December 13, 2022 - Board of Education Meeting

001may I have a motion to return the regular board meeting to public session Dr Littman second Dr Singh all in favor motion carried I call the regular board meeting to order all board members are present except Mr beulin Dr Littman would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag foreign [Music] please be advised that in the event of a fire emergency and an evacuation should be necessary an alarm will sound please note all marked emergency exits and evacuate well away from the building at this time we request that everyone turn their cell phones and other electronic devices to silent thank you is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented Poland second Dr Singh all in favor motion carried thank you Dr Brown Hall I would like to turn this

002over to you in our section of recognition and board acknowledgments absolutely thank you very much president McCleary so tonight we begin our recognitions by highlighting the students who earned All-State music honors and performed earlier this month at the New York State School Music Association conference to receive this honor our students were among thousands who had to audition and compete for a spot in these prestigious performing groups I'd like to welcome up Jamie pittnell the district's director of music to share more about this musical and educational Journey our students and staff have been on over the past year Miss Pitt now hello thank you so much for inviting us here tonight um I want to give you just a little background on what the process looks like for our students so a solo is chosen a

003piano accompanist is selected and our students and teachers begin what will become endless hours of preparing for their audition songs must be chosen from the current nisma manual New York State School Music Association and must be a level six which is the highest level solo a student can select and it demonstrates extensive technical skills as well as musicianship on their instrument and their voice students auditioned in front of an isma certified Allstate adjudicator at one of the designated areas sites at the end of the festival the adjudicator will rank their performances starting with students who scored a 100. and then they create a proficiency list come late June so now we started the beginning of last year now we're up to June the selection committee comes together made up of nisma members from all 15

004zones in the state and they'll start a Statewide list for each instrument and voice part based on several criteria final selections are made as the top student performers in New York state anxiously wait for that letter that comes in the mail this year 19 students from Williamsville representing all three high schools were selected to perform in the All-State band Orchestra and chorus they embarked on a rigorous three-day experience in Rochester just a couple weeks ago and they spent many hours in rehearsals as you'll hear some of them talk about in our video and completed the weekend with a performance at the Eastman Theater in Rochester you would have thought you were listening to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra chorus any of them the performances were absolutely incredible I'm beyond proud of our students of their hard

005work and the dedication that goes into even just preparing to do a solo audition aside from preparing the music to be in these performing ensembles here tonight to celebrate these accomplishments are also their extraordinary teachers when our students succeed we succeed and it is the dedication of our teachers and their endless support and instruction that maintain our status as one of the best communities for music education please welcome to the podium Michael Conte Joe buckel from North High School Matt cool from South High School and Brendan Lanahan from East High School and they will be reading the names of our 2022 nisma conference All-State musicians awesome [Applause] good evening it's lovely to see you all my name is Brendan Lanahan Williams police High School is incredibly proud of in the symphonic band we had Caitlin

006Lee foreign [Applause] Orchestra two violinists we had Eric yang we had young ha [Applause] and one of our great cellists Danielle guo [Applause] thank you foreign good evening I'm mad cool uh representing South High School and from South High School we had performing in the symphonic band and nisma Eric Ma George Demopolis who's with us this evening uh Flynn Baker and in the orchestra in the symphony orchestra we had Paul Whitmer who's with us [Applause] Anna Russo Mark redenberg Tristan Whitmer who's also with us and Juliana sheeder thank you [Applause] good evening Dr Brown Hall Dr Balan and school board members my name is Joe buckel and I'm on the music staff at Williamsville North I'm joined tonight by my colleague and music team member Michael Conte we are here tonight to recognize our seven

007North music students who were selected to this Nismo winter conference All-State music ensembles our students are wisdom akinyele mixed chorus Caroline Brown symphonic band Jalen Dalton mixed chorus William deinser Symphony Orchestra Rebecca Lucia mix chorus Natalya stokovic mixed chorus [Applause] and Molly Murphy Symphony Orchestra [Applause] we're extremely proud of the of all these students in their hard work and dedication to their talents a specific note Molly Murphy Molly razor here Molly Murphy earned the principal oboe chair in the symphony orchestra through an additional audition process so we're extremely proud of that accomplishment yeah okay our other North music staff members involved in helping these individuals prepare for this achievement were Aaron Young Marnie Salvatore and Michael vertoski thank you [Applause] and now we just have a district spotlight video to highlight the process a little

