001good evening everyone and uh welcome to the last board meeting of the school year and uh I call the regular board meeting to order all board members except Mike bascal are present uh Mr Dulan would you lead us in the pledge sorry just in [Laughter] timeing I'm not gonna sit down no start to the flag of the United States of America stand God indivisible liy and justice for all good timing Mike uh please be advised that in the event of fire emergency and evacuation should be necessary and alarm will sound please note all marked emergency exits and evacuate well away from the building at this time we request everyone turn their cell phones and other electronic devices to silent thank you done behalf of the board I would like to wish all the students success
002as they take the final exams and finish up the school year with end of the year activities congratulations to the seniors and their families we wish to convey our best wishes as we prepare to close one chapter and begin the next chapter in the words of Spar live long and prosper how about that and to a and to a willville community have a safe and enjoyable summer see you all in the fall for another exciting school year are there any other board acknowledgements um can I do the board uh the recognitions no sure okay perfect um tonight we have three School spotlights first is Dodge Elementary the annual Fun Run is not only an opportunity for Community engagement to support the school but a chance to teach students lifelong healthy habits I'd like to welcome
003principal Charlie smich to share more on this PTA event and its importance thank you thank you I appreciate that Brian I just want to thank the board and Dr Brown hall for allowing us to speak about our dodge fundr run our dodge fundr run has been going on for five years at Dodge Elementary School and I just found out over the last five years you raised over $255,000 in five years for that's through our community um at Dodge Elementary parents the volunteers all that we have it's truly it's not just about raising money though it's raising money for the kids but it's also a community event where the parents come on and cheer for their students um which is really cool we have over 80% of the population of our students that are involved in
004it um in terms of raising the money but 100% of the students get to participate that's what's equally important that's the most important thing but it's a community event so we know we want to thank the community for uh donating the money being a part of Dodge Elementary make it the most dynamic school on the planet and you'll get to see some of the uh Fun Run activities take care and have a good one we love it we love it set and go the Fun Run is held year and it's our onetime fundraiser that allows us as a PTA to provide all the in school PTA sponsored events field trips teacher grants and all the fun we bring to D it's just electric out here a lot of smiles a lot of fun the music's
005going um but it's really shows to by the amount of parents par that come here they're cheering on they're supporting their kids the classes they make signs they have pom pom so it is a really fun enironment running with your friends feels great fun in general um getting out here um moving your body it's great certainly ties into physical education the two weeks prior to the Fun Run we lead up uh getting them some practice jogging learning how to jog at a proper Pace not too fast not too slow just getting the kids aware of their body how it feels during exercising and the importance of healthy body healthy mindset just getting them in healthy habits at a young age hopefully that progresses throughout their life the kids excitement has been building for a few
006weeks they get super excited to run all together it's really important to us that all of our Dodgers get to be a part of it it really is a celebration of all of their hard work they feel really proud that they're moving and running and jogging and skipping for 35 minutes so they're really proud to show that off everyone's having fun while being healthy this school in community is amazing uh the amount of support that pours in from the community for the school uh you know it's really a relationship that just goes on forever and ever and it really is something truly special here at Dodge the kids are not only just doing it for themselves but they the other students here and cheering each other on um and it really is an event for
007the whole school so the teachers are doing it you'll see the teachers running you'll see the kids running and you'll see everyone just getting involved [Applause] [Music] a big thank you to the teachers the administration the PTA everyone here that helps because each year time and time again we meet our goal and it allows us to do and bring all the fun that we do here at Dodge awesome thank you very much [Applause] we also saw um Lindsay mang in that video and she actually was one of the awardees for the service to youth Award of this year so congratulations again to her next we are highlighting the billboard beaks and Transit Middle School new this year throughout the halls of Transit students are not only able to see highlights of accomplishments throughout the school
008but learn about history music culture literature and much more these Rota Billboards are crafted and shared by students I'd like to welcome principal Dan wall and assistant principal Patrick Quast to share more about this new and creative Endeavor good evening and thank you uh we appreciate the board acknowledging uh some things going on in the Middle School we're proud of the billboard beats this was the collaboration between a couple of our building committees and our strategic plan our commun commity Communications team came up with this one of our goals is to increase student voice and highlight student stories and activities happening around the school and it's this uh digital billboard uh idea so we have eight and uh eight uh giant screens throughout the building in common areas and uh we're happy to have students
009uh showcasing the work so we also developed a club to go with it so we have a teacher advisor Mr Bob lamarco who's helping to organize uh the students and come up with uh the uh by uh weekly meetings to uh get the Beats uh published and out on the screen out on the screens each and every day Mr CL anything else now then I I would just say it's it's been awesome to see kids get excited to show up to the after school events parents when they come in and they're waiting for a concert or they're waiting for an event after school they're watching seeing the feed that goes through and a big thing is there's so many awesome things that are happening at Transit it's just letting kids know when they meet where
010they meet what things they do and if they can see themselves in that role how can you be a part of that group so it's been great to publicize that as the southerners say you're a sad frog if you don't croak for your own pond so it's great to see like a little bit of publicity about what you're about and how you can make an impact to the transit community so it's a great time a sad frog indeed all right I think we have a clip the billboard beats is a club where we design and edit slideshows with different topics in mind such as the literature beat the music beat or the culture beat and we can share it throughout the school building by posting it on wids or on the TV screens around the
011building and the students can learn from this slideshow I love to get to research new books some of them I've never heard of before I'm hoping that by featuring a number of different books like books in poetry or books on Mental Health someone will be able to find a series to get started in and start reading this was a uh an evolution born from the uh strategic plan of the district awesome to expand the communication opportunities we uh set out with a mission to educate to inform uh to entertain and we set out to find students that would be interested in developing a product uh that would do just that this is a new segment Ben tell us uh where you got this IDE so it's basically like in school I think we don't have
