and they like it,
021there's a good chance they're going to try it. And uh that's what uh and I'm sorry. Brenda Brown, she's my assistant. She She makes everything happen. Make no mistake, okay? Um un- un- unbelievable. Uh our next uh our next uh slide, uh in the high school in the case, we've done some different things. We've offered up uh you know, smash burgers, homemade macaroni and cheese. We're trying to get back to scratch cooking. We're trying to get away from the processed foods. With all the new dietary restrictions and whatnot that are coming up, we can control a lot more if we can do it from scratch. Uh that's not very That's easier said than done because opening a box and dumping it on a tray has been something that um a lot of people just they
022do it and it's because of staffing, it's because of a lot of things, but I truly believe that uh scratch cooking uh is is the way to go. But in doing scratch cooking, you have to understand we have to be able to train the people to cook it, okay? And there's a lot of levels to it and we have to ship it and we have to reheat it and we have to There's just a lot of levels to it. So, work in progress, but it's coming very, very well. Um again, the specials we have, you know, specials of the week at the high school. We're going to move toward the middle school. Um this gives me an opportunity to try new things that are not on the menu. Find out kids like it. If they
023do, then I will menu it. We need to cycle through things that kids are not seeing as often and then we'll find out what we like and we'll put it on the menu and we'll we'll move it. Uh that has worked out very, very well. Uh some of the new items uh we do the cycle smash burger with cheese, lettuce, tomato and bacon. Looks awesome. The stuffed French toast, um the honey pizza, chicken bacon ranch, lasagna. Um the taco salads uh couldn't keep them in house. Uh hot dogs, macaroni salad, salt potatoes, apple crisp and a pasta salad. Stuffed potato bar went They went crazy over it. Uh they went crazy. They like to fix what they want to eat and uh it was it was very, very good. And having doesn't know that I'm
024going to say this and Tina does, um, but yesterday we had our student advisory kids and Caleb, you are witness, so if I'm going to say something that I haven't, please call me out. Uh, yesterday Tina asked them to list, if you can look on the whiteboard over there, uh, behind Kyle, um, you know, what they enjoyed about this year. The number one thing that they mentioned was lunches. And in previous student advisory council meetings, when we've asked our kids about the food, we've had many kids say we would rather stand in longer lines to get the quality of food that we're eating than to go back to to maybe some of the processed stuff, uh, that made shorter lines, easier to serve and you just mentioned that in your presentation. Tina, did you want
025to add anything or Caleb, you were there yesterday for that particular motor? I think it would be a good idea to include the story from yesterday as well, our guests this morning. Oh, so we're hosting, uh, Joel Leo, the Department of War, um, and, um, today I went to Clayton with some other superintendents in our region, uh, and Lenny Anthony joined us for a breakfast there. And, uh, as the lady from Department of War was presenting, she said, I have to say the food They were very impressed with Case Middle School hosting this year. They were very, very impressed. They had the opportunity to visit Copenhagen, Carthage, where else did they go? Carthage, Copenhagen, Watertown, possibly General Brown. In any event, uh, the lady said the food that she ate yesterday was the best food
026she's ever had and she goes, she used her hands and that's cuz she was Italian, but she said, "Can I have you to the director of food service?" Uh, she did the visual, otherwise I wouldn't have done that. >> [laughter] >> I mean, it's just it's a representative fact cuz it's really the food quality yesterday that you guys were able to pull off looked like it was good and and high quality and it really set a tone for our our visitors from Department of War, but more importantly our students who eat it every day. Um which that's a and thank you very much. That's That's always good to hear. Um Like I was saying before, the eyes eat before the mouth. The one thing that we try to do in Watertown is anytime that we're
027able to bring an outside or an outside organization that comes into this district, you never get a second chance to make a first good impression. And we try to put out quality food. We try to put out food that, you know, is eye-popping um and is uh popular. Um something that I'm very, very impressed with this year and I'm, you know, thankful that uh again Brenda put this together for me. You can see um September um last year versus this year and you go right down through and you can see um over the course of the year 4,500 meals. Now, I need to preface that. We went from 125 adults having an adult account on their uh you know, that they could go and buy food and whatnot, and it's 368 this year. Okay? Um
028the total revenue from that was 13,007 78 81 versus 4,525 35 from the previous year. My point to that whole thing is that when kids see adults eating, it translates into they it's it's like an opportunity and and teachers are and the faculty and staff are more apt to be very favorable when talking about school food service. So, the more adults that we can get to eat, I think it translates into uh a better participation rate. And uh make no mistake, um that's that's what drives our kids. Um I said I was talking about uh ADP and Offer versus serve drives ADP, average daily participation. Every single thing in our department revolves around average daily participation. The amount of money that we make, the amount of uh I call it credit, but uh we always
029are working off of a year in arrears, and that amount of money, which um on one of these slips it will tell you what our uh money was from the previous year, we can then then go out and uh we can either process food, we can um put it into a program called Favors, which is completely all fresh veggies, you know, and there's uh a mountain of uh uh foods to pick from that's all fresh and whatnot. And then of course uh we can do Okay, so we're able to use $242,591 in our diversion. Um and what that does for us is that the government in layman's term, they're going to give you whole chicken whole chicken, okay? We can take that chicken and we can send it away, and they will process it. We
