001foreign to return the regular board meeting to public session Dr Singh second Mr beulin all in favor thank you I call the regular board meeting to order all board members are present except Mrs leather Barrel Dr Singh would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God okay please be advised that in the event of a fire emergency and and 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 [Music] thank you is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented Miss kasmarak Bogner second Dr
002Littman any discussion thank you motion carries unanimously Dr Brown Hall I would like to turn the microphone over to you to discuss board acknowledgments thank you very much president McCleary so tonight for more than a year our elementary schools have been able to utilize steam Labs allowing students to learn engage and get a little creative in science technology engineering the Arts and math so tonight's School Spotlight focuses on Dodge Elementary School and their second year of implementing steam Labs I'd now like to welcome to the podium principle extraordinaire Charlie smilnich to share more thank you hey I just want to thank everyone the Board of Education Dr Brown hall for us being here today what we wanted to do is we really want to put a focus on some programming that we have as well
003as a teacher we have Mrs Mango who is he want to talk about principal extraordinaire she is probably one of the most dynamic being at Dodge steam teachers I've ever seen in my life considering she's the only one so it's kind of like when you ask kids who's your favorite principal they say me and they ask who's your favorite steam teacher they say her but I'll tell you this he truly is dynamic but the program itself is absolutely phenomenal and all I can say is thank you for putting it into place um and hopefully we get to keep it for years to come because it really is impacting and changing children's lives every single day and I'm not going to take all the credit because Mrs Mango does this day in and day out so
004I'll turn it over to her well thank you Charlie and thank you to the board um I'm so excited to be able to put a spotlight on Dodge through Steam in Steam the focus is really on the process rather than the product and because of that every day I get to see kids taking risks I get to see all of our Dodgers being successful regardless of their language barriers or any learning abilities that might hold them back because they're working with their hands and I see students light up every day because they're given choice to show how they're learning thank you yeah thank you that's part of the Arts right that's part of the Arts well so another thing I every day get to see kids authentically work to solve problems working in groups working
005in Partnerships they get to be creative and they come up with some amazing innovative ideas so these are just some of the reasons that Dodge is so Dynamic thank you Charlie why we're so Dynamic and I'm so proud of our Dodgers and I really appreciate the opportunity to showcase them is this one of the cue the video awesome [Music] when the waves are really really big the volume's really nice steam is probably the most popular class we have at Dodge Elementary School Mrs mangle has created an atmosphere where students are excited they want to learn they're enthused everything is Hands-On manipulatives used all throughout the classroom when you can dive deep into it using your hands and understanding a little deeper process really brings things to life and that's what steam really does is bring
006our subject that we have to life one of the things we've been working on recently as my first graders are learning about sound is caused by vibrations so they've done lots of Hands-On exploring how vibrations make sound one of the things being in year two is I have seen a big difference in the kids it's almost become like a mindset for the kids they know that when they're in here they have agency they have choice I I think the best thing for me is when I give them an activity and I'm literally just the facilitator they're making the choices This Is How They want to implement so did it make it invisible with a bigger cup or a smaller cup yes a big difference once like we built a catapult and we had to like
007that was pretty hard that was really it was fun we got to test it out like after we built in it makes me feel really like wow like it works our students love steam they love that they can come here and they can test different things out and sometimes in the beginning of steam they don't know what they're going to do but by the end they feel very accomplished I've seen so many children grow it really lets all the kids shine they're able to apply what they've learned in Steam it makes them excited so that when they see it in other topic areas they're even more eager to learn more it's fun and you get to test and build way more things than you can just do in a like normal classroom environment and just
008if you mess up you can just try again it's okay that at all because that's the testing and because it falls you know you think what did I do wrong and maybe I can improve about that every time you build and every time you're at steam you get to learn something new the activities that we're doing in here really are life lessons as much as I can I try to make that connection that hey look at this you built this whole you know roller coaster and it completely fell down what did you do you didn't give up you just started building again what if we did that in math what if you did that in writing the more that we have steam the more they're going to learn how to problem solve they're going to
009learn that their ideas are valuable and I think that every year it's just going to build foreign [Applause] thank you principal smell Nixon Mrs Mango so tonight we also want to highlight the office of exceptional education and student services and the importance and impact of transition Services we know success in the classroom and in the community is different for each student but the office of exceptional education and student services works with transition Specialists to ensure students are prepared once they leave high school I'd now like to welcome up John D'Angelo the district's director of special education to share more foreign [Applause] thank you folks good evening to our Board of Education members assistant superintendent Mr scanzuzzo District leadership team thank you for this opportunity to share some information about a recent agency Fair held at
010North High School library on January 19th for this evening we had an impressive number of agency participants they provided our community and student attendees with information regarding supports programs and services through the New York State Office of people with developmental disabilities or opwdd opwdd is responsible for coordinating services for New Yorkers with developmental disabilities such as intellectual disabilities cerebral palsy Down syndrome autism spectrum disorder as well as other neurological impairments it provides services directly and through a network of service agencies in Western New York now the purpose of our agency Fair on January 19th was to support our students and families as they navigate these Community Resources and assist in their choices of agency providers available upon their child's graduation from high school and entry into adult programming supports or services families and students came
011out in very impressive numbers as you'll see shortly with some participants coming from neighboring communities taking away information establishing contacts with these Community providers I would like to thank our director of communications Mr philipowski who led our coverage of this event and putting together our informational video tonight on behalf of our district transition Specialists Courtney Cox Cheryl Danny Kathy Lehman and Melissa Miller thank you to the board of education for your continued support of our transition department and support of our students transition development we look forward to continuing our partnership with our family students and Community providers and as said there is a video that was created to represent that night Mr philipowski video please thank you [Music] the agency Fair gives families of children with developmental disabilities the opportunity to identify programs to support
012their continued success After High School the past few years we've hosted this event virtually but once again we're excited to offer this program in person you know you see these kids from the time they're freshmen until their last year of high school and you've seen them grow and you've seen them evolve and then you think I'm not ready to let them go into the real world but it's with transition planning they're ready I mean even if we're not so I feel like that's what makes this job so great that's why we're here that's why we have transition services in our schools we really are committed to providing experiences and classes to help students to reach their unique potential and thrive in the community we know that some of our students need an individualized approach and
013transition Services provides that we provide a multitude of authentic experiences to help students get to those future goals and then things like the agency fairs help students and families to make the connections to the community so they're set they're ready with that bridge to leave High School so stepsa is the Williamsville special education parent teacher student Association we support all students with exceptional education programming so both gift students involved in gifted programming and any kids with an IEP or 504 plan steps that offers a variety of programs throughout the year some Focus specifically around transition services but many other topics related to kids with exceptional education needs we also offer support and networking at a variety of times and locations throughout the year and subject can provide you know great resource for parents looking for
014additional information to support their kids so the agency fair to me was the first time that I've participated in one here in Williamsville and I've just been able to gather a lot of information but for a lot of my friends who have never had that chance this is a great opportunity to say what does my student need in the future and how can I prepare right so you need the information before you actually need it so you have time to time to digest and get ready for when you're really needing to make that decision kind of like students who you know are pre-thinking about going to college they start talking about it in ninth and 10th grade so transition is the same thing sometimes you're not ready for it because no one's ready for their
015student to leave high school because it's big and scary but the transition is like a great is great because you're able to connect with people who are out in the community who are doing this so all those resources are there but you can get them because the fair was there and you're able to talk to people that you normally wouldn't even know are out there transition planning is very individualized so that's why we have representatives from so so many different agencies so many different areas and programs um just to try to connect with parents and students and see what is a great fit for them we're thankful for the agents that have continued to support our program and work with us along the way it's really great to see these students Thrive After High School
