001That's all. >> That's all that matters. >> Okay, we're good. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming. Need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meetings of 72925 and 8625. Anthony and Frank. All those in favor? Okay, that's everyone. Thank you. Dr. Farley. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. We are very excited uh to welcome our 10-month staff and faculty members back for our superintendent conference day on Tuesday. And we are super duper excited to welcome all of our students back on Wednesday, September 3rd. Our hallways are so quiet and so empty. We need all of our kiddos back. So we're we're so excited to welcome everyone back. We ask all of our WB families to please carefully read um their welcome back u mailing um that was
002sent out to all families and the parent square email messages that are being sent out um from my office and also from um our principles as well. Again, definitely go through those. If you need to update your email address or your phone number, please be sure to do that. Uh we want to make sure that you can access the parent portal, right? and all the information in our student information system. Before we begin tonight's uh presentation on our athletics, um I would like to just address a question that I received earlier today from a resident uh with regards to the Suffach County Department of Health pod resolution that's included in tonight's agenda. She indicated uh that there was some confusion with regard to the purpose and the use of the pod by the district. Um
003so just we've done this beforehand quite a number of years, not just us, but other school districts as well. um where we establish a memorandum of understanding right between the school district New York State Department of Health and Suffach County right they make that request of various different districts that are located in different areas that's in Suffach County that's also in Nassau County that's really in terms of throughout New York State um and the purpose of it is simply to designate our district as a potential facility that could be used in the event of god forbid a public health emergency right um you know within the region they again they establish kind of areas where they're good kind of regions students and kind of centralized. Um to clarify and to be crystal clear, this does
004not involve myself, any principal, any school district official administering medicine or vaccines to students in any way, shape or form and has nothing to do with that at all. Um this is again the department of health um is required to secure sites throughout each of the counties to serve again, god forbid, as emergency points of dispensing if they're ever needed in a major emergency. Okay. So, I just figured I would bring that up since that's on the agenda. Um, and the resident indicated that there was some, you know, confusion about that. As we prepare to welcome our students back uh for the 2526 school year, I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude. Um, to the many individuals who have worked tirelessly to ensure we are ready for a strong start. Super
005exciting to get here to work and see our all of our athletes out there playing. I think we had 300 and something athletes ride yesterday morning on various different fields. Um, a huge thank you to our buildings and grounds maintenance departments, IT um, department, transportation department, our administrators, our administrative office assistants. Um, you know, again, all of which are working on and have worked on so many different aspects of closing the school year and again getting us ready to start off a new school year. I also would like to take a moment to acknowledge all of the staff and faculty members who this year have had the added responsibilities to set up new instructional places or or working spaces throughout the district. Um again, thank you all for working together. Uh focus on one common
006goal uh the benefit of our students. So with that being said, I think we're ready. I don't believe we have any other statements. So going to invite Baba, Mr. Penel who will be leading us through uh an overview of our athletics program in our school district. And Mr. Hanley will also be chiming in at different points. >> Chiming in. Is there another word for that? >> No. My word. >> My word. >> Interjecting. Chiming in. >> Chiming in. Red. We want red able to see it first. >> Glasses. We need Yes, definitely. >> Thank you. Okay. Good evening everyone. Uh, thank you to the board of education and central administration for allowing me the opportunity to give a program overview of the athletic department tonight. Uh tonight I will give you a little insight to
007the inner workings of the program as seen through the department lens in relation to programs participation events athletic highlights facilities and equipment budgetary overview future projects and challenges within the department. Um is it a great opportunity to kind of explore a little bit behind the scenes of what goes on. Uh we did cover a few things uh throughout the year budget-wise but this gives you a little more um scenario of what goes on on a daily basis. Um, first of all, I know that's a very difficult slide to see um, with the writing, but uh, what that is is a slide of all sports by season. On this slide, you can see a listing of every athletic offering by season with the beginning and end dates of each season. Only on that sheet, the only
008unified dates are not included because they have not been uploaded to section 11 yet uh, with the designated start and end times. So, you can see that by if you really could see that. The next is an overview of an overall of of the participation numbers. Um, here I've tracked the Oh, no, sorry, wrong slide. This is just a basic overview of our program illustrated here. You'll be able to see the offerings broke down by season, by level, by male and female offerings, as well as the total number of teams in the antilathic athletic program. We've highlighted the number of coaches appointed for each season, as well as the total number of coaches throughout the year. Listed below that are the personnel that are overseen by the athletic department throughout the school year. You'll notice
