001This is a special presentation from the Brighton Central School District Board of Education. Our favorite part, I'm sorry, our favorite way to start a meeting is with Bright and Believer Awards. So, I'll ask Dr. McGawan to present tonight's Bright and Believer Awards, please. Thank you, Mr. Davis, and welcome to Fresno Meeting. It's great to have all of you here. As many of you know, the Brighton Believes Council selects nominees to receive a Brighton Believers Award uh for demonstrating the character traits of integrity, respect, responsibility, kindness, and self-control. The award winners are students, teachers, staff members, parents, coaches, community members. The forum can be found online at bcsd.org backbelievers. And we encourage people to nominate deserving members of our school community. We have three wonderful humans here tonight who have been nominated or receiving this recognition.
002I'd like to ask Sarah McGovern to come on up first with Pavet Coley Winkleck and Shirley Wheeler and Colleen Coggins. If you could come [Applause] up Sarah McGovern is a Fres language teacher. She was nominated by fellow teacher Pavit Kohley Winkleblick. She wrote, "I would like to nominate Sarah McGovern for a Brighton believers award. Sarah Sarah is an English as new language teacher at French Road Elementary School, but she is much more than that to her students and the Brighton community. Sarah's students not only learn words in English, they experience them through adventures. Sarah takes them on outside of school. She has taken her students and their siblings to the movies because they have never been to the movie theater before. She has also taken students sledding so they can experience snow firsthand. and the
003joy of hot chocolate after not being able to feel your face. Sarah's kindness and love make students new to our country feel happy to come to school and also make them feel like they belong here in Brighton. For that and so many reasons, we congratulate you, Sarah, on this wonderful award and recognition. [Applause] Hey, you guys can just stay up here. Here you go. Jody T. Bandelica, if you could come on up, please. The Fres administrative assistant to the assistant principal. Joti was nominated by assistant principal Shirley Wielder. She wrote, "I am thrilled to nominate Joti for the Brighton Believers Award as she exemplifies the values of integrity, respect, responsibility, kindness, and self-control that define our community. She answers the phone quite a bit, so self-control is really, really amazing. Joti is the embodiment of
004dedication and positivity. She arrives early, stays late, tackles every challenge with a smile, even during the busiest or most difficult times. Her meticulous preparation and willingness to help have made her an invaluable member of our team. Joti takes immense pride in her role and fosters a deep sense of connection and care for the culture of Fred. She started her journey as a teaching assistant and through her incredible work ethic and problem solving abilities heard her current role as administrative assistant to the assistant principal. No task is too big or too small for her and she readily steps into any role to support the school. Jot's genuine concern for the well-being of others is evident in everything that she does. Her servant-hearted approach paired with her ability to multitask and manage her time efficiently makes her
005an indispensable colleague. Whether it's her excellent sense of humor, her signature Indian coffee that brightens everyone's day or her steadfast optimism. Joti has a unique ability to lift spirits and strengthen morale. Personally, I admire her as a colleague, cherish her as a friend, and rely on her as someone I can always count on for advice and understanding. Her kindness, positivity, and selfless dedication to our community make her truly deserving of the Brighton Believers Award. Congratulations, [Applause] And last, but in no way least, the bubby of the moment, Cheryl Becker prefers that title to Fred's teaching assistant. I'll just say was nominated by teaching assistant Deborah Buckard who's here with us tonight as well. She wrote, "Cheryl has been an integral part of our educational community, having lived and worked within our district for numerous years.
006Her commitment to education is exemplified by the success of her three sons, all of whom graduated from Brighton High School. With an impressive tenure of 20 years as a teaching assistant, Cheryl has dedicated herself to supporting both students and teachers alike. Her leadership skills are further demonstrated through her many years as union president, where she has collaborated closely with administrators to foster a positive and enriching environment within our school community. Cheryl began her educational journey at Council Rock and currently contributes her talents at French Road. Throughout her career, she has made a significant impact on countless students and staff members, always ready to lend a helping hand whenever the need arises. Whether it's stepping in to substitute for teachers or assisting with various school activities, her willingness to support others is truly commendable. For many
007years, Cheryl has been the go-to person for managing our end of day bus routine, ensuring that everything runs smoothly and efficiently. Her dedication and hard work have not gone unnoticed. In fact, many community members have suggested that we honor her by naming our new bus loop after her. It's a good ring to it. Becker bus loop. I can hear her name. Cheryl Becker embodies the spirit of the Brain Believers Award and I wholeheartedly recommend her for this honor. Her unwavering commitment to our district and its students make her a deserving candidate. Congratulations, Cheryl. [Applause] Thank you very much. Appreciate the opportunity and recognize these wonderful people. Thank you, Dr. McGawan. We will take uh just a minute, Bill, and we'll let all of you are welcome and in fact encouraged to stay for the budget
008presentation. However, if you have homework or other work to do tomorrow, we'll give everybody a few minutes to exit out those doors over there. So, thank you all for being here. Um, next up, as is the case with every public meeting, we offer the opportunity for public participation to answer questions or receive feedback from the public. Is there anyone in the audience tonight who would like to share something with the board? Seeing none, we'll move on to a couple of approvals first of tonight's agenda. You all have had a chance to review tonight's agenda. Any comments, questions, or edits to the agenda? Motion to approve. So moved. Moved by Karen. Second. Seconded by Esther. All those in favor? You've also had a chance to review the minutes from our March 11th public meeting. Any questions,
009edits, or concerns with those minutes? Motion to approve. So moved. Moved by Sue. Second. Seconded by Elellaner. All those in favor? Um, we do have an opportunity now to get an update on the executive budget proposal. This is something we'll be talking about right through the May um the May vote on the budget upcoming. A lot of moving parts here. Uh grateful that both Lu Limo and Dr. McGowan will talk us through sort of current status. Thank you very much. So, uh we're referring to this as a preliminary budget proposal because the state has not finalized their budget yet. So, uh, this is essentially what we we will be asking you to vote on, uh, for budget adoption. Other than maybe minor changes between now and then relative to, uh, changes in revenue, we don't
010expect it to change very significantly at this point. Uh, very quickly to set the stage for you, we clearly have been working on the budget for quite some time. It's really an all year process because we are always monitoring our expenses relative to the revenue that comes in and making sure that we're preparing for the next budget year based on what our actual costs are versus what may have been budgeted for. And this is tonight, the March 25th session. As we said, we will um ask you to take a look at this again on April 8th. Adopt the budget then for the community to consider at their May 20th uh vote uh from the community again. And then May 13th is the annual uh budget hearing. Some of our guidelines which we set back um
011in the fall. Remember I think it's important to to go back to this particular context about sustaining revenue sources and that is a struggle for us as much as this is a guideline. We want to always be aware of the use of reserves is a short-term solution. Right? So sustaining revenue was both that idea of reserves but also as we have new monies that have come in over a period of time relative to for lack of a better way to say it the COVID funds right so federal government funds we added programs but we have then a need to make sure we can pay for those long term because those are important and have an impact on uh students of course. So, understanding short long-term changes uh to the formula and then inflation, labor shortages,
012uh being able to respond to that, making sure that our budget priorities are aligned to the blueprint. So, we're supporting our strategic plan through this work. The uh budget is always the numerical representation of our mission, vision, and values. And uh nowhere is that more apparent than in this conversation about where we're looking relative to support uh into next year. We still plan to support the programs that are a part of that planning process that's done collaboratively in our community. We want to make sure we're understanding the economic climate and recognizing that and then outlining our short and long-term priorities for our investments in district facilities while complying with the tax cap and understanding the long-term implications of that compliance relative to financial planning. We really feel like through this process, so the various budget
013forms we've had and the other opportunities to gather feedback that this presentation uh this preliminary budget is responsible, respectful, and responsive. So responsible in terms of long-term implications, responsible with caution. We think we're taking what I would refer to as a responsible risk uh relative to long-term planning, respectful of the feedback we've gotten from uh people in the community, understanding their concerns, and responsive to those things that they have brought up both in the community budget survey in terms of programs that people would like to prioritize. And again, the current challenges that people have faced in town relative to the potential for changes to assessment, which of course we know now the town has decided not to to um implement. Our priorities strategically then boil down to minimizing the tax impact respecting current financial conditions,
014optimizing our resources to support program, make sure we're looking at future options for fiscal sustainability, balancing our long-term needs with the long-term fin our immediate needs with long-term financial health and making sure that we engage our stakeholders in the budget process which we certainly have had a lot of engagement. the quick summary of the preliminary budget as it stood. Right? So where we were recognizing our spending throughout this process and we explained to people these are essentially our cost increases and the most important numbers on the screen are to recognize that our expense increase in the salary wage area. So that doesn't mean everybody's salary is going up necessarily by that amount but the total spending in that area is $1.7 million. The increase to benefits which is largely health insurance but employee benefits. So
015that covers all of the range of benefits, health insurance, and the other payments that are made on their behalf relative to the retirement systems that were build for come out to an increase of $2.9 million. So $4.6 million in people alone. Other cost increases also, but th those are the primary drivers. We lean into that. We don't lean away from that. We should be supporting people because they are the program, right? We don't have program for children without supporting the people that are delivering that program. That is and should be our largest expense and our largest increases. The problem is we only have $1.8 million in new revenue expected. $600,000 in foundation aid and $1.2 million in new property tax levied money based on a budget that will be under the tax cap. Can't say
016that enough times. So $1.8 in new revenue and a total of $4.6 million in people cost, right? Program cost increase going into next year. So, we had a pretty big gap to close, right? And so, what did we do? One, we looked at increasing revenue. You know, we can't wave a magic wand and discount a price or get our product in more places, whatever it is that people on the business side would have to do to raise revenue. We had to continue to reconcile our categorical. So, those are the things that we get reimbursed for to make sure that we have those revenues coming in next year and look for any other opportunities for reimbursements. Evaluate short-term revenues. So any kind of investment income and what can we count on long term for that, right?
