001Call this meeting to order. To the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. At this time, I'll go ahead and uh take the oath as the district court for this school year. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution, State of New York, and that I will fully discharge the duties of the Office of District Clerk, Watertown City School District, City of Watertown, and of my ability. So next asking to go to I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office
002of superintendent of schools, the Watertown City School District of the city of Watertown to the best of my ability. Um, next to I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of board of education member for the Watertown City School District of the city of Watertown to the best of my ability. solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of board of education member for the Watertown City School District of the city of Waterton to the best of my um at this time
003I'd like to see if there's anyone who um would like to speak on agenda related uh comments. I like how are you? Honestly, um I'm really upset that has come to this. I have to come back here and again publicly address the malicious behavior of this administration. Um, the lack of ethical leadership and accountability is astounding and it's causing these board members to do way more than they ever signed up for, which isn't fair. It's causing a complete breakdown in the collaboration with community partners. This is a brochure that was provided during the superintendent candidate search advertising yourself as somebody who values community and community partnerships. says, "Make connections and develop relational trust with the Watertown City School District community. Build strong rapport with all Watertown City School District staff, board of education, and community
004to enhance a teamwork approach to district decision-making. A school system is the heartbeat of a community. When the district thrives, the community thrives. Likewise, when the community thrives, the school system thrives. As superintendent, it will be my goal to make sure all stakeholders feel connected to the school district. And I feel like this is false advertising. Um, all you've cared about is having power and control and mowing down anybody that has tried to hold you accountable for your capricious actions. I'm tired of the twisted misinformation and the outright lies that have been coming from this administration. You would think that if there was a breakdown of collaboration and communication that a strong leader would sit down and bring all parties to the table to carve a path forward. But no, that hasn't happened. And I'll
005tell you why it hasn't. It's because he wants to control the narrative and he doesn't want to be called out for the word salad and smoke and mirrors game. You're lying to this community and to your board members and I've had about enough of it. The decisions you're making inside a vacuum, by the way, could cost me my business. Let me rephrase that. The decisions you are making could cost the community. My business, 50 employees, 120 child care slots. I know you don't know how to run a business, and I know you don't care, but my admin team and overhead are all based on the number of classrooms I'm running. I lost a classroom last year, even after getting 100% on my RFP, and now this year, you're going to take the other two. Being
006able to run classrooms in the school building are a big part of why I have a strong admin team and a strong program because my costs are spread over more classrooms. And at the end of the day, I'm getting pennies on the dollar for the slots within my own building. So running the district classrooms helps to balance those costs. I should be getting about twice what I'm getting from the school district for UPK slots within my own building as I'm paying for all of the overhead costs, the meals, the electricity, the liability, etc. But you won't pay us that. And now you want to affect businesses even more by taking their ability to expand their UPK offering. Even if I was able to acquire another building to make up that space, the district will never
007pay what I would need on those slots to make those numbers work. And I'm not the only one who will say this. The community partners will all say this. And by the way, it is a complete and utter lie that the school can't pay more than what the state gives in UPK funding. That is a lie. Speaking of lies, why are you telling the state that the treehouse is losing classrooms because we didn't hold the proper certifications? What certifications? If you're talking about New York State teaching certifications, I hold one and I oversee the program. But let's talk about the classrooms that are being taken from me for a second. It's no secret that it is very difficult to hire and retain state certified teachers in prek. Yet all of my classrooms operating within the
008school district had statecertified teachers. Every single one of them. Not every CBO can say that, but I can say that. And yet it's my classrooms that are being eliminated. The ones that are providing state certified teachers are being eliminated. And by the way, some of the ones that are coming in don't have state certified teachers. That's how we know that these decisions are being made. They're arbitrary and capricious. Not based on performance, not based on what the RFP is asking for. The current allocations have effectively cut out or punished every single strong CBO that has spoken out against the unethical antics that are happening at the district administration level. You did it to the Ark by cutting them out of any 4410 or special education expansion programming and instead brought in another organization that you
009can collude with. More on that later. You did it to the Treehouse by taking away all our classrooms run inside the school building. and you did it to CAPC by taking away three of their four classrooms that are also run in the school building. The three organizations that spoke out the loudest were the ones that lost the district classrooms. Those three organizations happen to be the strongest as far as administration support. I wonder why organizations who have the most knowledge in the strongest admin and the longest partnerships are being cut out. Actually, I don't wonder because it seems pretty intentional because we're a threat to the power and control that you and your admin team want to exert on prek and you refuse to listen to sound reason and the concerns that the experts in
