BOE Meeting, June 3, 2025

001[Music] [Applause] [Music] Why? Good evening everybody and welcome to the West Sonica Central School District. Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025 regular board meeting. If I could have everybody stand for the pledge, please. Kylie and JJ are going to lead us. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. Great job. We'll see you. Come back in two weeks. We'll do it again and all that Thank you. [Applause] That was awesome. Okay, we'll begin with roll call. Vincent, present. Jeremy, present. Sarah, present. Mara, present. Lorine, present. Laura, present. Me, present. Superintendent, present. Excellent. I'm just going to be getting mean to let you know that uh Laura is going to be

002um stepping out from the meeting for a little while to attend event and she's going to join us as soon as that event's back over. Again, thank you. We'll begin with our um our school spotlight. You want to introduce? Sure. Thank you, Mr. Media. It is my honor to recognize Winchester Potter Elementary tonight. Principal Jamie Knight is going to come up and do an introduction before we begin the spotlight on her awesome school. Thank you, Mrs. Knight. Yes, thank you. Good evening, everyone. So, I have been on the job for a total of seven days. Um, I can tell you though that the library is already like that glowing place, right, where you just know when you walk into a school. Um, when you walk into our school, it is one of the first things

003you see. So, it's not hard uh to see it shine, but it is a glowing place. Um, and I'm just really proud to be able to introduce Marie tonight as obviously what she will share with you is far beyond the seven days of time that I've spent at Winchester Potters. Um, and we're just really proud of the program and the kids and all the work that you know Marie has put into this. So, thank you. And I'll turn it over to you. And here's your Hi. Um, I'm honored to be able to talk about Winchester Potter's Library and I've been the library media specialist or librarian at the school for three and a half years. And I often say that I have the best job and there's two reasons why. First, I know that the

004other librarians would agree that it is through the support of this board and administration that allows us to have a fabulously collaborative department. We are able to serve our individual schools, the whole West Senica school district, and our local community in different ways throughout the school year. Second, it is the Winchester Potter's community that is a delight to serve. I have the best students, sorry, other schools. Um, I have the best colleagues, sorry, other schools. And I have the best building leadership that anyone could ask for. And it's this community that I look forward to joining every school day morning. With all of that said, I thought I would take you through a quick school year in the life of Winchester Potters so that you could see Winchester Potter's Library so that you could see

005not just the big programs, but also the smaller, more passive programming that I do that um and it builds on the students experience in the library beyond just checking out books. So, I always start the school year with a giant poster. It's a blank. It's a grid that just has random letters on it. And students, staff, parents get to all contribute to this during open house, during family events, and in library classes. So, they're little square stickers that are color-coded. And the picture emerges after months to see what is built together as a community. Uh the foundation of the library is certainly books and I love reading to all of my classes. Um I help students build connections between their classroom learning as well as with the specials areas so that I can highlight books

006that have beautiful artwork and music. It highlights athletes and historical fiction uh historical figures like through historical fiction or non-fiction. So, um, they can build on the things that they're learning in other areas of the school and those connections are built stronger with the research projects. The library aids in research because I know all of the classes are doing research projects. So, I make sure the students are very comfortable navigating our non-fiction section as well as being very comfortable with our databases so that they can find trustworthy information for all of their research needs and projects. In December, I ran a holidays around the world maker space for our students in all classes. The students had different stations that they would visit when they came to their library classes and they would learn about different

007holidays and they would get to create something or build something or design something that had to do with that holiday. And then we come into the new year and that's what I like to tell my students is the most wonderful time of the library year and that is our book award season. All of the um winners of the book awards are end are announced at the end of January. And so it's a great opportunity to teach the students why these awards are there and who won and the history of them, which books we've read in the past. And Choo helped happen to be the one that won this particular year. And it's fun to hear whether the students agree. Did they expect that one to win or do they think another book should have? This

008year I was able to coordinate two programs um that would collaborate with schoolwide events. First, I scheduled Rachel Denunzio, who is the author of the Forynthia graphic novels, and I was able to schedule this for the beginning of April so that it would coincide with our march into literacy. And Lori Kay, who runs our um she's our team leader, and the team coordinated contests for the students, a book review contest and a guess who's reading contest in order to win special things from the author for their class on the day of the visit. The other one that I was able to coordinate was our one school, one book reading of Charlotte's Web. I was able to coordinate with Colleen Girdlestone, who always organizes our spring family event. So, we ran this a little bit later

009this year so that we could coordinate with that event and we could highlight animals and kindness at together to make that a bigger um event. One of the smaller programs I have is the poetry wall that I bring out. It runs all spring long and it's still up in my library now. The students look forward to when I pull this out. It is a magnetic whiteboard filled with words that are colorcoded by parts of speech and the students get to go to it and create their own poetry on smaller magnetic whiteboards and then they get to display it throughout the library among all the books on the shelves. So these are some of the ones that are there. Um they're fun to read but I'm not going to read them all to you. Most recently,

010we ended our Battle of the Books Club. And it's a great club for ending the school year to celebrate the students reading five books and competing against the other elementary schools in the district to see who knew the books the best. Um, the students did a great job and even though we didn't bring home the trophy this year, any day that we're excited about reading is a great day. And I just want to pull away from the library for a second. Um, in the big picture on the far right is Sophie Ibramowski. She and two other students from our school, Alex Hamill and Zoe Langswagger. Those three students from Winchester Potters just traveled to Albany this last Saturday for first in math. So we are very proud of them and we're very proud of our

011Battle of the Books team. Now we are in June and in June in the library we are slowing down our book circulation. It's coming to a close so that we can do inventory and the students continue to access books on Sora which is very popular and the research on Pebble Go and then we do our June maker space. So students get to build, create, um, collaborate and design, code, do logic, puzzles, and all manner of things. They look forward to this all year, and for two days, they have been very excited. When the school year closes, I'm going to join with my fellow librarians as we continue to encourage students to read over the summer through Reading Rover. Um, it's a joy to give books away for free and we get to do that all

012summer long. Again, best job. And so with all of that, I just want to thank you guys for being so supportive for the Winchester Potter Library and for all of our district libraries. [Applause] We'll move on to uh number two um presentations. Mr. Day, are you going to go wherever you want? You know what? You're you decide. If you'd like to come up here, that might be Thank you. Thank you. Uh for those of you who have not had the pleasure to get to meet Mr. today. Tony Day is the executive director of the Western New York Education Service Council and has been facilitating our redistricting committee. Uh the committee, as you may know, restarted their work uh this fall in October after a year and a half of work and there was a pause

013last school year at the midpoint of the school year. The group reconvened this fall under uh Mr. Day's leadership and facilitation. And I'll turn it over to Tony to give a status update and recommendations regarding redistricting. Before you start, sir, um I just want to ask the board and this is just an ask. I'm not going to stop you if you have a question, but if we can maybe um kind of shoot for writing down any questions that we have so we can get through the presentation um kind of directly about it um kind of use the parking lot system. Again, I'm not going to stop you from asking if you need to ask something, but if it's something we can kind of I'll at the end of the presentation bring up our questions. Um

014it would help us personally kind of get through everything. But, you know, again, it's just an ask. So, just want to throw that out there. Thank you. Thanks. Well, it's nice to be back, everyone. This is, I believe, is my fourth opportunity to speak with the board about this process uh since uh being asked to join the process back in September of 2024. So, the redistricting committee um that has met u monthly uh throughout the entire school year uh had its final meeting in May. And tonight we will bring to you what their final recommendation is for your consideration. Uh the committee was always instructed that they do not make decisions, they make recommendations. The ultimate decision-making power lies here with this group. Um I will say that throughout the process, you know, we the

015this has been kind of an ongoing process really for a number of years. Uh there was a committee that met regularly from 2022 to 2023. uh there was a belief that that work was valuable and their work uh hadn't been completed. So it was important to honor and value their participation and so all the members of that group were invited to participate and then we also supplemented to have make sure we had strong representation from of parents of community members of teachers of staff administrators and in the end there was a committee of 33 different people uh I would say you know and anytime you have a group of 33 one or two people have uh obligations. Uh we were blessed to have really strong engagement and participation throughout the process. Uh regularly we would

016have you know maybe one person missing. We'd have regular number of everybody was there and everybody really participated. uh they were very engaged and they I really truly believe that all the members of the committee had the very best interests of kids at heart and they tried we really talked about weaving personal agendas at the door and looking at it with you know a a look at what's best in the big picture. Uh we all constantly reminded people that this process when in cons when considered is not just a rational thoughtful process meaning with your head but there's also an emotional piece that goes with it. And we also asked the committee to be rec to recognize those that double-edged sword of the work of the committee had to be done rationally and thoughtfully but

017also with an eye towards understanding the feelings that it can engender throughout that process. Throughout the throughout the process, uh we started by identifying the important priorities to be accomplished through this process, other what we'll call uh if if possible priorities. And from there, the team examined a number of different options uh to meet the board's charge because the board charged the committee with bringing back at least one recommendation that maintained the current structure. five elementary schools, K to5 uh students, two middle schools, two high schools. That was a charge of the board. And then from there, the board also charged the committee with they could bring one or maybe two other options that look that could use reconfiguration or restructuring uh in that process. And so throughout the course of the year uh the

018work began with uh looking at different options for maintaining the current structure. And then uh there were a number of different ideas that were presented about how possibly to look at um moving boundary lines with an idea of meeting those pro processes. The team also brainstorm different possibilities for reconfiguration and revisited and then during the process got your feedback and made adjustments along the way. And so uh throughout that process I just have had a lot of help. I've been very proud to work alongside this team. Uh I've been very uh pleased with the support that I've gotten and their dedication to this process. Um when we began the very beginning point is determining what is it that was going to try to be uh achieved by completing this process. So there's really there were

019two really critical issues at play. One is that at the elementary level there's there's an currently an imbalance in school enrollments where there are some schools that really are beyond capacity and some schools that are under capacity and the beyond capacity has resulted in some situations that are really not in the best interests of kids. um in s in some building particularly the two elementary schools that have the biggest issues are Clinton Elementary and Allenale Elementary and in those facilities you have um very if there were an opportunity to hire more teachers at Clinton there would be no place to put them because there's no room left at 63 uh two current students it is beyond really the capacity that it's equipped to have. Um, and at other elementary schools such as Winchester Potters has

020379 students. And essentially those two buildings are almost identical buildings. Yet one of them has 250 students more than the other. And there's been a lot of decisions made throughout the years that in a context were good decisions or that what at the time was thought to be the best decisions. But in the end, they came come together to create a situation at Clinton Elementary that really is having there are kids uh there too many interventionists trying to do their work in the same room. There's sometimes people trying to work in hallways because there's no really suitable spaces. And Allenale Elementary very similarly having to over you over jam classrooms really making it inappropriate and space and capacity is the issue. Part of my role was not my role is not to make any decisions,

