001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hello everybody and welcome to the Tuesday, September 9th, 2025 regular board meeting. If we can stand for the pledge, please. We'll have West Designs lead us. Don't you guys want to come up here? [Applause] You guys want to come up to the podium? We'll have you lead us in the pledge. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag and the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. [Applause] We'll do roll call. Start with uh Zach. >> Maximum. Jeremy >> present. >> Sarah >> present. >> Laura >> present. >> Marie >> present. >> Marta >> present. >> Charlotte >> present. >> Cal present. Dr. Krueger >> present. >> Thank you. and uh I'm here. Um
002we will also move now on Charlotte. Are you prepared to do your report? >> Yeah. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Um so within the first couple of days of school, we have had a lot of thought positive feedback for the majority of the students adhering to the rules of the new district free learning policy. Um some of the students still have them in their backpack, but they're not out, so it it's not that big of a problem. I have had a lot of teachers say that they haven't actually had to write up any students so far. And um yeah, so that doing good. Um and then East seniors part took part took in senior sunrise for the very first day of school for so for those of you that don't know um the high school
003seniors arrive on the football field before the sun rises on the very first day of school to celebrate their very last first day of school. West does it differently though. They do it in the middle of the school year. That's correct. >> It's like just an assume >> just a random >> first day of tailgate. >> Oh, the Okay. Um then the other thing is is I had a conversation with Mr. Win Nikki, the principal of East Senior and um this year he's starting something new where he's asking all of the teachers to give positive phone calls home to students that may have not done the best in previous years or they're showing improvement. Um it's he says that a lot of teachers like that idea. He's had one teacher do 15 phone calls in
004just the past week. And there's been parents calling him saying that like this is amazing for because it's reinforcement. It doesn't just help kids at school but at home lives too depending on like their diff everyone's different backgrounds. Um yeah and then we we were struggling. We couldn't find a lot of things to talk about because it is only the second week of school. But that's it. My mind >> I thought I thought that was great. >> Yeah. No. for struggling. That was See if Cal can keep up. >> Today in social studies class, my social science teacher took a poll on the phone band. Shout out Mr. Joselyn. And the majority of students said they did not like the phone man. But then the second question was if they were less distracted and I
005think all but one raised their hand for that. So obviously no one's going to like it, but it is positive. And then going along with Charlotte, I haven't met a single person that's put it in their locker. Everybody just puts in their backpack, but I don't see it as an issue. And then I think we all know West dominated Frontier 436 on Friday. And then we got the first club and our sighting meetings this week and next week. That's all I got. >> Now you you said you did the sunrise. You guys do a tailgate, right? >> Yeah. >> And that that's at the beginning of the year. So then the something else like the tailgate was the first day of school. >> Yeah. >> How did >> I not a senior so >> Oh,
006okay. Got it. Got it. >> Yeah. My daughter left the house earlier than she's ever done in her life, so I knew something good must have been going on. >> Cool. >> Excellent. Look forward to hearing more stuff. >> We do have a question for you guys, though. Do you guys want to hear like is there anything in particular you guys want to hear in a following meeting or questions we can answer for you? now >> put you on the spot. >> I mean, it could be anything. I think to um hear building based events that, you know, we don't get to see or hear all the time unless we have a you know, student in our household, but sometimes that's very specific to a grade level or a class. So, when you can kind
007of bring back a bigger picture of what's happening across your schools, that's helpful to us. >> Yeah, it's neat. I mean, just like the like the poll or I like hearing about what's coming up, too, because it reminds us to try to get to something. Um, I know the the football game was great. Um, you know, all the different events. Uh, it's kind of nice to hear what's coming up and then I do like to hear what's going on. I mean, is you know, I guess the question to you guys is do you is there you know, something that we normally don't highlight that you think is kind of cool or like your your academic side of things we don't always necessarily hear a lot of um what's going on on that side of things.
008We usually hear about sports and musicals and all that. So any interesting stuff on the that side of things, I'd love to hear about different classes or, you know, say West Designs is doing a great job, maybe tell us. Yeah, I like that stuff. Anyone else? >> And I think you guys are just the voices of your school. So if there are student concerns that you feel need to be heard or addressed, bring them to us. >> Yeah. And I I would say too, this was wonderful, but just like you were talking about your principal, how he's doing positive calls home. I think if you have something positive that you guys want to recognize a teacher or staff member, um you know, I'll take a moment and say all I heard was how much improved
009the uh cafeteria food was this year. So certainly there was some work put in there. Um I don't know if that's across every building, but you know, if you want to share some of that stuff, that would be great. >> You know, the good things butt dress are out or something. Did you have him call your wife and let him know? >> Yeah, I got a call once my son uh did really well on a test that I mean that made my whole day. That was great. So, it's cool he's doing that. >> Right. And some parents need to know that they're actually they're really good parents, but they might not always feel that way. >> Yes, I I can I can agree to that. Nice one. Thank you, Dr. Krueger. >> Thank you. I
010am happy to share my superintendent's report with you. Um, we had a great start to our school year. On August 26th and August 27th, we welcomed back our faculty and staff. We had our opening day uh assembly at West Senior on the morning of August 26th. And I want to thank Mara for being in in attendance and sending a welcome back message that morning representing our board of education. Um, and we also had Jeremy Maloney and Laura Slal Scott in attendance that morning as well. So, thank you for being there. We had welcome back messages from each of our union leaders. We also had uh students who were involved in in the entire morning from the national anthem to a performance by our marching band. Um the assembly ended with the school spirit squad from
011West Elementary who uh led us off with a back to school cheer and tossing t-shirts into the crowd. So, it was a really positive start to the school year. But that positivity aside, it was also filled with information for our faculty and staff about our strategic plan and some of our priorities for the school year. So many thanks to everyone who was involved in those two days of professional learning and preparation for the start of the school year. And then of course we welcomed our students back to school on September 2nd. Um overall a really positive and smooth start to the school year. I think the greatest challenge for any school district is not the kids and teachers and staff, but it's the logistics. And some of our logistics have proved to be a bit
012challenging, particularly with our contracted bus service company. We are still working through some logistics um around that to ensure that students are arriving to school with safe, reliable transportation that is on time. So, we are working uh really diligently with our partners. I was on the phone with them just this afternoon. And so we are going to continue to push to make strides to improve that so that we can ensure that our students are getting to school in a safe, reliable, and on-time way as as much as possible on a regular basis. I would like um to spend a minute recognizing some individuals. First, Coach Dave Recor was recently recognized by section six for the sportsmanship award in coaching, and he was recognized at a recent dinner. So, congratulations to him and many thanks for