030remove the bone, and they will give us whole muscle if we choose to. It's not processed, it's not minced, it's not formed into patties. It's whole muscle. And we do that in our all of our chicken products, our nuggets and whatnot. Uh like I said, we went to an all beef uh meatball, our hamburger patties. Um our seasoned um potato wedge, which is a New York state fry. Um and then we can divert all kinds of uh dairy into uh cheese, and so on and so forth. It's There's a huge scope of foods that you can pick and choose from. This particular year, we did divert um money to uh brown box, which is actual government commodities. We found that it was of the good quality, and it was much cheaper than going on the
031market and buying it. Um which is a very uh again, cost-effective in that standpoint. Um I'm going to kill myself here. Um It's It's going to be great starting out in September. We're going to have a a brand new uh a brand new kitchen. And this is the uh basically the start of a new beginning. This kitchen will have a serving line. We'll have uh convection ovens. We'll have refrigeration. We'll have uh a dishwasher. We can rather than a pre-packet, reheat it, and serve it. We're going to be able to put french fries in the oven, take it out, nice hot fresh burgers. And everything will be fresh. And that will be a driving force um and you know, we we'd like to move that way uh as uh time allows. But that's going to
032be very very exciting. And uh I'm very much looking forward to it. Um Again, a little more in detail, the uh USDA entitlement um when we get the fruits and vegetables that we're able to get, and that's just a few of them. It's what it does is it gives the kids the opportunity to try and see and and and develop a taste for it. Okay? And we have uh um another program called um Help me out, Brenda. Yeah, no, our big school our big school, which is all local. It's like a farm-to-school deal. We get local apple slices. We get squash. We get uh fresh carrots. We get fresh garlic. Um all that stuff. Uh Lucky 7 does our fresh ground beef. We cook all the beef. Cook it down. We season it for our
033taco meat. We do it for such things as uh sloppy joes and something of that nature. But it's uh it's all hand-held by our by our people. It's not processed and um done in a way that uh we can adjust flavors, we can adjust any type of nutrition or whatnot on it. Um Honestly, uh it's in this program and I'm not shy to tell you that I'm 34 years and 12 years retired and I came back. This district is huge from a standpoint of the the the amount of of um where it extends to from southern meals to different types of things that we do um above and beyond any school district that I've ever been in. The amount of food you would be absolutely blown away. I mean, I am and I'm around it
034all day every day. It's a it's a very large very large project to to oversee and we're proud of it and uh we have a long ways to go, but I really feel like we've made some steps in the right direction and again um having Brenda on board with me has been an absolute must. She is uh invaluable. We we have an entire uh dietary program that she runs all of the food through. I uh terrorize her most months because I say I want this this and this and she says, uh okay. Let me see what I can do and um she she makes she makes a round peg go into a square hole for me. For that, um I'm very very appreciative to her, but any questions or concerns? Let me just say this,
035there's kids that eat school lunch every day. Um my kids are impressed with almost all of the offerings. There's not a day that they don't come home and they're not excited about their day. I just want to thank you for taking our program in that direction and caring about our kids enough to put the extra work in to make it happen because you know it's no easy task. Look through the eyes of a child, you'd be surprised what you see. And that's what we do every day. So, thank you very much for the opportunity and when I have more information, I'd be more than happy to come back and share it with you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Donnie. Thank you, Brenda. I'll just one more thing. My youngest is in first grade at Sherwood
036Christian and Matthew, she likes today. And on the drive home from the school, I said, "How How was high school today?" He goes, "Uh good. Matthew, she likes bread." And it was less cheesy and more Mackey. It's the greatest thing to ever hear her say. All right, we're at the first public comment session of the evening. Uh we're still following board policy 2206. This portion of our open um meeting is for agenda-related items. All speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil manner. No obscene language, libelous statements, or personal violence. Um we do have a 3-minute limit. If the buzzer goes off, please do not be alarmed. Complete your thought and we'll go from there. Is there anybody here this evening for agenda-related items? Seeing nobody rise, we will move on to board and staff
037reports and we'll start with our policy committee meeting report and our chair, Ms. Tina Hill. Um we went over the grading for equity policy. Um that's still being worked on. Um they sent out surveys to staff and teachers and students and parents. And um so, if you have any of those, and you haven't finished filling them out yet, if you could fill them out and submit them, um the district is always willing to hear feedback. And we went over policy 5501, student transportation. Um the only thing we did on that was change um from kindergarten to fourth grade to pre-K, UPK. UPK four to fourth grade. So, that just includes our UPK program. So, we um as we mentioned at the last thing we said at the last board meeting, we spoke about transporting our
038UPK students uh in the four-year-old program. Um so, any students that uh are in the UPK four program that turn four by December 1st of next year would be eligible for transportation. Um so, the only area in the policy that we're looking at changes, we're not looking at distance or anything like that, we're looking at adding that UPK four program. Um there is a requirement of the district and anyone who transports students um of certain ages uh that require DOT uh harnesses, they are four-point harnesses, so we're going to work with that. Uh we're also looking at utilizing our existing routes. Um there are some of our apartment complexes in Watertown that may need to extend beyond that, uh but initially we're going to look at what we can do to maximize our current routes
039to place those students on those routes. And so, this year when the student applications go out to parents, uh they will highlight uh the busable areas, um and that will be included in our new student information system to make it a little bit easier for parents. So, we're looking forward to all of that, that's a change. Uh parents who choose not to go to a particular area based on transportation, um so for our UPK four would be a plus 0.75 miles, And choose to go to an area that's maybe closer than that, uh then or different than that, then they would be eligible to transport their own child. But what we're hoping from an equity lens is this opens the door for parents that do not have transportation that we can increase. But I will