010the field have as it pertains to our preschool kids. Of course, you'd want to cut out the loudest advocates for these kids because you don't want to be held accountable for your negative actions or inactions. And then let's go back to talking about the organization that you're colluding with, Little Luke's. I have no problem with any business coming into our community and contributing to our ecosystem. Up until last year, no other CBO would ever consider taking another CBO's classrooms or partnerships. We worked well together and collaborated together. But instead of going to the current CBO partnerships to help solve a special education problem within preK, district administration brought in another organization to run special education classrooms without ever putting their request in a formal RFP. It blindsided our entire CBO community. Both myself and New
011Day lost classrooms last year to house this new partnership business that does not even offer pre-K instructional services outside of the district classrooms they're allowed to run in rentree. Every other CBO has their own building and their own childare slots. By the way, I'm the only CBO that pays school taxes. Little Luke's does not. And now this year, now that the district's trying to open their own 4410 program, why is Little Luke's not only allowed to still run these 4410 classrooms, but they're being awarded another one. They're the only organization that is gaining a classroom while the longtime partners are losing classrooms. Why is that? It is literally baffling me, especially when it is known that this organization has to give some of their special education slots to other school districts. So, not only are
012you taking away UPK classrooms this year, but you're then giving more classrooms to a business that has to house other school district children in our school. That's up to 24 UPK slots that could go that could have gone to our district kids, but must be offered to three other county school district children on a first come, first- serve basis. But wait, how are they only allowing Watertown kids in their program? because they're breaking regulation and have an agreement with the district administration to only slot Watertown kids when they're supposed to be operating with other school districts. So, it's okay for an organization to be out of compliance as long as it benefits the district. And now you're adding three more 4410 classrooms on top of the two from last year without even considering least restrictive
013environment. And what I'm about to say is going to be complicated, but if you know special education, you know what I'm going to say. Which shows the least restrictive environment? This shows a lack of special education understanding by this administration um and shows that this should not be something to undertake this year. But let me explain that by opening all of these 4410s, you are wreaking havoc on the childcare ecosystem. Least restrictive environment means that these kids are not supposed to be put in these special education slots without first giving them supports in the general education environment. When we first came to the board to raise concerns about the special education aspect, this is what we were talking about. We're not getting the supports we need in the general education classrooms such as onetoone aids
014for some of these kids. Opening more 4410 classrooms does not solve this problem. In fact, it could exasperate it. Once you open a 4410 class, kids with just regular IEPs have to be put in the general education classrooms so as not to take up spots that are designated for full program special education kids. So these kids with IEPs are then pushed out to all the CBOS and some of them have extreme behavioral concerns. That's more IEPs going into the general education classrooms which will require more supports for us. Why has that not been addressed? If the district is moving forward with their own 4410, then it's asinine to continue to allow an outside organization to run special education programs inside the school building when other CDOS's can be running those classrooms as UPK classrooms for
015Watertown City School District children. Whatever benefit you think that you're gaining by following through with the current allocation decision pales in comparison to the damage that you're causing by cutting pre-K classrooms and cutting out CBO partnerships and taking classrooms away from your longtime strong organizations. You are not allowed to be a dictator and operate inside a vacuum, which is what's been happening, and run around telling halftruths, outright lies, and spreading misinformation. not without being called out on it. And that's exactly what I'm doing. For those of you that have been running back and forth and doing this man's bidding, get your notebooks out and start taking notes because I'm about to show you what real leadership looks like. You stand up for what's right. Condemn what is wrong and take the hit for your team.
016I don't want to do this. I don't want to be here. I don't want my business to be put on the line, but I can't stand back and do nothing and allow a tyrant to wreak havoc on our community's childcare ecosystem. Leadership is doing what's best for those you lead, even if it costs you everything. You have a board to answer to, and a community that is right now holding you accountable. That's awesome. Hi, this is not anything I've done before, so bear with me a little bit here. My name is Stephanie Davis and I reside in the town of Watertown. My grandchildren, Kayiah and Lorenzo Davis, attend our schools. Klaya is at Sherman. She's in first grade in this new coming school year. Lorenzo is a four-year-old who will need a home for prek.
017A grandson, like his sister, attended North Elementary for three three-year-old prek and should attend Sherman for a four-year-old prek. This year, we were hoping that our four-year-old grandson would attend the same building as his sister did at Sherman. And this would be a timesaver and a convenience for a single parent household. We most recently have found out that this may not be a possibility. I personally contacted the prek office each and every week only to be put off due to the decisions delayed. I understand that this is a tedious process trying to figure out what's best for the district. But I'd like to put some insight on what's best for our students and a family in the district. We currently are assisting our single son raise his two children. This truly does take a village.