008bit more for you please enjoy [Music] foreign this past spring the New York State School Music Association or nisma had 6 500 sophomores and juniors auditioned for Allstate 900 were selected and 19 students from Williamsville representing Williamsville North Williamsville South and Williamsville East high schools were selected as conference All-State performing group participants I was jumping for joy like my mom and I were just like screaming in our house I was like I can't believe I got in and because I got texts from my other friends who got the mail before me and I was like oh my gosh one is my envelope gonna come and I finally got it I was so happy the moment I found out that I got into the chorus I was like Overjoyed with how excited I was to just

009be a part of something like so big and full of people who are passionate about music the same way I am [Music] he's really moving the pieces we played they were they were incredible and just especially like Eastman Sage it was just another a great setting just to be with all these people it was a lot of hard work we had a long rehearsals and long days but I think it was really fun and you know the hard work was really worth it when we got to perform in the Eastman theater [Music] foreign [Music] since I was little I've always been a part of local orchestras so now being able to be a participant in a state Orchestra is just crazy to think about ever since literally the third grade I have loved to like

010sing and just make music with other people in like a choral setting and just like hearing the blend of human voices and Harmony is like one of the most magical things to read and I'm just very passionate about just making music like that music and arts education affects I mean all your areas of your life and you learn a lot of life lessons that you can apply to all areas of your life my friends have supported me so much they've been you know so encouraging and caring and my teachers have been amazing you know the district was really amazing and supporting us and all of the people who made it through Allstate and you know I'm so grateful to have been a part of it I think music and art is they're like one of

011the most important things that bring our community together because just every concert that we have not all only is it the parents of the music students who come to those concerts it's like the whole community and stuff because it really brings people together how awesome she said the blend of the music and the harmonies I love that very nice very nice I also know how important it is for all of the work that goes on outside of school too so I do want to you know applaud the parents also that remind students every day to practice your craft so parents thank you very much for the hard work I think we're gonna pause now for a picture right Nick okay so we're under the direction of Nick filipowski that's absolutely phenomenal [Music] um as as

012we continue tonight's School Spotlight focuses on Casey Middle School a four-legged friend and the incredible bonds made on a daily basis one of our goals as a district is to create an intentionally welcoming learning environment thanks to Cosmo Casey has done just that so let's take a look [Music] [Applause] Cosmo is a therapy dog who's been here at Casey with us since the beginning of 2021 and his mission is to spread Joy positivity and love he greets kids in the morning and they Converge on him for me it's even a very cool experience to just watch the interactions that happen between kids and adults while they're petting the dog it adds to the excitement that they want to feel when they're here Coswell is part of the KC Community here and he has a tangible

013effect on our kids that you can see day in and day out having a therapy dog like Cosmo is a great option for our building for the students and staff who want to visit with him and have that burst of energy and that joy and then carry that on throughout their day it's outstanding he's like the type of person or dog I should say that would always be like by your side inside you are like stressful times and moments all of your stress will just like disappear I came here and he actually made me feel better it's just nice to have a dog out of school and bring happiness to the school I love you even the simplest of interactions can be very very powerful you can really make someone aware of their feelings and

014expand on what that does for them you can see it on their face and I say things like you know carry that with you keep that going see if you can spread that around and share that not only are they feeling better but then they're feeling and acting better toward their peers they're engaging more with their teachers and in their classes they're trying harder because they've had a positive spot in their day and that has tangible benefits for all kids in adult Tech Casey you relieves stress a lot because I mean you're coming from a class that could be difficult or you're just having like a hard day and you go to pet him and it's like everything melts away Thursday I was scared because I never touched a dog or like play with dogs

015before but then when I saw him like he's so cute and now I love him so much some kids will say I feel like I'm a part of Casey because he's here and I get to connect with him I hear things like this all the time from students and when I do I know Cosmo has done her job awesome thank you very much for that school Spotlight I'll turn it back over to you president McCleary thank you are there any board acknowledgments [Music] we will move on now to public expression I call him Miss Poulin to review our public expression format welcome to all who have come to observe the regular board meeting for policy 1510 the board allows for up to 30 minutes of public comment this is a time when we invite members