021but part of my role was to help bring options and do the investigation that talked about capacity. Your charge to this team was really about coming up with ideas that would say whether or not we do them is a different decision, but can we have the capacity to do them? And so that was my job was to do the really hard work of trying to figure out could if the if we move students from one point place to another, could it work? not just next year but with projections down the line. So that piece of the elementary was um a major piece for the committee. Uh the other is that the uh there was inefficient use of space in some places there was lots of excess space that maybe couldn't be used more efficiently while

022there was overuse of space in some places. Um and you know at the at the middle level one of the other issues was that you know some especially at West Middle there are um disciplines uh world languages particularly where they have been on a cart and they're not and they they're placed wherever there is an opportunity where there's a free classroom as opposed to having classroom spaces dedicated and configured for that kind of instruction. And so really it that was uh it's also true of health education which at West Middle bounces and travels and for some of our uh self-contained 15 to1 students and academic self-contained some of those classrooms get ended up getting placed in rooms that are open as opposed to having a space that they can configure a pot for themselves. Those

023were the major pieces that were hopeful to be uh create solved through this process or create opportunities to solve. Uh other ideas that were important to the group uh but not at that same level was trying wherever possible not to to create better distribution not just of students counts but also of factors that create more at risk sess pieces for kids. uh and if not to better distribute them not to exagerbate what might already be there. Um, also trying to work towards finding ways to minimize kids of need to travel across the district, which is especially true for students here in West Senica that are part of the English as a new language program or in some cases self-contained program and self-contained classrooms. And you know, I've told told you this before, you should be

024very proud of the district's commitment to maintain those specialized instructional settings within the district, but that is one of the factors that actually having as many uh self-contained classrooms as you do with almost 30 across the district that is competing for space that wasn't there that wasn't needed a decade ago. And it's that commitment to those kids, but also it's also created some capacity pieces. So trying to make make create a situation where you could have a better mechanism for placing self-contained classrooms and the best example is um when you have a self when you have self-contained classrooms children say working with a special six children working with a special education teacher these are generally some of your highest need you know they need more support than anybody and so at Clinton right now because

025of space considerations there's a group of kids that go to Clinton for kindergarten in first grade. Ideally, you would want they can only maintain a three grade level span by state ed uh regulations. So, what ideally is you'd like to have another immediate classroom for them to transition to. So, they don't have to do a transition to a new school. Well, Clinton doesn't have enough space to be able to do that. So, those students as they age out of the first grade room, they then by necessity have to go find a new program. And in this case, it would probably it would be over in Winchester Potters. Um I believe in the future there may be classes here at West, but the idea was to make sure that every building had the capacity at least

026to have two rooms that you could place self-contained classroom so that kids wouldn't have to make a shift within their elementary setting. So those were all the kind of the constraints and the goals of the process. So throughout this process uh the the team actually started looking at a couple different ways to do redistricting pure redistricting just changing maintaining the schools but changing the lines. Uh and they arrive they looked at different ways to configure the elementary and the middle so that one flow to another. Uh there was some consideration about you know ease of travel but also uh not creating more poverty more at risk kids at the same time. Uh the team also looked at some configurations uh different configurations. They wanted to reook at the one high school concept again. They there

027was a proposal to have a unified district-wide intermediate school to take advantage of the space resources here at West. They had those ideas on the table and those were brought to you for some for your consideration and you provided excellent feedback which kind of gave went back to the committee and said this idea of reconfiguration is something that we may want to consider but really it's more a thoughtful dec question in terms of a bigger strategic plan. What do we want our schools to look like in 3 to 5 years? So rather than reconfiguration driving the vision, let vision drive reconfiguration. And so the board asked the committee to really hone in at this juncture on redistricting uh maintaining the kind of core uh foundation now that would set the better the process up for

028a better look long term. And so that's where the the committee went back and in April um they really looked at a number of different options that they had had in consideration and I won't we'll be going into a lot of detail on these later but one of the charges from the board was let make sure you let us know what was considered and why it wasn't it didn't move forward. So, I want to be able to help you understand that when we got together on April 22nd at the culmination of a lot of that brainstorming work and the board's feedback, uh, there were six different concepts in play. And what you look at, we had people working in teams and we asked the teams to tell us whether or not they had consensus on

029following an idea, a possibility. And so one was what they what we called base redistricting which included um shifting students from Clinton to Northwood, shifting students from Allenale to Winchester Potter and shifting some students from West Elementary to Allenale. Another idea uh in the idea of elementary balance was to be able to open up um an ENL classroom at Allenale uh in order to have a western side ENL as well as an eastern side to you know limit some of the kids that go back and forth. There's a number of students in the ENL program at Clinton that really live in that little part of the district that's way to the west in Blazedell and it really is almost a 10mi ride. Uh that's difficult. So that was an idea. I believe the uh program

030is at Northwood. Oh, excuse me. Northwood. Thank you. They're very close. And so I get um so there was another idea about uh having on the east side the fifth graders at Clinton and Northwood attend East Middle School. And so at grade four they would move to East Middle. Uh that one had no real consensus. it as you can see it was kind of in the middle. Uh there was another idea about another potential option was that they considered the team considered was uh having this kids here at fifth grade in west L may stay here for sixth grade which would then take some students out of a west out middle school mix which would help generalize that help solve that issue. uh the team found no consensus to it and didn't think for a

031lot of reasons for lot many of them programmatic for kids trying to build a sixth grade program with very different curriculum in the building uh was very challenging they didn't feel that was the right move and so that was the only one that said no don't go forward at the middle school level um there was a talk of how uh the use of scheduling could be used to try to if not solve the problem mitigate it uh and there was a concept about whether or not rather than having one whole department uh travel, could some of those could some could the the traveling be shared by other departments? Uh and so that had there was consensus to say yes, we should continue to look at that. And then uh the repositioning transfer having students move

032from west to east uh was another uh option that the team wanted to consider further. And it was those five, all five of those except for West L uh staying here for sixth grade, those had consensus to go forward. So what I want to do is share with you the thinking of the committee uh at its meeting in May and how that all came together to arrive at the the final recommendation that they make for you tonight. Um so when we got together the base redistricting at the elementary uh we started by reviewing and uh the move of some Clinton students Northwood and Allenale the students that are uh in the se separated part of the um that residence area that actually surrounds Winchester Potter moving that to Winchester Potter. Uh there was we brought

033out the idea of trans having kids move from West L to Allenale as a we broke that out for consideration by the team. Uh and then we also broke out the idea of having uh ENL elementary at Allenale. The second recommendation was uh maintaining base redistricting on the west side but having Clinton and Northwood grade five. Well, I mean these are the ones I already said. So these are the five. So here's the first one. Now what I've given what you have with you um for each one of the base redistricting options there is what's called what I call impact sheet and it tries to go into some detail that's hard to go into like and fit it on a slide. It's also there's a recognition a lot of feedback from the community which is

034super valid that the maps that we can use to generate are very difficult to read unless you home get really tight. So what these sheets do is also for any area that's a part of a recommendation, it I've tried to list out the very specific streets that would be included. So somebody if they can't read the map, they could also see and look and see what streets. Uh and this, you know, this is so that somebody would know exactly if their street was included in this piece or not. And so I won't these are available for each one of the three pieces as part of the base redistricting uh process that you'll see tonight. So the first possible recommendation the team studied was the move of students on in Clinton to Northwood and Allenale to

035Winchester Potter and uh just the area being considered for movement in Clinton to Northwood. This section right here shaded lightly purple and this shaded brown is the piece that's currently Allenale and proposed to go to Winchester Potters. [Applause] So when we when in talking about the Clinton to Northwood redistricting piece, uh, conceptually, as you can see, the idea is to take this part, extend straight due south for Northwood and take it down to Casanovia Creek. There was some examination of looking here. um it didn't move enough kids and there was some concern about some uh higher risk students being in there. So the team ended up looking at this this section here Clinton in order to meet the goals of the of the process approximately 110 students that you know Clinton's Clinton's enrollment had to

036drop by about 110 to 120 students consistently to be able to achieve their goals. So it was that part that was able to achieve the goal. It maintained, you know, continuity with the current Northwood boundaries. So because we the team didn't want to get to this situation again where some part of it was separated from um the other part of the residence area. So you know the challenge of course is you over the you have two schools that are about a mile and a quarter apart and so it's very difficult to figure out what's the best way to divide. There was no one best great way, but this is where the team ended up. Um, so when you look at it, it's really extending due south from Finch Lee, uh, up here coming straight down

037and when you get to Center Street, it kind of zags over and then has Skyhigh Drive. Um, that's the first street that's uh, in the shaded area and then that moves all the way over to Union Road. So it's th that area that moves Union Road bounded by uh Clinton and then Frenchially extended down and you can see the streets. So when that happens, you know the right now if those students if those students were redistricted now uh it's about 112 students. When you look projection-wise, it's consistently about 110 to 120 projected at least 3 years out from 2026. So none of the recommendations the committee has made are for next year. Any recommendation the earliest they would recommend is September of 2026. So when you um in 2026 you know it is projected that

038about 111 students based on projected enrollments would be impacted by this move. Um the number of students that are eligible for uh free and reduced lunch is similar if not actually it's a little bit lower than Northwood. So we would not increase Northwood's poverty rate. And there's about 18% of the students that are not classified as white students. So e uh from an ethnicity point, it's pretty balanced. Um these are the actual street names. You know, I don't uh some of the people who are curious, they can view them online. Uh it's hard to walk through and read them all here. Um so this is what it currently Clinton has 632 students, you know, and if you talk to any principal, they know that these numbers change one or two. They go up and down

039and up and down. So I know Kim's already looking at it. She already knows what's off by one or two, but this is there's 632. If this proposal were accepted, it's projected that 534 students uh would attend Clinton. And there's actually 16 students that are classified as ENL that if it maintained a programmatic home out, you know, in Northwood, they also would not be there. So there would be a net of 518 kids and that's a reduction of about 114 students in 2026 27. on the other end, Northwood uh would would move to 459 students, but then they also have 45 students that would attend for the ENL program from Clinton and all other areas. So, so in my work was then to say if those are the projected numbers, the question is can they

040fit and meet the goals of the process. So uh so I'm going to come back to that because I will show you a chart that kind of shows when it in the end how does room usage work. The second part of the proposal is uh Allenale to Winchester Potter. So this current section that I just for what lack of a better term called the peninsula because it's it's kind of in a peninsula extending off of Winchester Potter and the Winchester Potter is right here. Um Al Allenale really needed to lose about 65 to 70 kids to achieve to have enough space. Their real issue was to have enough space for intervention. Right now they have two classrooms with four interventionists trying to work with three to five kids at a time. that it's not really

041that's not a great place to do that kind of work. Um so and to maintain this the 15 to1 classrooms there. So they would have to lose about 65 to 70 students. So the first part we had looked at back early in the process. There had been some consideration about having because they only needed to lose about 65 or part of this move to somewhere a part of the peninsula. And the team's feedback which also was feedback from parents that we had at a public session was don't break this area apart. If some if any of it's going to move move at all. So in the end the team made the decision to have to recommend that this piece of Allenale um just for reminders for it's this piece way out this is Alen and

