001Black's coming. I got I call the regular board meeting to order. All board members are present except board member Blackinger, board member Fletch and Exofficio student board members Carconis, Maurice, and Perva. Dr. Brown Hall, would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag? Be honored. 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. May I have a motion to recess into executive session to discuss the superintendent's year-end evaluation and employment matters related to particular persons? Board member Bulan and board member Mana. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. Let me think about it. May I have a motion to return the regular board meeting to public session? Miss Puland, Miss
002Binger. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. I call the regular board meeting to order. All board members are present except board member Fletch and student board member Carconis. Good evening and welcome to all in attendance. Please be advised that in the event of a fire and emergency and an evacuation should be necessary, an alarm will sound. Please know all marked emergency exits and evacuate well away from the building. At this time, we request that everyone turn their cell phones and other electronic devices to silent. Thank you, Dr. Brown Hall. I turn it over to you for the recognitions and school spotlight. Thank you very much, board president. To begin our recognitions this evening, I want to acknowledge two of our board members. The New York State School Boards Association has a program designed to acknowledge
003schoolboard members who strive to continually expand their governance knowledge and skills. This evening, I would like to congratulate our board member, Dr. Swarut Singh, for earning a level two board excellence award under NISBA's board excellence recognition program. Congratulations, Dr. Sing. Everything Congratulations. Next, I'd like to acknowledge our board parliamentarian, board member Moren Puland. She has earned a level three board mastery award under NISBA's board excellence recognition program. So, in addition to the certificate, she'll also receive a certificate for a free one-day event and a com commemorative portfolio. Congratulations board member P. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Now we'll begin with our school recognitions. Our first school spotlight tonight focuses on physical health and the lifelong skills associated with learning how to ride a bike. Led by PE teacher Katie Dale, the bike unit teaches fundamental
004riding skills and safety, ensuring students feel confident on two wheels. Beyond gym class, students have the opportunity to bike together in the morning with the bike bus and also participate in a family-friendly bike rodeo. To share more on this, I'd like to welcome Dodge Principal Charlie Smilitch and physical education teacher Katie Dale. I'll say good afternoon board educ good evening actually board of education Dr. Brown Hall uh Dr. McInley Dr. Balen, Nick, Lynn, thank you. I'm sorry. Make sure I say hello to everybody. Listen, we're here tonight for the bike rodeo and the bike bus. It is not my doing. It is Miss Dalek's doing. So, I'm not going to stand up here and say this was led by me. This is my mission. True curates the goal when she says, "Hey, listen. I want
005to do something." I just move out the way and say, "Go get it." So, everything you hear and everything you're going to talk about is from her. It comes from her. The students love it. The community loves it. So, that's what it's about is creating memories that'll last forever. So, Mrs. Dalek, it's your creativity. So, come on up. Awesome. Hi. Thank you for recognizing the bike bike bike riding program at Dodge Elementary. Through our bike events, we have the opportunity to watch students develop independence, build confidence, and experience genuine joy through riding. These experiences not only promote physical wellness, but also strengthen connections between our school and community. We invite you to join us on a future bike bus ride to experience firsthand the positive impact and the pro this program has had on our
006students. Bring your helmet. Don't forget your bike and let's ride. Awesome. Thank you. I believe we have a video to watch also, right? Yeah. Awesome. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Power. Yeah, we started the bike program at Dodge in Fizzad about two years ago. They go through lessons. We also have an afterchool club that they come to for some extra practice. The basis of physical education is to promote lifelong wellness and there's nothing better than riding your bike and having that independence and confidence. GOOD MORNING, BIKE BUS. THE BIKE BUS IS riding the school with your friends and teachers. It's fun because your teachers, they do like music and bubbles and you get to talk and ride with your friends. Kids come to school all in a group. They learn to
007ride in a group. They learn how to work together to get to school safely. Here we go. We are turning right. We are turning right. We have parents. We have neighbors cheering us on throughout the neighborhood. It's awesome. And the kids are influencing other children, too. So, they're saying, "Hey, you going on the bike bus, Jose? You going on the bike bus?" Watching kids come to school and start their day off on the right foot is just awesome. They wake up early. I have parents telling me that they're ready to go. It's 7:20 in the morning. We're doing the bike rodeo. It's really cool because there's like bubbles everywhere and there's like like stations that we can go to. Sometimes we're doing zigzags and we're just going in straight lines and trying to stop at
008the end. You have to know where you're going and when to stop and when to turn. The bike rodeo is a bunch of obstacles that we bring the kids through. Traffic safety, staying on the right, knowing where cars are going in the direction that they should be going. Using hand signals to help them know which direction they're supposed to be turning. You're going to go in here and you're going to follow the lines and stay on the right. If you want to go down this way, you got to stop at the crosswalk. Kids have told me that they've learned how to ride a bike so that they could do all of these bike events and the bike safety and so forth. There's nothing better than a kid in a helmet growing as a lifelong learner
009that's going to be a healthy and well person. That's awesome. Thank God Katie, great job. Our final spotlight takes us to Maple West Elementary School with a with a lesson that truly brings science to life. Hatching chickens in an elementary classroom is no easy feat. Students watch in anticipation for 21 days learning about life cycles, responsibility, and biology firsthand. When the eggs finally crack and tiny chicks emerge, the room fills with pure wonder. It's an unforgettable hands-on experience creating lasting memories that stay with students long after the chicks move to their permanent home. Please welcome Maple West principal Kate Wendling who will share more about this fun, engaging adventure. Welcome, Kate. Good evening to the board of ed and leadership team. Thank you for having me tonight. Uh we are excited to have this opportunity
010to showcase our chicks at Maple West. One of our first grade teachers, Mrs. Teal led this adventure of hatching chickens in her classroom. As you can see in our video, she did an outstanding job of integrating the learning and development of chickens across all content areas, creating engaging and med meaningful learning experiences for our students. Throughout the process, Mrs. Teal organized a schedule that allowed other classes to visit, observe each stage of development, watching from the chicks growing inside the egg to seeing them hatch, and finally observing how quickly they develop and grew after they hatched. Our Maple West chickens are now living on a farm in Clarence very happily. Um, we hope you enjoy the video showcasing our baby chicks at Maple West. Thank you. Thank you. We have decided as a class that
011we are going to hatch baby chicks. We're really excited to see the life cycle. We've read lots of books. We have watched lots of videos and we're really excited to see the real thing take place. This is what it looks like inside the egg. In our classroom, we are hatching chicks and we have an incubator. It takes 21 days for a chick to hatch. I learned that it has to be nine to 100° for a chick to grow. We did a lesson today with um being able to see what's happening inside of the egg. We took a flashlight and we shined it right into the egg and that allowed us to see the embryo of the egg. It allowed us to see the vein. They were really excited about it. There's a baby chicken there.
