001That is odd. >> I call this meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Good evening everyone. >> Thank you for joining us this evening. Please be advised in the event of a fire emergency, an alarm will sound. Please note all emergency exits and evacuate well away from the building. At this time, we request everyone turn their cell phones to silent. Thank you for your cooperation. >> First on our agenda this evening is additions, deletions, and changes to the agenda. Dr. Chanel. >> Yes, we have one addition this evening. Um under personnel, it's a change in employment status. >> Thank you.
002Moving on to item four, consent agenda. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the consent agenda as listed 1 through nine. May I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >> That motion is carried. Moving on to communications. Uh couple items. First is you may noticed uh notice that Ian's recording device is a little different. We don't have a red and a green light, but I've been assured we are recording. >> We don't necessarily have to worry about that. I know that we've all paid close attention to that red and green light, so it's not there, but we are recording. Um there are shirts on the table. These are the shirts that uh
003were handed out to the first day of school. >> All faculty and staff. Um, so I'll bring them to executive session. You guys can pick out what size you want. >> And thirdly, I would just like to acknowledge that this is SU's last board meeting um as our district clerk and I want to thank you for everything. We appreciate your service and you'll be miss welcoming Miss Murdoch into the position and um they've been transitioning for a couple weeks. Thank you both. >> Uh we will start with correspondence and points of pride. Dr. McNair, you are up first. On September 22nd, we were thrilled to welcome Katrina Irwin of News 8 WooC Rochester to award the Golden Apple Award to our very own Mrs. Cornwell. The Pike family nominated Mrs. Cornwell for the surprise award.
004Mrs. Cornwell is a proud Calm alum and is in her ninth year as a third grade teacher at the home of champions. From Principal Meyer, Mrs. Cornwell uh has an extraordinary gift for creating a classroom culture that feels like a true family where every child is welcomed, valued, seen, and heard. She makes intentional connections with each of her students, ensuring that they know that they matter. Beyond the passion she pours into her classroom, Mrs. Cornwell is a constant presence at school events and an active leader in our PTO. She is creative, dedicated, and true born and raised Raider. I could not be more excited to see her recognized with the Golden Apple Award. Very cool. And our elementary Raider pride already runs deep and it was on display for Hoko Week 2025. Congratulations to Miss
005Dors and Mrs. McClur's kindergarten class, which was awarded Raider Jr. as the class that showed the most spirit in the school all week. Congratulations to all of our grade level spirit stick award winners who get to carry their grade levels coveted spirit stick with pride in the hallways. PreK, Mrs. Howard, kindergarten, Miss D'vor and Mrs. McClur. First grade, Mrs. McMullen. Second grade, Mrs. Wade. Third grade, Mrs. Kazinski and Ms. Booth. Fourth grade, Mrs. Hume and Mr. Hines. and fifth grade Miss Dailyaly. >> September once again kicked off our Raider 5 initiative. We are proud to report that K through five students have earned over 115 stickers that represent each of our expectations. Be kind. Be respectful. Be accepting. Be safe. Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Congratulations to senior Brie Bishop
006who bec became the all-time Kalum girls soccer goal scorer. Bri now has 105 career goals in counting passing 2007 grad Erica Keante who has held the record since 2006 with 104. >> At our homecoming football game, two annual awards were presented to deserving RA Raiders. The Robert C. Freeman Award was presented to Hannah Harmon. The Robert C. Freeman Award is presented to a member of the current senior class who exemplifies outstanding citizenship. The Tom Kalen Award was presented to Trent Kesler. The Tom Kalen Award is given annually to the rivals football player who best exemplifies the values that Tom stood for both on and off the field. Another uh point of pride we want to highlight is the Glow with your hands 2025 event that Peggy, myself, and Arie participated in a couple weeks ago.
007And I know Peggy wants to talk about that a little bit. >> Well, I thought it was I thought it was great. So there were uh somewhere over a thousand kids 1,200 kids I think who came from all the different Boseies in this whole area around that's what I found out what glow stands for and um there were I had I even brought the piece of paper there were like 75 different vendors there there were everything from welders to brick layers to construction workers to uh virtual stuff to all sorts of technology, all sorts. They had National Grid was there. The kids were able to um uh try out some of these different things. I got to do a virtual thing. I got to blow up a bridge. I was very excited. And um it
008was just great. The kids were all very enthused. Um I think our kids were all enthused. And it was it was just a great day. and and just to learn about all the apprenticeships and and things that kids could get into. Um I think that that's great. I think that's great. >> Thank you. >> Um we will move on to board committee reports. I'm aware the audit just met so we can have an update first from them. >> It was exactly what you would have expected. The guy was right on the ball. he was uh he'll be coming back at the November meeting or the December meeting and he it went well. It's >> um when will he be presenting to the board formally? >> Probably December. We were hoping for November, but um we
009have the same night as a couple of other school districts, so we're just trying to get on his um piece. We're a little behind in the close out of our audit just because we transitioned to a new school business official. So, we pushed the audit back uh as far as we could to make sure that we were closing out the books and doing everything while um Mr. Fwell was getting that under his belt. So, I will take this opportunity just to say to all of you that while it might have been his first time through, um Brennan has a work ethic that's second to none and he has definitely developed for himself a network of people to make sure that if there's a question that he has, somebody is answering the phone for him. So,
010it's been fun to kind of watch teams of people kind of ascend to be good networks in support of him. And our district is certainly benefiting from his courage to just reach out and ask lots of questions and pull tons of experts into his vein. And I think that is serving us very very well. So, our audit is officially due. Uh needs to be uploaded to the state of New York tomorrow. We finished and closed out uh last week. I want to say was it Tuesday, Brennan? Tuesday, Wednesday. It was like a last minute. It's done. We'll be able to get it into the board meeting. So, I appreciate um those that are on that committee um responding to that short notice and helping us to accomplish that goal. And yes, we will now schedule
011with Mike to get him back in to come and speak to the board in your entirety. >> Thank you. Um I believe compact met as well. We have some updates there, please. at the elementary compact uh got together and they were uh let's see oh they were doing a survey of the the people there about homework and expectations and things like that and they were going to um get that all figured out. Um and they we're talking a little bit about the um reading program that we've started and we came up with this great name of the reading raiders. How do you like that? So, we're going to be reading Raiders and we may be working on uh having some teachers or parents or somebody older kids uh read some books on tape that somehow
012magically goes over to uh you know so the kids could get a bedtime story or something like that. So, that's sort of cool. So, it's a good group. It's a good group. >> Thank you. Middle school, high school compact. >> We did meet. We're kind of just formulating exactly how we're going to move forward, getting information gathered together. We're actually meeting again tomorrow night that and uh Mrs. Marcel has some information pulled together for us so we can kind of act on what we've started with getting career and college ready figuring out how that looks for the students and for the parents and how we kind of integrate that all together to make pathways for everyone to happen. >> Okay. Any other committees that I'm unaware of? Those are the two I could think of
013anyone else. Are there guests of the board? We do have some guests this evening. Uh both our construction manager and our architect and engineer. Uh but I'm going to save them until we get to um the discussion around the change order. >> Okay. Uh there is nobody signed up for public forum this evening. So, we're going to move on to superintendent's report. >> All right. So, the first thing there in my superintendent report is our budget development guidelines, uh, which I sent to the board in your budget packet. Um, Mrs. Murdoch is pulling those up. I will read them to the board. Uh, basically, we did a nice revision last year of our budget guidelines. So, what you are seeing is just really the date changes. Uh, we don't adopt these guidelines until our next
014meeting. So, it does give the board a full month to really reflect on these. do they still uh meet sort of the goals that we've set for ourselves? The big change we made last year was really just developing almost like the chain or the flow of events. What is the board responsible for? What are the administrators responsible for? And then what do we do together? Um so that that becomes really clear for us. So take some time in this next month and just kind of reflect on these guidelines. Um send me any questions or concerns that you have or again even now we could have a discussion if anyone noticed something that they thought uh they'd like to see changed to. But uh by the time we get into our ne November meeting, we will
015be officially beginning the process of uh building our budget. Any questions about that? All right. So, let's take a look at the honor roll. Uh we do look at middle and high school honoral. Um high school right now for your marking period one is what you're looking at. So, your middle school totals aren't here. They don't get a report card for another five weeks. Um they're just in their progress reporting period. So, taking a look at just the 9 through 12, you'll see overall we're still hanging pretty tight and what we're accustomed to. Uh, I will tell you marking period one is typically a lot of review at the beginning. Um, I just having watched the kids for some time, I think it still is shocking in the return to school that they already have
