001I call the regular board meeting to order. All members of the board are present except exeicio student board members Perconis, Maurice and Perba and board member Blackinger. Miss Puland, would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag? 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. [music] May I have a motion to recess into executive session to discuss employment matters relating to particular persons, current litigation and collective negotiations? Dr. Spicer, Mr. Biscalia. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. [music] May I have a motion to return the regular board meeting to public session? Bulan, Mr. Bulan. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. During the immediately preceding executive session, our board
002discussed authorizing a litigation appeal. May I have a motion to adopt the resolution authorizing this litigation appeal as presented? Pulling. Dr. Singh is second. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. Good evening and welcome to all in attendance. Please be advised that in the event of a fire emergency and an evacuation should be necessary, an alarm will sound. Please note all marked their cell phones and other electronic devices to silent. Thank you. Dr. Brown Hall, I turn it over to you for the school spotlight. Thank you very much, board president. From the Dewey decimal system and cart cataloges in the digital age, libraries have leveraged technology to help readers locate their books. At Transit Middle School, they have developed the ultimate book recommendations flowchart to more quickly and efficiently connect readers to their literary aspirations. Please
003welcome Transit Middle School principal Dr. Dan Wall and assistant principles Kate Perino and Travis Moore to share more. Good evening, Dr. Brown Hall, members of the leadership team, and board of education. It is our pleasure to shine the Transit Middle School spotlight on Amy Gorski and the incredible work she does to inspire our students in the library media center. As our library media specialist, Miss Gorski collaborates closely with ELA classes [clears throat] and prioritizes independent reading for student engagement. This evening, you will see firsthand how students use a personalized book recommendation flowchart to an innovative tool Amy designed to help every student identify books that truly resonate with their interest and personal reading preferences. The flowchart guides students through a series of dynamic questions regarding their interests, favorite genres, and preferred plot elements. Based on
004their unique responses, students are led down curated reading pathways. With hundreds of titles available, each recommendation provides a book cover and a brief synopsis, empowering students to make informed, confident choices. Because the chart is interactive, students can revisit it as their interests evolve or as they choose to dive deeper into a specific passion. The system doesn't just help them find a book. It reinforces independent decisionmaking and encourages students to explore genres they might never have discovered on their own. That's awesome. Miss Gorski's system does more than just put books in hands. It removes the barrier of overwhelm for students who may not know where to start. By honoring each students unique interests, she provides the choice and motivation necessary to build lifelong connection to literacy. The results of the efforts are clear. Last year, Transit
005recorded an incredible 17,749 checkouts. Wow. We added 1,700 books to our collection, including 745 new titles selected specifically with our students needs in mind. Notably, 362 of those titles were strategically chosen to align with the positivity project, supporting our schoolwide focus on social emotional learning and character development. It's an honor to recognize Miss Gorski tonight for her creativity and dedication to our students. Now, we'd like to share a brief video for Mr. Philipk's team. Awesome. [music] You're going to see something called eighth grade flowchart. Give it a click. The ultimate book recommendations flowchart is a collection of titles that fit seventh and eighth grade readers and it covers almost every single book that we have in the library and it organizes based off of questions that they're prompted with and slowly narrows it down to
006a couple recommendations of what we have in our collection. So it'll narrow it down by genre and then from genre it goes to subg genre and then niches and tropes and themes. So it can really get them to what they're looking for. It's really helpful because let's say you finish a book and you don't know what to read next. You can use the flowchart and it helps to find like maybe something new you want to read. It's like finding a hidden gem because [music] you weren't looking for it but you found it and it's like really good. Now here you got that opportunity. I want to quickly show you how to find the book that you are interested in in the library. After they complete this activity, they'll have an opportunity to use the catalog
007to find it on the shelf or ask me for help and then they can either check it out or put it on hold or come back later on in the school year. That's what's really great about the to read list is that even if they're reading one or two books right now, it can carry them not only through 8th grade, the list they're creating now can carry them all the way through high school. I like mysteries, too. I like twists are my favorite. I love sometimes adults giving recommendations, it doesn't hold a candle to them finding a book personally or through their peers recommendations. So we see a lot even in this activity when a student gets to a book and another student has read it, they're pointing that out. And so then it prompts
008that discussion of, "Oh, maybe I should read it because somebody else already has and I already know that they liked it." It also provides an opportunity for students [music] to expand on genres that they may have not have looked into on their own. I love spending time in the library. I would usually go with my friends and then we would just discuss books and recommend [music] books to each other. It's kind of like bringing me into a whole another dimension. Once I finish a book, it just feels so good. Especially when the book's great. In particular, when they find a book and they come back to me and say, "I loved this. This was amazing. Can I have something just like it?" That's the moment as a librarian that you look forward to that people
009are happy to be here. Libraries have changed as the years have gone by and it's more of a social hub. It is the heart of a school and I really think transit reflects that really really well. Is a community of reading. That is awesome. That's so awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you. Want to say anything? [laughter] Thank you very much for that. Oh, that's great. Dr. Wall, thank you Travis. Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. I turn it back over to you, board president. Thank you so much. Are there any board acknowledgements this evening, Miss Fletch? Yes. I just wanted to acknowledge a student from North. Um her name is Emma Zang. She's a senior at Williamsole North and she did a project titled the future of breast cancer screening AI based
010photo acoustic imaging. and she won um $2,400 in second place in the Regeneron contest category of biomed engineering. That's awesome. Great for her. Awesome. Dr. Singh, I wanted to mean last Friday I went to the Williams World Cup. I didn't know there was one for bowling for the boys and girls and I there were teams from east, north and south and they were highly competitive and but they had fun. It was fun to watch and I wanted to congratulate the teams and the athletic teams that put them put it together. The other thing I want to acknowledge was the uh musical performance at South Had a chance to go on Saturday. It's it was probably very cold and we didn't have a full house which you normally do but the play was really good and
011again I want to congratulate the team that put it together the students and the staff. Absolutely. Thank you Dr. S. Any other board acknowledgements? Mr. Bean. Yes. I just wanted to acknowledge that the board met with uh the three high schools uh for the student forums and I I really enjoyed meeting with the students and I I see people nodding their heads enjoying that too and I think it's really enlightening to us to help understand from the student perspective and I I would encourage more students to show up to those get a broader perspective but I thought that was really informative for us as board members. Thank you so much Mr. Pelin. Other board acknowledgements. Okay. Thanks everyone. We are now on item number four which is public expression. I call on parliamentarian Puland to
012review our public expression format. Welcome to all who have come to observe this regular board meeting. For policy 1510. The board allows for up to 30 minutes for this first public expression period. This is a time when we invite members of our school community to share ideas, opinions, and concerns with us. While we are here to listen carefully and we take your concerns seriously, public comment is not designed to be a discussion. Therefore, please do not expect us to respond tonight. Instead, you will receive a response by 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
013topic that may disclose information about a particular student. On these matters, we ask that you go through the appropriate administrative channels. Please note that individuals are required to sign up prior to our meeting and each speaker is allotted three minutes for comments. You will be signaled at two and a half minutes so that you may conclude your remarks. At this time we will begin our public comments. After I call your name, please step up to the podium and again state your name. Gabrielle Baldi Apparently Gabrielle is not here and we have no other um people signed up for public comment. Okay, we will move on then. Um may I have a motion to recess the regular board meeting to conduct our budget work session? Miss Buckinger, Mr. Bulan. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. I