009that it's uh besides coaches, there are our administrative assistants, our nurses, our physical education teachers, our athletic trainer, our equipment manager for a total personnel that are overseen by the athletic department. I know that's very difficult to see. Uh on the yellow slide here, we uh tracked our participation numbers. Here I I've tracked the participation numbers for the two years that I've been at WB. So you'll be able to delineate the numbers between the middle school and high school level as well as both male and female participation within the total program. Both in the previous two years, both male and female numbers have increased uh with the comparative grade analysis. And you'll see that we have well over a thousand athletes competing throughout the uh the school year at the various levels, both male and
010female, with female athletes continuing to be uh a little bit more majority of our athletes, which is is a nice um piece to our program. Little bit about the West Babylon Eagles when we talk about our athletic program. Our athletic program, we are members of New York State Public High School Athletic Association and section 11. Uh section 11 is the governed body of athletics for Suffach County. We adhere to all rules, guidelines, and regulations that are submitted by Suffach County. And we have to abide by those regulations, whether it's by um you know, student eligibility, whether it's by um participation in postseason events, um time commitments of games being uh replayed, um deadlines of games, season deadlines, uh we must be in compliance by all those. Right now, as of New York State Public High
011School, there are 781 member schools. There are uh 600,000 student athletes and 35 state championships. Um so we have a a huge number of athletes throughout the state that we compete against. Athletic events a little uh difficult to see but this slide gives you the exact number of contests that our student athletes compete throughout the previous year. Um you could see between 24 and 25 how many events and scrimmages that we actually competed. Um I can tough for me to see that. So, I'm just going to pull that up just uh one of the notes. There were 300 um approximately 364 away contests. So, you could see that when we divide them up, 364, 365, pretty comparable numbers, but with each uh home event and away event, there are some certain challenges. We'll discuss what
012goes into providing uh those athletic events. For our home events, you're able to see that um when we do have a home event, whether it's be an individual event or multi-events in the same day, which are a lot, um requires coordination within the building grounds regarding facilities, field setups, securing officials for all of the games, assigning scorers, timers, coordinating security personnel, um certain sports that are contact sports with the ambulance, the doctor, and the trainer, which must be on site during those games. When we schedule an away contest, we need to secure bus transportation at a reasonable time to be uh to and from our events. Uh we need to secure building access when possible. Um that also includes night weekends and holidays which uh has been a recent challenge, but we'll talk a little
013bit about that. Uh we will notice that we had a total of 759 contests. I'm just going to go back to that. If you see those total number of contests, um that's a lot of contests. If you figure there's 180 school days, if you break that down for the times who are not playing the first week, the second week, last two weeks at regions, there's a lot of games, uh, you know, put into that time. So, um, you said with 180 school days, that's a lot of events to put in. Little bit about our student achievement and highlights of our student athletes. um in 2023 24 my user don't like to read the slide but you can see that we had five student athletes sign sorry about that an actual NLI which is a national
014intent which is a commitment to play on a on a scholarship level of a a full um whether it's tuition or full uh scholarship and various reasons and then we also had 17 athletes committed to play college athletics. Uh we did have I'm sorry this is we did also have 25 New York State scholar athlete teams um in the 23 24 and then we also were New York State school of distinction both in 24 and 25. What that means is that uh 75% of every team that we put on the field or a court or uh um a mat whether it's gymnastics uh tumbling cheer uh 75% of those teams were had a 90 or above average during their season. And that's tracked by uh by our um system. And New York State recognizes those
015those athletes and they're also recognized throughout uh the state by getting individual pins and certificates. Our West Babylon athletes, a little recap of last year, uh athletes achieved all league, all conference, all county, all state, and all-American honors. We had eight teams qualify for the postseason as well as nine teams qualifi have qualify as individuals for the postseason such as track which doesn't qualify as a team. We have individuals, we've had wrestlers, we've had gymnasts, we've had um individual athletes besides our actual teams that can qualify as a team. A little bit of new programs. Um the new programs that we've implemented in the last two to three years. Uh we did have obviously we now are part of our unified program in section 11 uh that continues to grow. Um I know I see
016a couple things uh coming down the line in the future whether it be uh uh we have unified bowling which is a um mixture of uh unified students with our regular ed students unified basketball and I know I see I believe unified botchi coming down the uh the pike and also unified golf. So I think that's uh something we may see in the future. Uh, our gymnastics team has been back in full-fledged and excelling at all levels with state competitors and apologize for the smells here. Sticking on. Okay. And, uh, our new edition of girls flag football, which is the hottest rage in I think section 11 in New York State. Um, the girls flag football numbers are taking off tremendously. Um, and our JV girls flag football will be implemented. We had probably 39