012enough like classical or like contemporary musician representation so I thought that maybe some of them would go under the radar so I would decide to like feature some composers music is an expression of the soul and I think music is vital to having a good life and enjoying it so I think music should be shared with everybody whenever I see the billboard beats the music beat I feel like I feel ecstatic because I can share my love with music for the other students here because there are a lot of people here in the music department and I would really like to share our accomplishments with others to me it's very important because you get to put a spotlight on stuff that may be not known for example recently there was a there was a I
013think a fifth and sixth grade science field trip to a museum and after seeing all this photos it was amazing it interested me in going to it it was just a lot of fun I usually work with the culture beats and I do research for um different um months like women's history month or like Asian-American month I believe that it is important to share all of these different figures in life that come from different cultures uh because it broadens our Horizons and makes us more open-minded to think when their culture is represented and they feel a little spark and excitement I feel happy that I am able to do that for them I feel like the community that we've made as like club members is really good we've strengthened our bonds and we've also had
014a lot of fun editing and communicating with the staff members to help make something great it makes me personally feel proud of myself and it gives me a sense of confidence and yeah it just feels great that was awesome thank you very much wall and assistant so we've highlighted an elementary school a middle school so we are on to our high schools so finally as you enter Williamsville East High School famili staff and students have the opportunity to catch up on the latest happenings in the school and throughout the world world with the addition of Eastside news with more than three decades of tradition the school newspaper is not only elevated student voice but allow students to hone their writing photography and design skills please welcome principal Brian swatland advisor Gary Huber and students as
015they share more on this incredible [Applause] paper good evening thank you for having us here tonight the uh School newspaper is such a great source of Pride for our school and not only does it bring the community together uh and inform the community but the fundraiser that they have the coffee house is an outstanding Community night for our students it's a fundraiser like none other within the school and uh we have artists musicians poetry that's being read at that and Mr Huber as the adviser has such great pride and even covid couldn't stop the newspaper from being being published um stop some other things but in terms of the newspaper it was still published every time on time um through Zoom meetings and through meetings and that's really a credit to Mr Huber with his
016leadership as well as his former co-advisor Miss Angela lanzone um they've done an amazing job so I'll turn it over to Mr Huber at this time um sure thank you um yeah we have uh many people to think but I'll let the kids talk um thank you Mr swatland and former principles uh Mr scano and others who um have you know trusted me excuse me for 19 years to um advise or co- advise the newspaper and um having communication working with the students we have all our layers like a real Newsroom and that's something the kids have really valued being able to write about the world as well as East News um thank you to the PTSA they've um helped fund our website so we have digital content at uh East news.org we have our
017YouTube channel places to grow we also integrate the journalism club and sometimes classes where they're producing um they might create something in class and they can connect that through um the newspaper Club I have these wonderful advisers they're all seniors um and I've been with them yeah since we met on Zoom you know so it was those Wednesdays some of them didn't come to school they were hybrid um it was one place to go and we we experienced a lot of things together then kind of forged in the fire uh watching January 6 live was interesting we're talking about how do we report on this and how long do we have to wait till we get in more information you know things like that happened um and every week we come uh an hour a
018week they've been coming for four years you know so they can put on their resume uh editors and writers but they can't put how many hours or what kind of community they help to build so um can I do a round of applause for our editors and writers and let them talk thank [Applause] you so my name is Angelina Tang I'm the editor and chief of the Eastside news and I would just like to thank the board for uh recognizing the East Side news and giving us some coverage um I just want to speak on the importance of Journalism in a school Community uh as I believe it gives students a voice um and the ability to really take initiative in their learning and in educating others through their articles in an environment where they
019otherwise I feel do not have as much Authority in like choosing what they want to do or um just helping others in general so I believe that journalism is also an integral part of our school Community um in keeping everyone like up today keeping everyone um like so glued together and that is why I hope that you will all continue supporting the East Side news absolutely [Applause] awesome hello um my name is pen Fang I am one of the co-managing editors of the school newspaper and kind of going off of what Angelina said I believe that this newspaper and student journalism in general is very important for students being active in being an active Citizen and participating in citizenship because a school is like a small democracy and you have all these events and decisions
020that are going to affect you and so having that informed student body and students willing to inform others allows you to make more informed decisions and contribute more to your school Community I mean like covering in covering current events and past events like smaller journals and um student journalists have been essential really in for example like the student protest um and so I think just having that active student body in figuring out what's going on both on a local level and on the global level is really important in just getting people to participate in citizenship and be an active citizen absolutely yeah hi everyone I'm Eileen Wang and I'm the deputy editorinchief and also our treasurer for our newspaper club and Angie and Pen already did such a great job explaining why we need newspaper
021Club at our school but I just want to touch a little bit about um the sense of community that newspaper has built for us and um in my time at East I've been part of a lot of clubs and I would like to say that newspaper is such a supportive nurturing and also warm Club even like Mr Huber mentioned a little bit ago um he met all of us during the pandemic and that was what really drew me to this club besides the amazing writing opportunities that it provides for students it also provides such a safe inclusive and also very collaborative culture as well um even during our meetings um all of our members the editors and Mr Hubert we all get to decide what we would like to write about and publish in our
022issues and even before our coffee houses which is um a fundraising event that we have three times a year um it's so fun to be able to plan with your friends and also other members what we would like to um like what food items we like to sell um who's bringing what and just coordinate and have like U provide music food for so many people in our greater East community and it's also a great opportunity to also um connect with some people from like outside the East Community as well it's great to see like some businesses also support us during our fundraising events and a great way to just promote our club to other members to get them to join as well so just in my time in newspaper I led being part of such