014call the budget work session to order and Dr. Brown Hall, I turn it over to you to introduce our 2627 budget development report. Thank you very much, board president. So, as the board knows and our community knows, budget planning actually begins the minute the board adopts the budget development calendar in October. It's not something that we just do a week or a month prior to the budget vote in May. It's a very thorough process and we're very pleased that our acting assistant superintendent of finance and management services, Dr. Chris McInley, has spent a good amount of time understanding the budget, working with the leadership team, understanding the programs because we know that programming should drive our budget, still being fiscally responsible, and making sure that we're not only responsible to our constituents, but to our
015taxpayers. So, with that being said, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Dr. McInley to introduce our preliminary right now draft budget report for the 2627 school year. Dr. McInley. Great. Thank you, Dr. Brown Hall. Absolutely. So, at this time, we're going to provide our second update to our budget development process. [clears throat] So, in January, we saw this slide which included those items where we'll likely see the most significant cost increases to sustain our current programs. There have been no changes, but I'll go over them again here. So, on the left side with the yellow heading is the budget development for the 2627 school year, and on the right with the blue heading are the projections of the increases seen this year and their future impact of continuing program into the 2728 school
016year. It's important to note that we are not developing the right section. This is just an illustration and these numbers could change next year when we are going through this process. Going back to the left side in yellow, we start with our current budget of $242,719,867 at the top and below are the areas where we'll likely see the most significant cost increases to sustain our current programs. You'll note that the expenses are categorized into mandated, contractual, inflationdriven, and last is to support program. The first area is uh total employee salaries with an increase of uh three $3.9 million. Uh health insurance increases are roughly about $2.1 million. And for Boseis, uh we've had some higher expenses in this area which resulted in about a $1.6 $6 million increase. These expenses are associated with supporting direct
017student programs, occupational education programs, and administrative items, including purchasing instructional technology. We do know at this time that the Bosey's number will likely increase due to the general Bosey's cost increases as well as our share of the new Bosey's special education building on Dick and Walden Avenue. Um we had our Boseis budget development meeting just yesterday and we'll have some updated numbers for our March meeting. Lastly, we see transportation increases at about 1.1 million for a total budget increase of 8,767,18 or 3.61% giving us a working budget of $251,482,975. So moving to the next slide is our program enhancements. Last time we saw the addition of two TOSA special education coaches to support the implementation of the strategic plan and enhance student outcomes. Um since January we're also looking to expand our 15 to1 program
018as a percentage of our current budget. These increases comprise about 1,200s of a percent. Moving to the next slide, we see program reductions. At this time, we do not have our retirement numbers built in, uh, but we do have listed the reductions to our learning labs of $525,000. When we look at the entire budget, including our continuation, enhancements, and reductions, the adjusted budget increase is $8,538,18 for a total working budget of $251,257,975 or a 3.52% increase. At the last meeting, I mentioned that we would look at revenues. Um, but I want to begin first by our our initial 2627 revenues by looking at our 2526 state aid budget compared to our actual state aid revenues. In the chart seen here, the first column lists the budgeted state aid while the second column lists the actual
019state aid received and the third column shows the difference. As you can see, there are some categories where the aid was higher and somewhere it was lower. There are many variables that cause the actual state aid figures to be different from the budgeted figures. For example, with building aid, the state may be aware of our air conditioning project and begin counting in our aid, but we don't actually begin receiving it until our project is done and the final cost reports are submitted. There are also building aids that fall off after 15 years. Another area that our actual state aid came under under budget was transportation. Every three years, the state recalculates the non the uh district's non-allowable pupil decimal. Um this decimal was recalculated just this year and that change in decimal caused our actual
020state aid to be reduced. In all, we received only 76 um we received only $76,691 more than we budgeted this year. Um so this is effectively right on budget when we look at all the categories combined. So, the point I want to make here on this slide, and we'll return to it in a couple slides, is that we have to recognize that we have to closely examine our budgeted state aid figures to determine what our actual state aid numbers will be. Absolutely. So, if we turn our attention to the governor's January state aid projections for 2026-27, the total state aid was estimated at $74,56,68. This compares to the 72,22,458 in the governor's run report for 2526 uh representing an increase of $2,33,610. It's important to note that included in these run reports is our UPK
021aid and UPK aid is not part of our general fund and we must remove this uh to see what our maximum impact to our general fund will be. As you can see in the middle section of this chart here, um we'll see uh you'll see that there's a significant increase of $1,381,240 in UPK aid for the coming school year. Uh this UPK increase is nearly 68% of the entire $2,33,610 of our total aid increase. So after we remove the UPK um aid increase uh because it's not recognized in our general fund, our net maximum state aid increase prior to the adjustments that we need to make that we talked about on the previous slide is $652,370. In the bottom section of the table, we can see that the calculation of the governor state aid estimate
022with UPK removed um gives us a maximum state aid estimate of $7,666,68. So at the bottom of the left column in this slide, we see our maximum state aid revenue of $7,666,68. and above it I've listed the different state aid categories again like we saw two slides ago. Um so what we have to do now is look at the projected state aids in the middle column which are our actual expenses that we're projecting. Um, after analyzing these categories, the middle column shows our adjusted state aid figures. And this reflects what we expect our actual state aid to come in next year, which is $594,650 less than what the governor's January um uh budget uh proposed. So, this brings our expected actual state aid total to $70,71,418. Um, and we're going to see this total. Now,
023as we go to the next slide, you're going to see that number, and this gets a little smaller here, but you're going to see that number right in the middle there in the blue box. Um, so let's look at the left side of here. So, on the left side in the yellow column is our revenues for this year. The blue column is our projected revenues for next year. And you can see that state aid figures uh in the top section of the chart there, breaking down the different categories. and that total of $70,71,418 boxed in blue on the previous slide. Like I mentioned, if we look to the white column to the right of that, we see that the actual difference between our current budget and next year's budget in state aid revenue is only
024$154,884. So, this is not the roughly $2 million that was conveyed in the governor's budget, but as we also saw, much of that increase was for UPK, which has no bearing on our general fund. That said, we're expecting a reduction in our pilots, uh, which are payments in lie of taxes. We're expecting an increase in our interest earnings and a few other minimal adjustments to our revenues. Uh, we're also looking to use an appropriated fund balance again of 3,750,000. And below that, we'll unpack the property tax levy on the next slide, but you'll see here that it's proposed at $152,950,000. So when we total up all of the revenues in the blue column, uh our total revenues equal 247,796,268 when compared to our total expense budget of $251,257,975. We see that we're current we currently
025have a deficit of 3,461,77. So this last slide is our tax cap calculation and it unpacks the uh the the tax levy. We always begin at the top with our prior year's tax levy and in this case it was $148,413,562. When we multiply that by the growth, the growth factor which is provided to us by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, this number is a reflection of the assessment growth of the towns that we service here in the district. Uh this year it was 1.0043. So this gives us a 149,51,740 uh figure. And when we add our pilots's uh budget of 2,75,000, this gives us a subtotal of 151,126,740. As you're following down, uh we then take and multiply this by 2% which is the maximum tax cap CPI amount. And I
026just want to point out uh as an information item that the Northeast CPI increase was closer to 3.3%. So as we go down, we have to subtract out our pilot amounts for this coming year, which is a decrease from last year. Uh the major reason for this is that there are some pilots expiring and as a result, that number will decrease. So what that does is provides us with a tax levy limit of $152,640,925. We then can add in the carryover amount from the prior year of 431,651. So, our actual budget-to-budget maximum levy increase could be $153,72,576 uh which is a 3.14% increase. However, when you look down to the bottom, we're proposing a levy of 152,950,000 uh which is under the maximum tax levy and an increase of 3.06%. So this slide here summarizes