016of our school Community to share ideas opinions and concerns with us while we are here to listen carefully we take our concern 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 communication after our meeting because we want to maintain respect and civility please ensure that comments are delivered in a respectful manner to the board directly also understate and federal privacy laws we are unable to entertain any comments related to employee Personnel information or any topic that may disclose information about a particular student and these matters we ask that you go through the appropriate administrative channels please note that individuals aren't required to sign up prior to our meeting and each speaker is allowed in three minutes for comments

017you will be signaled at two and a half minutes so that you may conclude your remarks at this time we will begin our comments and we have one person who has signed up Abigail gavidan thank you please introduce yourself all right well I don't go by Abigail I go by Blue which is my preferred name thank you yes my name is blue Gavin and I'm here to speak on behalf of all Queer students in our community as of 2020 one out of three queer Americans face discrimination well three out of five trans Americans face discrimination according to the CDC 43 percent of trans youth have been bullied on school property compared to the 18 of cisgendered Youth those stats are real and I'm here to State the failure of the district regarding their career students

018each day when we enter the building we're faced with homophobic and transphobic remarks and slurs we shouldn't feel unsafe according to Dasa dignity for all students classes are protected such as race color weight national origin ethnic group religion religious practice disability sexual orientation gender including gender identity and expression in sex our district has passed policies to protect students like me yeah we Face discrimination daily from our fellow classmates as a senior at Williamsville North High School and my four years at that school I've dealt with homophobia I've gotten into arguments about the Casual use of homophobic and transphobic slurs I've spoken up about it to my School's teachers but to my knowledge no action was taken here's a solution give the students who use those slurs a stricter punishment not a warning we also have

019the issue with gender-neutral bathrooms in North High School we only have one or two gender-neutral bathrooms both on the opposite side of the school for Trans and non-binary students facing the Hopkins Road we shouldn't have to walk seven minutes to where a gender-neutral bathroom is therefore we're faced using bathrooms that don't correspond with our gender identity here's another solution make at least one bathroom in the main building be gender neutral whether the bathroom is on the first or second floor implementing these Solutions will affirm affirm students in fact will save lives as queer youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers according to Trevor Project 2022 National survey on queer youth Mental Health they found that 45 of queer youth have seriously considered attempting suicide in the past these are real

020statistics for us on behalf of the queer student body we want change we want to be accepted and we are real human beings this affects all of us in some way thank you [Applause] thank you for your comments blue and that concludes our open forum for tonight again thank you at this time I will turn it over to Dr Brown Hall to talk about enrollment projections and the impact on open enrollment absolutely thank you very much Dr McCleary so we are very fortunate tonight to have Dr Steve Grossman here Dr Grossman is part of the red group and annually they prepare our enrollment projections report so we will have that report now and I know this year there was new information added so we look forward to seeing that the actual documents are in board

021docs and I'll first turn it over to assistant superintendent scan zuzo um for any opening remarks yeah just like to take this opportunity uh this annual uh uh presentation is uh has been conducted by the red group and Dr Grossman um I really want to thank him for um the added work and communication that we've had starting in the summer uh covering topics such as uh uh local sprawl and developments that have been taking place in the Williamsville Central School District the potential impact that those uh growths and those those developments will have on our projection enrollment for our school district and our individual schools so with that I will turn it over to Dr Grossman for his presentation thank you it's really a pleasure to be here after the last three years um I

022I really enjoy coming to this meeting and uh and seeing the presentations of students and so on it's it's been great um get me off that screen okay uh this is our annual enrollment projections report of course what you have in your packet is a very thorough uh treatment of it and I hope you uh if you had if you've had a chance to look at it if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them okay so we we always look at pretty much the same things each year changes in kindergarten class size the current enrollment migration the number of residents school children in parochial home schools and charter schools and the number of students in out of District programs are incarcerated High School leavers and residential development and you've seen this year

023after year before the benefit of those who have not seen this presentation before I I repeat that and of course the asterisks Mark the key factors because some of the things tend to stay the same year after year are numbers so small that they're they're not significant okay now this year is a little different because we're going to talk about some things I've never talked about before we talk about covet impact we're going to talk about residential development which we haven't talked about before even though it's factored in it's always factored in birth rates and kindergarten Trends we always talk about and we'll go to assumptions we'll look then at K-12 elementary middle high schools and then kind of wrap it all up put it in the bowl put a bow around it okay covet