023a wonderful warm family and I cannot wait to see what future generations of students will continue to do with our new newspaper club and continuing fostering such an inclusive environment awesome thank you and then just to close again thank you for having us here tonight Angelina was able to ask a question she was a member of the the Press when the governor uh came to Williamsville East High School and she was able to be in the room and take pictures as if she was a member of the press she was able to ask a question with all the news channels that were there and that's because when the governor's people came in they saw the East Side newspaper they saw it out there they saw that we have it within our building they saw how
024wonderful it is how great it is and and they invited us to be able to allow one student to do that so we're very fortunate again thanks for the leadership from Mr Hubert and from our students so thank you awesome thank youland [Music] the easts side news is the Williamsville East School newspaper we cover East news and we cover international news we tell important stories I think it could be about a club that's just starting up or like a teacher that hasn't had a profile ever like world news that isn't getting as much coverage as you want it to be and I get to like tell their stories to a wider audience and kind of show like why this is important and why their story deserves to be heard it's such a great responsibility to
025have it's something that shows you are worthy of the trust that they give you to represent their voice that you can tell that story tell what students want to say the East Side news has really helped me grow my ability as a writer from just one style to several different styles and that's actually helped me in my classes too for essays and tests and things like that when you just change your style change your tone one of the best decisions I've made in my high school career was joining Eide newspaper it's very exciting to be able to interview different people collect quotes for your articles and also like involve our greater East Community within our Publications as well I've definitely grown a bunch in these last four years and it's also great because I also
026got to collaborate with a lot of different people on these articles so it's like a great way to meet new people as well what I love about the East Side news is that it gives me an opportunity to practice journalism just knowing that I can write something and then it's actually read it's shared with everyone out there I think that having a student newspaper in particular allows student voices to be shared with the community or administrative staff teachers the PE we're looking at some important legislation right now in Albany before we finish up Governor Kathy hoko came to visit Williamsville East High to speak to a group of students about the impact of social media on youth mental health she also gave a local press conference in which I was given the opportunity to speak
027as a student reporter representing the school and I felt like I was really imem mosted in the professional journalistic world that's so good so good just being able to kind of see like the way the newspaper has been able to like evolve and change every year people have new ideas and it's like we can always add more like inate more it's like amazing just to kind of be a part of that growth as I leave I'm not worried about leaving the paper for other students I know that they can step up and take it and I think that's what this Legacy has meant that everyone from it started to the new writers coming in they all stepped up and took up that responsibility and so I think that helped create the community that we have
028today it's just a myad of people and places and cultures that come together all for the purpose of writing for the paper and spreading that information to the school that is awesome that is [Applause] absolutely president Singh I turn it back over to you we're going to do that at the end of my community update thank you Dr brall U then next item is public expression do you have any other announ oh sorry you have Morin yes I I actually have two but they're very closely related um and they are going to our music our amazing music department um I would like to first of all recognize the mid Middle School Orchestra who took first place at the Darian music competition a couple weeks ago so kudos to them and to their teachers and all
029of the hard work and this is just a bit of a shameful plug but anyone in who is interested in music on Main Street it starts Thursday um there is a group of South students who will be playing so check out the group on Rock Street awesome really I got you beat I got three all right um uh the first one is that I don't know if we all know that the the boys Williamsville East tennis team won the section led by coach Mr monar um I thought that was important um and just to show Dr Brown Hall that I just don't go to sporting events umna give a shout out to the dep parting presidents of the PTA from Williamsville North I've been there L on for the last two years and uh Deborah
030pek and V Susan V I absolutely tremendous and I just want to thank them for making my journey much easier and lastly I will go back to sports um last night was I had the honor of going to the unified banquet um six years ago when the program started there were eight athletes last night we recognized 1003 individual athletes who participated in Unified sports across bowling volleyball and basketball it's awesome and I just and I just want to thank the board for supporting it and all the administrative staff and at all the schools that do um I just it just helps make our community more inclusive and better and I'm hoping that and we learned this in the parent Forum Dr bronal that we it's now in one Middle School we need to make sure
031it gets into all the middle schools because it will just help the inclusivity of our district and I'm done 103 students that's amazing that's how many that is awesome oh the total number that attended the bank was 153 wow yeah very nice very nice huge success any other board board acknowledgements okay moving on to public expression I think uh we have few community members signed up I think I hand it over to miss Binger thank you to all who have come to observe this regular board meeting per policy 1510 the board allows for up to 30 minutes of public comment 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
032designed 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 you 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 personal employee Personnel information or any any topic 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 allowed at 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
033comments after I call on you please step up to the podium and state your name I have Todd Mitchell good evening my name is Todd Mitchell um I had a vague understanding that if I were reading that you would want a print copy is that I mean you can mail it to us I guess say after yeah okay all right that'll be fine all right good evening my name is Todd Mitchell I've been in English as a second language teacher or as a new language teacher in Williamsville since the 20034 school year when the program was initiated and I'm retiring after teaching English for 35 years I've had a wonderful career and as one of my last uh professional acts I would like to offer a number of critiques of and suggestions for the enl
034program which I believe will help us better meet the needs of our El's um one uh Administration at the district and building levels uh must clearly communicate that all teachers are teachers of El's unfortunately I have found over 20 years that L's are too often viewed as wholly the enl teachers responsibility and it takes a village to teach each child and I think until this is clearly communicated from Administration uh that there will be many teachers who just might not take it as fully as their personal responsibility as with every child in the classroom um another item I think we should provide bus transportation for summer school there are many students who are unable to attend summer school because there's no car at home there's no driver AA available and this is a very basic