040say, and I'm going to say that for my comments, is that the governor's enacted budget does include some language for age four specifically for UPK, and by 2028 districts will have to allow any age four child to enter their district for pre-K. And so we're going to begin ours a year earlier than the state requirement, so that we can further assist those families in need. It ties into everything with our strategic plan. Our graduation rate and getting our youngest learners in is critically important. That's how we're going to get there. What we would like to just add to that is because the only change that we're making is not a significant change, we would like to put that on the board agenda for our June 2nd meeting for board action. So that we can begin
041those processes to put them in place. I have a question. Any objections to that, Tina? I think that matter came to you before. I didn't think anything. I just wanted to make sure that we Thank you, Tina. Any questions for Tina? Okay. Well, I'm the Superintendent of Schools report, Dr. Lashmegan. I promised someone around this table I would keep it brief, and then my list kept getting longer, so I'm just going to talk Um the first and foremost, I want to thank all of our voters for showing up yesterday and going to the polls. We had the opportunity yesterday to lead our student advisory. Each of our student advisory kids did get a ballot. It's important that as educators we're modeling that civic duty for our students. And I am proud to say that our
042student advisory students actually accurately predicted the outcome of last night's election. I also want to thank many times I get people that reach out to me with the elections wondering why a particular school district announced the results earlier than ours. Our district is a little bit larger. We do have more machines that we're operating with and hours in different districts are very different. So, we appreciate your patience. A huge shout out to all of our election inspectors for the work that they put in, Michelle Gravell, and all the work that she did. I'm going to give She doesn't toot her own so I'm going to do it for her. But we had you know when we mailed out our absentee ballots, you know, our mail goes to Syracuse and then back here for the extra
043trip and excursion. And that takes a little bit extra time to get back here. We had an elderly woman in our community reach out to us really eager to have her voice heard in the election and Michelle Gravell took her time to go to that lady's house and made that woman's day. So, I just want to thank you publicly for doing that because I don't think there's another district that would have done that and gone that far. The other thing I will say is New York State changed the law as of April 1st of this year. And regarding that law, it's the New York State elections law. So, now all of our data across New York State as far as education related will be required to be entered into the portal. So, Michelle and I
044will be working to upload all of that information. That will have all of our voter information regarding our propositions to include all of our voter information regarding those seeking to serve as board members. That's all I have for that. The next thing I would like to say is the governor's enacted budget. You know, that ties into my first comment. We we asked our voters across New York State yesterday to go to the polls except for the big five. The city councils voted for those budgets. But aside from the big five school districts in New York State, across the state we asked our voters to go to the polls and to cast votes on district budgets that were uncertain. And that took a lot of trust of our community and the communities across New York State
045to do that. So, I want to thank the taxpayers. Um you know, Briana worked extremely hard with our board since November moving forward on this budget and we were hoping all the way up to the very end that we were able to give you accurate information prior to our voters going to the polls. But, we want to thank you for that level of trust. Um we also want to thank our elected officials. Uh today, as I knew I was getting ready to this uh board meeting, I reached out to Assemblyman Scott Gray and I said, "Scott, I know you're on Capitol Hill and you spend a lot of time there." Um and we appreciate him and all of our other elected officials for all that they do. And he gave me play-by-play of where they
046were on the budget today. And um I want to share some of those highlights as far as the education component of the governor's budget that is now enacted. The state budget uh numbers for Watertown. We did see and so we're looking at proposed versus the actuals. When you look at the um actual budget, um our state aid run came in $219,000 higher than what we proposed to the voters. So, we're excited about that. Um our nervousness would have been if those dollars and cents came under that um and that we couldn't exceed that cap. The next thing I want to mention is a huge shout-out. Um we've put a lot of work last year um in our community and our local elected officials on universal pre-K. And so, um as we said, uh there was
047a work done around universal pre-K to increase those rates. Um what I'm waiting on before I put definitive answers out is information and guidance. Typically, once these budgets pass, guidance documents come out. In this case, it would be from the associate commissioner of office of early learning. That typically comes out at the end of May, early of June. Once I receive that, I will communicate that information out to our community and particularly our our community-based organizations. So, stay tuned there. Uh number three is a huge shout out to our entire region and the superintendents that I have the privilege of serving within this region. There have been a lot of advocacy, as you know, uh Briana and I went to Washington D.C. and then to Albany on multiple occasions to advocate. Um we don't own
048our own buses. We subcontract, uh but it was important that when we speak as a region, that we spoke with a unified voice. And with that, we brought up the concern with our elected officials on zero-emission buses. We have districts in our region that have tried to go the electric route, as you've seen on the news and have not had great success. In some cases, those buses have spent more time on the back of a truck, uh being towed somewhere than actually on the road. In addition to that, with the cost of electricity increases in some of those cases, the cost to operate those buses far exceeded the cost of fuel. What I will say, in excitement for our local local officials, excuse me, um they did agree to push that extension back by five