017That's a one-year issue as well. And utilizing our current resources really as a temporary financing source. So looking at the use of reserves. This is the take money out of your savings account for a rainy day. It's raining. What do you do about that? Utilize those resources uh to mitigate changes in program and hopefully soften that impact over a period of time when there are less revenues. Reduce expenditures. That's a big piece of it for us is how can you then reduce spending. So trying to maximize your revenue but then reduce your spending. So we've evaluated the use of our current resources to purchase one-time expenditures. So things at the end of this year that we can purchase now that are one-time expenses. Furniture perhaps is a really good example of that. So we have
018to replace a certain amount of classroom furniture every year. If you have money at the end of the year from last year's expenditures, when we talk about Lou reconciling, that's this process of seeing, okay, we have a little bit left in an equipment line or in furniture. Now is the time to purchase that. We can pull that out of next year's spending plan. We can purchase it this year. Defer expenditures to future budgets. So, I'll give you similar example. We don't have onetime revenue to pay for something, but we know next year is not the year to outfit a classroom with a new set of furniture. We could squeeze one more year out of that furniture. Let's do that. not purchase it next year, defer that for the following year. And that happens in a
019lot of uh areas around uh equipment in particular uh to kind of defer those expenses. Reduce services, right? That's really the the the last priority along with reducing program and opportunities. And reducing services can take a lot of different forms. Things like reducing the amount availability for space to be open, which is a cost in the evening. uh those those types of options. Looking at transportation, what can you do uh to modify your system a little bit a little bit around the edges as a service and then the programs and opportunities is really exactly what it sounds like looking at what we offer kids as the last place that we ever want to go um in terms of closing that gap. So where we've left that now is an increase in salaries and wages that
020was at 3.88% that's now 1.7.4%. The employee benefit line now is 8.71%. Boseies up 2.75% supply services 4.83 debt transfer uh 24.73 but obviously a smaller total amount uh larger percentage. Where does that go? Again looking at the blue and the green and I'd say a little bit of the tan as well. That is the people cost right? So salaries, wages, employee benefits, benefits, payroll. The Bosei special ed is paying for program but with people in the Boseis area. Bosey's all other other mixes in also with administrative expenses. But if I was going to say purely what is people threearters of this pie people and that is program, right? That is the service that we're providing uh to students. So if you're trying everything you can to stay out of reducing that it's really tricky
021to do because it makes up a large portion of our spending supply services that's made of of contract transportation additional special education services utilities uh maintenance etc insurance and uh and maintenance. If you take a look at the updated revenues and recommended use of reserves since the last time we spoke to you, the biggest change uh to take a look at is the appropriated fund balance number. We're looking uh next year to be using 3.25. That's up $500,000. And the use of reserves will go up overall reserves from 1 million to 1 uh25, which is a $250,000 increase. So a 25% increase. And that is just utilizing our reserves that are designated for other purposes. For example, retirement reserve. uh for uh taking part of that expense out of the budget, funding it instead of
022through uh the levy and those other aids through the use of reserves. But again, that has an impact. That bill will not go away. We still will have to pay that um in future years. And of course, pointing out again that property tax uh levy number of 2.03, which is not exceeding not exceeding the property uh tax cap um in in our community. Really important also for people to realize that that gap that continues to be a challenge for us between the levy and the consumer price index. So simply put, when you go into Waggman's, when you go to the gas station, when you pay your utility bill, the increased cost that people are facing could generally be summarized as about 3.71%. And there will be somebody that will correct me relative to what's in
023the consumer price index, right? There are particular set of commodities and products, services that are included in that index. But generally, if we just assume it is supposed to represent the cost for us to buy things, to pay for things, yet our revenue relative to foundation aid is only going up 2%. So that gap between 2% and the 3.71% uh cost increase is really something to be thinking about. We are not getting any other revenue that will close that gap. In fact, the foundation aid number is going up just less than 3%. So, we're not even approaching what every other cost increase is in people's lives. Our revenue is not keeping up with that, and it hasn't now for several years. The cap calculation is different in every school district based on a variety of
024factors. Uh, it will net $1.2 million next year. Again, it is 2.03% and we are not exceeding the property tax cap. I know I keep saying it, but it's important for people to know. Where did we reduce that expense on the program side or the people side? We have done everything possible to make reductions that will have an impact on humans and we recognize that. I don't want to minimize that to the point of sounding obtuse or callous that we don't understand the human impact and it will have an impact on programs that I would refer to as uncomfortable um unfavorable undesirable but it does not mean that we are devastating program right these are things that we would like to be doing that we think we should be doing that we would otherwise if
025there was revenue to support it be proposing to you to spend money on as responsible expenditures but we realize in this current moment that if we are going to be responsive and continue to reflect what's currently happening economically. We have to make these reductions. So, we are looking at a class size adjustment of one section that we had previously budgeted for. That will have an impact on class sizes as well. Our ENL mandated services, we're looking at I'm sorry, we are adding one section. We needed to add more than one section. In the preliminary figures, it was more than one. We're adding one section. We are adding 1.6 six in ENL, English as a new language. Those are mandated services and those are required services that we need to provide uh for students. We are
026adding one special education position but that is a position coming from Bosei. So reducing the Bosey's expense because we can do it more efficiently by adding this particular uh position to the budget. We are reducing the K5 math specialist position that is happening through attrition through retirement K through8 special subject areas in a variety of places pieces pieces so reducing 1.0 to 0.9 or 0.8 and through a variety of areas reducing uh 050 overall. So you can see that's over all a wide variety of different subject areas, special subject areas. Release time for instructional leaders. They have performed an incredibly valuable service in our curriculum instruction area, providing leadership, working very closely with Dr. Rio. It is important for those positions at some point to be reinstated to continue to advance the work. I I
027want to be clear with our community and with all of you, these are very very important positions. But if we have to make a choice between the importance of this position, these positions and that leadership and programs for kids, we had to make a strategic decision that we need to hold off on these positions right now. There will be a long-term impact if we are not able to reestablish some of those leadership positions. Um it is just a reasonable expectation in a high performing organization that we have people that can keep advancing that work, but it is not necessarily reasonable when we're facing this particular dilemma. So that's why we're making that reduction. Uh we are looking at uh then a change in the pair professional area. In the vast majority of cases, these positions,
028there are over 10 positions cited in this proposal are going to be reduced through freezing right now where we have vacancies or where we are anticipating attrition attrition in particular positions. The point being, we're not talking about people uh necessarily, I can't guarantee it 100%, but that people will be necessarily laid off. We have several vacant positions right now that we will not fill. Uh which makes uh for a better situation relative to the people that are currently working in the organization. Slight addition in the school nurse area that is always based on need and coverage in building. The total allocation though to mention to you is a reduction of 11 58 positions overall in this budget which is what brings that spending in that area uh down to the point that we are proposing
029in terms of that enrollment issue and I mentioned to you the addition or the subtraction of positions at the elementary level. Uh we have currently 12 in kindergarten. We are do uh proposing right now 12 going into next year. 13 in first grade that will go down to 12. 12 in second grade will stay at 12. 11 and grade three will go up uh to 13 grade four 11 to 12 and grade 5 12 uh to 11 for a neck of one additional position. You can see though where class sizes anticipated right now have gotten a little bit higher than what we would like particularly at second grade third grade and anticipating for fifth grade. So we'll be starting at 22. Fourth grade at 21.4 is not fantastic either. If we went further in reducing
030positions on the far right column you can see classes in the 22 to 24 range in all but kindergarten that would certainly be a struggle and then if we were able to add teachers additional teachers where that would go down in each of those grade levels. These are not ideal particularly because we want to recognize that our community would like to maintain smaller class sizes and this does not necessarily meet that need. It doesn't entirely ignore it or exceed it because we certainly could have gone further. uh but it is not also similar to that instructional leader uh concept ideal and where we would want to in the future add back if it was certainly a possibility. We really think it's important to explain to people what they're getting though for their investment. I won't
031read all of these at you. We have them available in hard copy tonight. This will be posted on the website and our board members have copies of this as well. But our kids are doing really really really well. The investment is worth it in our opinion. The graduation rate is at 96% 98% of our students are earning a regent diploma and 67% with advanced distinction. One of the most impressive numbers is that 76% of our kids take at least one AP course and 88% of our kids plan to attend two or four-year colleges. Highly ranked in several areas by different organizations. An incredible number of athletic opportunities. 1500 roster spots across the district and 1,600 students in grades 4 through 12 participate in the arts. once again named a best community for m music education.