017kids on the varsity last year when we only could play um eight at a time. So, it's a little bit difficult. And we uh believe it or not, we do have a girls wrestling team that's merged with five other towns um that's hosted by another local school. And we've had one of the girls who was uh got some uh big-time state recognition and was a Suffach County champion. Our athletes helping athletes program is an addition to our athletic program. Um it's run by uh the assistant principal, Mr. Deain. um and um some of our physical education teachers at the high school. It's a great program for us. We've been in I think place probably a little bit after co I believe is when it took place and it's another piece for athletes to share uh
018leadership skills with uh the middle school level uh athletes from our high school athletes. So it's a nice piece. Uh we did addition to new huddle program which is a uh software program which is allows our teams to be highlighted and videoed for live competition. We're able to view it on our YouTube channel, on our our games. So, we'll able to see those live for grandparents and parents that aren't able to be at at games. They could be in Florida, California, they can flip to our channel and watch uh their grandsons or granddaughters play live, which is a nice piece. Also, I hear a lot of parents get caught in the city if they're working in the city and they're able to flip it on their phone and watch as they're coming along. Um, so
019that's another piece for us. One of the missions of our athletic department, um, I always like to have like a mission or a vision when we're looking through this. Obviously, the mission is to provide the West Babylon student athletes with the best facilities, equipment, and uniforms, and we compete a lot of a lot of uh against a lot of teams. Um, and I know that people out there always a constant comparison. Who's got the better uniforms? Who's got the better facilities? Who's got uh you know, better equipment. Um, so, you know, it's it is a constant comparison. Not as only competition with score, but it's a competition, you know, within the teams with uh you know, and other people community see, you know, what we're all about. So, we try to provide the best possible
020uh image moving forward. Um obviously there was a lot of preparation with that which you'll see on the following slides. Facilities equipment uh status of the athletic facilities. Uh there's no secret we can try to improve the our facilities. There's a lot of work to be done and to improve the facilities in the immediate future. Um so that's a long range plan but the plan is will be in place and obviously shared with the district and the board of ed as we continue to try to improve our facilities throughout the district. recent upgrades that you may have seen already. Um right now we just finished our new basketball units in the high school main gym with the electric winches. Um they were run by a drill. Um we did have six new main courts put
021in. Um we did have the original courts. They were stamped 1964 on the top of the backboards which was the original building. Uh so we got 60 years out of them which is uh it's a good run for the backboards. Um so uh you know so I think we're going to donate them back to Hooers and we'll be good. Um the new LED lighting uh has been reinstalled in both gyms. U was added to the perimeter of the gym where there was some dark lighting spots over the past uh the school year, but all the new LED lights are in has really brightened our gym. We did add new volleyball mounts in both high school gyms um for our volleyball program along with the new systems. We did have uh one gym is on a
022slab, one gym is in a crawl space. So, we had almost uh what you call a coffee can filled with cement screwed to the bottom of the floor to hold the poles in. They eventually gave out. That was years of just patching it up. Right now, we have state-of-the-art standards so our poles will not fall through the floor like they did at one time last year. Um, we have new dugouts that were donated by our softball booster club. They're outstanding. We also got a donation from somebody to add windscreen around that. So, that's going to be a nice uh piece. The windscreen's been ordered and looking forward to installing that during softball season. immediate needs. Um what are immediate needs? Things that we think that can improve the program, you know, in uh exponentially over
023a short period of time. Uh weight room supervisors. Um this is a must to enhance participation our athletic program and the overall wellness of our student body. Uh we do not utili utilize our facility. We have a beautiful wellness facility. We also have a separate weight room that was not utilized after school for our entire student body. Um most uh schools that we uh compete against have a facility that's open after school for uh athletes that are not in season as well as inseth athletes that are off. Uh be an instance if you're a baseball player in the spring, you don't play anything in the winter. You cannot you don't have anywhere to train unless you have your own gym membership. Um and other schools provide the open facility for the fall and winter athletes
024that train. We have uh you know um people in there that are expertise in training. have workouts of the day and things that could be um you know part of our program and I think that'd be a big addition and we're exploring that um how how we can make that work. Our reconditioning budget uh is uh being increased every year. We're going to talk a little bit about that about including all C cost. Reconditioning uh for uniforms is is vital to the program. Um uniforms these days are so expensive in order to get them. the reconditioning of as far as restitching things that are torn, uh, recaning them the right way at the end of the season, putting them away and restocking them saves us a lot of money and gets a lot more years
025in uniforms. So, when you do it the right way, we get we get a lot more bang for our buck out of the uniforms. Uh, we know we do take uniforms for you, those of you have athletes, you send them home and you wash them on your own. Sometimes they don't come out, they get Clorox, they wash different things. Um, so we need to make sure that we uh we try to do the best uh that we can to keep these in in uh in play for a long time. Uh, also one of the immediate needs I think is branding. For those of you who are not familiar with branding, branding is basically signage and um you know over over uh oversight of West Babylon Eagles, Eagle Pride, uh blue and gold throughout the district.