018We have become that village. It is so difficult to raise a family these days, let alone try to juggle work schedules along with pickups and drop offs. Hence the reason why my husband and I as grandparents are involved daily. Now, we all know now we all are in a situation where we have to worry about the prek class or even if there will be one to exist for Lorenzo at all. What happens to the children who don't have a classroom to attend? Do we have to pay for a private preschool education? Who can afford this? Cutting classrooms and teachers would hinder the necessary educational foundation. What will this what will happen to these kids? Will they just fall through the cracks? We are asking you to extend your village of education to include additional classrooms
019for the new and coming age of students. I most recently heard that this could possibly come down to a lottery system. Is this what I pay taxes for to allow our future of our children? Thank you. Anybody else that would like to speak on agenda related comments? So, everybody knows who I am and this is my first time back as a non board member. And the reason why I felt very important to come tonight is that I've been a part of this entire process and I've been protesting this entire process from the very beginning. And just to provide some historical um viewpoints or points that need to be brought up is that back in March the CBOS reached out tried to reach out to senior administration and that never came to fruition. They never once
020got a phone call back, an email back or anything of the sort. At that point, they were extremely frustrated and so they reached out to our board president. When they reached out to the board president, our board president was very gracious and said, "We will meet with all of you." All of these people showed up. We were in a meeting for two and a half hours only to listen to horrific details of what had transpired with the UPK and 4410 programs. Some of those horrific facts were IEPs were not given to children that deserved it. Children were being declassified when they entered kindergarten. Functionalbased testing wasn't done. onetoone aid services weren't done and worst yet the funding had been substandard. They hadn't gotten a raise in 10 years and all they were asking for was
021to get gain support and all of those concerns. And so what happened at the foot of that? Our president and the board decided that our superintendent needed to hear this firsthand. So we scheduled a second meeting and we were all sitting there for another two hours and at the beginning of that meeting we had a young lady who's sitting in the audience today who got extremely emotional and had to share with us how she has never felt so offended and mistreated by anybody. Has been talked down to has been belittled. has been berated because of all of the things that administration with prek was doing. That's what she shared with us and she cried about that and at that point we all felt very affected by this. That meeting we thought ended very well because
022our superintendent said, "Let me look into this." And then all of a sudden, the next time this was brought up was at the board meeting where we needed to approve the budget. And in that budget session, and everybody can go back and look at the video stream because this is all public record now. I spec the the budget showed that all of a sudden somehow a $1.2 $2.2 million cost was implemented into the budget to introduce two UPK classrooms with 24410. So what does that mean in our language? That means 16 special ed kids and the rest can be gened for $1.2 million. Let's do the math. Cumulatively, the CBOS were asking for a 15% increase. That translated into $534,000. Our leadership said, "We're not here to give away public dollars." I don't know where
023that sentence comes from because that's state money. And when you allocate state money, there is no giving away of funds, but it was not granted. But yet, and there wasn't line budget, a legacy cost was imposed on the community taxpayers of 1.2 $.2 million to establish these two UPK and SPE 4410 programs. I asked at that meeting, have we discussed this with the CBOS? The response was a word salad. There was no direct response. And I said this, I was tricked into approving this budget because I was led to believe that the CBOS knew what we were doing. We then learned there was no conversation with them. No one reached out. Our CEO of the Ark stood here and talked about her organization and we had somebody in the audience ridicule her and belittle her
024as a community leader. We had another person come and talk to us and they were belittled as well. And all they were trying to do was communicate that we are hurting our children. You see that thing up there that says our children our future? That is that is what this administration posed as our strategic goal. What's the first goal up there? Increase Watertown City School District graduation rate by implementing individualized learning and engagement experience inside and outside students. How are we supposed to do that if we don't support our pre-K programs? If we reduce the number of slots, if we cut off our community partners, if we sever the ties with our community partnerships, how are we going to reach that goal? Our children, where are our little learners? Are our little learners not are
025not worthy of our dollars? That's where they start. We had one board member said, "I don't think that education starts at the prek level. I think it starts at kindergarten level." Well, that's a difference of opinion. I beg to differ. That is not true. Children start learning as soon as they are born. They are a product of their environment. So now we've decided we're going to cut off CAPC 56 slots. We're going to cut off two classrooms from Treehouse, 40 slots. The ARC reduced the number. They had to combine classes because the budget wasn't the the budget that they presented was not appreciated by the administration. And in fact, they were going to get cut off. But the board reacted and said, "Nope, we need to give them another chance." The RFP process, how many
026times was it delayed? Two times. So parents were calling and parents right here every week calling when are the applications going to be due? When can we put in for for this? And all of a sudden they get open and the school she wants is not available. Who knows what's going to happen now. Is this how we treat our community partners? No. Absolutely not. This board has an obligation to serve our community. For some reason, there's some notion on the board that we are supposed to protect administration. That's not our job. Our we're elected officials. We're supposed to speak for our community. We're supposed to be their voice. We're supposed to protect the taxpayer. This isn't protecting the taxpayer. We have been fed lies. We have not been transparent. No one has told us the