024impact is is something that uh began in late I don't know why there's too late there but it was very late in 2019. uh and what happened there was we did the report in November and the pandemic hit in 2020 early in the year and of course we couldn't foresee the effect I was going to have in our projections so we were off by about three percent um that and the the following year we were we were down about three percent in the number of students and the reasons for that uh after analyzing it was that it disrupted the real estate market of course and um it caused about 160 students as near as we could tell to transfer to either homeschool parents that were concerned about the pandemic and didn't want their students uh

025in the classes or didn't want them working on the computers and uh a number of students transferred into non-public schools where they went back to school earlier so they were out of the house uh since then what we've noticed is that that effect has stabilized and and uh isn't as important as it was yeah but interestingly the the number of students who remain in the non-public and homeschooling have remained about the same as post pandemic um now doctor Brown Hall asked me to talk a little bit about the migration what does that mean and migration the way we use it in this is the net effect of students moving in and out of the district so in migration only means that more students moved in that moved out and in a district like Williamsville it's

026fairly stable I remember working in the North Country in APW by Omar Parish Williamstown they would turn over in their Elementary School a third of the students every year they ended up with the same number of students in the school and because of the many many factors kids with third of the students would leave and a third would come in and this was at a time when people were beginning to measure school school quality by standardized tests I said how can we control for that you know how can we be judged on that but I I don't want to drag this out uh so what we've noticed here is that this district has continually experienced in migration more students moving in than moving out across K-12 over the years we've been doing this and you

027know one of the concerns was decreasing enrollments but because a small classes moving in large classes graduating and we found that uh it was mitigated not eliminated but mitigated by by that phenomena now we talked about residential developments this year because there's been a a Resurgence of development and I did do a study of the town plant I called the town I've worked with the town since I started this but they suggest I look at the minutes that are now online of all of their planning meetings and then you look at that and you can see what proposals are presented for what kind of development and approved and using that and the addresses of those developments and the schools that currently serve those addresses we were able to estimate if those things came online because

028you propose it five years later you still haven't finished it you still you still things aren't for sale but over the next five years since I went back about uh four years and kept moving forward uh it seems to me that um those developments are going to create the effect of in migration assuming families move in and have the average number of students in the household um and it won't significantly affect the trends that we've seen but I also uh sprinkled in kind of Science and an art I sprinkled in some numbers some kids in the in the schools that are most affected to see what effect that would have on the projections so that's that's a long way to get there but the most likely schools to be uh and I say significant it's

029not terribly significant but statistically significant uh would be Dodge Maple West Hyman Casey because most of the development is moo is in that general catchment area where there's room for development okay all right so of course we always look at our kindergarten uh projections in terms of the birth rates in the district and uh those of you who have been here and seen these reports no but for those who might not be familiar with what effect that has the birth rates in this District because they're not all the same sometimes they look like this they look you know the the lines cross in this District the birth rates are always between 10 and 15 below the entering kindergarten five years after so it doesn't give you the number but it gives you the trend so

030whenever you see and you know there's some outliers here and there but whenever you see things going down in the birth rate five years later you'll see more more likely than not you'll see the kindergarten Aromas go down which makes sense okay um and the reason that sometimes those graphs are crazy is because people move out or move in and in the last 20 years it's been moving out when communities around here where you've had factories closed where you've had a small school district 1200 students The Factory closes uh not too long after that there are 900 students so you know things like that okay then we have to have underlying assumptions kindergartens will be smaller than 12th grade we know that because we know what the current classes are and migration will offset some

031attrition we're still assuming that that housing turnover and new residential development will increase of course as soon as I the Inked right on that they raise the mortgage rates but we still think uh there's there's going to be turnover uh there's a significant population over 65 in the community people are going to move out families will move in apartments are going up um and that the other factors will stay stable which means they won't affect the projections so the current uh graph is you can see my eyes aren't that good but 800 plus in the graduating class 600 around 700 in the entering kindergarten so there's your attrition but it's not nearly as marked as it has been in the past so you can see that line that those bar graphs are starting to level