027everything uh that we talked about. And so we have a working budget there again of the 251,275,975 or a five 3.52% budget increase. And the maximum t tax cap as we saw is $153,72,576 or 3.14% increase. Um, and the district estimated total New York State aid increase is $154,884 or a.22% increase in our state aid. Um, this gives us a total working budget deficit as pointed out earlier of $3,461,77. Um, what's important to note in this right now at the state is that we're we don't have retirements included in this in this working budget because we don't have those uh numbers yet. Um, and but we're not really expecting a lot of extra retirements this year. Um, lastly, there's always a potential that additional state aid is approved in the New York State budget. Um,
028and these are things that we'll continue to closely monitor and adjust as more concrete data becomes available over the next month. So, at this time, I want to Dr. McIlly, thank you very much for that thorough explanation and the details that were provided to our board of education and our community. So this time I will turn it back over to board president to open it up for questioning. So are there any questions from the board? Dr. Singh. Thank you Dr. McGilly for presentation. I just had one question like in last year in 2526 the actual was higher than the projected like by by $76,000 and this time we're projecting that the actual will be less than projected by half a million dollars. Is that we expect more money to come in later or is that
029of the state aid projections? Yes. Six and eight. Right now we're pretty confident in those numbers. We've done a lot of projections and digging into those numbers. So right now those appear to be somewhat of our maximum state aid numbers that we're expecting. But certainly as if other information is is becomes available or they increase the the state aid, then we would make those adjustments. Okay. Thanks. Miss Poland. Yes. Noting that um nearly $3.5 million deficit. Can you talk a little bit about what our contingencies are to match that deficit? I understand we might get more state aid. We might have some retirements, but it's not going to meet 3.5 million in in either case unless there's a great windfall. So, if you don't mind. So what we have to do is really examine our
030budget, right? So we know what our revenues are. We know how limited our revenues are. So we have to look at managing our expenses and what that will entail. So we have been and under the direction of both Dr. McInley and Dr. Bale and looking looking at all of our programming, all of our supplies, all of our contracts to make sure that we're maximizing and we're getting the biggest bang for our buck with every dollar we spend. So that is a very thorough process we're doing and also auditing all the staff that we have to make sure they're accounted for correctly. We do that annually to see if there's any corrections that need to be made. It's just a very thorough process we have to do. I do want to talk about one um point
031that Dr. McIlly made about the retirements and why we don't anticipate a high number of retirements. So with settling a new teachers contract, one thing we realize is that there will be a teacher shortage especially in high needs areas. So there is no longer a retirement incentive in our contract. We value the expertise and knowledge many of our senior and experienced teachers have and we need them to stick around. And so that's why with the board's approval, we look to increase the uh salary at those later years and to make sure that our teachers are staying with us because we value that expertise. So that's why we don't anticipate a lot of retirements, but this is a time that requires a lot of belt tightening and reviewing every nook and cranny in our budget to
032try to reduce that amount. Thank you, Mr. Mana. Thank you. Uh, Dr. McInley, thank you as always. Um, I had a couple comments then a couple questions. So, you know, I I went and reviewed the last five budgets. Um, and in four of the last five budgets, it showed a working deficit at this March meeting. Um, so I just want to stress that, you know, nobody here is and while we are concerned, there's no panic button being pressed or even considered. Um the last two years at this March budget presentation, uh one year was almost a $2.4 million initial working deficit. Last year was $2.2 million initial working deficit. Just to give some a little bit of historical uh um you know um pre uh precedence of you know what we talk about at this
033March meeting. So really I had two questions. when you when you when your chart shows that the pilots uh the pilot program from the IDA is being reduced by about a half a million dollars, it would seem to me and you put that as a revenue, but it seemed to me like that would be a good thing because now they're coming off that reduced pilot and going on to the full taxes. So, how did you, you know, come up with that? We're losing 500,000 from the reduced pilots, but yet not accounting it if you did on how it would just roll into the regular tax revenue then or is that to is that not the right question? [clears throat] So, so you're you're correct in that if the pilots are reduced, it does go into
034the the regular tax role. And so, it is recognized now in the revenue in that tax levy. And you still think it's still $500,000 that we're we're going to be minus in income in revenue. Okay. Yes. For the pilots. Thank you. My my next question is can you uh um refresh my memory on the transportation? I mean, we talk about this, it seems like every other meeting on the increase from last year to the the future year or this current year to next year minus what we did not get from the state and how much additional we will pay in transportation. Do you have that number? I thought it was a million dollars extra in trans just in transportation then minus several hundred,000 less in state aid. Right. Our transportation not I'm not trying to
035you know No, it's okay. I'm just going back to to review the number. Yeah. Our transportation increases is right about 1.1 million. Okay. It increases. Well, I thought we had I thought one of your your chart showed that our transportation aid came in at less than what we anticipated. It did. It did. So that adds on to the 1.1. I'm just trying to get to the point um sloppily that it's it it transportation is going up so much. It it's it's it's it's not as fast as salary or benefits, but it is a just a tremendous cost driver. It is. And we do get reimbursed. So just to circle back to your point, we do get reimbursed for transportation. And it's a complex formula that they use to get reimbursed for transportation and there is
036a uh percentage or a number that we have to indicate to the state and um Chris can explain it better. However, that number has changed and that allowed for a reduction in the percentage of reimbursement for transportation that we get. Now, Chris is going to be examining in the month of March 3 days because if we're able to submit a new number, it may increase our transportation aid in the future. But it's a percentage that the state looks at and that's how the they decide our reimbursement for our district. And it's not just transportation trans transporting the same students. It's newer students and the special special education, right? And that's why I'm glad you brought that up, M. Well, thank you. That's why I brought it up. No, absolutely. And um because a lot of
037individuals don't realize it's not just about transporting our students to and from our 13 schools. We transport students to private parochial schools. We transport students out of district that may need um special education services that we are not able to provide in district or at Erie Wooseies. We have students going as far as Orleans Niagara Boseies. We're responsible for that. We're responsible for transporting students who are classified as McKini Vento as far as Hamburg and Lockport. We are responsible for all of that. So, it's not just transporting our students to our 13 schools. We transport a great deal of students out of the district and far distances. You can add to that if you want, Dr. McIll. It's uh 75 different schools transporting to and and you're you're about 9,000 8 n,000 kids on a
038daily that we're transporting. Thank you. Thank you very much for bringing that up. Scalia, um if correct me if I'm wrong, are most schools at are they getting their full amount of um foundational aid this year? Most most is it back to it was 461 districts are getting the 1% minimal increase. We're one of them and we are one of them. So that's why and thank you very much for that. Not to interrupt your question. However, that's why it's so important when we talk about advocacy and working with our legislators to bring about increased insight about what is needed in school districts because that 1% increase really isn't actually 1% but it's eaten up with simply health insurance increases, right? So that money doesn't go very far. So that's why when Mr. Mana talked about
039at this time in previous years we did show a deficit but we had some reassurances that we would see increase in what the governor is giving us. We don't have those asurances this year or the years moving forward. So that's why we have to just really really play it close to the vest this year and really look at our expenses very tightly. If you want to add to that Dr. McIlly that's correct. Absolutely. Thank you. [laughter] So thank you. I'm sorry back to Mr. in terms of electric buses like I mean so we are going to and it got rescheduled because it was on a snow day but myself Dr. McInley and Vice President Mana are actually going to a uh seminar, a workshop on electric buses um for March 10th, right? And so we're