027truth. Did anybody on the board know that CPAC had three other classes cut? I didn't. You want to know how I found out? Because we have a county administrator right here, county legislator who sits on the CAPC board, and he found out about it and started making all the phone calls. Why must we target every level of government in order to achieve what we should be doing morally right? This is not this community. Our community stands together. We support each other. We elevate each other. And what we are doing here by cutting these community, these UBK programs and 4410s. Who's getting hurt? You want to know who's getting hurt? Not any of you. Not any of them. Not me. Right there. Our children. That's who's getting hurt. Because when adults stop fighting and everyone has
028a difference of opinion, the only person who gets hurt are those children. Where are these children going to get their education? A lottery system. Do you know how many parents at the age of three struggle trying to figure out where am I going to work? Can I go back to work? Do I have daycare? Am I going to be able to manage all of this? And now we got to throw this in the mix. It's wrong. I don't sit on this board anymore. But believe me, you will not feel like I don't sit on this board anymore. I will continue to come. I will continue to fight for this community. I will continue to do what's right for all of us. I cannot stand here and understand why anybody in administration think it's a bad
029idea to cut these CBOs out. You want to No one says don't do more special ed. There's 70 kids waiting on a special on the special ed kit a special ed list. There's 70 kids waiting. Nobody says Watertown City School District don't do your own UPK. But let's do this collaboratively. These are the people who are experienced. They have a proven track record. They have had evaluations and performance evaluations that are solid. So what's the reason? What's the what is the justification other than capriccious and retaliatory behavior? That's the optics on this. That might not be the perspective of administration, but that is the optics on this. Capriccious and retaliatory. And it's not just this administration, but it's also the people that are working with with these people from the CBOS. They're not treated very
030nicely. They're not talked to very nicely. They're belittled and they're demeaned. It's not a secret. Everyone knows it. We need to change our attitude. This is not what we're here for. So, I'm hoping that when you hear us talk that you take this into consideration because your job is to protect this community, not protect that purple cloth you have that you're sitting behind. So, I hope that I made my point. I hope that my point is valued. And I know that there's people on this board right now that completely support what I'm saying. And I know there's people on this board that are walking the line and don't really know which way they're going to go. But one more time, you are here to protect your community. You're not here to protect the district. The
031district is supposed to be a function of what this community needs in order to succeed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have any other comments for this evening? If I may, uh, my name is Anthony Do. I am a board member of CNBC for over 10 years. Um, I'm an elected official just like you. Thank you for your thankless job. Um, we deal with the same thing. Um, usually I don't come to school meetings. Um, I've been on CAPC board like I said for over 10 years and this was brought a week ago. Um, I was quite surprised. Um, I did communicate with some of the partners in the community and I'm hearing the same thing from all of them that staff has been mistreated. The system wasn't fair and um, you know, we
032have to do what's right for the kids. I don't care that you open a 4410. The county is partners in that 4410 program because we're responsible for paying some fees on the special ed. Um, last year we paid $1.4 4 million to um 315 therapy. This year we're at $400,000. We're not bing at it, but there's some questions I have now. Um we're going to open up some more. Again, this is about the kids and nobody is has complained about this. Um if everybody could be helped, but I I think what you're doing is you just keep cutting the thigh. You're taking staff from other uh agencies and you're using them here at your agency. But we're not we're not building a network like we had. You've destroyed it. Um and I don't understand how
033you think you're going to be able to serve more kids with what we're doing. We don't have an influx of people in this area with education. We're a small community and everybody fights for um help in this district. Um you know, I can speak as far as Mandy. Mandy's absolutely correct. I've checked into a lot of stuff. I'm a small business owner and we have sleepless nights. many sleepless nights about worrying to pay our bills on the county level. Um, you know, we do our best to retain. You guys have done a good job with retaining funds like we have. Um, but we can't just always look that the taxpayers there to pay it. There's a lot of people struggling in this community. You see the homeless that we have around here. Um, it's very
034concerning. That can start at the age of um the UPK programs. If the kids don't get what they need, they can fall off between that point and adults. That's going to be an additional cost to us. You have teachers now that are going to possibly lose their jobs if you guys choose to go this route. I had one teacher reach out to me. She actually rents from me and she didn't know much about what was going on. I didn't reveal it. So, she reached out to me today and she found out the news and she's concerned. She's a sing Well, she's not a single mom. She's a mom that works. The dad stays at home with the kids. A couple of them go to school. She doesn't know what she's going to do. She lives
035on the edge. Um I purposely haven't raised her rent because they're good tenants and she was trying to get her her education piece that she needed to better herself because she's had a a bad life. So I've helped her and now she's scared to death and worried. We'll have sleepless nights. um not sure how she's going to feed her kids, but probably will wind up going over to DSS for help. It's not helping the situation what we're doing. It's not helping people get ahead in life. We really need to look at this and make the proper decision. Um I would like to see um and I have talked to the state ed and the state ed has some concerns. There's a lot of misinformation that's going around. So that should be concerning to you all.
