001flag States indivisible swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution State of New York and that I will Faithfully discharge CS of the office of district clerk the watert city school district of the city of Waterton to the best of my ability 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 superintendent of schools Watertown city school district of the city of Watertown to the best of my ability um at this time I would like to accept nominations for the president of the board can I nominate yes um I would like to nominate Jason there a second I'll second that
002second are there any other nominations if not nominations are closed and the vote will be taken all those in favor of Jason Harrington for president well can I say a couple um so nominating Jason um is not just a simple nomination I think that the office of presidency takes a lot of responsibility in leadership qualities and the leadership qualities that I hold in high value are the ability to have emotional IQ the ability to communicate and the ability to be able to listen and I think that Jason has executed all of those attributes in an excellent manner he's been able to manage this group um very effectively I can honestly say that two years ago I did not like him and I made that very public um and I was not chocolate coating my emotions
003at the time but since then I have grown to really appreciate his leadership qualities I've learned to appreciate the fact that he can change and see the bigger picture and be able to bring this word together espec especially in times of confusion and maybe some um discontent or some disagreement and that's what that's really what holds the group together is having a person who has the ability to do that so I didn't want to just softly nominate him I wanted to make it public the values that I hold high and I am very very um grateful that we have such a strong leader don't cry wel um all those in favor any opposed motion carries Jason Harington is elected uh president for the upcoming year um congratulations I'd like to uh now accept nominations for
004position of the vice president I had a nomination I'd like to nominate Randy Richardson and is there a second yes Millie are there any other nominations not nominations are closed no vote will be taken something I'm not gonna leave you out random um I think the fact that myself and John have nominated Jason and Randy to continue in the leadership role really exe exemplifies and illustrates what we feel as a board as you two being leaders um one great thing that I think about you to continu and on in your positions is that we are providing a solid continuity of foundation for Dr schmeel he came to us a year ago and really undertook an incredible amount of obstacles and challenges whether they were administrative or parents or students in the entire uh district and
005the fact that we can keep the same leadership aable for our leader who has just completed a year is Monumental in that way so thank you for nominating Randy and letting us continue on a stable path all those in favor of Randy Richardson for presid vice president any any opposed motion carries Randy Richardson congratulations [Music] b as well 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 president board of education for the Watertown city school district of the city of Watertown to the best of my ability I do Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the constitution of the state
006of New York and I will Faithfully discharge the duties of Office of the vice president of the board of education for the Watertown city school district city of Watertown to the best of my abilitys [Music] get the feeling that's going to come up missing okay uh Michelle do we have any agenda changes this evening um I do have uh one uh agenda change the um in items for board action uh you um the approval to dispose recycle or donate outdated and unused textbooks I did add that and I did provide the members with an updated uh Personnel reports Friday there have been some changes thank you so much is there anyone here tonight who is wishing to address the board on agenda related public comments no okay Michelle do we have any Communications my only
007Communications to the board is to point out that you have a conflict of interest statement in front of you before you sign this is something I give to you year and if you could read through that sign it and return it to me this evening I appreciate that okay perfect moving right into board and staff reports it's my pleasure to introduce Mr Michael Morgan Tonight giving us the athletic department update thanks for coming mik thank you for having me see if I can click and talk at the same time so good afternoon members of the Board of Education and District administration it is with great pride and enthusiasm that I stand before you today to present the state of Athletics in the Watertown city school district as the Director of Athletics it is both an
008honor and a privilege to serve our community and to oversee the development of our student athletes thank you for the opportunity to give a public update in person so this past season has been one of remarkable achievements and significant growth for our athletic programs our 56 inter Scholastic teams have demonstrated Excellence not only in their performance on the field but also in their sportsmanship and commitment to our core values our boys lacrosse team made it the sectional finals which is a testament to their hard work and dedication this was also their first appearance in this game in school history six of our teams won Frontier League championships three of them going undefeated in the league girls swimming boys outdoor track and boys tennis our indoor track team which was brand new this year won won
009the Independent League boys Championship uh the Frontier League does not sponsor indoor track just yet um our varsity teams won nearly 60% of their contests and we sent six track athletes to their respective state championships beyond the winds and accolades our student athletes have shown tremendous personal growth they have learned the importance of teamwork resilience and Leadership our coaching staff has played an integral role in this development providing mentorship and fostering a positive inclusive environment the addition of the athletic trainer role was a phenomenal change losing her not so much I guess she wants to spend some more time with her husband I don't know why but uh um she's put good systems in place Dorothy Wheatley and we all have and we have a well stocked Sports Medicine Room that would allow the next
010person to hit the ground running these pieces have been a great glimpse into what it means to bleed purple however white and gold are also our colors so it's time to bleed all three I feel I had a rough start every District operates differently and I was diligent in finding out what I could but my efforts didn't necessarily align with silent goals of parents or maybe even the district so moving forward I would like to work together to set measurable goals to focus on one Bridging the Gap between providing opportunities to all and nurturing the drive of our athletically focused student body like more intramural opportunities making every student K12 feel like future Cyclone athletes and develop pride and ownership over all the grounds and facilities in the district rebuilding real school spirit I want
011our bleachers packed with purple gold and white with cheering enthusiastic friends and family and we look to create a schedule that encourages and supports attendance by our athletes to help promote this some recent results from a parent survey sent out indicated that they rarely see their child's teacher or building administrator at games or events and this is crucial to let the student athlete know that they are valued and support thank you so system improvements within uh this from the 23 24 uh school year our athletic department is committed to continuous Improvement and Innovation to better serve our student athletes and Community this year we added several key enhancements that will streamline our operations and enhance the overall experience first we implemented a new scheduling and facility request system ml schedules which will optimize game and
012practice schedules to minimize conflicts and maximize efficiency additionally we adopted Gipper um Gipper is a uh platform for creating and sharing professional graphics and updates ensuring our communication is both timely and engaging if you follow the Watertown Athletics Facebook page uh some of those pictures that were posted is made through Gipper um so that is an example of what the Gipper service and provider can do we have also begun integrating final forms for managing athletic forms and compliance which simplifies the paperwork process for both families and staff we've Incorporated coach evaluator which is an online tool to be a repository of information and data for our coaches we entered into a partnership with Under Armour serviced locally by Victory promotions to increase our athletic branding solidify who we are as Cyclones and to upgrade our
013appearance athletically we hope to expand this partnership District districtwide through Spirit Weare and school stores which in turn benefits all of us and not just Athletics furthermore recognizing the growing interest and participation in indoor track and bowling we are proud to introduce a dedicated inter Scholastic bowling program providing students with yet another opportunity to compete and Excel these system improvements are a testament to our commitment to Excellence and we look forward to the positive impact they will have on our athletic programs we are also in the process of editing updating and creating an athletic code of conduct with the goal to codify some of the rules and regulations we already have with updating some of the language and application and lastly in the past few weeks as mentioned before a survey was sent to All
014spring student athletes 712 as well as parents Guardians in order to continue to improve and provide the best experience we can for our students some professional updates from my end this past year I achieved my nationally accredited registered athletic administrator certification through the national inter Scholastic athletic Administration Association I have completed 76 credits of Ni AAA professional development courses and I'm hoping to take 24 more this summer I'm due to receive my certified athletic administrator which is the next step in 2025 I'm 60% through my fourth master's degree program at kishis University in physical education and Athletics I'm a member of the diversity equity and inclusion and safety committees for section three and have created relationships with many athletic administrators both in the North country and in the udica and Syracuse areas so that being
015said let's look forward to 2425 so we've set some ambitious goals to build upon or at least start talking about in 2425 to build upon the successes that we just shared and address areas for improvement our primary objectives are as follows our current facilities have served us well but it's time for upgrades to ensure our athletes have the best possible environment to train and compete I would like to explore opportunities for upgrading our fields and track New Field lighting and improve our locker room facilities I have begun the process of a United States tennis Association grant for tennis Port improvements these enhancements will not only benefit our athletes but will also serve as a source of Pride for the entire Watertown Community number two is promoting educational based Athletics we believe that Athletics play a
016crucial role in the educational experience our Focus will be on in academic support with athletic participation ensuring our student athletes Excel both in the classroom and in their respective Sports we will introduce study hall sessions for teens provide academic tutoring and emphasize the importance of maintaining a strong GPA I also intend to work with Mike Shanley who's over there surprise and the AV club to explore student production of Game Day graphics on our new video scoreboard as well as having the students create those Gipper um graphics and promos that I showed you earlier you don't need to be in a uniform to be involved and educational based Athletics number three is fostering a positive culture building a culture of respect integrity and inclusivity is that the heart of our mission we will continue to promote