035matter of access and critical for many Student Success another matter um follow we should follow best practices and Co teaching for the past 10 years or so most enl instruction has been delivered through co- teing of course subject areas primarily Ela with a enl co- teer and a regular uh teacher um and some best practices include maintaining co- teing relationships from year to year um I have almost never taught two years in a row with the same teacher and I've taught with 16 or 20 teachers over eight years um and providing time for co-planning and co-evaluation uh there just is not time enough in the day um similarly in co- teing ah some of the mandated co- teing time is to be allow some of the mandated co- teing time to be in a non-a
036course subject for instance math or social studies New York state does allow this but it is not allowed in Williamsville allow transitioning level students across all grades to be scheduled in enl Standalone many need this continuing direct English instruction this is allowed even encouraged by New York state but again it is not allowed by Williamsville and finally I would say we need to be careful about Scythe students I I believe we have no ability right now to service them um thank you thank you [Applause] and then I have Charles Charles villafranco no okay that's it for today U just to remind Tod can you send us your email send us whatever you have planned your critics email to us thank you um okay the next item is uh Dr Brown House report I think we'll
037just wait for him to come [Laughter] back meanwhile is anyone else who wants to come and speak Brown didn't know he left [Music] wait it looks like e Dr BR back to you Dr Singh president Singh thank you very much so we will start with our community update and there is a lot I mean this entire section is a lot I will um not take a long time but there's a lot of important information so first and foremost we are very excited that on Thursday June 20th we will once again do our senior memory walk so this is where our senior high school students return to their elementary schools and have a parade through the hallways of their elementary schools each memory walk will be recorded and shared through district and school newsletters and social
038media channels so I know all the elementary schools have also um send invites to their retired teachers so if that the retired teachers want to come back and see the students they had and you know kindergarten first second and third and fourth grade in their cap and gown they can do that and that will be taking place the morning of Thursday June 20th we're very excited about that these are our graduation dates you'll see that we do have two of them on Thursday June 27th Williamsville East at 5 o'clock Williamsville North at 7 o'clock and then the following day Williamsville South at the main entrance on Friday June 28th at 6 o'clock pm exciting time graduations always are our special education advisory Council so I want to really thank assistant superintendent scano and director cat
039Theo for taking this group over and this was our first year and between our um special education advisory Council our special education task force there was a lot that was accomplished this year so at our last meeting this past Monday yesterday we uh received a few updates first and foremost we have received a grant from assembly um member Karen McMahon to support our family support center that we will be launching um during the 2425 school year we will have an update on that at our August meeting director Denise um stappenbach Dr stappenbach Who's in the audience right now will be providing an update at our August board meeting um assistant superintendent scano also mentioned that the special education strategic planning team finalized our vision and mission statement and that will be highlighted at our um
040meeting over the summer also they are continuing to develop long-term smart goals and action plans so our strategic planning team had planned on being done in June but we did realize that there was additional time needed so we will be continuing our partnership with the Western New York Education Service Council into the fall to really um hash out what our additional long and short-term goals are and action planning and we will continue to interview for special education teachers so the district is still working on that so those were the cak updates that were delivered on Monday at the meeting looking ahead so we do have quite a few things that we are still working on that have been multi-year goals as you know we undertook a district rebranding last year and the end of that
041rebranding resulted in a new District website which we are very proud of and part of that is to have a mobile app so that our community our parents are able to access the same information on their mobile phone so we will be launching that mobile app Nick can you give an update on that by the end of the summer by the end of the summer how exciting right so thank you very much to Nick filipowski our Communications team our subcommittee that focused on the district website and all the work that went into that Family Support Center I just mentioned we'll have an update at our August meeting regarding that and we're going to begin studying and Prov writing the latest research on cell phone use in school we're looking to have a cell phone districtwide
042cell phone policy um at the elementary middle and high school so this will be our study year we'll be sharing a lot of research and then we'll be beginning um to craft what our districtwide policies will look like school start times as many of you know this past year the 2324 school year was our study and res research year on school start times that committee was led by uh South High School principal Keith Borman we will begin our focus groups in the fall of this year right so the fall of 2024 we will begin our focus groups on school start times we know what the research says is just about applying it in our school district and our homework and Grading committee that was led by our chief academic officer Dr Marie Balon will have
043an August presentation to let you know what our initial steps are with our homework and Grading committee to provide consistency across the district on our website you will notice we will have research posted and a way for our parents and community members to provide to provide feedback regarding school start times so Nick has indicated on here under the district profile we will have two sections One D dedicated to cell phone research and the other dedicated to school start time research where our parents and community members can click and see the information and the research that we are using to inform our decision making and also provide feedback so if you're not chosen for one of the focus groups you still have a vehicle to provide feedback to the Committees in in addition I just want
044to mention there is a school starttime conference that will be held in October in Maryland and some of the members of the committee will be attending that and I believe board members are also looking at that I believe board member Pand shared that with the entire board also again our cell phone policy now that we'll be getting our study year the research that we'll be using to guide our study year will be also posted on the district website regions exams we want to make sure we listed all our regions exams the first region exam is Friday June 14th that's this Friday and they will continue all the way until Tuesday June 25th so that will all be in the community update section in board docs and if any parents have questions make sure you contact
