001Allegiance pledge allegiance of the United States of America thank you for everybody at the game and thank you to everybody who's watching us remotes uh do we have any agenda teams I do have a couple some we did have the addition of I the approval of the IRS please and each board member does have the updated Personnel report from today we did have a couple changes on that the addition of gain resignation and see appointments terminal probationary instructions very good thank you uh do we have anyone here wishing to address the board for a gender related public no okay any Communications no Communications all right then I'll get right into it with important staff reports the faf committee report from Mr Amber Susan thank you Jason so we reviewed today with uh quest star the
002and 2223 annual risk assessment um interesting um to go through uh it's uh no surprises nothing major so it's great and then we also review with building some grounds Brian Harris um buildings and kind of state of where they're at especially with all the snow we've gotten many things that have popped up trucks not working things like that so um like positive meaning it was good it was good superintendent of school report Mr James Dietrich okay thank you and our administrators meeting we talked about shared decision making a group made a presentation our different advisory team is a unifying addition to the building advisory teams that handle district-wide issues and patterns that emerge with several building level teams building advisory teams bats also called site-based teams provide a voice to Shared decision making the focus
003is on issues rather than event planning The Advisory teams are doing different things such as procedural issues cafeteria issues playground equipment and funding as well as schedule glitches the bat members include teachers AIS RTI custodial cafeteria family members Etc our priority would be to gather issues from three sources students staff and parents a mechanism for Gathering feedback involved the development of a form or paper or digital responses and a Dropbox for anonymous feedback the electronic or digital form could have a drop down menu for specific buildings if issues emerge from multiple buildings to create a pattern it becomes a district issue and a priority meetings are generally monthly but this is oh just a thumbnail sketch of how we do decision making in a number of buildings and how we chatting Keep information flowing and
004also uh make sure folks are included for instructional technology the reports for the Promethean board installation uh is positive and it continues cable is being pulled for receiving classrooms and interactive training begins January 4th and training is open to all teachers and enrollments um is is there on SharePoint other mechanisms and a professional performance review was discussed and the pre-observation form was focused upon for procedure and purpose um also the Raptor system and clearance for contractors during construction periods was discussed jumping down the superintendent's meeting was held Thursday December 22nd at 9 00 A.M topics included the Mohawk Regional information center budget and various technology issues and a presentation of findings from the recent retirement eligibility study with discussion led by Dr Laura Payne borzi it is a fascinating study and quite cautionary age certification
005and potential to require that means are retired which means the next five years next 10 years those things are couched in with Asian certification and if you're going to be gone somewhere between five and ten years and the input from all comes from the whole air the entire area in the North Country for any any teaching staff a large impact is indicated obviously we're seeing signs of that right now as we try to hire folks it's driving discipline crazy our needs for educators are grossly in excess of what is coming on the market from undergraduate institutions we are seeing more non-certified staff in New York state there are gaps to fill positions the Recruitment and retainment of staff is a crucial task one idea is to establish a regional pipeline to get candidates to come
006to the North country some of the stressors for all of these shortfalls are things like creating conversations regarding a generic science certificate doesn't have any traction yet but could in years to come as a for instance in the area of science where I'm from you have to have a specific certification in high school for earth science biology chemistry and physics if push gets to shove it may come one day where I may be a certified bio teacher but I gotta teach a section of physics okay right now you're really not allowed to do that maybe you could you could spin angle one outside of your subject area but there's all there's all sorts of things about that um those conversations there also at our BOCES we also realize that we're 33 years down the road
007in our relationship with Fort Drum this is going to be a federal issue because obviously the military is going to want to have their kids educated as well so have I heard something like this before in my 40 years yes but the statistics for this are the most Bleak apparently that we've seen the Gap is incredible between what our needs are going to be and what's in the pipeline to come out of the undergraduate schools okay so please please be aware of that that concludes my remarks not the happiest language we need to know what's coming in the future and we're seeing it right now so um uh prior to break I had the opportunity to attend the North and case concerts both ensembles in each building were phenomenal I'm always impressed by that Tina
008Mr ketrick and I met with the youth Alliance of Jefferson County in terms of leveraging our partnership to do some prevention approaches with our students we talked a lot about vaping in particular but as well as some of the other at-risk behaviors we're seeing youth engage in and how some of the programs that they have might be able to be helpful for our campus on our diversity equity and inclusion committee met we reviewed material on grading equity and did some faculty meeting shares around cognitive dissonance um the group really had wanted to pursue um turnkeying small presentations and chunks of information at each faculty meeting this year in the buildings so that staff start to really think about bias and how that impacts some of the work that we do and how we can maybe