017initiatives that celebrate diversity and encourage sportsmanship our goal is to create a supportive environment where every student feels valued and motivated to achieve their best number four is professional development for coaches our coaches are the backbone of our programs investing in their professional development is crucial for the continued success of our teams we will provide opportunities for coaches to attend workshops conferences and certification programs to stay current with the latest coaching techniques and strategies currently our football and basketball coaches have already been enrolled in professional organizations so they can begin to tap into those built-in networks of best practices and number five honoring the history of Watertown Athletics we have a rich history of athletic Excellence here at Watertown and this year I hope to plan to honor that Legacy by beginning the discussions of
018the feasibility of a Hall of Fame to recognize past athletes coaches and contributors who have made significant impacts on our programs we will also host events to celebrate our history and Inspire future Generations I would also like to explore an increase in the number of employees who service the athletic department we are the 13th largest school in Section 3 with 56 athletic teams nearly 500 total athletes the corresponding gear and Equipment as well as multiple facilities all around the city we currently have three people myself included who handle all of this some other schools at Tas are teachers on special assignment placed in the office to assist with scheduling paperwork or equipment currently it is overwhelming to say the least and we end up being reactive more than proactive that being said the state of
019Watertown High School athletics is strong and the future is bright we are committed to providing our student athletes with the best possible opportunities to grow learn and succeed with the support of the Board of Education our dedicated coaching staff and the entire Watertown Community I'm confident that we will achieve our goals and continue to build the legacy of Excellence so I'm going to tie the next five slides to the Strategic plan um that exists within the district um and how Athletics can apply to the Strategic plan so increasing the graduation rate academic support programs we're going to integrate mandatory study halls and tutoring sessions for student athletes ensuring they keep up with their academic responsibilities and maintain strict academic eligibility requirements for participation in sports motivating students to stay focused on their studies our athletic
020Council that met to uh go over some of the stuff in regards to our new code of conduct um has talked about how important it is that Athletics is a privilege it's not a right and student athlete student comes first number two increasing meaningful student engagement diverse athletic offerings provide a wide range of sports to appeal to different interests and skill levels ensuring more students find a sport they enjoy and want to participate in pursuing interest levels in girls flag football as well as the feasibility of a Unified sports program and we have begun preliminary discussions with the Cornell Cooperative group regarding starting an Esports program here at Watertown leadership opportunities encourage student athletes to take on leadership roles within their teams fostering a sense of responsibility and belonging I'm looking to create a Captain's
021Council for 24-25 to provide an outlet for student athletes to share their positives and negatives and community service projects a lot of our teams currently do community service projects but I want to continue to push and and involve teams in community service projects teaching on the value of giving back and enhancing their connection to the community improving student attendance use athletic events to create a vibrant School culture that students want to be a part of encouraging them to attend school regularly to stay involved and early intervention monitor attendance patterns of student athletes and intervene early if issues arise offering support to help them stay on track enhancing behavioral supports character education incorporate character education into the athletic programs emphasizing values like respect integrity and teamwork I'm looking to implement Dr Joe hodel's character development program
022which is designed for grades 9 to 12 students will have daily lessons and readings sent to their email and coaches can incorporate that content and lesson plans into their practices and team building positive reinforcement use positive reinforcement to acknowledge and reward good behavior both on and off the field and conflict resolution training provide training for coaches and student athletes on conflict resolution and effective communication skills and lastly enhancing infrastructure uh investing in upgrading athletic facilities which not only improve the EXP experience for athletes but also to attract more students to participate in sports and Technology integration incorporate modern technology into training and Facilities Management to enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the athletic programs encouraging coaches to utilize huddle and film study more while incorporating huddle streaming and scouting into sports such as swimming
023and Diving tennis softball and baseball and by aligning High School athletics with these strategic priority areas we can create a more integrated and supportive environment that Fosters academic success personal growth and Community engagement and just some thank yous lastly I want to publicly acknowledge and thank the people who are part of my team and unfortunately this list is not all inclusive but uh we'll thank these people you guys the board and the district office thank you Dell Nichols Dorothy Wheatley they're just the tip of the iceberg Joanne Nevin is literally my right-hand person since day one I wouldn't be able to do any of this without her so Joanne thank you and thank you for being here tonight and Brian thank you for being here as well um Dave Taylor and his team at uh
024Waterton High School have been incredibly helpful Brian Arius and his team at buildings and grounds Tracy slate Mar denner uh when things need to get ordered or processed on the many others like I said I'm sure I'm forgetting Mike Shanley Leslie on behalf of the Watertown High School administration um and and they're all important to our success and operations when I moved to Watertown two years ago I envisioned moving to a smaller city with a slower pace and while that may be true to a point I was met with big local names and and a lot of history it took me some time to to see the full court but but now I know the players and I'm eager to work more closely with our coaches and other members who bring an expansive wealth of
025local knowledge because this is the roster I've always dreamed of thank you for your continued support and dedication to our athletic programs together we can make the upcoming school year the best one yet for Watertown Athletics thank you very much before we mic off the podium anybody have any questions for I do sure you than sis ladies for gentlemen oh thank you um thank you for that very comprehensive presentation there's a lot on there that I didn't know about not that I should because I'm not really I don't have kids that are playing the sports now but that is a very comprehensive and elaborate presentation as everything that you've accomplished and at least have Vision I really appreciate that you lined your goals with our strategic plan one of the things that Dr schmeel and
026our Board needs to focus on and most organizations they develop a strategic plan and then they never look at it and I think as we move forward with everything everything that's presented here has we always come back to that so I think that's quite impressive that you were able to effectively do that so I'm happy to see you do that I do have two questions for you and they're not easy um so my first and I'm just gonna say one and then you and and both of them and then you can answer them I would like to know and I know you're new you stepped in to an albatross there was a lot of confusion there was a lot of things that you needed to learn how to navigate through but my first question would
027be what can you tell me what you feel was your biggest challenge this year and follow up by telling me what you feel is your biggest accomplishment as the ad of this District I'll do the second one first um okay the biggest accomplishment I think is kind of some change in some of our systems um with the scheduling aspect for example with the ml schedules use um we were so Joan and I are in charge of the scheduling of all facilities within the district and the usage of that both internally and externally each building did something different the building secretaries would have a a calendar in front of them a paper calendar they would write down the events and those paper calendars didn't necessarily talk to each other because it was up to the to
028the buildings to spread the message Etc and it got overwhelming because as you know our district is used a lot our buildings our Fields our facilities um and not just from Athletics from a lot of other entities and by putting in ml schedules or pushing for the idea of ml schedules it allowed to have an integrated technology system where all those things talk to each other the same thing with final forms we were registering student athletes on paper um we were the largest District not just largest one of the only districts that still did paper registration and I think at times Joan and everyone else would like to go back to paper um because technology fails us sometimes but it's it's been a growth process with that as well for both our families um our
029student athletes as well as the people the nurses and such who use final forms um I do think it's a better system for that um and and just so some of those system changes I I think are are good to try to help push forward and make things a little bit easier for everybody involved biggest challenge um within like the role or personally like how like just in general yeah just in general like what do you feel this year has been the biggest challenge that you've had to overcome in order to achieve your pride of putting in these schedules system changes I think the biggest challenge was the the the gravity of the position um athletic director has been a job that I I you know I got into education to to ultimately be an
030athletic director um and here we are and I worked with athletic directors in the past I've coached I I've seen the system so I thought I had a good understanding of of what was needed to succeed and it it it was a lot it was a lot and and that the time management piece the organizational piece staying on top of of all of the entities um and again with just you know me and Joanne you know two people running uh a large chunk of of an important department of this District um and I think that's the big key in order to do a lot of this stuff um trying to find the support to be able to think big picture and think long term um without worrying about you know is that bus you know
031the bus got there at 720 instead of 710 and and people are nervous or you know the rain has canceled a slew of events um running through that type of stuff it makes it hard to be able to focus on the big picture um but being here for a year and trying to figure out those systems and and we're working together on things like that and integrating some of the stuff we've talked about the hope is that year two would have a better understanding and and aspect of trying to focus more on big picture and those other things we can kind of work out through because we learned them as we went through the first time so that would I that was what I would say would be the biggest challenge so far this I
032think that's a very genuine response good um do we have any hard data on uh the graduation rate in in in reflection of a student athletes are student athletes do we have a high number of student athletes that aren't meeting the graduation requirements are not meeting yes no I don't have the exact number I I have it in the office I can I can get that for you and share that with you but um a majority a large majority of our student athletes are graduating um which could be a testament to their just you know their abilities but also Athletics um studies show that Athletics put people on the right path so um yeah I can get you that number for sure appreciate that our new assistant uh coordinator of data accountability andth I were