032Again, a variety of honors and awards uh for accomplishments in the STEM area and uh our habits of mind of course school of distinction. A a good I think benchmark in terms of how kids are doing is the number on the right hand side of your screen. In 2013 our graduation rate was 89% and I just said to you that it was 96%. And it is 96% for all kids with uh little fluctuation relative to groups of students where we had much larger gaps in the past. There shouldn't be any gap, right? We want all kids. We we think 100% should be across the board. But it's an impressive performance in gap closing measures that have taken place because of the work of our staff, because of the work of our leaders, because of the
033work of our instructional leaders, because of the commitment of our community to attend to the needs of every child. But it really is important that we continue to think about how do we support those things uh financially. And finally, in terms of extracurricular activities, which is a big part of this, keeping kids engaged. We have so many opportunities uh for our kids, and those clubs and activities are often recognized for their excellence in both engaging students in the high quality of work that they do. This is the topic that everybody loves to talk about each year, mostly because Lou is curious how I'm going to explain it. the uh equalization rate which in much greater detail we will talk about in the next presentation because right now a lot of the numbers are still relatively
034unknown given the uncertainty lately. The point of this though is that the town of Brain equalization before the pause on reevaluation would have been 100%. And the town of Pittsburgh remains at 57%. We don't know right now what the equalization rate will be going into next year. We're responsible and accountable for the tax levy but we are accountable for it for raising the tax levy but not property values but we know that it's really the impact on homes that matters most to people and understanding that so in the current year with that equalization rate at 65% in Brighton 66 in Pittsford uh we were looking at a rate of assessed value at a thousand for every thousand 2791 in Brighton 2750 in Pittsver and because of the assessment issue we only know the equalization rate
035right now looks to be 57 7% in Pittsver. So, we're looking forward to finding out more and having more detail on this slide when we make the rest of the presentation to you based on whatever data is available at that point. I think most people in town can assume most people in town can assume that because the levy will go up 2.03% that their bill will go up approximately 2.03%. and the rate per thousand will have to adjust appropriately to make that happen. But if the c if the entire levy is going up that much and if property values have not been reassessed, we will say that generally everybody should see about that similar increase. Of course, there'll be some fluctuation in that total spending proposal then of an increase of 5.45% in terms of
036spending, but a levy increase 2.03%. We believe it minimizes the tax impact, ensures that we have the resources needed to support our students, maintains fiscal stability, and continues to invest in programs and opportunities uh for our kids in this district. Our next steps, assessing the impact of the final state budget, which if it's on time, should be adopted by the end of this month. Do we have a sense that it will be on time? If it's on time, no, I'm just kidding. Uh we do not. Okay. We don't have a sense that it's not going to be other than it is March 25th, right? And uh we haven't been told that budget bills are printing. Um but there's sometimes grumbling if we know we're not going to hit I'm not hearing anything either way. So,
037you know, I do know in talking to our legislators, they continue to work awfully hard at getting it done. Uh but there really isn't interestingly movement where we're hearing either way that Yeah. Yeah. there, you know, well, they'll print them on Sunday or though they wouldn't print on Sunday, they'll print them on Saturday and then by Monday, not nothing like that. We're just really not hearing anything right now. So, not sure where that's landing. I do think there is some challenge that they're facing relative to understanding what is happening with federal funds, the unknowns on that. The unknowns and particularly Medicaid across the country is a big challenge for state governments. So, and there's a significant effort on behalf of the federal government to uh push some of that funding and that support back to
038states. That's one-third of the spending in the state of New York. So, I think that that's a a big challenge. We will then uh present to you uh the a finalized proposal on April 8th, budget hearing on the 13th, and the vote on the 20th uh here in this building 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. No arch and shaper spaghetti dinner, but I am hopeful that there will be food trucks again. We'll let you know what Kuanas says about that. Any questions for her? I'll just I'll I'll make a comment and um Karen might want to add to it. I I think the stark reality of what we're going to face over the next few years, not just this year, is if I take the 1.2 million tax levy impact and the 600 or so, and
039these are rough numbers, the actual exact numbers are on the website, that's 1.8. Our health care costs go up by two million. we start behind the eightball and that's going to be a similar situation every year uh for the next few years until a few things get resolved. Karen's on both legislative and district operations so you'll have a comment about that probably but this is something that we're going to it's going to be a constant problem to address for the board and the school leadership. I don't necessarily have much to add but you know I'll ring the bell that I've been ringing for a few years now. I still think that we need a legislative fix to the tax cap. I'm told again and again that this question is settled that the voters in New
040York State won't, you know, that that's just that's just accepted as is. Um but as it drives school districts into the ground over the next 5 to 10 years, I don't know if we'll continue to accept that a tax cap that is the inverse of the CPI. I I don't know how I don't know how we keep going. I don't know how anybody keeps going eventually. But I think that ultimately that's a legislative fix and there is a lot of cooperative efforts under Rash to try to lever the whole the whole Monroe County school districts to drive the best possible rates and I know Lou is part of that as well. Lou is a key figure in the leadership of that. Um and I think that they've done a really great job of having increases
041health insurance increases that are lower than the community rated plans and been way more efficient in public systems to do that. But the reality is the costs are escalating dramatically. One is we're self-insured so there's use, right? And so just in a given year when there are illnesses and that doesn't mean in our district, this is across the entire health care system. And then the increased use of pharmaceuticals, particularly popular pharmaceuticals that are very very expensive are driving that number and significant challenges because of the inflation reduction act that they're having on healthcare across the country. So that that number increase and the changing face of healthcare that we expect to be dramatic over the next several years to your point $2 million increase and only $1.8 million in new revenue to cover everything and
042that's just in health insurance alone. So yes a significant challenge and that idea of you know CPI and being and a tax cap number being so far off is is really illogical. If people are paying more for everything else, it would seem to make some logical sense that the cost of providing a really valuable integral service would increase at some similar rate. We wish it was zero. We're all paying it too, right? Nobody wants to pay more. Uh but there needs to be a reasonable approach to that if we're going to continue to support great systems and the kind of experience we want our kids to have. Last comment I'll make is uh greatly appreciate both yourself and Lou and uh the school board members and I'll say this on behalf of the school board.