042then so is this. So this part will now become part of Winchester [Applause] pots. So you can see that right now currently there would be uh again it's about 116 students uh that would move from Allenale to Winchester Potters if the move had been made now. Uh that is the there's the feedback about don't split the Dorance Avenue neighborhood in half. And so if implemented in 2026 27 um there would be about 98 students uh that would be that would be impacted in that regard. this Allenale uh Winchester Allenale over a period of time 98 students be impacted. Just remember that we don't classify kindergarten as being impacted because they haven't been to school yet. So there would be approximately 110 to 120 students that would be that would shift. And so you can see

043that Allenale moves from 503 to 384 and Winchester Potter moves from 379 to 494. So that would get Winchester Potter very similar in enrollment to Clinton and Northwood. Uh which was one of the goals of balance. Uh you can see Alleno is actually in losing their 110 students. They would be down to 384. That's going to create a lot of capacity for them to do things and have space open up. So when we looked at what does this accomplish and for whoever is following me I apologize but it's hard to do this without pointing. So what you see here is this is the um this would be the enrollment. This is the current enrollment. This is the enrollment that would take place if these shifts were made. And then what we started with is how

044many classroom teachers for the K5 students are available uh to the district. And so for 202526 there will be 114 teachers that are teaching kindergarten through fifth grade as classroom teachers. So this number always had to come out to 114 because we could not as committee make a recommendation that would require the district to make a budgetary decision. So that tells us how many So the next column talks about how many teachers classroom teachers there would be every classroom teacher is requires a room. Then based on um special areas uh Northwood, Clinton, Allenale, and Winchester Potters would need three special areas classrooms. Generally, it's two music um and art. And then library, everybody has a library that's not included in the count. Uh West because of the sheer size, um West is still a very

045large school. Uh that would and that would require five intervention wise. Northwood because of its ENL population and higher risk needs five rooms for intervention. The other schools need four. One of the other goals, if possible, was to try to create capacity, if the district had funds, to include a universal pre kindergarten classroom in every elementary school. Right now, there are four universal prek classrooms. Two of them operate at Winchester Potter. Two of them operate at Northwood. This provides the the ones in that column indicate there's capacity. There's a room available if you wanted to have five universal preks, one for each school. Uh and then you see Northwood maintains two classrooms cuz that we're the team decided to look at ENL separately. Two classrooms for ENL. And so when you get this is the

046number of rooms available total. Uh if you take all the offices out, what could be there? How many would you need? And the blue number is what's left over after you take care of special area classes, interventionists, ENL program. So what we're always looking for is to have that number be at least two because you'll see that self-contained classrooms are not on this matrix. The idea is to create the best possible solution and that then let Dr. fowler and her team and the district administration determine what's the best way to place those classrooms to best meet the needs of kids. So you can see that right now this number is zero actually picks up a number of classrooms uh and every classroom has at least two left over capacity for a universal prek and you

047know what it will do it you can see these class sizes these are average class sizes you know if you uh taken the number of kids and the number of staff identified you divide that's the average the challenge of course when you have five elementary schools averaging 400 to 500 is that you won't get you won't get a great division sometimes. You might get you know a great a really difficult number in first grade is like 62 you know cuz then you either have to have classrooms 15 for four teachers and have 15 or you have three classrooms with 22. You know ideally kindergarten the 22 in kindergarten is not ideal. It can it be done? It could be, but it's not ideal given the age and what they're trying to accomplish. But 15 is

048pretty small. You will get that. So your averages look pretty reasonable, but there's going to be bumps you have to in the road. Um, so that is that's the base redistricting. moving the students, you know, just kind of in review, moving this the the purple blue area, shifting their attendance from Clinton to Northwood. This section shifting from Allenale to Winchester Ponds. There was also uh a concept uh looked at in terms of uh should we Allenale actually move that moving that peninsula moves more kids than Allenale really needed and you can actually see that this number here was seven there's capacity and so one of the concepts was should we consider moving some students uh oh should we consider moving some students um into Allenale to help bolster that up and perhaps take pressure off

049another school. So the team originally had looked at a section of West Elementary that's uh ordered by uh this is Park Grove. This is Eastern West Road. This is Union Road. And this is Allenale Road. Having this section move from West to Allenale. And the the idea was that would then there's now because by moving the the group of students over to Winchester Potters, there's now perhaps more capacity left over than desired and it would take some stress off of West L. Uh in the end you can see that this it would eliminate you know it would have taken about 10 or 11 students fairly consistently per grade level um from West L to Allenale. Uh and it would have then you know it would have created a need for three more rooms at um

050Allenale. uh it probably would not it it it may or may not have reduced class needs at least L. Uh so the team looked at that and wondered if the juice was worth the squeeze like having a group of people have to move. Was it really going to create you know the benefit for West that was that would be in balance with making some people change schools and so it really the team at that point decided to back off of that and not include that move in recommendation. uh they felt that the extra capacity at west at Allenale could now maybe perhaps be used to take some of the pressure of some of the self-contained classrooms off and put that at Allenale uh cuz it now has capacity too and it's on the same campus

051essentially. So the team made the decision not to uh take a look at that. You can see it drops you can see in this proposal Allenale gets to 452 which was balanced. Remember, you have a right now you have Winchester Potters is at 379, but you have Clinton at 630. In the new proposal, Allenale is going to go to like 379. It's almost like instead of Winchester Potter being the small school, now Allenale is. So, that would this proposal would take would have taken Allenale with 452, but you can see that the impact at West was not that great. Uh, and so that that's why the team decided not to make that part of the recommendation. Um, I just asked I I could write it down, but I'll forget. That's okay. Would that allow for

052ENL students who live over here on the west side of town be serviced at either Allenale or Westell in either with or without the move of the students from Westell to Allenale. There's a capacity at Allenale for that to occur. So, in fact, that's an important part of the next piece when we consider that. So they really felt you can see um you know one of the things uh in all of this I wanted to commend Jennifer Jones and her team in transportation because they spent two hours with me. We walked through every single scenario and giving me feedback about whether you know how doable was it. Uh they felt that all of the elements that you're seeing here in this base redistricting plan are doable especially with a year to plan for it. Uh

053the biggest issue is not the routes. is that some of the schools are on different tiers. So, one runs at the first elementary run, one's at the second, but they feel with a year they can work that out. So, transportation is not really the issue here. Um, so that the team consensus was not to include West L in that piece, but to include the move of Clinton to Northwood and Allenale to Win. The other question was moving whether or not to include uh should the team recommend mo establishing an ENL classroom on the west side and in the end you know we we presented the idea that when you look at it it's a very complex question to be able to determine you have to really understand the instructional demands that the ENL program must

054meet based on New York State requirements because depending on how far away kids are from the standard They require different levels of instruction. Sometimes it can be done in the classroom. Sometimes it has to require as a pull out. So when you really analyze based on current levels to move a group to and have a westside enlale might actually cost the district money because you lose the economy of scale of putting all the kids in one spot. uh you might need some 8/10 or one full-time position to meet the demands. That was kind of a a downside to the piece. Um and and I think it's important to know like we won't go into all of that detail because what the team said and I think it's highly valid. Our goal was to create the

055capacity to do it if we want and then it's really up to the district to decide if that's the prudent move. And so I thought that was a very it was a good place. And so that the answer to your question, Mr. Van, in either in any scenario from this base redistricting, there is enough room at Allenale to place an ENL section there if the district decided it wanted to. And so the team probably wasn't necessary to say yes or no. It wasn't its place to say you must move the ENL program. The idea was do we have the capacity? Then let the board decide. They didn't think and I thought that was prudent. Um so that was the team consensus was the capacity has been created. It's the board and administration's decision whether to

056move or not. Um in terms of um the the team there was a there was a call by some members of the team that they want to take another look at potentially what's the idea potentially of moving the fifth grade having creating some of the solving some of the issues at Clinton by instead of making families move from one school to another would be to take have the kids in after fourth grade attend fifth grade in East Middle. The idea being that East Middle currently has a a really a bounty of pretty you sound strong space uh that could be put to use. Uh and that by having those students attend their classes, there's a consistency. It's not the these families have to shift, but all fifth graders will have their fifth grade experience at

057East Middle. Um, and so that's why there was some it would have solved it would have helped facilitate some of Clinton's issues because in moving the fifth grade out that automatically takes at least four classrooms uh and opens them up for other purposes which is what Mrs. McCarten needed. So when the team really looked at that, there were a lot of concerns because there had in the past been at some point fifth graders went to East Middle from those two schools and there was feedback from the team that it was not successful when it was done a number of years ago. There was some conversation about it was done kind of last minute. The preparation perhaps was rushed. It wasn't thoughtfully done. but now with a whole year to plan uh that that maybe could

058be different. So there's a lot of conversation around that as a potential option. In the end um the team decided that it needed it did not have enough time to make an educated informed recommendation about whether or not that should be a viable option for the district. they felt that they would need much more time uh in order to study it carefully and to arrive at a reasoned basis for recommendation and thus they couldn't make a recommendation. Is that was that accurate? Um so at that point they said that the feedback from the committee is fifth graders from Clinton and Northwood at least middle potentially but we're not prepared to make that recommendation now. Somebody would have to do a lot more study of that uh because there are curricular issues. There's issues with the

059music program and how that plays out. But it would need more time to really determine if it was valid space and capacity wise could could definitely do it, but it's really making sure you can have a viable adequate program. And the team wasn't prepared to make that recommendation and they felt that they somebody would need more time to study it. on the west side. Um there was conversation around this idea, the idea of using scheduling to help create there were two goals really at the for the west middle issue. one uh if when you have a discipline based meaning English, science, social studies, math, world languages, art, music, when you have a discipline-based program in a bigger secondary school, that every discipline should have rooms dedicated to its instruction. That how you might set up

060a social studies classroom could be different than how you might set up a world language classroom. And so, how can we achieve that? And the other was how can we really ensure that the very best option is that teachers would have a room of their own and that health classrooms could be taught where health is best and all the in foreign language would then everybody all teachers would have their own room. So it was a two-part piece. Can we get dedicated rooms for each discipline? Can we get a room for all teachers that can configure it as they see would be best for their instructional needs? So the recommendation this looked at is could the decision made right now there are four world language teachers that are on a cart. They move every period wherever

061there's an open space. So could there first of all there's been some shifting planning for how lunch is going to be um conducted at West Middle School that will actually free create one less lunch period which creates more flexibility during the middle of the day but not enough to offer anybody a room. The other option was instead of skating a schedule so that only world language has to travel that you could pick that four different disciplines could have a room that where somebody would have to travel. And so it does not solve the issue of does every teacher get a classroom? It would only it would instead create perhaps an opportunity for world languages to have two rooms, one for French, one for Spanish that could be shared, but they would still have to travel