033just talking before the board meeting tonight like even the survey that we sent out this year it was the first survey that we sent out but now we're like oh we want to look at the subgroup data to really Define this we realize that some of the questions that we we're not getting to that point that subgroup data piece um and then some of the questions need to be worded differently so that we actually get the answer and kids interpret questions correctly so we've got some work to do we're glad that it's out there we got some more refining to do with that Mike I have a question I just gonna say um I'm glad you brought up the our the size of our athletic department versus other schools um interesting point that I think
034we should definitely look into um and secondly I know we're approving coaches later tonight um and one piece to that I don't know exactly how relevant it is but I I think I think it's worth looking at um I'm not going to hold you to a number but what percentage of our of our um PE teachers are coaches a large number um it's definitely over I'm gonna guess and again I can get you the exact number but I'm gonna guess it's probably about 60 65% okay um larger than yeah it's it's and we also had there's a well it depends on how you want to count we have one PE teacher that coaches three Sports and two sports so if you count them three times or once you know that might affect the numbers but
035um we do actually have a large number of our PE teachers and actually a large number of our coaches are District employees as well um which is which is a huge um thing in order to be able to check on kids and stuff like that but um our PE teachers are very active in the etic program Excell Mike thanks for coming in thank you appreciate hearing phone glad to hear the Hall of Fame moving forward we've been talking about that for a while great way to build pride in our district and our alone question i' see that happen um as it relates to the Strategic plan I'm curious obviously the turf's going to make a big difference but if you look forward and as we as a district and a board look forward to Capital
036Improvements uh post Turf how would you on a scale of one to 10 how do you rate our athletic facilities be honest four three and a half okay okay three and a half my biggest thing is I would love to see our the track fixed in no particular order I think there's four major projects that can change the the the the scope of everything our tennis courts being redone or resurfaced new lights at the at the football field a new track and bringing our softball and baseball teams back here however that looks does not to be Turf however that looks I would love to have those teams back on campus and have all of our teams I like Golf and the ones that literally can't be here um as many of our teams as possible
037be on campus um it's one of those things like Watertown you know was you know when that field was first put in the gold standard of of of Frontier League in North Country schools and unfortunately we've been passed um and we've been passed by by smaller schools um and I think just those and obviously there's there's need elsewhere but those four things I think would would really make world of difference and appearance and they O Used we talk about the the facility usage um you know tennis the tennis courts are used year round by the city by the YMCA um Brian's there two months a year you know and um but the community uses it as well and I think it's just as much an investment in them as it is for for Brian and
038and his student athletes I suspected you had a running list in your head I've been thinking for a while I appreciate I met with the uh the building commission people or the buildings and Sur whatever that survey was it was uh it was an interesting conversation and uh um and I felt bad I'd asked the coaches um for their input on stuff and the coaches have been asked that question many times over the years and um and then and know it stuff doesn't happen so I'm hoping that I can help be you know part of that conversation to improve all the way around I appreciate your honesty thank you Mike thank you thank you okay next we have a strategic Plan update this is going to be a team effort so Tina is going to
039get us uploaded here so we had the opportunity to meet with the Strategic Plan Focus committee so if you look at the last page of our strategic plan you see the list of names of people that serve on um the focused committee and so we had the opportunity to meet and look at our action steps so if you recall when we first put the Strategic plan together and kind of tie into what Millie was saying earlier is that we didn't want a plan that was for five years and had sat on a shelf collecting dust we wanted it to come to life and so we promised the community when we presented to the board and to our community the Strategic plan that we would be meeting annually in June to look at our action steps
040and to identify new ones to take us a step further this upcoming year so we're going to scroll up to the top and that's those are the only revisions in the plan as the goals stay the same prior to the focus committee meeting and I'll go over that in just a second here we had the opportunity to meet as an executive leadership team and to try to create some ideas um so when we worked with the focus committee um we had at least some starting points and it was amazing in most of these areas the uh Focus committee the Strategic plan pushed our our thought process um and pushed us even further than what we were thinking we could do so if you scroll up just slightly um fostering collaboration through advisory uh we're going
041to continue with the superintendent student advisory Council um we had an agreed upon belief with the teacher advisory and the student advisory that we have some collaborative meetings to talk about improving student attendance and ways in which we can engage students um more in classrooms and then if you scroll down to the teacher one there was a suggestion in here kind of in the middle bullet to change the teacher advisory to staff um the committee the folus committee is critically important that as we improve our district that we seek the input and counsel from all stakeholder groups within our organization and so what was formally known as in the 23 24 school year is the uh teacher advisory will be um the staff advisory and we'll be soliciting input from each building to make sure
042that we have buildings and departments represented uh during those our teacher group also pushed the idea of having having collaborative conversations with our students um there are some different ideas there you also see that last bullet often times ideas you know we start discussing things and we get excited and then the time kind of flies by we promise an hour and two hours later we're still engaged in conversation which is great um but one of the suggestions was to create a Google doc so that um we can kind of create like a thread a chat thread so that um students or staff as they leave those meetings if things come on their mind uh it's not something that they have to Harbor they can put it on the list and we can refer back to
043it it also will help us guide our councils when that we're meeting and maybe there's a list of agenda items and a particular staff member at the building feels like that's something that they could contribute well to or an agenda item that they're not necessarily interested or engaged with that they could U excuse themselves from that particular meeting so we're looking forward to continuing these committees but also taking them to the next level enhancing the um scheduling committee um this year there was the the high school and middle school scheduling committee that was shared uh with ly's report out establishing the dates ahead of time so that we have those and we can coordinate those around the um analyzing data and making recommendations for the upcoming school year making sure that it's tied into our
044budget process um this was huge and this was actually the students idea soliciting student input that was one of the things our student advisory kids said this year they really want Mrs gaffing to present to us what those plans are for the schedule so that we can provide some input um so we would like them to be a part of the decision-making process when we look at classes moving forward improving the graduation rate um we want to do a um root cause analysis initiating a root cause analysis of a specific focus group um this year's focus group was our um students with an i um one of our subgroups that were struggling to meet the graduation requirements this year uh under Matt B's Direction he would like to kind of expand that to other subgroups
045and so we would like to look at our graduation rate of African-American Mals uh and to see what strategies we can use there to increase the graduation rate for that subgroup uh and enhancing student onboarding uh this was something that was created in the secondary schools this year Matt would like to expand this to the elementary schools as well and we also used the Panorama screener this year uh with any of the surveys that we're giving to students or to teachers or our community I really want two data sets um this past year it was our first year bringing these surveys out um there there was a lot of surveys in a very short period of time and it was at the end of the year uh we really want to look at surveys differently
046we want to collect survey data in the fall and then we want to look at it again in the spring so we can compare contrast and truly identify our strengths and weaknesses um and then communicate that respectfully the next thing was uh enhancing our graduation coach so we um hired Vicky p as you know uh the board approved that at a prior meeting so we're excited about that um I was able to pull on or lean on one of my former graduation coaches that I hired years ago that was just phenomenal as a graduation coach um I asked her to please Mentor our our new graduation coach she has agreed to do that Vixie and her had their first meeting on Monday of this week it was absolutely phenomenal they sent us the agenda afterwards
047the there was no one else that I could picture that could lead her into this position and be as successful as she's going to be uh than somebody who actually lived through this journey themselves uh and they've also served as assistant principal and director of Cal so there's a variety of background that will help Vicki in that role um they're going to meet monthly um she's opened herself up to allow weekly phone calls and 50 needs the idea right now is to really set some opening blls um that can really lean uh to help us so that we see the impact this year um evaluating progress and outcomes that will happen at their monthly meetings and that information will be shared with the building principal um Leslie Atkinson the next one uh we have not
048filled this position yet we do have several internal candidates that applied for Credit Recovery teacher we're going to continue with this one with the understanding that someone will be hired um to begin this position at the beginning of the year and this is also something that I I really wanted a mentor to be assigned to this teacher um it's not just a study ball these kids are at risk of not graduating um so it was critically important that we assign a metor to this individual that really understands the importance of their new role and why uh the board in our community voted yes on our budget to support this position so that person will also be provided uh that mentoring and guid guidance as well uh keep in mind that when we added that phys
049um I did say when you look at the data we do have um we will need more than one credit recovery teacher um but we're going to start with one and then see where that goes from there um with these kids we really need to make sure that we're focusing on that credit recovery piece but it's extremely important that we don't lose site of the credit acal also um because our goal is to try to get them to graduate with their cohort um this one right here enhancing instructional Support Services in course subjects uh reviewing and enhancing instructional Support Services in ela math science and social studies developing the mtss program in each building led by the assistant coordinator of data accountability and assessment um who's here tonight thank you for joining us uh implementing
