001I call the regular board meeting to order. All members of the board are present except board member Fletch, board member Biscalia, board member Bleinger, and exeicio student board members Carconis, Maurice, and Perva. Mr. Mana, 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. I forgot. May I have a motion to recess into executive session to discuss current litigation, collective negotiations, employment matters relating to particular persons, a discipline matter, and superintended midyear evaluation. Mr. Bulan, Miss Puland, all in favor? Motion carried unanimously. May I have a motion to return the regular board meeting to public session? Miss Bleinger, Dr. Spicer. All
002in favor? Motion carried unanimously. I call the regular board meeting to order. All board members are present. During the immediately proceeding executive session, our board discussed resolutions related to current litigation. May I have a motion on this, Miss Puland? Yes. I move the adoption of the following resolutions. Be it resolved that the board of education in accordance with the board of education policy 6540 and the New York public officer's law in a response to a request from Dr. Darren J. Brown Hall, Superintendent of Schools received December 12th, 2025 hereby agrees to defend and indemnify Dr. Brown Hall and the litigation captioned Joe atall v. Williamsville Central School District at all index number 82139/2025. And be it resolved that the board of education in accordance with board of education policy 6540 and the New York public
003officers law in response to a request from Chris McDuffy, principal of Mill Middle School received December 18th, 2025 hereby agrees to defend and indemnify Mr. McDuffy in the litigation captioned do at all v. Williamsville Central School District at all index number 82139/2025. Is there a second? Mr. Bulan. 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, an evacuation should be necessary, an alarm will sound. Please note 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. At this time, we would like to honor former staff member and Williamsville Education Foundation member Cheryl Goldstone, who passed away December 15th. We
004offer our condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues. I ask that all in attendance please join us in a moment of silence for Miss Boldstone. Thank you. We are now on item three. Dr. Brown Hall, I turn it over to you for school spotlight. Thank you very much, board president. So, prior to the winter recess throughout the district, our schools were engaged in incredible opportunities to support our community and those less fortunate. For the last 12 years, Casey Middle School has been at the forefront of that, helping bring kindness and hope during the holiday season. Please welcome principal Casey Principal Dr. S Carella to share more on their days of giving initiative. Thank you. Uh, Days of Giving is a long-standing and meaningful tradition within our sixth grade community at Casey Middle School. Organized through
005our ELA teachers, this initiative centers around kindness, service, and giving back to our local community. Now in its 12th year, Days of Giving continues to reflect the very best of who we are as a school. I'd like to extend my sincere gratitude to Colleen Murray, Gretchen Bruning, and Melissa Bennett for their dedication to carrying this tradition forward. Their work not only sustains an important program, but also reinforces the core values and beliefs that define Casey. I also want to thank our PTSA for their help and support with the initiative. Through this experience, our students are reminded of what it truly means to be a Casey Cougar, to lead with fierce minds and kind hearts, and to understand the impact they can have beyond our school walls. Thank you. Thank you. We are going to show
006ourselves and others that we care and we're giving and we're giving back to the community. Days of Giving started 12 years ago. Friend of mine went to the Buffalo Dream Center for the Christmas Eve dinner. She realized that the people there who were receiving the dinners needed something special at their table. So, we brought that idea back and for the last 12 years, we've been making table favors. A nice thing to do so that people know that they're like good people in the world. People can see that you're willing to help them. They're doing something to give back to the community and they can feel really good about that. We do positivity project at Casey and a big part of that is developing an other people mindset and so projects like these really help kids
007understand that there's people out there that don't have as much as them and they can do something to help with that. To see how excited they are just to even participate in it. I'm just so proud of them. This is our first part of our days of giving. Okay. Our second part is the December letters project. people who have to spend their holidays in hospitals, it's not always the happiest of times. You're away from your family, away from your friends, and so these cards help make their holidays a little bit better. It just one little thing to brighten their day. Dear friend, I know what you're going through is tough, but you're strong. So remember, there are so many people rooting for you, including me, your friend Andrew. Awesome. Dear friend, I'm sorry that you
008are spending the holidays away from home. what you are going through right now is hard. Don't forget that you are strong and you got this happy holidays from Kaye. It shows that they're loved and they have people thinking about them over the holidays. I feel happy because I know that it will make someone else feel happy and then I know that I'm doing a good thing bringing it to someone. It's really the thoughtful things that they write that you never think as a sixth grader they can really come up and think of and it really just ends up being great writing. Sentence structure, spelling, capitals, all of those things. So that's just retouching on the writing process but in the end creating a really thoughtful message for others hoping to lift their spirits. It might
009just be a table favor or a card but a little bit goes a long way. It really just creates really good humans. It's a great activity and we love it. Thank you for sharing that, Principal Carella, and everything that you all do over at Casey Middle School. Thank you very much. We also know throughout the year, members of our diverse community enjoy numerous holidays, cultural observances, and celebrations. at Maple East Elementary School. Along with learning about world history, continents, and cultures, students were able to share their celebrations with the presentation to their peers and families. I'd now like to welcome Maple East principal Dr. Bill Bowen to the podium to highlight their project. Thank you, Dr. Brown Hall. And good evening to the esteemed members of our Williamsville Board of Education. I am Bill Bowen,
010the proud principal of Maple East Elementary, and it is my pleasure to introduce our annual school spotlight video to you this evening. At Maple East, we work tirelessly to align our efforts with the priorities of the board and the superintendent. These priorities include a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, student voice, family and community engagement, and highquality academic instruction. Tonight you will see a third grade research project that thoughtfully weaves these priorities together and showcases our shared values as a Maple East and Williamsville school community. This project is the culmination of a third grade social studies unit in which students learned about cultures, holidays, and traditions and then applied their learning by conducting a research project on a holiday or tradition that is important to their family. At the conclusion of the unit, we invited
011families to the school for a holiday showcase. During this event, students presented information about their chosen holiday or tradition to their peers and family members. As you watch the video, you will see how student voice, cultural understanding, and family in family engagement are all integrated into the learning experience. Before we show the video, I'd like to thank third grade teacher Colleen Bender and ENL teacher Lindseay Tutuni for highlighting this work along with our entire third grade team for designing and implementing this meaningful learning experience. I'd also like to thank our entire Maple East faculty for creating similar opportunities for kids at every grade level at our school. Finally, thank you so much to our board and superintendent for your vision and continued support of these types of experiences for our kids. Please enjoy our school
012spotlight video. Thank you very much. Thank you. Third grade spends a lot of time learning about the seven continents. For the whole month of December, we pick a different country to visit and we travel around within the classrooms. And then in the holiday showcase, the students pick their own holiday their family celebrates and then they are able to showcase it. They have little brochures. They have little trinkets at the table. Any way that they want to talk about their holiday, the moon festival, the ways we decorate is to hang up red banners. The kids really light up when they're seeing themselves being represented at school and they're just more aware of what goes on, different holidays celebrated and all the different cultures that we have present in East. A tradition we have is we make