016seeing students successful as adults in the community is everything it's why we why transition Services exists we want students to have a quality Happy Life After High School and we know that that means something different for each student and each family and transition Services is here to help with that thank you I would also like to thank our sepsa partnership who helped co-present and facilitate that evening as well so folks thank you so much any questions Mr D'Angelo thank you very much and thank you for all you do to help with the transition Services we appreciate it thank you thank you and McCleary I'll turn it back over to you any board acknowledgments I wanted to acknowledge the eighth grade um future cities team from Mill Middle and their advisor um Mr Randy gamero um
017who will be going to the National represent us at the national tournament in um Washington DC and I believe this is the fifth um team that Mr Gamera has shepherded to Washington D.C so congratulations to that thank you anyone else now I call Miss Poulin to review our public expression format welcome to all who have come to observe this regular board meeting her policy 1510 the board allows 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 designed to be a discussion therefore please do not expect us to respond tonight instead you will receive a response by email after our meeting because we
018want to maintain mutual respect and civility please ensure that comments are delivered in a respectful manner to the board directly also under state and federal privacy laws we are unable to entertain any comments related to employee Personnel information or to 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 allotted three minutes for comments you will be signaled at two and a half minutes so that you may conclude your remarks at this time we will begin our public comments after I call you on you please step up to the podium and state your name Mary Keller foreign Keller I'll make it short I am the
019local coordinator for EF High School exchange year exchange students I know some of you have heard of our organization um I just wanted to propose that I I understand that Williamsville School District only allows Junior and senior students but I currently have a family who has chosen a student for next school year who's 15 years old and they are not allowing her to attend your school because of that policy so I'm just wondering if you could reconsider that's all thank you for your comments Jennifer Heim [Music] good evening my name is Christopher Heim and I'm here as a building representative on behalf of Mill Middle School but more importantly as a father a husband and colleague and a friend it is certainly not easy to get up here and have to request this however there's
020a quote that my late father oh he's using has always resonated with my life seldom is the right path easy there are significant concerns at Mill Middle School that we do not feel are adequately being addressed we are requesting that the Board of Education use your power of oversight to look closely into these matters that are affecting our staff and students and the ability to everyone to engage in effective and meaningful education I appreciate your time and consideration in this pressing manner I'm happy to follow up with any emails or meetings that you request that are necessary thank you for your time thank you for your comments [Applause] Jesse Jared Jerry okay I'll get it right eventually no problem thank you hopefully you'll see more of me all right so Dr Brown Hall and the
021entire board of directors thank you for your service to the school the students and the community I'd like to make a few comments to the board tonight regarding the rollout and implementation of the required diversity equity and inclusion plan I was pleased to read and understand that the Board of Regents has issued room to move and in their words local discretion to adapt this plan to meet our District's needs I'm pleased that the underlying goal of this policy is state area one that the district is committed to meet all students academic and wellness needs that is the goal of the school to educate our students and should be the main function however my concerns grow a bit after the statement within this policy the language used sounds good in this common language we've adapted in
022the past handful of years to help and try to explain some of the changes we are seeing in society with good intentions as policy seeks to right the ship and course correct and some of those issues that have been ex we are experiencing it ongoing the New York State Board of Regents uses a nice presentation and some language to communicate what the rest of the country would classify as critical race Theory I understand this name for some people carries a negative connotation this term is used politically by certain groups of people as well I urge you not to tune out however this di is just today's rebranding of this failed policy that has been tried in tried since the 1970s the failed program hasn't worked for 40 years it's truly fixing any of our society's
023problems it only leads to divide and alienate I know this policy in its current form today will in fact alienate a portion of your District's families I caution you to also not assume that that alienation will come from one culture race or religion children need to be treated fairly they need to have an environment to learn we need to love our neighbors and ensure everyone has the same opportunities to learn grow and succeed I'm skeptical of this policy today as it is written will provide the desired outcome across all the goals areas as stated as a board I encourage you to explore a solid policy that will truly represent all religions cultures and backgrounds and races remember you do have the local discretion do you have the desire and will to work through this so
024we don't have to revisit this policy again in five years don't just check the box because the Board of Regents says you have to I look forward to a policy that ensures all students have the opportunity to be who they are and to receive the best education this district has to offer thank you to everyone thank you for your comments Thomas knabb good evening my name is Tom Knapp I've been the visual arts educator at Dodge Elementary for 33 years I am passionate about the Arts I use Artsonia which is an online art gallery for student work I photographed and uploaded work for my K to two students and I taught my third and fourth grade students to photograph and upload their own work often having them titling and writing our artist statements to accompany
025their work teach them how to compose a good photo how to write a good statement to explain their work artsony allowed students to build a digital portfolio over their careers at Dodge it also allowed students to share their work with friends and relatives who live far away fundraising through the site I would guess thousands of dollars to enhance my program over the years I've published over 23 000 artworks we've had 50 over 50 000 visitors about 50 000 visitors to the site 2 800 comments and 20 uh 2200 fans what great PR for the visual arts and the district this year however the 10 iPads I used were taken away however herein lies my dismay no one ever inquired as to how not having them might impact my program or offer to help find an
026alternative I asked my school's Tech folks what they were but they were unable to come up with a solution and I will add not due to a lack of trying through my principle we inquired and asked and what could be done and the question came back what are the requirements for what you need we shared them but never heard anything back and has been close to two months we are more than halfway through the school year and I have zero artworks uploaded to Artsonia did this go away because it was too difficult to maintain the iPad platform I share with you teachers are doing difficult things every day this has had a profound impact on my program and one of the ways in which I meet the New York State learning standards for the visual
027arts Anchorage standards four five and six it has been very frustrating and quite disappointing I would still like to find a solution and at the very least we the district needs to support Educators better as technology changes whether it be changes in programs apps websites or devices thank you for listening thank you for your comments and that includes our public expression for this evening thank you very much for all of your comments thank you we are up to item number five with a presentation about extraordinary circumstances Miss kasmarak Bogner I call on you for this agenda item thank you president McCleary meeting for Nick Club the presentation thank you Nick um in June 2022 updates were made to open meetings law that allowed board members to participate in a meeting using video conferencing under extraordinary
028circumstances to enact this change there are several requirements including holding a public hearing which will take place at the conclusion of this presentation there are two oml options that allow board members to utilize video conferencing at a meeting the first which is included in our current policy 1510 allows members to attend a meeting virtually during extenuating circumstances provided that their location is disclosed and the public May attend the meeting at that location or any other location where board members are participating the new Option allows members to attend a meeting remotely during extraordinary circumstances when using this option the remote location is not required to be disclosed however under these circumstances member of the public may also attend virtually and participate in the meeting requirements for using extraordinary circumstances video conferencing include defining extraordinary circumstances establishing
029written procedures for video conferencing and posting on the board's web page requiring in-person attendance of enough members to establish a quorum at the public location ensuring members are seen heard and identified during open portions of the meeting providing an option for remote public participation to the same extent as the public were attending in person and forming by public notice when using extraordinary circumstances video conferencing and how the public May participate virtually and holding a public meeting and adopting a resolution on this matter for this proposed update extraordinary circumstances includes disability illness caregiving responsibilities or any other significant or unexpected factor or event which precludes the board members physical attendance at a meeting the proposed board procedures include members will contact the board president and district clerk to notify of an extraordinary circumstance as soon as
