001This is a special presentation from the Brighton Central School District Board of Education. >> Good evening. Welcome to the Brighton Central School District Board of Education meeting for Tuesday, September 30th. This meeting is called to order. Each year over the last few years, we've uh taken on a new tradition, which is to visit each of the schools during the year and hold a meeting in each of the schools. Tonight begins that journey for the 2025 2026 school year. And as you can see, we are in the beautiful Council Rock Primary School. We uh thank Principal Tapen for inviting us into his house and uh for the team for getting this all set up. So we're we're talking to you tonight from Council Rock. To begin with, we present the opportunity for public participation for anyone
002who wants to come and ask a question of the board or make a comment. Is anyone here who would be interested in doing so? Seeing none, we'll start the meeting in one of our favorite ways, which is to say we'll start it with the Bright and Believer Awards. So, I'll direct you over to Dr. McGowan. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Davis. Very, very excited to uh conduct the Brighton believers awards and we have a a really great one to start with actually. Uh Dan Goldman, could you come up here to help me with this for a second? Just come on right over here. Thank you. Keep coming. I need you to stand right here actually for it. You got to come even closer. >> This will work pretty well. >> Just right where your
003kids can see. How about that? >> You want somebody else to take your picture? >> Leon and Violet, would you like to come up? You want to stand with dad? >> Yeah. >> Leon, do would you like to come up with dad? >> Come see dad. >> That's That was impressive. >> Fantastic. So, the Brighton community Dan was so proud to nominate you and impossibly so keep it a secret from you. Uh Dan Goldman, our communications coordinator for the district for this Bright and Believer award. Dan is a is the true embodiment of the Brighton believes qualities in every way. Integrity, kindness, respect, and responsibility. He's joined tonight by his kids, Violet and Leon, his wife, Jess, and his parents who uh I think set a really great example for him early on. His wife
004also an educator. We're so excited they could be here. Also, they're a big part of the team. They come here, we see them, they're part of this family, too. So, thank you for that. As Matt Tapen noted, Dan is kind, responsive, and incredibly knowledgeable. He humbly works behind the scenes. He runs circles around everybody. Well played. Well played. Always well played. Thank you. Always striving to make others look great. Whether answering questions, solving problems, or anticipating needs before they arise, Dan is consistently thorough and dependable. Dr. Daniel Edmonds captures Dan's presence across the district. He is at every event with a smile and his calm demeanor. It doesn't matter when I reach out to him for help. He responds right away and is willing to do whatever he needs to lighten the load. His reliability
005and patient, steady support bring reassurance to all who work with him. Principal Hall describes Dan as one of the most honest, kind, helpful, and hardworking people I know. Dan is not only responsive but proactive, reaching out with solutions before others even know what they need. Though quiet and unassuming, he is a fierce supporter of Brighton and a dedicated advocate for students, staff, families. Fierce supporter. That's Dan Goldman. Passionate about the work. Dr. Allison Rio affirms that Dan is simply extraordinary. An unsung hero of the district. He highlights the accomplishments of staff and students with pride, never seeking recognition for himself. From everyday communications to urgent needs, even taking time to send a parent square message while attending a wedding, Dan demonstrates remarkable commitment, humility, heart, and just thank you and we're sorry. The number of
006times I must call Dan when you're sitting next to him, I I can't imagine. Dan Goldman is more than just an exceptional professional. He is a trusted colleague, a problem solver, and above all else else, an extraordinary human being. His presence enriches the Brighton community every single day. He is kind. He is thoughtful. I don't think we can say it any more be any more clear. Dan is an unsung hero that deserves to be sung about. He is a just incredible person that makes things happen here. And I know you are, but you should be so very proud of everything he does for our kids, for our families, to tell our story. but to highlight those that are not seen and to make sure that everybody is well communicated with and part of the work
007that's done here. And he does that without seeking recognition, without seeking anything but doing the right thing for the right reasons. He's an example for all of us and such a valued member of the team. So it is with great pride that we recognize him as a Brighton believer tonight. Please join me in congratulating Dan Goldman. So usually at this moment I say Dan do we need to stand? You want to come up too? >> So cute. You want to take a family one without >> Good job, buddy. photographer. Do >> you see how fast Dan's going over to look at the pictures? The quality of the pictures right now. The look of anxiety on your face, Dan, over the pictures is really priceless. Thanks so much. Now, the second person uh that we'd like
008to recognize tonight, although it's not a surprise to Marielle Ziggler is Marielle. Marielle, could you come on up, please? Maria, Maria, could you join us also, please? We'd appreciate it. Come on up. Also, Maria partners with Marielle. Um, as Maria's coming up, I want to thank everybody that participated in Dan's nomination and award too. Dan, you should know there's a whole lot of people in this room that conspired to make that happen for you and were insistent on making sure you were recognized. So again, congratulations. And Marielle Zaggler, also an incredible human being, has been uh nominated with admiration and pride for this award. She is the quiet but steady force behind so much of what makes the Brighton teaching teacher center and our professional learning community thrive. As Maria shares, Marielle is diligent, responsive,
009and a great support to all members of the Brighton community, not just the Brighton teacher center. She never complains and always responds with a smile and kind words. She's ready to take on any challenge and goes beyond what is asked to do to help everybody. It is incredible to watch her work as she never ever seems to get tired. Dr. Edmonds highlights Marielle's ability to manage it all. Enrollments, travel reservations, cancellations, budget codes, payroll, food, room setup. Feel like we're giving you stress just articulating all of these things and so much more. Every single thing she does is with a smile and kindness. She is the quiet backbone to so much of the growth the individuals in our organization make each year. Principal Tapen adds that Marielle is one of the most helpful people I
010know. Always kind, patient, and ready to solve any problem with grace. Her incredible attention to detail ensures everything runs smoothly. And she consistently creates a warm, welcoming atmosphere at every professional development event that we host. Truly, Marielle is the ultimate host and an invaluable part of our community. Dr. Rio sees Marielle as an absolute gift to Brighton. She quietly works behind the scenes to make sure everyone gets what they need. She's a problem solver, solution focused, so dedicated to the work, and most importantly, simply a wonderful human being. Marielle is someone who not only exemplifies the values of Brighton, but also enriches the spirit of our community. She is an asset, a backbone, a host, and most of all, a truly kind and generous person who makes a difference every single day. We've had the
011opportunity to work directly with Marielle when she has filled in in Kim's absence at different times and I know Kim shares that partnership with her but she is another person in our building that makes the work happen, makes it happen so well and does it humbly with kindness with thoughtfulness and just gets the job done and is wonderful to work with. It is for that and so many other reasons we are excited to recognize her with a Brighton believes award this evening. Thank you for the opportunity to recognize those individuals. And as always, we recognize individuals as you said uh at about every other meeting, bcsd.org/ org/brightenbelievers. You can nominate any individual. We do encourage people to participate in that process. So, thank you. >> Well, thank you, Dr. McGowan. Moving along. Next up, we
012have the approval of tonight's agenda. You all have received that agenda. It's in front of us. Any changes, edits, or questions related to the agenda. Motion to approve. >> So, moved. >> Moved by Sue. >> Seconded by Esther. All those in favor? Next up, we have the approval of the minutes from September 9th, the business meeting on September 9th. You all had a chance to review those minutes as well. Any changes, edits, or questions related to those minutes? >> Motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Moved by Karen. >> Seconded by Carrie Lynn. All those in favor? >> Next two items on the um agenda go toward very important sort of building blocks for us, making sure we're creating safe environments for our kids and our staff. First up is the approval of the 2025
0132026 districtwide school safety plan. This was previously reviewed on August 20th. You've all had a chance to review that. Any questions, comments, or edits related to this district-wide school safety plan. Motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Moved by Carrie Lynn. >> Seconded by Christina. All those in favor? Also re reviewed rather back on August 20th was the 2025 2026 code of conduct. I'll quickly point out that both of these are available on the school website for anybody to look at or review. So they're publicly available. Questions, comments, or edits with regards to the 2025 2026 code of conduct. Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Moved by Esther. Seconded by Sue. All those in favor? I >> also up for approval and this is great news. Approval of the tenative agreement between the Brighton Central