013moon cakes. We use um flour um and other and other sweet stuff to fill in it to make a moon cake. They had like a curious mind and they asked me a lot of questions. I want them to know about my um traditions uh so that um maybe they can uh you know like celebrate it. Holidays Around the World really teaches our students empathy and respect. They can see other cultures and religions and educate themselves. It really is learning about geography, families, making connections and because they love their friends, they want to learn about their cultures and religions. Some of the customs that we do during Dwali is the fireworks and we light the wall-ally lamps. We usually wear a dress with symbols on it and like vibrant colors. When they're able to talk about
014the holidays they celebrate, it kind of just brings their personalities out and they get to connect with kids in class. And when each kid is represented, I feel like they're so comfortable and they get excited to share and talk about their heritage. Students love learning just as much as sharing. Being able to show the games they play, the lights that they light, the food they eat. Wow. We celebrate holidays very similarly, and we're so connected and we are much more alike than we think. It was fun because they're caring about my holiday and wanting to learn more about it. If someone has this holiday and someone has that holiday, then they can then they can talk about their differences and their and the things that are the same and they can learn more about each
015other and be better friends. How absolutely awesome. Thank you very much, Principal Bowen, for that. Also, President, I turn it back over to you. Thank you, Dr. Brown Hall. Are there any board acknowledgements this evening? I do not see any. So, we will move on to item number four, which is public expression. I call on parliamentarian Puland to review our public expression format. Welcome to all who have come to observe this regular board meeting. Per 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 know
016we will not be responding 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 matters or any topic that may disclose information about a particular student. On these matters, we ask that you go through 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 public comments. After I call on you, please step up to the podium
017and state your name. Our first speaker tonight is Lauren Shellinger. Hello. Hi, I'm Lauren Skellinger. Good evening to superintendent, the board, and to the guests. Uh, my name's Lauren Skellinginger. My children are students at Forest and Mill, and I've volunteered in the district in several capacities. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts on the current committee looking into providing compensation to board members. Uh I recognize the hard work that the board puts in and the demands that the position requires. My comments against compensating board members are by no means intended to reflect ingratitude for your service. Indeed, I thank each of you for your time tonight and throughout your tenures. I can understand why members of the board thought this was a topic worth investigating. I'm acutely aware of the decline in volunteerism
018postcoid and have seen firsthand how local institutions can suffer from that decline. I sit on the board of a youth focused nonprofit and serve as treasurer for a youth sports league. In both these organizations, we've had to work creatively to fill positions that and attract new volunteers. Fortunately for the Williamsville School District, there has been sufficient interest to ensure we do not have any vacancies on the board. The only time recently when a seat went unfilled was a board decision to keep a seat empty following a resignation. Similarly, there has not been an issue with uncontested elections. Despite national and local trends, the Williamsville School Board has not been suffering from a lack of volunteers. In contrast, the village of Williamsville, which does provide compensation for their trustees, has often had uncontested elections, including for
019mayor in 2023 and for two trustee positions in 2025. This is evidence that compensation for board members is not sufficient to increase the pool of interested parties. My hypothesis for why the district hasn't suffered from a lack of volunteers is because the board has been high functioning and able to make real progress on issues facing the district. There are more challenges ahead, including expenses that outpace revenues, a trend that is projected to continue, according to the presentation to the board last month. Rather than spending money on attorneys to determine whether there's a legal way to compensate the board, we could focus on reducing expenses and securing the fiscal stability of the district. On top of wasting resources, this topic sews division on the board and in the community. Personally, if there was one thing that
020would dissuade me from running for school board, it would be the prospect of joining a group mired in a contentious and unproductive debate on a topic that doesn't serve the needs of the district. I urge the board members to consider discontinuing this investigation and devoting these resources to more pressing needs. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Michelle Doviaak. I'm Michelle Doviaak. Good evening. Tonight, I am the voice for the learning lab teachers and students in our district. Last week, the learning lab toosas were made aware of the district's decision to eliminate our positions and to discontinue essentially gutting the current learning lab model at the middle and high school buildings. I want to implore you to keep the current model in place as it serves the need of our most vulnerable population and
021provides equity for all students. Slide six of today's agenda references that learning lab support will continue next year and look differently and the district is piloting a period by period model at east for second semester. This slide however is vague and doesn't clearly articulate the value of an entire program. Learning lab isn't just a support is it is a specialized program that can't be replaced with a period by period model. On average, learning lab serves approximately 350 students per school year. According to current enrollment data on nisa.gov, gov. We service 17% of middle and high school population in Williamsville School District. Learning Lab is an integral part of the new MTSS district initiative which represents the most comprehensive tier 2 intervention service. In our current program, we are interventionalists who are well-versed in multiple academic
022disciplines and executive functioning. We work on goal setting, self- advocacy, study skills, organization skills, time management skills, but we're relationship centered. We are a family. My kids are my children. In my role at South High School, I know every facet of each learning lab student. I use a tiered approach to make sure they make measured progress. I know the intricacies of their daily lives, their schedules, their jobs, their sports, their interests, their families. A period by period program can't and won't do that for students. Let me ask each of you, don't our students deserve better? As a district, we tout equity. If we dismantle the current program, this will create inequity for our learning lab students. The proposed program would be a teacher six assignment model. And frankly, multiple teachers who are already teaching five
023classes won't be able to provide the same intervention support that the learning labs do daily. This will result in more course failures, lower graduation rates. When I think about my students losing this method of support, my heart breaks for them. Thank you, Many. Our next speaker is Gabrielle Baraldi Baldi. Um, should I lower this? Hello, my name Hello, my name is Gabrielle Baraldi and I'm here to discuss the removal of the current learning lab program and why it is far too important to our students and me to be removed. Learning lab is extremely important if not essential to many students including me in the district who may have a different way of learning whether that be a learning disability, mental disability or delay um or even just a different way of learning in general. Learning
024Lab gives these kids equal opportunities to learn and succeed rather than letting them fall behind in class because they don't understand the material. Not because they don't care to learn it, but because they learn with more one-on-one help such as what is provided in learning lab. Right now, the takeaway learning the learning lab program as it currently is would be sort of like telling us all and all kids like me, all students with a different who have a different way of learning such as a learning disability or a delay or or any sort of different way of thinking that or also kids that need extra time on any school assignments that uh that they don't matter enough to have a program where they can learn and understand what is being taught to them in their
025classes without falling behind. The purpose of school is to teach kids all the knowledge that they need in the world. All the knowledge that we need in the world and kids that need learning lab should never be treated as an exception. And they should never have to receive bad grades or failing grades despite putting all their effort and care towards their academics and learning and preparing for the real world, despite how much they try and how much they care. They could because just because they learn best through this program. Please keep the current learning lab program because it is beneficial for students and is and it is essential for some students including me. We don't deserve to fall behind for our individual way of learning and processing information. Individuality should be supported with the learning