016a report card and that they've probably already taken anywhere from two to three unit exams in each of their core classes. So you are seeing that our students are pretty focused in on their content right now uh and holding their own academically. MP1 tends to be a higher MP than the rest of them um just by the nature of the complexity of the courses as we move forward. Uh any questions about our honor role. Excellent. Next up now I would like to uh invite Alana uh to come and join us. Alana is going to share with you guys something new that we did this summer uh that we want to brag about here just a little bit from a curriculum standpoint. So, welcome to Alana. Uh she teaches ENL for us across our middle high
017school and has some case load still at the elementary. Correct. I don't know her schedule as tightly as I >> this year, but there's during testing there is some crossover there for sure. >> Excellent. So Elena, why don't you just share with the board like this was your from inception like this is your idea and watching this kind of come to life. >> Yeah. So um so if you're not familiar ENL is English as a new language. So this program serves English language learners in our district. Um it was offered to all of our English language learners um throughout the district which was roughly about 22. And we had 13 students sign up for this summer. So, they're signing up to come in to get some extra practice with me. Um, some goals of the
018program was to and enhance their academic vocabulary, some tier 2 and tier three, which is more content specific. And I chose to focus in on um some more science and ELA depending on the group that I was working with. Um, and also to help their oral language and collaboration skills. Of course, we were working on vocabulary, but we also had, you know, we shared about our weekends and we it just in small groups talked and helped their oral language. So, I'll talk a little bit about the activities I planned for each group. So, um I had I had groups ranging from second grade all the way to 11th grade. So, of course, they were um grouped by grade level. So, my second graders, um, as you could see up there, they're absolutely adorable. But we
019did, um, we focused on the five senses because they that is a unit they will be, um, studying this year in the second grade. So, a lot of that sensory vocabulary. So, of course, we started off with some oral language practice, mystery objects where they had to practice um describing an object with their five senses, f senses, and then moving on to some descriptive writing skills, which we had a beautiful summer, so we were able to utilize the outdoors as much as possible. So, we did a little sensory walk outside, which then developed into them writing sentences about what they were experiencing in the world. Um, so that was pretty cool. Um um for my fourth through sixth grade group, we focus on science. Um ecology is a um is a unit that I I
020tend to see in sixth grade and again in 9th grade and in biology. So I I wanted to focus in on ecosystems and some of that tier three vocabulary that can be a little bit tricky sometimes for our English language learners. Um, so they they studied um food chains and the ecosystems. We we read articles, we watched videos, and eventually got to the point where they built their own food chain and then were able to write a paragraph about that flow of energy through the food chain. So, it was very cool to see their their confidence grow and using that um using that content to then develop that into their writing. Um, all right. So these guys, these are my high school students. So I work very closely with them and I have for the
021past few years. I don't know many 10th 11th grade students who would sign up to ride their bike to come get extra practice twice a week with me. Um or or anyone over their summer, but these guys did. So we we studied ELA, so a little bit of a shift. um looked at the difference between figurative and literal language, which can be tough sometimes for any student, but especially um an English language learner. So things like identifying um characterization, central idea, um we developed a class story together, had some fun with it, and then we took those concepts that we were learning to to practice that. So we had a we had a good time with that. Uh benefits gained. So, I'll just kind of highlight some of the things that are up here. Def
022definitely accelerated language acquisition. Um, again, those foundational vocabulary skills that I really wanted to to hone in on. Um, building background knowledge. So, I was hoping that they could build some of that knowledge going into their school year um this year, whether it be second grade to 11th grade, and have a little bit more confidence um with their content area teachers. Strengthen academic skills. um fostering community and connection. Let them know that you know he that Kellom is a place where they are always welcome or happy to see them whether it's September or July. So we had a good time with that and then also personalized learning personalized learning insights. Um the more I know them as my students the better I can help them throughout the school year and also pass that information on
023to their content teachers as well. So, um that was great to see them in small groups like that to to better know them um as people and as students. And I will say some more recent uh benefits gained. Our sixth graders last week took the ancology exam um in Mrs. Tedesco's class and they all scored at least an 85 or higher. So, it was cool to see that. Um, and then for my high school students in the ELA classroom, again, really rigorous, uh, class in the high school, um, these teachers do an amazing job and I've seen, uh, confidence in some of my high school kiddos. And actually, one of those 11th graders won Savvy Raider for ELA. I didn't nominate him, his classroom teacher did, and she's really seen a growth in him and
024and getting involved. So, it's been awesome. So, thank you for your time. Thank you, Dr. Chanel for having me. Thank you to the board of education. Um it was a great summer. >> Thank you. >> What uh what language are they coming from? I was curious. >> Um our students, we have Spanish, we have Ukrainian, actually quite a bit of Ukrainian. Um I have a Thai student who speaks Thai. >> Really? um question. >> Yep. Speak to know a lot of language. >> Very cool. Very very diverse. We're very lucky. Yes. >> That's great. Thanks. >> Yep. >> Excellent. Um one of the things that we have been talking about is our literacy goal. And so I just want to take a minute and say that even though we're kind of hyperfocused on it right
025now, you can see just in the passion that Alana brings to the subject matter that the literacy of students is something we've always been passionate about, right? So it's it's not necessarily new to us. It's just really hyperfocused, which I'm excited to see what that means for us come the end of the school year when we've really taken all of all of our resources and try to put them all in one location where we're all beginning to climb that same hill together. And I I imagine that the passion that you just experienced from Alana is what our kids get to experience and from her every day. So, thank you. Thank you for what you do for us. >> Can I ask just a quick question? >> Of course. >> Could you please you just you
026said you have a young lady or a little boy or girl from from Thailand? >> Um, yes. Well, he there's there's a mother involved. Yes. this from. >> Could you just quickly >> Is it a boy or a girl? >> A boy. Yeah. >> Okay. I'm I'm guessing his his English isn't isn't all that good. >> Um so he's actually been in the district for a while. So he actually is pretty far along with his his English. Yeah. >> Okay. Then let's skip him. Let's go. Let's go into one one that might not be I'm just curious what you do on your first day to begin the process of >> Sure. Good question. >> of your communicating. >> Sure. So like if if I were to get a student to move here day one and
027did not know any English. Well, it's a lot of gestures, images. I mean we are very lucky to have obviously the technology piece is a huge it's huge for them you know. Um, I don't have any newcomers on my case load right now. Um, but it's you start off with survival skills basically to get around the school day and navigate that and you know, you keep building on the to the vocabulary and the content. It is it's very challenging to start off. Um, but yeah, you start with survival skills and and go from there. The short the shortest answer I may give you. So you don't get on your phone and and say like in French I mean we're going to lunch now and eat. >> We could absolutely you absolutely I mean I >>
028and I speak Spanish so like with my Spanish students that's an advantage but as you're saying I don't speak Thai so in that situation technology would be a very huge help. Yes you could use a cell phone the Chromebooks um to translate pretty instantaneously a message to them. Well, I'm sure I speak for all of us, but your your enthusiasm is uh is is duly noted. Oh, thank you. >> And uh thank you. I'm just uh >> I was very intrigued. Thank you. >> Thank you. Of course. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Good question. >> All right. Next up for my report, we are going to talk about 3 through8 ELA math and science assessment results. So, I'll ask both principles to go ahead and come to the podium so that they can report
029out on their respective buildings. Hey, I think I'm first. I was maybe started with the littles on this one. I don't have a clicker, though. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. So, here you're seeing um if you've been on the board for a while, this is the same template we've been using for quite some time to showcase our results. So, you're looking at three, four, and five ELA results. In red is for the uh this past year earning a three or a four. So meeting the expectation or exceeding the expectation. You'll notice that we are well above the um for three and four well above the average um number one in our region. That's out of the 22 schools in our OC's. So well done to our third grade and fourth grade. And of course