049years. So, that buys us five additional years. Um when you look at not in Watertown, but when you look at some of the propositions, I think there were at least three that come to my mind throughout our region, out of the 18 districts that put electric bus propositions forward. A part of that was a requirement to apply for the waiver. And uh Briana and I have begun working on the waiver for Watertown. In any event, all three districts in our region that put electric buses forward yesterday were defeated by their voters. So, it was a resounding voice for our from our region that we are not ready and the infrastructure is not ready, as well. The next thing that I'll mention regarding uh the budget is uh BOCES' aid. We saw an increase of 9.2%,
050which is an additional $436,000 uh to offset our shared services for BOCES. So, what I will say, and Brina and I shared this excitement earlier, is that we are not reporting this evening lower aid runs than what we shared with the board and our community. Uh in fact, some of those numbers actually increased, and we feel blessed and honored as a result of that. The next thing that I want to mention, um we last year I I I had my math wrong, so thankfully I'm not teaching math. Um I've said publicly that we've presented our board uh budget eight times over the last couple of years. When I redid the math, it actually came out to nine budget presentations. Um I do that I do believe that that far exceeds what is typical in any
051district, but it was important a couple of years ago and this current board that we get out there in front of this and communicate our budget to our voters. That proposed an opportunity this year, back in March, to really rekindle something that someone by the name of Russ Bond started when he was a music teacher in our district, and that was dinner and a show. And so, this year we worked with Becky Rose, who whenever I put something on on the music teachers' plate, as you can see tonight and John alluded to it, they are always saying yes. They always step up and step forward despite the amount of work that they have on their plate. And this year we hosted that event. Because one of the things that we noticed when we looked at
052our data our voting data is that there was a certain demographic of individuals, and maybe their kids have already went through the Watertown City School District, that we wanted to make sure that they felt connected to our district and our community in a different way other than saying yes or no on a ballot. And this year we reached out to two retirement communities to add on to the dinner and a show. And when we did that, and Michelle was our She does a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. She does also raise my blood pressure. Um and she reached out to That was a joke. She did reach out to Ives Retirement Community. And there was a resounding yes to welcome us in. And we went in Bree and I went in and I want to thank
053board member Randy Richardson, who is not here. He's at West Point tonight. So congratulations to him and his son for that. Um we went to present to a group of people that I was a little bit nervous about. We had presented the budget nine times in a way that we felt comfortable and easy by the time we got to the ninth presentation. We were told you can present, you get 30 minutes and no electricity. We have become overly reliant, as you can see by our live stream tonight, on electricity. But it gave us an opportunity to present a budget in a different way. And it was an awesome opportunity cuz we presented it in a on Teacher Appreciation Week. And on Teacher Appreciation Day. And five retired teachers from the Watertown City School District are
054residents of that community. And they grasped their pens and their papers. We handed them the budget newsletter and pictures of kids engaging in a variety of extracurriculars. And they sat with their pencils and their pens leaning into their chairs to everything that we had to say about the budget. And the questions that they posed I would not have predicted. And then we went around afterwards answering questions and and then we re-aligned with the girl when they they cornered Randy Richardson. And continuing about that experience. Um but they asked a lot of great questions. And and and a handful of questions that they asked were about Cyclone Academy. Cyclone Academy that you may think may not relate to Ives Retirement Community. But they were overly excited about what Watertown City School District is offering our students.
055All students. So I just I really want to thank the Ives retirement community for allowing us to come in and invite inviting us to come back. The next thing I want to mention is our student advisory council. Uh we have had amazing runs with that. We started off with less than 10 kids, went to about 14. This year we had 36 students want to serve on our superintendent student advisory. It was important when I started here with the Board of Education that we solicited voice voices. And so, we started a staff advisory, student advisory. And um that that advisory keeps growing and growing. We had Lynn come in and present on education and student engagement, student attendance, um and scheduling. We had Bri come in and present the budget. And Bri, I'm sorry that they
056didn't list the budget as their number one like uh of student advisory. Wow, I don't think they answered in front, I guess. I think we did try to continue our succession planning with the principal, but we didn't get there with this. We did last year, Tina. We had a math student last year. But, I just want to thank Caleb serves on that committee. Just an amazing opportunity to engage with kids that are very bright. And when you look in the eyes of 36 kids that really do care about our district, um we're going to be in a great place in our future when we hand the keys to them. So, I'm excited about that. I also want to mention that last year we worked with the board on the process for selecting a student board
057member that became a part of New York State law for this school year. And this year we had students submit applications and had the opportunity to interview. Caleb reapplied, and other students that also applied. Uh we went through that interview process, and it was amazing to hear the students and what value they want to add to the table. And it was also interesting to see the value that the other districts have and how they run their student by their student board member. Um after completing those interviews, and those interviews took place from Wesley Atkinson and myself. Um the recommendation to the Board of Education is to seat Caleb for a second year. And that came up for a variety of reasons. He had a lot of insight, if you go back to our North Elementary