045your high school or your middle schools summer school so summer school information is available online you can click the 2024 summer school link um and we we want to make sure we keep putting this in the community update so families know you have multiple ways to um access summer school information elementary and middle summer school will be at Transit middle school and that will be July 9th through August 19th high school summer school will be at Williamsville East and that will be July 8th through August 20th and our special education summer school will be at high Middle School July 8th through August 16th and please make sure you are reviewing the summer school website because it will indicate which weeks we have full week of summer school and which weeks summer school is only running
046Monday through Thursday for the elementary middle and the high school all right we want to say thank you to all of our retirees our 2024 retirees and um as you've heard throughout all of our board meetings Dr Singh does make mention of all our retirees so with this being the last board meeting we want to thank our retirees we will have a separate retirees celebration in a couple of weeks we're very excited about that a special thank you to our high Middle School principal Dr jusi uh many of our community members know that Dr jusi just last night was appointed as the North tananda Central school district superintendent so he will be leaving High Middle School um and we are very very proud of Dr Jal jusi and happy for him many of you also
047know that our Maple West principal Mr Smith will be relocating with his family to Georgia so we want want to thank Mr Smith for being an exceptional principal at Maple West and as you know both High middle and maple West their shoes will be hard to fill in addition we will be looking for a principal for North High School Mr Coniglio we thank him for his many years of service to our district he will be heading over to Clarence Central School District to assume an administrative position there also so we have some big shoes to fill at North High School High middle school and maple West Elementary School and these are crucial positions right leading a school building is not an easy job but it's a very rewarding job and so we'll be looking for
048the most effective highly high quality individuals to lead our school buildings last but not least we want to say thank you to board member Dr Litman Dr Litman was elected most recently to the Board of Education in 2021 he served as liaison to high Elementary and high middle school he was a member of the audit committee and diverse equity and inclusion committees and this was Dr litman's second stent on the board many of you know Dr Litman Ser for a long period of time I believe it was six years ago he was also board president board vice president and held many leadership roles on the board so we want to thank Dr Litman for his many many years of service his knowledge and wisdom that he has given to our board and our school Community
049thank you Dr Litman [Applause] have a special for Dr Litman also oh there it is wasn't this [Music] enough oh time flies when you're getting [Music] older that's nice e e thank you thank you again Dr Litman oh you're so welcome um the best 12 years of my life awesome absolutely hold that's 48 years in education too education is our life so and as I said as to be here at the State commencement in order to leave a legacy you have to live a legacy and you have done that so thank you very much thank you so as Dr Sing said earlier we want to uh thank everyone for the hard work you've done this 23 24 School Year enjoy your summer break that is the end of the community update however we do have
050a few other items also so Nick can you load the Strategic plan goals update oh one quick comment I'm just glad didn't have a video of my right up you know I should ask if there are any board members that have questions about the community update before we go into the goals update for the Strategic plan I just have one question go ahead what were the focus commit group members chosen well we haven't chosen them yet okay so the the committee that is working on the school start times if anyone wants to see the timeline that we're adhering to in the last Community update for the month of May I had the timeline in there so you can see that so the committee will decide how the focused groups are chosen it will probably be
051um Lottery like we did before when we have too many individuals that are interested we do a lottery so that is fair for all the um student focus group parent focus group uh teacher focus group AD Ministry all of that all right thank you thank you very much Dr Singh any other questions about the community update all right actually oh I do yes Mr buan um is the goal to have the homework policy in place for 25 26 is that the no so and and when Dr Bellum presents on that in August you'll see how everything that we do with the homework and Grading will be rolling and very similar to what Dr lion suggested Dr Balan also suggests is that we do pilots yes you know so we're going to definitely do that also
052okay all right y thank you thank you very much so in in the board docs in the board agenda and the packet you will see that we have our iic plan goals and updates we gave our initial update in January this update is a follow through with June of 2024 in the document you will see there's a page dedicated for each goal area for the January update and then for the June update our school buildings and our district have we've done a great amount of work on our strategic plan I'll give some highlights so when we look at communication under goal 1A it says the district will improve communication and collaboration within and among the district and school buildings in order to effectively engage all stakeholders so we highlight what we've done with the superintendent
053speaker series right and so our topics this year were what to do when your child is struggling in school understanding your middle middle level child and enhancing student learning through instructional technology now what we heard this year also at our community forum is the board heard is that parents want to know more about the curriculum so the speaker series next year will focus on the curriculum and that's another way we enhance communication by actually having and listening to our community during the community forums um and that's the second bullet that says the district along with the Board of Education participated in two Community fors to discuss topics listen to concerns and answer questions from stakeholders you will see with each of the communication goals each of the teaching learning and Leadership goals each of the
054Dei goals we do have areas that we focused on and highlights in here that were from January and from June so I don't want to go through the entire thing because we can spend all night on that I want to encourage our community to actually go through at your leisure and read all of the great things that are happening in our school district and our strategic plan goals update document do any board members have any questions about the strategic planning goals update document so we as a district are very proud of everything that we're accomplishing align to our strategic plan and as you saw last month aligned to our Dei plan our next item is the annual nutrition and fitness report that is also in board docs that is item 5c I won't go through
055that but that document is in there and that is able to be reviewed we do update this annually the focus this year was the review of the policy and how we're adhering all of our sections to the policy so that was the focus of the wellness nutrition and fitness 2024 annual report that is in board docs items item 5D are we able to pull up the wellness counseling program um and plan Nick please because I do want to thank the district Wellness Council this entire document this is a 72-page document and it is full of everything our schools have done in alignment with our wellness policy we have all of the highlights in there we have all of the programming that every school participated in and it's just a phenomenal document so if your child