040going to that um all districts and their superintendent and board members, a board member and their assistant superintendent of finance were invited to this um seminar where we'll all be together and able to ask those questions because we we also know that in many areas of the state the um electric companies cannot provide enough power for these buses. I'm sorry. No, I ju I was just asking that because those are things that as we talked before advocating and and discussing with legislators, I mean those are things that the board brings up me many boards, not just ours, correct? Um throughout the state. I mean that's it's a difficult transition um puts pressure on a lot of boards and finances and things like that for the future. correctly. And when we hear that we transport to
04175 different schools and programs, you know, we have to make sure that those buses not only get students there, but are able to return. And we know what electric buses and electric batteries and cars do in the wintertime. We've had some brutal winters. Yeah. When it's negative five degrees, they might not start. [clears throat] They'll start. They just won't run that long. Right. Thank you. Were there any other questions? Uh, DSP, I believe I saw your hand early. Just to make sure I'm communicating accurately to the students, as of tonight's meeting, the current learning lab model is being removed through the budget and the replacement sports are still under development. If my understanding is incorrect, I'm happy to be corrected. No, you're you're correct. Thank you. Yes, Silio. Uh, so I know the the topic
042of like board member compensation was brought up a while ago and for this year at least it was put on side but it would affect this very budget. Correct. Next year's or Okay. Again, we're we're we're one meeting. We have another meeting scheduled end of February, February 24th, I think. And um, you know, the committee asked a lot of questions, want some information, and there's no rush. We're going to meet once a month probably and at some point they'll come up with a recommendation, but it would not be this budgeted year. I also don't know that it would be next year's either. Depending on the calendar or the budget, there's a whole bunch of variables. So, Dr. Spicer, you're right. Like I said, it's it's something that's being looked at and we should look at
043it. You know, just because something's been the same way for years doesn't mean we don't look at things. and not and and just to change the topic of to electric buses and zero emission buses, zero emission buses with with board member scale said it's it's you know the same thing it the because the other question is budget-wise we couldn't afford to pay the increase what our transport what STA would charge us or we or or or districts that have to buy the buses who do their own transportation would have to bond that money to a public vote and if the if the voters turned it down then what would they do? I I think this zero emission bus it's a great theory and I'm all all for it but there has to be a federal
044component as far as a state component and the people pushing this are the you know zero emission industrial complex that they say that everybody's ready to roll in 2030 or whenever they they they push the new date out. So sorry to uh that's okay. I I can I was actually at um a the virtual legislative event that NISBA put on and they talked about the zero emission uh buses. And one of the things that they uh that the New York State Education Department representatives that were at that meeting said there is a waiver um and it is available on the New York State Education Department's website. And one of the things that if your um con constituents don't pass um the bond to buy a bus, you get so many points towards this waiver and
045that is part of the waiver process, but there are a number of different things that happen in order to do that. I haven't looked at the waiver specifically, but that's just information I wanted to share. Mr. you're doing. So, I have a question. Um, if we were to rely just on retirements, which I know we're not going to do because we don't know what the number is and what it is, but what would what number would that be to make the the bal a balanced budget? Can you answer that? I was just thinking about that. Yeah, that's hard. Would it be 10? Would it be 15? I I mean, I I don't know. That's why Yeah, that and I I don't know. 10 seems all I don't know either because we're I think it's preliminary.
046I think it would be too preliminary to answer that question. Okay. Um but it's not too preliminary to realize that we won't reach it. That's that's what I figured. But I was just I guess I have I have a followup since I was thinking about it. In your guesstimation, what is the number if you if you can what do you think the number of retirements will be? We know that um the retirement incentive prior required a February 1st retirement uh notification. Right now we require a March 1st retirement notification. And I think so far we've only received nine. Our executive director of human resources is putting her hands up. Nine retirements. But we have to make sure we realize those nine aren't true nine retirements. the five learning lab I'm sorry the learning laptosas that
047are being cut will absorb those positions so it will be a net right so we have to figure that out also thank you absolutely any other budget questions from the board okay we will now have our public forum for the 2026 20277 budget only anyone wishing to address the board regarding the budget may make your way to the podium at this time. And if you could please state your name. Sure. Uh James Hanley. Uh just a a quick question really on the first slide. Is it all built off of last year's budget or is it actually include projected actuals for last year? because there can be a big difference. If you're just building off deltas off of a budget, you could every year have a $5 million carryover unless you take that into account. That's
048my only question. Can you ask it again? I'm trying to make sure I understood it. Can you ask it again? Did you understand it, Chris? Because I don't know that I did. Well, ask it one more time so I'm hearing it. I did, but yeah, the first slide is is starting off with 242 I think was million dollars or yes, $242 million as the started budget of last year or or this current year and then you have deltas you're adding to it for projections for next year's. So are those deltas uh taking into account what the actuals are projected to be for this year. So, in other words, um the $2 million for the one category already takes in account that the previous budget is maybe got a surplus. I see what you're saying. So,
049when we look at the Do you mind? I know. If you look at the line of employee salaries, you see how it's 3.944? That's because we've taken into account what the actual expenditure and employee salaries were. and then we adjusted that amount. Had we kept it and just kept increasing from the projected budget of last year, that would have been much higher. So I see what you're saying now, but it is actuals at this point in time projected out. Okay. And and I can understand for anything that's contractual that's easy to do as a delta, but there are a lot of things that are expenses like for library books and stuff like that that you know maybe you don't buy as many books as you thought you were going to buy, but you're projecting you're
050going to buy the same number of books next year or more. So that if you're not taking account the underspend, you're just going to keep building on a surplus over year. and library books we buy even more than we Yeah, we're very proud of that. But that's a good point. But we do do that. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you for that. And thank you for coming all the time and asking questions. We appreciate that too. Your participation. Okay. Was there anyone else that would like to speak regarding the budget? The budget only. It's It's not budget though. Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah, we already had public expression just so you know earlier. There's a second public expression at the end of the meeting. This is for budget only. Okay. Um so I don't see anyone else. May
051I have a motion to adjourn the budget work session? Dr. Singh, Miss Blackinger. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. And so now Dr. Brown Hall, I turn it back over to you for your superintendence report items 6A and 6B. I felt like I'd done so much talking already, right? More to come. Thank you very much, Bor President. We'll begin with a community update for Tuesday, February 10th, 2026. So, what I wanted to show is and I asked Dr. McGinley to prepare three slides and these three slides are important because what I wanted to show is that from the time of 2015 2016 to the time of current day 2526 our enrollment in the district has gone down by 3.9%. Right? So when you look at that number, it's approximately 400 students. And the question came
052up, how is that possible that we're going down in enrollment? However, we are increasing and we've increased over that same amount of time 31% of our teaching force. So that question always comes up and I want to remind our board members and our community members that we have done a great job with identifying needs for our students and the supports we need to put in place for our students mental health. That's why that number has increased. So you will see that even though our enrollment numbers have gone down, we've had an increase in related services by 16.9% of teachers, an increase in ENL teachers by 270% and an increase, excuse me, and our special education teachers by 59.8% of teachers. So even though the number of students that we service has decreased by approximately 400,
053the amount of mandated services that we provide for our students has increased and you can see and I see people taking pictures of this. It's actually in the community update, Patty, so you can have it. All right. So we want to show that that's why our budget and we have to be very very mindful of our budget programs that we have to keep because they're mandated programs that we can be a little bit more flexible with because we have mandated services that we have to provide for our students because we've done such a great job realizing the need of our students in the area of social emotional learning and student supports. Before you move on, had a question this day. I just I think the first three are really self-explanatory for people, but can you