030that fifth grade exam is a difficult one. We'll keep talking about it for a long time coming. But um you'll see the tread line is holding pretty steady there in the middle of the pack. Um similar for the 6, seven, and eight as you're reading it. So you'll see our percentages. You'll see where we fall um amongst our our peers in the Boseies realm. So really loving that number two in the seven and eight area. And that sixth grade band again is something we'll keep our eye on and continue to try to move up. Then we're on for math. Um so for math again staying steady with the three grade three and grade four at the top of our region. Um along with fifth grade in the middle of the pack um for mathematics and
031we'll note too I guess I would mention that now one adjustment we made uh based on our results from last year was moving from um being departmentalized in fifth grade to now everybody having their own classroom and teaching all the subject areas. um feedback right now from the teachers is thank you. They're taking a lot more time though to actually learn obviously the curriculum that they hadn't been teaching um last year. So um they are going slow and steady and and as Becky said pretty hyperfocused on literacy and on math. So uh we've made some really great adjustments up in that fifth grade. Um and then again sixth, seven, and eighth you'll see um our percentages and and where we sit. Um, also just to point out our eighth graders, um, if they are in
032advanced math, they will not test here. So that does impact our number for our eighth grade students as many of our our typically higher performing students are in that advanced class preparing for regions exams. So that that is there as well. And then our last slide, I believe, is our science results. Oh man. So the science results you're going to hear all over the place. it is it a science test or is it a reading comprehension test? It's a reading comprehension test which is why we're really happy to have this, you know, super focused literacy um piece to it. We did improve from the year prior, but this is year two of the new administration of this exam. Um it is not getting like favorable results from feedback, I should say, from educators. So maybe
033they'll take a look at it in the long run. I'm not sure. Um, but for us in grade five, some things that have changed uh is we do an an all-in approach starting in grade three to grade five where our students have to complete labs in order to sit for the test. So that is very different for us. Um, similar to a regent exam where you have to have lab hours and seat time. Uh, so do our fifth graders, but we can do it starting in third grade. So they have a band of time to work through that. Um, so that's something we've added in our in our curriculum and again that reading focus. This is a read heavy heavy reading exam. So we'll we'll keep plugging along with fifth grade. >> Michelle for that
034having to start in third grade. Is that starting this year that they're start or did they started last year? Okay. Thank you. >> And um last year our fifth graders did all the labs of course and then second where we've scaffold them or third grade and >> Okay. >> Yeah. And any new student that comes in, they'll be caught up with all of that. >> And similar just another point there that we also have um advanced science students in grade 8. So they again would not be included in this number as they don't we don't double test them the regions exam. They don't take the New York State assessment. >> Quick question. As a whole, the fifth grade uh test results in last year's presentation, we were 19th out of 22 in the region. This
035year that same cohort tested 20 out of 22 in the region. Uh at what point do you determine that an intervention is required for the entire grade level or how how do you allocate resources to a grade that's showing us consistently year after year that they are behind. >> So I mean the one of the questions that we're all learning from and I hate to bring this back up but these are our co kids. These were the kids that went home in kindergarten and returned to us with masks on in first grade and we are seeing the effects of that. So I think along with us trying to mitigate and having this laser focus across the district on literacy that is where we're allocating our money and our resources and our time. >> And I
036would say kind of at our level too we're able to take these results and then we use them to drive our our intervention programs that we have. So all of those students if they're falling within a certain level they are receiving supplemental support um in our in our home base time for our champions 41. >> so I know last year and I I hate to talk about personal experience uh in this capacity but I know that the teacher it felt as a parent like the teacher was almost overwhelmed with work with that specific cohort. Um and and I know that they were working hard and the teachers are working hard. The ELA tests are stellar. The math tests are acceptable. So, I'm going to say, you know, that specific cohort is an area of need.
037Um, clearly the teachers are are doing their best. And and I look I understand what you're saying about the tests being new or different, but if you compare it to the other schools in the region, it really eliminates that because they all take the same test. Um, so I was wondering if we could maybe learn about some kind of special attention or supplemental supports for the educators with that cohort. It's really concerning to be at the bottom when all of our other kids are really performing well. >> Thanks. >> As you know, we are tracking data right now. Correct. Like I care very deeply just like you do about trying to increase that. Like in in there's one vein which is to say that we're looking at data sets. We completely understand that any child
038that did not meet the state minimum requirement is somebody's child, right? So we care we care about that very deeply in terms of what that means for their academics. Uh this year our driving focus around literacy is exactly for that. Like we do know that the math tests and the science tests and all the things that you're starting to see are becoming more reading tests than anything else. So, we're going to focus in on literacy to see are our math teachers delivering a curriculum and it's not a math curriculum issue. Is it a literacy issue? Can we grow literacy and see math match it or do we grow literacy and then we still see math not match it? Which means you'll watch us in another year begin to challenge the curriculum delivery in the area
039of mathematics. But right now, we are feeling like our math curriculum is performing. But when we have students with lower literacy level, we're seeing that kind of suffer across. So that's why you're watching the focus this year in literacy. If that comes up, I'm gonna feel like we're good. If it doesn't come up, these guys, everybody close your ears. Just they already know what's coming next, right? If it doesn't, it's curricular and we have to look at the curriculum that's being delivered and how that's happening. So that's that's the long answer to your question. Where are our resources right now? Literacy both >> and let's see what happens. >> And those students that have earned the one and the two on these exams. So in middle school, those sixth, seventh, and eighth graders are getting
040those, they're the ones that you're pulling in champions 41. So all of those students that are falling below that acceptable level are already flagged and getting intervention >> through that program. >> Absolutely. >> And they tailor it to they'll they'll look, you know, as as their schedule allows, if there's a student who falls way below, they're going to pull them more often obviously than some of our students who might be right on the borderline of of achieving a three. So everything's kind of tailored to what the students need, which is great. >> I mean, I'll brag for a second and just say that, you know, I'm Mr. Murvine would be hopefully he doesn't watch this, he'll be mad at you, but he's changed some of his instructional practices in grade seven. And so what you're
041watching in our grade seven results is a lot of mathematical thinking. The kids are up and they're whiteboarding a lot. And he took over department leader last year. And I can tell you that, you know, straight across the board pretty much in 6 through 12, you're starting to see a lot of whiteboarding. I feel pretty positive that you'll see that if you walk into Ashley Cornell's classroom as well. So, we're also looking at some of those instructional practices that are working and as people are implementing them, what's happening to our assessment results. Therefore, that seems scalable and we should start to look at um some of the instructional practices that we're using. So, we are monitoring that as well. >> H >> I mean, he's worth celebrating right now if you look at that. like
042he's going to be mad at me when he teaches his back, but it's been it's been great to watch him change his practice and to be so enthralled at wanting to share his practice with others. >> If I may make a comment, I've been um coming into the kindergarten class and reading to some kids, which is fun. And when I'm coming there, she's finished the teacher is finishing her sort of phonics lesson. And it was great. I mean, it's just I don't know if they've always been doing it or it's part of the new curriculum. She certainly was showing me all the the new books that they had and they're all done, but she was um uh doing this thing the kids were repeating after her, you know, um you know, how did she do
043it? loud, you know, you know, things like that to to and motions and and stuff and and concentrating on the ending sound or the beginning sound and, you know, that's great. And this is these are kindergarteners and, you know, and they were all into it and and I think that'll be very helpful. >> Before we end this, I also just would be remiss if I didn't brag on the science department just a little bit. Um, would you like to, Mrs. yourself or would you like me to? >> I I will let you because you can definitely speak more to it, but coming in to see how excited they all are about all of the new exciting things that they're doing um is awesome. And obviously this this data here, this jump speaks to some of
044the work that has gone on behind the scenes for them. So very excited to be a part of that. It's been a couple years now of having folks in from the University of Rochester working with our science department grades 6 through 12 at our curriculum and trying to make sure that our curriculum is aligned and that it's a little bit more experiential maybe than what it had been. It's been very exciting. It has really repped the budget um but worth every penny for the kids to be doing things in in science class that are hands-on and really helping them study phenomenon. So, it's moving us into the next generation of science standards. Last year at this time we were looking at science results where we were 16th in the region and now we're seventh. Right?