014School District and the school nurses. Our thanks to negotiating team. Uh the nurses play an absolutely pivotal role every day for the kids and the staff in the school district. We are grateful for the work they do. They they handle a variety of things they're trained for. They also end up handling a few things maybe they haven't seen before each year. And they handle it with grace and kindness. And we are grateful for their work. questions with regards to this agreement. Motion to approve, please. >> So moved. >> Moved by Karen. >> Seconded by Christina. All those in favor? >> I. >> As noted before, we are at Council Rock. There's a number of different um plans being reviewed and proposed for continued improvements to Council Rock. It's part of our efforts to create the
015best possible learning spaces for our kids in all four schools. Tonight we're going to hear from a few different people that Lou, our deputy superintendent, works with in regards to specific plans and where we are in the process for Council Rock itself. Lou and team, good evening. Thanks for this opportunity. So, um, I'm going to introduce Joe Casaur from SWBR and Aaron McConnell from Emmy Engineering. They've been our partners uh throughout this journey since voter referendum um and they're going to give an update of where we've uh the progress we've made since last year. If you recall last year we were in this building we were presenting the schematic design of this building. Since then we've had countless program meetings. We've had um you know iterations of the designs. Uh, Principal Tapid has been just
016an amazing partner in providing the program requirements for the space and this team has done an excellent job um, listening, capturing, you know, what the program requirements are, making sure that it meets our needs um, and couldn't be more pleased with the process so far. So, I'm going to turn over them to take you through uh, the ultimate product that has been submitted to the state education department. So, >> good evening. I always prepare to talk about how wonderful the team is and and Lou always steals my thunder. So I I do want to reiterate uh thank you to Larry, to Lou, John, uh Mr. Kelli, uh all those that have been involved thus far. Uh Mr. Tapen, there you are. Uh this part of the project, this phase two, uh has a significant amount
017of coordination when it comes to education and so Mr. Tapen has been uh vital to the process. So thank you to all those uh on the the team uh that we have worked with over the last uh eight months. Uh it's been uh painstaking process at times. I I'd like to be very thorough. Uh so we do uh note and continue to uh have conversations about each one of the items. So uh I'll be brief. Uh I I was told I only have 10 minutes. So u We'll move through this very quickly. Uh so as uh Mr. Limo uh mentioned uh we are at uh state education department now. The uh documents have been submitted and I will forward the uh the slideshow here. Do I have the ability to do that here? All right.
018Okay. So, briefly, uh the documents consist of the uh the five following parts. Code compliance, site, civil documentation, asbestos abatement, uh the architectural design, and also the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing. And so we will talk about that and then also uh a brief discussion about the timeline, the review, potential addendum and then approval and what we anticipate for the future. Now I don't want to uh speak for campus construction but we'll talk about construction in future meetings. Uh but I do want to acknowledge uh these areas of the documentation. Now we submitted the documents a couple weeks ago and we already have comments back uh from state education department which is uh which is pretty amazing. So uh you know I want to thank everybody who's been part of this group again because having these
019documents u uh working and speaking to each other uh that allowed SED to uh provide review with within a very uh quick uh turnaround and so we had 15 comments architecturally only two mechanically electrical and plumbing and so that's uh significant uh for the process here you can see those documents as I talked about uh general the civil hazardous materials also known as asbestous abatement as we know uh this building has significant uh asbestous uh items in it uh architectural and then each one of the mechanical electrical plumbing. So there are many drawings as you can see uh from the summary uh page and now we get into some of the areas of work. You can see the west, the east, and the south wing. Uh we're a total of 33 rooms that we're going
020to be touching uh over the period of uh two two and a half uh years of construction. And so uh again, I won't speak for campus construction. They are in charge of the phasing uh of construction. Uh but each one of these rooms will be addressed and we will be working construction throughout the school year. So there will be some uh minor disruption, but I know that Mr. Tappen has worked and we have that smile. I say there's two kinds of smiles in life. The the happy smiles and the and and the yes, yes, we're going to get through it smile. So that's the ladder that Mr. Tapen is showing us right now. Um so the overview of these documents, we look at the site and civil work. Uh wonderful opportunity here for a uh
021three season, we'll call it. It's going to be an all year round uh synthetic turf surface on the west side, the southwest side. If I had a a cursor here, you can look at the lower left hand side of the documents. The lower right hand side of the documents will be expansion of the playground from the 2017 2018 project. Each one of these areas, the east, the west wing, and the south wing are documented. And what's going to happen to each one of those classrooms? They're going to be gutted. Uh those classrooms are going to uh be abated. Uh new finishes. So that means new flooring. Uh the finishes in the toilet rooms, new fixtures in the toilet rooms, uh doors, uh paint, and uh the uh lighting, but I won't go too far as
022to say new lighting. Each one of these three wings. It gives you an idea of a little better highlighted of each of the areas of work and the classrooms that are involved. 31 classrooms, two others, special ed and the music room, a total of 33 uh rooms. Here you can see the roof work uh roof over the art room uh will be a full uh uh reconstruction of the roof. The northwest wing uh that roof will be a restoration. Uh so we worked with campus construction management to understand what was required of that. The thermal imaging is required to understand the installation properties. Um and it became a candidate to save some dollars in the restoration processes as opposed to the full reconstruction process. Hard to see here, but uh each one of these rooms
023is going to be touched uh not just in the the spatial aspect of it, but also all of the finishes as well, more of the the work in the rooms. There's you're going to see these rooms transform. Uh the the rooms right now are very static in nature. Uh the storage um workstations in in certain areas, the islands uh where where kids congregate, students congregate with their with their teachers. These are all going to be mobile now. And so these are uh documents indicating where mobile furniture will be. So the part of the capital project will include uh all types of storage furniture whether it's wardrobes, whether it's typical casework on casters um and uh teacher workstations and cubbies all those will be movable and flexible uh to uh mirror what we did in 2018
024that project. Uh so the rooms will be uh flexible in the future uh allowing uh educators to create multiple different space types uh with different size student groupings. I'll turn over to Eric here to discuss the mechanical plumbing. Um, as the project was pretty heavily renovated in the last phase, the mechanical, electrical, plumbing systems are all basically new. So, there's not a huge lift if if you will, mechanically, electrical plumbing on this job. Uh, we are cleaning up some of the stuff that wasn't touched as part of the last project. So, part of that is classroom sinks will be replaced. Um, what this plan is showing is just kind of cleaning up some of the piping systems in the crawl space. Um, which helps the maintenance staff. I know Mike and Julian, our team has
025worked heavily to get this dialed in. Um, all right. Button here. So, again, looking at this, new lighting systems in the classrooms, new power, new data to support the teaching environment. Uh, HVAC wise, the systems are already new. They're already, you know, very efficient for what they are. So, we're really not touching those. Um, toilet room renovations include new fixtures, uh, some new ceilings in those areas, and you know, that's kind of the limit of the portion of this project. >> Thanks, Aaron. Any questions from the board? >> No, appreciate the work and and you both pointed it out and on behalf of the board, I'll say we appreciate it. A ton of work. Mike and Jelly, um, John Develi, and and just the team in terms of looking at things, working with you all,
026and some of the things we'll be able to address, and I think Erin, you pointed this out, will help on future maintenance, so we'll be that much more efficient in getting things fixed because there'll be more consistency in the fixtures, but we'll also have better access to some things. So, appreciate that we're thinking about it from that standpoint as well. kind of piggy back off a comment that Joe made as an engineer. one of my favorite districts to work for because the facility staff really does know what they want and you know we work in my space looking >> yeah none of the people mentioned are shrinking violets in meetings but they so they do a good job representing So, no. Um, questions from the board. >> Great. Thank you both very much. Appreciate your
027time tonight. >> Thank you. >> I would just ask um Matt to come up too and just address you know his thoughts and management of this project and you know uh as far as transparency of the community, our school community before Matt starts can I ask you to answer one question Lou? >> Sure. Uh, so Joe mentioned asbestous in the building and you know that this building has a lot of asbestous which I know exactly what you're saying and and I think most people here probably know that but parents of young children that may not understand what that means relative to our buildings who might ask for example tomorrow or communicate on Facebook tonight. Uh could you address what what that means when we talk about asbestous being in buildings relative to safety? >> Yes.