050classifed interventions for k math this was something that Lynn has been doing a lot of work in this area and she apologizes for not being here um tonight uh for this board meeting um implementing evidence-based interventions for K8 and reading um we have some models across the district with how reading interventions are taking place we want to make sure that as Mike was saying to the alic department we want to make sure that there are systems in place um for what's working we want to carry them forward in other areas the early Warning Systems this is something that we had but don't often use um and so we want to conduct ongoing professional development um so that teachers and administrators know how to use the early warning system um I listed this as ongoing because
051it's something that we offered last year but it's something that needs to be continuously brought to the Forefront uh as a former High School principal um I lived on the early Warning Systems report and that is you know you get a lot of data from that and there's kids that you can catch prior to that endpoint we're looking at progress reports you know prior to that progress reports coming out what are we doing to work with kids and parents to let them know their child's off track for graduation if we if we have a progress report which is in our school tool system waiting until a report card rate goes out and a kid already lost that half a credit as semester end it's too late and so we want to ear intervene early and
052that's the purpose of these early Warning Systems it ties in the grades the academics and it ties in the behavior so that we get a true picture of all of our kids and where they're at um I think I'm good there enhancing the graduation exit service so I kind of spoke about this briefly when Mike was doing his presentation uh we are extremely pleased of our portrait of a graduate committee who came up with our senior exit survey um Amy is working as her first day was a couple days ago she is currently analyzing that we're going to try to disaggregate it as much as possible um we've got some room for improvement but we have some data pieces that we can definitely use from that survey and we've got some things that we can
053feedback that we can provide to to the portrait of a graduate committee to really enhance that survey even more um and then just as a reflection from our GB presentation at the last board meeting um really making sure that we're reaching out to our seniors that maybe did not graduate um and ask them to also complete the survey so we can get some input from those stakeholders as well increasing student engagement this was one of the things that our teacher advisory now staff advisory and student advisory said that they would like to discuss as a topic um in their meetings in this upcoming school year um the one thing that we administered this year is our student engagement survey uh that was something as I mentioned with our other surveys was administered in the spring
054our goal this year is to administer that in the fall and the spring so we can look at that data and see our you know students improving that level of Engagement uh this feedback is critically important for Lynn as she's developing professional development opportunities for our instructional staff to make sure that she has that data um enhancing student engagement by building you know we have a lot of things that are happening that are amazing in in classrooms to making sure that we're sharing those positives around the district um analyzing and utilizing the findings that 72.6% of our students reporting join coming to school um even when we looked at our senior exit survey you know that data was pretty high um and we want to make sure that we contined growing in that area uh
055evaluating strategies to improve the satisfaction rate of teacher assistance when when students are needing assistance looking at what we can do to take that to the next level uh rethinking the survey implementation dates uh we said that earlier with the fall and the spring implementation um and then collaborating the data with staff you know oftentimes our students and teachers they give input and then we we hardly share the data back so when we look at our opening day uh with faculty in an abbreviated format sharing that data drawing people's attention to and having the data accessible for them to click out so we're still analyzing that data um responding to student feedback advocating for more Hands-On activities our kids are saying they want more Hands-On uh lessons uh increasing the importance of hands on and
056group activity projects those are Incorporated in the um the Cyclone six that Lind putting on professional development investigating and identifying appropriate and effective context for an when it's appropriate and when are times that it maybe is not this again is another lens section enhancing data driven instruction of curriculum by utilizing the data one of the things that Lyn and I noticed when we first got here uh was that often times decisions were made on a single data point and we know that with students and with learning um that students do well on some things and not others and we want to look at multiple data points from We're determining uh student placement in classes um so that's that first bullet provided training and cognos for all teachers uh regarding the state Assessments in order to
057allow them to use that data that was one of the reasons why we advocate for the additional uh coordinator position for data and accountability is that we have data but we need to start using it to drive instruction or uh reg Implement progress monitoring reading and map instruction that's a focus for this upcoming year enhancing professional development and instructional practices I kind of mentioned this earlier so it's taking all of those best practices and tying that into professional development um the science of reading um you'll hear reference that when she's talking also known as the science of learning to make sure that it goes across the court Cent areas we're looking forward this summer we have a breakthrough coach professional development that's going to be given to all administrators in the district including their secretaries
058uh this is really going to help maximize you know as as our leaders in the buildings and departments they are the instructional leaders in their spaces and we want to make sure that they have the tools that they need so that they can focus on on student learning um ensuring ongoing training and support from the reading League they've been a phenomenal help this year we're going to continue with their support uh and their commitment uring ongoing training from Dr Zach Belle uh that was an amazing professional development it was amazing to go to the high school and see um the uh Math teachers engaged uh with the science of learning for math um so we're going to continue that um provide continued training and support from the assistant superintendent for instruction and science learning with
059the Cyclone 6 we're currently we asked Lisa blink to make us something and catchy so that we can make sure that's up and when teachers are planning and doing their lesson plannings that they have that as a reminder to make sure that we're incorporating the Cyclone six framework and uh facilitating attendance of new teachers in the effective teaching course at bosis um and that is something that we're continue to work on enhancing data driven instructional coaching uh this is really looking at our coaching model and making sure that we're we're really perfecting this um the whole coaching model moving into this coming school year looks a lot different um we're going to be looking at data to determine uh what teachers should receive support uh with their input and try to encourage that buyin piece
060at the coaching level um and that's a little bit different than opposed to somebody saying oh can I have that person in my room this week or today to help with the lesson it's going to be more targeted and it's going to be based on data we're going to continue those Partnerships with Dr Z brochelle Dr Jean uh turinetti recruiting and hiring instructional coaches for Ry that was something that we put out there at the budgeting process to make sure that every building felt like they had that uh the instructional support there and uh rolling out the new instructional plan which is that continuous monitoring and adjustment and looking at you know we often tell our teachers make sure you differentiate your instruction to meet the needs of the diverse Learners and your kids and
061too often our professional development is a one-size fits all so we're recognizing that we need to meet our teachers where they at we have teachers that are phenomenal that don't need a professional development that could use something else to enhance their practice or keep them interested and engaged in teaching and learning rather than set through something that they already have mastered um so we've got some work to do there Gathering data on the impact of instructional coaching on teaching practices that's something we're changing that model this year we're going to collect that data and see how that revision to the practice influences student performance evaluating the effectiveness of the instruction coaches based on the slish criteria and feedback soliciting feedback from the teachers that are receiving coaching and making sure that they're getting that level
062of support uh this is Staff Development communicating the district's instructional coaching plan this is really making sure that the staff are aware of what the plan is with the district implementing the new instructional coaching plan with ongoing Monitor and adjustments as needed um we do not believe we've talked about this ly and I and and Tina and Sally we don't believe in continuing the level of support if it's not meeting the needs like we have to at some point stop and reflect and if changes are needed we're going to make those changes not going to go out school year with something that's not effective uh provide monitoring and mentoring for seconde teachers this was critically important to me um you know oftentimes we give teachers that first year mentoring administrators that first year mentoring it
063meets the letter of the law but some people need that second year uh to really uh hone in on their practice and to make them feel confident when you look at a teacher turnover rate most teachers leave the profession within one to three years and so we can provide teachers more mentoring within that first three years so that they feel confident and confident in our teachers it's that efficacy piece teachers go into the profession to make a difference in the lives of their kids and when they feel like they're not making that difference they they leave and so we want to make sure that they have that level of support student attendance I'm GNA ask Tina to share the wealth on this one sure so one of the big things that we know that the
064best place for our student to be is in the classroom with teachers and socializing friends and classmates so one of the things we looked at was enhancing uh the districtwide attendance initiatives uh we Lynn has done a fantastic job of uh coordinating a districtwide attendance committee and we're also going to consider this year the addition of a parent and a student representative well we had parent student representation on various committees and we felt it was very prudent to do it for this one continue creating and disseminating public service announcements promoting the importance of attendance um we also would like to expand expand our student attendance support teams in each building as a sub team of mtss so we'd like to identify root causes for absences this is building at building level personalized interventions we know