036Um, I won't get into details on it, but she said that there's a lot of concerns. I know you guys have talked about the 4410 and taking your own students and I've had a conversation with the state ed and they said it is highly recommended that if you have open positions that you should take children from other areas of the county and the same with UPK program. If you have open slots, it is recommended. I asked, "Are you telling me that it's required?" And she said very strongly, "It is recommended that you do this." Okay, that's fine. So, all I'm asking is for you guys to think hard about this. Think about the children. Um, you know, we need to move forward. I would like to see us go back to the way we were,
037work things out with the organizations, pay them what they were asking for, and and you know, Jefferson County has a stake in this, the state of New York does, and then you tell me that the school district can only give out what the state gives them. That's not true. You guys are out for the kids. You can take county or taxpayers from the city school district and apply it towards this program to help out and be a partner in it, not just a money pass through. So again, I would encourage you to put this back the way it was so we can everybody can sleep better. Um, we're already two months behind, get everybody back on track, and then start a conversation. This is not a conversation that should have went on for just 6
038months. This is a year-long plus conversation. You are talking about a large community. You're talking about Fort Drum. It's going to impact Fort Drum if their kids can't get into daycare. We're a community together and everybody wants to work together. We can't all survive on the same funding that we've received for 10 years from 10 years ago. So that's all I have to say. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you. Do I have anybody else that would like to speak comment this evening? Sorry if I blan anyone off my head. My name is Joe Matutek. Um I have a daughter Olivia will be a junior next next fall or this coming fall. Um uh so good evening board members of the board. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight.
039I'm here to address a growing and deeply concerning culture that undermines the very foundation of school athletics. A culture that fails to support, protect, or even respect our coaches. This past season, our coaching staff, particularly our women's varsity lacrosse coaches, were subject to relentless and unjustified criticism, harassment, and interference from a small but loud group of parents. These parents behaved in a menacing and demanding manner, often completely disregarding the standards, structure, and expectations set forth by the school's code of conduct. They ignored protocols, bypassed channels, and launched coordinated attacks through texts, emails, social media, and even in-person confrontations. All with zero regard for the facts and with no fear of consequences. Coaches were accused, demeaned, and bullied, ironically, by the very people who are accusing them of being bullies simply because their child didn't get
040the playing time they believe they deserved or by some slight on the field they feel they observe. Let me be very clear. A coach's job is to evaluate players through performance, attendance, effort, attitude, promptness, and preparation. Coaches observe athletes every day at practice, review game film, and make decisions based on what's best for the team, not to satisfy parental expectations. A mispractice, a turnover, even a miss shot is not punishment when it results in a substitution. It's simply called coaching. Some of these parents weaponized the word bully simply because their child wasn't starting or playing enough without ever asking why or considering what their child was doing or more importantly not doing to earn that role. Some players worked year round, invested in extra training, showed up early, and led by example. Shouldn't effort, discipline,
041and commitment matter? If this were academics, would a parent demand a higher grade for their child just because they felt they deserved it? even if they didn't study, show up, show up consistently, or put in the work. I doubt that would be tolerated. And yet, we're allowing parents to insert themselves into athletics in a way that is unrealistic, toxic, and completely out of line. They want a participation trophy mentality in a varsity level competitive environment where some student athletes are preparing for college recruitment. These athletes and the coaches that lead them deserve better. Despite this toxic environment, our women's varsity coaches led their team to a sectional championship, the first since 2017. They achieve they achieved this while being blocked, harassed, and undermined at every step. That's not just unfair, it's shameful. If we want
042to keep good coaches, build strong teams, and teach kids the lessons that sports uniquely offer: accountability, discipline, teamwork, and resilience, we must do more to support and protect our coaches. We must stop allowing baseless attacks and parental interference to drive them away. If we don't, we'll continue to lose the exceptional leaders who are doing more than teaching sports. They're shaping lives. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else or public comments? If not, then I'll go ahead and ask for a motion, a second for a proposed executive session for the medical, financial, credit, or employment history of a particular person or corporation matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, disciplation. in seconds. session. Motion, please. Second. Um, section of officers A and B are going to be omitted this evening. Either Randy or I are prepared
043to take this seat right now. No one else rightfully has expressed interest in doing so at this point. So we are going to continue in the current capacity likely until our August meeting. Administer oath of faith performance and office to above. Yes, that wasn't agenda changes tonight. Uh I have one agenda change. Um items for board action um letter N um will be tabled this evening. Any communications? Um the board members have the interest statement um this evening as they could go ahead review that, sign that and they can write. Thank you very much. Board and staff reports August 5th. Can I get a motion to table? Second. In favor, superintendent of schools report. Thank you. Um, on behalf of everyone that attended the Friday graduation and all of the people that worked behind the
