001Okay. Can I get a motion to um journ the executive session and return to public? >> Motion by Frank. A second. >> Second by Elaine. All in favor? >> I I >> Okay, we'll move on to minutes. >> I'll make a motion to come into public. >> Oh, I did. >> Came out of executive session. >> Go public. >> Okay. Make a motion. Greg has a motion to go into public. >> Second by Derek. All in favor? >> I. I we will move on to the minutes. So we have the special meeting for the capital district workshop which was held on Tuesday, January 13th. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes as presented? >> A motion by Kim. A second. >> A second. >> Second by Frank. Any comment? >> Okay. Um Elaine
002Kivo. >> Yes. >> Penny. >> Yes. >> Derek, >> yes. >> Frank, >> yes. >> Kim, >> yes. and Amma passes. The next is the regular meeting held on January 20th, 2026. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes as presented? >> Move it. >> Motion by Frank. A second. >> I'll second it. >> Second by Elaine. Elaine. >> Elaine, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Penny, >> yes. >> Derek, >> yes. >> She probably walked in two minutes early. Uh Frank, >> yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> And I'm a yes. >> Okay. At this time, we will move forward forward with um public comment for consent agenda items. Anyone sign up for consent agenda? No, not for consent. Okay. Any public comment for consent agenda? Okay. We'll move on to seven
003consent agenda items. And we do have one walk-in resolution under personnel action. Um, and I will read that out loud for the public's knowledge. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education of the Burrow Central School District hereby appoints Jennifer Richards as long-term substitute for employee number 803 at the rate of $2456 per day effective February 25th, 2026. Can um I get a motion for item seven A through H with I being the approval of the consent agenda items. >> I'll move it. >> Motion by Frank. A second. >> Second by Derek. Lao. >> Yes. >> Henny. >> Yes. >> Derek. >> Yes. >> Frank. >> Yes. >> Kim. >> Yes. >> And Amma. Yes. Okay. We'll move on to uh the president's report. Um I'll just be brief
004for the sake of time. Um I encourage the community as we move forward with the budget process to come to the budget workshops, get involved and learn about our budget um in the process. And also I encourage the community to do the same for our capital project and um to come out and vote on March 17th at the Berlin Elementary School between the hours of uh noon and 9. That's all I have. >> Okay. Mine's not quite as brief, but I'll try to be efficient. Um on 126, superintendent from Questar three Boseies uh participate in a legislative advocacy breakfast. We're joined by Senator Jake Ashby, uh, Senator Patricia Tehey, District Assemblyman Scott Bendett, and Senate Woman Gabriella Romero. Uh, superintendent advocated for three things. One is an increase in state aid uh, to the governor's
005budget. As I mentioned earlier, right now we're sitting for 1% increase, which is about $88,000, uh, which is simply just not enough to sustain our educational programs here in Berlin. So we are advocating for an increase up to 3% from the governor's office. Secondly, um advocating for statewide anonymous reporting for school district security concerns reporting uh also for funding for SRO in every district that requests an SRO. We currently have one here in Berlin. However, um it is an expensive program and one that is really difficult to sustain in many school districts due to the cost rising costs of SRO which is important for safety. Uh the third um piece of advocacy for our group was postponement of zero emissions electric bus mandate initiative until 2014. Uh eliminating requirement for full fleet transition. Uh we're
006asking for more time to analyze um and look at climate and geography and also more time for technological improvements. Right now, we feel that it's not feasible in a district like Berlin with the geography and technology and the cost of infrastructure and the buses alone to move forward with that mandate which the governor has in place for 2034. So again to review the three uh pieces that we spoke with the legis the legislators about were state aid increase um school safety SRO and reporting system statewide and the bus initiative. Um I also attended a conference recently that was very impactful. One of the sessions was how leaders attract, grow and keep great people. And three things that were shared were model well, celebrate success and provide clarity, especially when it comes to vision and goals.