026Um, a lot of districts have it. Uh, wind screens all over the place, sign signage coming in. Um, you know, things that make the kids proud to be in there. Uh, we've started that. We have some, uh, we can continue to increase that by, uh, putting our brand out there and making our facility stand out a little bit brighter and when people walk up, they know they're in West Bon. So, it's one of the things that will definitely increase the morale of our program. Immediate needs for this year. Um, no surprise for us. If you've been out to the tennis courts, they've been under constant um you know duress because of the weather conditions in the northeast. Um once you get a little crack and you get the the water gets within the crack from
027underneath, you know, then winter comes in, they get a little bigger, they continue to increase and they need to be repaired. We're currently working with Michael Judas and facilities who uh have that going to be hope, excuse me, which way am I? um which hopefully will uh be uh addressed soon. So, we think that's going to be in uh the immediate near future to have that fixed. Future projects, we talk about future projects, it doesn't mean immediate needs. It's things that you know we see in the future for a long range planning on what where we should be and where we could be to compete with other schools. When you go to the other facilities, you walk around, people notice things is you know, we have this, we don't have that. um you know, we
028want to make sure that we're providing the best we can. So, future projects, things that we see are um obviously field renovations for baseball and softball at the high school, turf replacement. Um they have a lifetime uh you know uh a life gez, I'm sorry about that. A life expectancy on on certain turfs. Atlantic will tell um one of them is I think near our facility uh lifespan. The other one's a couple years away. Um wrestling room renovation, things that need to be done as far as safety. uh mats need to be retested and they get GMAX testing. Um and when those things are not meeting specifications, they need to be replaced. Our both high school gyms uh totally uh restripped and repainted. Uh we're coming up on uh the life span of that branding
029as we talk, not only for just individual fields, courts, gyms um throughout the uh district. Middle school tennis courts, I know there's a major renovation coming up. I know that's going to be one of our uh part of our one of our projects that the middle school tennis courts will be done. We did speak a little bit about the high school weight room renovation. Um we did have a great um PEP grant that was received for the district and I think it was 2005 um which was fully fundable at that time. I think it was a 500,000 grant for uh facilities throughout the district. Um and you had to spend it in certain areas. Um that 2005 is now 20 years old. So, some of that equipment needs to be replaced um in order to
030keep uh those rooms operating. Uh high school tennis courts, as we mentioned, high school gyms being painted and wall padding. Middle school track is due for a resurfacing. Our track obviously is huge uh within the community. It's used constantly. Uh we have uh plus our track team which is uh incorporates well over 200 students a season um with our boys and girls program. It gets a tremendous amount of use and uh the track starts to flake and peel. Um it's constantly being patched and repaired, but eventually we're going to need a full surface replaced. And obviously a long-term goal would be the high school gym bleaches we replaced. Uh they would be in line with the uh 1964 um backboards. They were the original bleachers. I know Miss Galante's cringing over there. She sees all
031these things that >> we all are. But again from the motto if you don't ask you don't get. So a little bit about budget overview. Uh we did talk um most of you saw if you followed the board meeting in April we went over a more detailed look at the appropriation of funds within each budget code. This is just a little bit of what what we see in the future on a daily basis. Official fees uh continue to increase um uh continue increase each year at 3%. Last year there was a 7% increase which was a tremendous increase due to a official negotiation through Suffach County because of the lack of officials that they can get. So uh in order to entice more officials they up their pay and um hence the school districts within
032the section 11 are all charged um at a percentage of that facility equipment rentals uh to continue to increase. Um obviously that's a yearly expense. Uh we did combine our swimming team now with the deer park this year. So, we did eliminate a $12,000 pool rental fee for our swimmers. So, that's a savings for us and we'll continue to look at any ways that we can save um in that area. Our professional services, laundry and sanit um those to continue to increase, but again um in the long run, if uh we take care of our pro, our materials and our uniforms will keep them a lot longer. Sanitech is a company that comes in and sprays our gymnastics mats, wrestling mats, and any surfaces the kids constantly touch. It's uh uh sprayed with a micro
033band and is last for one year. We do it in our locker rooms and we do it on our mats. So we do that every year. Reconditioning our supplies is some part of uh our helmets uh and shoulder pads for football and lacrosse. Uh baseball and softball. Uh we can we start to uh add those reconditioning course. What they do is they take the helmets in, they spray them, they clean them, they put padding in and it's missing and they respray them all colors and able to uh make the life of the equipment a lot longer. athletic trainer uh salaries and supplies as obviously uh the athletic trainer is a lifeline for us. Um so we need to make sure that we uh we keep her going and the supplies obviously now are always uh
034you know continue to increase for a variety of reasons. Little bit of the challenges. This is always uh you know challenges are you know challenges are any way that you want to look at it. Some could be good challenges, some could be uh uh tough challenges, but obviously our challenges, obviously finances are always a big challenge, not only with in the school district, but that athletic department. Um there's a lot of things that that we provide for our student athletes that cost money and a lot of things that the students provide for themselves cost money. If you have an athlete, you know, how much sneakers cost, how much gear cost, how much lessons cost, all the other things that you know that we don't have to pay for, but we pay, you know, in a