012Oh yeah, we took a flashlight and looked inside the egg to see if the baby chick was growing. It's really, really cool. I'm excited to see the eggs hatch because I want to see what the chicks are. What could be something that we could write about what we saw today? I'm trying to carry it over all settings within the classroom of first grade. So, we've done some writing on just facts that we know about baby chicks. And then in math, we're just making everything about chicks. We group tens and ones of chicks together. They're very excited about the countdown of it. As we get closer to day 21, when we actually start seeing the baby chick break a little hole out of the shell, the excitement is just going to explode in the classroom. Moving.
013It's our second. Put your fingers crossed. It wasn't fully dried, but it was still really cute. They had to stay in the incubator for another day to dry off. Then it went into the ber. They were very soft and fluffy. And sometimes they follow your finger if you put your finger on the glass. Some were brown, some were yellow, some were black and white. Everybody was excited because they're really cute and we get to hold them. It's really fun holding them cuz they're so cute. He's literally calm. He's chill. There's lots of energy around getting to hold them as much as possible. We've had the opportunity to put them on our circle rug and let them wander around and roam. They're noticing them interacting with one another, how they walk, how they eat, how they
014drink. They're noticing the changes that are happening with their bodies. They already are getting some of the pin feathers on their wings, so the down is disappearing and they're getting their adult feathers. I'm really hopeful that all these students are going to remember it. To show videos and to read books of what's going to happen is one thing, but for them to actually see it with their eyes is so powerful for them. That is awesome. Thank you for sharing that. I turn it back over to you, board president. Thank you. Are there any board acknowledgements this evening? Dr. You're saying I mean I just want to acknowledge Lyn and her team for organizing the oath. It went on I mean as efficient as ever. Absolutely. Yes. It was it was amazing. Amazingly efficient. Thank you.
015Any other board acknowledgements? Okay. Uh normally we would move on to public expression but no one has signed up for that for our first public expression this evening. So we will now move back over to Dr. Round hall for the superintendence report. How about that? No. Awesome. So, first under 5A, we have our annual report from the nutrition and fitness committee. And this is submitted annually. So, the committee reviews the current policy and has created the annual report that's attached in board docs to this month's agenda. The committee is in agreement that the district has met all the policies requirements pertinent to the current 2526 school year. The committee has also provided comments and other information relevant to the policy's wording and the policy committee will meet on June 15th to understand what is written
016there and then update our policy as necessary. So, I want to give a special thank you to our acting assistant superintendent of finance, Dr. Chris McInley, who uh chaired that committee along with principles Nate Barnes, Chris McDuffy, and Jason Swinson. We had a principal from every level. our director of fizz ed, Chris Mua, our director of child nutrition, Cheryl Kersner, and our parent, Juan Lee, who spent time as members of the committee to make sure that this was developed properly um as we've done every year. And so again, the policy revisions will be sent to the policy committee on June 15th. Item 5B is our facility update. Really highlighting our capital construction project and our AC, our air conditioning project at the elementary buildings. And we have some pictures in 5B also that show when
017the um helicopters were here to bring the installation units to the top of the roofs on some of our school buildings for the air conditioning. I'll jump to item 5C. We have special guests with us this evening. We have our special education directors. We have Kathy Rexo, Christine Bar, and John D'Angelo who will be presenting our special education report. Thank you very much. Come on up. Good evening. Thank you so much for inviting us here today to share about our special education department. My name is Kathy Ratzel. I'm one of the directors of special ed and I'm joined here by my colleagues Christine Bar and John D'Angelo. And what we want to do right now is share where we are and where we're going in our department. Hold on one minute. Kathy, do you have
018an advancer for the slideshow? Sorry. There we go. Yes. Thank you so much. No, you're welcome. All right. And with the support of the board of education and superintendent, I want to share that in the year 2022 2023, the Western New York Education Service Council conducted a review of the entire special education department. And in 2022 2023, the findings and the recommendations of the Western New York Education Service Council were shared with you, the Board of Education, in July of 2023. Immediately from there in fall of 2023 the special education advisory committee was established. We call that SEAK. And in 2425 the special education strategic task force was established. In 2024 25 the special education department began immediately implementing and initiating some of the recommendations that were um established by the Western New York Education
019Service Council. and they also presented to the board of education in March of 2025 as related to our strategic plan. This year uh is similar to years past. We are in full throttle initiating many of the recommendations from the Western New York Education Service Council and from our strategic plan that was developed. We plan to continue that hard work through 2030 technically and obviously from there on. So if I could just share with the uh through the initiation really of our superintendent SAK was established and what SAK is it's an incredible group of passionate people who are committed to special education and this group is a uh is an incredible group that really advises and supports all the work that's being done. We had the fortune fortunate um experience to have one of the Western
020New York Education Service Council members present with us at all of our meetings as well. The SEAK had a strong purpose as well. They were guiding and supporting um the strategic planning task force that was established in um recommending and supporting our goals. It's also wellestablished and um it's its intention is really to strengthen communication amongst all constituent groups and it the group consists of board of education members, parents, administrators, teachers, psychologists, directors. It is a group that was working really hard and by having all those folks together, we're able to turn key and share out information to all those constituent groups as well. And oh goodness, there we go. Um, one of the recommendations that was given to us was to engage in a full year of strategic planning to construct an action plan
021that begins with a shared mission, a shared vision, and a set of beliefs for the district special education department. And with that, um, we engaged in a year-long process and created a special education task force. Again, this was a constituent group of our board of education members, parents, administrators, teachers, um community members, and what we were able to do is generate a five-year strategic plan. And I just want to highlight um that if you haven't seen the strategic plan, it is right on our website. It is when you go to the exceptional education department, it is one of the first things that you will see and we'd encourage you to look at that. This strategic plan had all the voices. We also were able to use a thought exchange within that. So, we were able
022to extend out to all community members. So, so voices were within our strategic plan. And what we were able to do is create this five-year plan that has goals, activities, and indicators. and they are directly aligned to the district's strategic plan. So it we have themes of communication, wellness, sustainability, um, and community, teaching, leadership, and learning. And embedded within all of that, we absolutely have diversity, equity, and inclusion. And to go into that a little bit further in all of those areas, my colleague, uh, Christine Bart will talk about our vision. Uh so out of those recommendations was the creation of a shared vision and mission statement. I am not one to read to you from a slide deck but we did put a lot of time and effort into that creation. Uh so I
023do think it's pertinent to to kind of read that out. Uh so the vision is really to ensure and promote a model of excellence capable of promoting individual student success and well-being by providing a full continuum of K through2 program options to meet the unique needs of all students based off of that vision of where we want to be. Our mission is to program effective or I'm sorry is to effectively communicate with all stakeholders lead the district's efforts to improve outcomes for children with special needs K12 and their families ensuring access to fair, equitable and highquality education and services. Part of that is that communication and strengthening that communication amongst all special education stakeholders. some of the ways as Kathy already spoke about related to that SEAK group with stakeholders uh far and wide and