007With that in mind, um the one that really resonated with me the most was celebrating success. I think it's so important we continue to celebrate the many successes we see each and every day here in Berlin, this wonderful school district. So I want to celebrate two individuals groups for recent successes. One is the grade 2 students and teachers. Recently I had the pleasure of being part of presentations about the history of Berlin and the project that was created by our very talented second graders. Students examined primary sources such as maps, photographs, newspapers, biographies, and artifacts to gather information about the very rich history of their school community. They produced and shared time capsules about the economy of Berlin which relied upon the railroad and everything from charcoal kils shirt factories glads. To this day I
008still find myself looking out the window trying to locate the old railroad. Even today I walk driving back from lunch looking around and trying to find that railroad. It's really cool. The project aligns with the new civic skill readiness and provides students an opportunity to engage in truly authentic learning experiences. So it definitely should be something that is celebrated. I want to celebrate and thank our second grade teachers, Mrs. Near, Mrs. Rubble, Mrs. Healey, and Mrs. Trager for a job very well done and our students as well. I commend them. Lastly, I want to celebrate an individual. I want to acknowledge the person behind the lens who is often overlooked. Rachel Tresky's work with communications is the glue that binds together towns of Berlin, Grafton, Petersburg, Poston Hill, Steven Town, and the 6,000 plus residents
009of this district to one cohesive school district. She works tirelessly to showcase our students diverse talents, support district initiatives, and highlight all the positive and many great things happening each and every day in our schools. the district Facebook page, social media accounts, and website just a few examples of Rachel's incredible work. She's passionate and she's an invaluable asset and a shining star for our school district. And I can't thank her enough. Her support and the presentation you just saw earlier on the capital project and the time that she put in even over the break coming into the offices to join me on on whatever schedule I wanted to share with her, she was going to be here to get me through the snow and everything else. So, I just thank Rachel for her continued um
010work for the district and our students as well. She said tonight, too. So, thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll move on to administrative snapshots business office. >> Yep. PPS in MTSS. >> All right. So, I will also be brief for the sake of time. I will just share that we have officially started our annual review meetings. Today was our first day of meetings where we discuss with students, staff, and parents how children are doing and setting plans for next school year. So, we hold these every year and it will take most of the spring to get through all of our meetings. But we want to make sure that every student and every family has the opportunity to discuss their child's progress and help guide the plan for their children school year. So while
011that has taken up you know the the biggest chunk of time uh I did want to share a recent financial success that we found within the PBS office. So New York State Ed's rate setting unit regularly reviews program costs sets rates for districtr run programs which determines aid that we get back on those programs. Uh in a recent review that they had done, uh we were able to thanks to some great efficient effective collaboration with the business office, we were able to um provide additional information that resulted in more than $30,000 of additional aid. Uh as well as uh increasing the rate for our ESY program, which will lead to future um additional aid down the line as well. So, I wanted to draw that attention and I I think that speaks to Common's point
012about looking at every area that we have. And while we don't have a lot of controlling revenue that the district receives, there are some avenues within uh the PPS office that we can look at maximizing as well with our aid, our reimbursement, um Medicaid billing, and a number of other areas that we continue to look at how we can maximize the money that comes into the district to offset some of the costs that she shared. Good evening. So, um we continue to have MTSS meetings in both uh buildings and they've been going really really well. We've had great conversations about um the students who are receiving services and they are making great gains and great progress towards our goals. Um so, we just want to continue having those awesome conversations and continue supporting our students
013moving forward. >> Thank you. transportation. >> Good evening board members and community stakeholders. It's fairly quiet in the transportation department these days. Winter sports has concluded. We'd like to congratulate all student athletes on a successful season. Uh the district took possession of our two full-size buses on February 10th. Uh we would also like to thank the board and the stakeholders who are supporting us bus and keeping safe buses up to date buses in the fleet. Uh they are IC International's nextgen design. It's designed more for not driver comfort but driver uh ability to see students closer to the front of the bus if you're not going up. Um better mirror placements. Um so we're happy we're happy to see those. And lastly, the transportation department took possession of a new electric bus thanks to Mr.