030possible to allow for public notice to be posted at least 72 hours in advance or to the extent practicable the board president May determine that any certain meeting is ineligible for this video conferencing due to the administrative needs technological limitations or other consideration the district clerk will post the required public notice including information on how the public can participate virtually on the board webpage in board docs and may also highlight this as an important bubble when going on the district website and all other required procedures from the previous slide will be followed at all meetings using extraordinary circumstances video conferencing so does the board have any questions regarding this proposed resolution foreign no I guess my first comment would be related to the role and responsibility of the board president um and I think that
031historically and I guess being older I know history um I don't believe that's in the board president's decision making to make that final decision and maybe that should be clarified as uh support of the majority of the board by a vote if something Rises to that level oh that would be my thought anyone oh I was just oh I can respond to that so we can only vote when we're in a meeting so if the extraordinary circumstances happen just prior to a meeting there's no way that we would be able to vote on that because we cannot vote any other way unless we are in a quorum in a public meeting so um I do understand the concern though I know that that particular procedure was adopted from something the Board of Regents included in
032their resolution on this matter um and I know that there have been other suggestions and I believe maybe Mr beulin wants to share one of his yeah I guess my suggestion would be that we take it out of the hands of the board president and put it maybe in the clerk's responsibility and so it doesn't it can't be determined like it's uneven that way it would be impartial I guess would be the word I would be fine with this except with that particular yeah I think that's as the board president whoever person is isn't going to be making the these arrangements for the technology I also have a problem with the um to the extent practicable um as a timeline because I don't think that that's realistic you know if I wake up if I
033woke up today and said oh I can't be at the board meeting tonight so I want to be with you by video I don't know that that's fair to our tech people to coordinate that never mind give do notice to the public so I think we need to close that close that down you know it's either 72 hours in advance or not less than 24 or whatever is practical for us to actually meet that but to leave it that open-ended is a problem anyone else okay so at this point we can have a public hearing on extraordinary circumstances at this time anyone may approach the board with comments regarding the extraordinary circumstances topic all right then president McCleary um so may I have a motion to resolve and approve the extraordinary circumstance video conferencing resolution
034as presented okay should we modify you know showing that there is no motion on that are there areas that you wish to see to formalize things we've mentioned how would you like to see it changed and then I believe we can have the vote am I correct okay can we have could we have this slide back up you probably want to put up 5c the actual resolution that's what I was just going to say if you go to the one that the board members look at I see I'll I'll make a motion I'll make a motion to um change the pers actually I need the procedure number so I can't make the motion sorry which procedure number four the one that the board president yes that's number four thank you so that the board president
035will be modified to the district clerk May determine that any certain meeting is ineligible for this video conferencing due to administrating these technological limitations or other consideration and also that the members will contact the board of education and district clerk to notify of an extraordinary circumstance as soon as possible to allow for a public notice to be posted at least 72 hours in advance and must be a minimum of 24 hours are those under the procedures yes okay I actually don't know which numbers for those that was that was all one procedure was all in number four no no it let me look it up I'm sorry I'm sorry okay thank you it's 24 hours enough any any other comments I guess my question is wouldn't it be on the board members end with whether
036it be possible or not to a certain extent like whether we have the technology to make it happen anything else yeah let me just all right go ahead you know just a question I would have since I wasn't at the last meeting I was overseas um you know it says we have these extenuating circumstances if I'm not able to attend I'm not required to video conference in I could still or any member can still take an absence right this is yeah I'm sorry but it's like efuq so this is a board issue I apologize or should we vote on any other questions all right so may I have a motion to resolve and approve the extraordinary circumstance video conferencing resolution as amended Mr bulin second Miss Poulin all in favor thank you motion carries unanimously
037[Music] I'm sorry okay right we went from that's what they want five to seven yeah it should be number six if ever you can go right to hear may I have a motion okay I'm sorry all right may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda item seven personnel eight business and nine special needs and Student Activities as presented Dr Singh second Mr beulin any discussion Dr Littman go ahead I have a question 8h the one I always like to look at the extra classroom account activity report are you asking that that be pulled no not be on the consent agenda I said a comment it's disgusting okay yeah so my only comment is you know I know that we get one from each school um I wanted to see if besides doing that
038if you know I do it myself if there'd be just a way to list each school with the total account balance next to it uh just for ease of looking at that on the Telly yes yeah because it goes you know one school has 142 000 in their account one has 19 000 and they're all in between I just think it would be a way to visually represent it in a different way so that it might lead to Future discussion so that'd be my comment if we could look at that down the road I'm sorry I'm not understanding how you want it changed well all I you know all I would want would be the addition of a listing of each of the middle schools and high schools with the amount of the account balance
039looking for like a spreadsheet the schools and the totals it doesn't have to be that formal it's either a spreadsheet or a Microsoft Word table but yeah we'll list the four elements for middle schools three high schools and you just want to know what the total amount is instead of scrolling through each of these that's what you're asking for because we each of them anyway right but for ease of use for for the public yeah you're saying and for ease of use for board members okay that's the easy that's the easy one we can accommodate that I thank you for that absolutely books on the table so um the Motions on the table you just have to vote you got a second right yes yes I couldn't remember it a second I apologize no problem
040all right um all in favor motion carries unanimously thank you I would like to thank the following retirees for their service to the district Mark Arnold Transit middle school for 32 years of service oh you're welcome to do that or we can do it at the end it's up to you there's a lot it's a long list today there's 40 of them on here so yeah Beth ashback ashbacher I apologize Forest Elementary for 21 years of service Nora Bender Mill Middle School for 30 years of service Janice Bomer bummer again Forest Elementary for 30 years of service Thomas Brill Casey middle school for 20 years of service Deborah Brown Maple West Elementary for 30 years of service Michael Calandra North High School for 30 years of service Susan Calandra Heim middle school for 35 years
041of service Samuel Campanelli Mill Middle School for 32 years of service [Applause] Pamela clabo Maple West Elementary for 38 years of service Robin Clark Transit middle school for 32 years of service Rose debate director of student services for 22 years of service Kirk Davidson East High School for 34 years of service Mary Flavin North High School for 28 years of service Suzanne Gaskill Heim Elementary for 18 years of service Kyle Django Casey middle school for 25 years of service [Music] Lisa gramza Transit middle for 30 years of service Edward Greenway High middle for 37 years of service Michelle Greenway East High School for 34 years of service Daniel Greiner North High School aim program for 30 years of service Constance Grimley Dodge Elementary for 17 years of service constant Grimsley Dodge Elementary for 17 years
042of service foreign Dodge Elementary School for 32 years of service Laurie Herberger Transit middle for 30 years of service Eileen Hodson district-wide occupational therapist for 25 years of service Richard Hopkins Heim middle for 29 years of service Paul Horton East High School for 35 years of service Thomas Hurley East High School for 27 years of service Susanna Kane South High School for 21 years of service Rachel kautz Mill Middle School for 26 years of service Kevin Crum South High School for 31 years of service Julie Krasinski North High School for 24 years of service thank you Andrew Lamont Casey middle school for 30 years of service Karen Lazaro dad elementary teachers aid for 15 and a half years of service Mary Karen losey Forest Elementary for 30 years of service Michelle Lucci Heim Elementary for
04331 years of service Lisa Mana Maple West Elementary for 28 years of service [Applause] Karen mazurchick both Dodge Elementary 32 years of service Gerald moot Forest Elementary and Casey Middle School social worker 25 years of service Mary Elizabeth Notaro country Parkway Elementary for 33 years of service Kimberly pressoff North High School for 33 years of service Maureen Riley East High School for 32 years of service Diane rusick district-wide occupational therapist for 25 years of service Anita Saya Heim Elementary for 33 years of service Lisa sciavone Transit middle school for 32 years of service Michelle Schreiber Transit middle school for 31 years of service Joan Sebastian Heim middle school for 32 years of service Diane chantler Maple East Elementary for 30 years of service Maria shandler Forest Elementary for 33 years of service Laurie spits no
044excuse me Smith Nogle East High School for 29 years of service Molly Ulrich Maple West Elementary for 26 years of service Andrew Utes North High School aim for 28 years of service that's I apologize Jody Wakefield Maple West Elementary for 33 years of service [Applause] Woods Heim middle school for 35 years of service and Catherine sirachowski Dodge Elementary for 22 years of service around all over thank you item number 10 is there a motion to approve the minutes from the January 10th regular board meeting Miss Poulin second Miss kasmarak Bogner are there any corrections all in favor opposed abstentions thank you motion carries seven zero one under the president's report the upcoming events are listed in board docs the community Forum will be held on March 28th after the budget work session at Casey middle