043Uh for all of the members of our community who showed up at the budget forums we had. Um there was some great spirited debate and we heard a lot of feedback. Some of it wasn't easy to hear but we heard a lot of feedback and we appreciate people who take the time to come in and do that with us. It makes us better when we get that feedback. So our thanks to the community who showed up. thought the dialogue was excellent actually and challenging and good and that should be what it is in a democracy and we can do that respectfully and thoughtfully and I was really uh pleased I agree with you that kind of participation is really really good and uh to reiterate he he doesn't want to hear it but his leadership
044financial leadership makes all the difference so thanks Luke for that anything else from the board for Dr. Go. I was going to echo the same sentiment and just say that, you know, we speak about it so easily, but the board members study this and go over this and we get a lot of education and ask a lot of questions, which is why those budget forms are really important because it's not intuitive. And so, as a community member, it doesn't always make sense the first time you see it. And so, coming to the budget forums and asking questions, um, Lou, Dr. Dr. McGawan, everyone's very like willing to answer and talk about it to help understand it because it it does come across as complex and these are challenging and very fickle times. Thank you. Thank
045you. Uh next up we have principal reports and I am excited to report that we apparently have an upgrade in the speaker presentations for the high school principal reports. So I will defer to the high school first. Thank you. Thank you very much, President. So before I introduce several wonderful uh students who are on two of our exchanges this year, just want to celebrate uh I won't go through every item here, sent this out to our Brighton community, but on Brighton believes day this month on March 12th, our students pretty much except for the drives we had that were about a week long um did incredible work in about 45 minutes to an hour of volunteer time. uh, 1100 students putting their efforts together with several clubs and teams and um, uh, grade levels uh,
046uh, classes that sponsored our Bright and BLES activities and completed all of these wonderful service projects for our greater Rochester community. Several things right in Brighton and the Rochester area. So just impressive as far as the amount of good that was done on that Bright and BES day and I'm very excited about that. Um, and many did come out for the dodgeball game, too. And we're cheering on the high school, which we took third this year. I don't remember who did first or second. Uh, but, uh, the high school took third. That's right. Some great members of the audience noticed who may have won. Our seniors took first. I'm not sure about second. Anyway, so I just want to say it's right here. Thank you. I'm gonna turn it over. We have So, the board,
047you know, and you heard about Dr. Dr. McGowan talking about all the extracurriculars that we offer. We do offer four exchanges to Spain, France, Germany, and Israel. And we had two exchanges go out uh over the February break. Um and we have several students tonight. I don't think Axe is here, but Ashton, James, Maria, and Caitlyn will talk a little bit about their experiences while they were in Germany in Bremen. Uh Hikah Geger Frag Geer is their adviser. She couldn't be here tonight, but they're going to do an awesome job. So, I'm going to have them come up and through their presentations, the pictures they're going to share, and they know, you know, we're on a time crunch, but I and for as long of a day and all the work that they have to
048complete, I appreciate that they've come here tonight to do this, but how different um are you now compared to before you left? What did you learn? And why are these trips important? and they're going to highlight architecture, art, families, the cultural experience in general, and the food and all the wonderful things that they learn. So, okay. So, if you just take a look, this is just a quick summary. The trip has been in progress since 1981. It's one of our longest uh uh standing trips. go to Bremen, Germany, but see all sorts of other areas in Germany, live with families. Uh this year, Dr. uh Guyger took two chaperons, Barry Rogamo and Don Vgari, and 22 high school students. Uh four of whom are here tonight to share with you the language, the families, the
049food, the history, the art, and the architecture. So, hi. Um I'm Kaitlyn. Um so, I'm going to be talking about kind of like the school experience. It was actually really interesting. We followed around our students at school and then we went home with them. It was super interesting to get to talk to the teenagers there. We kind of learned more cultural stuff about being a teenager in Germany and we got to do a lot of public transportation which was super fun um because we don't have a lot of that here and it was definitely a learning experience um dealing with how to do that on and off and paying for tickets and stuff. Um, one thing I definitely realized while I was in Germany was that I knew more German than I thought I actually
050did. Um, so it's made me a lot more confident in my classes and with answering questions uh than I was before. All righty. Uh, I'm Maria. So pictured here are some of the places our whole group visited. So both the Germans and the Americans. So we walked around the old city and Raymond Hoffen as pictured there. Um, so we obviously had loads of opportunities to talk in German and test our skills there as well. So my personal favorite was the old city as we were able to see multiple landmarks we studied in class in person. And so this was really exciting as we were able to see the knowledge in class being applied in real life which is definitely a plus. And then for me I really gained awareness about German culture and how people
051our age can live very different lives uh in different parts of the world. And so obviously I don't want to use the term uh like world culture shock or anything because obviously I feel like our school district does a great job in educating our students about the different cultures in the world. But I feel like uh experiencing this in real life really does add a plus in um the school curriculum. Okay, I'm back. So, while we were in um Braymond in Berlin, we ate a whole bunch of really good food. Um we took some pictures at uh a couple restaurants we went to and it was really interesting to see the food culture in Germany. Um meals are like a really big thing. So, there was music and dancing and everybody was having a super
052fun time and it was really fun to participate in that. And I think it was really valuable because, you know, you can learn about the language in class, you can learn about the history in class, but you don't, you know, somebody tells you something tastes good and you don't really care because you don't you haven't tasted it. So, being able to try authentic stuff, um, that was made in Germany was just really delicious and really fun. All right. Hi, everybody. I'm James Jr. and I'm going to talk about some of the places that we visited like the big landmarks. Um, pictured there we have the Berlin Dome, the Brandenburg Gate, Charlottenberg Palace, and like the main Oldtown Square in Braymond. Um, these are all like really unique to experience as a high school student surrounded
053by friends. It's a really positive experience. Um, I was there. there. I was able to immerse myself in the different culture of Germany and learn how a German family actually lives and like get a much stronger connection to the language and country. The trip also helped me like grow as a person. Going so far out of my comfort zone has helped me become more confident on my own skin back home and the amounts of experiences and memories have let me grow into myself better and just, you know, enjoy life more on a whole. Uh I'm Ashton. Uh up there we saw like many different landmarks. Uh before we went to Braymond with our host families, we went we were in Berlin. And the one in the middle that's Nefertiti and that was uh like in
054a museum and that was like one of the cool things that we saw. And down in the lower left that's uh the symbol of Raymond. Yeah. The Hazel Brook. Yep. And uh it was like if you rub a certain part of it then uh you'll have good luck for the rest of the day. And then like being immersed in their culture was one of the big things that like I took away from it. I had a lot of time to reflect on myself and like being the first time out of the United States pretty much and it was a cool experience with friends that I knew and then like meeting the families was fun too. That was mine too. Fun architecture. So, we also saw a bunch of like buildings while we were exploring. And
055that was also cool to feel immersed and like really see that there's a whole other world out there too, like besides just here because we're so used to that and like just a different culture and feeling. a part of that. Great. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um so while the our German students were in Germany enjoying their time uh with friends and family, uh our French students were off to Paris and then to Ren. Um Dagy couldn't be here tonight, but Jacob, Natalie, and T are here. and Madame Bay is one of the adviserss. Hi, my name is Jessica Bay. I'm one of the French teachers at Brighton High School. Um I advise the Ren Exchange, which is our um school to school exchange with a French high school called Lis Seven in Ren.