024that started out as a monthly meeting in year one uh that has since shifted to bimonthly meetings but still continuing to meet on a regular basis uh to hear from all of those stakeholders. the SEPSA meeting uh that is our special education parent teacher uh organization. We have uh roundts with them as well as meetings and we really are making a concerted effort moving forward to do more partnering with them with providers, trainers, uh presenters and uh pooling our efforts. We meet with special education teachers uh three times a year with a common agenda amongst all of the directors so that K12 staff is getting those same uh big ticket items from us. Related service providers are met with on a regular basis either monthly or bimonthly depending on the the number of constituents uh
025and topics that are coming up. We do also provide annually parent trainings. Those are where we might have speakers in. Those are normally evening activities partnering with parent network of western New York um and different advocacy groups, presenters, experts in the field regionally. We collaborate with the department of instruction uh ongoing always looking to make sure that we are doing what's best for gened students which also incorporates the kids that we represent uh that might have special needs. We do send out district communications to our community members. That is uh typically done three times a year updating them on things that are going on within the apartment department updates and things to look forward to. Two things that really uh took a lot of time and effort and are still ongoing uh in their efforts
026are both a shared Google drive that is shared with all special education staff and related service providers. It is again it is quite the curation of items but it really is geared to be a one-stop shop for our staff for forms, guidance, legal updates uh so that everybody has shared access to that same pool of information that we're referencing in our meetings. Um and then something that is live and active and really was uh in partnership with m Mr. Philipowsk's office is really looking at a special education handbook. So that is on our district website. It is meant to be kind of soup to nuts for our families uh from expressing a concern about their their student all the way up through classification and what sorts of programs uh we offer. And our full continuum
027of services is also listed in there and updated uh every summer. There is a nice feature in there as well with uh FAQs for family families, definitions, common vocabulary, and a walkthrough of those CSSE processes. And then again uh in partnership uh with Mr. Philowsk's office, we did he did mostly enter in a lot of nice QR codes so families can even scan to go to other sites like Parent Network of Western New York uh and other resources that are helpful for families. Additionally, uh, one of those recommendations, which interesting that I ended up with this slide, was to hire an additional director of special education, uh, which is how I came to be in the district. That allowed us to really look at things through a feeder pattern lens. Um, I like to tell
028my families, you know, good, bad, or otherwise, like, I will know your student from here through graduation or until we no longer need to provide services for them through that committee. Another recommendation was some additional resources to meet areas of immediate need. One of those, and thank you to the board of ed uh who approved earlier this spring, two teachers on special assignment, which will specifically be working to support our strategic plan uh and be available for teachers as a colleague to help support these initiatives. uh primarily focusing on on integrated co-eing, specially designed instruction, progress monitoring goals, all of those things that weave together to make uh that individualized education plan uh educationally beneficial for those students. Additional resources on top of that that supported our wellness community and sustainability was over the course
029uh of the last few years there has been additional hiring of school psychologists and counselors to support program expansions within the department. Additional hiring of related service providers and support staff again as we expand our programs. that does come with uh staffing needs, program expansions uh that substantiated those hires. We have over 90 staff in the district that are CPI trained, which is deescalation all the way through at times uh physical restraints if needed, but quite honestly, it's really focusing on that deescalation and not getting to that point. We do have behavioral supports. Uh we do have one BCBA in the district that works with uh the head of level up ABA and supporting our students in those district classes as well as three behavior texts again across the entire district to support students at
030that need. Uh we have done the special education handbooks again there's the parent one on the district website. There is a secondary one in that shared drive that is specific to our staff uh with links and supports and um forms and such that they need walks them through case management. Uh and then we have partnered a lot with the curriculum and instruction office to really look at our MTSS process and how that weaves and coincides with our special education planning. And then I will pass you off to Mr. D'Angelo. Thank you Christine. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Thank you. In terms of our continued efforts of our strategic plan and our goals, uh we have crafted a number of opportunities to demonstrate teacher leading learning and leadership and professional development. I'm not going to read
031through all of the professional development opportunities that have been provided, but I will share some highlights. Initially, our teachers and related service providers attended half-day and fullday trainings in the topics that are listed on the slides. uh in particular I'd like to highlight the work that we have had with Dr. Washed Hec. She's a nationally renowned presenter and director of academy for co-eing and collaboration from St. Cloud State University uh in Minnesota and uh we welcomed her in this year and we provide professional development opportunities for all of our levels, our elementary group, our middle school groups and our high school groups with the foundations of co-eing uh more specifically about the planning process and strategies to be utilized with uh integrated co-eing. Again, these efforts are aligned and in support of our departmental goals
032as well as our strategic plan. further professional development that's been provided over the course of uh since the uh the council uh provided their recommendations and the results of our professional development uh that we have provided uh related to uh ongoing writing of highquality IEPs, the importance of writing highquality consistent IEPs as well as IEP goals and writing effective smart goals as well as progress monitoring. if I'm moving through the presentation and more information as far as all the professional development opportunities that we provided uh in the areas of executive functioning for some students as well as behavioral supports and strategies and the use of dynamic assessments. I do want to highlight in this next slide as we continue with our professional development opportunities uh in the areas of supporting our support staff, our paraprofessionals
033and providing thoughtful and relevant information to assist them to assist our students uh with the needs uh that we do have and also in areas of sensory strategies and disability awareness. Our recommendations and the results of the service council's recommendations led to further action taken on our part as a district in terms of our continuum. You have heard uh information about our continuum of services and uh we have expanded our continuum of services at our high school at South High School. We welcomed uh the addition of a 15-1 standardsbased program at South High School, grades nine and 10. We are looking to expand that going into next year with further course offerings uh for our junior level uh students uh generally speaking but that will be expanded going into next year. We also expanded at
034transit middle school in our 151 setting in grade 6 and 2526. Now specifically and students who are classified with autism uh we have expanded our offerings in 2425 at Maple Lease with again the expansion of our 811 programming. uh as well as at North High School. Uh we opened up programming in the year 242 uh and expanded our programming offerings at North High School in our 811 setting. I want to further uh share with you folks our elementary continuum. Uh you'll see a wide range of continuum of programming here at Williamsville Central School Districts. You see our elementary level, our middle school level, and then our continuum at our high school as well. What I'd like to highlight in this next slide is just related to our district special classes. And I want to highlight