045in the library the approximate start time of the Forum is 7 30 pm the board retreat is scheduled for April 13th from 6 to 9 00 pm the next school building visit will be on February 28th attending from the board are myself Miss Poulin missed sorry I'm gonna sneeze excuse me Miss kasmarak Bogner Dr Littman Mr biscalia Miss blackinger anyone else so both thank you Mr beulin is a possible okay [Music] at this point I needed a motion to approve and adapt to the procedure and timeline for the election of school board members as presented Miss casmeric Bogner second Mr beulin any discussion all in favor motion carries unanimously this time I call on district clerk Lynn Carey to share information regarding board candidate packets and the annual vote okay hello everyone uh just a
046few highlights regarding the board candidate packet information and voter information there is a board candidate packets are available now for those who are interested there's a workshop held by Erie County Association of school boards on March 25th from 8 A.M until 10 30 a.m at erie1 BOCES and the flyer is in board access also uh I do like to meet with prospective candidates um to go briefly over the packet if they have any questions and then all the information is due back uh April 17th the three board members whose term expires uh June 30th of this year are Mr biscalia Dr McCleary and Mrs kasmarak Bodner and then if elected as a board member and it is your first year of service there is a mandatory training within the first year of service that needs
047to be completed in regard to fiscal oversight accountability and fiduciary responsibilities of a school board member and I would facilitate the registration for all those trainings more detailed information is also on board docs and 11c and then in regard to agenda item 11d annual voter and vote information the annual vote is May 16th at North High School from 7 till 9 8 9 7 A.M till 9 00 PM in the gym our district utilizes the Erie County board of elections voter registry database voters May check the Erie County site to see if they are registered to vote through them and if they their name does not appear on that site it doesn't mean they can't come and vote they just have to be a qualified voter in our district which means they have to be
048all free of the following District resident for a period of 30 days prior to the vote 18 or older on the day of the vote and a U.S citizen and the application for absentee ballots will be available after April 1st and then you may request them through email to me I'll carry Atlanta k12.org or you can call 716-626-8092 and the actual ballot will be ready to go out to applicants sometime after April 20th and that's it are there any questions from the board regarding the packet or the vote okay thank you thank you Miss Carey upcoming events and meetings for the Erie County Association of school boards and the New York State School Board Association are listed in board docs does anyone have anything to report related to ecasb or nisba two board members will
049be elected to serve on the board of Cooperative Educational Services first supervisory District of Erie County at the meeting designated by the erie1 BOCES board president to be held on April 18th in each of the 19 component districts there is information in board docs about the incumbents seeking re-election the Williamsville Central School District Board of Education will make their nominations at the March 14th regular board meeting and thank you Mr Sherman and Miss McGregor plier for submitting letters at this point I turn it over to Dr Brown hall for your community update thank you very much president McCleary so after the community update we will have a brief presentation about the district Dei plan followed by a presentation from our director of professional learning Dr Linda ruay on our mission and belief statements then we
050will have a presentation from our director of communications the New York State Communicator of the year uh Mr Nick filipowski who will reveal the district logos so first for the community update we have a few things to discuss District rebranding so I want to thank all the stakeholders who emailed feedback for the revised Mission and belief statements but I do want to say something about the feedback that we received and talk about achievement and success for a moment because I want everyone to be very clear that achievement can take many forms and we wanted to make sure we stress that in our district rebranding through our mission and belief statements the same thing for success success looks different for every student and we wanted to make sure we conveyed that also we had a lot
051of feedback about success and achievement simply being the average that a student may have right and how well they do in their AP courses but I want us all to really wrap our minds around achievement and success look different for every student the same with diversity diversity takes many forms so we got feedback on how our district isn't as diverse as we're making it out to be but I argue that our district is very diverse and we're not simply talking diversity in skin tone right so we're talking diversity and many aspects in the entire word so we look at diversity we look and we represent and we appreciate our students that identify as lgbtq we appreciate our students who are not able-bodied we appreciate our students that may be different look different and we appreciate
052all of that so very similar to how Mill Middle School says all means all we sincerely mean that in our school district and we want to appreciate diversity and its many forms social emotional learning we are going to actually have that on the agenda for our speaker series for the 23 24 first school year because a lot of people who emailed us were very confused about what we meant when we said social emotional learning so very similar to how uh misery way did a presentation on restorative educational practices we'll do the same thing on social emotional learning just so that we can have our parents and our community understand what we mean when we say social emotional learning because you'll hear that a lot so there will be additional opportunities for stakeholders to provide feedback
053to the district regarding our Dei plan so after we presented today our Dei plan will also undergo a 30-day coming period our Ogle vote you'll be able to vote on the district logo for the next 30 days also our district safety plan has been amended to include two of the contracts our SRO contract and our contract with our outside security firm Vista Securities so that will be up for an additional 30-day con um comment period with the contract addendums committee membership we are looking for additional parents and we will talk about additional committees next year that we need parental and Community Support on I want to thank all of the community members that responded for the current committees we were looking for and you were notified we got over a hundred responses and we appreciate
054that another opportunity to provide stakeholder input is during our Community forums and our next Community forum is on March 28th last but not least we are revamping our district website also so we're opening a request for proposals to begin this process and I and identifying a new website vendor so we'll be opening that very soon the district-wide communications committee will be forming a website subcommittee to be a part of the vetting process and then clearly identify how we want our website to look function ease of use is very important and simplicity in a website our speaker series so oh there's Linda right there our director professional learning is right there she held our first speaker series on restorative educational practices and I want to thank you again Ms ruay and I want to thank everyone
055that attended we'll be doing that again in the future and our next speaker series our diversity equity and inclusion speaker series will be held Thursday March 2nd at Casey Middle School and our kids escaping drug speaker series will be held on Monday March 20th that has been confirmed as of this afternoon so kids escaping drugs will be doing a face-to-face presentation of a vaping presentation and they will also be presenting On the Dark Side of social media so we are reviewing the possibility of live streaming or recording these events also so for individuals that can't be there um with us at Casey middle school or at Transit Middle School we're looking to see if we can live stream or at least record a portion of these and have them available on our website foreign opportunities
056so I wanted to make sure this was in the community update so that if anyone um if you're interested or you know of someone that may be interested in any of these career opportunities please visit our career opportunities page on our website and apply February is Black History Month and we have been honoring and we will continue to recognize and honor The Life and Legacy of historical figures so this month we are honoring Matthew Henson Harriet Tubman Glenn Burke and owner judge so we will have a video um programming on our website honoring each of these individuals and I will speak about them in the weekly update parent involvement so and I I know I spoke about it in the weekly update and I will continue to speak about it we ask that you please
057stay engaged with your school community Through the PTA PTSA and sepsa even if you are not a member of one of those organizations we ask that you volunteer for one of the many events they are planning for your child's schools so these events and experiences provide some of the best memories students and parents carry with them throughout their educational journey and so the PTA and the ptsas and sepsa do many events even if you can't attend the meetings please we encourage you to volunteer for some of the events in your child School our mid-winter recess is coming up February 20th to the 24th and classes will resume on Monday February 27th during mid-winter recess the Amherst Police Department is hosting a game day on Tuesday February 21st at Transit middle school and the gymnasium from
05810 a.m to 12 p.m so this is a great opportunity for students that are and our school Community to work with the Amherst police department and enjoy game day it builds a great relationship and that is the community update any questions from board members before we jump into the Dei update Dei update is next thank you very much and I I'm not going to go deep into the Dei plan very similar to like the Strategic plan because the Dei plan will be up for a 30-day comment period And I encourage anyone that reviews the plan has feedback has anything that you think left out or too much of something please email us so that we can review it very similar to how we did the mission and beliefs and if we need to change something
059we will if we need to add something we will and we want Community feedback so purpose of a Dei plan why do we need this so the same education department has a video it's called Equity excellence and access and New York students explain that learning becomes possible and joyful when they are seen heard and valued for who they are so our Dei plan also hooks us on a Level Playing Field so that we all understand the common language and definitions that we are using when we talk about implicit bias what are microaggressions what is diversity and when we mean and when we say inclusion what do we mean so we have a glossary and our Dei plan when we get to the highlights of the Dei website we also have a foundation foundational video that