009leverage some of the programs that we have and and the information that we have at our fingertips to help better achieve equity for our students uh Beth Mauer our Pre-K administrator during that time also shared a turnkey presentation on gender awareness that she had experienced at the National Association for the education of young children conference she was highly impressed with it and so brought it back uh to our team to experience as well in hopes of continuing to share that down down the road um I met with BOCES assistant superintendent Michelle Traynor and a couple of the other districts about the education Communications coaster this is the graphics department at BOCES our order who goes around and delivers the pony mail not through our district but throughout the BOCES and other uses of shared services
010within that Cooperative piece this conversation should lead to a reduction in the cost of that Kosher for future so I brought that back to Josh we had a similar discussion at our connected learning advisory committee meeting um same result for that coaster that's all of the distance learning materials and such that we have going forward so also a reduction in cost which is hopefully a positive um I met with Laura Payne borsi uh just prior to the break to begin preparation of our climate survey Administration hopefully dispensing that late winter and getting that out to the community as well as our staff and student populations participated in interviews for a Student Assistance counselor to be shared between Wiley and the high school through pivot this is a replacement spot we did have somebody in there
011but this person uses teen intervene and too good for drugs to support students who engage in substance use in our schools so more of an intervention approach rather than a preventive approach but they also do some preventive activities in our buildings and that gives us one and a half of high school one at case and a half time person at Wiley for this year um our high school English Department gave their first administration of the star reading screener assessment they'll be meeting to disaggregate the data on that soon with hopes of better aligning instruction in their AIS classes to support students skill needs growth and also General curriculum implementation uh we have a scheduling committee uh starting for grades 7 through 12. this will be working with an outside vendor so I'm just waiting to
012secure that vendor um it looks from the number of participants that I have signed up thus far that it will be after school but just extending an invitation to any board member who might want to participate in that this committee is out of a large volume of feedback from staff at the 712 levels really interested in just exploring what options are out there for schedules at the middle school and high school level that might more effectively meet both our values and focus on opportunities to increase student course expansions as well as student achievement overall um and that is in the instructional update which you should have received in your emails today which has a list of all the minutes from the committee meetings that have occurred this year so far so you have that as
013well and that's it very good thank you assistant superintendent for personnel student services Mr Elena thank you so at the beginning of December I participated in the equity Community Practice coincidentally via Syracuse University I also had the the honor and pleasure to attend two concerts the Knickerbocker and Ohio concerts uh great entertainment by our students and our staff just great spirit great to see the parents there and the families and nice atmospheres in both at both concerts did a fantastic job I also met with the youth Alliance of Jefferson County with Stacy and Mr Patrick uh December 8th Kevin Todd Stacy and I met with new teachers to review the appr procedures which was a great meeting we had a few people here and we had a nice conversation with them about evaluations and you
014know what we're looking for in evaluations and to streamline the process so it was a nice team effort there also met with Shannon in the district psychologist beginning in December to talk about placements and programming we are looking for two School psychologists that's one of the one of the areas that's really tough to fill right now but we're actively recruiting and looking at this point I also attended the district Equity inclusion and belonging meeting on December 12th met with the two pupil Personnel Services Group six through twelve or sorry 7 through 12 and K through six and December 13th and we're really excited that we finalized our district communication for attendance protocol it's a flow chart that talks about who's going to communicate with families at what intervals regarding student attendance it's very important that
015our students are here there's no better place for them to learn than being right in school with our staff so this was presented to the district attendance committee at our December 20th meeting and then to the administrative cabinet on December 21st and it's designed to promote communication with families and colleagues and represents the last step effort to increase student attendance teachers counselors home school coordinators nurses and administrators all play an integral role in this process and then finally we've had several interviews over the last few weeks since we last met substitute teacher substitute staff administrators we had cleaners computer support technician glad to say that our technology department is fully staffed right now first time in a long time so we're excited about that uh science teacher Hall monitors teacher assistants aides an English teacher
016and we hired an elementary teacher this morning so things are moving forward we're always doing interviews we'll be doing a few later this week so I will hopefully have some names for the board at your next meeting awesome thank you superintendent for finance Mr Joshua Harrison that's a financial transparency report that was submitted on December 13th so now we're just going to hear back from them um Capital project POS are starting to go out as we get uh they're having to submit everything itemized to us and attorneys are reviewing the contracts as they go and making sure their insurance is fine our Builders risk policy it's not squared away started one one uh for just to kind of cover us Medicaid annual cost report or submit and maintenance of effort calculators we're going to approve