035that our 1211 programming that you'll see there uh just about four uh slots down uh related to Maple West, no middle school, and North High School. We uh shifted our supports at North High School from a 15-1 setting to a 1211 setting really aligned with our feeder from our elementary, middle, and high school for uh a consistency of our continuum. I also want to uh point out uh that when we make decisions about our continuum of programming in our buildings, it's based upon student needs. We do review that on a yearly basis and we do look at providing supports for our students based upon the needs that are expressed and uh that's something that we continue to do uh as we move from one year to the next. I'd like to hand this back off
036to my colleague Mr. Ratzel. Thank you. All right. And last, one of the last recommendations that the Western New York Education Service Council had was to evaluate and revise the district response to intervention and academic uh intervention services plan. So, uh this is an incredibly exciting thing to talk about for us, but really what I need to do is thank Dr. Valen and her team of directors along with um Scott Petroski as well because what we were able to do collaboratively working um rigorously over the past few years is develop a multi-tiered system of support that is incredibly comprehensive. Um we actually also had the privilege of going and and receiving incredible training from safe and civil schools. um and that really helped us with our process. So we have this great process and one
037of the things that we came across is that we needed a platform to support it. Not just all the teachers and educators and administrators who work on that but we needed a way and a mechanism that we could be consistent across all of our schools. So uh we went through many many uh presentations and we landed this year on Edge of Climber as our platform. We had seven schools pilot that this year and then we extended um that pilot and so now all schools have had the opportunity to experience edic climber. So ultimately we have a great process and now we have this platform and now we're really in the process of we're working through it right now but we're looking forward to really coming next year with a full full implementation of the process
038with edge of climber. Um but again that is with full collaboration with the office of instruction and Dr. Balen and um the other we're continuing to team with that as well. So our department along with Dr. Balen is going to provide support and training to our MTSS chairpeople throughout the process and we'll we'll work together to make sure that we are moving forward in in that positive direction because the ultimate goal is to support all of our kids um along the way. So with that being said, that was the highlight of of the things that have been happening over the past few years, but that was because of the support of you, the board of education and the leadership team. So I really do want to thank all of you um for your support. We
039know we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we look forward to that challenge. Um but we would love to take any questions that you might have. Um the only on one of your slides you talked about the continuing gaps that we have at the um 151 for the seventh and eighth grade and um behavioral class at the middle school and high school. And so I know that a part of our continuum is always going to be our involvement with Boseies and um other outside placements as needed for special stu circumstances. But I was wondering and I think I'm the information is going to be provided to us about the numbers of students who we currently have in those Boseies and out of district pro processes and it how many of them might
040be served when we get those gaps filled. So of course I know you can't answer that right now but that that's the question on my mind. Well we look forward to that continued dialogue. Certainly Mr. D'Angelo did mention that annually we are always looking at our all of our students within the district to make sure that we're meeting their needs and whenever appropriate and applicable we will absolutely look to create additional programs. Um that truly is an annual piece we have just reviewed and we were looking at all of our kids. Um what we have to do is do a deeper dive as well to make sure and we do that um to make sure that there's a cohort that there's sustainability and that there it's appropriate uh across the board. So um we want
041our kids to be within district whenever the opportunity arises and can be sustained um and no matter what. So and I can certainly share those numbers at a later date. Thank you. blackj it was it was similar. So you're doing that assessment now towards the end of the year. No, it's to be very transparent with you. It's ongoing. So it sounds like um that we do it we we just pulled the numbers very recently again but we are constantly encouraging um everyone to collaborate. So our school psychologists are involved in that. The outside agencies are involved in that. We were reviewing how many kids we're actually bringing back to district already this year. I we have many that we are and I say many without an actual number. Um but it's at least I would
042say between five and 10 kids are coming back to district for a variety of reasons. Um but but it is ongoing. So just to be fully transparent when we were opening up our 811 program it looks like we did that in 2425 which we did actually open the class then. the work had been going on for two years. Um, so that we've been working on that. So it's not we are always looking out and we're forecasting out what we need. The classes at Maple East which we opened, we expanded to the third class that particular year was because we've always had an ongoing need there and the need was bursting at that point. So we were able to expand with Dr. Bowen finding space for us so that we could actually implement and put that
043in in in place. So, we are always looking, but we are forecasting. What do we do for those students that are currently set to be homeschooled because we don't have the appropriate supports and setups for them? How can we accommodate those students? Because it doesn't seem as though a homeschooling program would be beneficial for those types of students. That is our worst case scenario. It is absolutely devastating and um that is something we're working really hard on. Um I I would like to say that we don't have many but one is too many. Um so we do put kids on home instruction pending placement when we can't find a placement. Um the problem is that we do depend on others to support that. Um we reach out to every agency available. That is also appropriate
044because some are standardsbased and some are alternatively assessed. Um, we are also looking to other school districts in case that in in the event that they have an opening in those classrooms as well. We do not want any of our kids to be on home instruction pending placement. I don't know how to be more clear. We lose sleep over that and and that is very honest. Um, it is a very challenging situation. If they are on a homeschooling program, can they choose um, you know, what classes they want to take? So if they're on obviously it depends on their grade level and what track in terms of standardsbased or alternatively assess or those kind of things but if a student is on home instruction because they're looking for a program um if we're talking about
045a high school student ultimately that student would resort to their home school like North High School or South High School and they would be put into a schedule and then we would be providing home instruction using that schedule that is generated to provide that. And is that virtual or is that they come to the home? Currently in most situations it is virtual. If in the event that we have an appropriate opportunity we do utilize the family support center as well. Um could AIM help out with those types of situations too? AIM is a very distinct and customized program. our stu we do not have any special education supports um within that program because of the specialty of that. Um if students need to receive something like counseling or something like that, we absolutely do provide
046that. Um whe counselors within the program, it is very specific to student needs. It is not intended to be um a special education program. Okay. I think we need to look outside the box for the virtual. It's really tough for that situation. I agree. It is. You're right. Yeah. And that's why it's a last resort, right? It's the we try to exhaust all other options before we are forced to do that because we can't find a proper placement for a student. Right. Thank you, Mr. Pascalia. You have an estimate of how many people are in home instruction right now? Students. Oh, I wish Dr. Stephan Beck was here for that. Um I I I don't I don't actually have a number in my Are you asking to make it clear special education average? Are you