026lab program rather than punished, abandoned, or left behind just because it's within the minority. Thank you very much for listening to this. Thank you. And our next speaker is James Handley. Yes, my name is uh James Hanley and uh my topic has to do with the budget and which is going to be discussed in a few minutes. So, it's a little out of order here. Um you know, basically my my question, I know it well may not be answered tonight, but if I can get a response is um what's going on with the bus transportation line? Uh the reason I say that it's not shown here but that line is now going up 12% from where it is today. And so I I just like to understand not it's per perfectly val possibly valid just
027under trying to understand why. And and the reason I'm really bringing it up is when this year's budget was proposed and the next year's is sort of estimated it was only thought to be going up $600,000. It's going up $1.1 million. So, it's a half a million dollar increase from where it thought it was six just six months ago. So, if the board can get back to me or the district office, I'd appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. And that concludes our first public expression for today. Thank you. And please note that a learning lab update will be included during agenda item 6A. A compensation committee update is under item 7 C and we are moving right on to our budget development shortly. So Dr. Brown Hall, I turn it over to you to introduce
028items 4B, which is the shared decision-making team report, and then 4C, our budget development. Thank you very much, B president. We have um the fortune of having our assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction, Dr. Balon, who actually oversees our shared decision-making programming in the district. So, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Balon to just provide some updates under item 4B about excuse me, the shared decision-making team report. Thank you so much, Dr. Brown. Good evening, everyone. Um as a complimentary item to another agenda item that uh takes place a little bit later uh this evening um we did include a report from Bethanne Diodaka McFillips. I wish to thank Beth Anne. Beth Anne is our district committee chairperson for shared decision-making and a parent representative. Uh we have again Dr. Brown mentioned the good
029fortune we have an outstanding committee with cross stakeholder representation. Beth Anne's statements are really just a testament I I would say to the great work not just by the district committee but by the shared decision-making committees at at the building level as a whole. Um the community may be aware uh one of the great resources we have on our website is not only our district plan for participation but each school creates their own shared decisionmaking plan on a template that we provide centrally and they talk about their goals and objectives for the year. Um there are a lot of great components. I would uh welcome anybody to go and look on our website and take a look at those plans. But as you can see from Beth Anne's statements, there's a lot of great work
030happening. Uh she highlights some of that work here, but the totality of the work is encompassed in the plans. And of course, the buildings themselves have wonderful committees. So thank you to all of the people involved at those levels. So we look forward to continuing that great work. And again, we have a complimentary item later in the on the agenda which speaks to our process for implementing pure decision making in the district. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Bill, and I appreciate it greatly. We'll move on to item 4 C. And this is our initial budget development program increases, our first presentation. And so I will turn that over to the very capable hands of our acting assistant superintendent of finance and management services, Dr. Chris McGimny. Thank you, Dr. Brown Hall. Uh, it is that
031time of the year where we begin to provide the board of education and community with some initial information on the development of our budget. Each January, we begin our budget development process with a look at our program continuation estimates that are we are presenting tonight. So, this slide delves into that for us. On the top left in the yellow, uh you can see that our current budget is $242,719,867. Below that 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 the last is to support program. The first area is total employee salaries of almost $4 million. Health insurance increases are at 8% or $2,92,360. And for Boseies, we've had some higher expenses in this area which
032resulted in about $1.6 million increase. These expenses are associated with supporting direct student programs, occupational education programs, and administrative items including purchasing instructional technology. Lastly, bus transportation is outsourced to Student Transportation of America, and we have mandated increases of about 1,125,674, which include mandated increases in uh the special education area. The total uh required expense increase is about $8,767,18 making next year's preliminary budget about $251,482,975. Our budget will be close to this number, but our budget could go up or down based upon additional data as it becomes available, such as teacher retirements. Currently, that increase is about 3.61%. 61% from last year. If we shift to the right side of this table, we have taken these same areas and projected them out an additional year to see the future impact of continuing the program into
0332728. There are many factors that could impact these numbers uh such as contract negotiations and other areas that may have significant increases as well. Moving to this slide is our program enhancements. Working with our special education department, we're looking at uh we're looking to add two teachers on special assignment to support the implementation of their strategic plan and enhance student outcomes. As a percentage of our current budget, this would be about 600s of a percent. So, if we bring this all together now on this slide with looking at our program continuation and our enhancements, we're looking at a total budget increase of about $8,913,18 or 3.67%. So a few important reminders about the budget right now is that this is a working budget and it could change based upon new information uh such as retirements.
034As I mentioned the Bosey's budget will not be finalized until March and we could see some changes in these initial Bosey's projections. One of the big unknowns in the budget are the revenue estimates which I see the governor is going to release uh some of those estimates the budget next Tuesday. Um so we'll have more information then. So once we get that information, we'll start working on our tax cap calculation and we should have some preliminary estimates at our next board meeting. Thank you. And it is it correct, Dr. McInley, that we may see additional expenses? I know the special education department are looking at cohorts of students that are moving through to see if additional special education programming along the continuum is necessary for in district. We do continue to monitor that and many
035other areas too as we progress with more information. Thank you very much for that. May I jump to item five for president? Uh were there any questions regarding the budget development before we jump on? I just just on the the bus transportation if I may. Um these increases were foreseen. It's not like we didn't know these were coming. Correct. There is a you know we do have a contract with STA so there are foreseeable increases there. There is also uh there's times that we do have to provide special education services to students and so those buses are mini buses and we can only fit so many students on those buses. So we have to increase those buses and that is an increased cost. So some of those uh increases are unforeseen as well. Um but
036are they are will there be fuel insurance things like that? fuel insurance, right? We we try to do our best to predict fuel in the future as well, but you know, we we're not we don't have a crystal ball. We can't predict all world events and what that might do to fuel prices, but we do our best to monitor and look at that and also make predictions upon trends. Any other questions regarding the budget? Okay, thank you. Now, please move on. Thank you very much. I am going to turn it back to Assistant Superintendent Dr. McInley to really talk about the reserve the repair reserve proposed items for the summer of 2026. It totals about $1.2 million if I'm correct. That's correct. Yeah. And not to exceed 1.2 million. So, um it's it's it's hard
037to believe it's been 25 years ago that we established this repair reserve. And it really is to serve for these necessary repairs on an annual basis. And these are often non-rine repairs like paving a parking lot or resurfacing a gym floor that these projects are too large to absorb in our annual budget. But they do this does provide us with that opportunity to do these projects before the next capital project. So really it is a way to ensure that we're maintaining safe, functional, and well-maintained spaces for our our students. And our facilities department does a wonderful job at really prioritizing these projects and determining what it is that we need to do in a timely way. And so this year we're coming to the board asking for uh not to exceed 1.2 million for repairs