054just the green what is related services like teacher assistance, teacher aids, right? So when we have onetoone teacher aids for some of our students that require it. So we we've had an increase in in that. Okay. Thank you. Absolutely. Okay. No, thank you. I wanted to jump to one of the things that you've heard prior that we've discussed at uh community forums, we've discussed at PTA meetings, and we've discussed at the board table. So, we know that our elementary air conditioning project is going on right now. In between our elementary air conditioning project and other air conditioning projects, we are going to um look at having a modernization project. And so, what we did, Dr. McInley surveyed our building principles to see what were some of the things that were necessary to really modernize our
055buildings. We have some areas in many of our buildings that haven't been touched since the buildings have been built. And so these are some of the common things that the modernization program would update some of our hallways. So remove some of the dated tiles and finishes, apply fresh paint to improve the appearance and durability, provide new consistent flooring throughout the hallways, laboratories. And we hear this not only from staff but from students also. So new towel and more neutral color palettes, updated fixtures including touchless sinks and hand dryers and improved privacy panels particularly particularly between urinos. Some other areas are looking at our libraries, modernize the overall look and feel, create more flexible and adaptable spaces, new carpeting, and add air conditioning in those areas that don't have it. Especially in our middle schools that
056will be the next phase of air conditioning. If we're doing modernization and we're taking apart some parts of the building, it's important that we structure them and get them ready for air conditioning where we can in some of our cafeterias. Enhance lighting and technology to allow the space to be used more flexibly. Reduce hard services to improve acoustics and add air conditioning also. So these are the things that we are absolutely looking at when we look at a district modernization project that will affect every school building in our district. Jumping to homework and grading. This was one of the topics from the student forums with the board of education that came up I think at every school. And so they want to know because we've had our homework and grading committee under the direction of
057our assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction Dr. Balon. And Dr. Dr. Bellin has presented the last three years about the homework and grading and the different phases that we've gone through and the work of that committee. So, what we're looking to accomplish with our homework and grading committee is consistency with autonomy. We're not looking to reduce the amount of autonomy our teachers have, but we're looking to provide consistency districtwide. Balancing of assignment time and frequency. It's really important that we take that into consideration. and the assignment of homework over school breaks. We all know as adults we need time to decompress. Our students do too over our school breaks. So, not assigning too much work or work that is not, you know, extremely important over those school breaks. And we realize that different levels require
058a different amount of homework. So, for example, AP classes will require more assignments and work outside of the class. We do realize that, but we also realize that homework can be used as a pre-assessment, as a formative assessment, or as purposeful independent practice. It should increase student engagement, motivation, and ownership of students own learning by making the learning process visible to students, teachers, and parents. And lastly, grading. All grading practices should reflect student achievement only. and that non-academic attributes or biases, example, behaviors, good or bad, should not influence academic grades. So, these are the things we're still working on with our homework and grading committee to make sure that we're following this consistently across our district. So, I want to highlight this and we've spoke about it before. We have two exciting presentations coming up
059at the board of education meetings in April and May. an artificial intelligence presentation on what Williamsville is doing for artificial intelligence, what pro professional learning has been allowed, what we expect of students with artificial learning, and how some of our teachers are using it to enhance instruction in the classroom. And then in May, a special education presentation. We know that three years ago now, the Western New York Education Service Council came. We asked them to come in and they did a six-month study on our special education work in our district. They had findings and recommendations. In May, we will provide you an update on where we are at with many of those recommendations and the investment that we have put into special education in our district to make sure that we are meeting those recommendations.
060Our high school musicals, Dr. Singh, you're absolutely correct. I went to Williamsville South to see Something Rotten and many people know, it's no secret, right? I'm a big musical theater fan and these shows that we produce here in the district are topnotch, just very high caliber. I saw Something Rotten on Broadway and this was a direct mirror of that. Our students were absolutely phenomenal. They own their roles. It was so hilarious, too. And the music was phenomenal. I'm looking forward to Spongebob the Musical. I saw that one on Broadway also because my younger son wanted to see it and I just saw Into the Woods two years ago at Shayes. It was a special engagement because Montego Glover was in it. So I'm looking forward to seeing that also. So I Oh, I just can't
061wait. I love these musicals. Our BOE candidates. So our board of education candidate packets are available through our district clerk, Lynn Kerry. Our student board of education packets are available in each high school's main office and on the district website. So, very similar to how our board of education members follow a process to be elected to the board. Our student board members also follow a process to be elected to their student board member seats. In this here, we've provided the student board member timeline. So, any student that is interested, it will be in the community update and it's also on the district website. the timeline you must follow in order to be elected to the student board member seat. Alumni associations. So, our alumni associations are beginning to schedule their first meetings. Um, and Williamsville
062North, I believe, has their first meeting this Wednesday at 7 p.m. virtually. And then I know we just received the date for Williamsville East to hold their meeting and Miss Gayy at Williamsville South is structuring the date of that virtual meeting also. So it's very exciting time to get our alumni associations at our high schools up and running and we will have those dates posted on our website and anyone that filled out the QR code to be added to the alumni list will receive notification on when those virtual meetings will be held. winter weather. So, emergency closing days. And I know this is a question that came up at some of the student forums. Also, I I'll jump to bullets two and three first. Please make sure all of our students are prepared for the
063elements each day. We've had some very cold start to our mornings. And Pucksatonyi Phil saw his shadow, meaning six more weeks of winter. We are very fortunate today. The temperature got up to 41 degrees. We are very fortunate today. But yesterday, turn to your neighbor and say yesterday, but [laughter] yesterday was a very bitter cold day. Emergency closing days, we have four built into the calendar this year. And in the proposed calendar we have for next year, we have four also built into the calendar. So, we want to make sure that we're only closing school when it is absolutely necessary for snow or cold. And because the new law has been passed, we want to make sure we're saving some emergency closing days because if the temperature reaches a certain degree in the middle of
064a classroom above three feet in the middle of the um from the window window, no, from the floor to the middle, um we we then have to remove those students also. So, we want to make sure we're saving at least one of the emergency closing days if we can. We do have one saved right now, but we're at the beginning of February. We know February can bring some cold days about. We will never sacrifice student safety for saving of emergency closing days, right? We will always do what's in the best interest of students and then we will work it out through the state education department and the governor's office after that. Our draft calendar, that is the next item, but the draft calendar for the 2627 school year is being presented tonight. Our first day
065of school is scheduled for Tuesday, September 8th after [snorts] Labor Day. One week for winter recess next year. So, the last two years, I know we've had two weeks. This year, we will only have one week for winter recess. Spring recess is scheduled for March 26th to April 2nd. And the last day of school is scheduled for June 24th, 2027. So, comment period will be open through March 6. If you have any comments, please email them to contact williamsville k12.org and the 2627 draft calendar is in the agenda right now. Calendar updates. February is Black History Month. Community information and events are available in the district calendar. Mid-winter recess begins next week. Monday is President's Day. Tuesday is Asian Lunar New Year. Then the rest of the week we have off because of mid-winter recess.