047asking for home instruction or students that are getting instructed virtually because we don't have a placement for them virtually for placement? Okay, that's different, right? Currently, sorry, you're right. No, no, currently there are I don't have any I don't I would say it's less than five because I can't give you a number without knowing that off the top of my head. But um we do anticipate that that could be happening for some students currently right at this minute. But I would tell you that um I do and I hope I don't have any and I just want to be clear with that with that less than five for a district our size is not something you know to to shy away from just being fully transparent because there are other districts that are smaller than
048us considerably that do have higher numbers than that because they're not able to find placements. Also do you think Boseie the new Boseies will help out in those cases? I sure hope Boseies will help out. They're expanding obviously their programming and we want to tap into that. Um they did indicate that they plan to expand in some of the areas that we really struggle to find placements for our students. Dr. Kapowan has confirmed that for sure. Yes. So what I can't ask that never mind. That's confidential. Um please don't I know Mr. Bulan has a question. So while you're thinking can we go to Mr. Bulan and then we can come back to you. I'm curious. Do we know the number? I'm sure we do. I'm not sure you have in front of you. The
049number of total students on alternative assessment that are being alternatively assessed inside the special ed program. We can get that number for you. Yeah, we definitely absolutely. And I'm just curious with the increase in the programming. Oh. Has that gone down, gone up, stayed the same? Is there been a a net gain, net loss in that area? I'm just curious. So we have to identify that 1% if they're in our district or with outside of our district. It goes by where they reside. So whether they're at a Bosey's program, alternatively assessed or in house, it's it's the same group of numbers. We can get the exact numbers for you at any point in time. I would venture to guess that it's around 20ish um within the entire district. and that that I haven't pulled the
050number very recently, but I I'm the data girl who likes to know those numbers, too. Thank you. Appreciate it. I I guess I'll just say this. I understand Dr. Brown Hall that uh the percentage is very low. That is true. But to me, that's five too many. We agree with you. Yeah, Kathy said one is too many, you know. So, absolutely. That's why we know last resort for sure. It is. Dr. Spicer, you had a question. I'm sorry. board president. No, I don't. Dr. Spicer, I don't have a question. I have a statement. Um, so, uh, three years ago, obviously, this was the big topic of discussion. It's one of the reasons that I ran for the school board. Um, I obviously we've had this lovely PowerPoint presentation, but I also want to recognize that
051out in the community, in in the meetings that I attend, um, the emails that I send, I want to recognize that the leadership of the exceptional education team is very present. um you you have truly responded visibly and I can see, you know, you just mentioned it. Um the family support center crossover. Um I feel very passionately about children who are home, especially children who are school refusal kids. Um they're very rarely talked about. Um and a lot of times there is a crossover with special education. Um the district has really put forward some resources and your presence that I've seen impact families positively. As always, special education is we have to constantly work to be better and do better, which I I I recognize that, but um I would be remiss if I didn't
052comment on the the changes that I have seen um from a structural point of view over the last three years. Um and I appreciate it and I look forward to us continuing that work. We appreciate that. Thank you very much. Yep. And if the board if it pleases the board, we can definitely provide an annual update on how we're reaching the goals that are listed in the strategic sorry the special education strategic plan. Very similar to what we do with our DEI plan and our strategic plan for the district. We can do that annually. Yes, please. Everyone would support that. Yes. Perfect. We would too. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy, Christine, and John. Thank you very much for your presentation tonight. and we will get the additional information that I had a question also from
053Go ahead. I'm just curious. Was your team present at the Western region PTA meeting? No, not to my knowledge. I I believe this was talked about there. Okay. Just wanted to mention I appreciate that. Yeah. Thank you very much. So, we do have um two additional presentations. So, I'm going to turn it over to our acting assistant superintendent of finance, Dr. Chris McInley, to do our smart schools bond act supplemental investment preliminary plan. Great. Thank you, Dr. Brown Hall. This mouthful. That's a lot. It is a mouthful. Uh, but it's an an exciting mouthful. No, it's it's it's really good stuff. So, excitement be bound. Yes. Yes. Get the presentation here and then we'll begin. Okay. So, during the 2016 uh 17 school year, and that's hard to believe that was almost 10 years ago
054now. Uh yeah, the district utilized the New York State Smart Schools Bond Act to fund the upgrading and expanding of our uh network infrastructure. And so, we installed a lot of switches and wireless access points in every classroom. And we are allocated originally $3,474,731 to do this work. And uh to no surprise with the diligent planning, we completed the project under budget and we have a surplus of $1,254,080. So in order for us to use these remaining state funds, New York State is requiring that we seek the board's approval of this supplemental plan. and after a public hearing that's going to occur on June 9th. So, this supplemental plan is presented to the board tonight um as a required first step in this process of the approval process from state ed. So, this request is
055we're not seeking to expand the scope, the footprint, the instructional intent of the original project. It really is just to support the continued reliability and performance of previously deployed systems by replacing these aging network equipment which I mentioned are nearing 10 years. So that's pretty impressive for technology to last that long. So all this work will occur within the same buildings and the same locations as the originally approved 2016 smart schools investment plan. The next four slides really just detail um some of the the scope of work and required by New York State for us to present this. But this slide here just goes through the wireless access. The next slide highlights the switches. This slide here talks about some of the accessories and services. And lastly, New York State requires the district to allocate
056smart schools funding to non-public schools within the district using a prescribed formula. So this is the formula number that state ed spits out for us, which is $97,171. So after this plan is approved and we submit to the state ed, then we will work with our non-public schools to help them spend this money. So in summary here, this is really a uh strategic reinvestment of our remaining smart school funds. It ensures the continued performance, reliability, and security of district-wide wireless and wired network infrastructure originally deployed under the 2016 smart schools investment plan. And so our really our next step now is our public hearing two weeks from now that we'll present this. So I'll turn it back to Dr. Brownh Hall for any questions. Thank you very much, Dr. McInley, are there any questions? Board
057members, Dr. Singh, please. I'm sorry. And that's not my role. It is the board president's role. Okay. And so I apologize. Is there a timeline to spend the money like the 1 million once once approved? Timeline to spend the money once we once it gets approved. Yeah. Uh we haven't been given a timeline yet, but as you can see the timeline from the original one, we're nearing 10 years and the money is still there for us. So, you know, we we do have a pretty prescribed plan to spend all of that money and we're hoping this summer. So, we're our timeline probably is going to be pretty finite. Okay, I may ask a stupid question here. So, our wireless networks are 10 years old and have not been updated in the schools since then. Not
058since the this project here. So the goal the goal would be to increase the speed and the so increase the capacity. It brings us up to Wi-Fi 7 now. So it really really takes a step forward. Okay, that's why. Thank you. Great. Okay. Thank you very much, Dr. McInley. We're going to move on. The last um item under the superintendent report is a community update. And so I will go through these slides so we can move on with the rest of the agenda. First and foremost, thank you to our community, our community members that voted to positively approve the school budget. It has been approved for the 2627 school year. Our budget total is $248,168,844 and maintains our academic and extracurricular programming for our students and additional special education programming in alignment with the special