028So as we do the demolition of the classrooms as Joe said where it'll be essentially gutting rehabbing the so we will have containment areas in the four to six classrooms that we're going to be working at at a time. So that'll be under constant negative pressure. will be monitored um closely um and that that work will be coordinated with the school community and obviously it's highly regulated so it'll be utmost safety >> highly regulated very common >> currently >> it's all contained >> right and it's not so it's very safe as you walk into the building tomorrow once we start to open it we'll do >> and other than brand new buildings there's very few buildings in the world that people don't walk into where there's not as that we don't know this it was
029like ubiquous Right. And but now as we're revitalizing buildings and this everybody goes through this everywhere that's contained that is that is remediated but it's a highly highly regulated area and there is no safety risk currently nor will there be. I just want to >> to that point that's why our rooms are so dated is because it's so well encapsulated and it's a safe environment right now. It's once we go into that de demo phase is when we're opening up and that's where we have to abate it and we're taking every opportunity to abate it whenever there is construction. I just want to make sure we >> No, I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Uh so really my uh I was asked about my goals, my hopes, which has been really it's about preparing um
030being really transparent with our staff because it is going to be we've lived through significant disruption. Um but this is all going to be happening um with moves that are going to have to happen midyear. Um, so really looking at this year as uh preparation for telling people what the plan is going to be over those two years so that they can make some important decisions about how they decorate their room, how they unpack or stay packed, um, where their final destination will be. Um, which will be challenging because our teachers uh, in incredible ways make this like a second home for the families and for kids. um and it won't be able to be quite what they always wanted for these two years. Um also living through, you know, distractions and moving around the
031building in different ways. Uh we are going to be very lucky when it's finished, but we will have to be patient. We'll have to use all of our habits of mind as we work through um that. Um, but I really want to make sure this year that people understand where we're going and what their individual role is going to be in that, where they'll end up, and then what it will look like at the end. So, that's our goal for this year, and they're starting to understand that we're going to open that box uh this year and start to talk about it. So, I appreciate um everybody who's partnered uh to listen to our teachers to hear what was really great about and what they love about the new addition and what could be improved
032as we move into this next phase. So, I feel like we've been really responsive to that. So, thanks to everybody. I >> I think you and your team set a pretty high standard in terms of how you dealt with stuff during the transition process with the addition. So, um if you're able to maintain that sort of curiosity um that comes from the habits of mind I think will be great. It's a tough process to get through. We're going to ask a lot of your staff, but we do hope that the result is really really pleasing to them and continues to improve the learning environments we're creating for our kids. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Questions? Uh any other questions for Lou or the team from the board with regards to what's upcoming for
033the next couple years at council? Okay, principal reports. Typically when we hear principal reports, each of the principles will talk about one of the blueprint items which are available on the uh website. Of course, we're we're not even a month into school, so we're going to give the principles um a little bit more leeway in terms of just discussing how start school went, things that they're seeing, things like that. We are at Council Rock, so it probably makes sense to start with Daniel Danielle Edmonds at TCMS. You didn't really think we were going to start with council rock, did you? >> I did. There it is. >> Almost said good morning. >> Good morning. >> I just got back from outdoor ed. So >> feel like it's round two here. Um but all exciting. Great
034stuff to share. So we are excited. I don't know if I shared with this this with you before, but our building is 100 years old this year. 1926. um to 2026. So, we've been starting in our building this idea of being a part of the story and sharing um the story of the journey of being a TCMS student. And as the year unfolds, we'll do more in the second half of the year um when 2026 actually arrives, but we'll do more with um bringing in the community with sharing stories. We've got an assembly plan. We've got t-shirts. We got all sorts of things planned um to really make a big deal of the year. So, um that's how we started our year with our staff and we're excited to to go through that. We also
035started the year with staff continuing on kind of our five-year plan with our goals that were identified through multiple data sources la this past spring, the spring before that, but they continue um to be topics that we want to explore in our building. So looking at communication at all levels, staff to staff, staff to family, uh building to family, and looking at uh how we can continually evolve and do better with that. Always looking at a sense of belonging with our students. You know, middle school is kind of the hardest time in anybody's life. So always working to make sure that everybody feels that they they see themselves and see a place for themselves in our building. Our work on grading for equity continues. That's it. That's all I've got. Tom. Uh, or what am
036I doing here? Let's see. >> Help. spinning. >> Yes. So while that comes up, uh just a quick comment. So people will probably ask, well, what about the district? Is the district 100 years old, etc. That's not a simple answer. So, and I say that because as school districts evolved over time in the uh really early 20th century, they formed, they combined, they combined schools, schools that belong to one district became another district. It is the 100th anniversary of TCMS um in in terms of being a building and a school at that age level. Uh but it is not the 100th anniversary for the whole district. Right? So the first graduating class from the high school was in 1932. In 1931 is when there was a four-year charter from the state, right? So like these
037things kind of over time consolidated and then we said, "Oh, there's enough kids now. We need to send them here instead of there. Uh it's not as clear a definition, but it is truly the 100th anniversary for TCM." So in case people are wondering, are you doing a big districtwide 100th anniversary? That's not the plan at this point. Uh because it's not 100th anniversary. So, thanks Daniel. Great. >> Thank you for the opportunity to uh do that right there. It was perfect timing. >> It was well planned. Uh so, we're continuing our work on grading for equity. We're moving into year two at looking at some equitable grading practices and shifts that we can make across the board in our building. We continue our work around cultures of thinking where we're encouraging students to take
038on um the job of constructing knowledge and thinking critically and creatively throughout their classrooms. And then always looking at expectations for behavior in in our uh building and how we continue to uh have students uphold all of our Brighton believes qualities. So that work will continue all year long. We also had the start of typical start of the year stuff. So we had our student orientation in new student and sixth grade orientation in August. Our TCMS strong members, I really think they were like the best of the best this year. They did a fantastic job of having a very consolidated and focused opportunity for our students to learn about the building. And then this year for the first time we shifted the uh the parent portion, the caregiver portion to the evening. We've been having
039caregivers come in the morning with their students. And as you can imagine, that caused a major problem for many families who um had both parents or any of the caregivers working and unable to attend. So we were really well attended by shifting the parent portion to the evening. We also made some tweaks on our curriculum night which was on September 18th and the focus of our curriculum night was really three-fold and the shifts that we made really allowed us to focus on that. So every team was able to present as a team to their parents. So and and caregivers and families so that families were able to understand the consistent curricular expectations and coverage that is happening in each uh subject area at each grade level. So that was the curriculum portion of the night.