066So this Friday is the last day of school until Monday, February 23rd. Our next community forum will take place on March 24th following the budget work session. It will start approximately at 6:45 or 7 o'clock around that time. Board President, is that accurate? That's usually when it starts. Awesome. And this is a town hall style meeting. It will give students, parents, residents, and staff members a chance to talk about any education related issue they wish. Schoolboard members and I will be on hand to listen, answer questions, and discuss the latest topics impacting Williamsville schools and public education. That is the community update for Tuesday, February 10th, 2026. What questions might you have, board members? Student board member Stalil Kanis. Um, I know that you had like a presentation planned for artificial intelligence and special education
067for this spring. Do you know for like the grading committee? I know it's there's no like date yet, but some sort of like timeline for when they're going to have some sort of statement or presentation out by the grading committee. Dr. Bell and does a presentation every August on the work of the grading and homework committee that past year and the different phases we are at. So, Dr. Bell and does that presentation in August. So, will there be one this upcoming August? Yes. Yes, there will. Other questions? Mr. Pascalia, uh, it just came up when I was, uh, thinking about this. Um with the homework and grading, you mentioned um you know being you know same guidelines or or being you know consistent through schools but um having teachers have autonomy and that I can't
068remember so I apologize if from August I know we weren't quite yet at the grading policies but that would I mean would it be tending towards autonomy and grading or more towards you know the the autonomy is It's hard to in homework assignments, right? Yes. So, if you know Mr. Bulan teaches social studies, I teach social studies. We're not saying they have to the assignments have to be exact, right? But if you give a test, if I give a test, Mr. Bulan gives a test. I'm not going to count tests as 10% of your grade. He counts them as 90% of your grade. Right? That's just not consistent. So, we're looking at consistency with autonomy, right? We're not saying homework has to be exact. We're not saying the classes must uh mirror each other, right?
069They have to be similar, but we're asking that the grading practices be the same also, so we're not playing grading roulette with our students. Yeah. So, that would include like late policies, things like that as well, or I mean, I know that's in the future thinking, but Right. And and that's something we'll be working on too, right? Any other questions regarding the community update? Okay. I believe it's still your turn though. Well, the next item was about the draft calendar. We included that in the community update. Yes. Perfect. Oh, Mr. Pascalia, I have a question about the calendar. I was going to ask when you brought it up. When I was looking at it earlier, I saw 180 student days, but you said we have four built-in days for, you know, emergency closings. Correct. Um,
070how does that work? So the public and and I'm so glad you asked that because yeah we we we did we haven't explained this for a couple of years but I do I'm glad you asked that in education law we are allowed to use four superintendent conference days and count of our total days. So if we use the first three days that teachers report as of three of those days and we have several superintendent conference days in the calendar because we have more culture and religious holidays than many of the other districts, we reach our four limit. And so those four days added to the 180 student days actually gives us 184 days we can claim. And so now we have four days over the 180 that will act as emergency closing days. And then
071is there any say they go over is there any um what's the word I'm looking for? Um you can ask the state for certain days back if it's in between September 1st and June 30th like if you run out like a like state of emergency if there's a state of emergency. So let's I I want to do two um answers here. If you look at the bottom of the calendar, it speaks about if we go over on our emergency closing days, the days that we must start taking back and we start taking days back from vacation, some of the breaks, right? We have to start taking days back backwards for from some of the breaks. However, if there is a declared state of emergency from the governor, for example, we're in one right now from
072January 21st to February 22nd. Once you've exhausted all your emergency closing days, if you need to use more, you then have to fill out a special form that would need approval from the state education department. and you attach the emergency order from the governor explaining that this falls under their emergency closing and that you will need additional days or whatever additional days you use, you are looking to get those back because any day over your allotted emergency closing days, you can have withheld 1 187th of your foundation aid. However, if you get approval of using those days during an emergency um closing day during a time that the governor has issued an executive order, once that is approved, those days do not count against you. But they do an an analysis of it. So, say
073we're the only district that closed, right? We went over our days and Clarence and Ammerst and Sweet Home all stayed open. It it's not likely that that would be approved, right? But if it's a regional and we can show that it was indeed an emergency closing day, that day will be approved. Can I ask a question off of that, please? You've turned in that form. What is it? It's not a rubber stamp from the state that says be automatically accepted. It's not. Is it an 8020 thing or is it like a I've never done it. Okay. And I don't know. Okay. I don't know. No. Yeah. Question though. I just want to thank you. I just think it's important public kind of knows how those days are you know calculated. You're very right. All right.