059education strategic plan that was just spoke about spoken about. Our candidates were elected to the board of education. We have our returning board members, Mr. Michael Bcalia and Dr. Carrie Spicer. Congratulations. And we have our newly elected board member, Laura Skellinger, who I believe is in the audience. There she is. Thank you, Lauren. Congratulations. And so they have all been elected to three-year terms, July 1, 2026 until June 30th, 2029. 2029. I can't. That is phenomenal. Phenomenal. I'm unwell, but thank you for your service on the board. Thank you very much. Our candidates elected for student board members are Mo Gupta from East High School, Amea Abad, and I said her name right, Janzelle, right? Amea Abbad from North High School, and Christian Bailey from South High School. So, they will be serving one-year terms
060beginning July 1, 2026, all the way till June 30th, 2027. So we look forward to meeting them at the board retreat on June 23rd and working with them next year. So we are going to be undertaking a cabinet reorganization here at district office and just moving some duties and responsibilities around. So beginning July 1, 2026, the district office will be restructured. We will have um a re-imagined position of assistant superintendent for operations and student services that will cover student services and supervise our district medical director but will also oversee transportation and child nutrition which were previously under the assistant superintendent of finance and management services. Those duties and responsibilities will report to the assistant superintendent for operations and student services, which was previously the assistant superintendent for exceptional education and student services. So, we are
061not adding an additional assistant superintendent position. We're reimagining some of our positions. We are also elevating one of our directors of special ed positions to be a senior director of special education overseeing all of special education and reporting to the superintendent. And that person you will see in the board packet that person is identified in the port board packet for the senior director position and that is Kathy Relo who just presented this evening. Our graduations I know parents use this as a uh reference. So, our graduations, Williamsville East is Friday evening, June 26th at 6 PM. Williamsville North is Saturday, June 27th at 10 a.m. And then Williamsville South is Saturday, June 27th at 6 PM. East and North are on their athletic fields. South will be at the main entrance and on the front
062lawn where they've historically held it. Our alumni associations are up and running. We are actually meeting tomorrow evening at 6 pm here at district office to actually have a bylaws working session for our alumni associations. If you or someone you know is interested in joining the alumni associations, you can fill out the alumni interest form that is available on the district website or email one of the alumni coordinators at each of the high schools. At east it's Deb Mahaney and Michelle Weber. At North is Mark Percy and at south it's Miss Eleanor Gayy. Green Ribbon School. So we are very honored that we have been recognized for our work with Maple East Elementary School. So we have been named a green ribbon schools honore by the state education department. In 2023 the district established a
063green ribbon schools committee with its focus on three pillars. I want to also thank board member Bleinger and board member Puland for serving on this committee. Also, the three pillars cover pillar one to reduce environmental impact and cost including waste, water, energy use, and alternative transportation. Pillar two, improve the health and wellness of students and staff covering environmental health and nutrition and fitness. And pillar three, provide effective environmental and sustainability education requiring robust environmental education that engages STEM, civic skills, and green career pathways. So, we just received word today that the presentation will be on June 16th. They're not sure of the time yet. So, we we we'll be able to go down to Albany and get awarded at the border regions meeting. Very exciting. EARTs update. So, this is very important that parents store
064these new numbers in their phone. So, we utilize an eert system that sends notifications to the school community for transportation, weather closing, and other emergencies that may impact the school day. We've been assigned two new 10digit phone numbers that will be used for text messages and our e alert systems. So, we're asking all parents, community members, caregivers to store these two new numbers in your phone as WCSD e alerts. Communication was sent last week explaining this update. This will be more and more important as we get closer to winter because everybody wants to know when we're having a snow day and that's how you receive the message. Our summer school for 2026 planning is already underway. Our principles have been working tirelessly on programming for summer school. Elementary and middle summer school will be at
065Casey Casey Middle School. High school will be at East High School and special education will be at Transit Middle School. Our community ed program will be at Mil Middle School. JFK just for kids will be at High Middle School and our music programming will be at North High School. So the dates are there. Any additional information you need is on our district website. June is coming month is Pride Month and Caribbean American Heritage Month and that is our community update. Any questions board members? Mr. Mr. This is a strange question, but I've been getting a couple questions from the community about how long the graduation ceremony and particularly east traditionally lasts. Oh, that's a good question. our graduation ceremonies. Our staff and our administrators have been very efficient efficient and effective with our graduation ceremonies.
066I believe the east graduation it was less than an hour and 15 about hour and 15 minutes. I forgot which one we attended last year together. Well, we like or the year before last. North I believe. Was it north? How long was I did north? We did north. That was a little maybe a few minutes longer. A few minutes long. They have many more students. So, absolutely. But no, we we we try to make sure the uh ceremonies are compact. No, I know. I get a recorded message from me prior to Do you do a recorded message also, board president? No, not for that one. But to try to reduce the number of speeches at graduation, what other questions might you have, board members? Awesome. I'll turn it back over to you, board president. Okay.
067Wonderful. We are now on item 6A, which is for our student board members. Would either of you like to provide a report regarding your activities at your high school? Yes. Both of us. Yes. Okay. Who would like to go first? Miss Maurice. Yes, I can start. We had our fourth Spartan Reed of the year and also our last um with Spartan Reed. Uh our athletic director and a few other people in the athletic department decided that it'd be a good idea for um our athletes throughout the year to go to different elementary schools and read books to the kids. Um, so this year was our or this past week was our very last one. We went to him again on the 15th and you're able to read books. I was in kindergarten again and once
068again I loved it. Uh, this Thursday we have our final uh, NCAA signing day for um, to honor all of our athletes that are continuing their progression in uh, different sports. I'm unsure about the number that we're having, but I'll update probably the following uh, meeting. Um for our upcoming regent exams in June, uh math and science development program or MSP is providing group tutoring after school on certain days uh where a student is able to sign up to be uh to lead a tutoring group uh for a specific subject um or specific exam and students are able to get extra help. Sources of strength had their mental health scavenger hunt uh where they had different um posters hung up around the school regarding me mental health about different resources, different things, different opportunities and
069resources. um throughout our school and uh winners that answered a certain amount of um correct or correct answers of the posters around the school uh got prizes. And finally, we have our Spartan Senate piloting. Now, I don't know much about Spartan Senate, but what I do know is that uh each club will have, I believe, one or two representatives that will attend the Spartan Senate and I'll be able to collaborate between all of our clubs throughout our schools that we're more cohesive in our planning. A lot of clubs have bake sales throughout the year um to raise funds um or different events that are more popular. So uh with Spartan Senate um approaching, they want to ensure that people that are in multiple clubs have the opportunity to attend all club meetings, club events. So
070this is an exciting thing and uh with aa being on the board next year, hopefully she'll provide a little bit more information. That is all for my report. Wonderful. Thank you. Exciting stuff you got there. Oh, for s for South it was a busy week or busy spring I should say. First up, SAD club hosted their PA a teacher fundraiser during our staff volleyball game. Students paid $2 a ticket to vote for who they wanted to get tied and all that money went to help escape help kids escaping drugs and it was a huge hit as expected. And then our girls for flag football team did some great community work recently. They visited the kids over at Maple um West Elementary and Forest and they went into their classroom to read books to the students