058School budget or uh first board meeting with him on it, and the lessons that he learned and how that grew him as an individual, and how he would like to continue to grow. But also something, John, that you said to Bill tonight. And that is, you know, it takes your first year, and this was something that probably got brought up. It takes your first year as a board member to get comfortable in the role before you start really stepping forward. And in addition to adults feeling that experience, Caleb, um as grown adults, you are a student, a sophomore. And so, um my recommendation to the Board of Education is to seat Caleb for a second year, and then next year open it up for another student for another opportunity. This month, I won't go back
059there, but we had a wonderful presentation from them. Our Armed Services parade, you know, Jason, you had mentioned a couple years ago about the power of adding back marching bands. Um we spoke about that today with Fran Eggert. To be a first-year Not a first-year teacher, but a new to Watertown City School District teacher, and take on not only new students, but add a new pep band and marching band is incredible. And to walk away from that with a with an um a gold with distinction is unheard of. It's And I think it made Mrs. Ponce jealous because she was more than that. More than gold. Um but it tells you the quality of our program and what is going to come with her as she continues to grow. The Armed Services parade, and and
060Melanie, I want to thank you for sending those pictures out to the board. She had 39 students marching last Saturday. And to see the excitement of those students, and I also want to thank our other neighboring districts because our uniforms did not come in on time. And she reached out to her colleagues across the region to get borrowed uniforms until ours come in. When they do, they're going to knock the socks off. But a congratulations to those students who committed to doing something new summer, which are seniors. They stepped up and they took that risk to trust to trust the teacher that they did not know. Um so kudos to them. I also want to thank Sherman Elementary School. Sherman Elementary, when you saw the flag students that were carrying the Watertown uh High School
061flag, those were current and past Sherman Elementary student students. So I want to thank them. And I also want to thank our community because it took us 19 years and a Board of Education that trusted in the process to add a financial commitment to marching band and to our voters who last year said, "Yes, we want this back. It has value." When we talk about adding value, value typically comes with a cost. But the cost of not adding it is the sense of belonging that it adds to each one of our students in our community. Whether we're talking about adding indoor track, whether we're talking about adding girls flag football, which Gina and I have had the opportunity and pleasure to watch, we have more and more students that are engaging in our school as
062Danny pointed out with the food program, I would argue that our rates are also increasing with our extracurriculars. The next thing I want to mention, and I apologize uh to the board in advance and North Elementary School in particular, um earlier in the school year uh we were burdened with the with the word bats. Um and not baseball bats. That's a different conversation for later. Um we were talking about uh bats. And so we had the opportunity last week to participate in FEMA. And we were really excited that after 2 months of FEMA being on furlough, that when we Mary and I walked into my office and heard the FEMA representative on the call, we thought we were long lost family relatives. And I screamed out uh uh you would have thought I was Leslie
063Atkinson and we would have laughed. But they were very excited and I think we're in a good place. But our project is moving forward, and that project is significantly important because it's to the tune of $14 million. And that $14 million, if it doesn't come from FEMA, it's coming from somewhere. And so when you look at state resources, federal resources, and local, those cost shift. And what we're able to accomplish through FEMA takes the burden off the capital project and off the overall $260 million that's needed in our district. And when I say 260, I really regret to inform you that that was 2 years ago prices. And so those prices are higher now. But the one thing holding us up, and we're going to get through it, is the northern long-eared bats. And so
064we want to make sure that we are not disrupting their habitats. I know Lenny got excited when I said it cuz he's a science educator. Uh, we are going to work with FEMA on that. We're going to make sure we're not disrupting them, and then we will try to push it forward. Uh, we were told in the next 60 days roughly we'll we'll have an answer. We are planning to move forward because what we had to do is take the FEMA project out of the capital project, otherwise it was going to stall the capital project. So we're going to continue uh pushing forward in good faith and hope that that pans out. And I'm proud to mention that our capital project broke ground last week, a year earlier than what we promised our voters. That's
065good news. Um, the next thing I want to mention uh before Collie mentions it, is that on the board of genetics, as he does it every year, some people are predictable and Collie is it. Um, every year Collie asks the question when it comes to summer camps about what do we do with kids that don't have the economic resources to go and to attend. And so Collie, I'm going to answer your question before you ask it, and you can still ask it, I'm just going to give you the same answer. So I'm also predictable, you can ask Shelly. Um, the um we will put up swimming today and for the board to act on swimming. We are also working with the booster club and Rachel is going to be handing the reins over to Julie
066Keggans who will be our booster club president and I say ours in the sense of our community and our kids not necessarily the Watertown City School District and there is a distinction. But any student or family that is in a financial hardship that is not able to fund a summer camp, those summer camps the booster club will be offering grants as they have in the past. So I would suggest to reach out to Rachel Marston currently and then as of July 1 it will be Julie Keggans. Did I get the name right? Right? Did I answer your question from last year? It's never your question and Jason asked about donations, Kelly asked about funds. The next thing I want to mention is Friday of this week. I have decided to move to an early release
067this Friday. When you look at BOCES opportunities BOCES has decided to close based on the region. Activity in many districts in our region are also closed. I did not utilize a full contingency day. And the reason why I did not do that is because we have one contingency day remaining and because I baptism by fire my first year we had a water issue, we had a wind issue, and an electricity issue. I am too nervous to burn the last day that we have. So I have decided to do an early release this coming Friday. It does not require board action so that will be just for public acknowledgement and there should have been a parent square that went out today to acknowledge that. And so I want to thank our educators and our staff in