074So, any other questions about uh the calendar before we move on? Okay. We are now on item 7A. Uh I believe all three of our student board members are going to provide a report. Uh student board member Jazelle Maurice uh representing North. We'll start with you please. Thank you. Um just last Friday we had our second Spartan read at Dodge Elementary. Um if you recall our first was at H High Elementary where any athlete uh spring, winter, fall uh could volunteer to read uh books to elementary school students. So at Dodge we have books about teamwork and courage and I was with kindergarteners and first graders and it's definitely a great experience. It also got good like bonding experience for the athletes. Um definely building communities. Uh we also opportunities for the kids to ask
075us questions about sports or about life and high school. Um and definitely very positive thing that um our sports teams are doing. Today we had our I believe our fourth be good do Good Tuesday. Um since Valentine's Day is on Saturday we had Valentine's Day card making in the all the cafeterias and students were encouraged to make uh cards for their friends or teachers and deliver them in school. Also on Friday we have our StuCo bingo which is definitely a fan favorite. Uh every so often we'll have bingo where every time the bell rings for uh class to start uh someone in the main office will announce bingo numbers and students will get a bingo board at the beginning of the school day and winners will receive different uh I guess prizes. I'm not sure
076what this week is but or this month is but usually it's hotspot bucks or some type of incentive. Um the taste of North is coming back to North for a lot of years. I honestly since I've been a freshman, we've had it, but I believe it's been going on for at least 10 years. On March 23rd, and we have a new culinary champion contest where each team or student is able to uh enter their food for the contest and receive a prize based off of their food. Moving on to athletics, this past month, we had five school records broken in our track and field team, which is outstanding. Uh Michael Gregoire breaks the school record for the 1500 race walk. Uh Josh Newman breaks a 46-y old school record in shotput. The girls 4x2 school
077record is broken by Kayn Zinggali, Khloe Gammer, Melia Kapchenko, and Lily Bower. And going off Lily Bower, she's now first in all of New York State for the 55 meter. Wow. Um Miss Fletcher's son, Drew Fletch, uh just reached 100 career wins in wrestling matches. And so Syracuse uh just received the Buffalo Sabres High School Player of the Month award for hockey. And we had our first NCAA signing um day on the 4th. And Kaylee Garver Garver just signed for Duville for D2 Acro and Tumbling. Very nice. Um we just received our all Western New York fall scholar athlete winners. Uh for soccer we had Ally Bazen. For boys golf, Cameron Fleming. For cheerleading, Jazelle Maurice. For girls volleyball. [laughter] For girls volleyball, Abigail Morphe. Girls tennis, Samantha Ryu. And we had 59 honorable mentions
078on top of that. And for those that don't know, for all Western fall fall scholar athletes, you to have a 90 or greater average for the past six semesters and be a sign significant player on your sports team and be a senior. That's awesome. So, congratulations to our five winners and our 59 honorable mentions. Absolutely. And just lastly, uh a great event that you guys have every year uh is our postp prom where seniors are able to gather at the Apex at the chapel and they receive different prizes and do different games. Uh we usually have blackjack or some type of games. Uh and every year they receive amazing prizes like people win TVs, uh microwaves, things for college. So uh if you'd like to learn more about that, follow WN Postprom 26 on Instagram.
079And you can also learn more about the senior yard signs and banners. That is awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. And we will move on now to DSP representing South High School. Good evening everybody. Here's my update on what's happening at South. First, our seniors um had the day of service. I'll go through the picture slowly as I talk about it. On January 23rd during midterm week, our seniors participated in a massive day of service organized through their government classes. Students researched and selected placements across 11 different sites, including Ronald McDonald House, Feedmore Williams, New York, and her own district elementary schools. Each senior earned six hours of community service, focusing on direct impact and reflection. It was a great way to see your students giving back to Billingsville and the greater Western New
080York area. Was that UDSP? Where? Yeah. Awesome. [laughter] Actually in the room with a teacher that used to be a assistant teacher to a a regular teacher and now she's a her own independent teacher at Mill. Awesome. [laughter] Very cool. All right, then moving into our arts and culture, [clears throat] the South Drama Club just finished an incredible run of the musical Something Rotten this past weekend. A highlight of our production was a special preview performance the cast and the pit orchestra gave for students and staff from Forest and Maple West Elementary. Additionally, here are some of the pictures. The culture and diversity club recently held a success successful and a fundraiser in our hallways for any students looking to show off their own skills. Also, theformational meeting for Soul South Got Talent variety show
081is actually happening today right after school in room 216. I'm uh hopefully I can provide some pictures of that for the next board meeting. Oh, here's some some some of the designs. Regarding student life, we had heading heading to the Valentine's Day soon. Our student government is keeping traditions alive by selling hugs juice drinks. Students can buy these to be delivered to their friends, teachers, or staff members. later this week to spread some positive energy around the building. Finally, in our athletics, varsity hockey had a huge bounceback win this weekend, defeating Ericas Alden 10 to4. Jack Smansky tied a school record with seven points in in a single game. And our track is heading to state sectionals on February February 28th. And congratulations to Thomas Jervesy, Cameron Houston, Dylan Saunders, Paul Tu, and Amari West
082for qualifying. And then our major honors is huge congratulations to Angelina Esperski for being named girls volleyball player of the year and to her coach, Mr. Sproul, for being named coach of the year. Oh, awesome. That concludes my report for South. Thank you. Thank you so much. And now we'll move on to Cil Kaharnes uh representing East. Okay, so just to start off, here's some pictures from some of our new clubs at Williamso East. Well, this was Black Student Association led by Mrs. Azerelli Brown and founding club members include Kyrie Smith, Jazelle Tour, Tracy Madsingua, Maline Price, Rowan Price, and Wafa Bata. They have some upcoming projects such as designing t-shirts, preparing for a visit from Todd Roach, who's a member of the education team at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. And they
083had a meeting recently. And this is from Latino Club which kicked off in November. But they had basically an event where all members could come and learn about Latino culture. And they had they were just playing games and eating delicious food cooked by their very own club members. And then there was a used book sale setup where students from East have now been helping Maple East with their used book sale for three years now. and they actually donated books and accounted as individual action for the seniors. So they just go to East and spend about three to four hours helping PTA help set up for the sale. This year we had two members from book club and three seniors helping out. So that was great opportunity for them. Now as for the other updates at
084our school on January 31st, Science Olympiad had its regional competition at Buffalo State University. Even though it was cold day with horrible weather conditions, East managed to persevere. And basically at this event, students participate in test events where they study from November till January and build events where they build different things based on spec sheets provided for them. And East plays second overall. And Wimso East a team will be going to Sly States at Lumloan College in Syracuse on March 20th. Then this past Saturday, February 2nd, was our FPLA spring district meeting at East. It was in the morning for about three hours where state officer candidates would come and take the state officer exam as well as students who are participating in events could take mock practice exams to basically get more prepared for
085the actual state state conference which is happening in April. Um, tomorrow is Wimsilo East Unity and Diversity Festival, which is probably a big highlight as the whole school day is being shortened as we have 20-minute classes and nine spirit is being cut entirely. So, the assembly should be starting at 11:20, I believe, and all students can come watch it as students have been, you know, similar to science Olympiad, been practicing and performing since like, you know, beginning of September, October. And they had uh I remember dress rehearsals yesterday till 7 o'clock. That's how dedicated they are because it's been such a larger performance this year. They had to really, you know, spend a lot of time preparing for it. And I'm sure it's going to go great. And I'll be sure to add pictures for
086next meetings. Thank you. board meeting to just show you all what it's like. Um from February 23rd to March 20th, students in Mrs. Morrow's entrepreneurship class will be opening their class businesses in the Commons Cafe booth. So there's basically two classes and within our cafeteria in the corner we have Commons Cafe. From February 23rd to March 6th there will be Loops and Lemons which is the first class where they'll be featuring hot pretzels, pretzels bites with toppings, hot chocolate with toppings and lemonade. And then March 9th to March 20th will be entrepreneis [clears throat] and other sandwiched goods. Awesome. And all the money that the students raise will be used to donate for charities of their choosing. So, it's just a great event because it's friendly competition and they always ask students what they want