014Rizzo. And I'm hoping it's the only one we >> not $400,000. >> No, it was not. We need no infrastructure. >> Thank you. Darl is at training tonight. He's not present. Technology I will also keep the information short. Um, there was a committee that was formed and it was regarding the damages to the middle school Chromebooks. We decided to bring all the middle school Chromebooks back in district and put carts back in classrooms so that there's a set of Chromebooks in the in the district in every classroom that was needed. Um the collection didn't go as planned, which was the whole week before February break. We are still missing 17 Chromebooks and 62 chargers. And without those chargers and those Chromebooks, I'm not able to complete the cards that need to be placed back in
015these uh classrooms. Most of the carts are done. I have 11 of them ready, but um I'm afraid that if we send them out to the classrooms that I'm never going to get those chargers back that I need to get back. So, we're working on that. Going to be communicating to the staff with the names of the students that still own the equipment. Hopefully, we can get that back soon. Um, and then the other thing is new conference room board and sound equipment was ordered through my tech plan and I'll be reaching out to see if I can get some sort of an update on the status of that. I haven't heard yet. Just quick question for the Chromebook process. Students that need to borrow a Chromebook or have access to a Chromebook at night
016time to complete assignments, do they have the checkout process? >> Not until these carts are placed in the classroom. So, it's critical that we get these Chromebooks and the chargers back. Like, I have a set of um the last set that I created today or cart that I created. I have 20 Chromebooks, but I don't have any of the chargers because that's part of the 62 that I'm missing. So, I can't provide that card. Um we're trying to figure that out. We're working on that. Dave and I are going to meet tomorrow about that. >> Okay. I just don't want to, you know, impede a student from being able to be successful because teachers are, as far as I know, teachers are providing paper copies right now. Get this yourself. >> Thank you. Elementary, >>
017good evening. Um, so this month's attendance celebration, we celebrated with Smarties, no attendance matter. So, as we I usually give updates every month um on a monthly basis, we count up our we fill our jar with our um attendance perfect attendance classrooms. I know there were some questions last month about what that meant. So, this month we had 68 classrooms with perfect attendance, which just means every day I go into school tool and I look up um every single home room and any home room that has perfect attendance for that home room gets up. Right now, we're filling in parts for February. So, it's a heart in our jar and then once that fills up, we have a celebration. So, our last celebration um was quite fun. The kids enjoyed that. We also had our
018first u math play on January 21st, which was a huge success. We had over 43 families participate. Um, I, you know, I was speaking with parents and I even had parents commenting about what some of the ideas, the great ideas that there were that they would have just never heard of or thought of of how to practice their addition skills or multiplication skills. And each family went home with um a pack with some uh like a white off holder, a white folder so that they could use papers in that and use a white um marker. and they also went home with some dice and a pack of cards. So, lots of ideas that they could take from that night and then go home and practice those skills at home. So, um just a special thank
019you to Courtney Gersaw and Megan Laz and Stephanie Scanland who really orchestrated the whole event. There was lots of teachers and staff that also helped run the activities. So, without them, this couldn't happen. So, I really appreciate all the effort they put into that. Just getting ready to celebrate March. March is our national reading month. So, um we're preparing a variety of activities to engage students and families in the love of literacy. We're going to begin the month with a kickoff assembly focused around the Idrod and Northern Lights. This is really exciting. So, um thanks to our our PTO, they are sponsoring um Mara from Hilltown SL Do Sled Dogs who's coming in as a presenter. um she's participated in three I did raises and she's coming to have an assembly for the whole school
020to share her experiences and also to read the book that she's written. Um those activities are going to lead into our evening event which is our light up the night event. Again following the theme of the I did rod and the northern lights. We're really um looking forward to another great family event and we have a great activities planned for that as well. And then throughout the month we'll have some special reading activities and then we'll end the month with a presentation by Mark Rust who's coming to do a musical assembly and titled Books That Sing. So it's really we're excited to have a full month of March as reading and really celebrate our love for literacy. And lastly, we were able to complete our New York State simulation on January 29th. This is just
021really just a practice run of um facilitating the grades three through five state tests. They participated in math or ELA. So each grade level picked the test that they wanted to practice and we were able to um really just be able to run the day and make sure every student was able to have a device that worked cooperatively with them and they were able to use the tools that they needed to use to be successful in that test. And then also we were able to provide space and staff to help with any accommodations that students need to be successful. Thank you. >> Middle high school and athletics. >> Good evening. I'm just going to be short and sweet. Um we kicked off our unified bowling started today. They had a great event in our local
022um bowling alley. Spring sports signups are open on Family ID. We are in still of need of a modified baseball coach. So if you know of anyone, please have them reach out to me. Um JB and varsity spring sports will start March 9th. Modified sports will start March 16th. Um I also wanted to thank Rachel Trekky for doing just a phenomenal job of highlighting our student athletes. Um I was going to review some of the highlights of our postseason, but you've already done a great job on Facebook. So, thank you so much. Um, also thank you to our transportation for driving our team so smoothly and making that seamless. So, thank you again. Um, last thing I just wanted to say, four teams out of our winter season or scholar athlete teams. That's when you