017and update our financial stuff or the purposeful advisors or their annual disclosures to the investors for our bond anticipation notes and our bonds tomorrow kind of having a kickoff uh start discussion um with the Architects regarding Turf replacement this will all line up coming into the vote in bank and just Calendar's filling up any negotiations somebody meetings Etc over the next couple of months so that's what we're working on thank you items for consent agenda yeah result that can set an agenda items a b c d and e up here by your poop can I have a motion please in a second go ahead listed below are to be deleted from the 2223 city of Watertown to text delinquent list as the taxes plus two percent penalty will received at the Board of Education Office
018after the December 6 2022 deadline but were postmarked on or before December 6 2022. School Texas six thousand forty five dollars and 18 cents Library taxes 28.97 a total 2 penalty of 121.49 uh grand total of 6195.64 the new totals for Jefferson County treasure to be collected are school taxes 197 000 12.25 Library taxes 890.33 um penalties three thousand nine hundred and fifteen dollars and five cents a grand total of 201 860.63 cents can I have a motion please emerald and a second thank you any discussion all those in favor aye any opposed motion carries result of the total listed below to be added to the 2223 city of water helps Google tax Billings as an adjustment needed to be made at the student controller's office and a payment had to be voided and resubmitted
019to include a linked penalty the total two percent penalty of 37.27 uh the new totals for City comptroller to collect our school taxes uh 708 206.81 the library taxes of 3282.41 the penalties amounting in 14 267.09 a grand total of 725 000. 756.39 can I have a motion please Ambrose and a second right any discussion all those in favor any opposed motion tariffs it was all that I found the recommendation of being a superintendent of schools James Kendrick the group is the following resignation he wrote absent appointments term non-culturationary instructional permanent substitutes instructional substitutes non-instructional discussion all those in favor opposed motion carries resolved at the following new Vice Board of Education policies are here by an adopted zero zero one one equal opportunity and prohibition of discrimination and harassment including sexual harassment at 7204
020student alcohol and drug abuse Ambrose any discussion all those in favor any opposed motion hearings whereas a resolution was passed by the board of education on December 6 2022 approving the board policy 7 100 student health exams examinations and be a further result that the amended resolution reflects that the correction in Section 3 letter A to omit the verbiage that the medical director May delegate The Authority for a school nurse to provide a student health examination and is hereby approved can I have a motion members and a second and in discussion all those in favor any opposed motion carries we saw that the deletion of the Board of Education and policies seven zeros excuse me six zero zero seven non-discrimination and employment 7202 prohibition of discrimination and harassment and bullying 7203 non-discriminate non-discrimination and Educational
021Services as replaced by the revised policy zero zero one one and is hereby approved and I have a motion please Maria and a second right right got you any discussion are those in favor aye my opposed motion keyrings we saw a better donation from the Elks Lodge 496 for 2161.62 the donations and will be acknowledged in writing yeah sorry I have a second Everest any discussion all alone motion carries and thank you very much whereas a resolution was passed by the board of education on December deployment 2022 approving the substitutes and tutors rates of weight of the 22-23 school year affected human reading 1 2023 and Via further result at this amended resolution reflects that the rate of pay for after-school tutoring is to be 38 dollars and six cents per hour and is hereby
022approved in a second right any discussion so do we not do that in our last meeting we did there was a like a graphical order I got it okay all those in favor resolved at the IRS mileage reimbursement rate as of January 1 20 23 will be 65.6 cents per mile per business miles driven and is hereby approved in our emotion place right and a second any discussion all those in favor any opposed emotional carries and that is in the end of items to work would you let me read that just reading it mileage reimbursement rate as of January 1 2023 will be 65.5 cents per mile for business miles driven and is hereby approved and I have a motion please a second all right any discussion all those in favor all right any opposed
023motion curious did you okay so now uh for our second public amendment period for example people sign up tonight wherever you come to the speed listen Harrington my name is John I know I have a question for the board in which district policy or rule May voters of the school district find guidance as to the manner of petitioning to have a new proposition placed on the ballot at the May 16 2023 annual meeting and district election the end the annual appropriation support of the Roswell P Farr Memorial Library such appropriation being separate and apart from the annual School District budget if the answer is that no such policy or will exist then is it the intent of this board to of Education to establish such rule no later than January 10 2023. I'm asking these
024questions as I submitted a freedom information law request requesting sexual and the records access officer inform you that there are no responsive records and furthermore that the district is not obliged to prepare or create such record though I have appealed that reply most reason went to the superintendent given the considered effort needed to gather signatures for petitions I simply want to verify tonight the board of education's understanding regarding the existence of and or its intent regarding the creation of such a rule since I had previously submitted a similar foil request and received a similar initial reply and denial upon appeal I don't expect that to change with my most recent appeal so I request that you answer my questions this evening as the voters of the school district have a right to know what procedures