013all that he does to serve as a role model for our student athletes. Also wanted to um someone mentioned food service earlier. We've had some beautifification done throughout our school district. This is an example of the red remodel, if you will, at West Middle's cafeteria serving line, and there's some other plans and work to just update some of our spaces. Um, it's remarkable what a vinyl rep can do to really transform a space. So, kudos to Sue Whan and our entire food service team for their efforts. I'd also like to publicly recognize Laura Slal Scott, our board member, who was recently recognized uh for the Emerging Leaders Award by the Erie County School Boards Association. The Emerging Leaders Award is uh an award that is only eligible for school board members who are serving their
014first term. And Laura was recently recognized for this honor. So, congratulations to you, Laura. >> And I'd also like to recognize uh board member Zack Armstrong who through his two local businesses, Armstrong Armory and the Barberh Shop, uh worked with his patrons and his customers to have a school supply drive. And this picture does not really do justice to the amount of donations that were received. The tables extend to the right and the left of this picture. Hundreds of items that were donated, school supplies, backpacks, um that were all donated to Northwood Elementary School and really met the need that we had for some of our students. So, many thanks to you, Zach, and to all of your customers who supported that supply drive. >> Just wanted I also just wanted to highlight a few
015um major upcoming events that we have. Our marching band competition will be on the field at East Senior on Saturday. Uh we have our academy induction ceremony coming up on September 16th. West Elementary will be holding their welcome back carnival on September 19th. Um, I just learned of this today, so I'll just verbally mention it that on September 20th is the Gary Geyser run at 9:30 a.m. and then we have a board work session later this month on the 23rd and West Middles Westfest on September 26th. But I think it's important to note that this is a really busy time of year. It was um I highlighted some big district-wide events that are going on, but truly I would encourage any parents or community members and board members to check the district website for open
016house events and welcome back events that many of our schools are hosting. It's a really fun and exciting time as we launch the school year. And I want to thank all of the efforts of our faculty staff, in particular our 12-month employees who work tirelessly all summer long. and this summer in particular, um, in pretty intense heat to clean our schools, to get our buildings and grounds ready, and to ensure that we launched our school in a manner that our schools were ready to welcome students back, and that we had a really successful and smooth uh, launch to our school year. So, many thanks to all that helped to launch a very successful start to our school year. Thank you. >> Thank you. [Applause] Now, we'll move on to public comments. Um, no one no
017one has signed in to speak. So, is there anyone in the audience that would like to come up and um speak for public comments? Cuz if not, then I will not read my paragraph of rules. >> No public comments. Okay, we will move on to number three. Then, may I have um a motion on 3A, please? >> I'll make the motion to approve it. Jeremy, may I have a second, please, to approve? >> I'll second. >> Green. Okay. Is there any discussion on A? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Passes 70. How about um 3B? May I have a motion on 3B? >> I'll make the motion to pass 3B. >> Green. Motion to pass 3B. May I have a second, please? >> I'll second. >> Laura, second. And any discussion on
0183B? Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? 3B pass 70. Now number four, 4 A. If I can have a motion from someone on 4 A, please. [Applause] >> I'll make a motion to approve 4 A. >> Laura, motion to approve 4 A. Second it, >> Mara. Second. Any discussion on 4 A? Okay. All in favor? I. >> Anyone opposed? Passes 70. And number five is consent agenda items 6 through 9. Um I will ask for a motion on 6 through 9. I make the motion to approve 6 through 9. >> Jeremy motion to approve 6 through 9. And if I could have a second way. Zack. Second on 6 through 9. There's no discussion on consent agenda items. So all in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Seven passes 70 and number
01910 A. If I can have a motion on 10A, please. I'll make a motion approved. Jeremy, >> I'll second it. >> 10 A. Sarah will second. Any discussion? >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. I'm abstaining from this. >> No one's opposed and Laura is abstaining. So, it passes 6 with one section. Excellent. Okay, I will hand it over to Dr. Krueger for some introductions. >> Thank you very much. Uh the board just took action on some personnel items that we'd like to draw attention to. Um first, as we recognize some personnel, there are some upcoming uh holidays where we recognize and celebrate the the good work of the people in our school district. So, I just want to highlight those that are coming up uh throughout the month of September so that we can
020recognize all of those individuals. But most notably, we did take action and the board just took action on some retirements and also some appointments. So, we first congratulate our retirees and thank them for their years of dedication to the school district. And then I'd like to also recognize um we had a number of personnel appointments that the board took action on tonight. busy time of year as we ensure that we have all the personnel needed in place for the upcoming school year. And I believe in attendance tonight uh we have both Robin Brady who was appointed as our director of curriculum and assessment and Franco Deasqua who was uh appointed tonight as our director of CTEMMEies and workbased learning. So I'd like to ask them to stand to be recognized and congratulate them on their
021appointments. Congratulations [Applause] to you both and we are very excited to see uh the work that's going to happen under this new leadership structure. So, thank you and congratulations to you. >> Thank you. >> I just want to pause. I want to make sure we didn't overlook anyone else who was just appointed by the board of education for a new position and to be able to recognize anyone else who was appointed. If you could please stand. >> Nancy. [Applause] >> Nancy. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you, Jeremy, for highlighting Nancy, who was just appointed as a custodian here in our school district. After uh serving in a variety of roles in the district, she is now a head custodian. I had the pleasure to see her and run into her at Winchester Academy uh just recently,
022and she was running around the school, but with a huge smile on her face. So, congratulations, Nancy. So, what we're going to do now is we're just going to take a short recess so we can meet everybody that was appointed or changed and um use a quick restroom, use a quick restroom break if we need to, which going to do a few minutes and uh we'll be right back. Thank you. Okay, >> now we'll move on. If everyone's good, we'll move on to new business. Yeah. >> Can I have Yeah. Just uh Yeah. Let me I just want to pull it up in front of me here. >> I can have a motion on I think we do all of them, right? All of 11. Does anyone want to do anything besides all? >> I'll
023make a motion to approve all of 11. >> Okay. >> I'll second. >> And then under discussion. Thank you, Laura. Jeremy, Laura, under discussion. Um, it's just it's usual stuff. We got some cool field trips coming up. Does anyone want to say anything on any of that? I know. No. Okay. I like the field trips. I'm glad we're approving them. Um, that's really cool. Okay. Uh, all in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Okay. Passes 70. We do not vote on number 12. So we will move on to 13 board discussion. We'll be actually begin board discussion with presentation from Lisa. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. It is my pleasure to share with you an update regarding our strategic plan. and the strategic plan uh really was necessitated from my initial scan and
024entry into the district where um some of the questions that I posed to stakeholders were what are some of the priorities and goals that we're working on and the feedback that I received was that there was 19 different initiatives that we were simultaneously attempting to implement and move forward and a general rule of thumb is if you have more than three to four goals you're likely not going to be doing any of them very well. And so it became clear early on that we needed to have focus, clarity, and a and a real strategic lens on what we were doing and where we were going as we look toward the future for our school district. So to help us embark on that journey, in the fall of 24, we assembled a group of diverse stakeholders.