040We also had a meet and greet portion of the night where um families were able to go in and meet teachers and see their classrooms and see uh student work on display and learn more about what life in the actual classroom is like. And then we had some folks including Dr. Rio in uh the library available to help families with technology and how to navigate getting onto Schooly, how to use parent portal, um how to use parent square, how to get it on their phones, all of those things. So, I think we we achieved all three of our goals and um we continue to tweak and evolve to make sure that our night focuses on and centers on those three things. We also with the start of the school year have sports and activities. So,
041our sports started the week before school started at the modified level. This year was a which is um the second year in a row that that's happened and that's a big shift. So, uh, Mark Cruss and his crew do an amazing job of communicating that so students don't miss that opportunity. And we have more than 157th and eighth graders participating right now. And at the same time, the one club that has started already is um, our TCMS musical this year, which is Mary Poppins. And um, we have over 60 members in that as well. So, we've got students moving and grooving. On Friday, we will have our first club and activity fair. and students will have the opportunity to uh sign up for any of the more than 30 clubs that they're interested in. Um
042home room teachers and wind teachers this week are spending time going through the opportunities so that students have an opportunity to see what's there before they kind of club come to the activity fair and get caught up in in the hullaloo. I'm sure everybody's going to go straight to the culinary club because Mr. Canabroski bribes them with food. Um, but it works really well because he always has over hundred people in his club as well. Side note, um, our modified cross country team participated at the Mcuade Invitational this year where, you know, there's thousands and thousands of runners and our modified cross country team took first in New York State and third in the country. >> So, they've really done an amazing job. When um, I think I started four years agoish, there were maybe
043like 15 kids on the team. and they have over 60 kids on the team right now. So, they're really doing a great job. Same thing with volleyball. We used to have only one team at the girls level. It modified. We now have two teams. So, we're really starting to expand opportunities for students in athletics so that many have a chance to participate if they want to. And another piece that I love is stopping in the gym at the end of the day when there are contests going on and seeing all of our students who stay to cheer on their friends. Um, I think sometimes that people think that's just like a high school thing, but seeing the middle schoolers in, they're getting so excited for their friends is is super cool. We also have our
044morning show, which just continues to evolve and get better and better. This year, they actually have teleprompterss for the kids to read from, which makes it feel even more real and legit. Uh but they really are putting out a special uh production every single morning and it goes from anything from news to weather to there every Tuesday there's an astronomy uh spot and there's another student who does a sports spot. It's it's just really coming along very nicely. So that's exciting. We also have um from grants from BEF from the Brighton Education Fund. You can see our three TVs which have been in the atrium for a while where we're able to update uh daily and weekly events that are going on and we highlight uh the the people to know in the building and
045any new faces for students to see. But underneath that we also have our club and activity wall. That's what all those little pictures are. So kids again get to see on a daily basis all the different clubs and activities that they can participate in. We have the same thing by the gym uh for sports as well for each season so they know what is available to them. Like the high school, we enjoyed homecoming spirit this year. TCMS strong did a great job walking in the parade, but we had lots of fun between uh red, white, and blue day and jersey day and neon day. The kids just really had a great time with homecoming week. Just a little look at who we are right now. Um we have about between 780 and 790 students right
046now, which is the largest um that it's been in a while. We welcomed uh that is actually a little outdated. We're on 26 new sixth graders this year, 18 new seventh graders and 17 new eighth graders. When I started, we were welcoming about 20 to 30 students total per year. So, uh this is pretty large. Last year from July 1st to June 30th, we welcomed 77 new students. So, you could see we're already living in that land. Um, and it's just great to get new faces. And it's what's more amazing is to watch our returning TCMS students and how they take other students under their wing and um really help them get get used to life at TCMS. Another BEF grant um has been put into action in the building. If you walk down our
047hallway going to our auditorium, we have uh pictures that are like quintessential middle school pictures. If you get close to them there, there's no background. It's just faces of students. And the idea behind it was we had um Miss Lucia Gino, who is a professor at St. John Fischer, an art professor. She came in and took pictures of students who wanted to have their pictures taken during lunches and she cropped out the background. And the idea is that this represents all of the students in our middle school. There's there's there are boys, there are girls, there are students who are non-binary, there are students from different religious faiths, different cultural backgrounds. And the idea of doing the head shot with no uh background is to make them timeless. And when you walk through and you
048see the braces and you see all the things, it's like they are middle schoolers. And 50 years from now, those pictures will hold up because that's what middle schoolers are still going to look like. That's what their faces are still going to look like. The kids love it and they just keep asking, "How do I get my picture up there? How do I get my picture up there?" So, it's been a nice little addition for us. We had our urban suburban uh new family dinner that many of you were at. We also had our ice cream social this year, which is always fun. Mr. Green comes. We've got the folks from the urban suburban program who come and talk with our students and just get them excited and um remind them that they are Bruins
049through and through and how excited we are to have them as a part of our community. We also have Fulbright scholars returning this year. This is our third year at TCMS that we have fullbrite uh scholars. We've got four in our building and I know Matt has some and Tom has one also. But uh you can see we've got folks from the Philippines, Israel, Brazil, and Indonesia. And as I've said to you in years in the past, uh I think we learn way more from them than than they learn from us. But it's great to have that partnership with the U ofR. And they come for one day a week and uh they share things about their cultural backgrounds, but they also learn about how um education looks in in the United States. just pictures
050of the kids at work in the first few weeks. One of the things um you'll see we've got investigations that are going on in social studies classes. I talked about the students really doing the constructing of knowledge. So what you see in the upper right uh is students looking at different images and making inferences and then pulling in historical documents uh to make sense of of what's going on. We also have a new math program that we're piloting at seventh and eighth grade. We've been using CMP and we are piloting a program called CPM. Yes, that's true. So CPM is college preparatory math and we've got teachers at seventh and eighth grade that are piloting it and it has been amazing. I said uh to Dr. Rio, it's so cool to walk in those classes
051and the students are all engaged and they're in groups and they're talking and they're engaged in meaning making, but they're like really talking about math at a deep level. And um I you know first few weeks it's amazing just to see that. So that that's exciting. We've got our kids uh working through art. The upper leftand corner is a picture of Miss Joerger with two students who are in her flex class. We've assigned um every new student to our building is assigned to a a flex class. They meet every other day for the entire year and it's all about getting acclimated academically and socially to TCMS. So that's been uh great for us so far. And then the bottom right is um a picture of breakfast. And it it would uh not behoove me to
052um leave out what our food service workers have done in the last month. The amount of meals that they are serving and the speed and rate at which they are serving them is absolutely phenomenal. We started the first few days and I dismissed sixth grade lunch at 11:12 and the first few days it was like 11:10 when the first the last kid was getting through. But now we are down to like 10:55. All the kids have their meals. They're sitting down. We're serving uh double the meals that that we were serving in the past with the same number of staff and they're just doing a phenomenal job and like not one complaint. They just smile on their faces with kids. So it's been great. It's added to our numbers at breakfast in the morning for