038that include refinishing the gym floor at East High School, which that would uh finish our last of the three high school gym floors. Uh we do want to repave portions of the parking lot at Casey Middle School, including replacing some sections of sidewalk, and we do want to replace an air conditioning unit that services our server room. So, these projects do require some architectural services which we expect to cost uh at $62,500. So, currently the district has 5,153,89 in repair reserves and so we'll be able to to fund this uh project with no impact to our general operating budget. Thank you very much, Dr. McInley. Board President, I turn it back over to you. Are there any questions or comments from the board regarding the proposed summer repair reserve? Oops. Okay. So, we will now
039have our public hearing for the proposed repair reserve projects only. Anyone wishing to address the board regarding the proposals may approach the podium and sign in to speak at this time. I don't see anyone approaching the pro of the podium. So the approval of the repair reserve project is an agenda item 12A later in the meeting. We are now on item six. Dr. Brown Hall, I turn it over to you for your superintendence report. Thank you very much, board president. So we are going to start with item 6A, the community update. So first and foremost, UPK information. So for the 2627 school year, the UPK registration process has changed. So parents must fully register their eligible child as a new student of the district by Monday, February 23rd, 2026. Registrations completed after this date will
040be added to the wait list. Parents must register first in order to be eligible for this year's lottery if one is needed and held based on the total number of applicants. All of the information can be found by clicking the link. The UPK page on the Wimsilo Central School District website has all the detailed information and the links to register. We are currently in the RFP process to select community-based organizations CBOS for the 2627 school year and beyond. So that RFP has already launched and the application deadline for that RFP is January 28th, 2026. So after that time, after the review is conducted, after the applications are brought in, we will know which uh vendors will be CBOS beginning in the 2627 school year. Gak information. So we have a special education advisory council in
041the district and now under the direction of Dr. Denise Stappenbeck, our director of student services. We will be again a a GAK, a gifted education advisory council, which is being established. So, the firstformational session Dr. Stappenbach will be holding at Mill Middle School on Tuesday, January 27th at 6:00 p.m. Information regarding this has already been sent out to families. The session will include an overview of GK, why it's being formed, and how stakeholders can participate. So, if you are interested in attending theformational session, please be sure to register at this link that will be in the community update and it's on our website also, I believe. Correct, Nick? Thank you very much. Governor Hokll, she came to visit our school. She was at Maple West Elementary School to highlight the free and reduced meals program
042throughout New York State. So, we are very pleased to see our numbers for breakfast and lunch have increased. So, our students are taking advantage of the free meals that are offered in for breakfast and lunch. So, we were very pleased to welcome the governor as she acknowledged that and she actually did her press conference from Maple West Elementary School. And it's good to see that our students really have access to breakfast because we know that's an important meal for the day to get students geared up for learning and for lunch in the afternoon. Master Teachers, congratulations to two of our teachers, Andrea Armstrong from Maple East and Kathleen Wheeler from Dodge, who have been selected to be part of the New York State Master Teacher Program. Over the years, we've had a number of teachers
043who have been selected for the New York State Master Teacher Program, and we are very proud of them. The program consists of outstanding STEM teachers recognized for their dedication to professional growth and development. Learning labs and you heard a little bit about that tonight from speakers, but I want to correct some misinformation because there seems to be misinformation that learning lab support will not continue for the 2627 school year and that is false. Learning lab support will continue. We will have learning lab for the 2627 school year. Will it be in the current model? No, it will not. The support will look different as we decide on the model that we're going to use. We are piloting a period by period model at East High School for the second semester. There is not one model
044that learning lab must follow to be effective. So, we are exploring a new model, a more flexible model for our school district. Keep in mind, initial funding for the learning labs were through our ESSER funds that we received as part of the COVID grants. The learning lab model is approximately a $800,000 cost for our district. So, we're looking at other models that can also be more flexible. That funding comes out of the general fund in the current year because we no longer have COVID or ESSER funds. So, if you have additional questions or want more clarification, you can feel free to contact your middle or high school principal if you have any questions. But again, learning lab, the model will continue. We will be offering it period by period with teacher support during those periods.
045Chromebooks, we have made the decision to discontinue assignment of Chromebooks for the onetoone model format for students in grades 5 to six beginning in the 2627 school year. However, there will be classex of Chromebooks provided. So students will still have the opportunity to do work on Chromebooks and they will still have that digital access during the school day. Buildings and professional learning staff are working to streamline assignments and homework. That's why we're making the assign the announcement now so that we can gear learning that usually is required after hours on the Chromebook for students in grades five and six. We can gear more of that to the realization that they will not have those Chromebooks assigned. Our continued desire is to definitely balance screen time. We know how important it is to balance screen time
046especially in our younger students. Now for the 2728 school year, we are looking to also extend that to grades seven and eight and discontinuing the assignment of onetoone Chromebooks at grades seven to eight, seven and eight beginning that school year. guardian caps. And I want to talk about guardian caps because this was brought up at the fall community forum. A parent was very passionate about it. He asked the board to look into it and we did. Our athletic director Chris Muka along with our high school athletic directors all met. They met with coaches. They did their research about guardian caps also. And so they came to the decision that guardian caps will be available for student use in the fall of 2026 for all levels of football modified junior varsity and varsity. This will be
047optional for students. Students will not be forced to wear them, but they will be available at no cost to students for them to use. If you have any questions, please contact our district athletic director or your high school athletic director. While we're on this topic, I do want to say I appreciate parents and community members that come to our community forums and have discussion with the board of education and the superintendent. I was at a PTSA meeting at North High School. Board member Fletcher was there and a parent even said, "Coming to the community forums allows dialogue with the board and although things may not happen immediately, we will work on them and we things will come out of the community forums." And so I appreciate our stakeholders that do come to the community forums,
048have those discussions, and we're allowed to do additional research calendar updates. So there is no school next Monday, January 19th, and observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Our regent exams, our January exams will then follow from January 20th to the 23rd. There will be no school on February 16th, no school on February 17th for Asian Lunar New Year, and then the rest of the week will be mid-winter recess. In the district news later newsletter, we previously shared the cultural and religious observations through the 2829 school year. There is a correction though for the 2627 school year, Eid alada will be May 17th, 2027. So that was incorrectly stated on the district newsletter that went home. And we are going to at the next board meeting, the February 10th board meeting, we will have
049the preliminary calendar for the board to have sit for 30 days and then adopt in March. Right now we have finalized the calendar. We have sent it to our unions for um a courtesy review of the calendar to get their input and then that will be made public. So, we all know Labor Day is late next year, so we're looking at a late later start to the school year next year. 2026 summer school. Um, it will be here before we know it. So, the dates are set and the locations are set for summer school. Elementary and middle will take place at Casey Middle School from July 8th to the 18th. Our community ed program will also be at Casey Middle School. High School summer school will remain at East High School from July 7th to
050August 19th. Just for Kids will be at Hine Middle School. Our special education district-wide summer school will be at Transit Middle School from July 6th to August 14th. And our music programming over the summer will be at North High School. That is the community update. What questions might our board members have? Dr. Spicer, I'm sorry. That's your I'm sorry. I'm leaning far here. Um, thank you for um reviewing the the learning lab um question. Um, and I did ask a few questions I know of you to the board via email. One question I did want to ask just for to ask it at the board table. Um, it was shared with me that there was a concern um that learning lab teachers are not only doing their learning lab position but are at times um