025It was 32 different committee members that represented our students. We had four students that served on our strategic planning committee, parents, teachers, members of our PPS team like social workers and a school counselor, principles, directors, and administrators. And to help this group start that work, we first actually uh began by investing some professional learning into that strategic planning committee. The first step that we took is we had a presentation uh by an individual from Erie Wan Boseis's Molly Gallagher where we learned about the state's new direction for graduation requirements because as we're looking ahead to the future, we want to make sure that we are preparing our students for that future and the expectations for graduates in New York State so that our goals can be responsive to that. So you see here the model
026that New York State is calling the portrait of a graduate and what the key strategies uh that we're going to be using to help prepare our students for the future. New York State's vision is that our graduates will be academically prepared, creative innovators, critical thinkers, effective communicators, global citizens, and reflective and future focused. So once we embarked on that exercise, we then looked at what does this mean practically for our students. Well, what we know is that New York State is evolving from just having regent exam as the main benchmark and measure for students demonstrating their knowledge and skills to determine whether or not they've met graduation requirements to really an evolution of more flexible uh review requirements and assessment requirements. things like portfolio assessments or another demonstration of mastery and there will be multiple
027path pathways for graduation. Our committee then spent some time to say okay this is what New York State is expecting of graduates. What is our vision of a West Sakica graduate? What do we want to prepare our students for so that they will be successful as they embark into college, career, workplace, whatever their next step is after they leave us when they graduate. And emerging themes came out of that work that we want our students to be literate. And when we say literacy, not only just the traditional sense of literacy, which we often think of as reading and writing and comprehension skills, but also students who are financially literate and demonstrate technological literacy. We want students who demonstrate and have character skills, skills like resiliency, empathy, and that are good citizens who are just good,
028kind human beings that we are sending out into the world. And then of course a very future focused uh look for our students that focuses on both college and career readiness skills. And you'll see a variety of things that our committee um deemed to be worthy of our our focus that are very much aligned with the future that New York State is heading for our graduates. From there, before we started with articulating goals, we really needed to study what was our starting point. What is the baseline data that we're going to look at to determine in what ways are we already performing well as a school district and in what areas might we have opportunity for growth or improvement. So we embarked on a study of many different data points. I've summarized some of them
029here for you. student assessment data, inschool and out of school assessment data, and took a deeper dive into in what what areas or infractions of our students having that are leading them to being suspended from school. We studied the results of our 3 through8 assessment data, which would be our ELA data, our math data, and science data. And then regent exam data, how are our students performing academically? And then lastly was graduation rates. And we looked not only at the big picture of these data, but really the smaller subskll groups of this data. What is the difference in performance levels, let's say in mathematics of our boys versus our girls or what is the performance data revealed to us regarding the performance of our special education students or our English language learners. So we took
030a deep dive into this to really study in what ways are we meeting the needs of our students and in what areas might we have opportunity for growth and improvement. The committee also did some study and learning around different models for school improvement and this is one model that really anchored our work by authors Wiggins and Matai. And what schools often fall uh trapped to is when we see that there's a gap or a need to improve, we immediately want to jump and adopt a program, we're going to get this program and implement this program and it should be our quick fix that solves everything. And unfortunately, that proves not to be effective. That really if you want systematic change, you need to start at that foundational level with what is the mission of our
031school district? What are the learning principles? And starting at that base level, the very next tier to that is the curriculum and assessment system that we need to have a viable curriculum and a solid assessment system in place so that we're regularly getting feedback on how our students are doing. And from that when we have those foundational pieces that then gives us our roadmap when it comes to hiring and recruiting personnel when we know what we're looking for in our educators. It will shape the questions that we ask at interview committees. It will shape what we look for when we observe teachers and the feedback that we give. Everything is kind of built upon this solid foundation. And so we really studied some different models uh so that we could be informed as to how
032we want to develop our strategic plan and this model really helped to guide that work for us. What we then revealed were some themes and areas that we identified as needs that we wanted to address and respond to in our strategic plan. The first were curriculum and assessment needs. It became clear to us that right now we do not have a deep understanding of the New York State learning standards and consistent curriculum and assessment practices across our content areas and we want to make some improvements and enhancements in that area. In addition, with portrait of a graduate and the different pathways to graduation, there is a desire for us to give more students work-based learning opportunities. West Senica has uniquely had academy programs that have offered work-based learning opportunities like internships and job shadowing and
033volunteer opportunities, but that has often been limited just to those students that are in academy programs. We really want to expand that so that more students have access and opportunity to work-based learning opportunities, not just those students who are in the academy programs. We also through our data realize that many of our students who are struggling whether it's struggling academically, behaviorally or with attendance, there are some root causes that that often stem uh in the family situation and at home. And in what ways can we provide more effective supports for our families? Our families are becoming more reliant on schools to meet their basic needs like meals, like clothing, like school supplies. and in what ways can we be responsive to our evolving student population and the growing needs that we have? And so, a
034desire to have supports for our families like a family support center. We do not have a a comprehensive family support center currently. And the board is aware that we've been exploring the opportunity to have a Boys and Girls Club here in West Senica, which a structure like that is so needed for our students. And then lastly, more consistent experiences to support the character development of our students and social emotional learning. We have a lot of schools doing different things that funnel into two middle schools and two high schools. And so in what ways can we study what are we already doing for character development of our students and bring about some more consistent strategies of those strategies that would be most effective. So those were the four areas of need that we identified. With the