056Um I had the privilege to share 37 students, French students, two Spanish students as well with Dr. all um Laura Burn who is a science teacher and uh Christy de Blaze who interprets at the middle school. Um and I just want to thank you all for letting um us have this opportunity to uh travel with the students. Um there are a lot of high schools that do do not um support that. So, thank you very much. And I'm gonna let them talk. So, one of the big things was the language immersion and I thought it was really cool to um we got to sit in on their classes and um like see how the like how it was so much different from here. How the um how different the kids act with the um teachers
057and like just the way the classroom looked different. And um I just loved like being able to like hear like French around me. And I realized I knew so much more than I thought I did. And I like everyone there was so nice and like help me practice um my French. Um and I spoke a lot of French at home and um my mom speaks French and I called her one of the nights and I spoke to her only in French and she was so shocked by how much I had learned. It was three days in and she was so shocked with how much I'd learned. Um, I also feel like I it was just like I realized like how much bigger the world is than Brighton. Um, and I feel like in Brighton like
058um there's like a like with like like the kids there's like a big stress on like grades and I realized that like there are other things in life and like things that are also important. Um, There we go. So, that's on the top right is um me with my um host girl Lola and her sister in St. Maro. Um they were like just est people ever. And um I felt so welcomed by them. And there were a lot of like differences. Um they eat dinner. We had dinner at 10:30 p.m. That is past my bedtime. Um thank you. Um I feel like the trip just be helped me be more passionate about like learning new things about the world and learning about languages and like wanting to actually like really speak French. And I like
059love communicating with people that way. Um, and I feel like this trip helps people to not only like realize the world is bigger and brighten, but it like helps people care about the world like um things like well the first thing that came to mind is like climate change. Like if you see how like cool the world is like don't we want to save it? Like um yeah and it was so cool to be able to live with other people like France and their food. Wow. It is just such a big cultural aspect of France. And I'm sure everyone's well aware of their signature dishes from um ralet to like uh the esargo which I did have. And it's trips like this that make me realize that it might seem so different, but it's so
060good. It really is. And like I got to eat dinner with and lunch and breakfast and they eat breakfast every day um with my family and it was just such a great experience and from the bakeries on every corner. It's just amazing to see how incorporated food is into their life and like it feels like such a big part. And like everyone knows that France and their food, but like seeing it is just really incredible. And being able to like try the food that they eat every day, um, sorry, makes you really connect with these people. And I think that culturally, um, even though the world seems so divided, um, being able to just share a meal with these people in person can really connect across the world. Uh hello. Hello everyone. Uh my name
061is Jacob. I'm a sophomore at Brighton High School. Uh the history, I mean, where do I even get started? France has seen some of the biggest aspects of history in the world. From the French Revolution to World War II, it seems like France is always in the middle of it. Uh we visited the World War II Museum, uh the D-Day Museum. We also visited uh Omaha Beach as well as the um se United States cemetery in near Omaha Beach. We also visited Parliament in the community in Britannia and also the Palace of Versailles. And it was really cool experience to see all these different famous monuments and things like the Eiffel Tower and the architect triumph in person and all these things that we talk about in high school. It's just like a once in
062a lifetime experience to see. Oh, sorry to mention. I am T. I'm a junior at Brighton High School. And um the art is another big part of France and the museums we were able to see um artwise was the Louv as everyone knows and um or which were both just amazing. And in those museums, we didn't just see French art. We got to see art from all around the world, from all parts of history. And seeing it was kind of it was just being able to like live through history in a way that you can't read in a book. Like I got to see Hammurabi's code in person. That is just a lifetime experience that like I can read about it and every day. And just being able to see things like that in person
063are really impactful. And art is such a like an expression of culture and feelings and being able to see how other cultures interpret it. And we had lovely tour guides who walked us through it. And it was just really um educational. Okay. Last but not least, uh architecture. So we saw the Eiffel Tower, the Arctic Triumph, the um the Louv and all these pieces of architecture are like some things that I would dream about seeing in my life. And just seeing it in person and seeing it with these wonderful group of people that I traveled along with was just such a unique experience because of just the way that we were all able to connect and all able to enjoy such a wonderful experience that you the board and also our teachers have provided. Um,
064also being on that being on this trip, we sort of set aside all of our differences and sort of all we created like a family of just people that were all just enjoying the unique experience of France. And just being able to uh see these people for 10 days and always have everyone with a smile on their face is something that I probably will never forget. I think that's it. So, I really appreciate learning this come tonight and you know they're incredible groups. Uh we've I've taken a lot of trips to Europe and this particular French group was probably one of the best. No complainers or whiners. They did everything we asked them to do and Frag Guyer said the same thing about the German trip. So I don't know if you have any questions.
065This is just my favorite Dr. Hall selfie with the Eiffel Tower. That was a fun night. That was climbed every step of the Eiffel Tower to get up. Very nice. No elevators for us. I would I just make I make one comment which is it's one thing to be able to provide it. We are proud and happy to do so. It's a whole another thing um to have the courage that all of you students did to say I'm going to go fly somewhere where I don't have the native tongue and go do that and spend time with people and just sit and listen and be present in the culture. So good for all of you that you were willing to do that because that's the very definition of being outside of your comfort zone. So
066good for all of you. That's really impressive. Well, and as I told the students, I mean, part part of sharing that with you tonight is just to say thank you to the board, Dr. McGawan, Mr. Lammo, like for allowing us to take such trips, you know, when many schools have just done away with that, especially after co. So, I'm going to leave it to that. We have kind of a short month of activities. Uh, superintendent day this Friday, spring recess, and then uh we're on to a district day of dance. Cruising right along. I was asked to pass along a message from Dr. Hall that if anybody here needs to do homework tonight, they are welcome to leave now before the rest of the principal reports. Thank you all. Mr. Tim, that's anybody who's in
067high school. Great job. But Principal Tampen, since you're up, why don't you head right over there? Good evening. How are you all? All right. So, uh, last time I presented, we were on the eve of Judge Van White coming to, uh, present. So, these are just a couple of pictures to show what Sunset actually looked like. We did have a couple of tears because Sunset was rather large. Um, but then they were able to pet Sunset uh, and hear about the book. And then I did a video readaloud because he wasn't actually able in the time that we allowed to read the book. He just gave some highlights uh and then the kids were able to. But we had a really good time. The kids loved it. Uh and definitely learned the message of the
068book, which is don't judge a book by its cover. Uh really get to know someone. So uh we celebrated uh the urban suburban family reception. These are just uh p one picture. It was a great crowd. It was so great to have so many people there uh breaking bread and celebrating. Uh and then these were four of our students who were given the Brighton believes awards uh during that night. Um so it was really great to have their families be able to be there with us. We had the Black Student Union members from the high school come to read the Council Rock on ReadAcross America Day. Uh again, another highlight uh to see our younger kids just looking in awe at our older students at like superheroes. So great to see them. So, we've been
069celebrating all month music in our schools month and our uh two music teachers have done a great job of getting special guests to come. So, the first one that we had was the Creekide Steel Drum Band um visiting Council Rock. We've had them before. It was incredible and it was really special this year because we had a former Council Rock alumni come back who the story is Simon uh is up there on the right hand side. Simon uh is at Creekide and he tried out the year before and his mom had told me this um and he didn't make it because he was talking too much during the audition and he was really sad about it and he went home and said, "I'm going to make it next year and I'm going to work on
070making sure I'm listening and following the directions." And he did and it was so incredible. Um so several of his former teachers who since retired came back to see him. Mola was there. Uh, Missfini was there. A lot of people who had a part have had a part in his journey. And it was just so great to see him. He was happier than I've ever seen him playing those steel drums. And it really is an amazing experience to watch these different students all just doing amazing things and making music together. So, it was a really special experience for a lot of us. Um, for our kids as well. They didn't maybe get the significance of Simon coming back, but it was really, really great. Uh we also had the TCMS brass ensemble come over uh
071with a couple of guests that joined. So um Mrs. Davis joined on trumpet and I joined on the French horn uh to play our council rock uh song. Um but really the highlight was our Mr. Perez who is the middle school band teacher and four incredible brass instrument players uh featured there in the center. So it was great to see them and there are kids just loving it. Um it's again opportunity to see what is to come. Uh we have lots of great music at Council Rock, but not necessarily instruments yet or things like that. So really a great chance for them to see what is going to come for them in the future. Our PTSA had the first ever sweetheart dance uh on February 28th. It was incredibly attended. Uh it was for second