035different way, it adds up to quite a bit. our facilities, our field conditions, and space. We need to continue and impre improve our field conditions. Um, one of the things that we say with space, we're limited on space in the fall season. Uh, we did just lose um uh OLG, which is our Lady of Grace, the fields in the uh the fall um due to uh we thought was inappropriate for our student athletes to play on. So now we have to consume that team, the our girls soccer program back onto other fields at the high school and we rotate them around with the boys at the middle school. So there's a lot more uh field space issues than we've had in the past. Uh building access, it is a challenge for us. Um you know,
036as with the budget votes, we do not have access to the building on Saturdays, holidays, and vacations for our teams. It's a really big challenge in the winter, but it's also a challenge on the weekends and holidays when the student athletes can't get in to prepare for upcoming contests. Our grounds crew, it's uh you know, we don't really have a huge grounds crew. We have a u you know, a tremendous amount of grounds at the high school. We have 17 acres. Um, if that's the correct number I was given. We had do have one crew member, uh, Christian who does our grounds. He does a phenomenal job, but again, it's one man trying to keep 17 acres, uh, under control, and it's a lot for him. Middle school, our fields and, uh, grounds and with
037setups are done by our custodians. Um, so that's usually done after school and during a school day. So, you know, besides cutting the fields, mowing the fields, lying the fields, they're also setting up after school for our events. off-site locations. It's always a challenge when you have an off-site location because we provide opportunities for our student athletes beyond the walls of uh the high school and our campus. Our golf teams obviously go to sumpwams and uh also Bergen Point and travel when they can. We have swimming offsite, our bowling teams offsite and our gymnastics teams are offsite. So, we do have challenges with transporting them. Our shuttles that pick up our students and transport offsite sometimes are not able to get them there at the right times. So that's a challenge. Sometimes it must be
038uh the parents might have to take their kids to the events, not events, but to the practices because sometimes our shuttles are unable to do it just by sheer numbers of the drivers that we have. One of the other challenges is maintaining programs um and programs obviously the numbers some programs are booming. Um you know I think it's hit or miss when I think teams get successful. I think more kids join for that. I've also seen um you know the opposite. I seen when teams get successful, kids don't go out for the team and say, "They're too good. I can't play at that level." So, u you know, it reworks in reverse, but we need to try to make sure we're reaching as many students as we can and we try to keep those numbers
039up. So, maintaining programs so we don't lose programs. Um, you know, is a challenge. One of the challenges is that in the spring sports, we have flag girls flag football, which is huge right now. Um, and it's it's big throughout Suffach County and New York State. Um, so you'll see a lot of those numbers, girls gravitating to that and you'll lose numbers from whether it could be girls lacrosse, could be softball, it could be girls track. Um, you know, you'll see girls gravitate that because the numbers will will definitely increase in those areas. Um, another challenge is maintaining coaches. Um, coaches, it's very difficult to keep coaches for a long time. Um, whether it's burnout, whether it's other factors, whether it's young coaches that are uh, you know, moving on um, and not staying here
040for a long time. We've had turn turnover numbers in the past two years. We have had 56 coaches uh turned over and since 2023 24 that's a lot of coaches. Um you saw that what um the the sheer numbers of coaches that we had. So 56 is is a big turn. Um with that I do try to track how many in-house coaches. We've increased it dramatically. We now have 72% of our coaches that within the district are in-house people which is nice. So it's a lot better um to have in-house people working with our kids. um they have more invested and they have more of a connection with our student athletes. Um last thing obviously is um you know salaries. Salaries are you know whether we like to say it or not is always uh
041it's an issue because uh people that aren't our in-house people can look around and neighboring districts they get paid more a little more here a little there. They check out all the and they and they go other places same as anybody else would. So it's a challenge to keep uh competitive with our salaries and keep competitive coaches goals and strategic priorities. You know obviously one of the goals is uh increase numbers at all time. We have a lot of students here in West Babylon and as many people are involved obviously is is the better. We like to keep as many athletes involved in our programs. However, sometimes the programs are limited as far as you know um you know indoor facilities as court space teams um you know how many numbers can dictate uh being
042effectively watched by a coaching staff. But we do want to still expand our existing programs. We need to re-evaluate struggling programs because some programs are hurting. Sometimes the uh demographics of a district change over years at a time and sometimes just the programs just don't promote themselves. But it's something to be looking at. We do have participation numbers tracked every year from the state and every sport at every level and I do have those available then when we look at those uh programs. Um obviously increased community engagement at the youth levels. I've been here for two years. I I see one of that as a weakness within the district that we don't have enough connection with our community groups at the youth level. Um so there's not enough connection with our say uh youth football
043to the middle school to the high school. Just not enough connection where kids are coming. I know there are some programs that it's strong but I think overall I think we have a lot where we can grow in that. Um we also want to provide obviously provide an opportunity for participation as well as pro promote the opportunity for individual and team excellence. It's nice that we can provide an opportunity for youth uh for young athletes but we also want to provide them an athletes a chance to excel in their areas and work because some some of our student athletes are extremely motivated. Another uh priority that's not listed here is that we uh we do actually look to secure a full-time athletic trainer um that is employed by West Babylon. We currently um have one