062and other disciplines would have would have to travel as well. So the team after they considered that um really said that could be that's a that's not really for us because that's a decision that could be made administratively now. It's not really our purview to do it. the the the district could the administration could make that decision if it chose to and so the team said that's not really a recommendation for us. So they they pulled back and decided not to make that a recommendation that if it wanted to be done it could be done at this point and that's that's different than saying don't do it. Correct. They're saying somebody could make right. It's not saying don't. It's saying it could be done. If they choose to do it they can do it. So

063the last idea that was considered was the idea of repositioning students from West Middle School to East Middle School and from West Secondary to East Secondary. So in order really in order to uh achieve the goals at West Middle, at least four to five classroom spaces would have to be opened up. And the only way to open up new classroom space at that facility is that approximately 100 to 110 students would have to not go to uh west anymore and would have to shift to east cuz without it you won't you won't create the capacity to every teacher with a room. So during the course of the whole process different iterations were looked at. You know the idea being that it should be what whatever move whatever area moved should be contiguous. You know it

064doesn't have to cross through the whole other part of the district to get there. And when we when you looked at that there were throughout the committee's work because this question went way back because the very first time this whole idea was considered was probably back in December. So there was one idea that said keep it as an east west piece and then the natural part is this area um east of Union. There's another one that said go this way and that this part will move over and there was a lot of talk and consideration of that throughout the entire process. Um the decision unanimously by the committee was that this move would be provinces of higher poverty area. They higher risk kids think making a much longer move. So the team said if this

065had to be an option that the best option is to examine the movement of students that are um south of Kyuga Creek and east of Union Road. So it's this area. So that's the area that the committee was looking at and they were unanimous in if that is the place that we have to go then this is the area that should be moved. So if you look at currently if uh if the students living in that area were moved today it would be 116 students which would create probably five classroom spaces. It would allow the process to meet the goals of having both dedicated space for all disciplines and every teacher with a room. Uh when the move when you look down the road two years if uh it would be projected that approximately 135

066students uh would be impacted in that move. Uh and you know you would simp you would not be bringing more poverty over to the east side. um the streets, you know, we went through and those were all the streets that would be impacted. Um that's something that the district can make available. Now, one of the things that I want to I want to make sure I get there's a in all of these recommendations the committee was very strong on the really somebody that like I'm doing my best, but I don't live in West Sonic and I haven't worked in it for 25 years. The idea is that a small group of people should look at all these and really check the streets, make sure that neighborhoods aren't being that should be keep together aren't being

067separated. So that this is kind of a this is a recommendation that they would also recommend a small group of people really look and make talk about the implementation tweaking the streets making sure that neighborhoods are kept together as much as possible. So this would be if the board decided to if they you made the decision to accept this would be with the idea that you would give the district some time to really go through and say this is very very specifically what we finally believe is the recommendation. Um so when you look at capacity currently West Middle has 774 students. Uh if this was two 2026 27 it would be 642. We played that out another two years to see that it has longterm what it would look like. It would be 636. And

068so you can see that would create the space here. East middle it goes 56649. But there's plenty of capacity at East Middle to take those students in. The committee's recommendation is that one that any student that starts high school at West would finish high school at West and that any student that was moved from West Middle to East Middle as they entered high school they would move through the East High School program. So it's based. So it's saying in 2026 27 if you are a freshman at west and you lived in this area you would be able to complete your four years at west. But if you're an eighth grader and you were moved you would go to East High School and follow that progression. So that was their right. And so this also says

069if if this three years after when the kids start moving through West High School will move from,30 to 890. And there's also some you're going to the decline of secondary enrollment is going to continue. So you're going to lo you're still losing kids districtwide as the current moves out. Uh and then at East it moves from 775 to 8:45. East Middle School has the capacity. Uh East Middle School 10 years ago had thousand students in it. Uh there is capacity there and it creates as you can see a fairly balanced um set of schools. So uh the goal is you know in that process West Middle School gets its space. There's a better use of East Middle School space. There's better balance between the two programs. Um it maintains special education programming at West Middle

070uh which gives the district more flexibility. Uh there is there is an acknowledgement um from the team that in two of the ele in order to accomplish this two of the elementary schools where fifth graders will go to different places there's an acknowledge there's a lot of conversation about it. Uh there was a recognition that you know at Allenale and West the kids some kids would move this way and some would move to the east side. They that was not ideal. There was a lot of conversation about it. They recognize some some of the emotional pieces of that. Um and I just want to make sure that you understood that they they took that into account as well. So in the end the district rec the redistric committee meeting is making two recommendations. Recommendation one

071is base redistricting at the elementary level, Clinton to Northwood, Allendale to Windot, recommended for 20126. Uh the second recommendation is uh West moving uh West Middle School students to East Middle School, entering East High School after middle school uh as presented. you know, the committee uh likely would recommend both moves, but we present them as pieces for the board's consideration. Those are the two shifts that after a lot of study, the team felt best positions the district for a longer term look at where it might go in the future. The only I very seldom throughout this process inserted my own beliefs. I do believe at some point given the nature of the facilities, where they're located, uh how they're how they're shifted, that trying to maintain these neighborhood schools will be will grow increasingly difficult.

072And having a thoughtful look at how other kinds of options other than strict neighborhood boundaries would be well placed. And it could be maintaining multiple secondary schools but doing some sort of um open enrollment pieces, academy kinds of pieces. It could be some reconfiguration to create economy of scale. But that requires a longer look that should be driven by what the district's hoping to accomplish as a district and then figuring how the resources can be best fit. So, um I really want the committee recognizes that there's no any plan that's going to make everybody happy. Um, and there's a we they understand that. Uh, but I think they do this on what they think is best for the district in the long run and posing positioning it for the future. So, uh, I will open

073it up to questions that I can help you with. [Applause] I don't question. Okay. Jeremy, anything you want? Senator, I had a question. Um, going back to the one slide where it shows the number of rooms that would be available um in Allenale has seven rooms. Westell has 14. Is that with or without? That's a special education office without them. Okay. So, the idea the board said, "Let's take the offices out, work from there, and then we'll put the offices where they best fit." So there would still be room for the current offices with that. [Applause] Carla, anything any questions? I'm still thinking through. Sure. Oh, yeah. This is a lot. I get it. That's what I'm just want to make sure. I mean, I I do have questions that I'm writing down. Hopefully, Tony,

074we can submit to you afterwards. Sure. Yeah. Then we I'm assuming those questions we can then openly discuss at the next meeting, too. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Mr. If you if people give me the questions, I'll respond to them. Yeah. Use that as part of another conversation. Yeah. If you respond to them though, I want to make sure publicly we discuss them and everything. There anything directly that you need answered at this point? Great. And um I've got a few questions. I'll put them um and just a few things. Um I guess we also can go on to comments from everybody, but I'll I'll start with some comments. Um, this is a little different than what I'm normally used to as far as here's a well recommendation, do it or don't, but see I really

075appreciate the different um the breaking down the aspects of the conversations and everything um the committee of the work they did. I had a comment made to me at one point if you guys don't do this I wasted my time. the committee, all the work you guys did is to help us then proceed regardless of what we proceed with like the without that committee looking into things. I just I don't see where we would be at this point. So, I appreciate that. Um I have a few questions just like um like the ENL and I think it's an administrative decision. Do we want to separate it? Do we not? Do we want to keep it as a community? But again, sometimes you fall in that trap where the committee like, why aren't they telling us

076what to do? I I appreciate the way you approach that. So, um, these are ideas. This is what they think would work if we want to work on these things. So, the ENL thing, stuff like that, I want to definitely make sure we all discuss and obviously I have um, you know, faith in you and your administration and everyone to come up with what you guys think. So, if I if I may just elaborate on some of the committee's discussion related to our English language learners and one of the thoughts was they being that we had no English language learner family representation on the committee, they felt um really that it was not their place to decide whether or not an English language learner family would want to be with others that are like them

077in a community that is a very diverse community in Northwood. Wood Elementary or to have it decided for them that know we think you would prefer to be in your neighborhood school. And so one of the committee's recommendations was if we have the space and the capacity, maybe we ask the English language learner families, do they value being grouped together and having a sense of community together in one school community or is there preference for them to attend their closer neighborhood school potentially having one ENL program on the east side and one ENL program on the west side and and that's what Tony alluded to when he said some more time the committee just really didn't feel it was um their place to assume what our English language learners may prefer given that that with

078this model we will have the space and the capacity that we could have an English language learning program on each side of town. The other um thing I wanted to talk about, I'm assuming the committee did not, and maybe I missed this, that they didn't recommend any consideration to I I know you said if this happens, this would be the soonest it'll happen. There was no in-depth looking into grandfathering in or changing things over periods of time. Um that would be there's a lot of conversation about that. Okay. Uh again, you know, the the actual how does that happen? Like when I spoke with transportation about, you know, if because there was a lot of conversation like should we allow fifth graders to finish in their current elementary school and everybody, you know, the thought

079was right now, uh, if we do, we should make sure that everybody can do it, not just those that can drive. And so there was a lot of questions for equity. And then it got the kind of they came the team came around to like those are really difficult conversations that really involved we're not we don't we're not equipped to make decisions about how to transport the kids. So that should be part of the implementation whether or not or how that might take place cuz there was a lot of conversation about letting kids finish in a place and the conversation with the transportation people was like you know like four grades have to go here but this grade still has school here. How do we do the bus lane? That that would have so we

080couldn't guarantee that we could pull it off. We could wasn't they the team felt we don't do transportation and if we can't guarantee it, we shouldn't recommend it. That's really up for the and I'm not going to catch you in anything, but basically they're not making any recommendation for nay. There should be some group that says how do we best implement this for the kids to have the very best experience for the kids. Okay, these are um let's see the uh the east side fifth through middle or the fifth grade going to East Side Middle School hypothetically like it used to be. Um and this may be actually a question for you. Uh you said they didn't have time to look into it. Is that is it is it like a huge like I never

081really thought about the process. Um committee can't do everything. Is that something that um you know I never even really knew about the negatives of how what the situation was in the past. I just knew it created imbalance in our district because we have fifth graders at elementary school on the west side, fifth graders at the middle school on the east side and I do not know if they operated as a mini elementary wing or anything. Um I don't know. So, I'm just when you say the time wise of it, I'm just wondering is that something that um is is it like a whole another project or is it like cuz you can't do both? So, I like or has that been kind of not um it doesn't seem feasible because of the inequity and

082stuff. And I'm not trying to put you on the spot. It's just a question on my head. And and by all means, Tony, feel free to share your perspectives. I think it was done so poorly when it was done previously that that there was no desire to revisit that. It was really this mindset of we tried it once, it didn't work. My understanding of of why it potentially didn't work then is because it was done at at the 11th hour without adequate time for planning for success. And the the fifth grade, as I understand, were treated as middle schoolers. they were following a bell schedule and and uh things of staff development and teacher preparation were not well thought out and planned. And so we overnight seemingly treated fifth graders as middle schoolers and have

083them follow a bell schedule. Not to say that if we were to do it again, it would have to be done that way. The educational wing at East, the former East Elementary School could house fifth grade and they could be a standalone self-contained where they're with their teacher all day long as most traditional elementary programs would run at fifth grade. But I I think the team was very hesitant because of the failures of the past to really give that much thought and consideration. If that is something that that the board believes would be a viable option, we could further study that as as a point of implementation that could alleviate of course the issue that we have at Clinton Elementary if fifth grade was out of Clinton and in the old east elementary wing. Okay.