051compensating for vacancies in other positions. Um, can you just address that concern? Absolutely. So, we have and and I know the the the school you were referring to, but we do have those positions filled and I do want to talk about um we appreciate the work that our teachers do daily. We appreciate the connections that are made with teachers also and teachers and students. And we know that right now, for example, if I am a student, I have fourth period free and I decide to go to learning lab to get additional help during that period. That's my fourth period. When we do period by period learning lab assignments, if I have a fourth period teacher who is during learning doing learning lab at that time, that's the teacher that will be during learning lab. That's
052the period I have free. So, say you're the learning lab teacher for fourth period. You're the teacher I will be seeing for learning lab. I will build that relationship with you. And we know that learning lab teachers are instrumental. That's why we're not going to discontinue the program, right? We're going to have it on the period by period model. Thank you. Absolutely. Question for president. I turn it back over to you. Actually, I believe we're still on you for are we doing uh the district strategic plan goal update? Let's do it. Thank you. Absolutely. So, for item 6B, our strategic plan update, our goals update for January. So, we do give strategic plan updates in January and June. So, our district strategic plan is our district's guiding document. We're pleased with the progress we have
053made in all goal areas, whether it be communication, wellness, community, and sustainability, teaching, learning, and leadership, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Last year, we partnered with VA evaluation to conduct surveys on the strategic plan and the DEI plan. What we found is that a good number of our stakeholders know we have these plans, but they don't know what's in them. We're developing a series of videos to better acquaint our school community with these plans. These videos will be available prior to the end of the school year. I encourage you to please review the highlights in the plan. We have highlights from January 2024 to present day January 2026. For example, in communication, you will see what activities help us reach the goal of improving communication and collaboration within and among the district and school buildings
054in order to effectively engage all stakeholders. You will also see details of how this is happening across the district in teaching, learning, and leadership. You will see what activities are helping us reach the goal of students making meaningful connections to their educational experiences, focusing on understanding what they're learning, why they are learning it, and using feedback to grow and make enhancements. This is a 32-page document, but an easy readad document with a great deal of information to help you better understand how we are moving the district forward. We'll begin to solicit stakeholder interest in being part of the strategic planning team for the 20 27 2032 strategic plan document meetings will begin in September of 2026. I'm going to move forward now to item 6 C, the diversity, equity, and inclusion update. Our district DEI
055plan highlights um are encouraging to see the work that continues districtwide and honoring our diverse school community, looking at all aspects of the district through an equitable lens and aiming to increase inclusivity leading to a sense of belonging for every student. Goal activity 1D, the district and schools will promote the use of inclusive language that meets the evolving needs of our community. Inclusive language fosters belonging. We must choose words that include rather than exclude and evidence that is listed here. It highlights at Casey Middle, the DEI values and visions and communications committee help review messaging for use of strength-based language and create accessible materials to foster a strong sense of belonging for every student and family. Our school diversity, equity, and inclusion teams conducted equity audits in which common areas, hallways, and entry points are
056being reviewed for inclusive inclusivity, signs of belonging, and connection to the school. With all of our goal areas and activities in the plan, it's easy easy to see why our ratings were proficient when last rated. One last example, goal activity 2A, the full diversity of our district community and beyond will be reflected in the curriculum in order to ensure that students will both relate to the curriculum and respect the perspectives and experiences of others. And you saw some of that when Principal Bowen was highlighting it at Maple East Elementary. Our evidence is that in our ELA classrooms, student choice within book clubs allow students to explore varying perspectives. Texts are continually being updated with new additions available to provide diversity in the curriculum. Students are able to read about the unique perspective and experiences of
057other. So you see we have examples in our diversity, equity, and inclusion updates specifically geared at district-wide initiatives and school specific initiatives. So you see how we are reaching our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. Any questions from board members? Not not a question, just a a statement. Um I appreciate for both plans, while they're very thick documents. They are. Um I appreciate the fact that this microphone is not working for me tonight. Um I appreciate the fact that um there's timely updates and so you can see when the updates happened and the most recent one being January 2026. So that layout is very helpful to follow along. Thank you very much. And I do want to thank uh um under Dr. Balin's leadership, Danielle Alio, who is our director of professional learning, helps assemble this.
058Um, and our our graphic designer, AB Boinko, helps with the design of it. So, thank you very much. And just to add to that, in that same structure, then you get to see the progress throughout every year, which is is really good to see. So, I appreciate the structure of that as well. Thank you. You any other questions or comments from board members? Okay, we're moving on to item 7A. First of all, I want to thank board members Mana, Leinger, Puland, Singh, and Fletch for agreeing to monitor a B a board goal this year. In August, we established our annual board goals to provide clear direction, align resources, ensure accountability for student achievement, and demonstrate continuous improvement. Our current goals align with the district's strategic plan and in additional and additionally we have a board
059governance goal. I just wanted to offer some mid-year highlights of our work. Uh first of all, elevating student voice with our three student board members who have a board mentor, additional board support, and we're involved in revising the 2026 27 student student board member selection process. So, thank you for all that you've added to our board this year. Um, additionally, board members are facilitating two-way communication by serving as PTSA liaison and hosting both a community forum and a conversation with staff event in November. We received a very thorough and interesting math curriculum update in the fall. Uh, we continue to monitor data on discipline, attendance, class sizes, and enrollment. We held a board retreat in December with a focus on team building and communication. And we continue to review and ensure that our policies are
060equitable. And we included new policies this year such as 7316 use of internet enabled devices during the school day and 5685 maximum temperatures for school buildings and indoor facilities. We also had updates to some policies including the 5710 transportation program and 3290 operation of motor motordriven vehicles on district property. For any further details, you can see the midyear report which is attached in board docs. Are there any other comments from the board regarding that before we move on? Okay. Item 7B. Would any of our student board members like to provide a report regarding your activities and events? Should we start Cil? Is that okay? Sure. So, Cil Khanes, he is the representative for East High School. Good evening everyone. I hope you all had good evening everyone. I hope you all had an amazing winter
061break and had a happy new year. Um, I just wanted to highlight some of the things that happened at Williams before break before I talk about what's been happening since we've come back. So, this these are pictures from our Winterfest concert which was on December 17th and 18th, Wednesday and Thursday. The music department always goes out big. And so, the way we do it is this is our large stage area where band, orchestra, and chorus, they all take turns going there. But while they perform there, there are students that perform solo acts or even in groups as you can see in like the upper pit sort of areas. And then stage crew also works putting the spotlight on students to just basically make it an amazing experience. And this is our Grinch performance at the