060um our director of professional learning did that also goes over these basic definitions in our Dei plan we also have the Board of Regents call to action and the cr-s framework so that's culturally responsive sustaining education framework that has four components welcoming and affirming environment high expectations and rigorous instruction inclusive curriculum and assessment and ongoing professional learning our Dei committee so we wanted to make sure we had a committee that would develop a Dei plan for Williamsville by Williamsville it had over 50 members on it including parents student Representatives Administration and teachers all schools now have Dei building committees and I wanted to list our meeting date so you can see that we met we actually had homework before our meetings so that we would come to our meetings very knowledgeable about what we were
061speaking so when we developed our Dei plan we knew what components we wanted to focus on and I really appreciate all of the members of the Dei committee given of their time to make these meeting dates work our Dei goal so there are six Dei goal areas the first is creating a diverse Equitable and inclusive culture in the district and schools the second is Dei in the curriculum so making sure our curriculum is reflective of not only our district but of our world and Nation as a whole raising student voice this is very very important and we're going to be seeing more of this in our district making sure that we're raising student voice to the decision-making level family and Community engagement so very important ensuring Workforce diversity that is something that our new executive
062director Dana floriano of HR is really working on she's a dynamic dynamic plan to help us do that ongoing professional learning and one thing I will say about our professional learning director is that we are always getting the most up-to-date professional learning in our district so top-notch Department top-notch professional learning opportunities and we appreciate that our plan has goal statements and goal activities in there also that supports each of these goal areas so after tonight we will have our 30-day comment period open for our diversity equity and inclusion plan this is the front page of the plan you'll be able to go through the plan and you'll be able to send an email to contact at williamsvillek12.org and include Dei plan in the subject line and that is our presentation on our diversity equity and
063inclusion plan and we also will have our Dei website which will be active and we will develop resources for beginning intermediate and advanced individuals in their Dei journey we'll be releasing those slowly so on the Dei plan awesome again I want to thank all of the teachers administrators community members parents and students that worked on that plan over 50 members so thank you very much for that next we will ask that our director of professional learning Linda ruay come up and speak to us about our mission and belief statements our new Mission and belief statements foreign hi everyone thank you for this opportunity to share the process that we used in developing the revised Mission and belief statements here in Williamsville the first thing we did we started meeting in late fall and we finished
064a couple weeks ago and the first thing we did was we looked at our strategic plan to ensure for everybody to identify what they saw in the Strategic plan that we wanted to make sure made its way into our mission and our belief statements so we did that individually and then had a robust discussion about it coming up with these these um topics that we wanted to make sure made their way into the plan the next thing we did was we talked about what a mission statement is charged with what are we supposed to do um these are some definitions of what a mission plan should be and we came up with the following that we want our mission statement to be sincere purposeful brief concise workable understandable and memorable and ultimately does it explain
065why our district exists so here's the original plan that we began working with and it's been in place for at least 12 years that I'm aware of because I've been here for 12 years and after identifying that it wasn't brief and it wasn't concise it wasn't memorable but it was understandable and it was workable we decided on the following revision to propose for public comment we said we thought it was brief concise sincere workable all of those qualities that we were looking for in our mission and it explained why our district exists so then we move to our beliefs this was our original list of beliefs there are 15 of them I'll leave them up for a second so you can take a look what we asked ourselves was were the questions do we believe
066them are they the most essential beliefs to support the work of the district is the language of the Strategic plan reflected in these belief statements are there any redundancies ambiguities would combining them straighten them I'm sorry strengthen them are there any foundational beliefs that are missing from the list and can any of them be more concisely put together so we came up after uh again robust discussion with the following eight proposed belief statements some were combined some were eliminated some were added but we had a really good discussion about our strategic plan and what needed to be represented in our beliefs and then as you know it was put to public response and we got feedback from the public and we met a couple weeks ago once the window closed for public comment and we
067discussed and considered all of the feedback that we got um we integrated some of it into our plans some of it I mean into our beliefs and missions some of them we decided did not were not applicable and in the end in response to the public feedback we are recommending this mission the Williamsville Central School District is committed to educational Excellence that empowers all students to develop their unique potential and Thrive as Learners citizens and leaders in a diverse Global community and in addition to the mission statement the beliefs we change the wording of several of them to reflect very um helpful feedback that we received and I will read them in our commitment to educational Excellence We Believe students are our highest priority all members of our diverse School Community are valued and respected
068a welcoming environment that prioritizes safety wellness and belonging is essential effective Partnerships among schools Educators families and Community Support and Community Support student learning and well-being all students deserve Equitable access to engaging instructional and curricular opportunities to support their success strong social emotional competencies enhanced learning and success growth and Excellence are to be encouraged supported and celebrated and finally learning as a continuous lifelong process so that's the process that we used that's what we came up with um I think I'm grateful for the opportunity to have to been a to have been a part of this work this important work and I think everyone that had a role in it including Those Who provided very useful feedback for us so that we could revise the mission and belief statements are there any questions for me
069yep you know I want to thank you in the committee for looking at that and all of the community input I mean I think it looks good um I guess my question is how was the order of you know that we believe I mean how did you structure that because we talked very briefly about that we intentionally did not number it because we didn't want to establish a hierarchy we shifted a few around to represent what um we felt maybe most strongly they all align with the Strategic plan it really wasn't which ones most strongly do but again we did we didn't number it because we didn't want it to appear that this is the order that we value them but rather they are all valuable yeah well I wasn't asking for an or yeah
070a numbered or whatever just trying to visualize the thought processes that kind of laid that out so I thank you for the comment thank you for leading this work also thank you so next we are going to have our director of communications Nick filipowski with our district logo presentation so I want to thank uh Dr Brown Hall and the board of education for your trust and confidence and support throughout this uh entire process I know from my own personal experience change can be hard but it also provides opportunity which is how we ended up uh here in February of 2023 presenting what I believe are two Dynamic logos for the community to vote on as the next logo for the Williamsville Central School District so miss care if you want to pull the presentation up
071foreign so how do we actually get to this point well if you recall uh near the end of last school year we created the district-wide communications committee and our task in that committee uh was essentially twofold want to analyze the data uh from the climate and communication survey and also as Dr Brown Hall has mentioned in District rebranding take a deep dive into the district website and analyze that and determine what steps need to be taken to improve the user experience and make it easier for all of our community members to access and use the district website successfully so in our meeting so we began meeting in July and August in the communications committee and the formation and the idea to explore a new logo uh was really brought about and the conversation was started
072by the parents who were on the communications wide committee and I want to emphasize that this was a parent-led discussion that occurred in July and August and Dr Brown Hall and I met to discuss the prospects of hey do we have the time can we put forth the the effort can we come up with a solid timeline um to go through a thorough creative process to create a new logo for the district and he and I believe we could so from the district-wide communications committee We canvassed Them asked them who would have interest in joining the logo subcommittee we reached out to our high school building principals to ask if they had students who would be interested in joining this committee and they did and we met for the first time in September we met
073once a month uh after that leading up to December and January where we met twice a month and those were really two of our our most intensive months um as we got to this point and in our meetings whether it was in the meetings or through email correspondence uh we continue to share logo Concepts logo ideas text options we viewed reviewed logos locally and nationally to really get a good gauge of what we felt would be a great representation for the district hopefully over the next 30 years we want to make it essentially Timeless right um you've heard us say this time and time again throughout this process it was a lengthy thorough uh creative process and our philosophy in the logo subcommittee was really that there was no such thing as a bad idea