035amazing help of the Canva queen, Jessica Shanahan, we uh Jessica helped to develop this this idea into a visual graphic because a strategic plan, our actual strategic plan document, an action plan is 12 pages in length. Most people are not going to invest the time to read a 12-page document, but this one-page infographic is something that can be front and center. and our communications to families front and center in the work that we do with teachers. Reminders at faculty meeting that these are the four pillars, if you will, of our strategic plan and the four areas that will really focus our work for the next three years based on those areas of need. So you can see those four pillars are student and family engagement, character and citizenship, the learning environment, and literacy. And I've
036expanded on each of those areas a little bit. This quote I think is really fitting. A goal without a plan is just a wish. So while I've shared those four goal areas, really where the rubber meets the road is having an action plan to be able to accomplish those four goal areas. And so our action plan is a document that not only outlines what the goal area is, but what are the specific steps that we are going to take to accomplish that goal. And those steps may be things like professional development for our teachers and staff. It may be getting resources um to areas as needed as I mentioned previously around family and student supports, the exploration of a Boys and Girls Club and can we make that a reality here in West Senica and
037a family support center. So, it's not just this wish or this dream that we have, but what are we going to hold ourselves accountable to with some timelines and individuals that we name uh for the purpose of accountability to help ensure that we make progress towards that goal. In addition, now that the strategic plan has been drafted, we will have what we call accountability meetings. We're planning four of them throughout the school year for the next three years. And those accountability meetings are really checks for us to come together as a strategic planning committee to say in what ways are we meeting the action plan and the timelines that we've outlined. Might we need to adjust or make tweaks because some new information has come our way and in what ways are we really on
038track to make progress so that at the end of three years we can have sizable and substantial movement towards these goals. So with that and kind of coupled with this is the district's comprehensive improvement plan. So I'm going to introduce my colleague assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction Nora O'Brien to segue and talk about the next steps. But one of the very next steps in addition to the presentation to the board is Nora will be visiting all nine of our schools and presenting at the faculty meetings so that all teachers uh everyone within the school community will hear more specifically about our goals and about our action planning and specifically the work that we'll be embarking on this year. So I'd like to turn it over to Noro Brian to talk more about the district
039comprehensive improvement plan. Thank you. >> Okay. So, I just wanted to talk a little bit about how the work in our department and the curriculum and instruction department is connected to the strategic plan and the DSIP. So we met this summer as a department and we made goals for our department based on the strategic plan and also came up with some commitments for our department and you can see a recurring theme of alignment. Our goals and and actions are going to be completely aligned with the strategic plan. The DIP is going to be completely aligned with the strategic plan. Time is something we value and that's going to be aligned with the strategic plan. What I mean by that is we want to have all principles and teachers at the table. Um right now at
040the elementary level we were relying on grade level representatives like one from each building to go and have a shared learning experience for 6 hours and then go back and be expected to turnkey that. But there was no time built into the structure of their day to be able to have that to give a rich turnkey experience. So we wanted to get creative and make sure that every teacher in the district has a seat at the table and can be a part of that. And then the last piece we wanted to make sure we had alignment in is our professional learning. Um we wanted to make sure that everything that we are offering is connected tightly to our goals in the strategic plan. So the area that we focus on in our department is the
041literacy. Specifically um the goal in the strategic plan is to cultivate students who are literate in the areas of traditional literacy, digital literacy and financial literacy. So basically it's literacy across every single content area. And our first priority is highlighted in green and that's really going to be the focus of our work this year. and that is that each student will make progress towards grade level standards by building a shared understanding of the New York State standards and assessment language. And those were two key components that Dr. Krueger spoke of in the strategic plan. So, our goals um and you can see that to the left the curriculum and instruction team tasks are listed there and that's completely aligned with every with what every prek through 12 either department or grade level is going to
042be doing and that is also aligned with the work of our interventionists. So our in the top box, our three main tasks are to build a shared understanding of the New York State standards, multi-tered systems of support and assessments. The the reason why the New York State standards shared understanding is important is because as Dr. Cougar said, we don't have that deep understanding and we don't have a collective understanding. If if you have a standard and you put 20 teachers in the room, you're going to have 20 different interpretations of what that standard means. 20 different interpretations of what the level of rigor is that that should be for that standard. And then within each standard, there's multiple multiple components and then there's many many standards. It's it's impossible for every teacher and every student
043to learn that to mastery. So we first need to have that understanding, that collective understanding to be able to prioritize like what is most essential with these standards. What do the students absolutely need to know that if they don't get that standard, they're not going to get the rest of the standards that they need for that course or subject. Um so we we're going to start there and do a lot of work with just the standards this year because if we don't know where we're going, we're never going to get there. Um the second piece on there is multi-tered systems of support also known as MTSS and um that is basically a structure of support for students. So there's three tiers in that tier one, tier two and tier three. Tier one is your core
044instruction and that's um instruction that all students have access to. So, we really want to make sure that our core or foundation is really strong first. And we're going to spend a lot of time with professional development around that area. And then we want to move into what do we do if students aren't making it. So there we have our tier 2 students which are just a little bit behind. Um and we want to make sure that we're not just giving extra help that we're really honing in on where the weakness is um and providing targeted intervention. Um, so we want to be very smart about being able to identify the area of need and make sure that that intervention matches that and then even more importantly that we're progress monitoring or assessing that along