065that that student engagement that one-on-one contact is very important and then implementing class and schoolwide incentives to promote regular attendance uh we also would like to discuss uh working with school-based attendance nights and one of the things we talked about here was we we always have we have athletic events we have concerts we have uh Fine Arts uh you know plays we'd like to actually integrate some kind of education for parents and community members on the importance of student we have that captive audience here already so to spread that noon far and wide is certainly it's a good venue to do it so we'd like to empower those families to actively contribute to student attendance by organizing attendance nights at all schools you'd like to do professional development for parents and Guardians and attendance trends
066like I said and information regarding the importance of attendance at school we also have a very very solid and strong team of homeschool coordinators we'd like to coordinate with them and the student attendant supports teams to integrate attendance nights so they're help greatly appreciated they're working on a project uh for the fall welcome back right now our home coordinator stay tuned for that news then we'd like to implement daily personalized Outreach for students with low attendance in the plan for this upcoming school year uh we'd like to have the student attendance support teams again and teachers will conduct daily Outreach to engage families students flow attendance that engagement piece with families is very important and then the attendance initiative piece we'd like to uh reward students for attendance uh Implement class and schoolwide incentives for
067promoting regular attendance solicit parent interest for membership on the attendance Committee of course establishing parent focus groups and investigating the feasibility of implementing a tardy bus this is something very exciting uh that the district used to have but if a student misses the bus or you know is is late for school to have a bus available to pick up those students to bring them in so that they're in that classroom with their teachers so we've got we're going to be going out for an RFP this year for transportation for the upcoming school year so we want to start getting a list of ideas of things that we want to ask for in transportation the electrification of buses with the you know the law that may be passed regarding temperature controlled spaces a AC on buses
068and so forth so there's a list of things that we're starting to Garner now for those meetings and the RFP process the one thing that um so priority number four is enhancing behavioral supports for students um Matt and his team especially have done great deal of work this year on that and we're looking forward to the upcoming school year the expansion and enhancement of our PBIS programming is certainly important we'd like to do that by uh increasing the number of committee members in each building and establishing a district level impl mentation team to meet monthly and ensure consistent PBIS implementation across our buildings we'd like to conduct a PBIS audit in each building that districtwide committee is going to be charged with going to the buildings and asking questions when you're looking whether or not
069something systems or not you know we're going to be going around and asking teachers administrator student you know what are the PB expectations in the building can you share one we're going to be asking those so the committee is going to be charged with going and collecting that data and it's not going to be an IA it's going to be information that we can use to actually improve PBIS to make sure that it systems fine so integrating PBIS with globe goals leadership opportunities and wrapup process to align behavioral expectations and then implement the monthly sharing of PBIS data with teachers in each building that's going to be key I just want to go back to that town one because that is the one I thought we missed in the last one this you know case
070Middle School they have their Town Hall meetings um what we would like for them to be is the pilot and the model for this we would like the data shared with the students we would like the attendance rate shared with the students the referral data shared with students so that if disruptive behaviors um or Defiance is the number one behavioral for the month when they have those Town Halls to talk about what does it mean to be defined what are some of those behaviors um and what are the PBIS R teaching pieces that could be tied in so allowing those Town Halls at case to kind of be a model for other buildings so that we're communicating the data with our kids who are ultimately responsible for helping us improve them next up is the
071implementation of minor and major referral systems we'd like to implement the distinction between minor and major referrals in school tool ensuring consistent identification right now they're on paper the minor referrals are on paper some people write major referrals some people write minor we have no way of collecting the data and disaggregating it if we're doing everything on paper we talked as a committee about should we just allow people to fill out the paper that they're comfortable with and scanning it you can't segregate it once it's a a PDF and so we really want it in there so that's going to be a big lift for our schools this year to move from the paper pencil to actually uploading those into the um computer system and then we can start targeting and looks what behaviors at
072the minor level are are leading to those major infractions and is there any possible way for us to intervene early before they're getting that classroom removal suspension Etc May will have much more data to work with too with this which would be great because be able to track those minor and Majors as well develop interventions expansion of PBIS initiatives for 2425 allocate funding so um thank you to the board allocating $2.50 for each student in the district develop a PBIS expenditure and action plan for the same period administer a student input survey to gather feedback on desired reports and develop a Google doc outlining best practices for alliga the funds towards rewards and supplies it's very thoughtful process on that $2.50 per student um enhance identification and documentation of minor and major referrals in school
073tool like we said and ensure that staff upload those minor behavior referrals to school tool on so we share with our administrative cabinet this year Timely processing and documentation of disciplinary referrals a major portion of this is when a student um you know earns a referral per se that parents are notified within two days of the infraction and promptly notify all parents and Guardians by phone of such referrals that school to home relationship is truly important collaborate with the Rick on developing a report to track disciplinary outcomes and also document disciplinary actions and the Student Success uh specialist and team records as well this is a program the P program uh this has been implemented in two of our elementary buildings this year Ohio and at nicker Bacher um we're going to begin to implement
074that pxs good behavior game in additional kport classrooms across the district we're going to expand training for teachers to increase the implementation we're going to establish a Pax partner within our district through collaboration with pivot to provide ongoing support to classroom teachers and implementing the PX good behavior game and this is a a set of you know everything from vocabulary it's embedded right into the culture of the classroom and it's designed to increase not only student behaviors in terms of making those positive but also engagement as well we want to ensure the Fidelity any new program that's implemented we want to sure we want to make sure we keep our finger on it and uh that it you know and monitor it and make adjustments if necessary so conduct our PPS teams uh I believe
075those teams and they do some phenomenal work I'm going to skip down to the next one here in front of you you have something called the Watertown city full District students support quick reference this took hours of work and our team really did a fantastic job I told the story a lot Dr schmeel has heard it many times uh but Dr schmeel and I were u in the auditorium after professional development last October we had two separate staff members come to us and say what is the social work are do versus a school psychologist versus a counselor so our teams develop this quick reference sheet school counselor what does the school counselor do versus a psychologist H school coordinator social worker and then our pivot um agency as well this is something that's geared towards
076our staff next year what we'd like to do is make a play card for our community with language that they you know they can understand and find useful because we have so many great resources at Watertown here we want to make sure those are maximized uh for students sucess I think the other thing with this the one pager if I go back to that experience in the auditorium was the you know the idea that our kids have relationships with different people in the building it may not be their home room teacher it may not be their coach it may be somebody else I had kids that their um their person was the um the grounds keeper and that was their person so we really wanted to make sure that this one pager when a student
077goes to their trusted individual within the school district that that individual regardless of their position in our district that they felt like they had a resource to use be able to guide students in the right direction when they need support do they are all these positions good right now uh we have we have a school counselor opening we have only one yes we have a retirement there we have a a psychologist opening um we we have we had an interview today actually for that home school coordinators are filled social workers are filled and and I haven't heard anything from Mr Bowman lately so thinking our pivot spots are f as well should we go on on that last comment you made we include bus drivers we actually uh we're going to be providing um PD
078for bus drivers this year and that is in the plan yeah because oftentimes you get a lot of discipline or referrals from bus drivers and who are in a positive it could be the person that they have that relationship with so going back to the previous uh action step here we'd like to use this to do some professional development with principles and find out know Personnel inventory wise across all buildings principles we uze utilize this uh document as a foundational tool to complete an inventory we want to know we want them to provide insights into how PPS staff are currently assigned and utilized within each building allowing for strategic adjustments and optimizations for better support so we'd like to really take a close look at that and this document is the first step to doing
079so so we know roles and responsibilities there so enhancement of the PPS Personnel communication uh again communicating our PPS play card outlining the roles and responsibilities and we'd like to create a comprehensive reference document similar to this document like I said a little bit earlier for for the community and we'd like to create a specific directory of PPS Personnel names and contact information in the district and we'd like to do all of this by October 1st B so PD on profession on Behavior referrals this is where we talk about Transportation a little bit but we'd like to uh conduct professional development sessions for all staff including first student drivers and AIDS to educate them on the scope substance and purpose of behavior referral so Dr schedel and I went to First Student last September and
080we spoke to all the drivers uh the bay was filled over at first student so we'd like to uh we have a contact uh going to bring in to do some professional development with first student drivers in some of our buildings the majority referrals are seen on the bus so to educate drivers is certainly important so we have an expert coming in to do that I've talked to charmain over at first student about that that's in the works and we'd like to develop training materials that outline the criteria for Behavior referrals they're importance and process and we want to make sure that all of our staff including the drivers and AIDS actively participate in the professional development sessions and this um something that I forgot until we just read this out loud is we actually