045So you're watching the benefit of staff development and what happens when you put departments together and you you I'm going to call it blood transfusion. You give everybody a blood transfusion, right? You start to watch sort of that energy. So I'm really hoping to say see the same thing out of our literacy initiative. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up. So, in front of you, uh, I've placed two a couple things at your at your place, Matt, here. So, the first thing I want to do is just thank the board of education for coming out last Tuesday for what we refer to as an exempt session. So, it's a session that the board of education has in order to consult with their attorneys. Um, so we did consult with a tax attorney, a specialist
046just to make sure that as a as a board and as a governance team that we were all on the same page of how we would be moving forward with a tax issue uh that I'm going to bring to the community's attention here this evening. So, um, basically what you'll see in a nutshell on your on your tabletop, I'm going to draw your attention to uh maybe the piece that's just more bulleted, a little bit more of a snapshot. Um, so what we discussed last week is that we were going to send out a letter. So there will be a letter that would be mailed uh to every single resident in Calonia Mumford um school district so that folks get a a letter at home to make sure that everybody is is in the know
047around what is happening. And then this uh 25 2526 tax sort of update is actually like a a one pager that we're going to put on our website that really walks people through the timeline that the board of education uh learned about last Tuesday. So uh for a public session here this evening. I am going to do my best not to belabor this uh this document will go on our website by end of day tomorrow. It is ready for publication. Our mailing will probably go out hopefully on Friday if not on Friday uh early next week. We're going to rely on our Boseies to actually do a quick printing for us uh and help us get some of these things folded and and labeled. So, long story short, just to kind of recap for the
048community, um right after tax bills went out, uh here in 2025, we did get some phone calls and some visits from some of the folks that live out in the town of Wheatland and they were concerned about increases in their tax bill in particular because we had made the decision here as a board that we were going to go out at a 0% tax levy. So 0% tax levy when you know you haven't be been reassessed you would imagine that your bill should be pretty close to what it was the year before. Instead in the town of Wheatland they actually saw a jump in their school taxes. Uh so as we started to get those phone calls um Mr. Cowwell and I began to dig into why is that happening? So it didn't take us
049but a couple of days and looking at tax bills uh to notice that the the most simplest answer to the question is that there was a change in equalization rate. And so the change in equalization rate was about a 10% drop. So what does an equalization rate mean? So I'm going to do my best you guys. I don't work for the Office of Real Property, but basically equalization rates are the way that the state of New York um let's call it levels the playing field or makes things fair across communities. So communities all assess their properties at different times and at different assessment values. And really what an equalization rate does is it equalizes those numbers. It says based on really the the market value in the state of New York, here's how we're going
050to we're going to say your property is really worth this amount. And the state of New York does that by establishing equalization rates. As you ask the question, Peggy, the further away from 1.0 you get, so the number actually declines. And the further you get away from one, that's actually just signaling to the community how far away from uh having been reassessed you are. Okay. So, when you get reassessed, you expect to see your taxes go up. You know, that's coming with a reassessment. Well, that also comes if you don't reassess, but your equalization rates drop. Okay. Um, continue to ask me questions. This is as clear as mud for folks that follow school tax bills. Okay. So, I was curious why a 10% drop in equalization rate. That seemed like a lot from one
051year to the next. So, the next thing that I began to dig into is the why of that. So I called to the office of real property and had a wonderful conversation uh with a with a woman whose primary responsibility is she's an analyst for her to really pay attention to Minro County but in particular the town of Wheatland. And in my and Mr. Colola was with me in our phone call with her uh we got disconnected after she told me that the equalization rate did not drop by 10 points that it was set the year before at 69.18 and I said no ma'am it was not. It was set at 78. and our call got disconnected and I looked over at Brandon and I said she doesn't know what she's talking about. Uh in
052the end when we were reconnected the next day, she did know what she was talking about. Right? So um I'm going to walk you through the timeline of events which you'll be able to read for yourself once this is posted to the website. So I learned this um from her and as we're beginning to understand it. I'm I submitted for documentation request. I wanted to see communications that went back and forth between the office of real property, the town of Wheatland, what should have been coming to the school. And so, here's what I learned. In June of 24, the town of Wheatland had their rate set at 69.18. Um, which was and they were advised in a very formal letter that they really should reassess their properties. Um, they they had submitted an equalization rate
053themselves of 78. So because of the difference 78 to 69, it actually launched at the state level um a hearing. So the town of Wheatland was given the opportunity to respond to the issue at hand. So by July 24th, the state of New York actually held its hearing and issued a final rate notice to the town of Wheatland. That final rate notice was set at 69.18. In on August the 8th of 24, Calonia Munford Central Schools received our local tax roles that listed for the town of Wheatland their equalization rate at 78. It is from those tax roles with that equalization rate that we run our tax bills. We used an equalization rate of 78 to run our 2024 tax bills. After digging a little deeper into this, I was curious what communications the district
054had had from the town of Wheatland. So the state of New York uh basically told the town of Wheatland that it was their responsibility to tell the school district about the change in equalization rates in writing. So I started to dig for any form of formal u communication that the district may have received about the change in equalization rates obviously other than the rules themselves which came in very formal and with the wrong equalization rate noted. What I did find is that on October 8th of 2024, the state of New York did notice that we used the wrong equalization rate to print our taxes and sent a letter to the school district explaining to us what we had to do uh to write that wrong. That letter was not brought to my attention. Uh nor
055do I think it was found and read or studied by anybody in the district office given the fact that it wasn't remedied. Um, so September of 25, we basically confirm the history that's here through printed record. Uh, and that's when the board of education was called in to really learn from beginning to end the fact pattern of this and to decide how we're going to address it. Uh, so just to let everyone know, it is the school district's responsibility to correct this. Long story short, the folks in the town of Wheatland actually underpaid in their 2024 bills. So in 2026, the town of Wheatland is going to see a wake up a makeup amount in their tax bill. For all others, the residents in Calonia, Leroy, Rya, and Chili, they will receive a credit because
056in 2024, they overpaid on their school taxes. So to help folks make sense of this, uh, not only will we send the letter, we will post this one pager, uh, but we've also created a table that will help you see, similar to what we do when we create our budget newsletter, what the cost per 1,000 will be so that you can estimate what will happen with your tax bill just based off of 2024. >> When you say credit, I'm sorry to interrupt. When you say credit for 2024, they're not getting a check refunded. It will be a dollar amount adjusted on their bill. >> You are correct. It will be a dollar amount adjusted on the bill. There is no way in the state of New York for a school district to send folks a
057check. Everything that we do is the collection process through the tax bills. So, thank you for that. >> So, both the credit and that makeup amount will be on the school tax bills that we see next year. >> That is correct. >> And the makeup amount is an extra amount due. >> Correct. >> Should that be clarified in this letter when it goes because we know what it means. Will people who don't watch this know what that >> Well, I don't know how other words. >> Yeah, I think in general what we might receive is a little bit of curiosity from folks in the very beginning. I actually think we need to do a very good job of communicating this both in our budget development newsletter so that people hear it again for the second
058time. I think when people will probably really notice is when their tax bills come out in 2026, right? So like I do I do think just in general I I will say lesson learned for myself like in the end I think everything that folks are paying attention to is how something impacts their bill which we don't we don't control the entirety of that bill right we we control our levy and we set our tax levy and we collect school tax but we h don't have control over equalization rates and um exemptions that folks get. So, like in the end, there's so much more to a school tax bill than just our levy. When do I think we're going to have to really pick up our communication though when those tax bills go out. So, that's
059something um Mr. Colewell and I will begin to work on even how they're printed. Maybe a letter goes with the tax bill like we're we're that's when I think you're going to really see people going, "Whoa, what is this and where did it come from?" Not that I don't think we could do even more in our communication, but I think our first round of communication, we should put some out. We should feel the calls or the concerns and see where it goes to decide how much more information do we really need to put out so that we're ready come next come next tax season to be prepared for a much stronger communication to make sure our community is aware. >> So, I have two things to note and I don't know if you covered it.