056attended Forest Elementary you can go to the forest page and see what they did internal and external it's really really uh very well put together document and I want to thank um the entire Wellness committee under the direction of assistant superintendent skang zuo um and I know that we have a video to go along with this correct Nick thank you very much [Music] w [Music] one of my favorite things about Forest is um we are a family we take care of each other we take care of our community and so by doing this here at Forest um it's just really special I'm pretty impressed right here there's so much um I know I didn't think anyone would come over here and St and they get this much we really want this to be an opportunity
057where families can come Al together and so it's not just the students that go here but it's little siblings it's older siblings um who will all have a fun time you know building that him Community it's fantastic we walk up and already my son sprinted away and was like I know this person I know this person I'll see you later so it's really fun to see how excited he is to see kids outside of just the regular school hours um and then to know that the schools really invested in the community and getting people out and about it's it's good [Music] BL [Music] High middle Dei committee uh wanted to create a sense of belonging for our students and make a connection with the students at him Elementary so we had a group of high
058middle students go over to him Elementary and teach about Lunar New Year our middle schoolers being the experts being those that celebrate Lunar New Year write a book aloud to second graders at Hao and open the floor for like a Q&A session for the second graders to ask our students questions about their traditions and their celebrations for L New Year we want everyone to feel safe at high middle school so um if people feel comfortable talking about the religious holidays and the things that they celebrate and who they are uh we feel that everyone's going to be more willing to open up Mills Wellness Team theme for January is joyfulness let's check in with them and see what it means hi I'm lla and I'm Mary and we're Wellness ambassadors each month wellness will have
059a theme focusing on ways to help Mill all that it can be the wellness theme for the month of January is joyfulness joyfulness is defined as follows a state of being extremely happy if you have seen the movie Inside Out you will remember there's a character in the movie named Joy she has a quote from the movie that describes what it means to be joyful the eternal optimist you're a beacon of Positive Vibes don't let the world turn your frown upside down now that you found your happiness be the light that guides everyone else to [Music] theirs wow [Music] hours are awesome feel like a winner with my winning team being with all my friends like a family yeah and getting Hoops having great friends and Team by your side that's what keeps me strong
060[Music] that was great that was great many many of the highlights and if you look in the um actual document again the 72-page document you'll see there's many more highlights for each of our schools so thank you Nick for helping put that together and thank you to all of our school communities for everything they do in the area of Wellness every day last but not least you will see item 5e is our facility update it gives an update on our elementary school air conditioning Capital project now that our voters and our community um they have approve the additional funding it gives what our next steps are and item 5e and maple West temporary classroom Capital project many of you know we are going to be installing five U mobile class four I'm sorry mobile classrooms
061at Maple West Elementary School so that item gives a timeline in 5e again and we have um uh repairs going on at KC middle school so that is also in the facilities update item 5e last but not least item 5f is our American Rescue Plan update for the womv Central School District we are required because we had AR and Esser Monies to continue to report on that but we did use all of our monies by last year's deadline so we have nothing to report this year but we have to actually still have that in our board packet for our board to approve that there was Zero spent out of those funds this year and that's it so Dr Singh I turn it back over to you well I guess this is what everyone has been
062waiting for 10 year reception the following employees have received tenure throughout the school year and we would like to recognize and congratulate them at this time I will read the names please stand when your name is called and after we have read through the list we'll have a brief recess approximately 15 minutes to celebrate this occasion and eat crumble cookies all right I apologize nadan if I mispronounced your name Jill Bears Michelle binkowski William Bohan KY buano Sarah kery Emily cardo C kurtney Charleston Smith Kisa chinana Franchesca krona Melissa Deeds Stephanie devony Katherine dag Stephanie Stephanie fritzner Jennifer Gusco Ryan karomi Georgio Lano okay Diana lutter Bine Jessica melosi Brianna mayor Allison Mora Angelica M car [Music] no Lisa remold Christen Rish Alexandra rodbourne Laura steinford Rebecca Skinner Rachel TI Robert Webster Katherine Wendling Emily
063Woods Sarah zapi and Jenna KW Wiki and the I have to add one more um Patrick Quast also he is no it wasn't on purpose and I I'll just explain because you are later in the program you get approved toight and so you weren't improved in the past so no that is not you're looking like wait a minute what is going [Applause] on congratulations and have some peace congratulations you can say we're going to recess for 15 minutes into the gabble right just say we're going to recess for 15 minutes and then gabble I don't know recess for 15 minutes e e e welcome back the next item agenda I think you have to bring order by saying this at this time at this time we'll reconvene the regular board meeting the next item on
064the agenda is the superintendent evaluation the members of the 202024 Board of Education conducted an evaluation of Dr Brown Hall in May and shared the feedback with the superintendent during the executive session held on May 28th each board member participated in the evaluation process using the super eval platform Dr Brown Hall was evaluated in six standard areas plus annual goals and received an overall rating of effective the rating from board members is generally consistent with superintendent self- evaluation which board members were able to read before completing their individual reviews any comments from the board on this item well Ju Just um just on the grading system or method it starts goes from ineffective to developing to effective to highly effective and and I um we rated Dr Brown Hall highly effective in four categories and
065effective in three categories so a very high grade I think when you evaluated yourself and the board evaluated you was like like Dr Sing said it was a very similar um outcome correct thank you very much for that Mr Mana I mean I know when you say effective it doesn't sound like it's it's almost a top grade too so right but to Mr mana's point and if you go into the document that is actually listed in board docs what Mr Mana was referring to there are four areas that are listed at highly effective and three listed as effective right somehow the overall ended up being effective but to Mr Manor's Point that's a very um um honorable and important Point any other comments okay uh moving ahead to board goals we have U board goals
066year in review I call on Mrs kasmar Bogner to review our 2023 goals thank you Dr thing uh this past year our goals focused on continuing to support the dist the district's strategic plan which is the areas of communication Wellness Community and sustainability teaching learning and Leadership and diversity equity and inclusion plus this year we added a new board governance goal some highlight of our work from this past year include elevating student voice with our two superintendent in high advisory Council forums approving the revised code of conduct that continues to emphasize restorative practices as an alternative to traditional discipline supporting the new green ribbon committee increasing budgetary support for special ed programs and services reviewing a curriculum update on Ela and reading approving curriculum Council recommendations visiting all schools to observe teaching and learning in