081invited our bus drivers and anyone who worked for first students and our staff were not typically invited to the opening day contractually they're not working yet we invited all bargaining units uh and first student to attend um and the board last year approved payment of those individuals to come in the day early and we are going to plan on continuing that into the upcoming year it's important that all of our staff feel like they're part of that opening launch and then the next is Sally s who for everyone this is her last official board meeting for this trip with the Watertown city be round three well this has been a nice term here um so we have a number of um capital outlay projects which are annual $100,000 small projects we we haven't um closed
082out the paperwork so this is for this coming year we need to um file out the P file the paperwork for the one that's just closed out last um as well as um start with the 2425 Capital outlay project um and so obviously we are doing it this summer so it'll be um done probably by you know September so the paperwork will be filed for there and the idea is that once you file the paperwork you get the building a the following year so you don't get it um paid out over the typical 15 years so so it's a good way to get some small projects done um annually then it's budgeted so obviously next spring makees you know the business official and make sure that it's continued to be budgeted but also that we
083would need to next spring um uh make sure we do the secret paper work so we'll be ready to start with July 1 2025 so these are these are the things that we need to get done for the current year that we're in July 1 um for the capital Outlet projects the building condition survey which um mik um spoke to a little bit earlier um we are getting that um list from The Architects King and King and um next Monday we'll be meeting with them to you know go over the first draft of the prior and to PRI prioritize all of the um things that the stakeholders the the building principles the the staff the administrators the board members all met with them and they have this huge list um can't have it all but
084we need to um be able to prioritize um all of the issues and and we're going to identify whether you know they're they're for infrastructure for their safety um ADA compliance instructional um because we you know the principles would would have provided things that may not need structurally in need but in um you like do you want to take a wall down for have a larger group things like that so um we're going to be able to um prioritize that list and then um with working with our fiscal advisers they'll be able to come up with a plan for a long-term capital projects whether it would be one big project that we would want to um provide for the public to vote on and whether it would be one big project or be able to
085break it out over a series of phases um you know so those are the things that fiscal advisors would also help us with because we don't want to make sure we want to make sure that we have level building Aid and level debt um year to year so our budget doesn't fluctuate so so they'll help us with that and um The Architects would you know obviously if we don't do it all in like say this next coming vote you know you have to um anticipate what maybe a three-year away project would be you know so so you have to have some inflationary factors so fiscal advisors would help us with that we do do have a capital reserve that will help us um be able to uh leverage our our $10 million Reserve could be
086upwards of aund million total in in capital construction projects so so that's a good thing um but we would also need to like some of the things that um the Athletics would need you know would be in exterior um fieldwork those are not aidable so we would also have to figure out um how how we would infrastructure for non- aable things as well and that's where again fiscal advisors helps us with um so all of these things need to be decided probably early fall because um in order to keep on the timeline of you know having not only meeting the um the the s paperwork to have ground broke and have that level building Aid um we would probably have to have a late fall early winter vote to get that process started because you
087know as that drops off you don't want to have a void in a year and then then it'll affect the local initiative um for for the tax levy so so we really do have this an exciting the list we just got a preliminary list the other day and it's it's a big one you know but um it's lot of detail behind it so it'll be Consolidated and grouped um for the the community but in addition to the list I think there's going to be um some Community engagement where um we're probably going to do site visits you know to all of the facilities to see what some of these things you know I mean you're not going to look behind the wall to see the wiring but you'll you'll see a lot of the the
088the needed identified issues I mean even outside you know like with the here with the um parking lot you know you'll see that there are some visual things that you know you definitely would identify but then there's a lot of things that that you know you don't necessarily driveway s is a good example because what you don't know is our driveway at least on this main campus there's no drainage underneath it and so it's the project becomes significantly larger when you're looking at removing the existing payment the the gravel underneath it but also installing drainage systems but what we talked about with our Architects King and King is possibly you know them taking pictures and putting them on banners like we have out here so when people walk into those spaces when we have a
089meet and greet in the facilities people can actually see it without taking them to an unsafe environment in the street right or you know if we need new roof you know we're not going to go up on the roof to see it but you know yeah there's lot like said there's a big big list and um see here so again to keep on the timeline because there's such a a long timeline between the voters actually voting on a project paperwork get to SED and then there's a huge lag for them to get approval and then then you have to go out to bid so it it's probably going to be three year out um minimum before you break around anyway so that that's why we would really need to start that planning now now the
090building condition survey which we're going to be seeing um the list um meeting next week you know that's the beginning process because s is not going to allow you to um really have a big project if it's not identified as a need you know they don't they want to say oh you need a new rofy well it wasn't on you how come you didn't identify it that kind of thing so you know you really that's why the Architects are key in this this whole process but um we you know like I said we did the traffic study on this campus so that that will their recommendations will be factored in as well I'm just going to add to that because I had asked the company I haven't received an answer yet a confirmation but I
091had asked if they could come to the August 6th board meeting to present their recommendations to the board I'm just waiting on confirmation from um and then the existing Capital construction project along with the turf um we will be um doing permanent financing to um at at the end of June 20 2025 so um that that is part of this next year's plan um so in order to beet that timeline we would need to have the $ 13 million project completed by this December so that you know all the paperwork needs to be filed with that and and then another thing that really you know it it's part of the long range technology um infrastructure plan but you know they have a number of sources um for uh resources um construction projects you know for
092like internet uh all of the behind the scenes wiring and and um closets that you know have have I can't think of a terminology for the well you know technology um eate is another source of funds moic is the Bose Regional information center we can get some technology through them as well as multi-year financing through them in addition to the general fund budget so so we really need to have instead of having a peace meal from technology we need to get also a long range technology plan from them so so for budgeting purposes and for the capital structure project factoring in um for the network servers and support um you know as well as well as for um budgeting for the regular budget but that that that does factor in the um technology um Pro
093the capital excuse me Capital construction project and then finally the emergency um project at north um we would need to um file the paperwork for that get that started and for this this year and then convert like I said convert the bands to a bond for that gu that's it thank you very much for going through that Tina thank you for going through your sections uh I want to thank everyone who served on the strategic planning committee uh Focus um the feedback that they gave so the executive team gave uh if you notice it significantly increased in pages I think we went up over 10 pages from last year's plan um so it's a little bit thicker but it outlines some really critical things that we need to focus on this year to really take
094things to The Next Step which is what I appreciate about our fiveyear plan is each year we're going to go through this process again identify uh some next steps and move forward and some things may come off and other things will be refined that concludes that presentation okay well superintendent of schools report um first and foremost I would like to congratulate our graduating seniors the class of 2024 the graduation last Friday the weather could not have been any more perfect um I want to thank Leslie ainson and 13 um it was just a wonderful way to really celebrate amazing students um so thank you for that the um oh and I also I'm going to publicly say this because we did receive a Community member phone call um earlier this week that our board cler
095took the phone call I think that was on Monday um with a concern with the parade route so I want to thank that person for calling our office shuring that concern and just apologies to everyone who lives on that block of Green Street uh that was definitely not our intent to block anyone's driveway and uh hopes is celebrating our seniors the next thing that I want to mention is our case Middle School moving up I want to just wish our eighth graders incoming freshman well we celebrated them last week at their eighth grade yeah and I'm confident that those students are doing everything they can to relax rejuvenate don't forget to read practice your math skills and uh you'll be ready for n9th grade in the fall and I want you to enjoy the journey
096when you get there uh the next thing is our SRO and intermunicipal agreements with the city it was my hope to bring them to the board today for the reorganization meeting however the city is still working on the SRO contract and the inter Municipal so neither of those are ready from the city to present to the school board tonight um so once I get those I will add those to this agenda um I already thank Sally for her Services uh and recognize that this is her last meeting and just to reminder that all district schools and campuses will be closed Thursday and Friday of this week and on of July 4th that's it okay thank you assistant superintendent for instruction report I'm going to read her she um from her place Senate Ty I'm going
097to read it um on June 5th I had the privilege of facilitating the principal's Academy during this session we engaged in productive collaboration with principles from various schools to plan for the 24 25 school year we specifically discussed instructional best practices instruction and intervention our work is directly connected to our district strategic plan also on June 5th we had our annual federal grants advisory meeting where representatives from stakeholder groups including parents students Community Based organization members College staff teachers administrative and support staff Federal requirements mandate that school districts involve stakeholders in planning developing and reviewing to1 programs and funding stakeholders can provide feedback on current programs and suggest improvements this continuous feedback loop helps refine and enhance ti1 initiatives to ensure students needs are meant throughout June we offered a variety of professional development opportunities