060Um the school did not collect extra money from the other taxing community tax communities. Um it was just a disproportionate amount put onto those communities. We didn't get any extra funds from this. Correct. >> And the second thing to my fellow Wheatland residents um if you were that Wheatland's been doing a peacemeal reassessment. So if you've been reassessed in the last five years, this is especially punitive towards those properties because they have already seen an increase in assessments and the equalization rate doesn't represent their specific property. So I would encourage those people to reach out to the town supervisor and encourage them to do their duty and do a townwide reassessment. >> Honestly, as you say that, maybe under the resources and contacts, I could add uh the town of Wheatland and the office of
061real property. H >> because I do think some of the questions folks are going to have to your point are not necessarily directed to the school district or the things that might be slightly out of our control. >> Approximately how many uh people does this impact taxpayers? >> It's about 24% just under 25. >> It's around 24% of our tax. >> Yeah. I haven't looked at it in terms of numbers. Okay. And another thing I'd like to add, I'd like to thank Dr. Chanel for chasing this down. When we met um with the attorney, there was a a vast array of information for us to evaluate. Uh and and Dr. Chanel have done a nice job putting it all together for us. And I'm I'm grateful that she's taking the steps to communicate this out.
062And I agree with you. May is going to be or uh the 2026 tax bill is going to be a trying time. >> It is. >> Thank you, President. >> Absolutely. Any other questions? Again, and I'll just take this moment to say that even in the letter, folks can always reach out to me or or to Mr. Cowwell. And you know, to your point, Mr. Bellen, I think in the end, our responsibility is to be good listeners, to hear what people are saying to us, to take what they're saying to us and try to better understand it. And if that had not been our practice, we would still be sitting here not knowing this. So today is October the 14th. I have yet to get any communication from the state of New York, from the
063Office of Real Property about the lack of say having fixed this in 2025. So just in general, we wouldn't know what we knew if we weren't listening. So I appreciate the people that call. I encourage you to continue to call. It will always be our practice to dig deep for you, listen to you, and make sure that your voice is heard. And I apologize like I this is not what I hope to find. I certainly will never be satisfied with how this has played out for exactly what you said, you know, for the folks that this this is going to be impactful and we will be thinking about that all along the way as we develop our school budget. What does this mean for our community as a whole? >> Thank you. Next up is
064my Niscus update. So I I tell you as we begin the budget process, it's almost depressing uh to get started right out of the gate. But one thing I did here at Niscus that I will also tell you is a little resounding as I sit on the board for the Genesee area healthc care plan is that we are going to see some squeezing when it comes to how school districts are funded. So, a lot of conversation right now around the federal government and how money is flowing or not flowing into public education. Um, I heard loud and clear from the chairperson for the committee on education that the state of New York is really um Medicaid is actually one of our largest funding or largest portion of our overall budget. Education is second. And as
065the federal government begins to draw back money for the support of Medicaid, they're sort of bracing us that we should anticipate that the state of New York will be increasing the amount of money that they put toward Medicaid, which will squeeze school districts. So I I say to you that in general, we're we're if anything, I imagine we should plan for flat increases to our to our aid uh and possibly to prepare ourselves even this year. Some are talking about concerns around what's going to happen with the state's budget if federal money does not flow. So, that was something that was not great to hear. So, I just want to remind the board of education that our advocacy this year is going to be more important than ever. Um, I I've been in education for
06625 years and honestly, I think I've said this to you guys before. I've always listened to superintendent say unfunded mandate and it just never impacted me the way it does now when I sit in this chair. So, when I would hear them say advocacy and make sure that you're reaching out to your to your government officials and um making sure you're advocating for education, it is going to be more important this year than it's ever been before. And in my humble opinion, always important for rural schools. So, I want us to make sure that we're paying attention to the political landscape and that we're using our voices to make sure that um everybody in Calonia Munford understands the connection between the federal dollars that flow to the state, the state dollars that flow to the
067county and to a school district because it's all going to be impactful. So, we need to advocate. >> When do you anticipate clarity on a lot of that stuff? Honestly, I'm I think in terms of the legislative component, I imagine we're probably going to be exactly as we were in this last year where we're going to be building budgets with a lot of unknowns, you know. So, we talk about reserves as we move into that portion of our conversation here shortly. In the end, the reserves are our ability to withstand the things that are outside of our control. and we've done a really good job with the stimulus money and preparing ourselves to be able to get through something tough. So, we always say the reserves will get us through a rainy day. And what
068I hear resoundingly, whether it's NISBA advocacy, if you're reading your NISSBA briefs, or even through NISCUS, is that this is this is going to be our rainy day. So, thankfully, we have some food in our storehouse and the ability to keep our programs healthy and strong moving forward. Um, next up, I am going to ask uh Mr. Cowwell to just speak a little bit about our reserve updates. So, you know, once we close out our books, we're going to start talking about our fund balance. Uh, as a board, you will see tonight the resolutions around moving money into the reserves. So, this is a great time for us to talk uh both with the board of education and the community members around how a school district even ends up with reserves. What what is fund
069balance and how do we have it to even make these decisions for moving it? Mrs. Murdoch, will you jump into your email real fast and open that presentation for Mr. K? I will um pontificate one more minute while they pull that up. Um in terms of health care, I can tell you right now that I sit on the board for our healthcare and they're telling us to prepare for about a 30% increase in our overall health care costs. >> Wow. We we bled money last year in healthcare cost um as a consortium. So we anticipated that we were going to lose $3 million when we set the rates. Uh we knew that that we were going to be relying on reserves in order not to increase rates as much as what we probably should have
070last year. Um so this year as we're looking at that, we anticipated a $3 million loss and we took a five an $8 million loss, five million more than what we anticipated. So health care costs are are skyrocketing. The cost of um of prescription drugs skyrocketing. So just in general that's that's also something that is on our list. Uh as a consortium we are going to begin digging deeply and researching what can we do to try to get our healthcare costs back under control including trying to leverage the size of our consortium to get Excelis to lower some of our costs. So, you're going to watch a lot of advocacy out of out of this group for trying to get some of those costs under control. >> All right, Mr. Paul, you're up. >> All
071right, I will uh keep this kind of quick. I wanted to provide some context around the transfers to reserves tonight that you'll see in your board resolutions after this. Um, so I'm going to start off with some key drivers of fund balance. Um there's several variables throughout the administration of a budget that can contribute to how fund balance either becomes available or does not become available. Right? And we try to in through the budget process and the administration of it try to hedge our bets to hopefully never be under those targets, right? We never want to have to revert to the rainy day fund like Dr. Schnel mentioned. So just some areas the the the largest areas over the administration of the 2425 budget where we could see that contingency emerge as the year closed
072out. Uh the first would be staffing pro projections versus actuals. Um, we had several vacancies that remain vacant through out the 24-25 school year. And when that happens, you just have budget lines within the budget not being drawn from, right? And that creates some unspent funds, which drives up fund balance. Um, in some of those positions, those can sit for a little bit and that can create breakage, which could mean that we're underspent because the position doesn't get filled till later in the year or it gets filled with a less expensive employee. Uh last year we had a oneoff deposit of revenue um generated from homeless aid in capital restoration project aid. You formally usually see that referred to as CRP aid. Um that comes from capital outlay projects from the past. Um this one
073specifically the CRP aid was kind of um just a delayed revenue that came in from a um a previous capital project. Um, so that also that's kind of we'll call it unanticipated revenue that just comes in to support those two things, the capital outlay and a homeless population coming into the district that we're responsible for providing services to support staff salary. We built some contingency into the 2425 school budget um for the unknown and unknowable in terms of what we would need to do to have support staff to clean our buildings. We didn't know which direction we were going to go. Um there's contingency built into support staff obviously for overtime and things of that nature, but in this case we weren't sure if we were going to go the route of FTEES, so Kalum
074employees or support staff contract. And last year they ended up having a contract which um made that line come in with some additional funds left over because that contract saved us a little bit of money. Health insurance. This kind of relates back to the first point I made. um just a little bit. But in health insurance, when we have vacancies or we have open enrollment, which we have every single year, we like to build or it's it's best practice to build in at least a good number of I'll say five or six in a district this size of the most expensive plan that we offer. We know that employees have um the ability to choose a couple different plans depending on the bargaining unit. But in addition, we know that well, let me rephrase. We