072grade. Concessions were sold and kids danced and had a great time. Um, so I'm sure it's going to be an event that will become an annual event uh as we move forward. Bright and believes day. So we had two different projects. We had uh students making letters to future whatever grade level they were. So the kindergarteners for future kindergarters, the first graders for future first graders, telling them what they were going to love about that that we will save and share. And then also for uh local nursing homes, just some cheering up cards. Um so everyone made a card uh for someone. Uh and those will be distributed as we move forward. Well, the district dodgeball happened and I see something represented up there. Um I see it. I see it. So Council Rock had
073a little bit of a light showing so we did join uh with the Champion central office team, many of whom are sitting straight up there. So, we were very happy to partner uh with that. What a great night. And behind the camera, Bill Moore. Oh, yeah. Killer Bill. Killer Bill Mo. Y um it really was great and our kids I know council I know all the kids love it, but our council rock kids get such a kick out of it and really enjoy it and we heard such great things from families. So, uh so in the priority area for equity, uh we did begin our partnership with Boseies. I know the other buildings have done this. Kyle presented um uh the beginning the first session of uh professional de development on inclusive language protocol and
074actually our school-based equity team will review the feedback from that and start to talk about what next steps are at our meeting this Thursday. Our ESP team kind of chose a path. We were a little bit like we weren't sure what we were doing besides helping with this. So um from the inspiration of our opening day speaker um from Greece, we really agreed on one conversation at a time and challenging ourselves to come back and report who did you talk to? What did you talk about? Seeking out those people who might not have the exact same belief system as ours and just asking questions and being listeners and then talking about what that impact has um you know moving forward. And then our second graders, I've talked about this before, our civil rights unit um
075within Wit and Wisdom, but we have two or three classrooms also um adding the local pilot um that talks about Constance Mitchell, who was a freedom fighter here in Rochester. So, they will do that following the civil rights unit um for to to kind of test it out and then with the hope that all of our second graders uh next year will um will be experiencing that unit. So, we're really excited about that. Upcoming events, we've got our openhouse and ice cream social. Um, a note, please, that we are starting with second grade, then going backwards to first grade, and then kindergarten. Um, so they are the 8th, the 9th, and the 10th of April. Uh, schedules will be sent out. Classrooms will be open from 6:30 to 7:15. You'll be able to get ice
076cream before, ice cream after. You'll be able to go to the book fair um that will be in the motor room in the hallway. So, lots of great things to look forward to that. Uh, we've got superintendent conference day coming up this Friday. Report cards are sent via parent square the following Friday. Those ice cream socials, spring break, when we get back, uh, Council Rock has its own bus driver appreciation day where we celebrate the amazing drivers uh, and aids on our bus buses. And then Brighton Central School District Red Wings Day is at the end of April. So, lots of exciting things coming up as hopefully spring continues to spring. Thank you very much. Any questions for Principal Tapper? Colleen. Good evening. We've had a very busy month of March. Um, several of the
077same things. Oops. jump ahead of everything. Um, similar to Council Rock, um, starting in March, we had the festival festival of ideas. It was a high energy, very packed, um, middle school, lots of fun classes. I got to walk around with Diana as well as Danielle, and we really got to see the kids just living their best life and decorating cookies and learning how to scuba dive and throw um, paper airplanes. This group right here was doing nail art with teacher Mazerowski and they were designing their own um pictures and using the hammers and the strings. So, there's a lot of great things happening that day. Uh much like u Mr. Tapen said, we had our urban suburban night and this is our opportunity that we also got to uh spotlight some of our kids
078and all the amazing Bright and Believe qualities that they demonstrate every single day. You could tell by their faces they're very excited about it as were their families. Bright and Believe's Day was full of lots of exciting things. We once again are working with Happy Birthday Chaa. As a school, we are working on a macaroni and cheese collection. For those not familiar with Happy Birthday Chaa, they provide birthday bags for families in Rochester, Buffalo, and I believe in Rome, um, New York. And they provide birthday bags that include birthday presents, um, birthday cake Oreos, macaroni and cheese, toothbrushes, underwear, socks, and things that kids the age as well as a book. So, we worked on the mac and cheese collection. Our fifth graders put quotes on every box just to bring a little joy to
079the families. Our third graders decorated all the birthday cards that go in those bags. And our fourth graders learned how to wrap presents. And that is quite an OT move. And of course, the gift set that were provided by Happy Birthday Cha were wild shapes and sizes. So, there was a lot of uh skill and strategy that had to go into that. But the kids had a great time. At the end of the day, we did bring all the macaroni and cheese down into the gymnasium. If you saw on any of the district social media pages, they did a giant domino in the cafeteria. Um, as a school, we collected 1,14 boxes. So, it was pretty amazing. The kids energy was great. Um, this is Carrie Green. She's the founder of Happy Birthday Cha. We
080are loading everything up the next day. So, it's just a nice way to give back and it's a great way for kids to connect to an organization in the community. Some other random fun things that happened in March, we had a third grader reach out to me and he wanted to start a cartooning club. So, I reached out to one of the art teachers, um, his art teacher, and I said, "Can we do a lunch bunch?" So, this is us doing a lunch bunch cartooning club. Um, we just met one day for lunch and talked about cartooning and creating our own cartoon books as well. Um, we've been getting the kids on the announcements with Black History Month at the end of February. We had kids on the announcements getting ready for um, the Happy
081Birthday Cha and Bright and Believe. You can tell with the phone in their hand, they're very excited to, you know, share their voice with whole school. And then top corner, we were picking our yearbook cover winners. So, that was very exciting. We did that one at one of our class meetings. So, you can see they're very excited to get a poster um of their yearbook covers that were selected and will be somewhere within the yearbook. This is my group of student council kiddos. We have two teams of student council kids. There's a big interest. We have about 66 kids. And in these pictures here, you see the kids getting ready for our Chugo 3 night. They will be hosting the parents in second grade going into third grade, giving them tours around the building, as
082well as playing bingo with our incoming second graders. So, it's nice just to see them shine and do some leadership um activities. So, here they're creating their scripts and their tour uh route they're going to do with the parents in the building. And it was that beautiful, beautiful day that was like 75 degrees. So, we decided to do a paper pickup and lost and found pickup out on the playground. and we picked everything up on our way to meet parents. So, it was nice to have them helped us with the school school grounds as we worked our way back to the front. Um, science was quite exciting this month as well. If you look at these pictures, you see a whole bunch of our fifth graders in different classrooms. They're trying to bring water from
083the floor up to the cup on the top of the table. We also were using water to show fresh water and contaminated water and everything that covers the earth's surface up in the picture that you see of the kids coloring the water. So, there's a lot of fun, a lot of hands-on, and a lot of joy in the classrooms this month. Back to dodgeball, we were not the winner, but we we did a good fight. Um, we did catch a ball at one point and bring the whole team back onto the court. So, that was pretty exciting. Um, you can see in the bottom corner, you have some middle school kids running up to see their teachers from beforehand. So, it's fun for families, students, and staff alike. So, I think we had a great
084turnout, and it was a lot of fun to be together with Fuzz staff. Um kicking off March 17th, we just celebrated in the green. We had green treats for staff down in the um office. Mr. Appleaps in the top and his wife and daughter are part of the Jameson Irish Dance Company and so they asked if they could come in and dance for our kids. So on Monday they came in, they did a couple little dances for our school. Well, it was just a great way to kick off a Monday and it was also nice just to have that schoolwide community meeting where we can come together and talk and um just celebrate as a student body. So, here are some of the smiles and fun that happened on March 17th. Uh last week we
085had our science and social studies fair. There were two nights of that. There was lots of leading, lots of learning, lots of messes, lot of fun things. You can see on the right hand side, we were learning how to make a bouncy egg and take the shell right off with one of our our families. We had oo that was all over the place. We had a bunny, we had slime, we had electricity, we had magnets, we had a whole bunch of great things. So, it was just great to watch the kids present and then the kids could walk around and also learn from their peers. So, it was a quick event and it was a huge turnout. I believe we had over a hundred families there. Little out of order. We had our district-wide strings