053sure. As I said, today was our last day of outdoor ad. We have four teams at sixth grade. So, we went Thursday, Friday, yesterday, and today. We were blessed with amazingly beautiful weather, and we were back at Rotary Sunshine Camp in Rush this year. It felt so good to be back. We were at um the YMCA in Pittsburgh last year, and um we were able to make it work to go back to uh Rush and it all of the things, right? Lots of fish. Nobody kissed one this year. Nobody kissed one, but lots of fish were caught, turtles were caught, lots of archery, s'mores, all of the things. Lots of smiles and team building and uh just an all-around great experience. In terms of our focus area right now, our Aspire and Path programs are
054off to a great start. We're continuing our homebased curriculum, um SEAL, social emotional learning, that is more streamlined. Uh each grade level has different lessons this year and we're really focusing on um habits of mind. We've got four habits of mind that we're working on this year. Our TCMS ambassadors is a new program that we're starting to help with um identifying the culture of our building and what the students want our culture to be. We have um Janette uh Janette >> Janette Adams Price. Thank you. Just went blank. Janette Adams Price is coming to help us do that work with the students. It's going to take all year. It starts with them um figuring out their own identities and doing the little self exploration and then moving into identifying what our current culture is and
055then how we can continue to make it better. Our partnership with URMC continues to be strong. They're amazing. I feel like every time we meet with them, they're offering some other wraparound to support our students. We've got a big look at chronic absenteeism across the district and definitely at TCMS. And then out of our school-based equity team last year, we really focused on uh disproportionality and in suspensions and then how we are going to help support students so there there's not that rate of recidivism that um we see in in some students. So, we really have a huge effort around engaging and supporting students if they are on long-term suspension in the tutoring center, but also a prolonged support delivery model for students even if they're suspended for two days um and and a shorter
056term suspension with the hopes of helping them um really like look into their behaviors um look at the impact that it's having and then make better choices moving forward. Calendar October is here already. crazy. We're in map testing season. We're starting to talk about the DC trip already and um activity nights are beginning. So, all sorts of good stuff going on. >> Questions for day. Just one for me. Dr. McGowan talks a lot about TCMS sort of being on the front edge of um you had great success last year. Are you continuing to see that this year with in the first month? >> The kids have been amazing. They're great. They're really, really great. It's pretty much a non-issue. And you know, there have been a few, I would say maybe in the last few
057weeks since school started maybe seven or eight students that we've had to address and every parent has been phenomenally supportive, every parent. So, it's they just know it's the expectation and they're doing a great job with it. And you know, just like years past. It's a great thing to see them talking when they're eating breakfast and talking when they're sitting in the lunchroom and um talking to each other when they're in the halls instead of being like this. So, it's really great and thankfully for us it's not a huge lift. You know, our kids are used to it, but it's been great. >> Thank you, Council Rock. All right. So, we have had a very good and smooth start. Um, starting from the very first day, uh, students getting off the buses, finding their way,
058it seems like they were, uh, even better than they ever have been before. We have great support from PTSA that day. Um, the bus loop helpers. They come and help everyone find their way into the building. So, we're always appreciative of them. Uh, something new that we are doing this year, it's a carryover from last year. Um, we are doing grade level assemblies once a month. Uh, so kindergarten, first, and second grade. Uh we completed all of ours in September with a focus on kindness and talking about what it means to be kind, looking for examples of kindness. Uh looking at next uh month in October, planning the responsibility aspect of our council rock pledge talking about what it means to be respectful and responsible. Um it's great because we're it's a chance for us
059to be together. Uh but it's also a chance I send the teachers away for that half hour. They get a little bit of extra planning time. Um, we sing, we dance a little bit, we have a lot of fun. Uh, Mrs. Schaefer and I usually read at least one story, uh, if not two. Um, and we have a chance to just talk about what it means to be great Council Rock citizens. So, they've done awesome jobs with that. Oh. So That's just an example of us singing. Uh so that's kind of song that they learned in music class and that they're able to to do in the assembly. So we've had all as of last night, we've had all three of our curriculum nights, one for each grade level. Uh it was great to meet
060all of our kindergarten families. Uh PTSA has a chance to introduce themselves. Uh, and then of course I'm so excited to hear about TCMS and their four habits of mind, but uh, we talk about our habits of mind and the four focus habits uh, while they then get to go to the classrooms and meet their teacher and hear a little bit more about routines there. So great to have so many people come out for those nights. Uh, we did have our first meeting with the principal. Uh, our agenda was right there. Kind of a welcome from the PTSA. we talked about last year, um some of the goals we had and then where we're going for this year. And then we spent a good deal of time talking about some logistics and questions from families.
061Uh that was something we heard from especially our kindergarten families last year that we do a great deal of welcoming and things like that, but then it gets to the point of like, okay, but how do I buy how does my child buy lunch? What do you do when you're late? So, we went through just kind of our parent handbook that can be lengthy and kind of made it come to life for them, uh, recorded it and sent it out to families who weren't able to come, but we had a really pretty good turnout for uh, a daytime PTSA meeting uh, that was via a video conference. So, and then I just was walking around uh as I was thinking about what to put and just the creativity that our teachers put into creating that
062welcoming environment and just different ways of welcoming kids. So, hot off the presses, Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Melissa Allen, is a huge Josh Allen fan. Um, so she's got Mrs. Allen's MVPs. And on first grade curriculum night, one of her parents is actually closely connected to Josh Allen and has apparently taken a selfie in front of that and has it off to Mr. Josh Allen himself and swears he's going to get some kind of a response from Mrs. Allen and her first graders. So, I will keep you updated on that. But that was hot off the presses when I found that out after first grade curriculum night uh earlier this week. So we celebrated international dot day uh which is based on uh a book by Peter Reynolds. Uh several of our teachers uh do it
063as what the possibility for the new year is uh and that everyone has the uh potential and possibility. So you can see all around the school make your mark uh different ways of expressing themselves and knowing that they have it in them uh to be great no matter what they they are doing. And then for habits of mind, we spent a lot of time this summer really working on classroom resources. Um we are really excited to announce that we're going to have a Brighton believes in Steamfest, the first one here at Council Rock. Um that's going to do all kinds of steam activities for our kids. We're really involving the PTSA to help us run that. Um Katie Fallon and our whole habits of wine team are working hard already thinking about what that will
064be like and it's going to combine because earlier that week on the 11th is bright and believes day. So we're going to combine that um with some community service. So we're really excited about that. And then outdoor environment and play and how habits of mind can connect to that. One of the great things that the team did uh was if you've ever seen those I spy or I spy books, we had all of our staff bring in one thing that they felt represented them and then we they took pictures of it and we've got them up here in the cafeteria. As Mrs. or Dr. Edmonds said, we've had long lines. Our food service have been amazing at processing uh the huge amounts of people buying or getting breakfast and lunch. but it provides just something
065for our students to be able to look at, to engage in while they're in that long line. Um, and then we've sent this out to teachers to be able to reproduce for their own classrooms for kids to be able to bring in some things and to create their own I spy uh for the classroom. So, just something that we're really excited about trying. And then outside on uh our main hall right as you come in outside the library is our Wonder Zoom challenge. It's really looking at things closely and understanding like kind of a zoomed in challenge. So the one for September uh focused on monarch butterflies and what their scales look like and then talking about their migration. Um and then each month we'll have a new wonder zoom challenge where they can look