084Yeah. I just asking cuz it seems like there was two ideas but clearly as soon as you move down that one path the other one's not going to so I just curious like oh this will take years to figure out I don't want to hold it up even though we're trying to make the moves intelligently and based on long-term we don't want to keep doing it so I just ask me yeah to follow up on that question so if that were the case how does that impact the Clinton Northwood situation would you still need to redistrict that small students who would not. So Tony, did you look did the committee even look at the numbers through middle school and high school with that move? Capacity wise, it worked, but there's so many programmatic questions about

085uh and also with uh economies of first of all, you had there was a lot of concern about having two different models operating for fifth grade within the same district. Are we one district? Are we two districts? There was conversation there. There were questions. There's curricularly, you know, fifth graders organized their special areas. They organize their time very differently. It's not period based. Uh there wasn't concern about trying to put fifth graders in a middle school model. They weren't really ready for it. The staff wasn't ready for it. And then it was different than what was going on in the other side of the district. So capacity wise, it could have worked. The committee didn't feel it had enough time to really all the questions about how do we have two different music fifth grade

086performing music programs going? How do we operate that? there wasn't enough time for them to thoughtfully consider it before they felt comfortable capacitywise it could work but whether or not they didn't feel comfortable making recommendation based on their inability to say the fidelity that they could create a good that a great program for fifth graders could be created okay but it sound to me like the capacity exists within those two buildings Clinton and Northwood if you balance it out correct you so which is we don't we don't need that as the solution. It It could be Clinton as proposed Clinton students shifting to Northwood Elementary. Some of the implications of having so many more students on the East Middle School campus raised questions around might we need another school nurse, what might we need another

087assistant principal if that campus is taking on more students? And so while it it could work, are there other consequences financial in nature that would make it not the most viable solution when a a more feasible solution may be simply shifting students from Clinton to Northwood and maintaining the K5 structure across all five elementary schools? Well, I'll continue to state that the more feasible solution, the more equitable solution would be to have primary and elementary. So if you had if you made Clinton a either Clinton or one building be a K2 and the other a 335, one building could have 500, the other one would have 502 based on the projections that you have here. And then instead of extracting this small group of students and moving them, all students are going through the same

088experience together cuz that's what we continue to do. As you said, this is going to continue to be a problem. So, we're going to fix this problem here. This idea addresses the problem for the short term and it's going to give us more time to look at things. Eventually, you're going to have to get to this spot where you transformed the school into something different and better. And this was an opportunity to achieve that. Going to keep hearing that West has this building has spaces. It does have spaces. It doesn't have adequate spaces. It is never built or designed for elementary students. You have kindergarten rooms that don't have bathrooms. You have kindergarten rooms that I guarantee you do not have the square footage that the state would require for those students to be in.

089But we have lots of empty spaces now. 14 14 rooms that will be filled up with special education classes. Well, I'll tell you this. 14 classes of 611s does not equal the number that that is. So be prepared to have assistant principles and more staff in this building which is going to cost you money as well. So there's a lot here um that still needs to be Mr. panic and just the team didn't look at um concept of K235 and at that juncture it was difficult at Clinton even when you no matter how you combine the numbers it was challenging to create the capacity that they needed cuz we did look at it it was on the table at one point uh and that was fairly early in the process um and it wasn't continued

090that probably the team decided not to continue down that road tonight Oh yeah, it's a little just it's very complicated when you start looking at the projections and then putting in all the different intervention pieces and self-contained. It got challenging to make it work because not a lot the classes go like this. You know, they bounce around. Uh especially in the Northwood, current Northwood residence area, there's a fairly decent pretty steady, but Northwood bounces like 95 fifth graders this year and then 62 fourth graders next. So it was diff. I'm not saying that you couldn't do it. It was challenging at that point and the team didn't go in that direction because we did look whether we spent enough time whether we deeply dove is another matter but it was examined at one point. Yeah.

091And I again I I just want to for dealing with you and your committee's recommendation. You're not recommending to us don't look into this. This is what your recommendation is. It's the one recommendation you're making. Correct. Nothing has been absolutely taken off you like you're not saying don't do anything else. This is just your recommendation. This is the recommendation. So again, keep making your notes and there's no reason we can't discuss anything. Um it's not taken off the table. I just who knows? I'm just saying like we're I want to make sure that we know that they didn't say don't do it. Um that's all. Um any other questions or great any comments? I just I think it's worthwhile to look at moving the fifth graders back and what the financial implications would be what

092that would look like in the district if it's feasible or not to keep those schools together. And I think that was part of my question was how much of a how much of an issue would it be to look into it at least kind of I don't want to say deep dive but hey you know I mean you guys are all well we should be able to answer the questions to make an informed decision. Yes. But if it was a six-month process, you know, that's why I was just curious like what is the process? So I just want to understand what the request is to study the feasibility of putting fifth grade pulling fifth grade out of Northwood and Clinton and placing fifth grade on the East Middle School campus. Yes. Okay. Financial programmatic. Correct.

093Yes. [Applause] And again, if that were to be something we would look at, we would look at the pros, cons, we would look at everything. We're not saying we're going to do it. Okay. Um, Marlo, any comments? No, I I agree with what Sarah just said and I'd be interested to know how long that would take. Okay, Mr. Any comments? Currently, any comments now? All set. All right, it's just my understanding that that fifth grade issue is is really going to be complicated by certifications, by state regulations, um, not just financially. So, I know that there's a lot of issues with that and that's why even if it was time well spent and not just the mess that happened previously, that is really not the best option. But I'm certainly open to you digging more

094into it, but I've I've asked questions as well. And I think that's that's the biggest thing is that certifications come into play here, but are different from middle school to elementary. And so there's some financial implications that would take place. Sure. That's the case. Pros and cons. Pros and cons. Pros and cons. Yep. Um, no other no other questions or comments for Mr. Day or I I just have a a closing comment in response to that. We I want to make sure we do this right. Right. And if we need further study of something, we we can certainly do that further study. What I just want to be mindful of is that if we take time to do further study, we may not be ready for implementation in the fall of 26 in full transparency

095because once we arrive upon a plan, we will need time to analyze staffing implications for rerouting of buses for transitioning and supporting any students who are impacted by any change. And I want to make sure we have that implementation time to implement this right and implement this well. And so if we take time to do further study, sorry to interrupt. Can we just hold the comments just a little quieter, please, if we have to have a conversation or step out? Um I have a real hard time with this year. So everything's I'm hearing I'm catching on this year. So I just appreciate a little bit. Thank you. Thank you. So, if we take time to extend a a further study, it may elongate the entire timeline. And I'm not opposed to that. I want to

096make sure we do this right. But just in full transparency that it could push out that um timeline where it's not implemented in the fall of 26. Okay. Um I think we're all set with you, sir. Great. And we've got uh got a couple of weeks to get our questions in and get some answers and get our plan put together for discussion more uh literally two weeks from today. Right. Yes. I I just want to close by thanking Tony the amount of time and analysis that went into truly studying our buildings, the capacity of our buildings, the square footage, analyzing full-size classrooms, intervention spaces, offices was tremendous. and to the entire redistricting committee who is a group of volunteers who assembled and gave of their time. Our committee meetings ran from 5 to 7:00 p.m.

097and we often did not conclude at 7:00 p.m. and people gave of their time over the course of months and some people even going back to 2 and 1/2 years ago. So many thanks to everyone who has gotten us to this point where we can really consider and evaluate recommendations at hand. I just want to piggyback that. I've served on committees before and um just can't stress enough how much we appreciate them doing some of this work um to get to this point and that'll help us uh kind of move forward to more questions or more um ideas or more decisions, but they did uh they did a great job with that. So um they'll probably go unrecognized mostly. I'm sorry. Can we take a break in between? Absolutely. Yeah. um before after we do

098public comment. Before before okay um so again I just I can't you know flash their pictures up here and thank them but they did do a lot of work and put in a lot of effort. So thank you everyone of the committee. [Applause] Okay before we start with public comments we'll uh take a couple minute break for restroom and that sort of thing. Yeah. Okay. We'll do that now. Thank you. Okay, everyone. I'm going to start the meeting back up again, please. Um, but clearly I still don't have everything completely in order because I skipped our superintendent's comments and I skipped the president comments and then we'll do public comment. So, if we are okay rolling, everyone's settled in. Good. Got to use the restroom, grab a drink, we're good to go. I'll hand it

099over to our superintendent. Thank you, Mr. Beedant. It's my honor to give our monthly update. I first would like to thank the entire community for their overwhelming support and for coming out to support our schools on May 20th. I have the summary here of Proposition One, our school budget, our Proposition 2, school budget purchase plan, and Proposition three, our auditorium infrastructure project. And I want to sincerely thank everyone who had a part in the budget development process, our board of education, and the community for their overwhelming support of our school community. So, thank you very much. I would also like to extend congratulations to the reelection of Edient and to welcome Zach Armstrong to our board of education. Zach will begin serving on July 1 to our board of education. And certainly on on behalf

100of the entire board, if I can speak on behalf of the board and the school district, I want to thank Vince Vanderlow for his years of service to the school district. Thank you, Vince, for everything. You uh you have one meeting left though. You're not off the hook. And flowers and a card will come then. And I think technically I'm not supposed to speak on behalf of the board of education. That's your job, Ed. But but I took the liberty to thank you, Vince, um for your years of service to the district. You have personally been so supportive of me this past year as I have transitioned in and I am grateful for that. Thank you. Great pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Tonight uh before this evening's board of education meeting at 5:00 pm next

101door, we gathered in our library to honor and to celebrate those who are reaching career milestones, those who were um receiving their tenure recommendation and their tenure recommendation will go into effect in the fall. And we also celebrated those that are ending their career in the West Senica Central School District and honored our retirees. So, it was a beautiful service to celebrate those two book ends of one's career and the chapters of the career. Very fitting that we held it in the library. So, many thanks to the board of education for your attendance tonight for that recognition and to the human resources department, John Cerone's team, Stephanie Wright, Jessica Shanahan, Melissa Shutrum. It was a team effort to pull off a really nice um reception and recognition for them. Tonight, we have additional retirees uh

102that the board will be taking action on later tonight. So, I want to specifically highlight those new retirees that are added to our class of 2025 list of retirees and the list of teachers being recommended for tenure that the board will be taking action on later this evening. Uh this group of teachers, I believe there was 31 in all that we were able to celebrate tonight in their recommendation of tenure. So congratulations to them on meeting the high standards that we expect here in the West Senica Central School District. And each of these individuals we believe to be very deserving of the tenure status which means that that we want them on their team on our team and to end their career here in the West Senica schools. Now I'd like to highlight some of

103the awesome things that are going on in our schools. On May 20th, the night of the school budget vote, we held our curriculum showcase at East Senior. It was a wonderful event where we got to showcase the good work in all of our content areas. And I want to thank the many teacher leaders, staff, administrators who made that event possible. There was a great turnout of our community and a lot of engagement that night with our families. Earlier this afternoon, I had the wonderful pleasure to be at West Senior as we were presented with a $5,000 check um from Brian Higgins and the good folks at Sha's Performing Arts Studio. Our high school musical Lay Miserabas was recognized for several accomplishments. Uh best performance by an actor, our very own Jonah Higgins won that award.