044scenes to make the graduation ceremony special for our graduates, I want to thank them for their hard work. A special shout out to our seniors who are graduating and going to contribute to our world. And to everyone, we hope that you have a safe and enjoyable summer. And we look forward to welcoming everyone back for a welcome back Watertown in the fall. That's it. Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Student Services report. Thank you. Good evening. Matt Bick and I hosted a meeting last week of all the aids and teacher assistants in the district thanking them for their dedication and commitment to our students. We also congratulated the retirees for their years of service to the district and most importantly to our students. Uh today I had the great pleasure of hosting Dr. Rudd Samaritan Medical
045Center and four interns from across the country who will be working with Dr. rod in the coming months. We discussed nutrition and food service in our district. Food service director Denny Jerome and assistant director Brenda Blount provided the interns with valuable information on our food service program. During the 2425 school year, 723,94 meals were served in our district to include 281,977 breakfast and 41,117 lunches. Some impressive statistics. And finally, the personnel office has been busily conducting interviews and thoughtfully hiring the best individuals to serve our students. Uh we were conducting interviews for positions as late as 3 p.m. yesterday for inclusion in tonight's personnel report. Thank you very much. Assistant Superintendent for Operations and Finance, Brienne Durham. Good evening. Just a few quick notes. Um, fire inspections were performed on June 17th and 18th um,
046with the Watertown Code Enforcement Office with the assistance of Tim Lman and my collad. Mike and Tim are also working on ensuring that all future inspections are scheduled ahead of time for the next couple of years to assist with compliance and budget planning. On June 23rd, um Tim Lman assisted representatives from King and King and Gimo on an inspection of the buildings and grounds of the district in order to assist the organizations and the construction manager RFP. The actual RFPs were due um today by 3:00 and um the interviews for those will be held on July 8th of next week. Um, also in addition, uh, we did our bid openings yesterday at 3:00 for the sec the secure vest bill here, and that was done at 3:00 yesterday, just in time to have it on
047the agenda for tonight. And one last thing, the business office is hitting its busy season with supply orders for the new year coming in, preparing for the annual um, external audit. I feel that we are in much better shape than we were last year, and that the procedure should run much more smoothly this year. All I have. Thank you very much. Items for consent agenda, appointment of officers. Uh be resolved that the board of education approves the following consent agenda items. Number one, appointment of officers. Number two, other appointments. Number three, designations. Number four, authorizations. Number five, provincial undertaking bonds. And number six, other we wouldn't be doing all that, right? of um my consent agenda is the the entire entire motion please second. All those in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Items for board
048action. Resolve that the payment of dues of $5808 for the 2526 school year to the National Association of Federally Impacted School is hereby approved. Motion, please. Lori, all those in favor? I. Any discussion? I'm sorry. Any oppose? Motion carries. resolved that the payment of dues of $640 based on enrollment for the uh 2526 school year for the Jefferson OC's boards association is hereby approved motion please second in favor discussion motion carries where It's after public advertising for bids for painting of the district office proposals. Copies of the specifications were furnished to four vendors and bids were received whereas the firm submitted the submitting the lowest responsible bid meeting the specifications for the painting of the district proposal with Scott painting. Therefore be resolved that Scott painting um in the amount of $19,800 is noted in
049the bid is hereby approved. Motion please. Secondly, any discussion? All those in favor? I motion car. Where is the Watertown City School District code of conduct covers the maintenance of order on school property including a school function which shall govern the conduct of students, teachers, and other personnel as well as visitors and provides for the enforcement thereof. And whereas the Watertown City School of Conduct was reviewed, revised in collaboration with district and community stakeholders. And whereas a public forum was held on May 28th, 2025 to solid feedback from the community regarding the proposed provisions to the code of conduct. And now therefore, be it resolved by this board as follows. Number one, the board of education adopts the above mentioned code of conduct. Number two, the code of conduct shall be filed with commissioner no
050later than 30 days from this adoption. And number three, the resolution shall take effect immediately. I have a motion. Do a second. The second. Okay. What did we change? The only thing we had to include was the state law regarding cell phones, but nothing else changed. We did put it up on our website for a few months to give stakeholders or parents or students an opportunity to provide feedback and uh there were no significant changes. So, all those in favor? I any opposed? Motion carries resolved that the approval of a me memorandum of understanding by and between the superintendent schools of the water city school district in the ankor recovery center effective August 1, 2025 through August 1, 2020 by approved. Motion, please second. Tina, any discussion? All those in favor. Any oppose? Carries. result
051that the approval of a memorandum of understanding by and between the superintendent of schools of the Watertown City School District and the North Country Family Health Center effective July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2030 is hereby approved. Second, Lori, any discussion? Thank you to the North Country Family Health Center for being a partner with the Watertown City School District for over 30 years. Good job. Okay. All those in favor? Any oppose? Motion carries. Resolved that the approval of a memorandum of understanding by between Watertown City School District and the Children's Institute for the 2526 school year is hereby approved. Please a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any oppos? Motion carries. This four um have collaborated and entered into an article five general municipal law intermal agreement or arrangement for the purpose of improving