045the way to make sure that there is student growth. Um, and then we would do the same for our tier three students um, which are students who are probably more than a grade level behind. And that's where the work of our interventionists come into play. And then finally, um, we do have assessments in the district, but we don't have a system of assessments. So, we need to put that into place in order to be able to assess where our kids are in relationship to the standards um, and even our own practices and to what we need to do to inform our instructional decisions. So, the next box down is um, we need to be using data. And we're going to analyze data for three purposes. first and foremost to to identify where our kids are
046in relationship to the standards. Then to measure student growth and then finally to determine our our needs in in terms of tier 1, 2 and three. And finally um we have to prioritize the standards. So you can see that that's going to be a thread throughout the entire district. So, more commitments. Um, it was really important to us to be able to establish common processes and structures for our department. We're not going to have a perfect curriculum. We're not going to have every single assessment built this year. That's impossible. But what we are going to do is set up the common processes and structures. So, so far what we've done is we've created a professional learning calendar um which is all of the professional development that we're going to do throughout the year. So, we're
047not building the plane in the air. It's already determined. We already have a direction. Um and as I said earlier, the um elementary professional development will be embedded during the school day with release time. Middle school will be a a combination of during the day and after school and high school because they have the time in their schedule that will be mostly after school. Um we're going to create a system of assessments. Um there are many different types of assessments for different purposes. So we're going to have common formative assessments which are done during a unit so that we can get feedback immediately in order to um inform like the next week's instruction. We're going to have common summitive assessments um at the end of a period to see how students did in relationship to
048where they should be. Um interim assessments and then diagnostic assessments which is what we're doing for MTSS and we're using the I Ready um assessments for that. Uh we'll have an assessment calendar to make sure that they're balanced throughout the year and that they're there for different purposes. We have an MTSS calendar for our tier 2 and three instruction that we're monitoring as well as um uh benchmarking our our tier one students to make sure that they're where they need to be. Um and then finally, we will be we're in the process of creating a da a data calendar um so that we have the data that we need at the right time of year for when we need it. So that brings us into today um the DIP and that stands for the district
049comprehensive improvement plan. But the more important question is why do we have a DIP? And that's because of a federal law called ESSA or the Every Student Succeeds Act. And what that law put into place is an accountability system. and it's an accountability system to evaluate our school's progress at the state level and to ensure equitable outcomes for students. So there so the state is going to be looking at different subgroups like male female students with disabilities um economically disadvantaged etc to make sure that those kids are are having access to the curriculum and doing well. Um they that the state also uses um numerous indicators to measure school performance um academic achievement, student growth, uh progress, English language proficiency for the um for English language learners, uh student attendance or chronic absenteeism and high
050school graduation rate. So we have two buildings in our district who have been identified as TSI or targeted support and improvement and that is based on their the indicator from the New York State Assessments uh basically student achievement. Um a a small subgroup um scored heavily in level one. Um so they were targeted for for that reason. um when when a a school is targeted, it's for a two-year period. So even if they do well after the first year, they still have another year to prove that they're doing well with that subgroup. Um so as a result, the state requires Northwood and West Middle to create plans called ESIPS. And um those plans are designed to target that subgroup and make sure that we're doing everything we can for those students to learn what they're
051supposed to learn. So based on those essent it's it's not the other way around. It's not like they get designated and we create the plan and then they create their school plans based on what we say. The schools dictate the plan and then our district has to create a plan based on what they need. The important piece here is even though we only have two targeted buildings, our entire district is responsible for those two buildings in the success. So our DIP has to be implemented by all schools in the district. So we made sure it was aligned. Um so in in the green column you can see repeated there are our department's goals and actions and well there are tasks and that's what the building level that's what the departments and the grade level teams
052are going to be doing. So what we did in number one and it's all written in gold our three um big initiatives we made into the three DIP priorities which are listed in the center column and then the the second and third items in the green column we made into our key strategies. So, if you look at the first DIP priority, which I've gone through a couple of times to build a shared understanding of the New York State standards, well, for a key strategy, we're going to be looking at data. And in this case, we're going to be using data to assess where the kids are in relationship to the standards. We're going to have professional development around the standards and building that collective understanding. And then we're going to prioritize the standards. So for
053the DIP priority number two, which is to build a shared understanding of MTSS, we're going to be using data a little differently there, and that's to measure student growth along the way. Um, and also we're going to have professional development around tier 1, tier 2, and tier three needs. Finally, um, the last one is to build a shared understanding of the purpose and utilization of assessment. So we talked about building that assessment system and while doing that we want to expand um understanding data to families. So we want to have family outreach um sharing data with them so that and educating them so they can understand their child's own data. Um we also want to have professional development around like data review cycles um and and how to use that information to um better inform
054our practice. That's it. >> I would just um like to point out that Mrs. O'Brien joined our team in May and the work that has been done in what four months time to see some things coming to fruition already like a thoughtout strategic professional learning calendar for our teachers, data review cycles, assessment calendars, some foundational structures that are being put into place that will certainly yield tremendous results and and I'm very excited for the future when we see the outcomes that our students will have and the performance gains of our students because we're being very thoughtful, strategic. The word that comes to mind that I love is intentional. You know, we have limited resources as a school district, both limited time and financial resources. And we need to be really strategic about the ways in