104And that is an award throughout Western New York where there are uh critics from Sha's education and arts program that come and view school musicals and Jonah was a standout and received that honorary mention and award. We also had outstanding lead and supporting performances by a group of students uh that shined on the stage in layiz and they also received the gold award for outstanding production of a school musical. And some of the comments that I made um in today's recognition is that lay miz is hefty for a high school to try to pull off and many high schools shy away from layiz. you need a deep cast and crew that is talented particularly with male vocals and um our students just shined on stage in every way. It was an outstanding production. So congratulations

105to Keith Urs to the entire cast crew and team of directors that made that possible. also want to recognize some amazing students from East Senior uh who placed first in the Buffalo League of Champions for Masterminds. So, congratulations to those students. We recently held our Trojan take actions which is an annual day of community service in the community and this collage shows some of our Trojans in action. Our students embark on the community doing all kinds of community service from working within churches to do uh cleanups in churches of light housekeeping and vacuuming to doing gardening and pulling weeds at nonprofit organizations throughout our community. So, it's a wonderful annual event and congratulations to our students for making a tremendous impact on our community and giving back to our community. We also had students from

106East Seniors Engineering Club who competed in the annual Tech Wars and Tech Wars takes place at Sunni Eerie's Flickinger Center. They participated in this on May 20th and we had uh a number of our teams place in that competition. Here you see pictures of the cardboard boat race, which is always a fan favorite to watch. We also had students recognized for their accomplishments in the video competition. the cardboard chair competition and the CAD drawing competition. So, congratulations to those students from e senior. Also, congratulations to our unified basketball team. They were in sectional competition for section six in the championship game and they fell slightly short of winning that championship game, but it was a wonderful culminating effort for a great season of our unified sports. And recently our lacrosse teams, both our East senior

107uh JB Boy and West varsity lacrosse teams were recognized um for the sportsmanship award. So congratulations to them. And and I think it's important to note that there's a lot more to sports than just X's and O's in the winning records. That getting a sportsmanship award really shows what athletics is all about and demonstrating good sportsmanship and um what it means to be on a team. We recently started um many of our end of the year celebrations for the class of 2025 and this year both east and west senior combined at the Ebenezer United Church of Christ for our balorate service. Um some of us Mr. Maloney and I and principles and teachers had the honor to be in attendance for the balorate service. It was absolutely beautiful. Our music department did a wonderful job.

108Reverend Gossel did a beautiful job uh leading that service and it was a pleasure to be part of and we have a budding artist on our hands. Um this student Liliana uh was selected by Erie Wan Boseies um to have her artwork her masterpiece on display at Erie Wooseies. Uh so congratulations to this first grade student from Allenale Elementary Student School. It is an incredibly busy time of year. As we look ahead to graduation and many of our end of the year celebrations and events, there are still some of our musical activities going on. So, please do check our website which has a full list of all of our concerts and musical events. But I did want to highlight just a few things. our Academy of Visual Arts uh is having a senior show where

109we highlight our senior artists and that is May 17th through June 12th and that is at the Birfield um atrium in the West Senica Community Center. In addition, I have highlighted a number of upcoming events that are taking place, many of them of course uh celebrating our seniors um and end of the year events for them. I'd like to point out um two that are really standout and reflective of of a community that supports their schools. On June 12th, we will be celebrating our seniors at West Senior with community awards. So, this is many of our local communities, businesses, civic organizations, and others who come forward and give sponsorships and um college scholarships to our graduating seniors. So, we will be doing that for West Senior on June 10th and for East Senior on June

11012th. So, many thanks to all of our community organizations that give so generously to give our students scholarships. And of course, we round out the month with our graduations at UB for West Senior's graduation on June 23rd and East Senior's graduation on June 24th. Thank you. Thank you. I will um we'll do board president report. Uh basically I just want to throw out there uh thank you to the community. Um I've been on the board for nine years and I've been blessed to have the budget approved all nine years and I believe it was approved um usually 60% plus. And uh I didn't do the exact numbers but I believe this year it was one of our highest. Um which you know shows me that the community does value what we're doing and what we're

111doing with the money. Um, obviously I I think we've been good stewards. We've been trying really hard and I I think it's a great obviously I think it's a great budget. Um, so I do appreciate everyone coming out and uh clearly people like buses. Clearly like people like seeing the kids sing and not doing it in the dark. Appreciate I cannot believe the amount of people the amount of alumni I saw the amount of just people coming out grandparents walking up. I'm here I'm here to vote for the odds. I think the turnout to support that stuff was amazing. So, I can't thank the community enough um for doing that. So, again, all the hard work that the board did, you and your administration and all the hard work that faculty, staff, everyone like everyone

112was reminding people to come out and support obviously the budget, but the theaters upgrades. I mean, it's it's a basic thing. We weren't creating a Taj Mahal. We're basically just getting it to where it's acceptable to have the kids performing in there. And I can't thank everybody enough for doing it, especially Will for making the numbers work. And so, thank you guys. I think we'll move on to public comment. Sorry for the delay on that. Let's [Applause] see. Okay, I'll read my little my little speech here. The board will now entertain public comment for 30 minutes with each speaker given 3 minutes. When called, please step up to the podium and state your name and address. Please be respectful in your comments and do not divulge any personal or confidential information. Um, we'll begin we'll

113begin with uh Dan. Oh, look at that. Ready to go. Again, thank you for being ready to go. Uh, Dan Scott, 26 Pine Valley Court. First, I'd like to point out that the redistricting process has not been as transparent as some of you might like to think it was to the general public. Just yesterday, we finally got our hands on the most clear and concise bundle of information we've received. Highresolution maps that finally include street names, outdated options finally removed so as not to add confusion. But up until this point, very much not the case. There is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to the amount of information shared regarding a decision like this. And it very quickly goes from painting a picture with a clear bottom line to looking like you're trying

114to hide problems in an overload of data. especially when some options are mysteriously struck down without anywhere near enough consideration because they're deemed unfair when on paper they seem just as unfair as the other options that are moving forward just to different groups. Interestingly enough, we noticed an abundance of clear information when it came to the budget vote. Flashy full color flyers in the mail, pamphlets at home in the kids takeh home folders. It's all great and it worked, but it also showed that the available lines of communication have not been fully utilized for this other very important process. A pamphlet in a folder is much clearer than an email with a link to a 35page presentation and nothing to tell you what's actually different from the last 35page presentation. The vast amount of miss

115and outdated information being repeated as fact in this room and even in the news speaks volumes about how unclear the flow of information has been. Second, every piece that shows up in the news talks about how there will be transitional support for the kids being moved. Great for these kids who will be uprooted and have a portion of their school career unfairly ruined to make up for the mismanagement of previous school boards and redistricting efforts. But what about the groups from both Allenale and Westell that are forever being separated from their peers moving forward? They're conveniently never mentioned. What's the plan for yearly transitional support for them? When they have to always be the odd group out who doesn't continue on the trajectory that their best friends have been prepping for through six years of

116elementary school. Allenale was set up like that years ago. Something that Mr. day somehow tried to use as a point of justification in the public forum. But did anyone actually think to ask those parents or students what they thought? Parents like mine who pushed to get it changed back then. Word is that it was terrible every single year. The children affected didn't choose where they live. Their parents did. And if they were like us, that was a meticulously thoughtout decision based on the offerings at each school, which as we discussed before are not the same. So again, members of the board, when you're considering the plans that have been put before you, please don't forget who you represent. We are the loud ones, but it's not us. It's our children. It's every single child in

117the district. You may be trying to plan for longevity, but these kids only have one chance to go through our schools. Moving them around before solving the underlying equity issues is flatout irresponsible to the core group this district is meant to serve. It also happens to go against the overwhelming theme in the responses to your own thought exchange, something listed as a source of transparency, telling us that it should be the top priority of this board to solve those issues regardless of redistricting. It would be careless to make any decisions of this magnitude now, knowing how likely it is to be undone in the near future, possibly before these affected students are even done with their time in the district. So sometimes when the provided information doesn't add up with the hazy future of our

118schools in town, the best decision is no decision. Thank you. Thank you, sir. [Applause] Next up, Jeremy. Thank you, sir. Hello. Uh Jeremy Weine Garden, 15 Denny Brook Lane. I'd like us to remember what the stated goal of redistricting was. The purpose was to provide an education to of excellence for all to provide equitable school experiences for all kids. But what is the definition of equity? It's the quality of being fair and impartial. And what's the definition of fair? Marked by impartiality and honesty. And the definition of impartial, treating all rivals or disputants equally, fair and just. Is this what is being proposed here today? Does option four make you feel like all students are being treated equal, fair, and just? I certainly don't believe so. Option four still targets a specific area to endure

119what no other children students in our district have to a plan separation from their cohort. Option four suggests that these students will attend Allenale or West L for elementary and then separate after 6 years. Does that sound equal, fair, and just? Is this a solution where we're all in this together? Of course, when you just look at dots on a map and numbers on a page, of course, this could make sense. But these are not just dots on a map, numbers on a page, these are real humans, innocent children who did nothing more than be born and live in a house on the wrong street. So, what is the solution? It's option three. Option three solves our elementary issues, allows temporary relief at the middle school level. Is it perfect? No. But perfect comes at

120too great a cost and too much collateral damage. The next three class years will be that will be entering West Middle on average match what's currently there now. Then there are two inflated years that will need detention. But then calmer sees ahead. The current kindergarten class in the west matches the lowest cohort size currently enrolled. And let's not forget enrollment has already on average been decreasing. Our own data projects 125 less students in the district 10 years from now. People are having less children than ever before. Mortgage originations are the lowest they have been since the9s, which means people are staying put more than they have in decades. When people stay put and their kids have already gone through the district, that means less new families have the opportunity to move in. So, option three

121fixes the now, helps weather the storm, and then true long-term solutions can be put in place. This has been brought up before, but it is no longer a wise and financial use uh no longer a wise financial and use of space decision to maintain four pools in the district. The pool at West Middle will be in need of repair soon, and now is the time to consider reinvesting that money elsewhere. If you were to fill in the pool and repurpose that space by putting the library and more in that space, a project like that would be eligible for state aid. Now, the space vacated by the library can fit classrooms to house world language. That becomes our long-term solution without inflicting trauma. But what about the East and their low enrollment? Remember that the West