075don't know if a potential hire, new hireer is going to come in with a full family with two kids, if it's going to be a single person or if it's going to just be someone who's just married. And so those plans can vary from $10,000 to $30,000. So we're going to budget high on that just in case we get 10 people who come in and choose that plan and then through open enrollment maybe have to adjust for family size changing. Um and again when we build those for vacancies and the vacancies aren't being spent in the general fund for those lines that pay salary, there's also a corresponding health insurance line that's not being spent either that can contribute to fund balance. The last one's interest. Um interest as you know throughout the pandemic was
076um pretty unprecedentedly high and so there were treasury bonds um last year that were invested in and there were also larger balances within our reserve accounts that helped drive up interest. So there was just a lot more interest in last fiscal year that contributed to additional fund balance. Um so that kind of paints a picture of the largest contributing factors um to our fund balance and how we end up with the funds we end up with at the end of the year. And also it's worth noting that these same factors can result in the opposite right we can have excess we can have not enough by the end of the year. Uh Sher if we could go to the next slide. So strategic use of 2425 fund balance uh the purpose in in our opinion
077is to reinvest a port appro excuse me is to reinvest a portion of unappropriated fund balance into long-term district priorities um in order to support financial stability capital planning and operational sustainability. And on that note, to per um to support capital planning, we want to in make a deposit into our capital reserve of $400,000 that supports future facility improvements and capital projects. And then we want to deposit $121,7001 into the vehicle and equipment reserve. Um as you guys know, we like to try to purchase one bus a year ideally when we can. We like to purchase that bus in cash without financing if it's possible and that continues to help sustain that practice for our district and that's it. Is there any questions? So with the vehicle and equipment reserve the state is still uh
078holding steady on their electric bus mandate. >> Yes sir. >> Okay. >> Yes. there is a variance that we that we can apply for, but what I'm sort of learning right now is that in order to get the variance, it's not going to be that you write a note that says, "Yeah, we don't want to do that." We actually have to prove that we've attempted it. So, I think both the study that we've already completed that will explain to the state of New York what this is going to cost us uh for our readiness. And then also you're probably going to see across the state of New York uh boards making the decision and I haven't decided yet if I'm going to make this recommendation for us but that you might see budget or not
079budget votes just bus votes going up separate from your budget just separate from the budget keep it away from any of the chaos of that moment right that here we are we're going to go out and we're going to vote just on an electric bus on some random Tuesday and see if our community agrees that we should move full speed ahead. It's that type of strategy that we're certain is going to generate variances across the state of New York. So, I will continue to listen and learn and advise on what's the best way for us to get a variance based on the study that we did by Wendell. I don't have the number documented like in my mind right now to pull it up for you, but we're talking about millions of dollars in infrastructure
080that we we would have to plan for. Millions. Millions. So, we're not ready for that. Thank you. But >> that vehicle and equipment reserve, we spent out of it >> right this last cycle. And I, you know, I would like to see us continue to do that. Like if we can deposit with fund balance into that uh reserve, we spend out of that reserve at no increased cost. So it's a smart way for us to build a cycle. >> Is is Boseis looking at grant opportunities for the electric buses? I don't know where I heard this, but they said I heard something to the effect that the grants are starting to wind down for the infrastructure. Are we missing the boat on doing something like that or are we >> I think there were some
081grants maybe a couple maybe even two years ago and I don't think it was for your whole infrastructure. I think it might have been to support like the purchase of one electric bus. It it was certainly not holistic approach. It was a little bit of dabble here and there. I think it was the idea of getting one to show people that it's not maybe as bad as what they think it is. And I feel like that's how the grant money more or less rolled out. The districts that seem to be ahead in their projects have actually put them done it as projects in terms of building their facility. Their capital projects have really been targeted in that way. Okay. >> They're ahead of the curve. >> Good question. >> Okay. Back to you. >> You
082done? >> I'm done. I am busy and I love it. >> Thank you very much. Very thorough. Uh there is no old business. So we're going to move on to new business. Number one, appointment of Genesee Area Healthcare Plan board member resolved with the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent. Appoint Dr. Rebecca Chanel as a Genese Area Healthcare Plan Primary Board member for the 2025 2026 school year. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >> A second. Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. We're going to go on to number two. Sale and disposal of school district property. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent award the bid for miscellaneous items to
083the highest biders from auctions international website per policy number 5250 sale and disposal of school district property. I have a motion, please. >> I'll make it. >> A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? >> That motion is carried. Number three, approval of softball overnight trip. resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approved the request for the softball team to participate in an overnight field trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina from April 4th, 2026 through April 11th, 2026 per guidelines set forth by board policy number 8460 field trips. Cost for the share rooms will be passed on to the price of the student fee. May I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> A second. Second. >> Any discussion? >>
084I just had one question. Um, when they're going down, they say that they're going to stay at a house. >> It's got to be a big house. >> It's a big house. >> Part of the trip is definitely team bonding. And so for them to all be in in a house together, they're bonding the entire time. They cook together, they eat together, all the things. >> Okay. And and Mr. Dickens is obviously in a husband. >> Absolutely. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Female chaperones do attend to make sure that the female chaperones are doing all of the things in terms of supervising the bedrooms and lights out and all all of that. Yes, Mr. Dickens st steers clear of that door. >> Thank you for that clarification. You're welcome. >> Any other questions? >> All in favor
085say I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Number four, capital reserve transfer resolution. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the following resolution. Whereas the Calon Mford Central School District has unappropriated fund balance available as of June 30th, 2025. And whereas the board of education desires to continue to plan for future capital needs of the district. Now therefore be it resolved that based on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby authorizes the funding of the capital reserve fund as authorized by section 3651 of the educational law in an amount not to exceed $400,000 from the unappropriated fund balance as of June 30th, 2025. And be it resolved that this resolution shall be effective retroactively to June 30th, 2025. May I have a motion,
086please? >> I'll make it. >> A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I was noting that the $400,000 the goal that we came up with. So that's good. >> Yes, we have. >> That's very good. And then this is set aside for future capital. >> Yes. >> Things. So when we had the next capital thing, we had the money already there. >> Yes. Because we only got to the capital in our conversation. We only got to the capital reserve. We still need to do a few more reserve workshops, but definitely the you'll see that this unappropriated fund balance is mostly going there because that's the one that we've agreed that we're really comfortable with >> where you know and maybe in other years we might have other accounts we want to deposit into, but
087for this one, I felt it was important that we make the deposit into the account that you guys are most are most comfortable with in this moment. >> Right. >> Any other questions? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion is carried. Number five, vehicle and equipment reserve transfer resolution. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approved the following resolution. Whereas the California Mford Central School Disc has unappropriated fund balance available as of June 30th, 2025. And whereas the board of education desires to provide for the future purchase of vehicles and equipment to maintain efficient operations of the district. Now therefore be it it resolved that based on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby authorizes the funding of the vehicle and equipment
088reserve fund as authorized by section 3651 of the education law in the amount not to exceed $121,71 from unappropriated fund balance as of June 30th, 2025. And be it further resolved that this resolution shall be effective retroactively to June 30th, 2025. May I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? I'll just add that this one in terms of the other reserve um the community did vote and give us permission to spend out of this reserve to buy the school bus. So it then seemed most appropriate to deposit back into this one with the remainder of that fund balance. Anything else? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Before moving on to number six, we have Mike from campus and Shannon