087to eat because I know not everyone's a fan of school lunch sometimes. [laughter] Um, as for music, East ECMA ECMA results came out and for junior high, we had eight students qualify for chorus and 11 students for band/ orchestra. And for senior high, we had five students qualify from chorus and 19 from band orchestra and seven for jazz. Awesome. And this will be taking place in March where students will travel there and perform with students from other districts such as like Clarence, Lancaster in the local area. So that's a great opportunity for them and I'd like to congratulate everyone who made it. Uh, Stuco is actually having its own Valentine's Day sale this week on there is a admirer message pre-sale on Thursday, February 12th, where you can send a personalized message with one carnation
088for $3, which will be delivered to your friend's home room on Friday the 13th. And it guarantees that your friends will get a carnation and it can be given anonymously, too. And it's sold in the commons only on Thursday because they're projecting it to really, you know, sell quickly. And on Friday, they're also having a sale in the commons after school. But the message will you'll have to purchase it on Thursday. And the carnations are available in red, white, pink, purple, and hot pink. [clears throat] And finally, for the 100th day of school on Wednesday, February 25th, they're having a senior dressup day. 9th, 10th, and 11th graders are having pajama day, as well as there will be a photo booth in the common. and they promised a hundred giveaways for the hundth day. So,
089let's see how that goes. So, let's see how that goes. Thank to all three of you for those reports. Again, I'm always impressed to hear all the activities going on at all three of our high schools. So, thank you for sharing all that with us and with the community. We are now on item 7B, which is our events. Um, our next board compensation committee is on February 24th and as Mr. Manis spoke about earlier, it's going to be uh one meeting at a time and about one meeting a month. Um, our next policy committee meeting will be in March. Our community forum, as mentioned earlier earlier, will be March 24th. That's in the KC Middle School cafeteria after our budget work session. Our conversations with staff will be in April with details still to be
090determined. And as we already spoke about as well, our student forms were held at all three high schools on January 29 28th. Uh our school visits this month, we had several board members visit Maple East, Maple West, and Country Parkway on February 3rd. We were able to observe facilities and instruction and learn about some of the school initiatives. Moving on to items 7 C and 7D. The board candidate information and vote board candidate information and vote information items are in board docs. Are there any questions from any board members on that information? Okay. 7E and 7F is ECSB and NISBA items and 7G liaison assignments are all also in board docs. Item 7H, we received correspondence from community members on school inclusion, facilities, employment, access to district property, and transportation policy. 7 I, our nominations
091for Erie WOSI's board of education must be received on or before March 24th, and our nominations for the Irwan Bosey's board will be on our March 10th meeting agenda. Are there any board member questions or comments related to any of those items? Yes, DSP were the ERU and BOSIES call for nominations. Who who exactly is getting nominated? Uh we receive nominations usually by email or in the mail from those that are interested. There can only be one person per school district that is allowed to be elected. So my understanding is as of right now the two people whose terms are up will be uh nominated again and I'm not aware of any other nominations at this point but those nominations can still come in and we do have someone representing Williamsville already on the Erie
092one Bosey's board. All right. Thank you. Did that answer your question? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. So moving on we're to our consent agenda. May I have a motion to approve agenda items 9 minutes 10 personnel 11 business and finance 12 district facilities and support services 13 exceptional education special needs and student activities 14 instruction curriculum and 15 other business as presented Dr. Spicer, Miss Puland. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. Thank you to the following retirees for their service to the district. Suzanne Asi, nurse, Casey Middle School with 22 years of service. Rhonda Davis, occupational therapist assistant, Dodge Elementary School, 30 years of service. Jacqueline Durinka, Transit Middle School teacher with 13 years of service. Julie Johnson, teacher, North High School with 31 years of service. Jill Kubida, teacher, Country
093Parkway Elementary School with 38 years of service. Kathleen Ataviano, teacher, Transit Middle School with 28 years of service. Mark Percy, teacher, North High School with 34 years of service. Bonita Roso, teacher aid, Maple East Elementary School with 40 years of service. Eileen Ryan, teacher instructional specialist, district office with 25 years of service. And Laura Shankovski, teacher, Dodge Elementary School with 29 years of service. Congratulations and thank you to all of our retirees. [applause] We are now on item 16A. May I have a motion for the second reading and review of policy updates 5674 data networks and security access which is renumbered to 5850 and 5851 cyber security incident response as presented. Miss Puland Mr. Bulan is there any discussion? All in favor? Motioned carried unanimously and may I have a motion to adopt these policy
094updates. Miss Blacker and Dr. Singh. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. Item 16B. May I have a motion for the first reading and review of policy updates 1620 annual organizational meeting 1640 abs absentee military and early mail ballots 7513 medication and personal care items and students with lifethreatening health conditions and anaphilaxis as presented Miss Blacker Dr. Sing. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. May I have a motion to postpone these policy updates for the second reading and adoption at the March 10th meeting. Mr. Bulan, Mr. Mana, is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. We are on item 17. Does anyone have a topic to discuss under committee of the whole? Seeing none, there are also no matters to discuss under 18 legislative matters. We
095are now on item 19A, which is our second public expression. If anyone in the audience would like to speak at this time, please step up to the podium and state your name. Hello, my name is Gabrielle Baldi. Okay, one minute Gabrielle, if you don't mind, I'm going to call on our parliamentarian to just review our public expression format. Okay, and then you can start. The same the same policies from the first public expression apply to the second public expression except to the overall time limit. If you spoke at the first, the topic must be different. You will have three minutes. You'll be cued at two and a half minutes. Give you time to wind up your talk. Okay. Uh tell me whenever my time starts. It starts right now. It starts now. Okay. Um hello,
096my name is Gabrielle Baldi and I am here to discuss the new version of learning lab. The new version is a period by period program in which there are no learning lab teachers. Instead, students with are with a randomized volunteer teacher who has signed up to teach learning lab during this their learning lab period. This program in my opinion will not work because the learning lab teacher needs to know enough about each of the students classes to teach it to them. Um what the teachers wouldn't would have to do is contact the other teachers the student has in order to learn what is being taught in each of the students classes and then learn the material. So if a student has a math teacher for learning lab but needs help with science that teacher will
097not be able to give them the help they need to during that learning lab period. Even if the math teacher learned about that student's science science work after that period, there may be a different teacher, the next time the student has a learning lab and like a learning lab class or period. And if that teacher does not happen to be a science teacher or know the material the student needs needs help to learn and understand the student will not be able to get the help they need to understand science because of things they have no control over. A student may need to understand the material in their class by a certain time if they have a test or and need to understand the material on the test by the date and time of the test
098or have a homework assignment due at a certain time. In in the case that the teacher they have during the learning lab does not know the subject material yet, they likely could not prepare them. This would not be the student's fault because the student cannot help that after spending the same amount of time participating in class, they need one-on-one help from a teacher who knows the material. I care about learning lab because I and many other people in the program need need the extra help that we get there to succeed or it is extremely beneficial. I've learned many things in learning lab across all subjects. I firmly believe that that no period by program can can replace our current learning lab program and give students the same help. I'm worried that the period by period
099program will not be able to be proper properly staffed by volunteer teachers. I don't know what would happen in the event that during a certain period there are no teachers currently available that have signed up to teach learning lab and a student has learning lab for that period. I hope by bringing up what I have just now to you that I am making a difference and ensuring that the learning lab program could continue to be a program that allows all students to succeed no matter how they learn best and that all students feel seen within the district. Thank you very much for listening to my speech. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Would anyone else like to speak during our second public expression period? Okay. This concludes our regular board meeting. The next scheduled regular board
100meeting is March 10th. I would like to wish everyone a restful mid-winter recess. And is there a motion to adjourn the regular board meeting? Dr. Spicer, Miss Fletch. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. Thank you. Good night, everyone.