071and they even got a chance to be able to join them in gym class and play with them. Then on May 15th, our drama drama club put on their studentr run one act plays. the I don't have the pictures, but the auditorium was packed as usual and the talent there was incredible. Moving on to our fitness, as you know, uh fitness is a big focus at South and we finished our push-up challenge. You can also see our administration and teachers participating that Mr. Gila. Yes, it is. That's awesome. Yeah. But this month, we're having the challenge called the fittest Billy Challenge. This one, this one's a big one, and it includes everything that's been done throughout the year, like push-up, sit-ups, and it combines everything. And whoever completes the course the fastest gets a goat
072medal. Those are the winners from last year. And then for Cinco de Mayo or Spanish club did an activity where they learned the traditional art of papel picado which involved cutting and integrating design on into paper. I was able to join the activity and basically like we folded up paper and just like cut it randomly. But then when he opened it up it turned out into a beautiful design. We decorated our language wing with that work. Then I also know that some Spanish teachers um had a party too. Made quesadillas, nachos, and etc. Awesome. Moving on to our teacher appreciation week, student government took the lead and they went around the building with a snack cart to treat the teachers and the staff u staff around the the whole week. And then on Fridays, as
073you can see, they set up u coffee card stations in the teachers lounge. And they also made thank you posters to putt around the hallway. I believe you can see them still there. Awesome. Yeah. You know, we really wanted to make sure the teachers felt the love. Absolutely. Moving on to our wellness committee. They brought back the Pause for Love therapy dogs, Chloe, Maggie, and Louie. And they've been visiting the buildings on Wednesdays and Fridays. and it's been a huge um stress reliever for students, especially during these final weeks of schools and the AP that just happened. Now, wellness isn't just about dogs, though. The committee also launched a student of the month initiative where four students in each grade can win for being leaders in wellness. And they've also been doing wellness Wednesdays with
074yoga sessions for anybody who wants to de-stress. They've also handed out green ribbons when you enter the school. And then moving on to connect life and sources of strength. They've been working with they've been working together and they've been putting up activity posters and running stay connected events to make sure everybody feels like they have a support system here. This was all done in the month of May, as you know, mental health awareness month. Then, class of 2027 uh has been working hard to fundra for their future senior prom and they just finished their what's it called? Junior prom this last Friday. For this though, they sold hanging flower baskets and it was a huge success. Um, I know seniors were able to get community service hours out of it, but in making the school
075beautiful. And those were some big hanging plants. Yeah. Alive. I would like to Yeah, I gave it to my mother-in-law. She Those are huge. Those nice. Yeah, I will. Uh, I want to go back. I'm on the DEI committee uh for a couple of years, I believe. And with these two um what's it called connect life sources of strength and wellness club and I also know the culture and diversity club they partner up I believe and they create these initiatives every month and I've seen like the impact it it's it's had over the years because we were we were looking at some data um in the DEI committee. Awesome. That is awesome. Yeah. and it's it's been it's been successful to see these events. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Now, looking forward, we have our Billies
076in the Doll Park happening at the Bison's game on May 29th. Our band and course will be performing before the game and a portion of the ticket goes right back to supporting our students. We also have a awards ceremony coming up this Thursday. And then we also got a CIA civic readiness and CILA biiteracy ceremony coming up June 11th too. Also today um signing day is happening believe 19 students are yeah 19 students are get signing then orchestra concert is happening happening right now started at seven. This would wrap up uh for me. Thank you. Any questions? Thank thank you very much to our student board members representing North and South today. Unfortunately, Sel Cares isn't here tonight to do the east presentation, but thank you so much as always. Any questions from board members?
077I believe Dr. Brown Hall had something he wanted to add. I do because it is getting late in the evening. So, I do want to jump and draw everyone's attention to item 11A in the in board docs. So, we have a special guest in the audience tonight. As part of the Eagle Scout project through the Boy Scouts of America, Lincoln Fields, a current student at South High School and former student at Mill Middle School and the Boy Scout Troop 85 are donating the materials to construct a Gaga ball pit at Mill Middle School. The donated materials towards the construction of a Gaga pit have an estimated value of $3,100. Additionally, Lincoln will be volunteering and assisting in the construction. The pit is expected to be constructed in the summer of 2026. Lincoln, thank you very
078much for all that hard work and for THE Do you mind coming up for a picture? Awesome. board president, I turn it back over to you. Wonderful. Thank you. We are now on item 6B, which is our events. So, the board compensation advisory committee will meet virtually on June 2nd. Our policy committee meeting will be on June 15th, and our board retreat will be held on June 23rd. We would like to congratulate again our incoming student board members. Uh their one-year term will begin on July 1st and the approval of these members will be on our agenda item 8B. Our onboarding committee met on April 27th. Um did anyone from that committee have any to report from that? I wasn't sure. No. No. Okay, we'll move on. For this school year, our final building visits
079will be to Dodge Transit and District Office, and those will occur on June 12th. We are now on item 6C. For the upcoming high school graduations, our board will be represented by board members Pulan, Biscalia, and Singh at East High School, board member Fletch at North High School, and board members Blackinger and Puland at South High School. Are there any questions or comments regarding any of these events or the graduation? I will just say I'm attempting to attend South's graduation but I am waiting on a horse commitment. Okay. So we'll put down as a maybe. I Yeah, I'm a maybe. Okay, wonderful. I will be there but in the audience as a parent. Yay. Item 6D, liaison assignments at 6E, ECSB and 6F NISBA items are all in board docs. Are there any questions or
080comment on those items? Okay. Item 6G, our draft 202627 board of education calendar is in board docs and looking at the July organizational meeting, the best dates seem to be either Wednesday, July 1st or Wednesday, July 8th. Is there any discussion on this matter? No. We need we need to pick a date. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's I will not be there. So you all need to lead this discussion. It's distinct. Uh this is just me. I may not be here July 8th. Oh okay. Um on the availability form the availability form um it was only one person that had said they were unable. So you may be unable. So it sounds like then Absolutely. So it sounds like now Wednesday July 1st is probably our best option. Um would someone like to make a
081motion to hold the July organizational meeting on July 1st? All right. Do we have further discussion on this? Just I would ask Dr. Singh. Dr. Singh, you are the one who can't be available on the first. Are you okay with us carrying on the organization meeting without you being here? I mean, I I don't want to hold it hold up the meeting. If I'm the only one, that's fine. So when we now have the flexibility, it used to be we had to have it on the first Tuesday in July. Now the state gave us the ability to have it until was it July 20th this year? July 20th, which turned out to be a a cursing because nine of us trying to pick one day between July 1st and July 20th and we can't find
082a date that we're all available. And I know Dr. Brown Hall, Lynn and Nick are not available that last week in July. So, we're really constrained that first week. So, it's going to be one board member unfortunately. I think we had the same thing last year. A board member couldn't Dr. Spicer perhaps couldn't somebody Miss Fletch Fletch, I'm sorry. Yes. Couldn't attend the reorganizational meeting, but that was when we were kind of pigeonhold into that first Tuesday. But I don't see other way around. It's either the first where Dr. can't make it or the eighth where parliamentarian Poland can't make it and puts and Steuart right so unimportant we don't count it counts does count so did someone want to make a motion make a motion have the reorganization meeting on July 1st time you