089from Hunt. Are they going to speak to the change order? >> They are going to speak to the change. >> Yes, please change order. >> Hello again, everybody. We're back. >> Thank you for coming. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for having us. Um, so since the last time we were here, um, we last time we were here, we were asking permission to expend from to carry on the conversation of extra money laying around and, um, an unallocated balance of roughly $1.5 million um, from being under our estimated value of the day. We've previously decided to replace additional windows in the elementary building and also the boilers in the high school in their entirety. um that is now in progress in various states of of approvals and material procurement. Um today um we're here to talk
090about expanding the scope of work of the tile finishes in the middle school hallway extending from the main entrance at the auditorium lobby all the way back to the beginning of the high school hallway. So past the library um to the first set of doors that enters you into the high school. Uh we have we've identified the scope of work because of about 35% of the tower we're talking about was previously purchased in the capital project. Um I'll let I'll turn it over to Shannon to talk about the design in particular. Um the cost we are looking at in total um is $216,343. Um we can answer any questions about that. Um but first I want Shana to give some more details on what we're trying to do. >> So the work that we did
091buy um on bid day is uh the corridor wall at the auditorium from the storefront doors all the way down to the corner we bought a new wall tile finish um at that wall where the wood paneling was. Um, we also further down the hallway at the new STEM library, production studio, entrepreneur studio, uh, we bought a new tile finish on that side of the corridor wall from the, uh, corridor doors to corridor doors, end to end. Um, on the walls opposite of these two spaces, what we bought um, on bid day was just a new drywall installation. And the discussion was we were going to paint it um and it was going to be a blank canvas for the district to do any kind of final graphics, you know, or or whatever you might
092want to do. Um with the unallocated funds on bidday, we would take um the wall tile finish design that's on the auditorium wall and on the STEM library wall and apply it to the other side of the hallway. And then as Mike mentioned, go all the way down um past you know the wood shop to where that set of corridor doors are that begin the high school. Um when we were in the design phase for all of this at one point there was a desire and a discussion to do that but you know we had to pull back because as um you know we got closer to bid day and estimates got tightened up we were concerned about protecting the budget on bid day. So conceptually this was always part of the discussion but now
093we get to get to implement it. >> I'll add part of the scope area we are talking about includes the two stairwells >> um that exit out the building um that are within this area. We had to find a good stopping point. There really isn't a good stopping point until you get up to that second set of of doors on the second floor. >> Yeah. So, so really this creates a cohesive look all the way down the hallway um without having your new finishes next to the peach tile which we can see out in the hallway which would just I think enhance how make that look dated. Um so I think um we we think this is a good value for the project. We still continue to chase other work. Um if you look on
094the letter recommendation where we were after the previous approvals from the 1.5 left us at about just just above $66,000 left in this balance of unallocated funds. Where this change would put us would leave us just under $390,000 left in that budget. And this is still on top of our construction contingency that we started the project with for normal change orders of $777,000 which we have utilized so far through the the normal course of demolition uh and reconstruction. Um, so with that, we I invite you guys to ask us any questions. So if there's more information you'd like about this, >> so as I understand it, if I'm walking into the middle school right outside of here, walking into middle school, >> that tile work will go up that stairwell that you see. So aesthetically,
095it's all going to be uniform >> All the way to the second floor to those to those doors. How about the stairwell on the other side of the library? You said two stairwells. So that's what is that the second? >> There are two. Yeah. So as you go from the main entrance past the library, there's another set there's another stairwell at the where the entrepreneur studio is going to be. I think it's the art room hallway. I think that art room is there. >> No, we're talking about where Mr. Dickens class by the boys and girls bathroom. >> That will be the same all the way up to second floor. >> Correct. And >> so coming this way, it's all it starts. You see a change and it's uniform. Okay. >> It also includes the
096two vestibules. There is a small entry vestibule off of those stairwells as you exit the building >> that has the pink tile in it. >> So from a community standpoint, right, we are revamping the auditorium which is where we host all of our company. And then you go down into the library STEM renovation, the innovation studio, which is going to double for us in lots of ways as a large group instruction room. So you think about any community event that you want to do, things that we might host, like maybe even these meetings. You'll watch us go from the front door of the old middle school entrance all the way to the high school entrance will be a newer look. Like right now, I tell people when I'm touring, you'll know that you're in the
097older side of the building by the color of the tile, right? And so now you'll have that still, but it's going to be that the tile along the entire front hallway will be newer. So the 98 project and then the 2526 project >> and it's gorgeous tile. >> What colors? >> Two. It's a white gloss, a white flat, and then a custom maroon to match our stuff. >> Yeah. And it's And it's not a lot of maroon. It's just like periodic in there. But it'll be really pretty. Is it the correct maroon? It is right, Shannon. >> Is that the correct maroon? >> Yeah, they're color matching to your to your specific >> not cranberry. >> No, not cranberry, not purple. >> Not red. >> Any other questions? >> I have one quick one. I
098say all this uh understanding you have a good handle on the finances of the project. Um I look at this like the boilers are a huge improvement to the facility. The classroom spaces are basically what we're in the business of doing. Um the wall tile is the aesthetics. You know, when you're doing a project at your house, you spend on on the the nuts and bolts of it. And if you want to spend extra money on the paint at the end, if you have it left over, sure, buy the fancy paint. Um is there a way to being cautious with the scheduling of this project? Is there a way to focus the aesthetic projects more towards the end of this when we are guaranteed there's money or are you extremely confident that there is that
099funding available still? >> That's a great question. Um, by this point in the project we have we're we're through demolition in the auditorium. We are doing new work now currently installing new lighting in there. Um, if you haven't peaked in you can because I think the door's open in that space. Um we've we're through demolition in the library here. We've actually demolished the library in the elementary school already uh to take advantage of the rest of summer right before kids came back. So a lot of our unforeseen conditions are exposed. Um, and with the construction contingency alone, not the unallocated funds portion of this that we're talking about, we feel comfortable about starting this conversation of prioritizing work to assign to it um to so that we can pull from this as we see the
100funds becoming available. This tile, yes, it's it's more of an aesthetic change. Um, but now would be the time to do it in the schedule just given the lead times on the material. Uh, right now we're expecting it if this doesn't get approved if we can submit an order soon, not arriving until probably the closer to the end of the year, which would put us into February break for installing the tile. Um, so it's already past when we would like to have that finished in our schedule. Um, and then we are we would then be up against the schedule of finishing in this building. um we're right at in February or sorry, April with the library finishing up. So, we'd like to have all the t all the work done at that point. Um but
101to your but to your question, we are comfortable uh with our design or with our construction contingency that's left to start assigning um other scope and kind of pulling the trigger on something like this because it makes sense in the schedule at this point and because it it does enhance that more used side of a building, I would say. Um, and since we're touching part of it, filling in the gaps kind of made sense to us. So, yes, that's the long- winded answer I think question. >> Thanks. Yeah, that's important. >> Dr. Chanel has been talking about um planning for the use of the rest of the funds and possibly having a facilities committee meeting to discuss it because it is a large number. So, we do have standing facilities committee meetings with our architects
102and um and construction management once a month. And so, I'm going to start making sure that you guys are aware of those dates because we are now going to get into whether we're spending money that we didn't already put in the project. We're extending things that we did or we're starting to look at things that got left out of this project um because we didn't think they could fit. But they're not going to be things that you've seen in design. They're not going to be things that the community saw like on our sketches that we were doing that at this point. Whatever we do from here on is going to be, oh, I didn't realize that was part of the project. So, it is time just to make sure that the board has a voice
103at that table. Um, >> thank you. >> Absolutely. >> I will also add we also consult with the district's financial adviserss and actually have had invited them and pulling them back into the same meetings that Dr. Schnell was just referencing. Um, it's time since we're talking about spending this money, we just want to make sure everybody's on the same page. >> Thank you. >> Other questions. >> Thank you, Shannon and Mike. >> Appreciate your time this evening. >> Going to move on to number six, approval of change order. Resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the following change order. Whereas the board of education of the Calonia Wford Central School District is undertaking a capital improvement project known as the 2025 2026 capital project. And whereas the board has