068our district and our families for their flexibility. I do hope that our families find time to recharge and spend time with loved ones as we celebrate the importance of Memorial Day and also we look forward to seeing everyone back here Tuesday of next week. We will be hitting the ground running. June is around the corner and to all of our secondary students that will be approaching Regents exams. In addition to that, um we will uh in the past we've had three early release days at the end of the school year. I am proposing two this year because we were adding one for this Friday. So, the June 24th and 25th uh will be early release days and we will communicate those uh to parents as well and that is in June. The next thing I
069want to mention is uh the Department of War, also uh formerly known as the Department of Defense, and we spoke about that earlier with food service. But, I want to thank Lisa Blank and her team uh to have Watertown City School District have the privilege of hosting that group. We had teachers from Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey, you know, so from around the United States that that came up here um or at least the northeastern part of the United States that came up and participated. And it was just another way to highlight the Watertown City School District and all of the wonderful STEM activities that are happening um around the district. The next thing that I want to mention uh just publicly, this is something that we are going to be exploring as a district. I
070don't have it with me, but I'm going to go from memory here. Um there was an opportunity that has opened up to superintendents and um assistant superintendents. And it's through a scholarship through the New York State Council of School Superintendents. And it's a scholarship, like this is a social studies teacher, to EF and uh they really want superintendents and assistant superintendents to go out in the country and do service learning. And uh the hopes is to educate superintendents and assistant superintendents with the idea of bringing that knowledge back to the district and sharing it academically with our students and offering these scholarships to our students uh to participate. So, I will be uh participating with that uh the week of October 8th. Um October is a very busy month, uh but I look forward to
071bringing that information back to the board and to our community um and then with Lynn so that we can work on getting those grants uh available to our students that may also want to participate with those foreign exchange opportunities. And that concludes my comments. Questions for Dr. Smeeds? This northern long-eared bat uh is it just because our building is in the area where that bat has habitat? Yes. Uh earlier in the year was they were habitating in the building. >> Right, that was my question. Thank you, Dr. Smeeds. Uh Michelle, items for consent agenda. Resolved that consent agenda items A through E are hereby approved. Take a motion, please. Melanie, I have a second. Tina, thank you. Discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Items for board action. A, approval of cooperative
072educational law 2D compliant agreements. Whereas the RIC One BOCES Operations Center is an intermunicipal is an intermunicipal arrangement among BOCES established to improve vendor management and data security for school districts statewide. And whereas the Board of Education through RIC through its Regional Information Center affiliation which wishes to authorize the ROC and its attorneys to um negotiate data privacy agreements DPAs um with vendors for the 2026-27 school year in a compliance with the Ed Law 2D and part 121 regulations regarding student uh PII and APR data at no additional cost to the district. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Education authorizes the use of DPAs negotiated by the ROC and its attorneys, while reserving the right to make financial determinations regarding their use, and to consult with its own legal counsel before executing
073any DPA. I have a motion, please. I'll let me add a second. Oh. Oh, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item B, approval of a special education coordinator assistant. Uh be it resolved that upon the recommendation of Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Larry Shiegel, the appointment of Dr. Amy Gerhart as special education coordinator assistant in the district is hereby approved. I have a motion, please. Just Just a second. Team, discussion. I would like to add comment here. Um Amy has been an amazing employee in the Watervliet City School District and over the last couple of years and her tenure, we have struggled to fill a CSE chairperson position. Uh with both somebody that has Amy's level of background and expertise um that we feel can fill a slot that would extremely help our
074district and more importantly, our students with special needs. So, I want to thank Dr. Gerhart for stepping up into this new role. Good question. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item C, approval of personnel report. So, all of on of Superintendent Dr. Larry Shew, the Board of Education, to approve appointment probationary instructional, appointment term non-probationary instructional, appointment in summer school, appointment permanent, appointment substitute instructional, appointment substitute non-instructional, leave of absence, resignations. Motion, please. Second. Melvin. Melvin, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item D, approval of an MOA. So, all of that is on the recommendation of the Superintendent Dr. Larry Shew, Board of Education, to approve a memorandum of agreement between the Waterbury Board of Education and the Waterbury Teachers' Association, related to the appointment of Kyle Malone as
075an administrative intern at the Waterbury City School District. Make a motion, please. Second. Any discussion? Melvin, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations, Kyle. Let me ask you something, Kyle. You want to be a board member? You sure you don't want to be an administrator? I'm very excited. Thank you for that opportunity. Good luck. Item E, approval of a leave of absence. So, all of that is on the recommendation of the Superintendent Dr. Larry Shew, Board of Education, to approve a leave of absence for Kyle Malone from his position as teacher in the Kennedy High School Social Studies Department during the period of his appointment as an administrative intern at the Waterbury City School District. Motion, please. I'll second. Melvin, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. All official now.