044from an agency. Um it's able to create a smooth u you know position to enhance safety of our student athletes. U many districts have already gone to this model and it's uh seems to be working for a lot of schools where we have continuity within our program and they track our athletes from 7 through 12. My last uh last slide before we move on with a couple other things. Um you know, I always like to refer to this as kind of something that I like to to always visualize. You know, in the many years um that I've been working in high school athletics, and this is uh believe it or not, my 39th year in high school athletics, I always like to go back to the main vision. Are we creating something that people want
045to be a part of? you know, are we creating an environment that's rewarding not only for the athletes, for the coaches, the coaching staff, the school community, and West Babylon district entirely? It's something that needs to be a priority for the entire district to effectively make these programs succeed. So, I always go back to envision, are we make is it creating something that our kids want to be a part of? So, it's always in the back of my mind. It's a question that when we meet with certain coaches or certain programs, are we creating something that kids want to come out? And obviously um you know it's a it's a point of emphasis that we need to make sure that we improve in that area. With that I open up any questions or discussion items
046from from a board of education. Anything I can answer with you and >> question on the the weight room and the fitness room. You had mentioned um utilizing that better. >> Um what would that require? Would that be a fitness coach that would set up a schedule alternating? >> It would be a stipen uh stipen position after school. uh they could maintain it depending on how we arrange it. Could be from immediately after school from 2:30 to 4:30. Um they would have the workout of the day in there depending on the sport of the athlete. Some of the athletes would come with their own workout and say, you know, I'm working for this. If the athletic trainer has somebody who's a return to play, whether it's a knee injury, a shoulder injury, um she could
047give them their exercises to do within that facility and then we'd be able to utilize that for the entire time and open to every student within the district. >> Right. Is it utilized now at all by any coaches? Like when a practice gets canceled because of weather, are they utilizing? >> It's utilized within but it's not utilized by the general student body at all. Gotcha. Yeah. But it's only open to the students because they need to be supervised by a coach. >> Right. Right. Okay. >> Um just a quick question. Um looking at the um goals and strategic priorities, you say reevaluate struggling programs. Which programs do you consider to be the struggling programs of the athletic program? Well, I mean I I wouldn't uh say right now, but I would say where numbers are
048are lacking. Um, you know, as far as youth programs not promoting the numbers to the next level. So, that's, you know, that's something that to visualize. Like I said, sometimes the demographics, I know, uh, some programs just can't succeed. Different programs uh, throughout the county. Gymnastics has been struggling forever. I think there's now 12 teams left in Suffach County. Boys gymnastic has totally gone away. Uh, swimming for individuals because a lot of schools are getting away from the pools, insurance options, so their independence. There are a lot of programs that you have to look at if it's financially sustainable for you over the future. >> Along the same lines you had mentioned earlier, you know, you add a program you that have a population shift and I've seen in situations where as one example you
049had we have a a varsity and a JV just only no bench players on a varsity team, but yet we have a JV team. At what point do you do you flip it and say maybe we just need one solid team? We've done that twice, right? So, right, we've done that with the girls soccer team. Um, we we tried to uh we put in section 11. We scheduled the team just in case we had the numbers. Uh we didn't have as many girls return from the middle school, but so we do have a varsity. So, you need to make sure that usually have at least a team and a half because obviously kids get hurt and you know, injuries. Uh but you want to be able to have an effective practice too with you know,
050so you can scrimmage against each other on a daily basis. So, >> right. So, there shouldn't be a varsity team where there's just no bench. There should there should be backups is what we correctly said. >> Correct. Yeah. >> Is there is there a limit on the number of students that could be on a team in any of the sports? >> No. >> Okay. >> No. There I mean there there are some that keep high numbers because they can't they don't uh put a JV program on. So it's really developmental and you be able to get scrimmages and coordinate scrimmages for those athletes that aren't good enough to play at that level, but they get enough playing time where they develop over the course of year and by the end they are able to play
051at that level. >> Okay. >> Hi. In terms of the community engagement, um I tried to kind of look around at other school districts and how they put that information out there. Some have it on their website. Is there any other way that you think as a school district we can kind of help facilitate? >> Well, I will tell you that um you know, obviously our community bulletin board would be great uh on our website where um they they offer our flyers for our youth programs, whether it's baseball, softball, lacrosse, uh football, and I know there's a monetary fee. So, we don't like to send that out um within the community, but it's somewhere maybe if we do a community page. We're not asking uh the kids to pay, but if they're able to do