052vendor management and data security for privacy practices for school districts and or both statewide known as the RIF one risk operations center. Whereas the board of educ school district through its affiliation with a locally based regional information center um participates with the desires for the 256 fiscal year to authorize the ROC to enter into data privacy agreements related ex exhibits with vendors and third party contractors that include the requirements of and complant with the New York State Education Law section 2D in part one to one regulations relative related to student personally identifiable information PII and certain teacher and principal APR data. Whereas the ROC also partners with NYSE, the access for learning student data privacy consortium and the education coop cooperative to negotiate and approved ED law 2D compliant DPAs. Whereas the DPAs are presented
053to school districts and or BOSE for final execution and do not require the expenditure of funds beyond those budget. And be it resolved that the board of education of the Watertown City School District authorizes the attorneys designated by the or ROC to negotiate and approve for DPAs for software and or technology resources and be further resolved that the Watertown City School District Board of Education grants the ROC and its designated attorneys and authority to negotiate the terms and condition of DPAs and take such actions as so effectual. the purpose and intent of this resolution. Motion, please. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, Dr. Larry Schmegel, the board of education hereby approves the following. Resignations, retirements, appointments, probationary instructional term
054non-probationary instructional instructional part-time directors teachers permanent probationary non-instructional extended school year special ed summer school part-time cyclone academy substitute administrators substitute instructional substitutes non-instructional coaching co-ed fall coaching boys coaching girls. Motion, please. Dina second. Thank you. I'm just wondering if you guys are okay. Any discussion? Absolutely. Got an appointment for a substitute instructional at $400 a day. Why the extreme differential? Uh it's a specialty position. Okay, I think just a good question. All right, all those in favor. Any abstensions? We all upon the recommendation of Dr. Larry Schmegle, superintendent of schools. The paid administrative leave of a non-instructional employee effective June 2025 is hereby approved. Motion, please. John College. Any opposed upon the recommendation of Dr. Larry Schmegle, superintendent school to paid administrative leave of an instructional employee effective June 25th, 2025 is hereby approved.
055Please second floor. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Carries. I make a motion to table the next resolution. Please upon the recommendation of Dr. CC superintendent of schools. Michael Lennox serving in as the interim director of athletics effective June 26, 2025 shall be compensated at a daily rate of $500. This rate shall remain in effect until appointment of a new athletic director or until such time as the superintendent determines that his services are no longer required in this capacity. Motion, please. John second is gonna wonder what he did. I know he is a jerk. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any oppos? It resolved upon the recommendation of the district superintendent that the city school district employment policy manual for management and management confidential employees is revised is hereby approved with an effective
056date of July 1, 2025. Motion please. Kelly a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I oppos table. Correct. Resolve that as part of the New York State disaster evacuation plan, the Watertown City School District's covenant and agreed to secondary areas between the school and the following list as presented to the board. Be it resolved that this above reference agreements are hereby approved. Motion please. Second. Any discussion? All those favor. Any oppos the following are revised board of education policies and regulation are hereby approved and adopted. 103 community use of school facilities. SE 7208 pro prohibition of internet enablement device uh use during the school days. 7208.1 prohibition of and um internet enabled devices used during the school day. Uh delete 7,400 students and personnel electronic devices and delete 103.1 facilities use permit application. Motion,
057please. A second. Thank you. discussion just to the ones that we talked about the last meeting. Yes. The um facility use one um getting rid of the application is because it's online through ML scheduling. The um addition of the internet enabled device is what the law requires that districts have in place by boards by August 1st. The next board meeting would be beyond that. And then the use of uh community facility using our facilities for community use that includes the use on Saturdays and Sundays which were originally excluded from the policy. All those in favor? Any oppose? Motion carries. So that the student um student trips as presented to the board are hereby approved. Excuse me. A motion please. Do you have a second discussion? They have extra seats for Hamilton. I didn't even know
058I was here. September 19th. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Resolve that the disposal recycler of damaged, outdated, and unused instructional read 180 materials from Case Middle School is hereby approved. Motion, please. Lori second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Resolve that the disposal, recycle, or donation of damaged, outdated, and unused books and items from the libraries at Nicerbacher and Northbound and Paris. Motion, please. John, John, I have a second. Colleague got you. Discussion. All those in favor? Any oppos? Motion carries. Whereas the uh organ whereas Watertown City School District had identified unused maintenance items that no no longer needed. uh resolved that the board uh authorizes the sale of these items via public auction or other reasonable means. Further resolved, any items not sold may be discarded or
059recycled at management's discretion in compliance with the applicable regulations. Further resolved that the director of facilities is authorized to oversee the sale or the disposal process and is hereby approved. Motion, please. Lori in a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. The uh next thing on our agenda is to see if we have any interest for the um New York State School Boards Association meeting October 23rd through the 25th. done this year. It is going to need um I would need to get some interest um as far as a delegate and an alter alternate. Interested alternate? I can't uh I can't comment without looking at my calendar and seeing where I'm at every time in New York last year, but I just need to look. Um, additionally, I'm looking for a