062beginning of the concert just reminding everyone to mute all their cell phones. And yeah, this is just an amazing experience and Winterfest was a huge success this year. And this is the end of the year commons party on December 19th, the day right before winter break. And it was really helped out by Mrs. Weber where she basically put games in the commons after school Friday for students to just hang out, enjoy, and have a great time before they, you know, head home. And students participated in all sorts of fun collaborative activities as you can see here. And I I've talked to people who went and they said it was just a lot of fun, you know, just getting to hang out with friends and yeah. just a lot more pictures. I know they built some
063pretty impressive stacks like this one too. Okay, so uh now that we've come back to school, everyone's trying to gear back in. Um on Tuesday, January 6th, we had our eighth grade curriculum night, which is an overview of courses and programs for incoming students. Um, on Wednesday, January 7th, we had a SCAK meeting at Williamso East in the morning. Uh, we discussed the, you know, the future. Uh, in my group, group A, we discussed like the district-wide event, and we are still currently thinking about hanging up posters, which we will have a the students from Wimso East in Syak are planning on having a meeting after midterm week to discuss like the finalizing posters and hanging them all up. Uh on January 8th, Thursday, TSA Club took a field trip to NC Tech Wars where
064they basically brought their builds such as Trey Bachche where they had to hit a target that was 40t away using like, you know, pre-built calculations. And I know some people came back with awards. So that was great. Uh January 8 or January 9th, FBA general meeting was in the odd. And FBA, if you didn't know, is one of our largest clubs. uh and its membership has been growing throughout the years. I think this year we had over 200 members join and there are over 150 school kids going to Rochester for like a 3 week span. So during that week I believe there's like just no one at school and there's 12 chap runs coming just how big of a club it really is. Oh, um January 10th, which is Saturday, which was the ECMA allcount
065auditions at debut for jazz and junior high, and all eight junior high vocal students scored a 100red from our crowd department. So, shout out to them, which is amazing. Uh January 13th, which is today, there's a junior high instrumental auditions at Orchard Park. And in school, we had a careers in courts panel presentation during fifth period in the odd where we basically had professionals from the court system come in such as uh a law clerk um like a stenographer, someone who like types out the reports, um a lawyer, um a court cop, and they basically told us about their journey and experience. and it was just a great way for students who are interested in the law field but not necessarily lawyers to just learn a lot more about what they can do in the
066future. Uh tomorrow we have a presentation about the new visions program which is an opportunity for students to learn about medicine law diesel technology plant science and zoology. It's sort of like an internship or I don't know if you're familiar with Harkness where students go to Harkness to learn technical skills, but this is a lot more on-site training and they do a lot more in-depth stuff. I believe it's only for juniors and seniors, but I could be wrong about that. Um, January 16th, this Friday, Corral is taking a field trip to Clance to attend the BPO performance of Mozart's mass in C minor. So, I'm sure it'll be a great experience for them. Uh ECMEA Junior High instrumental auditions are at Orchard Park this Saturday. So good luck to anyone performing from East. And next
067week is our midterm week and Monday we have the day off for MLK day. And the Williamso East New York seal of biiteracy exam will be offered next week, Thursday and Friday. So students who know another language or through school have taken higher such as AP French or AP Spanish, they can take a district-wide exam to basically um certify themselves in this language and it'll be on their diploma, the seal of bi literacy and they can do multiple exams and there's also a presentation and speaking that goes along with it. and ongoing is our course scheduling has become so students are now starting to think about what classes they'll take next year and they have to basically you know think about graduation requirements and that sort of stuff. Um during the regions exam week our
068music directors will be going to our middle transit middle school to go over auditions for wind ensemble and symphony and corral and dynamics. These are basically the higher level which are audition entry programs and even eighth graders heading into their freshman year can get into them if you know they're tough enough and their audition goes well and our fall or spring musical sorry into the woods rehearsal began last week so that was great and I know pit orchestra has been playing in that and they've been they've gotten off to a great start and finally I just wanted to shout out some uh some of our sports Uh, Ezra Rosener, 10th grader, got a school record in the 300 meter dash for indoor track with a time of 37.11 seconds. Lily Asone, senior, got a school
069record in the thousand meter for indoor track with a time of 2 minutes 53 seconds and 7 milliseconds. And Julie Cruz, a senior, set a school record with a quadruple double in basketball against Star Point with 23 points, 17 rebounds, 12 steals, and 10 assists, which is shout out to her. Oh, thank you so much, CL. Appreciate the update from East. Jazelle Maurice, would you like to uh speak about North? Yes, I would love to. Thank you. Um, at Wimsler North, our hockey team is quite notable. Uh we've gotten section champs and state champs multiple years, but along with being a great team, they also try to focus on giving back. So on December 30th, they had their annual PGA fundraiser where all proceeds from tickets and the raffle goes to PGA Hope, which helps
070veterans with PTSD and other trauma related disorders. The money that they raised is uh unsure right now as we're still calculating it, but uh it's definitely a very um amazing opportunity that they have every year to promote uh this organization. Uh, as well as this Friday, they have another uh promotional game with their annual teddy bear toss where all teddy bears bought uh the proceeds go to um crisis services to promote suicide awareness. And during halftime of the game, all students that bought uh teddy bears are able to throw them into the center of the rink. And I know like it's a lot of fun, an amazing game. Um just this weekend, the track team went to the Armory in New York City. And I'm pretty sure almost every single athlete that went top placed
071in the top five. and one of our students is now second in the state for an event. So, a lot of notable things. Uh I'm pretty sure a few school records broken as well. Uh this month, Spartan Chronicles, a school newspaper will be starting and they were able to pull a few students for the Spartan Choice Awards for music. So, similar to like the Emmys or a lot of other music awards, they wanted to see what students at North like. So stay tuned for the Spartan Chronicles on what Spotify rap will be at North. Um along with at East, we also had our eighth grade curriculum tonight and a lot of things to look forward to as long as it changed the New York State graduation requirements along with health being a man mandatory halfyear
072course. Personal finance is also being added. Then this is to pro to help students going into um their careers to go get to college or going to other trades to know how to uh monitor their their finances and be productive adults and as well as hopefully AP cyber security and AP anatomy and physiology being added to the curriculum during the time that these eighth graders will be at high school. Thank you. BSP, would you like to provide a presentation regarding South? Yes, I would. We'll start off with the spirit week. First day was pajama day. Second was white out. And I got the whole student congress to DSP. Can you speak into the mic, please? Oh, sorry. Thank you. First day was the pajama day. Second was white out and I got the whole student
073congress to take a picture. That's awesome. Yeah. The people kneeling down in the front, those are actually our officers. Then we had Puffer versus Flannel. We also had holiday character. Now there was somebody else that was dressed as Santa. I just couldn't get a picture of them. And then sweater weather. We had um our National Honor Society members make holiday holiday cards for local nursing homes. The NHS members also read with the Maple East and Forest students. I believe this was right before break. Then SAD club uh which stands for students against destructive decisions made snow notes and sold hot chocolate kits. Basically like students volunteered during their free periods uh to help sell snow notes outside of the cafeteria and supported the sat club. Then we had our door decoration competition. And that's one
074of the winners. Yeah. There was another one, the musical wing. They also had a performance included with preparation. Yeah. Yeah. Both of them were great. So like they couldn't pick one winner. Yeah. Here's some of the other ones other rooms that were decorated. Then we had the BCC which stands for black culture club and high middle school. Basically they had a gift exchange for Christmas. Then we also had our winter spectacular concert I believe it's called. I don't know why I wrote spectrum. Basically what it is is it includes like all the musical people. Yeah. Thank you guys. Thank you DSP and thanks to all three of you for providing excuse me those updates. I'm always impressed with how much goes on in all three high schools and thank you for keeping us updated. We