104an existing contract with Algier Construction Corp dated February 12th, 2025 for general trades work. And whereas certain changes to the contract are now required due to upgrade the finishes in the middle high school auditorium lobby and hallway extending past the library and ending at the start of the high school hallway. And whereas the district architect and construction manager, Hunt Engineers and Campus Construction has reviewed and recommended for approval and proposed change which is detailed in change order number C0101-012. And whereas this change order will result in a net increase to the contract sum in the amount of $216,000343. Now therefore, be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves change order number C 0 co1-012 to the contract with Algier Construction Corp. for the 2025 2026
105school capital project resulting in a net increase to the contract in the amount of $216343 which adjusts the total contract sum to 4 million $4,7492 and be it further resolved that the superintendent is hereby authorized to execute any and all documents necessary to effectuate this change order. May I have a motion please? >> I'll make it. Second. >> Yep. >> Any further discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> That motion is carried. Final number seven before moving to executive session is the approval of agreement for special education programming resolved. The board of education approves the attached written agreement between the Byron B school district and the Calon Mford School District for the 2025 2026 school year. May I have a motion, please? I'll make a >> second. >> Any discussion? All
106in favor say I. I. Any opposed? >> That motion is carried. We are going to move to executive session right now. Resolve that the board of education adjourn to executive session at 7:23 p.m. to discuss employment employee history of particular persons. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >> A second. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carried. We will see you in a bit. >> We are back. Resolve that the board of education return to regular session at 8:25 p.m. And I have a motion, please. >> Make it. Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. We're going to move on to personnel. Number one, resignation of extra class advisorship. Resolve that the board of
107education upon the recommendation of the superintendent accept the resignation of assistant yearbook advisor Susan Mills effective October 31st, 2025. I have a motion, please. >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> That motion is carried. Number two, appointment of special education teacher. Resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent appoint Rachel Herrera to the 1.0 FT probationary tenure position of special education teacher effective on or about October 14th, 2025 through on or about October 13, 2029. The appointee holds initial certifications in childhood education grades 1 through six and students with disabilities grades 1 through six. May I have a motion, please? >> Yes. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> That motion is
108carried. Moving on to three. Appointment of occupational therapist resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of superintendent. Appoint Macy Miller to the 1.0 FTE probationary civil service position of occupational therapist effective on about October 15, 2025. A probationary appointment is effective on or about October 16, 2025 through October 15, 2026 pending lure as an occupational therapist. I have a motion, please. >> I'll make >> a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I'll just tell you that she's taken her final exam. She's just waiting on exam results. >> Thank you. >> Cheer for >> all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Number four, approval of substitute resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the following substitutes as listed for the
1092025 2026 school year. Motion, please. >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >> Nay. >> That motion is carried. 51. Thank you. Appointment of tenure of special education teacher resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent appoint Caitlyn >> Kunachica to the tenure position of special education tenure teacher tenure area. The tenure service shall begin on October 21st, 2025 pending successful completion of the probationary term to end on October 20th, 2025. The appointee has professional certifications and students with disabilities 1 through eight and childhood education 1 through six. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Can you read the dates again? I'm sorry. It sounded like the same month. >> October 20th.
110I think >> the tenure service shall begin on October 21st, 2025 pending successful completion of the probationary term to end on October 20th, 202. >> The last day of her probationary period is October 20th and the first day of her 10 period is October 2. I heard this. Yep, I got you. >> Thank you. >> Um, good question. All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Approval of curriculum leader resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent appoint Ben Hoy as science curriculum leader for the 2025 2026 school year. I have a motion please. >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> That motion is carried. Number seven, approval of intercolastic coaches and volunteers.
111Resolve with the board of education upon the recommendation of superintendent approve the attached list of coaches and volunteers for the 2025 2026 school year. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> That motion is carried. Number eight, approval of school to work students. Resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the following students as listed as schoolto work employees for the 2025 2026 school year. I have a motion, please. >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? That motion is carried. Appointment of elementary assistant principal resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent appoint Jessica Aswith >>
112to the 1.0 FTE probationary position of assistant principal in the elementary school. Effective on November 3rd, 2025. The probationary appointment is effective on November 3rd, 2025 through November 2nd, 2029. The appointee holds internship certificate in school building leadership. May I have a motion, please? >> Yes. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I would just point out for the board um that this position has been changed from a 12 month position to what we would refer to as an 11th month. So, the person will work um the same schedule as teachers. So, they would be on the instructional calendar and then work 20 days in the summer in terms of preparation for the upcoming school year. So, we are listening in terms of the feedback from the community around do we need full-time administrators. Uh, and
113Jessica is well aware that this is something that we will continue to look at across the school year as we're building our next budget. So, we're going into this eyes wide open and very honest about making sure that we're assessing our needs. Um, but we have changed the structure and so we're going to see if the change in structure serves us well. Thank you, >> Dr. Chanel. appreciate you working on that and addressing the concerns that so many in the community have brought forward and and being really cognizant of the budget issues that we plan for next year. >> Thank you. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Number 10, approval of separation agreement. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve
114the attached separation agreement between employee number 1082 and the district. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Number 11, appointment of assistant yearbook adviser. resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent appoint Sarah Sheffield as the assistant yearbook adviser for the 2025 2026 school year. I have a motion please. >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Number 12, appointment of mentors. Resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the following mentor list for the 2025 2026 school year. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >>
115Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Number 13, resignation of middle high school substitute coordinator. Resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent accept the resignation of middle high school substitute coordinator Sher Murdoch effective October 31st, 2025. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Dr. Schnel, do you want to explain quick just kind how the structure works with that position? >> Sure. So, the middle high school substitute coordinator actually handles all of the sub calling for uh anybody that works in this building. um that position really does need to be situated inside the office. You have to know the schedule in and out in order to help create structures for
116um teachers to be out for the day. So any teacher that calls in sick actually calls into the substitute coordinator. So it's a busy position and never ending. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Number 14, appointment of middle high school substitute coordinator. Resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of superintendent appoint Susan Mills as a middle school high school substitute coordinator effective October 31st, 2025. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Question on the date. Is it is her starting date the same as Sherry's last date? >> Okay. Yes, that's intentional. >> It's intentional. >> Thank you. >> To do a handoff. >> All in favor say I. >> I.
117Any opposed? That motion is carried. 15. Amend appointment of clerk typus. Resolved that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent appoint Susan Mills to the probationary civil service clerk typist position for the 1.0 FTE position in the middle school high school office effective September 9th, 2025. The probationary period is effective from September 9th, 2025 through September 8th, 2026. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. Second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion is carried. Moving on to 16. Termination of employee. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the termination of employee number 919, food service worker, effective October 6, 2025. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >> A
118second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> Any oppose? The motion is carried. Moving to adjournment. Resolve that the board of education adjourn the meeting of October 14th. Thank you. >> At 8:36 p.m. May I have a motion, please? >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. It's like the kids packing up the books. Motion is carried. Have a good evening. Happy um board of education week. Thank you for your commitment to >> Are you going to put that up? >> All right. The video will hit social media if it hasn't already learning. But that's fun. We're excited to celebrate you guys. Thank you for all you do. Thank