060member in an alter for the um, executive committee of the uh, Jefferson Lewis School. Are you willing to do it again? I think it would be nice for a new member, but I think I'll be okay next. Okay. So, there's that. And uh the last resolution resolved that the general construction award for the phase three of the 2021 uh capital improvement project with Continental Construction LLC is hereby approved. Motion, please. A second. Any discussion? All in favor? Any oppos? the resolutions. Somebody's here to tell me because evidently I don't know where I'm at on the agenda. Anyone here wishing to speak to the board on non-aggenda related public comments? I want to say a couple of things. Um, where can we or where are we going to be able to find in the items for
061consent agenda appointment of officers? Where is it going to be published like who these people are? for example, um you know, the name of the external auditor or the people who are on the reconsideration committee. Where are those names going to be posted so that the community knows who those people are? The entire consent agenda is further down right before items for board action. Um yes, right in this spot where items for consent agenda other the entire like the entire body of who's who in the zoo there is right in that that public contact part. So if I pull it up on my computer, I'm going to be able to see who those people are. Did you just post that because I actually looked? No, it's not an attachment. It's like right it's in the
062body of that box. So yesterday when I looked to see who was the appointed the appointed people for the reconsideration committee I didn't see any names that is not on there because the board policy changed this year so that the reconsideration is not established in January. So that was removed from this year's agenda compared to years past. So what is the new policy going to be then? the new policy that was approved remember the dates that it was approved the policy is the committee is created at the school where the issue comes up with the curriculum so so what you're saying is yeah the previous policy dictated that we needed to establish that so that was taken away so if something were to come up like an instructional questionable material then you would at that
063point designate a committee a committee to address it okay so we're not going to see those names okay Um uh other question I have is uh for the RFP for the um construction management um process for the candidates who submitted RFPs. We haven't had a chance to dive into them yet because they closed at 3 p.m. today. So we'll be able to dig into that soon. So will you be communicating to us who those three people are? those three organizations that submitted RFPs. Um I can say it now was one, CNS was one and construction associate. Okay. Um and the last thing that I'm going to ask comment on is so you tabled N which is obviously the resolution why we were all here. So my question is according to the rules you need to
064address that at the next meeting but the next meeting is not until August. I'll I'll I'll speak to that one. We're gonna we're going to call a special board meeting between them. Okay. Thank you. Because my question was going to be how is that now further affecting the C? I anticipated. Okay. Because as you heard I did, right? So I just want to make sure that we're going to be addressing this before. Okay. I am done with my comments. Thank you. I appreciate that. Okay. Anybody else? I'm sorry. Anybody else want to speak? Upcoming dates. Thursday, July 3rd, all buildings are closed. Same thing on Friday and observe 4th of July. Tuesday, August 5th, is our next regularly scheduled board of education meeting in the district office conference room right here at 4 pm. Um,
065I'll start with you. Um, no, I actually don't have much. Just a great graduation ceremony ready to start. Um I just wanted to speak to the same thing. Graduation did a wonderful job. Wish we could have done it. So very nice. Um I just want to um so we did table N and so I'm just going to speak some things personally um that a lot of things have been brought to my attention um throughout the community in the last few weeks that definitely need to be up for discussion that we don't feel that we have enough time tonight and we need to have a special meeting um it's our future and we definitely can't take that lightly. So, um, for one was one of the people that said that we need to do that and
066have a bigger discussion on that. Um, that's all I have. Yeah. Um, I just want to um comment on graduation. Dr. Schnegel's surprise was amazing. I think that almost all of us were in tears um except Lori and I and they ran down our faces. So, very good. Very nice. It was nice to see people were saying how long it was, but I thought that that was nice because it was supposed to show how many kids we had graduating. So, that was that was step in the right direction. Just graduating class in several years from that was nice. That was nice. Very well done. And those kids are from Cyclone. Nice. Just to reiterate, graduation. What a It's always a great event no matter where it is. It would have been nice to be outside.
067But just the joy on those kids for crossing that stage, getting the finish line and moving on to the next, you know, great things in their life is it's just always an amazing feeling. It just, it's tough as a year can be, it reminds you why we're here. That's what it's all about. It's about those kids getting through graduate. So, great event and I hope everybody has a a safe and great summer. Melanie, I just want to say thank you all for welcoming me tonight um and being open to all of questions so far and I look forward to working with all of you um in the best interests of the students Randy first thank you thank you to the to the district and my colleagues for allowing me to participate from a distance I
068really appreciate it and the accommodations and just to echo all the comments the 248 graduates, the collective efforts of so many that created that amazing product that we saw come across the stage on Friday. Thank you. Uh and I don't I don't have anything tonight. So take a motion to Kelly and Tina. All those in favor? Any opposed?