083put the time when our our re our organizational meeting is typically at 7 p.m. I believe it's on schedule for 7 p.m. Is that correct Miss Carrie? Yes. 7 p.m. Okay. Uh so who was the second? Miss Bleer. So all in favor of holding the organizational meeting on Wednesday, July 1st. Motion carried unanimously. Thank you everyone. We are now on six I. Our board sent correspondence to the Irwan Boseies board and superintendent regarding their school calendar preparation for the upcoming school years. And we received cor correspondents from community members regarding our staff conversations event, purple up day, wellness council, the ECASB executive director's board meeting visit, student transportation, and DASA, dignity for students act. We are now on item seven, which is our consent agenda. May I have a motion to approve agenda items eight
084annual district vote results and exeicio student board members, nine minutes, 10 personnel, 11 business and finance and 12 exceptional education special needs and student activities as presented. Mr. Manor, Mr. Bulan, any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. I want to welcome again and congratulate Kathy Ratzel, our senior director of special education, and also Kristen Rizzo, our director of special education. Would you like to take a picture or say any words? Yes, please. Can we clap? I can just be really brief. Um, I want to thank the board of ed, the leadership team, uh, for the confidence and support in appointing me to this new position. I do want to say that I have truly enjoyed and value my time at North High School, and I look forward to collaborating with the new team to
085serve our families and our students and our staff in the new position. Thank you, Kristen. Thank you so much. And to the superintendent and board of education and leadership team, I just want to thank you for trusting me in this position. This is my passion and I am committed to the work that we have ahead of us and I'm thrilled that Kristen is joining our team. So again, thank you to everybody. Thank you. Okay. Thank the following retirees for their service to the district. Carol and Collard, social worker, Casey Middle School with 20 years of service. Sharon Haskins, teacher aid, Casey Middle School with 26 years of service. Nancy Brennenbach, teacher aid, Country Parkway Elementary School with 30 years of service. Shirley Tulavski, office clerk, Heim Elementary, 17 years of service. And Michelle uh Vatitali,
086office clerk, South High School with 34 years of service. Congratulations and thank you to our represent. There are no matters to discuss under 13 district facilities, 14 instruction, and 15 legislative matters. Team A. May I have a motion for the second reading and review of policy update 7560, notification of sex offenders, as presented? Dr. ing Miss Bleinger. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. May have a motion to adopt policy 7560 as presented. Dr. Singh and Dr. Spicer. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. 16B. May I have a motion for the second reading and review of the 2026 2027 code of conduct as presented? Miss Blackinger. Is there a second? Mr. Mana. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. And then may I have a motion for
087the final review and adoption of the 2026 2027 code of conduct at the July meeting. Dr. Singh, Mr. Mana, is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. Does anyone have a topic to discuss under committee of the whole? I know that our student board member, Celil Kakanis, was hoping to be here to uh present on youth court tonight, but we can move that to our June board meeting uh agenda item under committee of the whole. So now we are on item 18A, second public expression. If anyone in the audience would like to speak at this time, please up to step up to the podium and state your name. And then I will call on parliamentarian Puland to review our public expression format. Could you state your name please? Angelica Martino. Thank you. Thank
088you. For our second um public expression, the rules are at the same as for the first. The time we invite members of our community to share ideas, opinions, and concerns with us. We are here to listen carefully and take your concerns seriously, but public com comment is not designed to be a discussion. Therefore, please do not expect us to respond tonight. Instead, you will receive a response email after our meeting because we want to maintain mutual respect and civility. Please ensure that comments are delivered in a respectful manner to the board directly. Also, under state and federal privacy laws, we are unable to entertain any comments related to employee personnel information or any topic that may disclose information about a particular student. On these matters, we ask that you go through appropriate administrative channels. Please
089note that individuals are required to sign up except for this time, but you will be you have three minutes for comments and you will be signaled at two and a half so that you may conclude your remarks. Thank you, Angelica. Um before my time starts, if I can because Dr. Brown, you always ask for a glow and a grow. Um and I just want to say that congratulations to Kathy. She really truly is such a wonderful person to work with um and collaborate with um when you have a child with special needs. So that was big my big grow or her big grow glow. No. Okay. Um so good evening. Today I would like to speak about the need for an 811 standardsbased classroom at the middle school and high school levels. When a full
090continuum does not exist, students are placed in classrooms that are not appropriate for their needs, but instead are considered the best fit available. When this happens, it changes how students present. Students who may otherwise be engaged and successful can begin showing increased school avoidance, disregulation, increased behavioral struggles, shutdowns, or crisis responses. we can end up viewing this new presentation as the issue when in reality what we're seeing is the effect of when a placement does not match a student's need. As one of the largest districts in the region, we should not be relying on outside agencies, crosscontracting or even boseies with other districts to complete our special education continuum. Relying on outside placements as a substitute for developing our own continuum results in students being educated outside of their least restrictive environment and that is
091a cornerstone in special education. I ask you board members to dig deeper and ask the district if a full continuum of services existed what placement would this student be in their least restrictive environment. Too often placement decisions are, excuse me, too often placement decisions and what's written into an IEP are driven by what is currently existing in the continuum rather than what students actually need. I've been coming before you for the past four years asking for this same classroom. It started off as the middle school classroom. Now it's the high school classroom. I understand that an 811 classroom is one of the most expensive models to operate. The special education strategic plan identifies ROI, rate of improvement as an goal and indicator of progress. Board members, I encourage you to prioritize the correct ROI, rate
092of improvement and not return on investment. The question should not be what does this classroom cost? Do we have enough students to justify it? The question should be what is the cost of not providing it? What is the cost of outside placements? What's the cost of home instruction? lost educational opportunities and students becoming disconnected from school. Board members, if one student, my child, is too many being at home instruction, then it should only take one student to create this classroom. For some students, an appropriate educational setting is the difference between simply surviving school and truly participating it. I came here today and I was going to ask for an 811 at the high school. When I saw the presentation on board docs, my heart broke because when my child was in at Forest Elementary, he
093was in only one the one 811 classroom at that school. There are now three. My heart breaks for those students who are going to come up the pipeline, for those parents who are going to have to come here tirelessly to speak in front of you all because it's going to happen. So if you're going to put your time, your energy, money, please put it at the middle school level. Help those students. There are enough to make three classrooms. They should not have to endure what my child has endured. Their schooling should be enjoyable. It should be a meaningful education. And I know when Williamsville strives to educate all students, I know you can. You have so much that you can offer all of these students. Thank you for your comments. And this concludes our regular
094board meeting. Our next regular board meeting is June 9th. Is there a motion to adjourn the regular board meeting? Dr. Singh and Dr. Spicer. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. Thank you and good night everyone.