067the classrooms approving the districtwide Dei calendar subcommittee's recommendations to add the four non-public holidays to the calendar for the upcoming year holding three board Retreats with team building and professional learning receiving recommendations from a new onboarding committee and finishing the comprehensive review of our policy manual further details are available in the year- end report which you can see on the screen right now and is attached in Oro thank you um thank you moving on to Board of Education leadership we'll be discussing the board leadership please note the election offic the election of new officers will be held at the organizational meeting on July 2nd and this item is for discussion and information regarding officers is anyone interested in putting their name for president you have three minutes to make a statement I am Mr manam
068is anybody else you like just for president you can anyone can start thank you um uh I'm nominating myself for president I know the election is on on um July 2nd I've been on the board of various organizations the Amis Town board for eight years including Deputy supervisor I've been on the board for the Buffalo Central labor Council the Coalition for economic Justice and recently the 514 survivors stun fund that raised millions of dollars for the victims of racially motivated attack in our community I have a deep understanding of how boards operate for the betterment of the constituency groups they serve I believe I worked collaboratively with my fellow board members even when we disagreed I've always felt that a good working relationship between fellow elected officials it's judged on how well you work together
069when you disagree on something it's easy to all get along when we all agree I will continue to make sure my fellow board members concerns are addressed that the stakeholders in this District can continue to be proud of the way the school board conducts business this is my pledge whether I'm the board president or not so I humbly ask for your vote for the office of president of the Williamsville School Board of Education thank you thank you uh anybody else Chris yes thank you first thank you to you Dr Singh for your leadership this past year and to my board colleagues for trusting me to serve alongside our president this past year as vice president I honed my board leadership skills by actively participating in every agenda planning meeting with Dr sing and Dr Bron
070Hall and providing the related pre- and post meeting Communications I attended all School visits and promptly complet completed those necessary reports and I planned and facilitated activities for our fall and spring board Retreats since I am dedicated and ready for the increased responsibilities I hope that you will support me in becoming our next word president thank you thank you is there anybody else okay is anyone interested in putting their name for vice president yes I would like to put my name forward to be considered for vice president I have um served on the board beginning my the beginning of my second term and during my three years on the board I have worked hard to understand the operations of school boards in including attending various workshops in leadership for boards and their operations within school
071districts I have a 31y year background in the field of education so I'm well informed about all of the operations that happen in schools on a daily basis for those reasons I put myself forward to be considered for the vice president position for our school board for this next school year uh thank you is there anyone else mik uh just uh being on the board for uh the past four years and having a vast knowledge of how this board has run how collaboratively work together um I have over 18 years in education as well the education field um we've worked together even disagreeing um I feel I've put forth leadership in various meetings attended many School uh functions as well as um working alongside current board members and former board members um you know all
072the candidates tonight who has have put their names forward are excellent candidates and um you know we hope to have your support going forward but good luck to everyone um thank you anybody else interested okay thank you uh moving on to item 7D through 7j graduation assignments events and prior building visits are listed in both dogs ECB and nisba items is anyone interested any interest attending the events listed if your name is not listed in the event okay I guess not um um I might I think I'm gonna try to attend the August 7th law meeting okay the one that ecsb yeah okay anybody else interested in Western New York law conference Kristal yeah I I am interested in that I know the um formal registration materials just came out today but I am also
073interested in that I'm I'm to Spicer too okay so we have okay three okay um any questions or comments regarding any other EC ASB or NPA items okay Le leason assignments does anyone have anything to report under leason assignments updates to the 8,000 policies will be at the future board meeting veterans tax exemptions Dr bronal is any update yes we are asking to present the data that was requested by board members at the a this meeting when we have final um assessment values um because everyone in Amherst was assessed at 100% once we get those um finalized and we have those appeals heard we will be able to present final numbers um for the data that was requested by the board then the board can take action after that time so if we can just
074delay it to the August meeting and there's no hurry because we don't have to adopt it until March I believe correct marks 2025 thank you correspondence was received regarding school lunch options and um again at the end of the year I'd like to thank all board members for covering building and committee assignments sending in the reports and Reporting at the board table moving on to the superintendent's contract we have a motion to approve the contract for the superintendent of schools Dr Brown Hall has presented uh Miss and Mr buan any discussion yeah I'll make a few comments I mean this is this is an important uh um you know decision by the board and um you know whether or not uh we're going to move forward with the current superintendent you know you see throughout
075the the area schools having financial difficulties uh laying off teachers cutting programs and you know fortunately for a lot of reasons willville is not in that position and you know when when there's something goes wrong the person at the top gets the blame and when something goes right they should take part in the credit as well and and the the discussions on the superintendent's uh uh contract um you know I've been involved in a lot of contract negotiations and the board has also with other uh um things that come across uh their desks the superintendent's ask I think was reasonable it was rational uh I think the board and the back and forth both sides were respectful of each other and and and you know what the public is looking at because they look at
076the school board the superintendent and I could I believe that this um contract puts the superintendent you know right where a superintendent of a district with this success and this size should be now he's certainly not the highest paid he certainly not the lowest paid uh the board rated him effective and highly effective I think he he's a very visible and I think in this District it takes you know a certain person to really be you know the leader and the front person Dr Brown Hall is at at at every event most of them it seems like he's said every event um so I think it's a fair contract and I'm going to support it any other comments M um just to follow up what uh Mr Mana said um I was actually here when