098including sessions for enl teachers workshops um on engaging instruction practices reading leak training K K8 Math training and phonics training many of our teachers are already proactively planning for the 2425 school year integrating the knowledge and strategies gained from these sessions into their preparations on June 25th I attended our annual strategic plan review meeting I'm grateful this process is a part of our strategic plan as it allows us to evaluate progress in each district priority and adjust our action plan items accordingly this brings the document to life with real actionable steps that lead to continuous Improvement and lastly Lynn writes summer is a business time in the district office we are writing grants and preparing for the school year additionally we are offering numerous professional development opportunities for our Educators and many summer school opportunities
099for our students thank you so much assistant superintendent for personnel and student services good evening again everybody uh so June was a very busy month I would like to give uh accolades to our administrators and our teachers uh I had the opportunity and the privilege to attend several of events on June 5th we had the spring Sports banquet that was very well done in recognition of our student athletes Watertown High School awards night exceptionally done and Pa Middle School award nights the same on June 17th then the National Junior H Society uh induction ceremony was June 20th at Watertown High School and of course the case moving up ceremony and it's always nice to see the the community and parental support at those events as well during the month of June being a former uh
100high school principal F Lesly I can certainly attest to the busyness of June and the graduation ceremony was outstanding on Friday night I'd like to give a special thank you to those in attendance especially our little kindergarteners who were there their parents who took the time to get them there the teachers who were there and the administrators who were there as well that was just very well done and great to see and I think our seniors were the ones who enjoyed it the most I think you enjoy the little ones uh so going back to junee 24th Matt verdick and I met all of the AIDS in the district over at case Middle School we had uh about 100 people there uh we had uh we wanted to take the time to thank our AIDS
101in the district for their Relentless work throughout the year they do an exceptional job and we wanted to recognize them Mary Hughes uh provided us with Refreshments there we were we had the opportunity to implement a survey too we had 100 participants in the survey we had 100 we have 115 AIDS in the district so we have a good good sample of our Aid population I wanted to share with the board just a couple of Snippets Matt and I are still going through all this but we want to we want our aids to understand that we're listening to them and we hear them so some of the questions um we have 71% of our AIDS uh in the district are one to one AIDS 177% are cluster AIDS they work with groups of students and
102then 12% are classroom kindergarten AIDS so 63% of our AIDS in the AIDS in our district are satisfying with their current role 35% are satisfied so in just a very small snippet of the pie we're dissatisfied and we'd like to really um you know focus on that group as well and and try to you know we can't make any promises about a placement but we certainly want to our employees to you know enjoy what they do and and be in the spots where they want to be 95% feel that they have a manageable workload uh 67% felt that they received adequate training um Matt has done a great job of implementing professional development uh with parab btes for our AIDS we're looking to uh Implement that you know augment that I guess in the fall
103with doing uh an onboarding for all of our AIDS we want them to understand and be well trained before they hit the ground what running are the expectations and responsibilities of your role clearly defined 77% said yes and 23% said no and I presented a few board meetings ago on you know how well we're explaining jobs to people when we're interviewing that's an area for improvement um how effective do you feel the current professional development is uh 18% thought very effective 65% thought effective and 17% thought ineffective so again we're looking to enhance that and how well do you feel you are informed about school policies and procedures we had a mixture here 19% were very well informed 36% were well informed 41% somewhat informed and then would you recommend this school district as a
104good place to work to others proud of this one 97% of our AIDS said yes they will be proud there was there were also a few open-ended questions where people would like to be if if they're not in a spot where they want to be so Matt and I will take a look at all of those and a number one is to service our students to the maximum so we're we really like this data and we'll dive into it even further this summer thank you so much interim business official s Switzer I just want to say thank you for giving me this opportunity it's I've really enjoyed it being able to be help of help um I've been working on um trying to close out the year with the girls in the office for the
105the you know the the books for 20 324 as well as year up for the 2024 25 um school year which includes state aid um trying to get some things done for Brie so she doesn't have to scramble to you know gather the data and then the audit will be coming like they said um last time um in early September so it gives her a little breathing room but um it's just uh winding down for me now um I've got um trying to couple more things that you know I need to I really want to get done before she arrives on Monday um and then I'll have a little bit of time to go over with her all where all the files are and you know she doesn't need any help and I'm very very
106infused with you know leave her you and good hands with her because I'm very confident that it should be a smooth transition so thank you thank you well this time we're in need of an executive sessioned fending for current litigation so can I have a motion in a second bil all those in favor we'll be back e e e hey can I have a motion to reenter public session and John all those in favor any opposed okay thanks to everybody who see um and then yes um I'm in need of an agend a change uh for the approval of the salary increase for director of Technology cyber security and Innovation I have a motion in a second all those in favor no any opposed motion carries items for consent agenda resolved at the Board of
107Education approves the following consent agenda items number one appointment of officers number two other appointments three Des donations authorizations number five official undertak bonds and number six other motion please and a second John all those in favor I any opposed motion carries items for board that the Board of Education hereby approves the inter agreement by between the's office of inter Municipal legal services and the Watertown city school district for the period of July 1 2024 June for the legal services for the P agreement have motion please Millie Millie in a second John John any discussion all those in favor any oppos motion carries whereas on March 19 2024 the Board of Education awarded a contract extension for the student transportation services to First Student Incorporated for a one-year term expiring June 30 2025 and whereas
108this amended resolution reflects an updated CPI increase of 3.9% now therefore be it resolved that upon the presentation and recommendation of the school district's Administration that the um Board of Education approves the amended Transportation contract extensions with first student Incorporated and authorize the president of the Board of Education and the superintendent of schools execute any documents necessary to effectuate such extension I have motion please John a second just all those in favor any oppos motion Carri whereas the district is a party to a due process proceeding and whereas the board desires to avoid the continued time and expense of litigating the due process proceeding now there therefore it is hereby resolved that number one the terms of the settlement agreement to settle the above reference matter are here by approved and number two the superintendent
109of schools is authorized to execute the settlement agreement on behalf of the Board of Education and District can I have a motion please Milli Millie and a second John any discussion all those in favor I any opposed motion carries resolve that the payment of dues of $580 eight for the 2425 school year to the National associ assciation of federally impacted schools is hereby approved can I have a motion please second John discussion all those in favor any motion carries resol that the payment of dues of $640 based on enrollment for the 2425 school year to the Jefferson Lewis fosies uh boards uh Association is hereby approved Mo please a second discussion all those in favor any oppos curious resing upon the recommendation School Dr Larry C schmeel that the daily rate of an administrative s
110is $400 per day please none a second John any discussion those in favor any oppose motion curious that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of School the administrative Le of a probationary effective 26 2024 is here I approve motion please Milly in a second John discussion all those in favor oppose motion carries you resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent schools Dr Larry schmeel the Board of Education hereby approves the following resignations retirement appointments probationary instructional term non probationary instructional instructional part-time directors visional permanent part-time lead teachers summer school extended school year special education staff extended school year special education speech there substitute administrator substitute non- instruction fall coaching boys fall coaching girls fall coaching coed winter coaching Boys Winter coaching girls coaching Co spring coaching boys spring coaching girls can I have a
111motion please mil mil in a secondy Randy any discussion I have a question um actually I'm glad you're still here I just want to know do we have any designated deadlines for any applications or like we need a coach for a certain sport is there like a hard deadline or do you just designate those deadlines based on the need and the time and the way the contract reads is June 1st is the deadline and that's in the WEA contracts okay so by June 1st we should have all of our coaches unless something happens in so there is a hard yes that's it thank you all those in favor favor I I any opposed any exstension yes resolve that upon the recommendation of Dr Larry Schmo superintend of schools the appoint appointment of Terence gonth is
112K12 temporary inome principal in the district is hereby approved done get rid of that's a good any we're happy that you're back so soon he all those in favor any opposed motion car resolve that Maria denner is temporary temporarily um met the district needs of the vacant senior account Clerk's position in the business office this until such time as the board appoints a new senior account clerk in the business office and she will be paids in addition to her wages and account the accountant uh the additional sum of $756 daily while she is performing the duties of the senior account clerk in the business office so this is two reasons one is the m that we had ended at the end of June that's one reason second reason is we did not fill the position
113yet and I guess there's actually third reason so she left the 12-month clerical bargaining Association to become a management confidential and we needed an agreement with the bargaining Association to prove to them that we understand that it's bargaining work and we are not in any attempt trying to take bargaining work away from their Union um but in the inter term until we hire somebody because it is a kind of unique position that we need to be do [Music] this can I get motions no John Milly Milly okay any discussion those in favor any oppos motion carries resolve that approval of a memorandum of understanding by and between the superintendent of schools of the Watertown city school district and the anchor Recovery Center is hereby approved can I have Motion Kelly in second Millie Millie discussion