025form and other requirements to petition to submit a ballot proposition and the appropriation are required by the board did you not answer these questions tonight then I will presume that no such policy or rule exists it is the intent of the Board of Education not to create one based on the replies to my referral requests thank you thank you sir okay um happy New Year so first I'm gonna say that um we've made a lot of great changes last year and a lot of people do speak to me in the community and they've been very happy with the changes that have come forth um the reason that I'm here tonight to speak is because I had a few people reach out to me and ask me to please say something tonight um so I'm going
026to because I also believe that this is very important back in the fall Dr Virgo addressed the board about some of his concerns with our athletics department some changes big change that took place was Mr Taylor was put in as the ad and I have been told by many parents that they're happy with that change he's done some great things Mr ketrick announced that we've had several student athletes commit to division one two and three programs which is really um a great reflection of our student body and the City of Watertown and Mr Taylor put on a very nice two separate occasions um for these kids which I think is very very impressive um and last night at the foot of what happened at the buffalo's Bills game the athletic trainer has been appointed contention
027with a lot of the parents in this community especially with kids that play Varsity Sports my daughter um was involved in a pretty serious accident which ended up being not so bad but initially I thought it was a pretty bad one we've had head injuries we'd have several injuries on the varsity Fields during Varsity games and we do not have an athletic trainer um we feel that this is very important I don't know any specifics as to the direction or the allotment or the potential line item for an athletic trainer but in the spirit of moving forward with athletics department and making positive changes I'm speaking on behalf but several community members that we'd really like to see an athletic trainer become part of the Watertown city school district um Team we've gone to several
028games where we have been ridiculed and made fun of because we don't have an athletic trainer and we have a very very strong Varsity program we have very strong Athletics and I think that our kids deserve that our community deserves that and I think that the financial allotment for that should be considered by the board and we should move very Speedy towards Contracting someone that can help our student athletes that's it thank you thank you thank you thank you both for your guidelines this evening I have some um upcoming days to share with everybody um Monday January 26th or 16th is Martin Luther King Jr day there will be no school in observance uh and then on Tuesday the 17th we have a policy committee meeting at 5 00 pm and a Board of Education
029meeting at 6 pm at my alma mater Knickerbocker I look forward to seeing everyone there and I'll go around the room setting with Maria Happy New Year everyone I have nothing Mr Souza uh Happy New Year I'd like to uh I guess put had a boy out there to Brian Harris in a snow removal crew I actually drove through the high school parking lot Monday morning after Christmas and they were hard at work it's amazing how much snow they moved in a short period of time I know it's that easy that it all melted so hopefully uh they're prepared but yes it's uh it was good to see and I know they're working hard so thank you good to you Mr Sunday good afternoon vice president [Laughter] got a couple updates to share um my
030clinics at Starbucks writes in the Starbucks elementary would like to wish everyone a safe healthy and happy New Year and also say thank you for the holiday wishes an amazing support prior to the winter break your kindness is appreciated by all our staff and students he goes on to say that students and staff have enjoyed a wonderful holiday break and are excited to get back to work in 2023. they took time today to share stories about what they did over break and what they look forward to this year as we begin the 2023 year the staff and I have one vision for our students our goal is to have all of our children be the very best they can be we want them to be successful through consistent attendance hard work working diligently persevering and
031being responsible being respectful and being safe Three B's as they are called thank you to all the parents staff and Community for allowing your children the time to learn play and grow together here at Starbucks Jess Blair at Ohio writes that Ohio students celebrated Hanukkah Kwanzaa and Christmas during the district-wide holiday spirit week week on Wednesday December 21st the building advisory team at Ohio hosted a Polar Express day students wore their pajamas to school they entered the school to a magical entrance with a six foot train coming out of the wall the holiday trees students decorated lit up in the hallways a projector display of Santa and his reindeer flying through the sky the popcorn machine popping popcorn and our very own train conductor Devin the shouting tickets Please inviting students to join us on
032the Polar Express the day continued with many festive Polar Express inspired activities it's wonderful to see such Joy on the faces of each of the students as they enjoy the day's events my final update tonight is from Sherman Mr Terry gown Seth writes and that Sherman students enjoyed the week before Christmas break they enjoyed the many amazing activities and lessons the teachers had scheduled for that they may have enjoyed a few treats also we even had a couple visits from Santa Claus as he witnessed how amazing our students are with that I'll take a motion and a meeting please Ambrose and Maria all those in favor how do you opposed thanks for coming