055which we spend that time. So if it's a superintendent's conference day for example, we should not be scrambling weeks before as to what the agenda is and what the learning is that our teachers will be involved in on that superintendent's conference day. And by having very clear goals of where we're heading and also a professional learning calendar, we already know the learning that we need to be engaged in as professionals this year to begin to move the needle on some of these areas. So kudo to you Nora and to the entire curriculum team her entire department of directors some of which have shifted into new roles but they have been working they didn't take the summer off they've been working tirelessly to put some of these strategic places pieces in place and I am really
056proud of the work that they've done and tremendously excited for the future. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] >> Next thing we'll do is uh we're going to do a Boys and Girls Club update. Um can you start that off? >> I'd be happy to. Uh Gary Chutram, who you met uh the director of the Boys and Girls Club of East Aurora, came out uh to visit us here in West Saka on August 27th with his board of directors, president and vice president and got to see a few locations that that we are considering in district to potentially host a Boys and Girls Club. We cannot make a decision on where that would be, of course, until after we've finalized our redistricting plan and know first and foremost how we're going to utilize our schools to
057really uh address the capacity issues that we're facing at Clinton Elementary, at Allenale, and at West Middle. However, we have some ideas of what those options would be and we got to walk the sites. Uh Gary and and myself and his uh board president and vice president and really got to see that we have some very viable spaces that could be a beautiful host site for a Boys and Girls Club. The next step is Gary is talking with his board of dire directors because if you recall, Boys and Girls Club National is not sanctioning any new Boys and Girls Clubs. So they are not giving charters to new Boys and Girls Clubs. We would actually have to be a subsidiary of an existing Boys and Girls Club. So for example, the East Aurora Boys and
058Girls Club hosted in West Senica, we would be a division of or a branch of that Boys and Girls Club. I strategically chose the East Aurora Club uh as the club to initiate a relationship with first because they are one of the longest standing clubs in Western New York and uh have an incredible reputation and programming. So if there is a local club for us to model ourselves from and learn with, it would be the East Aurora Boys and Girls Club. So right now their board of directors is looking at the viability of this both from the potential opportunity and if there's any potential risk from you know their cautions are I I'm sure they don't want to spread themselves too thin and what does this mean for their their club. So their board of
059directors is working on this um currently but they have given support for us to move forward with an exploratory uh meeting that we would host. Our step really is next that this cannot be a school district initiative. We are running a school district. We are not running a boys and girls club. If this is something that our community wants, we really need individuals and leaders in the community to step forward to say, I am willing to be on that board of directors to help explore the potential launch of a Boys and Girls Club here in West Senica. And so in the near future, I'm in we wanted to get through the the opening of school. I'm anticipating in mid to late October or early November, we will hold an initial meeting for the community to
060learn about the Boys and Girls Club possibility here in West Senica and to really see if we have that passion, drive, and desire in the community to make this a reality because it needs to be beyond this board table and this boardroom. It really needs to be something that our community step forward and says, "Yes, I want to make this a reality." So, that's what our next step will be because we will need to establish a board of directors that can then really take the ball and run with this. We've been initiating this as a school district, but we will come to a a point in the near future where we will need to have a a board of directors really take this on. um from fundraising to the organizational structures to hiring of staff
061that would all fall under that organization that would be separate from our school district. So, I'd love to see if there's any questions or feedback as to where we are, but very much trying to continue to put wheels in motion to move forward. Yeah, I just I just want to piggyback on that. Like this isn't we're not like forming a committee where then they're going to report back to us or and obviously Lisa is doing the bulk of the the work getting this going, but like the board like we're just helping push it along. Um eventually they're their own entity. Like it's not report back to us or it's not come visit the school board. Like we're going to be here. Hopefully the board all kind of agrees to help the Boys and Girls Club,
062but the club will be its own thing. like it's it's not associated with the district other than the fact that hopefully it's on our grounds or in one of our buildings or some of our kids go there or we volunteer to help them out some way. So, I just wanted to piggyback that cuz a lot of people are asking questions. >> Yes. >> A board needs to be formed and willing people who want to put in the time and commitment. >> Our number one priority and what you hired me to do is to run a school district, not a Boys and Girls Club. And so, while I want this for our community, we do need to make that distinction. And we will need community-based partners that are willing to serve on a board of directors
063to really help move this forward and make this a reality. >> Any questions, comments? Perfect. Okay, we look forward to making the next step. Let's see. The next thing we wanted to talk about was donations. um kind of wanted to, you know, talk with the board on on different different ideas related to if we receive donations. Um I don't know if you want to start with I don't know what to say or what not to say regarding what we're thinking. So I'll let you take over again. >> I'd be happy to take it from there and try to vaguely give information. >> Um as a a regular practice, the board of ed accepts donations. That is part of our policy and procedure. So you regularly accept donations from generous donors whether it is a booster
064club whether it's a parent teacher organization um and that has been our practice and protocol but what I wanted to get feedback from the board of education on is if we have the opportunity to pursue substantial and sizable donations thinking I just to set your your mind as to the the frame of reference that I'm considering $100,000 or greater um types of donations. Would there be an interest by the board of education if we secure a donation of that magnitude to be able to give recognition to the donor through a plaque through si signage of some nature for substantial and sizable donations? So the first question is is the board open to entertaining that? If so, we would then work with our policy committee to develop policies around when we have the opportunity to pursue
065large donations, what that recognition may look like for a donor, whether it's a private individual, whether it's a corporate donor, what the recognition would look like. And of course, we want to make sure that we're doing so in alignment with anything that our auditors would have an eye on or the state controller. There are rules for school districts to follow. Um, think back to the pouring rights that school districts had around exclusivity for pouring rights to Pepsi or CocaCola. And there's been some laws and changes around that because we want to make sure that in a school community where students are captive here every day, they are compelled to be here uh attendance-wise that they are not bombarded with advertisement on a daily basis. And so there are rules that schools need to follow if