114all those in favor any oppos motion carries resolve that one student from Immaculate he Central will combin with the Watertown city school district for the 20425 school year to form a cross country team here further results a student from Immaculate Heart Central will train with the Waterton City School District's cross cross country team the student will compete under IHC colors can I have a motion please John John second Milly Millie discussion all those in favor anyos motion carries resol that is part of the New York State disaster evacuation plan the Watertown city school districts cover and agree to secondary temporary folding areas uh between this between the school um and the following to get resoled that the above reference Agreements are hereby approved motion please Millie Millie in a second John discussion all those in
115favor I any opposed motion carries result that the following revise Board of Education policies are hereby approved and adopted one3 Community use of facility of school facilities 13.1 facility's use permit application 7401 and staff automobile use can I have a motion please goad call in a second John discussion in favor any opposed motion carries all a recent donation of 250 hygiene hits was made to was made by the North country library system this donation is gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing can I have a motion please Jer discussion all those in favor I any motion carries resolve that a recent $100 donation was paid by Mrs Misty wer to the class of 2027 this donation is gratefully accepted and approved and will be writing I have motion please in a second
116John discussion those favor any oppos motion carries weol that the outome senior class 2024 has made several donations to include $11,000 to the upcoming senior class of 20125 $11,000 to the upcoming junior class of 2026 $1,000 to the class of 2027 $500 to the get ready rooms at case middle school and HD Wy Intermediate School $2,000 for the welcome back Watertown event and $1,000 towards the h machine at Watertown High School uh this donation these donations are gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged and writing motion please in a second discussion to the class of 2024 that they have almost $6,000 in excess funds that they can donate to all those causes must be good fundraisers yes that is amazing it sets a trend for the coming classes very nice and way to leave
117the Legacy very nice favor motion carries resol that the disposal recycl donation uh of damaged outdated and unused books from the libraries at nickach Sherman North and Starbuck elementary schools it's here by can I have a motion please Millie Milly in a second I already know the we're not going to do it going forward okay all those in favor any oppose carries this time I need to um at this time I need to ask the uh board members for the um for any interest in the upcoming uh New York State School boards association meeting that this year is October 20th to the 22nd um um this is the New York City um conference for Nisa and if I could I know Lori does have some interest if I get any if it convinces anyone to
118go I'll be going this year yeah 20 to 2 in New York City and how many people do you need people I usually take a a delegate an alternate but anybody you um I went it was Buffalo last year I went it was exceptional New York City I would like to go yeah but you can go to you can go to we can can we work in like a Broadway show Margarita yes good everybody's name down there um and I also need um a member and an alternate for the election of a um Board of Education to serve on the executive committee for the Jeff Lewis bosies Association they have a couple meetings a year who is that now is it Lori I think it is Lori I think Lor Lori has beening she's been
119doing such a good [Music] job that's right's a r up want to possibly be the alternate just in case I need I'd be the alternate if no objection next is resolve that the disposal recycle or donation of damaged outdated and unused textbooks and instructional materials from Ohio elementary is hereby approved second Millie Millie discussion all those in favor I any oppos motion please weol that a 3.5% salary increase for Jeff Wood director of Technology cyber security and Innovation for the 2425 school here is hereby approved John again and Tina fluno for the second right you gota you got to do one perfect any discussion all those in favor any opposed carries okay quickly the fourth and the 5ifth uh all buildings are closed and then we'll see everybody back here Tuesday August 6 at 4M
120for our Board of Education meeting right here um start I'll start sure um so thank you Mike Morgan again for that incredible comprehensive presentation that was an eyeopener for a lot of things that are going on in our athletics department and things that we have to look forward to I think we've set an organized path and things for us to consider as a board and things for us to look forward to so I appreciate you you know doing that for us us very nice uh welcome to Tina good [Laughter] luck I like to talk a lot but I think that that that's good and I hope that you'll join in that same process um I've said it before a couple of times I think that you will see that we're a good group we all
121have our opinions we all have our say um and I don't think any of us really hold back so I think you'll know that Sally we're going to miss you you were lovely you did a lot for us which was really nice um and I think we're all congratulations to you joining us we're looking forward to all that data that you will be giving us I think it's very important I think you might have already gathered that we're kind of a number oriented group and we like to see those figures and those percentages to kind of substantiate where our thought process is going and meeting some of our goals um and the summer is going to be great we need the month off all together uh it's going to be tough you know not being
122here every two weeks we're just gonna cry about it um so thank you to everyone I think we've had a great year it's been great progress and I'm happy that we have a lot to look forward to next year John what you got holy cow um so many moving up ceremonies and award ceremonies and and getting all those musical concerts in at the end of the year it's been a whirlwind uh and then graduation I just have to Echo what Dr sh said earlier it was it was amazing and Leslie ainson and her team did a phenomenal job and it was just it was truly a day for celebration for those students and it was great to see um and um you know I wish all of those seniors the best and I know we're
123going to add to to those those numbers over the summer as as we get a few more that get the requirements that they need in uh but it's just been phenomenal and of course as I drove by I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my son's going to be devastated when he gets back from Tennessee but uh the process of the turf it's being torn up as we speak um so that process has started and I can't wait to see you know what that new Turf looks like as we get closer to our fall Sports season so busy busy time you know summer doesn't slow down for for anything in the educational world thank you fluno I just want to say thank you to everybody who voted for me and um believed in me um
124I as everybody knows I was employed with the district for 17 years and been working with special needs kids since I was 13 so this is my this is my heart and soul so I will uh I'm very glad to join you guys I I think that everybody here is already amazing so um I'm very very grateful to be here with you guys and to hopefully make these things come to fruition and again thank you to everybody who supported me and believed in me well thank you thank you col so to be overly redundant um attended a number of events and celebrations um and especially the graduation to kind of tap everything off it was excellent very busy time of the year um the planning and improvising that went into congratulation was great um doing
125at the turf is there is there any thought of it's done with it I know it gets thrown away but I know um talking to some people some athletes who are graduating or maybe current athletes who've played on the turf um a little momento is that anything that's been thought of I can speak to that actually okay um I was informed not too long ago that that the the clerk of the works is giving Dell a gigantic role um it's also in about 75 different roles so maybe we can get a second role but uh there is be a gigantic role that that Dell will be the the keeper of um and the goal the plan of that is to to cut it up and and to give it to to people so can anybody
126receive because I had someone reach out to me they're creating like a little Turf area for their child lacrosse player not me um that is looking to see if they could even purchase some of it or would be able because they're happy to use the used Turf is that something that I can to you perhaps um I don't know the answer to that but I can I can find it I'm not sure what they're doing that they they have multiple tractor trailer loads of it leaving um and it's it's I'm sure I would love to see it repurpose somehow because I think they're just going to toss it to be honest with you so if there's any sort of repurposing for like that yeah I'll try to find that for me and I'll send you
127the the size that I'm looking for that'd be great thanks I'm not sure whether because we it's still our stuff we would have to declare it Surplus first even though it's getting tossed you know just to cover our BAS s with all the red tape last there's resale sites these companies I don't know if this company's one of them but they sell like used Turf online I mean we still have that and then we still have the old bleachers that were out there in the high school so sending them all to ry's house I at the end of the week that's I'm good thank youy yes I am uh well it talk about redone it go last it's really tough to not be redone on this time of year um I know with all the
128year year end activities they make it look easy but we know it's not easy and I look back and think what a great way to commemorate whole Year's worth of great work we've done together um perfect way graduation sort of way to appear it on the end of the sentence um want to say welcome to Tina as well and and farewell to Sally really helped put the district in a really good position very grateful for that learned a lot learned a lot from you thank you um wanted to just uh make a comment to Millie thank you for comments you made and John for nominating me you know that's the main reason I ran was to provide stability and continuity for this District to help our new superintendent not but our newly Crown superintendent um
129have him have the best chance to have success for our district and so I feel honored every time I walk into one of these buildings I see still see myself as a student here and I don't know how I'm so fortunate to be able to be in a position to make a difference that way it's still um somewhat surreal to me so I'm the lucky one thank you should have G before you these days you'll learn I actually have an update uh from Matt berck um said I'm excited to announce that our extended school year services will commence on Monday July 8th we are eagerly looking forward to welcoming our students to Summer services and providing them with engaging learning opportunities additionally we have an enriching summer plan with numerous professional development opportunities for our
130dedicated staff and pair of professionals these sessions are designed to enhance our skills share best practices and ensure we continue to deliver the highest quality education and support to our students um somebody had told me two years ago that Millie Smith would be sitting at this table saying what you said earlier I would said there's no chance um so those words taken lightly and I'm probably going to watch that on YouTube every day for the next year um no but but in all seriousness and I mean this um given the intelligent and talent of the people who sit at this table on this board um please know that I am humbled to remain in my current capacity and it's truly an honor and uh that's all I want to leave you with thank you thank
131you um at this time we're in need of an executive session for the proposed fending or current litigation and the medical financial credit or employment history of a particular person or Corporation or matters leading to the appointment employment premotion demotion discipline suspension dismissal or removal of a particular person or Corporation can I have a motion C and John all those in favor CL see you in AUST