086concert and our kids were very excited to be part of this along with the rest of the district. You can see by the smiles and I think they did quite a great job. If you heard them, they were one of the first groups that went on before they were the combined group. Again, lots of smiles and a lot of joy for families and kids alike. Um, in March, we also had ReadAcross America Day. We had many different readers throughout the community. We also had many faculty across the district as well as the building reading to our students. And it's just nice opening the doors and having people come in and just talk to the kids, read with the kids, and engage with kids in ways they don't typically do on the day-to-day. And you can
087see the smiles are just as big on the readers as they were on the kids. Um, this month we also had a local dentist come in and do dental hygiene with our third graders. Uh, the third grade teacher said this has been one of the best groups they've had come in and engage with the kids. Really were able to get the kids up, moving around. You can see in the pictures, they had x-rays up there. They're learning about how to brush your teeth. There was a giant toothbrush and a giant jaw. Um, and they made their way around all of our third grade classrooms. So, that was a lot of fun. As well, as far as the equity work that we're doing at French Road, we're continuing to work on our restorative practices as well
088as our culture responsive practices. We've had a fantastic relationship with our um partners at Boseies, um, Kyle and Fetlanas. We work on an inclusive language protocol. We've been using that protocol a lot with our students and now we're in the initial phases of creating a protocol on how to have hard tricky conversations with kids to kids. So we'll be working on a protocol with the kids and we're going to be using a student group to help work on that protocol as well. So that's our next step and we'll be doing more of that work on Thursday with Kyle and Sat Lana. Um and then going towards the next month of April, it's hard to believe it's April already. Um we have our superintendence conference day on Friday, our report cards. moving right into spring break
089and into state testing. And then we'll end the month at Red Wings. And we're really excited to have our bands and chorus play and sing and perform. Um hoping for a non-s snowy night since it is in April. And then once we get into May, we'll be getting into all of our ice cream socials and a whole host of other things. So, it's been a very busy month and we're looking forward to a very busy April. Any questions? questions or comments for Colleen? Thank you very much, Danielle. Good evening. I think this is the first time you've ever made me go last in like three and a half years. It's the first time. Wow. I'm really nervous now. And yet you're going to do great. Thank you. I appreciate the the vote of confidence. Much
090of what we will share is similar to um what was shared for Council Rock and French Road because we share so many things in March. Um obviously districtwide music in our schools month. So many different events that started off really at the end of February with district strings. Uh TCMS had 170 students that participated in the district strings event. And then of course we had the uh New York State Band Directors Association conference and festival in Syracuse where TCMS had three students participate. Our midwinter concerts, 170 orchestra, again 188 chorus, 247 young students. When think of the fact that we have a little over 700 students in our building and you add up all those numbers, it's pretty um amazing the number of students that participate in our vocal and instrumental concerts each month. Coral
091Prism concert, 188 students participated. And then we're always uh excited and proud of our students who are chosen for all county selections. seven um we had seven band students, seven chorus students and 14 orchestra students in the seventh and eighth grades. And then we had three chorus, six band and two orchestra students in the sixth grade represent us as well. So so much going on in music in not only our building but in the district and the state. So it's uh makes us very proud. We of course uh celebrated Festival of Ideas as did um students from French Road and it's always exciting. I think one of the things that's um been neat for me to see over the last three years is I've seen an increase in numbers of students participating from the middle
092school. And that may be anecdotal, but perceptually that's what I see. I notice um and recognize more students in seventh and eighth grade participating. And I think that speaks to all of the opportunities that are within that day. um from dance and you know tick tock dances to henna tattoos to um baking cupcake decorating circus arts all of the things that are happening on those days. Um it's really fun and I love that I always get to uh spend the time with Miss Coggins entertaining the students for the first hour while they're getting ready to go to their sessions. But the in you could just feel the excitement in that auditorium. It it is literally buzzing as the students are waiting to be released to um their sessions. Bright and believe or I'm sorry, the
093kickball game, not kickball, dodgeball, dodgeball game. Um we had over 40 TCMS staff members that participated. So, um that's our biggest amount in the past few years and it ranged from TAS and building substitutes to clerical staff to safety uh team members to uh teachers in the and administrators in the building. And um I'm super proud of that. I think it speaks to the community that we're building with our staff um that it's it's not just teachers who are showing up that we are all in in all capacities. Um, but along with that came an enormous amount of middle school students. They were excited to see their French Road teachers, but they were really excited to cheer on their TCMS teachers as well. So, just a great community building event for TCMS all around. Um,
094we will win one of these years. I promise we will. You're a lot of people. We did. I know. Great participation. He's just Oh, it just started all year. Bright and believes Day of Caring wraps up. It wraps up a year-long initiative that we've done for the last two years. We've participated, I think, with four different senior living communities in or senior living communities within the Brighton area. Um and our home room over I think we have 38 home rooms that engage in pen pal communications with adults from senior living comm uh communities and uh they work all year. They communicate all year and then kind of this is the culminating event where the individuals who are acting as pen pals with our students actually come and visit us and um the PTSA does a
095really nice job of supporting coffee and tea and um different treats for everybody to sit and eat. We have representatives from the home room come down and sit with our visitors and then our visitors go back to the home rooms, meet with the students in an actual face-to-face arrangement. Our um our musical arts folks always provide really great music for us. There are some um some games that are played, but the folks that are not actively engaged in the pen pal project throughout the year, their role this year was they created um suncatchers. They had uh an entire activity. You can see some of the kids in the middle over there where they're creating these sun catchers and we were able to donate those to all of the local senior living communities. So, they have
096a little sunshine and brightness in um in their rooms. Lit in the library. continues to um just really hit it out of the park each month. This past month um we read a book called Fighting Words and um Miss McHusk, Miss Leel, and Miss Kramer were the ones who hosted it and this one actually took part in in two different uh editions. There was one that took part on March 7th, but there were some students who were absent that day that really wanted to participate in it. It's a pretty um it's a pretty powerful text with a a narrator who experiences real life scenarios that are very relative to to some of our students. Um and so just today uh the teachers made sure that they connected with those groups uh with that group of
097students that wasn't able to make it the first time around so they could engage in those in those conversations. So um I love to see that it's not just a oneshot deal. If you miss it, it's over. Um, it's a if you want to participate and you want to be a part of it, we're going to do everything we can to make it happen. So, kudos to Mrs. Lambert and our teachers uh who have been participating. We've got another one coming up this month that we look forward to. This is the time of year, March, when we have our science olympiad and E3 club competitions. This year, for the first time, um, in forever, I won't sing for you. Um, but for the first time, our students took fourth place out of 18 teams in
098the science olympiad and they are going to states to represent us. So, it's phenomenal. That will begin at the beginning of April. We're super excited. Kudos to Mr. and Mrs. Elkins for the work that they've done. Um, they have written different grants to get the materials that they need to support the students um with what they need to do all of the creative thinking and be as successful as they were. And then we had two students who placed in E3 club. We had a student who placed first um and a student who placed third. Um you can see Desmond and David in the middle there. So super exciting for them. Um and those programs just continue to grow. So we're excited for that. We just survived our annual I mean we just came back from
099our annual DC trip. So thankful that um the weather really held out. It was perfect as you can see. Just you know sweatpants and a sweatshirt. that's really all that people needed. Um, but the best of stories from all of the kids and all of the students and what feels really good in in the last two days, even over the weekend, is the um the messages that we've received from family members to just say, "My child absolutely had an amazing time. Thank you for making that happen." And I know I'm not foolish enough to think it has anything to do with the educational experience in DC. I know it's all about the time that they're together and they're building um bonds and just laughing and eating a lot of junk food and doing all of
100the things, but like the high school, we're super excited to be able to continue to um to provide that trip or to offer that trip and and thank you for supporting that. While that was going on, we also had about 45 to 50 students in each of the days who participated in what we called our hometown exploring activities. So um there were people who were unable to go on the DC trip for a variety of reasons and we made sure that they were able to part or have their own experience here. Um the first day they went to Menden Ponds Park and they did uh you can see in the bottom right there I think at one point one of the teachers texted me and said can you believe there are 35 seventh graders absolutely