023have to be 75% of your roster has to average a GPA of 90 or higher. So, congratulations to the girls varsity basketball, boys volleyball, girls wrestling, and the swim team. Um, and then lastly, our winter sports awards night will be Monday, March 2nd, starting at six o'clock right here. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> I already did a presentation, but I just want to add two things since everyone is thanking Rachel Gretzky. Thank you, Rachel, for everything that you do. We have our principal list dinner this Thursday to show how much this has grew. We've already have well over 90 people that have uh accepted and will be here Thursday. So, we're very excited about that. And the change was we have each quarter just after each semester. So, Amanda Haz was here
024earlier spearheading it working with Rachel. Uh so, we have a great Thank you. And I just want to comment that Sarah wasn't able to be here tonight. Uh he's trading prior trading. So >> at this time we have opportunity for public comment. We have one person signed up actually to Nikki and Cody. Hello. I'm here today as a concerned sibling and alum seeking to address a matter of grave concern regarding our high school principal's recent actions. While the intentions of promoting inclusivity are commendable, the methods used have been inconsistent and discriminatory. Before February break, students attended an assembly and created posters on being LGBTQ plus inclusive, which is very hypocritical to the way the principal handled the validictorian speech in 2024. That students right to freedom of speech was starting to be taken away due
025to the inclusion of a handful of Bible verses and a disclaimer was placed on the graduation pamphlets which rais a serious question about viewpoint discrimination. This action sends a sends a message that certain beliefs are less welcome than others. Furthermore, the fact that the displacer was not placed on following graduation ceremonies only exacerbates perception of bias. Our school should be a place where all students feel safe, respected, and valued regardless of their beliefs or backgrounds. However, the principal and staff's actions have created a climate of fear and mistrust. After having an assembly about being inclusive, a teacher whited out a student's viewpoint on the poster about being from different roots of the same tree. I would also like to bring to your attention concerns about a teacher who is using study hall time to promote
026specific beliefs about gender identity. While it is important for students to learn about different perspectives, using a study hall as a time as a platform to force students to accept the idea that interex is a gender and that they must acknowledge their genders is inappropriate. Study hall should be a time for students to work on their assignments and receive academic support, not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination. This teacher's actions are not only a violation of the students rights to free thought and expression, but also an abuse of their position of authority. Therefore, I urge the school board to take immediate action to address these issues. We must ensure that all students rights are protected and that our school truly embodies inclusivity by respecting all viewpoints. Thank you for your attention to these critical matters.
027Thank you. Any additional public comment? Okay, new business. We have two items under new business and these additionally are walk-in resolutions. Um, and Julie Paul of the Bur Board of Education, the board of the Burland Central School District, the district held on February 24th, 2026 upon a motion by and seconded uh by the following resolution was adopted and I'll do that in a moment. resolved that a certain confidential appeal by the parent of student ID number 107153 is hereby referred to referred in part to the superintendent of schools and the PPS director for further action and denied in part and it is further resolved that written notice of the board's decision shall be delivered to the parent by the district clerk within one business day. Can I get a motion to approve this resolution? >>
028Motion by Derek. A second. >> Second by Frank. I'll start down here. Kim, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Frank? >> Yes. >> Derek? >> Yes. >> Penny? >> Yes. >> Elaine? >> Yes. >> And Amma? Yes. As well. And then the second item under new business. Whereas Adida Joseph Dahara was employed by the Burland Central School District, the district as superintendent of schools through and included November 9th, 2023. And whereas as a result of certain actions of Mr. Dahara, the board of education, the board has authorized its council to take informal steps to resolve a certain legal controversy that exists with Mr. Dahara. And whereas such attempts have been unsuccessful, which now requires formal action to be taken, now therefore be it resolved, the board of the Berlin Central School District hereby authorizes
029the president of the board to with the assistant assistance of district council um commence an action to resolve the matter referenced above against Mr. Dahara. To the extent that dispersements of costs may be required to properly commence set action, the board hereby authorizes its council to pay such costs which will be build to and reviewed by the district as would normally otherwise occur. Two, authorizes the president of the board, Katie Murray, to on behalf of the district and the board sign and verify any legal papers required to commence action. And just for the public's knowledge, this relates to conduct after separation of employment, not while Can I get a motion for that resolution? >> I'll make a motion. >> A motion by Frank. A second. >> I'll second. >> A second by Kim. Elaine, how
030do you? >> Yes. >> Penny, >> yes. >> Derek, >> yes. >> Frank, >> yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> And I'm a yes as well. >> Okay. Date and location of the next board meetings. We have a round table scheduled for March 5th. The capital project vote will be held March 17th. Um and then we have a regular meeting which will be held Thursday, March 19th, but that may have to change to uh March 18th >> instead of the 19th. Does that present an issue for anyone? >> It's a Wednesday. Frank, does that present an issue for you? >> I think the 18th. >> Okay. I have to do my yoga. >> Do on YouTube before you come. >> Say >> the are you okay? >> I'm fine if you guys want limited options
031because the bud uh the project results. >> Okay. >> All right. It's actually the vote. It's actually the whole Okay. So that will be March 18th at 7:15. And lastly, we have another proposed executive session for contract negotiations. Hold on. I got stuff. Employment history. I think that's actually all that those two items, contract negotiations and um employment history. And I get a motion to move into executive session. A >> motion by him, a second. All in favor? >> And I do not anticipate there will be any action taken after the executive session.