077we did uh hire Dr Brown Hall um which was you know there was many good candidates and um obviously we went in the direction of Dr Brown Hall but moving forward as as we've evaluated him from year to year and you can go back on board dos and see that you know it's it's always been effective or highly effective there's been things that you know as the public can know that you know the board has not always agreed with Dr Brown or or we've seen eye ey but the fact that it's always a respectful conversation discussion and we come collabora together to make decisions ultimately that's what helps the school move forward um you know Dr Brown Hall would be the first to admit it he he has faults but he's always looking to grow
078and continue to to um you know work on those things and obviously Williamsville would not be the district it was without you know leadership it's I always bring up Sports analogies but you know it may be an owner looking after a team you know and the coach gets the credit or the quarterback gets the credit or the point guard gets the credit but ultimately it's the person running it and putting the people in the positions that are correct for them to make it run um you know as we see from the multiple committees that have been started um and how we've grown in Dei um you know policies with restorative Justice and um it's just it's good to see and I think moving forward ultimately education has become you know difficult uh short short you
079know teachers are not to shorten teachers administrators uh there's there's not many going into the field and to work right now with the way the educational field is you know the political things that are involved it's difficult um you know and I've I've always commented in private but I'd say it here uh for working at a district as well and seeing our Superintendent at multiple multiple multiple things um where my own kids recognize him uh recognize other superintendents as well uh is very nice you don't get that at every District um and I don't mean it's just sporting events it's it's music musicals Orchestra uh you know uh PTA uh meetings uh attending actually every one every year I just I think it goes to what we're looking for in a superintendent and um with
080the shortage in teachers and administrators you can't lose something like that and I think that's what the board did when coming to these decisions um we don't usually discuss why we you know came to the contract or anything but I think at these times we do because people question why and um giving explanations to why we decided to move forward with this and capacity is important for our constituents to know so uh anybody else CH just one additional comment um our guiding document as a district is our strategic plan and Dr Brown Hall was hired sort of at the tail end of that planning process but it's completely embraced the plan that was put together by a variety of stakeholders throughout our community and has really made sure as is evidenced tonight in the document
081that is in board docs um significant progress on those goals when we're only we're not even halfway through that plan at this point so I think that's a testament to uh his ability to really lead our district through our guiding document and I will just add coming on the board at the same time that um Dr Brown Hall has come on has been a pleasure for me to work as a former administrator I worked with a number of superintendents and by far Dr Brown Hall has stood up head and shoulders above other administrators I've worked with so I applaud him for the um tackling a messy situation when he came in amidst a very messy Geographic situation globally um and so there were lots of things to challenge and he never shied away from any
082of them so I am personally very glad that we have him at the helm thank you um anyone else I just want to thank U Mark and Mike for effectively summarizing why we uh why we approved your contract and why it's so important at this time to have you in our school and like what modin said three years ago Mike Michael and me sorry Morin and me three of us joined the schools at the same time as you and in three years you grown into the role and you embraced our school spirit and the school like what Christ still said our schools vision and we are happy to have you in our schools and for next four years thank you very much well I I appre and Beyond more than four I I do appreciate
083the the board and your confidence in me to continue in this role of superintendent but I also appreciate the relationship that we've built and the ability to work together um as you know I have many friends who are superintendent and I do hear stories about how different boards operate and when I tell them how our board operates and I encourage them to watch our board meetings you know I do consider myself blessed to be sitting in this seat amongst all of you as elected officials and our ability to work together and move our district in the right direction we've accomplished a lot and I know I promise the years coming forward we won't tackle as much um however we do have a lot of work ahead of us also so we will continue doing what's
084in the best interest for students right and making sure that we are all rowing together so thank you very much for your continued confidence in the leadership of this district and I also want to take this time to thank the cabinet it is impossible to run a district as a single person the individuals that make up the cabinet that you see around this table assistant superintendent scano assistant superintendent balum assistant superintendent Mike Kelly um our former assistant superintendent Tom matki Dana floriano U Molly Cooper Nick filipowski and our district clerk Lynn hi Lyn all of these individuals do a phenomenal job helping lead our district and so I can't do it by myself I depend on them for a lot and I appreciate them as the cabinet of this District also thank you and like
085what Mike said most a lot of people in our community recognize you because you are everywhere it's Sports cultural and even nothing connected to schools that Mighty Taco I ran into my lunch absolutely absolutely and crumble cookie I got oh see I've heard he's at gym too so I mean that's no I am there absolutely so um all in favor motion carries unanimously thank you congratulations thank you very much uh approval of new business and consent agenda items under agend items 10 through 14 minutes Personnel business and finance exceptional educ ation special needs and Student Activities and District facility Support Services we may have a motion to approve this agenda items as presented Mr mana and M Binger any discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously uh numbers 15 and 16 there are no matters
086to discuss under agenda items number 17 Committee of the whole does any do any board members have any matter to discuss under the committee of the whole Mike well you I just again want to thank my colleagues uh and the community for all of their support through the years but I just want to um make an advocacy point for the board moving forward you know through the years I've argued or we've discussed providing U meals for our students at no cost we know that through the uh pandemic time uh funding was there from the federal government we know that uh some school districts now have full funding for that we're not at that threshold where we qualify but you know I would hope that you would look uh keep advocating for that but maybe at
087the minimum try to make sure every one of our students starts a day off with a breakfast whatever we could do to add that to the budget over time uh and make sure the kids how students start off uh with a full stomach so they can have a full mind and we can concentrate on that and I think that that's valuable so and again thank you thank you thank you Mike a 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 okay our next meeting is the organizational meeting on July 2nd may have a motion to adjourn the regular board meeting Dr Litman Miss kasar Bogner all in favor motion carries unanimously