066they are accepting sponsorships, if they are accepting donations. So if we entertain this, we would want to make sure that we're doing so in accordance with what the expectations are both by New York State Department of Ed and anything that the controller would have. But just wanted to have um an initial conversation with the board around is that something that that we would be open to because we have a desire to pursue in particular one donation um that that I think the donor would want recognition for. >> I mean I love it. I know we're talking about donations versus like sponsorships, you know, like the fourth period at the high school sponsored by Pepsi is not We're talking about someone wants to donate a sum of money. >> Do we put a plaque up >>
067correct >> in their name? >> Donation, for example, for a playground. >> So, a local barber shop donated the money to build a street football stadium or soccer stadium. We put a little plaque saying thank you. >> I mean, I love the idea. I love >> barber shop. I love uh I love I mean I like recognizing all the all the people that donate. Um obviously something substantial would be a great I mean a great way to thank them. I mean there's people that don't necessarily do it for for their name, but I'm I'm for it. I don't know how the rest of you guys feel. >> Yeah, I think it encourages other it's a nice recogni nice way of recognizing an outsized donation. It also potentially encourages others to to donate as well. Um,
068obviously we would look to make sure it's in line with New York State law and regulations and in line with what our auditors would um expect of us, but I support it. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. I think back in the day um at Allenale when they built the playground, the wooden one, uh, all the bricks had the individuals named that donate to secure that. So, I mean, I think making a large donation, you should be recognized. >> Yeah, I agree. I don't have a problem with anything like that, but I just want to make sure there's a clear line that like um we're not going to be handing out t-shirts to all our students with the company logo on them and saying we're wearing these on Friday um as a show of support, but
069definitely some kind of recognition. >> Thank you. How about uh you guys? Any any thoughts or opinions? >> I wouldn't be against it. I get of course if the donor was okay with being recognized, I don't see any major downsides unless obviously it gets out of hand. >> I think recognizing the donors like it should be done. >> Yeah. And I and I can say that um and other people in this room can correct me if I'm wrong. I believe in order to donate sometimes there needs to be some sort of recognition. Um like if you're if you're a larger corporation or company and you give the money there needs to I think there needs to be some sort of way to say hey this is what we donated for for their purposes to help
070them too. I don't know if I'm wrong but you know a few charities that I've worked with. It's kind of there's got to be some sort of a acknowledgement I guess. Um >> that's right. We often do uh upon request if a donor requests uh proof of their donation, we will give them a a thank you letter is is standard in what we do, but often they do if they're doing it for tax purposes or a write-off, they do want some acknowledgement or documentation of the donation and what the donation was intended to be used for. >> Yeah. I don't know if this would be like a a work session or a separate subcommittee, but like I would definitely want to see like rules in place. Um, you know, like what what could be, you
071know, what what options are there? Like if someone's obviously donating say a playground, you know, your name and a plaque or if someone like donates large sums of money, like where does it go? How do we talk about it? I I definitely would think it's more than just the policy committee putting together some policies. I think it would be some sort of committee figuring out what the whole parameters of the whole thing are. I don't exactly know if we have any policies or procedures right now for I know we we we acknowledge the donations, but I don't know what rules we have in place and I don't know if it's the board's place to be taught all that or I don't know if it's a subcommittee or what. I mean, you you guys probably know
072it, but if like sports boosters donates money to say um something at the school, like I'm assuming they give the money to Will and like I don't know what all those processes are, so it's hard for me to say what should happen. >> So, when we have a donation, the board first needs to accept that donation and and that's why we see them regularly on the board agenda. So, acceptance of that donation is critical because sometimes people with good intentions want to donate the the standup piano that's been in their grandmother's home for 50 years. And in order for someone to donate something, we want to be willing recipients of that donation and the board actually accepting that donation. So, that's a we have policy and procedure in place around that. What we don't have
073currently is anything affiliated with a recognition of that. how we recognize a a donor who is making a substantial and sizable donation and what that recognition may look like. So that it because if we're going to go down this path with recognizing donors, we'd want to make sure that we're doing it in a consistent manner consistently based on the size of the donation. What does that recognition look like? >> Okay. And that's something we'd have to build from the ground up. And I'm assuming Boseies and other schools have I mean we've seen other stuff in other schools. So right >> we could kind of >> look at that as models. >> So what type of what what is the next step for something like that? Is it like a subcommittee of the board? Is it
074you form a committee? Is it like what's the what's what will be the next steps? >> So the first step was of course getting feedback from the board. Next step will be looking at the parameters around New York State controllers, New York State Department of Ed to see what the parameters are related to that and then I would report back. It it would be affiliated with policy. So I think it's appropriate for the policy committee to be involved in that and then ultimately back to the board of ed. >> Okay. So nothing that we need to like work on till you report back to us on it. >> I think so. Yeah. >> Yeah. I'm good with that. >> Everyone good with that? >> So um are there different um conditions for the recognition between
075like a PTA or PTO or like the sports boosters donating versus an outside entity? because I know like the scoreboards um that were donated by the boosters that it says that on the scoreboards that they were generously donated by. So that's an example where we've already recognized a donor for that and I'm not sure what the process or procedure was regarding that. Um, but I think tightening that up to say, you know, in what ways would we recognize a boosters organization in a way that's on a sign and in what areas may we not do that? Is it based on the size of the donation, for example, which is often the guideline that that an organization would use? >> Does it um and and again this could be a discussion later. Is it always about
076the dollar amount or could it be about the impact on the community or impact on the district? Like is there wording we can >> I think we could make that decision locally. >> Okay, great. >> Cool. >> Anyone else? >> Seems pretty cut and dry to me. Someone donates a sizable amount of money, we give them recognition. Same like anything else, you get a donation form, you get your name on a website, and then they go through all the different things that you can donate for depending on how much money you spend. But if somebody wants to be generous and donate the school district money, of course it's recognized and that's it. >> Excellent. So, uh, again, straw pole, we're all pretty good with it. Move forward. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for the feedback.