075appreciate it. Are there any questions or comments from the board? Okay, we will move on to item 7 C events. Would someone from the board of education compensation committee please provide an update? Is there someone who's prepared? Dr. Spicer. Okay. Uh yes, happy to. Um so um the first meeting of the compensation committee was actually last night. Um and all um members of the committee except for one were present. Um so we had a great conversation. Um in the conversation we went through the charter which as we know available on the website and through board docs. Um but we reviewed that charter. Um we had everybody in the committee do introductions um in sharing their um who they were their connection to the district and of course their reason for being there u which helped
076started the start the conversation. Um, uh, Vice President Mana talked through what the timeline was of the board thus far, what the legal opinion was. Um, and then we had a dialogue around what questions the committee had. So, um, I because I'm in academia called them research questions. Um, so we concluded the meeting, um, after a really great dialogue with, um, what question, what research questions do we have? Um so follow up to that we'll be sharing out those questions to make sure that all committee members are um comfortable with the summary of them. Um we are going to share out research that has been done already connect links to NISBA. Um and then also we asked the committee members to um of course feel free to do their own research as well. We don't
077want them to feel like they can only research what is shared out um by research already done. Um so that was the conclusion of the committee. Um I I said this today at work. I enjoy giving people homework. So the committee does have homework of course. Um but everybody really was very enthusiastic engaged in the conversation. Um next meeting will happen in February. Um the date is uh we're working on the date to be determined. Um and I will get those um notes into um Mrs. Kerry so they can be available to everybody. Thank you. And I I would like to add um you know we had you know eight people one uh couldn't make it so we had seven that were randomly chosen and three from the PTSA and you know the opinions ran
078the gamut um as you would expect people who initially said or maybe continue to say you know being very skeptical of it being against it uh but willing to listen to what the justification was and you know does this help not solve one problem you you know, we're not looking to solve one problem. Is it part of a solution to several larger problems that either are before us or, you know, uh um are around the corner from us? So, I will say I I I was very happy with with the committee that they were able to listen and bring all different perspectives to the questions. Um I would you know and I we told the committee there's no you know requirement that we have this committee but we wanted to you know have a a
079greater in-depth conversation that from rather than listen to anonymous flamethrowers on social media. So, I mean, everyone was respectful. They asked thoughtful questions, came in with good perspectives and uh asked for research to kind of like walk down their own path of how they feel on this. And we told we're in no rush for this. We're have, you know, one meeting a month. Um, you know, people's schedules change from the first week in January that we sent the the Google calendar doc out. So, we're going to schedule another meeting once the co-chairs figure out our schedule, get to some of the research that they that they requested. Um, that way they don't have to hunt and peck for research. We'll kind of, you know, send them some um some documents or some links to to
080look at. Um, and then we'll go from there. So, it sounds like we won't likely have recommendations by the February meeting. It will be sometime thereafter. Right. And I I think the charter said by February when the committee is ready to give them. Absolutely. Yeah, I was just clarifying again. I am not in any hurry. You know, I want I want, you know, the committee to feel like they've had their say. And the the last thing I want is for a committee to say afterwards, gee, I wish I would have asked that question or would have known this. So, we're going to, you know, let this play out. There's no rush. You know, we want a thoughtful uh uh deliberation. Okay. Thank you so much. Anyone have anything to add or questions? DSP, I had
081a question. Is the committee going to discuss a number? Part of the uh research, one of the research questions is to look at um what other districts do that instate and out of state and how they do it. So, is that a dollar amount? Is that a tax break? Is that an insurance benefit? Um so, there's there's a variety of options out there. So that's part of the research that will take place so that they can weigh all of that information. All right. Thank you. Other questions or comments? Okay. We will move on then. Um please note that student forums will be held at each high school um on January 28th and that will be with board members and our superintendent. Um the updated 202627 student board member selection process is attached in board docs.
082Is there any comments or questions regarding that? Again, thank you to our current student board members for being in involved in those conversations and updating that process for next year. Okay, moving on. Uh, does anyone have any comments related to the ECSB or NISSBA items in board docs? Miss Puland, I I'll just um shout out a reminder that the window is open for the ECASB awards that are put out at the end of the year. So, I would invite board members to reflect on um people that they might want to nominate for one of the many awards. and it could be somebody on our board or if you know someone on another school board feel free to nominate them as well. So, thank you. Thank you for that reminder. Uh the liaison assignments are listed
083in board docs and just a reminder to please complete your liaison report in a timely manner after each assignment. Are there any questions from board members about the leaison assignments? Okay. board candidate packet and information will be available the first week of February. And for correspondence, in the past month, we received correspondence regarding board compensation as well as cleaning products on the school supply list. We are now on our consent agenda. May I have a motion to approve items nine minutes 10 personnel 11 business and finance 12 district facilities and support services 13 exceptional education special needs and student activities and 14 instruction curriculum as presented Mr. Mana, Miss Puland, is there any discussion? All in favor? Question. Oh, you have a question. Okay, there is discussion. I just have a quick question. Um, and
084I don't even know if it's in this one or not, but when it comes to volunteer coaches, um, obviously there's no stipen, but they are still go going through the same process as coaches, right? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Can you just And what is that again? They can you explain the process, Dr. Brown Hall, at all? They have to actually still apply. They have to do their references. It's still uh fingerprinting. Yes. And all that type of checking. Yes, that was my question. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? Okay. So, all in favor of the consent agenda items as presented. Motion carried unanimously. Thank you to the following retirees for their service to the district. Don Bashwina, PI Middle School music teacher with 30 years of service. John Douller, Transit Middle School custodian with 17
085years of service. Teddy Perez, facilities department maintenance mechanic with 12 years of service. Marine Church, I knew I was going to get this. Marine Churchelli, custodian, Dodge Elementary School with 25 years of service. And Colleen Galalta, teacher aid, Mil Middle School with 20 years of service. So, congratulations and thank you to all of our retirees. We are now on item 15. May I have a motion for the second reading and review of policy updates 5413 procurement uniform grant guidance for federal awards 5681 school safety plans and 7522 concussion management as presented. Mr. Manor, Dr. Spicer, is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. And now, may I have a motion to adopt these policy updates? Mr. Bulan, Dr. Singh. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. May I have a
086motion for the first reading and review of policy updates which is being reumbered to 5850 data networks and security access and cyber security incident response as presented Dr. Spicer, Miss Bleckinger. Is there any discussion? All in favor motion carried unanimously. And now may I have a motion to postpone these policy updates for the second reading and adoption at the February 10th meeting. Mr. Bulan, Dr. Singh, is there any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. There are no matters to discuss under 16 legislative matters. Does anyone have a topic to discuss under committee of the whole? Dr. Singh, I believe you were up first. I mean, I just wanted to bring up the topic of the school start time back again. We had a district presentation last year on that and u since then we