066closely and then react with wonder and awe. Just like uh the middle school and apparently the high school, we've got three amazing scholars here from the Fulbright uh teaching scholar program. One from Uganda, one from Greece, and one from India working at all three of our levels, kindergarten, first and second grade. Uh and again, they are just fascinating and so much to learn, but they are like sponges and so excited to soak up what we have to teach them. But as Dr. Edmond said, I feel like we learn a whole lot more from them uh than than they can from us. but they love coming. So, they are here every Thursday. We've got uh Square One Art Night. Uh again, a PTSA uh program that is here on Friday night. Hoping our families will come
067from 6:00 to 7:30. Picture day is days are next week. We've got a couple of day actually we've got several days off. Uh and then we've got a winter uh PTSA winter wear drive and then red ribbon week will be here before we know it. Um, so lots of exciting things to look forward to as we flip that calendar to October. Any questions? >> Questions for Principal Tab? >> Great start. Thank you very much. Let's hear from French Road next. It's hard to believe he's only been here for a month because the number of slides and pictures of Mary feel back for weeks. Um, we had a great start to the year. Um, huge thanks to the PTSA. They helped quite a bit on getting the back to school meetings kicked off with our faculty
068and staff. They've been doing things with our kids. They've been helping with picture day. If you look on our first day, they came and set up a little snack bar for teachers as they came in. Um teachers uh were able to enjoy some football themed treats that kind of fit right along with our Hard Knocks theme with our back to school meeting where we talked a lot about um coming together as a community and coming together as a team. The first day of school was um preceded by our popsicles of the principal event and we had 500 popsicles that went just to the children and we did run out. So we were shocked how many people were there. Parents were like, "Oh, can we have a popsicle?" And we were completely out. So we'll order
069more than 500 next year. It was a great night to come back. It was also our back to school um day with staff as well. So it was a long day. Um because of construction, people didn't get to walk around the building as much as they do in the past. So, we opened the building up for families to walk through, find their classrooms, find their lockers. Um, we had volunteers in there helping um navigate the halls. There's a lot of smiling faces. Right before we had the popsicles with principal event, um I invited back some sixth graders from TCMS who were part of our student council last year and they helped lead um chores for all of our new families as we did a new student orientation. So, it was a fun day and it
070let all the kids end up on the playground to meet some new friends and families to mix and mingle as well. See, um, first day of school, once again, we had our PTSA there. They were there greeting our kids, helping with numbered balloons so kids could find out which door to go to. Um, we had lots of helpers. We had lots of new staff. If you look at that middle picture, that is some of our new teachers along with their mentors. Um, and you can just see the joy in the kids' faces. And we have a two different pages of kids smiling. Um, Dr. McGowan's right there on her first day as well. Um, lots of big greetings, smiles, and hugs with kids when they walked in the door. The first two weeks we also
071had some help with Dr. Mallaloy with our bus safety. Um we were able to run all those drills and start getting ready for um the lunch and breakfast. Um as mentioned by the other principles were serving more than double the meals that we were serving last year. So you can see everyone getting right into the routines figuring out what to do. Um when it comes to food, teachers flock for food. You can see the picture down in the middle is our staff. The PTSA brought in some breakfast goodies that Friday. Um, so teachers are running down for bagels and juice and all of that. Um, if you look on the top right, we also had some donation of some new picnic tables from the PTSA, which has been so helpful on the playground. Places where
072kids can sit and play cards with friends, places where teachers can be there. And if you drive by in the weekends, it's just filled with families. So the new p picnic tables came in handy not only for, you know, back to school events, playground time, but also our welcome back picnic that we had on Friday. Some other routines that we've been doing is much like council lock, we did our community meetings with our grade levels. If you look in the top right corner, we worked with our mental health team this summer going through our brain believes qualities. We met with each grade level going through safety procedures, going through kindness, respect, responsibility, integrity, self-control. We worked on our new French road song, which I got to figure out how to get clever like Mr. Chapman
073and get the video in there of the kids singing because they're really proud of that song. Um, if you look in the top left picture, you can see teachers getting ready for dismissal. If you've not been at French Road at dismissal, it's a little crazy. We have kids going in a ton of directions. We have close to 800 students this year. We're up to about 776 kids. So, getting everyone from point A to point B has been a challenge and it's been going very smoothly thanks to Dr. Mallaloy. Um, in the middle you'll see something that we did with our staff on opening day, just getting to know you activity and it was fun because a lot of teachers took it right back to the classroom for the first week. In the bottom right corner,
074you'll also see some other routines of um visible thinking in the classrooms and teachers getting those routines set up and getting kids up on the dry erase boards. So, even though this wasn't content specific, it was really getting the kids to learn how to work together and get them out of their seats working up on the boards. This year, we also started our recruitment for instrumental music in the spring and that has been wonderful. we were able to build in our instrumental music. Get your instrument night right in with our curriculum night. Um on curriculum night, you'll see in the top right corner, all of our fifth grade families started right in the cafeterium with all the parents. Talked about the curriculum and all the things they do collectively as a grade level. And then
075families were able to go into their classrooms and see where their kids are learning each day. While that was happening, the instrumental music team went through 250 instrument rentals to get those in parents' hands. So, it was really helpful that parents could come for one night and get it all done at the same time. And you can see the playfulness of the IM team just having fun preparing for that. So, it was nice to see them working together. Because the recruitment started in the spring, we're also able to get our IM lessons up and moving way earlier than we did last year. So, if you look in these pictures right here, it's a combination of fourth and fifth grade students right in their In the classroom, we've been doing a lot with STEM. Um, if
076you look in the top left corner, as well as down towards the bottom, we're already in the thick of doing lots of technology instruction for our third grade classes this year. And you can see in the polar opposite corners, you can see two of our instructional leaders working with their third grade tech classes. So, they're starting routines, they're learning their passwords, they're getting on the iPads, and we're working through all the glitches. Um, habits of mind are also very strong in our special areas especially. They've been working on three habits a month. And no matter which special area you go to, the special area teachers are working on the same habits. So, it's nice seeing the kids really focus on those habits and those special areas. This was fun. Um, I want to say it
077was last week when I was walking through fourth grade. Every single classroom I walked into was involved in social studies lessons with mapping and geography. And it was part of the summer work that they did this summer with Liz Files. So, watching all the classrooms doing similar type activities, hands-on, you don't really see anyone sitting in seats in majority of the pictures. They had giant balloons. They were creating globes on their balloons. They're running around the classroom finding different maps and creating um filling in different keys and codes. So, it's just nice watching the teams come together with all the summer curriculum work. Uh two weekends ago, we were able to go to our homecoming parade. Um a day full of joy, lots of sunshine. Um so, it was fun just being with colleagues and
078celebrating with our kids. This past weekend, we had our welcome back picnic. Um we had a beautiful night for it. We went through 14 sheet pizzas in a matter of 25 minutes. And the participation trophy for the Brighton Blues 5K. So that was fun. And you see our French road team strong right up there in the top right corner. Um and L was holding up the trophy for that we got as a school. So, that was a lot of fun as well. As far as what we're doing with mental health, wellness, and student support, um we used the curric the culture and climate survey to work with our team leaders. So, we're establishing our goals for this year. Um we've also been working in collaboration with our mental health team back in July and August.