052that, I know some programs are more expensive than others. Um but we did uh try to, you know, send as much information as you can, but that that would be huge for us. And it's also the programs within the community that need to make sure they publicize it the right way. I know, for instance, um you know, one of the communities where I lived and worked, um they had our soccer, they always put the soccer flies everywhere I saw them until one side of the town didn't get those soccer flyers because they only put them up in one area. you're losing almost 50% of your population in that sport. So, you need to be cognizant of where you're putting where you're recruiting your kids from within your boundaries. Um, so I think that would be
053important. >> You're welcome. >> Is that part of the communication with the local sports teams that you were talking about? >> Yeah. And I think that's important to get start working on getting that. I was actually had a someone who's going to be an intern with me last year and uh that was going to be my project for him and uh but he uh he went on and uh he's at a deli university but we thought uh he was uh going to be a good piece for us to start putting that together. >> Part of the um on the new website right um kind of the core bones of it uh we had them include an area where it'll basically indicate kind of information from the community um with a disclosure that you know the
054flyers the district isn't necessarily endorsing, right, that you should join this or you should join that, but to have kind of a hub, right, for um you know, all of these different flyers, whether it's the the little leagues, right, or um the soccer or software or cheerleading kind of anything from the community, right? The town of Babylon is doing XYZ at this park, right? They're flying kites for, right? So, both nonforprofit and for-p profofit, but an area where our community, our WB community can go to the website and find all that information in one spot that's >> that they'll there will be a spot in the new website for that. >> And I know that I'm the advocate for the athletic department, but obviously it could be used for, you know, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts,
055all the other organizations that people don't always get that information. And >> and they're desperately, I mean, they call our office all the time saying >> Correct. and just looking for something, summer camps. They're looking for something for their students to do. Definitely >> does um question I I struggle with how to ask this because I know it's it's there's really no way for it to come out right. But just to to clarify, how do you find the balance between is there a balance between the you know I I I view school athletics as being focused on being competitive more so than let's say outside you know local leagues, youth center sports. correct >> there. But there is also that level of well a lot of people are interested so we need to add teams
056add teams keep doing that and I and I've been been a part of that as well. >> At what point is that maybe not the right route because there's you mentioned supplying our teams with the best equipment, best uniforms and we've added teams yet had a cheerleading team with parents sewing their uniforms. >> Correct. >> You know how do you balance between saying well we can have as many teams because a lot of interest but are we going to be any more competitive? Well, that's you know that that goes back to one of the things I said right here at the end was provide the opportunity for well as promote the opportunity for individual and team excellence you know so we just don't want to always kind of provide we have you know I hate
057to say the middle school we have inter murals for that right >> you know a lot of kids can join other clubs but you know we we need to be competitive at the same time and and equate how how competitive we're going to be with the programs that we offer >> okay so you you so there even though you at a team would you say that there's at least at the high school level there is still a a try out aspect correct to the teams. It's not an inter murals level. >> Correct. And you know, and the numbers are evaluated as participation numbers. We'll evaluate them with the central office and make some recommendations this year moving forward too as far as programs and teams. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Questions? No. >>
058Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you for the opportunity to share. >> Thank you. >> The athletic department >> and thank you for the visit tonight. >> Surprise. No problem. >> Surprise. >> Good there, right? >> Yes, we are good. Thank you. >> Statement of residents on agenda items only. Uh residents wishing to share a statement. Residents must state their name, address, and any organization they represent. They should also write this information on an index card and give it to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Comments about individual students or employers are not permitted. Each resident will have up to three minutes to speak with a total of 15 minutes allotted. Uh responses will be given. After all, statements, questions, needing further research will be addressed at the next meeting. Any
059statement of residents on agenda items only? Nope. None. None at this time. Okay. Need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Steve Kathy, all those in favor? Good. Okay. Okay. Motion passes. Uh, we need a motion to adopt policy 8113 as written. Katie, Patty, all those in favor. Okay. Is everyone need a motion to consolidate policy 1405 into new policy 0130, district complaint procedures? Patty, Kathy, all those in favor? That's everyone. Okay. Any old business? >> Do you want to chat about >> new business? >> Remember we talked about um >> new new business? >> Uh >> new business problem >> adopting different >> Yeah. I thought um >> adopting in different areas >> that uh we could propose allowing residents and employees to adopt certain small areas of the school grounds where they would
060maintain them. Uh and I gave you an example of the business office. We put up a nice new sign. It's in a planter. The planter is overgrown with weeds. Just doesn't look great. when the kids come to school, when teachers, you know, employees come to school, the better the place looks, I think the better we perform. And I thought maybe we could, you know, like I took an interest in that little spot. And I said, you know, I put some flowers in there, some mulch, >> clean it up, maintain it. Um, not during school hours, of course. >> And I just wanted to see if that would fly with the union, with the insurance, you know, like a structured areas coordinated throughout the district. >> So, you know, adopt the spot. >> Adopt the spot.