122has exploded with home development over the last couple of decades and now has little space for much more. The east has the acorage and plans are already under the way to begin. Ebene are landing, the springs, etc. Eastern development is coming. It's supply and demand and there is more supply in the east when the demand comes in the coming years. I encourage you all to please turn down option four and the unnecessary pain and consequences it will cause. Vote in option three and then work toward a more long-term solution in our district like filling in the pool or moving to a one west senica down the road. Thank you. Thank you, sir. [Applause] Danielle, don't try to say it. Yeah, you know what? I found I'm just reading first names. That usually gets me in

123a good place. I just want to make sure it wasn't Daniel. I'm sorry. Um, thank you. Bear with me because I am not nearly as prepared as they were. I decided when I got here to speak. So um obviously could you throw out your name and address? Danielle Thomaseski 32 Hill top courts. Thank you. Um my daughter actually asked me to come and speak today. Um everybody really other than tonight has spoken on the emotional and the friendship aspect in length and my daughter too would be one of those affected and asked me to come speak on her and her friends behalf. But I want to go a different way. I would like to point out that West Senica schools are not equal. If you go to Clinton or you go to Allenale or you

124go all of our schools are not built equally. Public school should be generally the same experience no matter where you go. Um, I mean, recess isn't the same in the buildings, field trips, types of events, in school activities, and definitely not the number of kids in the classroom. They're all different depending on which of the five elementary schools you go to. I can't speak to middle and high school cuz my kid hasn't done that yet. Um, East and West Pride, which people have talked about. It's a wonderful thing, but it also this because of these different experiences that everybody is having. Um, I mean, you don't want to sit there and micromanage each of the schools, but there should be a better overall commonality no matter where you go. Um, schools could be in their

125own world, in their own district. like whether you say you go to Winchester Potter or Allenale like okay so it's in West Endica but it's really a totally different world on its own. Um redistricting I feel might be more accepted easily if they felt they were having the same educational experience, the same overall fundamental experience. Now, this is the first time I've heard um anything about grandfathering kids in. But why aren't we just looking at a way to start a kid in kindergarten? Yes, it doesn't help the middle school right away, but it might be worth looking into. It's been a very long school year for the committee, but I feel there are still too many other options to consider to have you vote on what will probably be another band-aid while opening many kids

126to emotional wounds. Like the two gentlemen said before, every year West L and Al Allenale fifth graders will be separated from their friends. These are already the COVID kids. My daughter was a COVID kindergarten kid and she is now in fourth grade at Allenale with 27 kids in her classroom. You can't move in there. I've been in the classroom. It's awful. And now we're going to add the COVID problems and the emotional problems, and now we're going to say, "Oh, well, you had a best friend, but you're going to go somewhere else. Sorry. Sucks to be you." Um, in general, you said yourself that this is a self-imposed timeline and I just don't see how at this time you can feel confident voting on June 17th. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate [Applause] it. Is there

127anyone else who would like to approach the podium? Okay, great. Uh, can't stress enough, anyone sitting at home who wishes they were at the podium, shoot us an email. Any ideas that were here tonight that you didn't necessarily feel comfortable coming up, get us an email. Um, uh, especially if you've had if you had put out data or ideas, it definitely can't hurt to get it to us. Um, can't stress enough that send it to us and best case scenario, we read it and love it. Worst case scenario, we read it and, you know, can't work it. So, uh, would you like to burst the podium? I can go. Yeah, absolutely. We can throw the clock back up for you. Just need your uh name and address, please. My name is Beth Steinwondo. My address

128is 32 Blair Lane. Apologize. Beth Beth Steinwondle. Yes. I just wanted to point out what other people have said um about the inequities on the two sides. Um I don't think anyone is opposed to joining a population as much as they're opposed to the inequity that is offered on the different sides. Um, if you can promise me that if my daughter goes to E Senior, she's going to get the same clubs, the same programs, the same sports opportunities, but you can't because that's not what's offered right now. It is completely inequitable on the two sides of the districts. And I think that that needs to be looked at and that needs to be addressed. So that and again, Vince has talked about how we should get to a one district. I think that we've already

129seen that with some of the sports that have happened in this school district and it has provided some benefits, but you also see so much division on those sports teams still. You see kids being played on the east side over the west side or the west side over the east side because they have to play from each side of the sports of the district. Um, I really think this district would benefit from one district. Then everyone has the same opportunities as everyone else. So, if we're going to look at moving kids from their current opportunities to the other side of the district with less opportunities, I think those need to be addressed first and foremost. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. We will move on. Thank you everyone again. We'll move on to our favorite

130thing in the world. Personnel classified number six. May I have a motion on agenda item 68? Oh, did I? Okay. Okay, guys. I promise I'll get this right before my last meeting. Oh, okay. Sorry. How about this? We'll start over. Rewind the tape. Um, may I have a motion on agenda item 5A? I'll make a motion. Personnel certified. Sorry. Thank you. I'll make a motion. Motion. I'll second it. Second to approve. Yes. Okay. Any discussion? I'm just curious uh what schools this is for and what the increased need is. What school? I'm sorry. What schools the positions are for and what is the it just says due to increased student needs. Sure. So the increased speech uh is in anticipated as a result of us increasing the number of special classes that we have. Specifically,

131we anticipate two special classes here, 161 classes at Westell. Uh the temporary elementary position is to backfill a vacancy uh that's being created by a teacher. Uh we received a grant, the technology integration grant, and that teacher will be going out of his classroom to step into the role of a tech integrator. This is to backfill that vacancy. So it will be a one-year long-term sub position. And then the music is the increased music that we've had, increased enrollment truly in our string and orchestra program, and that's to respond to that. Um, we're still operating under budget neutral and staffing neutral in terms of not looking to increase the number of staff that we have, but but if the board recalls, we did have a reduction in a science teacher. And so the reduction in

132a science teacher at the secondary level will um be used to keep us staffing neutral with the increase in music. Cool. Any other discussion on the matter? [Applause] All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Passes 6. Now we'll move on to 6A. May I have a motion on 6A, please? I'll make a motion. Do you have a motion to approve 6A? Yes. Okay. Excellent. May I have a second? I'll second it. Sarah second. Any discussion on 6A? Okay. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Okay. Passes 6. Now we get to move to our second favorite thing in the world is consent agenda. Um, we're looking on a motion to approve consent agenda. 6B. You skipped six. You said you were going to get it. Sorry. I'm working with a new agenda tonight. I changed the format

133and I should not have. Okay. Where is 6B? I'm sorry. You got to read my form. You got to read both pages of the paper. Oh, got it. Okay. Sorry. It's usually after 6A. Yeah, I I probably should should uh practice with new agendas when I do it. Thank you. I thought I was making it a little more easier. Okay. May I have a motion on 6B, please? I'll make a motion to approve 6B. Motion to approve 6B. May I have a second, please? I'll second it, Lorine. Okay. Okay. Any discussion on 6B? I just had a question about the the bus washes. Are those folks that we already employ and it extends their um like so if a driver is not working summer, do they have the opportunity to they would be eligible? This

134might also be an opportunity for students to have summer employment if students meet the employment eligibility requirements. So that would be something that would be in addition to uh you know if they're a 10-month bus driver. Certainly that that would be eligible for someone or it may be an opportunity for someone who's looking specifically for summer employment. Great. It's very lovely. We know we know it's needed. It is. And it's been a number of years um since that's occurred. So I'd like a picture of the amount of gum they collect. Okay. Um any other discussion on that? All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? passes 6. Now we have our consent agenda. Got it. Okay. May I have a motion on consent agenda which are items 8 through 11? I'll make the motion. Jeremy is motioning

135to approve consent agenda. May I have a second, please? I'll second it. Mara. Thank you. Okay. We do not discuss consent agenda. So all in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Excellent. Passes [Applause] 6. Okay. Move on to number 12, personnel. If I can have a motion on item 12A. I'll make a motion to pass 12A. Lorine. Motion to pass. I'll second it. Sarah will second. Um, any discussion on it? You guys have had a chance to look through it? Everyone good? Good. Okay. Uh, all in favor? I. Anyone opposed? 6. That was all 12, right? [Applause] A 13A. Okay, I'll give you guys a chance to look at it as we make the motion for 13A. May I have a motion for 13A? I'll make a motion. Jeremy, motion to approve 13A. Thank you. Second it,

136Mara. Right there waiting to second that. Okay. Any discussion on 13A? Guys want a chance to kind of look it over. Are we good everyone? Okay. Uh, all in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? One abstension. Excellent. So, passes 5 with one abstension. How's that? 1 2 3. Got [Applause] it. After 13 comes 14. Again, take have you get a chance to take a look at 14A as we make the motion. May I have a motion on 14A, please? I'll make a motion to approve 14A. Mara will make a motion to approve. And Mara needs a second. Second it. Thank you. Okay. Um any comment or questions or anyone want to discuss anything with 14A? Perfect. I will take a vote. All in favor of 14A. I. Anyone opposed? I excesses 5-0 with one extension. [Applause]

13714 skip anything. Move on to new business. [Applause] May I have a motion on all new business, which are items 15A through [Applause] 15N. Again, if you do the motion and we second, we'll give time to take a peek at it. If anyone has any questions, we'll discuss it. Then I'll make the motion to approve. Jeremy, motion to approve 15A through 15N. May I have a second, please? I'll click on it. Mara, second the approval. And again, I'll let you guys peek at it and any discussion, let the record show that Laura has joined us back. So, thank [Applause] you. Any uh discussion or questions? Anything? Okay. Um all in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Passes 70. [Applause] Is that coming up? [Applause] Thank you for going on to 17. [Applause] I don't know if we

138got a vote on this one. I want to um we have some recognition for Lorine. I don't know if you saw that on the agenda or not. We we hid that page from you. Um congratulations Lorine on earning a level one board achievement award. Nispa's board ex of NISPA's board excellence recognition program. The program acknowledges board members who strive to expand their governance knowledge and skills through participation in NISBA training workshops, events, and activities. So, thank you for after the meeting, we'll let you take a picture with the superintendent. Oh, but um I'm just going to say a few words and I'm not sure if Lisa or any board members want to say anything, but um technically you're you've been here what a year. So in that year um I'm really we have all impressed

139with what you've done as far as attending the events, the educational stuff. Um you really I think you've gone above and beyond um probably what I've ever been able to do, but you know it it really shows and helps the sport out. So um we appreciate it. I don't know if anyone wants to throw some words in there. Lisa, thank you Lorine for your dedication to our school district. Um the way you go above and beyond your participation in local Erie County School Boards Association events and your participation at the statewide level with NISBA, um your commitment to going to the conferences that they offer in every learning opportunity. You know, certainly you demonstrate your commitment to the school board. So, thank you for that. It's a pleasure. Thank you. Appreciate it. We'll do pictures