079And we're working in conjunction with our health teacher as well as classroom teachers. Um much like Council Rock, we're going to be doing grade level community meetings. We're trying to do those each month where we can bring in the character traits. Um, we're also working on the rules and expectations that I mentioned, but we're also making sure we're supporting the classroom teachers during Bruins time. So, when we did our first back to school assembly, we also created a teachers could do with their kids just to support the same things that we did in whole group lesson. Teachers found it very helpful and then the counselors went in and also supported those lessons. our absentee absenteeism planning. Um we work with Mrs. Feny and Council Rock um administrators this summer. So that's something that's in the
080works. Um we're also continuing to work on our transition to French Road for all of our new families. As I mentioned, we're up to almost I say 800 students, but it's about 775 I think we're up to right now. So we have lots of new students. So it's really helping them adjust to the transition to French Road, not only from Council Rock, but new families as well. Uh the DPD this summer on the AI has also been very helpful and we're starting to have those conversations with classroom teachers along with the mental health staff how they're using that in their instruction um and also it's turning into some really good conversations at the adult level as well. And the last thing that we're focusing on this year is we're working on a minieries of executive
081skills. We find that kids need a lot more support with those executive functioning skills. So into each faculty meeting this year we'll be working with the teachers on a miniseries. So, it'll be nice to give teachers some tools and strategies and then the mental health team can build those into the Bruins time. We also have bingo is going to be starting and that's very popular and they'll be doing our third grade Halloween parade at the end of the month along with all the other have been great and kids have come in knowing the expectations and rules. Um much like the other buildings too when it comes to the cell phones, we did make sure we were keeping cell phones not in the classroom or on kids last year. You'd be surprised at how many kids
082did have cell phones last year and the year before at the three through five level. So our biggest challenge is really working with the watches. So kids have been great, parents have been great, and it's really been on that issue. I'll just make note, you mentioned this at one point. Um, Colleen, I know Lou and the team, John, Nelly, were trying to get a lot of the construction stuff cleaned up right before the start of school and there's things ongoing. Obviously, the front facade, I'll extend the board's thanks to you and your staff for being able to work through all that stuff. We're going to get to a much better place, but I know it's a little bit messy getting there as uh or sometimes it is as principal Tapin alluded to. So, our thanks
083just for the collective patience of you and your team. Um, right up to that I think the day before Lou and the team were running through and trying to get a lot of things cleaned up and that put a little bit extra pressure on your buildings and grounds folks. We appreciate their extra effort. So, um it's going to look great and um it might just be a bit of a pain in the backside to get where we're going to get to. So, we just appreciate everyone's patience and would ask you to extend that to the parents as well. >> I will. And the team that's been working at Venture Road has been fantastic. They've been super flexible working around us so we can get the things done. They're just pleasant people to be around. So,
084we really have been very fortunate to have them in the building. All right, evening everybody. So, we start off the year with a welcome back to the high school and our extensive belonging activities. We do a variety of them now. Thanks for our culture climate leadership team over the summer came up with this. We are very glad that you are here and uh hand it out to everybody as they walk in the building. The whole goal of the sense of belonging morning things are just to get people to smile, laugh, look at us, give us a weird look like this guy. He comes in every morning. We get a laugh and a smile from him. Um so but that's how we started off the year. Our link crew as always u this is an amazing
085group this year. They're juniors and seniors. They lead our freshman um orientation. They'll also lead link sessions all the way through the fall and into mid January uh with there's 14 different lessons that they will educate our freshmen on. And they're an incredible group and they welcome back our class of um in August and we're on our way. Uh we started out our year as we usually do with our class meetings. Every single class uh we met with on the first day of school. We changed it up. Instead of doing over two or three days, we did it all in one day. They had a long home room and met with each class for about 30 minutes. Talk about our mission statement. Bringing everybody back to what we want our high school to be, an
086environment that's safe, welcoming, caring, professional, free from harassment for all of our students and staff. Continuing the message just like we did with the Barry, glad you're here. You belong here. You matter. We want this place that you you feel that you know I get to go to school every day instead I have to go to school every day as Mr. Bowen says. thing from DASA danger for all students act how to report concerns what we don't tolerate in the school as far as derogatory hateful or foul language and what can they can do to get help we talked about our number one DASA issue from the last several years on body shaming and do done presentations on that and our focus areas for the students um is our electronic device policy which I'll talk
087about in a minute data reporting and make sure everybody knows what DASA is and who to report it to and how to report a concern. School safety, if you see something, say something. and then tying a lot of our this is the first time we've really done this all my years in Brighton almost 29 years tying our privileges um that we have in Brighton the open campus the free periods the late arrival and the early dismissal to things like the ability in order to get open campus and help rooms um you're passing your classes um that you're here on time you're in attendance on a you know regular basis And if you do, you get these privileges. If you don't, we're going to put you in more structured study areas. Some students came back to
088school and were like, "What are you talking about? I didn't think Brighton would do this. You know, we don't do this in Brighton." Um, we thought other schools were doing it, but we wouldn't have to. But so we we taught them pretty quickly. We do. We gave them out kind of a it was a complimentary brewin pouch. Uh had no magnet thing in them. They were very cheap, but they had some fun things in there. the culture climate leadership team, the students helped put them together. There was things on our my school bunks bucks lunch program. Uh safe school magnet, the safe schools helpline. >> So, we're working on that, too. um stickers, attendance information eligibility and our cell phone policy. So I cell phones are banned, internet and evil device are banned from the
089beginning of the day at the start of the bell to the end of the day at the end of the bell and throughout the day. We require them to be in lockers, but we also don't want to see them, don't want to hear them. Um we put up signs, we had signage, two different kinds. We talked about kids talking to one another. disconnect to connect, challenging everybody that you can do this. Channel your inner brew and integrity and self-control. We can make this happen. And I'm glad to say that for the vast majority of students, I don't see their phones. We collect maybe three to four a day. Um, depending on, you know, maybe where it's happening. Sometimes kids will forget and they keep it in their backpack and they absolutely pull it out to
090do something on school tool. At least that's what they say. and all a sudden we get a call and we go get the phone. Um, but the students know we go right to hotel BHS. Eight floors, 48 luxurious rooms, lot of complimentary storage. They have active security and monitoring, private access gated community, and it goes right in the safe. So, we kind of made it a fun thing, but the kids all talk about, oh, you're going to the hotel. Um, and that's where you're going to stay for the day. Uh, but we we've we have not filled. The hotel has not been filled. We have a lot of room every day. Um, but there's one of the analog clocks we're pointing to. We we put thanks to student input, they wanted clocks put more in
091the building because kids don't have their phones to tell time. So, we've been putting clocks all over the building. Um, but now they want digital clocks. But we'll see. >> Now is the time to sell your swatches. Yeah, I can go back and buy cheap watch. Uh we also >> before October 1st, first time in several years, we finished all of our major drills, fire drills, lockdown holds in place. We've done all of them and we're on our way uh with the school year. Again, trying to pro promote that brewin culture of if you see something concerning, let someone know, say something and let us look into it. Uh we shared the safe schools helpline and then the homecoming spirit. Uh the last thing I'll present is just incredible this last uh week. Um the