061Not necessarily putting up a sign, you know. >> Thank you, Steve, for >> right. Exactly. Just uh not putting up a sign and taking credit for anything, but just >> done uh to to help enhance the aesthetics. >> Oh, absolutely. >> of the building, whether it's a a planter or >> just pulling some weeds, you know, >> throughout the district. projects >> and sometimes the fifth grade gift leaving a school they've taken over the big flower box >> but actually create spots like actual structured system of spots >> where people we have these available we have these available You can't just let them just take >> No, it would have to I was just kind of whispering with Chris, right? Um >> it would have to be organized, right? Like where you know communicate and
062if it's a small area, right? Um >> communicate with our grounds folks, >> right? And the alumni is working in the courtyard at the high school. >> Yes. >> And um >> that came out >> Strauss did a great job >> at first Eagle Scout project. >> Several different Eagle Scouts projects throughout the district that have just been phenomenal. Absolutely. Definitely. So if the board is okay with that, we can definitely kind of brainstorm, you know, a little bit in how other districts, you know, formalize that process. You have your spot, Mr. M. >> So there's probably some things we have to maybe logistical >> contractual things and obligations. >> Again, as long as it's small spots and it's not, you know, I mean, here's a piece, right? So just also in terms of kind
063of I'll call it order of operations, right? Um so the last obviously we had summer school in terms of going on um now in particular when you look at the last two three weeks of August right it is literally all hands on deck on the inside and the classrooms and all those pieces right um and now in the next couple of days and they're going to shift in terms of the outside right so it's the finishing of the stripping of the floors our board started tonight our annual board building walkthroughs right we did the senior high school this evening tomorrow we're doing um a couple of buildings and then the following evening you know, we're doing a few more, right? Um, so we're seeing obviously the work, right, that our buildings and grounds team has
064done to get our buildings prepared. Um, towards the end of this week, then definitely the focus then also shifts to the outside um, you know, to some of those areas. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> But in terms of some cleanup, Yeah. >> Yeah. So, we'll we'll we'll talk a little bit more of the uh, >> we talked about Miracle. >> It's got that one. a lot of tools. >> Absolutely. Uh so we'll we'll dive into it. You know, seems like everyone is is okay with that. I will explore how other districts, you know, formulate that process and we'll take from there. >> Okay. All right. That was it for new business. >> I have a question actually. Um, I know last year we kind of talked about or we touched on um, and now that schedules
065are out on kids and the um, study halls, >> I was just wondering is there a way we can get a um, some kind of a print out that shows what uh, what electives ended up being offered, how many students are in each, and what the total max is that that because I'm sure every elective has different number of kids. >> Yeah, we can definitely I would say um I would say that I would wait to so maybe like middle of September to end of September, right? We can definitely do, you know, a print out, right, of each of the courses, how many students are enrolled in all of them. We can we can definitely do that. We can do that for both how that panned out because I know we were trying to get
066more kids study. >> Yeah, we'll definitely do that. Is is that of interest of the whole >> Yeah. And if we could add anything offered last year that's not offered this year. Yeah. >> Anything offered last year that was not offered this year as a result of maybe enrollment >> enrollment based, right? >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we can definitely do that. >> Good. >> All right. That's it. >> Okay. Statement of residence. Uh residents wishing to share a statement must state their name, address, and any organization they represent. They should also write their information on an index card and give it to the assistant superintendent for finance and operations. Comments about individual students or employees are not permitted. Each resident will have up to three minutes to speak with a total of 15 minutes allotted.
067Responses will be given after all statements, questions needing further research will be addressed at the next meeting. Any statements of residents? None at this time. Okay. >> Just um would like to um take a moment to congratulate. I know in our audience we have three of our newly appointed um WB family members. We have Jensel, we have Gianna, and we have Emma in the audience, I believe. So, congratulations and welcome. Looking forward to working with you all. >> All right. I like doesn't seem right. I just end this. Congratulations. Uh motion to Oh, what does that say? Motion. Motion to adjurnn. No, there's a there's a post exec. >> If needed. >> Motion to adjourn. Frank Anthony. >> All those in favor? Two hands. >> We're all set. >> All right. Have a good night,
068everyone. Thank you very much. >> Thank you for being here.