076Item F, approval to amend personnel report. The appointment of Brian Polte as teacher on special assignment effective May 3rd, 2024. And whereas Brian Polte has performed the duties of said assignment since that date, now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby retroactively ratifies and approves the appointment of Brian Polte as teacher on special assignment effective May 3rd, 2024 under previously established terms and conditions and ratifies all actions taken in connection therewith. And be it further resolved that the superintendent or designate is authorized to take all actions necessary to effectuate this resolution. Motion. Tina, I second. Melanie, any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item G, approval to amend personnel reports. A resolution was passed by the Board of Education on August 18th, 2025 approving the pay rate of $3,805.38
077for Garrett Peters' spring coaching stipend for girls' flag football assistant. And be it further resolved that this amended resolution reflects a change in the stipend rate to be $3,963.95 and is hereby approved. Motion, please. Jason, I second. Tina, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item H, approval of summer swim lessons. Resolved that the following summer clinic uh swim clinic is hereby approved as follows. Summer swim lessons at the Whitney Pool and Watertown High Pool. Um and the fifth annual competitive diving uh developmental clinic um Watertown High Pool and the 25th annual competitive swim development clinic Watertown High Pool. So most of this is going to be all in the center. Yes. Now, discussion. What I would like to add to this piece is you see um swimming swimming is run because the
078um coaches are paid through the district. Um so the other summer clinics that are going to be offered will be offered through the booster club. So you'll see that communication coming a little bit differently than how the board has handled it in the past. In other years it's come to the board, the board's acted on it. Uh when you know better you do better, so uh we're going to be putting that exactly to the booster club where it belongs. And so they'll send out that communication and all of the communication will be handled directly with the booster club. So the board moving forward would not approve to appoint a coach for a booster club. The booster club would hire their own coaches. It it separates that relationship in this point of So but that information
079is coming. We've been giving them feedback. And the booster club has got amazing to accept that feedback. Um and so something should be coming out within the next week or so regarding those clinics. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to item I, approval of a donation. Resolved that a donation of $300 from Mr. and Mrs. Ann Tipple is hereby accepted. This generous contribution supports the Watertown City School District Food for Families program. The board gratefully approves and accepts this donation and will ensure it is acknowledged in writing. Motion please. Melanie, I'll second. Tina, discussion. All those in favor? All those opposed? I, Mike Harris. Item J, approval of the donation. I move to resolve that a donation or grant for $233 on behalf of a grant from the
080New York State Council of School Superintendents to recognize Jennifer Gaffney as 2026 Superintendent of the year. This generous donation is designated in support for the Food for Families program and is gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing. Take the motion please. I'll take the second. Melanie, discussion. A shout out to Jen Gaffney for taking what could have been a recognition to herself and her own school community and reaching out to all of the districts within our region and taking that money and dividing it out. So, we our Food for Families benefits from that. I really thank her. That person. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item K, approval of a donation. I move to resolve that a donation of $400 from Balance Nutrition is hereby accepted. This
081generous contribution supports the Watertown City School District Food for Families program. The board gratefully approves and accepts this donation and will ensure it is acknowledged in writing. Motion please. Tina, I'll take the second. Please Jason, discussion. Excuse me. what they did last year for May the fourth be with you. Thank you to them and to everybody that what we got to put on this stuff. Dr. Spiegel for being there. I have one question. That's right. Um in addition to them, because of as a result of that, I must shoot out to Lynn Secretary Christina Nichols who worked with them on that and coming up with the creative names, but also because of that, Truck Subs is also wanting to be a partner. So, there'll be more information coming out in the next week about that
082fundraiser as well. Or food for families. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor? But any opposed? Motion carries. Item L, approval of a donation. We resolve that a donation of gift [clears throat] cards and rolls from Texas Roadhouse to the faculty and staff at Watertown High in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. This donation is gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing. Motion. Melanie and I will second. Cheers. Discussion. I know Texas Roadhouse donates a ton to things that you don't even think of and donates to teams and organizations. So, um they do a lot for the community. So, All those in favor? Any opposed? All right, one more approval of a donation. Item M. Uh we resolve uh donation of 150 assorted baked goods from Crispy Cream Bakery to the
083faculty and staff at Watertown High in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. This donation is gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing. Motion. Melanie and I a second. Melanie, discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Sorry, we had one more donation. But this one was anonymous. Item N, approval of an anonymous donation. Resolved that the board by the Class of 2027. The board gratefully accepts and approves this donation, which will be balanced in writing. Motion. Melanie, in a second. Yes. Discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. And item O, approval of educational and/or sports field trips. Resolved that the uh um um educational and athletic student trips as presented to the board are hereby approved. Take it in addition. Melanie. Discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries.
084Making sure. Public comment. We're at the second session for public comment. If anybody has any items for uh non-agenda related um discussion, now is the time. I see nobody rise. What do you items for discussion and information? Um we didn't have anything listed. I do have a couple of things. Um so please remember public policy or policy 5501 has a little next time. I just threw that in there. Um and uh we are at that point in the year where Dr. Schmigel has submitted his annual review and super eval. And Melanie was asking me about this earlier this week. Uh so I thank her for the reminder. Um but at this point, we all have access to Super Eval to go in and do our portion of Dr. Spiegel's annual evaluation. So, um, please be
085mindful of that. Uh, I would like to shoot for the second board meeting in, uh, June to have those done so that we can discuss those as a board before we take that information to Dr. Spiegel uh, to share with him and have that discussion. Um, and that's all I have. Anybody have anything else? Okay. Upcoming dates. FAF committee meeting, 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 2nd in the district office. Followed by the regular Board of Education meeting, 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 2nd in the district office conference room. Can I hear? On track to finish strong community expo, picnic and movie, Thursday, June 4th, 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. on the turf field. I will remind the board members that we were invited to the public speaking finals again, this time on June 6th, which is a Saturday.