087had couple of updates. We had updated uh no we had updated information on transportation based on a transportation study we had and I think there have been two bills in the New York uh assembly and senate regarding their version of the school start time for different middle and high schools elementary middle and high schools. So I was going to request if the district had any um plan to revisit the trans school start time re I mean reconvene the committee and look into the uh changes in school start time probably not for the coming school year but the year after that may respond we we definitely can that is something that we had um on the back burner to reconsider again not for the 26 27 school year, but possibly the 2728 school year. Um, reconvening
088the committee. We know what feedback we received last time, where some of the sticking points were at, and we know um what is actually being discussed in the state legislator, right? Legislature right now also. So that is something we definitely can can do is reconvene the committee to see who wants to participate and then take a longer look at it over um you know th this time including next year for a possible implementation for the 2728 school year and possibly have more time for the community to I mean have their questions answered and not uh try to rush things, right? And well, we didn't try to rush him. Anyway, want to clear that up. Anyway, uh allowing more time is definitely something we can do. Um I know that was brought up before allowing people
089to digest it over a longer period of time and um we can definitely do that. Thank you. I will um I'll talk to the chairperson of the committee was principal boardman at South. I will talk to him to see if he is interested in remaining as chair to resurrect that committee. There any other board member comments regarding that before we move on to the next committee of the whole topic? I do not see any. So that Oh, wait. Was there someone? I'm sorry, Mr. Pascalia. I don't mind revisiting the topic, but is there a thought of just kind of waiting until we see what happens in New York State even though, you know, I question that too because sometimes it takes years for state governments to do things, but um is there any thought in
090that? I think it could be two trains running because I know that the state very similar to states who have passed those laws give guidelines, but we would still have to come up with what specific for Williamsville times within those guidelines so we can look at the law that is being proposed and then develop times within those guidelines. I have a question. Thank you. So when this was brought up the first time, you know, the board did not turn it down. We just did not take action. So what is the parliamentary procedure then to to restart this? Would it take another board vote to reconvene and restart this committee since no action was taken? No action was taken. So I don't know that it necessarily needs a motion, but if you would if someone wants
091to make a motion, we can certainly do so. But I don't I mean I don't think we need a motion to start a committee because it's a district committee. If it were a board committee then we would. But because it's a district committee I don't believe there's any parliamentary motion needed for that. Does that make sense? I don't know if it makes sense but but that's what it is. It's what it is. It just seems I remember I mean the board voted on if our memory serves me the the charter. Didn't we appoint the committee? No. No. No. We did not do that charter. We didn't approve of. No. That was it was always a district. It was a district committee. So there was not a a board charter. It was not a board committee.
092It was What was the action that began the actual looking into it? Was it a board action? It was not. It was a superintendent goal. Okay. Dr. Spicer, I'll just offer a comment. Um, and to Mr. Biscalia's point and Dr. Brownal's point about the two trains running. One of the pieces of feedback we gave was to have a little bit more lead time to look into those logistical pieces of um, you know, I remember the athletics being a big part of the conversation. So, um, you know, watching leg the legislature and having a longer time to have those conversations I think is really beneficial. So, thank you Dr. Singh for bringing it up. Yeah, that what I will guarantee we have a lot going on, right? lot going on. So, this is not something that
093we're looking to bring to you in a couple of months, few months, six months, none of that. We got a lot going on. You all have a lot going on with compensation committee. We have a lot going on with homework and grading, with budgeting. So, this is not something that will be rushed. All right? So, I I want to assure you that this is not something the board will have to contend with, you know, in the fall, next spring. So, we will take our time with this one. Thank you. and and it has been helpful in the past when we know something is potentially coming through the pipeline to get a head start on it so we don't have to rush through it at the end. Right. Thank you. Any other questions or comments regarding
094this? Okay, Jazelle, I believe that you asked to have uh guardian caps for sports other than uh other than football, which we talked about earlier this evening on the agenda under committee of the whole. So, correct. Um as we heard in Dr. Ron Hall's community update. Um, football all football teams uh modified through varsity at all of our schools receiving guardian caps to that are optional to wear and practice their games. So, I want to pose the idea of opening to other sports. Uh, I personally do cheerleading. I've been involved in cheerleing at North and seventh grade. And something that people don't know is that cheerleading can be a very dangerous sport. You might only see um us doing cheers on the sidelines, but when we do competitions, uh, one of our focuses is stunts
095and tumbling. and tumbling and stunts are very dangerous in a way. Um, just last week we had a girl uh out with a concussion uh due to an injury that happened at cheerleading. Um, so uh she was out she's out for the rest of our season now. But I just wanted to pose the idea of possibly expanding it and I guess open the discussion on like any other concerns or questions and um if it gets to a point where uh other sports are also intrigued too. I just wanted to open that discussion on possibly to not just football. Any board member comments on Well, I was going to refer to Mr. Biscalia because I think at um that community before you did voice that there were also lots of statistics about concussions in soccer and
096other sports. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I discussed that being someone who been through seven concussions. Um gymnastics, soccer, uh there's certain stats that show it does affect other sports. So there has been things that we've discussed um you know and then that'll be ongoing. You know unfortunately football's the first sport looked at even though again statistically it's not the number one sport of concussions. Um but I know Dr. Brown Hall has heard those um concerns and and I wouldn't stop looking into it personally as a board member. I think it's very important. Um, you know, hopefully I still have my brain at 60 people and Mr. Mano. Uh, thank you. Um, I think it's a great idea. Thank you for bringing it up. And it's not the tra the traditional Guardian cap. Not that we're, you
097know, plugging for Guardian Corporation, but there's other, you know, more like a headband or a tight helmet, you know, that goes for soccer or baseball or basketball, cheerleading, you know, it's really anything. So, I thank you for bringing it up. So, whatever the district can do to further that endeavor, I I would support. Just to clarify, for cheerleading, the ones that you use aren't the ones that go over like a typical football helmet. They're similar to like a bicycle helmet where they clip underneath the neck or some have like Velcro straps underneath the neck. So, it's more of like a headgear instead of like a helmet cover. And I I believe they're instituting them a lot more in college level for cheerleading. Correct. Yes. A lot of college teams near us uh use them at
098practices or when trying new skills. I was going to ask, is it just for practices? Yes. uh like for when we try new stunts or new tumbling passes uh just to I guess have like some peace of mind in case anything god forbid would happen. Um but as far as games and competitions, they would not be worn. And it's it's funny because you brought that up when we talked yesterday and I happened to be at the gym last night and I saw that new TV show with Christine Chennowith. She's a cheerleading coach and I was watching their competition last night and I'm like look at all of that. I'm like so it was just so timely when you brought it up. So thank you for that. Of course. Okay. So, uh I guess the question
099is is the board in support of exploring the use of these kind of head gear, guardian caps, whatever we want to call them for for sports and if so, um we will do we need to add it to the agenda, Dr. Brown Hall, and then you can bring us back some information or what would I step? I will definitely I will talk with director uh Mika and ask him to reconvene the uh team and the coaches that looked at at that including some of the cheerleading coaches to see what would be available not just for football and cheerleading but other sports to protect students during um practices for sure. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. Any other comments from board members regarding that? Okay, we will move on. We are on uh 18A which is
100our 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. Again, I don't see anyone rushing the podium, so we will move on. This concludes our regular board meeting. The next scheduled regular board meeting is February 10th. Is there a motion to adjourn this regular board meeting? Dr. ing Miss Binger. All in favor? Motion carried unanimously. Thank you and good night.