074you really have to throw everything you can against the wall um there's I think close to 20 individuals on the logo subcommittee so you get 20 individuals into a room that's 20 opinions 20 ideas and an exponential amount of possibilities so it was a very very thorough creative process and it's how we ended up here with two Dynamic designs for consideration so let's before we get to the designs which I know you can see in the back of the room um let's take a look at the the current District logo uh and its use so as we've been celebrating on social media and posting on the district website uh two days from now marks the 130th anniversary uh of the district I think it speaks to the success and the longevity of what the district
075has been able to do since 1893. um the current logo you see in circulation was actually established we learned through the last strategic planning process so it's uh it's kind of a unique opportunity that we've gone through the strategic planning process and we're also undertaking um uh uh a new logo idea um but even with the current logo that we have if you look across all the district properties um water bottles clothing Vehicles there are several variations that are in use so this is the primary District logo 15 children in a parade there's eight Flags five are red and three have the Williamsville W in them and it also includes the motto of the district encouraging nurturing and challenging so these are just some of the variations on which we utilize the flag with W
076in it on District letterhead it's kind of a combination of what we use and I know it's tough to see the watermark on the district letterhead but I promise you the flag W uh is there if you click any PDFs that we we send home um through email or wits it's on there and the the main District logo the primary District logo is in the uh the top left hand corner the water bottle and the mug are also printed a bit differently you'll notice on the water bottle it is a truncated logo centered under the text Williamsville Central Schools on the mug it is the full logo it's just printed in white uh District Vehicles it's another variation of the logo truncated the text is actually now below the primary logo and the motto is
077no longer included clothing again truncated logo on the main logo which you can see in the bottom right hand corner of the of the presentation uh there's an individual in the parade who is holding a flag a few uh individuals behind the individual in the wheelchair and in this logo they are no longer holding a flag the text is also centered and it's in all caps the motto is also not included on any District apparel the 90s it was a great time I enjoyed them I'm sure you all enjoyed them as well um [Laughter] but the logo was primarily used for district printing letterhead newsletters physical printings and mailings um that would go out and the internet was really in its infancy Facebook wasn't uh created until 2004 Twitter came about in 2006 and the
078current District logo really is not digitally compatible and you're probably wondering what do you mean it's a rectangle it's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole it doesn't fit and it doesn't adequately identify or establish the district on digital properties um and our goal as you've seen throughout some of the variations there's about five that that we've gone through here our goal as the logo subcommittee was to create a logo that was simple modern identifiable things we've mentioned um in our correspondence uh throughout this process that would not require drastic variation um so that the logo could be could fit and be well represented for the district across any property that we have so now we'll go ahead and take a look at two of the logo options for consideration and
079here they are so one of the proposed options we maintain the the district color scheme of red and blue the law the the colors are a little deeper and a little richer um red and top uh blue on the bottom this is uh an idea that was pulled from the um from the the current District logo from the flag option right so if you look at the the W that's in the flag it's very similar here the upward motion uh shows the district moving in an upward positive direction it does feature the text Williamsville Central School District along with the uh the year that the district was established in 1893. the second proposed option also has the red and blue color scheme on top except it's flipped blue is on top red is on the
080bottom and this is more of kind of a modern take on the W that's that's featured in the in the flag um again we have the text Williams of Central School District and the year the district was established so as a district we do recognize the importance as Dr Brown Hall has mentioned uh the importance of a process that includes input from all stakeholders students parents and Guardians faculty and staff and community members and so the voting for the new District logo will officially open tomorrow morning and will close on Friday March 10th voting will take place securely through wits this is our main vehicle with a lot of what we do in the districts surveys voting whatnot this is a standard operating procedure for us to utilize wits as a secure method to gather
081data and we believe this is the best way to do it going forward so students parents faculty and staff can all vote through wits we are asking though that parents with students in grades kindergarten through fourth grade log into the parents portal and the option for your child to vote if they're in elementary school will populate when you log into your parents portal so what will that look like it'll look like this so parent logs in you have a child that's in kindergarten in fourth grade sit with them have them be a part of this process it's a unique process so for students in elementary school to populate on the parent portal if your child is in middle school or High School they'll have to log into their own uh wits account and uh and
082vote we're also going to use uh utilize wits for community members who are district residents to come into the district office Monday through Friday 9 to 4 a.m to confirm that they're a district resident and securely vote through our process the only thing that we are asking community members to do and this is part of our security protocols is just call ahead let us know you're coming and devote that way we know what visitors are coming in and out of our building and in the main lobby area what we'll do is we'll have a table set up with three Chromebooks that way individuals can come in and uh and vote as Dr Brown Hall mentioned the community Forum uh is uh is March 28th and I know when the vote closes on March 10th there
083is another board meeting that following Tuesday on the 14th we want our community to come out and be a part of this process when we do do the logo reveal so we are going to hold it until March 28th I hear there might be cake involved so anybody who's curious could have some cake so come out to the community Forum have some cake um and we'll do the logo reveal uh at that time so as I wrap up I do want to uh give a special shout out to all the members who are on the logo subcommittee Dr Brown Hall uh board member kasmere Bogner your support um and confidence throughout this process has been um exceptional I also want to give our students a lot of credit uh throughout this process you ask we
084talk about raising student voice and I think an important thing is when you get in a in a room full of people I think it's it can be it's from my own experience as a student which is going back a couple decades now um but you get into a room with administrators and professionals and you kind of just sit back and let the adults do the talking in the room our students were vocal they were active and engaged throughout this process and it's not an easy thing to do it takes a lot of confidence to get in a room full of professionals like Dr Brown Hall and have a board member in there and have individuals parents in the community who are communication marketing digital Specialists and speak up and have your voice heard and
085they were an integral part of how we ended up uh where we are today and I also want to give a special shout out to Amy bow Winkle who's back here our our graphic artist she really was instrumental in bringing everything to life there were a lot of long days a lot of days with a lot of big asks and Amy every single challenge I'm sure there were days where she was tired of seeing my face but she did an absolutely exceptional job and I'm extremely proud that she's a member of our team so thank you Amy [Applause] and with that wrap up voting opens tomorrow and we hope everybody uh everybody votes next we wanna I'm sorry yes what about families who have more than one child in kindergarten through fourth grade what do
086you mean like how did they vote because there's only one child's oh it'll populate for as many kids as they have yeah that was just an example of of what it would look like so like I have my son's in kindergarten my daughter's in second grade so my wife logs in on the parent portal she can vote along with them yeah similar to what we've seen over the years with like the covered questionnaire we had to do those check-ins it will populate for for both students yeah we talked about raising student Voice or elevating student voice you did a great job with that because our students were very active as well as our parents they played a crucial part they had many ideas they came to all of the meetings but I want to also
087have a huge shout out to you for you know really shepherding this whole logo redesign so thank you very much you said on top of the meetings on the Committees you make sure everyone got together and that everything was ready so we appreciate that so thank you very much absolutely thank you [Applause] so for item 12 e Dr McCleary that is our district safety plan that has been amended with the contracts that I spoke about earlier so that is in there for a 30-day comment period and 12 East speaks of that and the contracts that are amended to the um District safety plan I want to jump to 12 F also if Nick can put the 23-24 calendar up if you could because that is in the board packet to sit for 30 days and
088then the board will consider it at the March meeting for a vote correct all right yeah I saw someone looking like what 30 days yeah 30 days okay so this calendar is in board docs you can review it it's for the 23-24 school year you will see the first day for students is September 5th next year our teachers will be conducting their staff development in the last days of August but I also want to point out um the spring break will be extended by one day April 8th is actually the day of the solar eclipse so we will actually have that Monday off and students will return from spring break on Tuesday April 9th you will also see in this calendar that the day before Thanksgiving is Thanksgiving is also given off again on November
08922nd you will see we have our fall recess you will see we have a March superintendent's conference day for staff development on Friday March 8th you will see that spring break begins on Friday March 29th and you will see we have maintained our Mid Winter recess in February and that's something we will discuss for the 24-25 calendar moving forward the last day for student attendance is June 25th the last day of teacher attendance is June 26th so this calendar will be in board docs and the board has 30 days to receive any feedback and they will be voting on it at the March meeting so I want to thank you as always to assistant superintendo assistant superintendent Tony scansuzo for working and putting this calendar together he and Lori cacciniti they use the BOCES calendar