092ex the executive council did a phenomenal job with the homecoming spirit week which it's amazing to see K8 they've adopted these a lot of these themes. We never used to do that back in the days. It was just the high school had homecoming and all of our Saturday events. um with all the I mean there was a theme days but then our our prep rally at night on the turf which the kids wanted that was on Thursday night huge crowds then our pep assembly on Friday it's if you haven't been to one of these in a while they're more we have more students because we've changed the time we do them to midday between periods four period 5. So, it's right before flex. All the kids who would normally sign out go home and get
093an extra, you know, period off. They're in school and we have a packed house and it's been amazing. So much spirit. No phones in the gym. It was amazing. And another exciting part is last couple years I've sent out an invitation to students to be the Bruin and I've gotten zero applications since the first year we put it out. We had two. This year I had eight applications and we have eight different students who are being the Bruin in all of these different homecoming events. They signed up for different shifts. People in the community absolutely love the Bruin. Uh lots of pictures. Juniors took first place. Lots of fun themes. Um they um our junior class actually or the first class ever in Brighton history to take first place in homecoming freshman year and junior
094year. They're going to go for a trifecta next year. Uh the dance was attended by 335 kids. Uh tons of spirit overall. Then we had our club fair just recently. Mark Lincoln thanks for all his work. He oversees clubs and activities. There are 115 between clubs, performing groups, and sports teams at Brighton High School for kids to choose from. Absolutely amazing. Um, our lot of the things that K8 are doing with their mental health and wellness, uh, with attendance, counseling support, continuous strong behavioral health, we're doing that as well. We're ramping up our DASA presentations, modif based on current culture and changes in our student body. Um we've been, you know, really doing a lot with the sense of belonging culture and doing so many activities to try to promote that. Uh several activities coming
095up in the month. Our PTSA is meeting in October on the 22nd. One of the biggest ones of the year about the PSAT, ACT, and SAT for all those 10th, 11th grade families who'd want to find out about it. That's on the 22nd. It will be recorded and sent out. Any questions? >> Um, just construction from your end. I see that the entrance and back is is looking good. Anything you want to tell us about construction just before school open? >> Um, they right a race to the end, but they got everything working. We have kids coming in and out. It's only a student entrance and exit except for staff, but we have our adults now coming in at door one, guests at door one, and all the students enter and exit. Open campus, late
096to school, free periods, and appointments through door 20. And we're hoping, I think by the end of October, it will be completely finished and completed. Uh so hopefully when you come for the meeting um at the high school, uh we'll be able to show that off to you. It's really been a nice addition. >> Thank you. Thank you. Questions or comments from the board? >> This is really just for all four of the buildings, but it is an incredibly heavy lift with a million moving parts to get our buildings open. Um, your teams ramped up and your families in the buildings every single year. And you guys always make it incredibly effortless looking. So, a huge thanks to all of you guys and your teams. Um, and it's really really cool to see the connection
097that you guys still bring like that you're doing habits of mind counselor rock through high school and the spirit and so you're really you know making that K through 12 experience better and better every year. So huge thanks to you guys. You crush it and we're incredibly lucky to have you. >> I'll note a couple of things. First, we have a field trip approval um to the teen institute, the heart of New York conference in Penan. Fundraising activities um as always, tremendous uh eating opportunities, Panera Bread, actually tomorrow. Um online popcorn fundraiser, Crossroads yearbook uh at Chipotle. I'll note um under gifts number four, it's the Brighton Bruins Wrestling Booster Club, brighten your driveway. That's actually a fundraiser, not a gift. Um that's going to be a really cool thing. You can get a brew
098and painted at the end of your driveway in my neighborhood. It's good looking. >> Yeah, a lot of fun. So, really well done on that. As for gifts, um Clayton, I'm gonna ask you to start and for the other four things under we started taking on which is ask everyone to read. So, Clayton, if you could read the first one and carry on the second and we'll go right on down the line. >> Thank you. I'd be glad to. 2 from the Brighton Education Fund for rag tags as a way to celebrate the students at French Road. This is being funded by much loved member of the French Road community. Thank you. >> A gift in the amount of 1500 from again the brain education fund to bring author seed I am gonna butcher her
099name. I am so sorry. Their name Sadia >> I think it's Sadia Farooqi. >> Sorry. Sorry about that. Um to visit Council Rock on November 8th, 2025. Funding for author visits is supported by a generous annual contribution from the Brighton PTSA. Thank you. >> A gift in the amount of $927 from the Brighton Education Fund and the David Dehaven Memorial Fund, which supports the middle and high school science departments to send three science teachers to the STA conference. The full cost of the conference is greater, but the rest is covered by the Haven funds that were transferred earlier. >> Should I give this next one? >> A gift from Dr. Susan Gaspirino to the music department at Council Rock Primary School of 12 Remo Rhythm Club bongos and one Zub Zubini welcoming drum. Thank you,
100Dr. >> You are so very welcome. I'm glad it'll be put to good use. >> Up until recently, it must have been great to enter the Gasparino home to the tune of 12 sets of Bongo's drum and the Zumini welcoming drum. >> Are these from your Zumba days? >> I can only imagine what the doorbell sounds like. >> It is the whole Gaspino family. Actually, these were 12 brand new sets of beautiful welcoming bongos and um the Zoomini welcoming drum. We're from my Zumba days which is all the kids can gather and excellent. Thank you. is always not uh just from Dr. Gaspro but from our entire community. We're grateful for the gifts given and the way that that always positively uh helps the students. So um motion to approve the consent agenda as described.
101>> So moved >> moved by >> quickly. Thank you as always to our video team. We say this each time we travel, which is we showed up, the tables were here, the name plates were here, the microphones were working, the screen was down, everything was set up, and that's uh because of a lot of people, not just Kim over here to our right is our clerk, but uh Bill, Asher, and Mike who got everything set up, and it all works. So, we're grateful to them as always. Um, our next meeting is October 14th back at the boardroom at central office. And I just make a note of this. Each of the principles pointed out the amazing work that the food service team has done and we've heard a little bit about this before, but um
102on behalf of the board, I'll direct this to Lou to ask him to pass along to Nicole and the team. Just grateful for the amazing spike in service and them getting it figured out so quickly and appreciate that our our leaders in the schools recognize the volume increase and their ability to get the job done. So, um very much appreciate that as well. We went from where to where well not exactly but we've doubled almost 60% of our participation and that is with the same it's really remarkable it also to tie to Carol Lynn's comment very kindly pointing out the principles has been a tremendous lift on the part of staff the food but also the principles logistically to make that happen. And I just want to echo what you said. Thanks for helping us
103get out. Appreciate you. Thanks for pointing that out and all the great work that's done by >> Oh, and one other thing details on pancake day. Thursday, October 16th starting at 11:30 and then dinner service. >> Sounds strange, but pancakes all day long. It's a great fundraiser for Rotary and has been very generous this birth cottage again this year. Hey Luke, >> sit at TVK again this year. >> Yeah, >> top of birth cotish. >> Yep. >> And you can come for both actually. >> Perfect. >> Just want to make sure you all day like it. >> Uh any other comments from the board? >> Motion to approve. A motion. >> Motion to adjourn. >> So move. Moved by Esther. >> Seconded by Carolyn. All those in favor? >> I. >> We are adjourned. >>
104This has been a special presentation from the Brighton Central School District Board of Education.