086Uh, one class will be presenting their speeches at 11:00 a.m. and the second class is 2:00 p.m. That's going to occur in the large cafeteria. Retiree reception at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16th, and then our very own Watervliet High School commencement ceremony, 7:00 p.m. on Friday, June 26th on the turf field. Uh, board members for that one will be there about 6:30. Uh, our hope is to have it on the turf this year, so that's what we're planning. Or we will send to them. And um, also, please don't forget our next meeting too. We are having the class leaders here to present to them. So, that's an important one. Uh, wait to get the letter on that. Uh, F. Um, a look around the district. Melanie, you started this. Okay, I'll bring it up
087to you right now. Um, I went to the art show at the state office building a couple weeks ago. Um and I continue to be blown away by the talent in not only our district but in neighboring districts. And I was there at 8:00 an hour and a half in first grade and just the number of people that were there um supporting all of the students was really nice to see as well. Um last night I went over to North um and they had a literacy night. So kind of go along with the voting. Um it seemed like it was maybe not as populated as it has been in the past but they were telling me that they do these um really monthly-ish. So I love that they are volunteering their time. They have some
088fun games and just ways to get kids and families more involved in reading. Literacy is always going to be a positive thing um and I guess um end with our horses day parade. Um there were all sorts of bands and fun at that but um I only heard positive feedback about what our town is watching and so I continue to give kudos to the music department because um it was a a great thing to see to see. Peter. Um well I really don't have much time because everybody stole my thunder so I'll just say but um this is Steve Long did a phenomenal job with the marching band but thank you to Jason for popping that idea up there and getting that rolling and that people taking that up there. Um they sounded phenomenal. They
089just they were they looked good. It was just so nice to see a very first year group. It just looked like they've been doing this forever. They did a very good job. So, kudos to them. Um the Miley Cyrus free concert last night was amazing. Um those kids blow me away every time. And there's always You have to watch the whole concert closely. You have to pay attention after watch because they just You just got to. So, there were a couple. Um everything went off without a hitch. The chairs, they looked adorable. Everybody was dressed so nice. Um they behaved well and everything went well. Nobody got hurt. Nobody did anything stupid. Perfect. I don't like this job. Monday's Memorial Day. Thank you, Dr. Shino, for your service and for all our veterans that uh
090take care. Kale. Uh from the photos I've seen on uh what the schools posted and in the gallery, prom seemed exciting. Um thankfully, no one got injured. Everyone made smart decisions. Um on track to finish Community Expo and Pigment and movie seems to be good. I may attend. Uh Looking back at Archer last week, it was good to see that we had one of our displays third. It was good to see uh my sister sing her her King Spring musical. So, I heard it went well. >> [laughter] >> I'm not a solid percussionist, so Interesting. Just doing a different gig. They tried. She would try. Oh, well. >> [laughter] >> That's what we sisters do, Kale. Thank you, Kale. Jason. Uh well, uh welcome our new board member. That's I said a lot of little
091one year my first year so you're in a good year coming back sounds good. It's good. Uh the spring time here last night was great. Um I think it's completely nice opinion. Um the prom I'm looking at the photos they look like everyone is happy. The hundreds of photos that were posted my son was able to avoid all of them except for one. So we gave him a little plaque and he can walk to school. I do want to say that added to the prom success that was mentioned this year we put a lot of communication out and trying to hope get some of our students to get on the bus. And in past years I think I was told roughly two kids ride the bus. This year we had over 12 kids sign up
092to want to ride the bus so hopefully those numbers continue increasing to the year to save the district money with those uh Mr. Reedy congratulations for awards in the department on the prom and marching band. I was one of the ones on the sidelines waiting for the candy I mean waiting for the prom. Um thought I'd say it was great. Just you know you see all the different schools and programs it's nice to be part of that again. Good luck to the student athletes both seasons is either upon us or will be very very shortly. Um we're glad to have you back again next year. Great um we had quite a bit this year being the first year brand new to that so I can't wait to see you guys next year after this uh
093season professional. Um I think it enough Dr. Amy. Um the You Matter May the Fourth Be With You event was another success. 39 total participants attended and brought a positive energy that is not normally seen this time of year. Families had the opportunity to meet with their counselor, obtain information on a variety of topics such as Regents Prep, study skills, as well as information from attending agencies. A strong focus was placed on finishing the year strong, as well as looking forward to summer, next year, and beyond. Students and families had the opportunity to discuss options with the workplace, as well as with Army recruiters. We wish the best of luck to all students as they wrap up the school year, complete assessments, and even graduate. Much thanks goes out to the numerous people involved in
094order to make this the third and final successful You Matter event of the school year. It truly does take a community. It takes a a good leader to put all of that together, Dr. Amy, and we appreciate your reports on that. So, thank you for that once again. Um Caleb, congratulations. I'm going to be glad to see you there one more time. You do know that, you know, as you become, you know, an adult in the adult world, that this means that we're expecting big things from you, too, right? Um to be involved in community service, and you know, becoming a board member, full-fledged in your adult life, too. So, uh congratulations. You're doing a wonderful job, and we're expecting, you know, big and bright things from you. Um I did see some of their
095uh prom attendance. I saw the pictures online, but I also happened to be shopping at Walmart for a week uh the night of the prom, and I took the long way home, and I saw some of the cars heading, and I'm seeing some of the girls with the big '20s head dresses, the feathers in front, and whatnot, and um so, uh the the theme was Great Gatsby, so um I love that theme. So, um glad that the the students had a great time, that everybody was safe and smart. Um and that's the most important thing. Um and then I just want to congratulate Bill. Welcome to the board. Uh and we'll welcome Shawn proudly in July. But congratulations to him too and to thank all the voters for passing our budget. Um the most important
096thing we can do as a community is to make sure that our students have the opportunity for a quality public education. Um you know, we are working to make things better each and every day and having a budget that supports that uh is uh is the key. It's the keystone to making sure that we have the ability to do that with the staff that we do uh and and the professionals that we do and the programming that we do. So, without our community voting yes on that budget, uh some of those things fall by the wayside. Congratulations, Kyle. Um there's been a lot of community talking about this position, um but I love the idea of growing administrators within our own house that have taught at Watertown, that love Watertown, that want to be at
097Watertown. Uh and it just makes uh the opportunities for our students uh and our staff that much better. So, congratulations. Good luck. If there's anything we can do to help you along the way, please let us know. Uh it's never a step I was willing to take in my educational career, so kudos to you. Um and uh I think that's it tonight. So, uh with that, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Tina I had a second. Jason, all those in favor? Any opposed? We are adjourned.