101silent as they were standing and waiting for the birds to come and eat off of their hands. Um and the videos that I have their faces are absolutely priceless. So, um, they had that one day and came back and did a variety of activities at school from movie watching to trivia. Miss Joerger and Miss Cunningham, who organized the two days, made like these trivia contests at the end of each day that took in all aspects from all of the things that they did during the day. There were some competitions. They made some fun out of it. Um, they also students went over to the maker space at the high school. They did some artwork in the in the library. They also did some virtual reality opportunities where they were able to explore Washington DC with
102their virtual reality headsets. Um on the second day they went to the zoo and then on the third day they went to Jennese Valley Country Museum because the um the SAP is running so it's perfect time. I think Maple Weekend started last week it kicked off. So they were able to get that right right at the beginning. So great days. A lot of work went into both of those. DC trip and the hometown exploring, but great experience for all of our seventh graders. Speaking of the SAP running, um I don't know if you know, but Mr. Richman uh is one of our teachers at TCMS and he is a regular old Renaissance man. He kind of dabbles in everything. He forests mushrooms. He has honey, you know, gets honey, harvests honey. Um he also has
103a sugar shack on his property. uh and each year uh he is gracious enough to offer it up to our students to come and learn about the entire process from soup to nuts um of uh developing and making maple syrup. So our Aspire students went out on the 18th and spent the day out there. They were able to taste some great treats and uh just enjoy the outdoors as well with their teachers. Lots of other things that are always going on. Um science, this is like the highlight of the year, right? and they do the uh static electricity unit. I don't know who that girl is but her hair is flowing great. Um we also had uh we celebrated Holi where one of our student teachers um celebrated the start of spring in India. She
104brought in colored scarves and did an educational piece. You can see all the students that were there in attendance. Um underneath that we've got Paul who's one of our security guards who's sitting in a sixth grade class engaging in a lesson on growth mindset. Um you know he's right side by side working with the kids. They see him. They're laughing with him um doing the activities. So great again community building there. And then all the way on the right one of our student teachers happens to play the bag pipes. So um on St. Patrick's Day, he greeted all of our students as they exited the building um with some fine music. So, lots going on. Um lots about building community and just being together and enjoying our time together. And that goes into the work
105that we're doing uh with equity. Um our school-based equity team is focusing on disproportionality and discipline this year. So, we've got some recommendations already to make moving forward. We continue to focus on our sense of belonging with our homebased lessons. We've uh I've talked about it before, activated total student participation in our culture and climate committee so that every student truly has a voice, not um just those who elect to. Um we continue to make those curricular and extracurricular connections with students. We too are continuing our work with the inclusive language protocol. Um we're f we're focusing on our tier one and two uh interventions at the resto in focused around restorative practices. We're collaborating with the RMC to provide increased access to our mental health supports as well as professional learning around trauma-informed practices
106for the adults in our building. Uh we continue our work around MTSS practices to remove barriers for students be they uh behavioral or academic. We uh Miss Charlton and Miss Peters have done a phenomenal job this year of really working on increasing opportunities for reverse inclusion in our building and we continue to um do collaboration and professional learning on unit design work with uh underneath um Dr. Rio that's both rigorous and relevant to our students and their course of study. So, lots going on there. This week, yesterday started spring sports at the middle school. So, that's always an exciting time for us. We have conference day on Friday. Uh, map testing and state testing are right around the corner, as is the end of the third marking period. Um, believe it or not, all of
107a sudden, concert season comes back on us again, spring before we even know it, as well as spring recess. And then the big eighth grade spring dance is on the 26. So, we're all excited about that. Questions for Danielle. Daniel, can you um explain what reverse inclusion is? Sure. It's opportunity. Diana, do you want to explain it better than I do? Reverse inclusion. I think you could probably reverse an opportunity. We also think about inclusive experiences for students in their special education, their self-contained classes to go to another general education setting activity in in a building. Reverse inclusion is an opportunity for education students to come into the self-contained setting to experience the same same general education curriculum in some cases but within that in that setting. Um, a great example might be um an
108AP class. So that a student um would be receiving their PE curriculum, their PE class, but within maybe a smaller class setting, smaller environment where some of our students might be receiving their physical education instruction. Thank you. Thanks. I did not share also and I I I'll put it in my uh April update, but um Eleanor is coming to present on Thursday to all of our eighth graders and she's going to talk about her her father's time in Japanese intermenting camp. So, um she'll be presenting at the end of the day on Thursday for all of our eighth graders to learn more about that. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh, next couple of resolutions are going to are related rather to the upcoming budget process and budget approval process as much as we talk
109about budget all the time. We're really going to be talking about budget all the time throughout April and May. So, first up is the approval of election inspectors for the 2025 2026 annual budget vote and election. We've uh previous look at that list. Any questions or comments about that list? Motion to approve those inspectors. So moved. Moved by Elder. Second. Seconded by Carlin Lynn. All those in favor? I. And uh as importantly, an actual approval of the resolution authorizing the annual budget vote and election, which is going to be on Tuesday, May 20th. Questions with regards to this resolution? Motion to approve. So moved. Moved by Susan. Second. Seconded by Esther. All those in favor. We have here a consent agenda which includes personnel changes, uh some fundraising activities, uh field trip approvals, uh just
110really great to hear from the high school kids in this situation on their field trips. That was a great idea. And then a great number of gifts, and it is our practice to read each of the gifts. So, I will do that now. A gift in the amount of $2,500 to the Brighton Central School District to bring the play Survivors to 12 Corners Middle School for the eighth grade class to see. A gift in the amount of $1,200 to the Brighton Central School District to bring author Alicia Cleass to Council Rock Primary School. A gift in the amount of $54123 to the Brighton Central School District for two feltight wall-mounted game boards for checkers, tic-tac-toe, and chess. and a storage cart for the TCMS library. A gift of a lined fur coat to the Brighton
111High School Theater Department from Pam Perkins, who's in our transportation department. A gift in the amount of $200 to the Brighton High School vocal group club to subsidize the cost of the BA of the BHS choir trip to Sarin Lake for a very deserving student. And finally, a gift in the amount of $300 to French Road Elementary School Rainbow Club in memory of Annie Manuso and Maisie Gillan from Adam and Mary Beth Gillan. Motion to approve the consent agenda. So move. Moved by Aster. Second. Seconded by Carrie Lynn. All those in favor. Um I got a couple things I hit. Any final thoughts from you, Dr. McDow? A couple things. First of all, several of us attended the urban suburban 60th anniversary dinner. Incredible program. Our students represent a large share of the students in
112the program throughout Monroe County and have since the very beginnings. And we're really excited about that. Excited to celebrate. It really was a wonderful night of being together and cheering on some great great kids and and uh staff members who have contributed so greatly to that over the years. in this building. We'd like the community to know there are uh wonderful pictures that really get at who we are and the work that's done throughout the building. But I wanted to take a moment to thank Frank Nlli, Neil Organ, Dave Loose, and Dan Goldman. Of course, there's incredible photography for them getting those up and decorating our spaces in a way that just reminds us of the work and who we are. And I want to make sure I get the roster right. So, pardon me
113for reading, but there's a lot of people in this room that contributed to, you know, a pretty I'd say dominating resounding might be words that I would use. Uh, victory in the dodgeball game. Uh, sweet get low. Uh, Alimo, Dr. Ellison, instructional dodge. Don't mess with my pearl spags. Uh, Killer Bill, Lefty Ducking, Diving Davis, Dr. Jump high. And Lee, Dr. She'll make you want to sue. Karen, you better have an escape hatch. Esther, winter is coming. Eleanor tie-dye superfan and beast mode. Bertino, of course, joined by Councer Rock teammates and uh who were led by Matt Tap and Dance to total victory. So, we really appreciate everybody's participation in what was a really fun evening that will continue all year long. Really? Yeah. Well done. Did you write that while the meeting was going
114on? I may or may not. I was so tuned in. But I'll also note um from an entire building's perspective, that gym looked great. It really was. Looked great. It was a wonderful evening. And the and the senior class benefited and had a great time. Lots of kids and family. So, it was really a wonderful. So, thank you. Uh just real quick, as always, we thank our tech crew that makes this meeting accessible to everybody in our community. That's Bill, Mike, and Asher. So, thank you to them. And then finally, our next meeting we expect to be the budget adoption, which is Tuesday, August 8th. It will be in this room. April 8th. April 8th. Try April. Did I say it? August. It was an a month, but no, I'm going to say I'm going
115to say again. The budget adoption and vote will be Tuesday, April 8th um in this room. So uh and that's all I've got. So areing any other comments? I have put forward a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Moved by Karen. Second. Seconded by Esther. All those in favor? I we are ajourned. This has been a special presentation from the Brighton Central School District Board of Education.