140after. Anyone opposed to 17? Yes. [Laughter] I'm not disagreeing with you. My car got to last time. Yeah, I know. I know. You weren't here for the part where I missed the whole section. So, I watched Oh, you watched it. Great. Great. We We'll keep replaying that. Um, so Do you have the donations in front of you? Do you want to point some of them out? I I can. Okay. you find the donations for me since we make a great team. Um, as we're starting to go into board of, you know what, we'll mention them under board of education discussion. Um, number 18, we'll move on to board of education discussion. Um, I have a few things listed. Does anyone want to start with anything in particular that's on our list or something different? Um,

141I can go around the room or I can just start reading off the things that we listed here. Go for it. Go for it. Okay. Um, I'll start with the distractionfree learning environment cell phone ban. Anyone uh that's on our list? Anyone want to discuss anything? Lisa, do you have any input? Um, sure. Questions? I can share an update if you'd like an update as a starting point. We received late last week. I didn't get it until Thursday. The sample policy from uh Erie Wosi's policy services uh which would be a revision to our policy on personal devices in the school setting. And just to remind everyone of this this ban that goes into effect, it's a law that was embedded in the New York State budget. Um and that law is for a distraction-free

142learning environment in schools that would go into effect in the fall. In a sense, it is a instructional day ban on cell phones and any smart devices, which includes smart watches such as an Apple Watch. Um, students will no longer be able to use those even at passing times in study hall or in the cafeteria. So, it is a bell-to-bell ban from the start of the instructional day until the end of the instructional day. And that is applied kindergarten through 12th grade. So, that's what the law requires. There's some additional requirements that as we embark on this policy, we enicit uh feedback from our bargaining units, so from our union leadership around the the management and implementation of this. We have upcoming opportunities for us to get student voice in this process. Um I will

143be having my third lunchon with students from both East Senior and West Senior uh starting next week where we will get student voice and feedback on this. And I think that the devil's in the details. How we manage this and how we implement this will really be the bulk of the work. It's a non-negotiable that we must do this. But how we implement this is something that we'll be working with our leadership team, our bargaining units, getting feedback from stakeholders, including our student voice. Uh is it as simple as they're away for the day in a locker? Some other school communities are considering investing in pouches or lockable devices, which I've learned from other school districts who have been kind of at the forefront of this and already implemented that that it's not without it's

144not foolproof. Um, students are smart and for every rule they find a workaround with that rule. And so students having burner phones and having the ability to get devices that will unlock our lockable pouches. Um, and those pouches are are quite costly. Um, one quote that I received was $32 per pouch. So, that's something that that we shouldn't take lightly. There has been money allocated for this. Um, but after many questions of trying to to ask how do we access those funds, we yet have no guidance on how to access the funds. Um, and so that is something that we're still pursuing. So, as we get feedback from stakeholders, we certainly want feedback from the board of education. We will then shift to communicating this so that we're raising awareness to parents, to students throughout

145July, throughout August. So, as the school year begins, students are well aware of what the new rules are around personal electronic devices and specifically smartphones and smartwatches. Are the pouches individualized, meaning that they only can hold one device or can they hold multiple devices? They're large enough depending there's different models. Some as large that will actually hold a tablet because it does have to be any internet accessible device such as a tablet, smartwatch, a smartphone. So, if a student has both an Apple Watch and a phone, it could together fit in the pouch if you get a a pouch that's large enough to do so. Um, what I think many of the school districts that I'm hearing from, and we're we're all in the same spot. We're gathering feedback in best determining how to implement

146this is that some are considering the off and away for the day in lockers and things of that mechanism as a first step. And if a student is caught violating that that there is a number of lockable pouches available that would then elevate it to a higher level of control so that we're not managing thousands of lockable devices on a daily basis but maybe for those students who have demonstrated that they're having difficulty following the rules. So, as I work with with groups to gather feedback, we have an upcoming meeting with our principles and our bargaining unit leaders and as I said, getting student feedback. You know, I'll certainly keep the board ab breast of that and and would certainly welcome your feedback as well. Marla, I'm currently designing one that will hold um your

147phone, earbuds, watch, and your vape. That sounds great. Um, that's what I'm doing after I retire from the board. I uh I and I'm sure we can maybe during a work session at some point have more discussion on it, but I want to tell you today my kid I I'm assuming middle school kids aren't supposed to have their phones, right? Correct. I'm not blowing him in. I'm not. So during the school so he doesn't have his phone and um he called me twice about he's going to stay after and he called me from the office phone. So, whatever we're doing, I know we're not going to bring payoneses back, but like it may end up being a student line to in in the office type thing or there's always ways to figure things out. I

148just hate it being mandated like above us to figure things out, but I was impressed that the office let my son use the phone. I've never had that happen before. Um, not that they didn't allow it, but it was we really worked out great. So, there's things we can do that if kind I've kind of complained about, but I've kind of come full circle on some of it. And and what you mentioned, Ed, reminds me that one of the requirements in our policy and that we communicate with families is that they do have a method to be able to contact or get information to their child during the school day. So, if a parent needs to relay that they've got a dismissal change, a change of drop off location, whatever it might be, that there

149is a way for parents to get information to the school or to their student. And generally, that would be through the main office. very similar to likely what we all experienced when we were in school and did not have access to personal electronic devices. I would just like to add from, you know, listening to Lacawana and and what worked for them and what didn't. You know, when we talk about preparing for changes in the district, they had several parent meetings, several sent homes, several announcements, phone calls, letters, like what expectations were, what the ramifications would be because sometimes parents don't agree with it either and it's not our choice, right? We know that we've advocated for local control on this. So, it's not our choice, but we have to follow it. So just as much

150information that can go out to the community during the summer knowing that this is coming and what the expectations can be and I I know we'll do that within the schools but just making sure families know and Ed to your point yes West Middle is great about that. The first call I got home I'm like what's what's wrong and it was just the silliest thing. So they are very good about letting the students use the phone for that. Um I was just picturing maybe a student line area so they're not bugging the you know they still they still have computers in class and can email so I have child in middle school right now. She'll email me when she needs a ride after school and then if she doesn't get a response back from me,

151she'll call from the office. So, there's other options. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I like it. I mean, the only thing I think it's the worst part about it is we're going to just another thing we have to constantly police, you know, like I just can't imagine that this isn't, you know, this is like no kid's going to have a phone. So, just just another stressful thing on our all the people that take care of the kids here. So, um, cool. Any other conversation on that right now? Yeah, I just want to make sure we keep, as I stated when we talked about it briefly before is that it's consistent. So, I understand it's going to be a little different in elementary cuz they don't have the lockers, but starting in middle school, it should be the

152same standard at every school. So, if it is the pouches, all of them have the pouches. If it's just a wait for the day, all of it's away for the day. So, I don't think we should have, oh, well, this school wants this, but this one wants that. We should all fully support that. I appreciate that. Yeah, I know. Um, and I agree. Our schools aren't exactly the same, but when it comes to a policy like this, I think it should be um even if it's tiered, but all elementary should have the same like, you know, West Middle, no cell phone, East Middle, no cell phone. Cool. Any other topics on cell phones? Okay. Um, do you have the uh you have our donations that we want to recognize real quick? Sure. We had a

153outside fundraiser by the parents of the West Senior football team used toward football team's expenses. We have uh donation to the Winchester Potter Elementary School from Connect Life in memory of Ruth Culver, a former teacher from Potter Road Elementary. Ironically, my fifth grade teacher from Sweet Potters. Yep. Um longtime fifth grade teacher at Potter Road. Uh big donation to Northwood Elementary from the Northwood PTO to help fund the installation of the concrete pad for the student outside play area. A uh donation to East Senior's Trojan Nation from the Ebenezer United Church of Christ Foundation to use toward expenses for their Trojan take action event. Uh five kindness suitcases uh from the Holocaust Education Resource Organization of the Buffalo Jewish Federation to be used at each of the elementary libraries. Great. Thank you. Thank you for

154everyone who donated. Um, next thing on board of education discussion, um, redistricting that I have listed here. Any other discussion on that topic? I think we should just leave all that till the 17th. Yeah. At this point. Okay. So, again, I think you know, everyone compile your thoughts and put stuff together and feel free to email. We don't want to necessarily have any kind of a like a meeting through email, but if we collaborate the information, it could help us get the proper um the proper answers and that sort of thing. So, we'll work on that throughout the next couple of weeks. Um anything else? I just want to thank the public for the comments and the questions um and the emails. There's been a lot of good insight and um things for us to

155consider. So, I I just want to point that out. Appreciate you doing that. And I do want to thank the board and Lisa when some of us get emails and some of us don't depending on the situation. It's nice that we're all making sure that we've all seen it. Um I really appreciate that. Um you guys have done a good job with that. I know what do we get a couple hundred emails a day from like so everyone in the audience and everyone knows we get the PTA emails. We get there's a lot of emails that come through our you know our thing. Um so it's really cool that we're able to make sure we we get these and share them. So thank you. Um, anything else for Board of Education? Um, anything else for

156Board of Education discussion? I say what? This is just um I know it's a student ban on cell phones. Is the expectation for the staff going to be the same? So, the the actual law distraction-free learning environment is for student personal devices. It's exclusively for student personal devices. But I think the reality is that we are role models for our students every day all day long. Um we are role models for children. And so I I think we need to elevate our expectations for for ourselves as the adults and the role models, but specifically the law is for students kindergarten through 12th grade, prek through 12th grade. Actually, Lisa, if I can add something, something just came to mind when when uh Sarah mentioned that kids who need them for health purposes. You know, we've

157heard stories nationally and locally of, you know, if there's a substitute teacher who doesn't know or what it might be, I I never want there to be an issue. So, when we look at the details of this, can we make sure that it's widely known what our district policy is on how that's to be identified? Yes. and and there are exceptions for students uh if required by their IEP or 504 plan. For example, a student who may be diabetic that needs their smart device uh for glucose monitoring would be an exception and that is documented medically and we would have the proper documentation as a school district to allow that exception. But you're right, you know, a substitute teacher may not necessarily be aware of that. And so we want to have a thoughtfulness around

158making sure that those students who are allowed to have devices are known uh as much as they are able to be while also being sensitive to the confidentiality and privacy as to why they have an exception to that rule. Yeah. I just don't want any of those issues because especially in a diabetic situation, there's time is of the essence. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up. Anything else? Anyone good? [Applause] Okay, we're going to not adjourn. We're going to hopefully go into executive session. Um after we do have our executive session, we will come back to conclude the meeting, but there will um be no voting or personal or public business conducted. Um, so in that being said, may I have a motion to convene an executive session for discussion related to a contract negotiations

159and evaluation of the superintendent? I'll make a motion to move into executive session. Laura will make that motion. May I have Mar will second. Any uh discussion on the matter. All in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? Pass 70. Thank you again. Thank you everybody for coming out. Appreciate it. We'll take a few minutes and then we'll move to our executive session room.