077>> Next thing, um, building visit survey. The survey went out to the board members. Um, I don't think everyone has had the chance to fill the survey out yet. is if you if you didn't remember seeing the email, um I believe we either resent it out just now or we're going to send it out again a second time. Um when I mean just now like she's waiting, um we'll have it out today or or later today. >> Okay. Yeah, we'll send it out one more time if everyone can fill it out. Again, everything on the survey is from I'm not interested at all to I want to do everything. Um so check it out. Any questions on it, feel free to reach out to me or Melissa and uh we can go from there. Any
078questions on the survey or anything anyone want to talk about regards to that? And I will hand it over to my >> I just have one quick um update for everybody regarding um Dr. Krueger's evaluation. Um so we evaluate Dr. Krueger at the midyear process as part of the midyear process and then also at the year end. Um, and so we have some dates where we use that. This is mostly for your benefits as you haven't used the system before. It's called Superval. Um, it's a an evaluation tool. We'll we'll happily get you set up with an account and get you any sort of training. It's pretty straightforward, but basically, you know, you kind of go through for each goal and kind of check off, you know, boxes um based on how you evaluate um
079Dr. Krueger's performance and then you can add comments in. But we'll make sure to get you set up with that, you know, offline. Um, but basically what we do is we present her with a formal um well actually I think the the midyear one might be a little bit more informal and then a formal um you know rating at the end of the year. So I have some dates for us. Um hopefully we can all just get them on our calendars and I'll send out reminders to make sure everybody is tracking towards those dates. Um so we so um I think we are planning on sharing uh the midyear evaluation with Dr. Krueger. We consulted with Dr. Dr. Krueger as well. So, I think she's aligned with us on January 6th. Um, in working backwards,
080that means that we will have all of our feedback in super eval by December 7th, which is a Sunday, I believe. We'll have an internal discussion on December 9th. And then again, we'll share it out with her in January on January 6th. And I'll type this up and send this to everybody just to make sure it's on your calendars. And so, for the year-end evaluation, um, the year-end evaluation will be presented to Dr. Krueger on May 26th. Um our feedback will be due in super eval by uh May 10th which I believe is a Sunday. Um internal discussion on May 12th. We have a I believe a board meeting or a work session that day. Um and then again share the year- end evaluation on May 26th. So I will get these dates all sent
081out to everybody, but I just wanted to put it on everybody's agenda. >> Thank you. >> I thought we discussed last year. Do we have to all do it individually? Cuz it was almost like it was repetitive to like do it individually and then meet as a group and then get the final product to her. So I thought it just make more sense if we all just meet and do it on those days instead of >> going through it and then turning around and then going line by line again over >> I see. I I recall exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. I mean I think we have flexibility. I think we need to have a quorum of the board participate. That could either be through individual some people may want to do it individually
082and then we come together and just kind of make sure that we is you know does anybody have any anything that kind of tracks outside of what we're the consensus is we can do it that way. Um I'm happy to talk to you Jeremy offline about any specific ideas that that you want to um put forth. Yeah, I think if we're if we're using super eval, it does require to start each individual fill out the eval um how we go the process about that afterward. We can >> yeah, >> we can talk more on that. But I do think and correct me if I'm wrong because you use it with all of >> below everyone else, right? Like administration uses it. >> It is used for some of our administrators. Yes. >> Obviously, there's got
083to be a way for each of us to input our data. So I think individually we have to start with um each each board member >> and I can check to see if there's a requirement for you know there to be a quorum like paperwork of four people filling it out or if there can be a consensus I can check that and if there's a consent you know if it doesn't is if it isn't required then we can kind of decide if we want to pull back on that. I believe there's much more flexibility around the midyear evaluation because that's more informal in nature. But if if you need any assistance with that, Marlo, we can reach out to the team at Super AIL to see if it's optional or or required. I have their
084contact information thanks to you. So, I'm happy to do that. >> Are we doing a board of ed self avail? >> We have not discussed any goals that we have at this point. I think we had talked about maybe having a work session to create goals for ourselves to track against, but we have not um put that on the calendar, but open for discussion if that's something we want to do as a board. >> I I think like to Dr. Krueger's point earlier, like we need to know where we're going if we want to get there. So, we should probably make that a priority to set set our goals at a work session or at least start the conversation around them. >> Sure. Sure. And if that's the consensus of the board, I I'm happy
085to do that and lead that. Um, but I think there's been uh kind of mixed feelings about whether we want to dedicate the time to do so. But if so, I'm happy to get that set up for us. >> Yeah, I'm I'm happy if the board wants to, I don't know, reset the goals or go with what we have and change it a little bit. And uh correct me if I'm wrong, would the selfie Val be at the end of the year or would we be looking to do a selfie val sooner so we can then >> should be based on when the goals are created. So you probably would do it at the beginning and the end >> beginning. >> We did talk a little bit about wanting that back in August, I believe,
086if we wrote it up. >> So I I just pulled up to reference our plan for board meetings, work sessions, which include presentations that we've mapped out for the year. We did, and we can alter this if the board would like, but we did schedule that we would have a work session on September 23rd, so just two weeks from now on the board goals. So, if that's still a desire of the board, we have that time allocated for us to do it. And I think it was done by design to do it early in the school year. Um, we can move that. We can adjust that, but we did pencil it in for September 23rd. >> Yeah. And Kirk, my question I guess is I don't remember the the board selfies is done at the
087end of the year last year, right? >> I think we only did >> am I and we did it before your we we did your eval thing. Am I correct in saying that? So we don't want to do a self eval now. We would set the goals and then eval I just want to make sure that I'm getting it straight. Um cuz uh this Yeah. if we don't have any changes at the goals, you know, if we're not doing goals, what's the point of doing a self eval? But I think the self eval helps us then um work on your your eval too. So um >> but it sounds like we have time set aside on Thank you for reminding us about the 23rd, which is a few weeks from now. So if that's still
088something that everybody feels strongly about, we can use our time for that. >> We good with that? I >> think at least revisiting the goals that are there whether we decide to keep them or not is an important conversation to have every year. >> Great. Absolutely. Plus, we have some new people joining us that might have some input from not here last year. Be great. Okay. So, we'll um we'll work on that. And uh I think the dates I think you can put them in the you put them in Melissa as a as an invite too for the for the dates or as a reminder in our board calendar that she's going to send out. Like we we don't have access to put the dates in. You would you would do that, right? >> Yes.
089>> Okay. Great. >> I'm just starting to write them all down. >> I'll send them out. Yeah, no worries. >> Excellent. >> Any other questions on that? Anyone? And uh I think that's it. Anything else? I suppose the open floor is open. Anyone want to >> I'm going to remind everybody about the marching man competition this weekend. Uh East Senior uh we may have a uh student board member who's participating in that and they did very well at their first competition last weekend. So, uh, please come out and support the band. Uh, you do have a ticket available in your email. >> Thank you. >> Bring, uh, bring concession money. >> It's a great event. I was so weirded out this weekend not having it. Um, this weekend, >> it's usually the first weekend we
090uh, we as a band had asked for a little more time. It was a much easier start of the school year for everybody, but a very interesting first competition. Uh, story for another day probably, but um, the the band did very well. maybe beat out one of the local competitors that we often want to beat. So, that was kind of nice. >> Nice. That's great. And yeah, I I like Thank you for moving it. Um you're the band people cuz it'll make a lot easier. >> School marching band. Yeah, they they're the ones that allow for those days to use. >> Excellent. Good. Look forward to it. >> Okay. Anything else? >> If I can have a motion to adjourn the meeting, please second. Uh, okay. Zack and Jeremy. Uh, any discussion on adjourning the
091meeting? All in favor? >> I. Anyone opposed? It passes 70. Um, what we're going to do now, Mara, myself, Dr. Krueger are going to meet with our students, exeicio team members in the library. If anyone wants to join us, um, it's going to be uh just discussing some ideas they have. So, anyone wants to join us, feel free. Not. We'll report back. >> Totally optional.