090as a base but then they customize it to our district and it takes a lot as many individuals who are on the Dei calendar subcommittee saw that Mr Skin zuzar had to speak to all of the regulations that he has to follow meeting the minimum days requirement and also making sure that this calendar is specific to Williamsville so thank you very much Tony for that any questions on the calendar board members yes kind of question but just looking at it I just commend you for the April 8th I just think it's called once in a generational thing that you know kids can kids have an opportunity to see so and it's coming right over Buffalo so absolutely and it's nice this is a Super Fitness game you know we're here educationally and we got into
091consideration for sure and I also want to thank Mark Percy one of the when I first became superintendent one of the first meetings he's scheduled with me to talk about April 8th 2024. I'm like dude that's three years from now what are you talking about and so but yeah so it's something that is coming and we want our students to take advantage of it so thank you Mr biscalia for that will not be on the bus and not be on the bus yeah talk about the glasses are we going to distribute those before the break then we are so we'll be Distributing the glasses on Thursday March 28th and so we've met yeah thanks for 2024. but no absolutely so we have met with um our director of science Dr Fetter with Dr Bellin we've
092met with uh Mr Percy and Nick filipowski we are actually partnering with the ptsas um for the glasses so we'll be Distributing those on March 28th before students go on their spring break and we will also have a lot of informational material there'll be instructional videos on our website just about the entire solar eclipse and then there'll be a lot of build up in science classes before that absolutely foreign that day we are hope absolutely any additional questions I turn it back over to you Dr McCleary thank you for those uh presentations we are now on 12g is there a motion to approve and adopt Mission and belief statements as presented Miss Poland second Miss kasmarak Bogner any discussion all in favor opposed abstentions carried unanimously thank you H is there a motion for the
093first reading of the policy updates for 15 10 15. 52 20 52 50 5260 55 30 55 50 55 51 55 72 55 70 and 82 90. motion Miss kasmirak Bogner second Mr bulin any discussion all in favor carried unanimously thank you is there a motion to table these policies for the second reading and adoption at the March 14th regular board meeting as presented Miss Poulin second Miss blackenter any discussion um all in favor carried unanimously thank you and for item 13 Dr Brown Hall I turn it over to you and Mr matersky for the budget development presentation thank you very much president McCleary I'm going to turn it right over to our Chief Financial Officer our assistant superintendent of Finance Mr Tom matersky thank you Dr Brown Hall at this time we are going
094to provide the second update of our budget development process uh from uh what we have seen so far uh as far of January we saw the same type of information I'm just going to go over some of the main items on this sheet at once more again we're looking at really uh the left column which is our budget development for the 23-24 year but the right columns are there as a type of um review of what we have in store for the following year so as we go down uh the numbers here are really developed into two of the main categories for continuation of program expenses which is essentially to maintain all of our existing programs you'll see that there's a additional codes here for mandated contractual inflation and programming uh and so when we
095look at these you're seeing that the salary increases that number is the same as the prior year or the prior uh develop information in January 4 million five hundred thousand fifty five dollars um Social Security increase is also the same at 475 000 and health insurance is four million 145 342 and if you're seeing these numbers for the first time the reason that is so large is that over the last two years we've had significant increases in our health insurance expenses and that's due to the fact that we uh basically are self-funded so we pay actual expenses as we look forward and we move to the following year you can see that that really falls back to what we would consider to be just a normal health insurance increase so that's another reason why it's
096good to see what's in store for us in the following year uh the other expenses uh here 700 000 for our BOCES program that is up two hundred thousand dollars from the prior month and the reason for that is that we had our budget development process at the end of January we met with BOCES and we also received their unit cost prices the main increase here of that 200 000 is for our occupational education program we had a slight increase in students participating in the program and then the cost that both these charges for that program has gone up so that was eighty thousand dollars and the balance was just other increases that BOCES had for the services we uh we purchased from them uh then we still have the same numbers for transportation for
097fuel and contract increase is 1.5 million and then the cyber security 250 000 and utilities 150 000. so that brings us to a total expense increase of 12 million three twenty three hundred ninety seven dollars a working development budget of 224 million eight hundred forty eight thousand four hundred eighty three dollars or five point eight zero percent so going to the next page uh as we heard earlier in this board meeting we have significant number of retirements so that is a positive thing from the budget perspective not necessarily from our um roles and responsibilities for those people who are retiring but it does provide us with Savings of uh one million four hundred and eighty thousand dollars uh or 460 thousand dollars and when we look at the entire budget here we're seeing that that
098results in an adjusted program increase amount of 12 million 320 397 dollars uh and then we have a working budget now of 223 million three hundred eighty eight thousand three dollars which is a 5.11 increase at the last meeting I then mentioned that at this meeting we were going to share the revenue information and I will start with the tax cap calculation and just going through what the major items are on this we always begin with the prior year tax levy that 137 million two hundred thousand dollar number we then use a growth factor which is assigned to us by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance that number is really representing the assessment growth from the towns that we serve uh here in the district so that was 1.0091 percent um that
099number is then calculated at the 138.5 million we then add our current pilot budget that 2.9 Million figure and that becomes a subtotal that is then multiplied by two percent which is the maximum tax cap a CPI amount and just as a information item uh the CPI for 2022 was 6.50 percent so we're limited to two percent there as we go down uh in the page you'll see that um we then have to uh subtract out what our payment of Lua taxes would be for this year and that's a decreased amount and you'll see um in the next page when we look at all our revenues um that that is shown there as well the major reason for that is we have uh um some pilot agreements that have expired and as a result that
100number is going down and that represents really the actual Pilots we've received in this current fiscal year so what that does is it provides us with a tax levy limit or a maximum tax levy amount of 141 million 751 740 um that uh with added with a carryover amount that we had from the prior year says that our actual budget to budget Levy increase could be four million 598 636 dollars which is 3.35 percent however when you look down at our proposed Levy uh you'll see that we are proposing 139 million nine hundred forty five thousand dollars significantly less than the maximum this year a levy increase of two million seven hundred forty five thousand or two point zero zero percent we are one million eight hundred fifty three thousand six hundred thirty six dollars
101under the levy so the next page describes why this is our um our revenues for the projected revenues for the 2000 2023-24 year and the major change here is resulting in state aid um as you may be aware the state has been stating that they were going to implement full funding a foundation Aid uh if you had not received a lot of funding in past years this was the final year for that and as you can see we're receiving 8.3 million dollars increase in Foundation Aid the other increases that you see are normal increases that we would put based on actual expenses that we have from the prior year and how that works through the state aid formulas so we are seeing a projected increase of 9 million 246 791 dollars in state aid I
102can say that's the largest increase I have ever had in this District so that's good news as we work down this sheet you're seeing that we had as I mentioned in the prior page with the tax cap we have a a slight reduction in our payment of lieu of taxes but we also have a significant increase in our sales tax 1.6 million dollars and this is really even though we did receive some information from the Erie County comptroller early on that those receipts were going to be less this year they may have been a little bit less than last year but they're still strong and when we look at last year's amounts and what they're trending this year we are very able to sustain this increase of 1.6 million uh the other adjustments are again
103similar uh to what we do every year we review what the the actual revenues we receive in the prior year we look at how they're trending this year and we make adjustments so that those budgets are realistic and so you'll see that when you look at all of those including the sales tax it represents 1 million two hundred eighteen thousand one hundred twenty six dollars so then you kind of go down to the appropriate fund balance and reserves and you're seeing adjustments here for the first time as well we are able to make some reductions in these categories and really what that's doing it's providing both short-term and long-term Financial balancing here so from a short-term basis it's allowing us to use some of the dollars that we've received and and not have to rely
104so much on these reserves in the current year from the long-term perspective if the state aid for example in future years it drops down or there's a state aid cut these dollars are still there so you could ramp right up to these without any concern in those future years so it's providing that long-term stability which is what our district wants so what that does is it provides us with a balanced budget on the revenue and the expense side and if you look at it the tax cap Levy again that total amount could have been four million five hundred ninety eight thousand six hundred thirty six dollars uh 3.35 percent however what we are projecting is two million seven hundred forty five thousand which is an increase of two percent and that's that 1.8 million dollars
105under the levy the budget increase is 5.11 and again on the expenditure side we have now adjusted that side for the staff retirements so what do we have to do as we move forward the BOCES budget is not 100 final we're still waiting for some information from erie1 BOCES and the cost related to certain services I don't expect any major increases going forward but until we receive all the information we want to make sure that we do have enough monies in our budget to support that also there will be a requirement to file the tax cap numbers with the Comptroller by 3 2 23 3123 so we will be doing that and then we'll be verifying the state aid estimates for building Aid and what that really means is we receive information from the state
106on all the actual projects that they have in their schedules and we make sure that those reports are either going to be filed or will be are in their system appropriately so that their aid number is not too high and if they that is then we would have to reduce it other than that we're really just going to have additional budget discussions and our next budget session would be in March and then there's a work session as well um that in that in that March meeting so that's a quick summary on where we're at thank you very much Mr matersky are there any questions or comments from the board foreign this is basically as you said this is a maintenance budget we're not doing any program and enhancements but we are keeping everything that we
107currently have that's correct Dr McCleary go ahead please oh you know and I want to as usual I want to thank uh Mr matarski for all the effort for his team puts in doing this but you know I know that sort of the one year for this year and on occasion we have those big bumps so we had the large number of teacher retirements which will save the district on paper one point let's say one and a half million dollars and my classroom always be if we didn't have that and I know we do have a surplus anyway would we have looked at other areas to reduce would we have you know again taken out of the um on here the extra you know I guess my question is always how do we balance everything
108out and you know that's uh yeah we don't have the Christmas figure it out but you know uh we do have the extra money it's just thinking about what are ways we could you know look at other issues to make sure things work out every year is always a new year and a different year with challenges and and revenues and not revenues um what we would likely do is uh if we didn't have the re the retirements uh you probably wouldn't see the fund balance going down that would be one thing that would be able to be used so again you're losing that that long-range planning thing so that would be one area and then as as the board members know when we were in the colbit um we provided a long list of of
109non-mandated services and that amounted to a lot of things no one would want to really look at but they were um it came up to millions and millions of dollars so we would work through though possibly those and we would look at areas that don't touch the classroom as we always have that would always be our process okay thank you so much Tom just to clarify also because we are 1.8 million dollars below the tax cap we we would have had the option also of increasing that yeah uh may I have a motion to recess the regular board meeting for the purpose of conducting the budget work session Mr biscalia second miss blackinger all in favor carried unanimously I would like to call the budget work session to order all board members are present except
110Mrs leather Barrel does anyone from the board have any questions comments or concerns to express regarding the budget about that all right all right we will now have our public forum for the budget only anyone wishing to address the board in regard to the budget may go to the podium at this time would someone like to make a motion to adjourn the budget work session Miss blackinger second Mr viscalia all in favor carried unanimously would someone like to make a motion to return to their regular board meeting Dr Littman second Dr Singh all in favor carry unanimously number 17. if you have any liaison reports please send them to Mrs Carey the list excuse me the list of assignments and meeting dates are in board Docs does anyone need coverage for any meetings does anyone
111have anything else to report under liaison assignments we have no legislative matters to discuss no curriculum matters to discuss so we're up to number 20. may I have a motion to approve the 10-year recommendation as presented Miss bleckinger second Dr Singh any discussion all in favor opposed abstentions motion carries unanimously [Applause] I'd like to say anything um would the person who has just had their tenure approved like to say anything it's a long time to sit there we could have rearranged it that's okay so first I wanted to congratulate all the retirees 52 people tonight that's those are some big shoes to fill that's a lot of experience and expertise walking out the door I also wanted a special congratulations for my maple West retirees Debbie Brown Pam clabo Eileen Hodson Lisa Manna Molly allridge
112and Jody Wakefield who's still here thank you so much for the impact that you had on Maple West for your careers you all exemplify what it means to be a great educator you will deeply miss be deeply miss but don't worry you're already on the sub list for next year so Dr Brown Hall Dr Baylin Mr scan zuzo Mr matersky Miss floriano and the Board of Education thank you for approving my recommendation for tenure this evening I'm very proud and fortunate to be able to work in the Williamsville school district and to be able to lead a school such an amazing school as Maple West Elementary I appreciate all the support that you give and the faith that you have in me to be the Principal in this District please know I do not take
113this responsibility lightly being a school leader is a demanding job it comes with long hours hard work a time away from family and it can't be done in isolation I'm blessed to have a strong support system and I would like to thank first and foremost my family including my wife Holly who's here tonight and my children Tyler and Haley they're always right there beside me no matter what thank you for your love and support I'd also like to thank Mr Lindsey cubera my assistant principal foreign I wouldn't want to lead our school with anybody else she's amazing I'm so grateful for the culture of love and learning that exists in our school each and every day I see children smiling and happy coming into school in the morning and looking forward to the next day
114when they head home that afternoon that's because of our teachers and our staff our aides our office staff our nurse our custodial and our kitchen staff I would like to thank them as well they put their heart and soul into teaching and taking care of our students they treat each and every child as if they were of Their Own and I have never been more proud to be a part of a school than I am to be part of maple West Elementary thank you for again thank you again for this opportunity The Best Is Yet To Come thank you thank you I'd also real quick like to recognize someone that you approved her appointment earlier this evening Mrs Christie falanzik in the back of the room she's going to be starting at Heim Elementary shortly
115as their new librarian excellent decision she's a wonderful educator thank you for your time thank you we'd like to also congratulate Cheryl Robinson I was going to make sure she's not here hiding behind the pole anywhere okay nobody's there okay I can't I can't see it it's not me either thank you for that too bad um item number 21. may I have a motion to approve the school resource officer's resolution as presented let's pull in second Mr beulin any discussion all in favor carried unanimously thank you 21b Dr Brown Hall Mr matersky I turn it over to you to talk about the facilities update on Capital project construction and I'll ask Mr machersky to speak about it I know in board docs are pictures of the signage and so I'll ask Mr Turkey to talk
116about that very quickly yes um we're beginning our next uh Project work really in Earnest over the February recess but there is also going to be some new information that's going to be appearing in our buildings inside which is the signage which is an important item that really goes hand in hand with a lot of the security items we're doing so you're going to start to see those items put in in our buildings some of the items will not be showing the actual signage because if a building did not have the construction going on as of last summer then they really aren't ready for some of those signages but we're putting it up and we're going to be making sure that it's there so that when next year they're ready it's already there the other
117thing that you also are seeing is we have external signage that's going up around campuses that will help people navigate a bit better especially in a campus like this where you've got Casey middle and North High School the athletic fields district office all of that will help in in having our visitors find where they're going and allowing us also to help them out when when we see them around so that's really the main thing the project work is listed more Security vestibules will be going up um uh beginning again uh starting in the February recess and April recess and then going up through the rest of the summer from the board okay we have no matters to discuss under the special needs and Student Activities number 23 is the committee of the whole I would
118like to begin in that we received an email from the fire departments in the town of Amherst that the New York State Legislature and Governor hokel have approved a property tax assessment exemption of 10 on the primary home for volunteer First Responders who have been members of the fire department ambulance service for at least two years um I request that this be placed on the March agenda for discussion and adoption I have a motion on that Miss kasmarak Bogner second Dr Singh and a discussion all right all in favor could we have an impact statement from Mr buttursky or an approximate when how that would affect our budget at the March meeting the March meeting yes yes thank you oh I say thank you for Mr materson thank you okay thank you in reality there
119will be no impact on the budget okay it's just a transfer in the tax levy calculation I can bring something forward though thank you for asking that and the answer if there would be no impact is always a nice answer to have also thank you um so all in favor thank you it will be on next month's agenda does anyone else have anything to bring up under the committee of the whole all right under correspondence we received correspondence regarding the firefighter tax exemption and we received a thank you letter from Senator Sean Ryan in response to the letter we sent regarding the healthy School meals for all our next board meeting is March 14th is there a motion to adjourn the regular meeting Dr Singh second Miss Poulin all in favor motion carried