032out so I think some time ago I said we're coming in for a landing we're leveling out and we're gonna you know it's gonna the Glide path probably start back up again okay so let me check my notes Here now the graph is not meant to be read it just gives you the an idea you have it in your report in the last five years we've had about a 300 student over 300 student decrease in the total enrollment and that's starting to to level out so next uh five years flat um you're still going to have attrition but it's going to be filled in with students moving in okay the elementary five year um at the elementary grade we're rebounding as a result of increased migration in migration and the level the difference between the

033classes moving out and and the Kindergartens has gotten has gotten small or the kindergartens that maybe even uh the the first second grades coming through Maybe even be bigger than the leaving fourth grade so that's heading in that direction so for the next one we're anticipating uh it's going to be fairly Flat Line uh 64 is not significant uh difference so you know you the elementary overall will be about the same foreign schools five-year history you see a big decrease you'd almost go whoops you know what's going on here well you had big uh let's see uh eighth grades moving into the high school and relatively small fifth grades replacing them but now as we move forward it's going to reverse a little bit and a lot of that is due to students moving in

034housing turnover new residential development so you'll see some increase but it's not um that much you know when you spread it out over all the schools uh high school again a big drop over the last five years now we're seeing it going to continue to go down but then it's going to level out you got these 800 students 750 student classes moving through they'll eventually finally move through and out um so in summary um fine is that the uh at the elementary level Dodge and Maple ha uh were predicted to go up about six percent so you know that's not next year but over the five-year period if a lot of these developments come online and uh housing turnover is what we anticipate they'll probably be the most affected by that um and again not

035not you know not not no in a big way we're not talking about 20 25 30 percent okay and then the same thing with the uh middle schools based on the feeder patterns and the development where it's happening it looks like you're going to have an increase of you know quite a few in uh Casey and about nine percent in Heim so uh you know it it Bears watching uh but uh you know it's not it's not gonna cause any major problems but you need to know you plan for it um so K-12 with Romans will level out um small increases in elementary and middle decreases in high school for five years uh hopefully uh the economic recovery will uh add students to the district and about and this is interesting to me about 13

036of the resident K-12 students now the students that live in the district school age are and other than uh District classrooms in other words all the different Mexicans quite a few students um so if something were to happen and they all want to come back you'd you'd need to deal with it that's never happened so I don't know that you know that that's a concern at this point so that's all I've got any questions questions no no right ahead okay no I mean just a comment because I've been watching these presentations for a large number of years yes again they're appreciated having you here in person reviewing the uh you know results and third questions is very valuable so thank you for taking a trip I appreciate it and for them my colleagues who've not

037seen your presentation before and of course the report is uh we've got tons of information in it so you know I I wouldn't want to read the report tonight we got other business yes thank you leather Barrel thank you sir I know one of the things we asked you to look at this year was the residential uh build going on so you shared a little bit about how you got this information basically looking at yes the comboard minutes and can you just reverse my memory are you saying it is substantial or it isn't substantial I think yeah I think the the uh the level of potential is an annualized basis over the next five years is going to mitigate help mitigate a little bit more than in the past the difference between the classes entering

038and the class is leaving I I don't see it uh substantially uh affecting the capacity of the schools because you know when we first started this as you remember the schools had many many more kids and they do now so okay thank you because that is something we hear from the parents specifically at the elementary schools you know they see I mean I mean actually right you're driving you're dropping your kid off at school you see the right the development taking place sure um and it is it causes a little bit of worry when um thinking specific Ally of like fifth grade third and fourth fifth and sixth where we have a higher number of students um for recommended class sizes and so I know that does cause a little bit of worry I'm not

039sure it's very very hard to predict exactly but we know that um or we're hoping that there uh will be about the same or a few more students in the buildings you know in the next you know continuously uh for the next five years I think the stability of this district is not characteristics characteristic of what you see around the state whether you have to close buildings and you know that type of thing um this is you've been very fortunate that this development has taken place and houses have been sold and people are moving into the district with with youngsters because the birth rate is really low compared to what it might have been 20 years ago or 15 years ago so yeah anyone else on this side have questions thank you thank you over

040here anybody well again thank you thank you very much thank you for the opportunity [Music] we are now on item number five may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda item please Mr kazmarek Eric Bogner second Miss leather Barrel any discussion all in favor motion carried thank you foreign of the Board of Education congratulations and welcome Dana floriano Executive Director of Human Resources Miss floriano would you like to step up to the podium and say a few words the contract is the appointment is here yeah good evening I'm Dana floriano and I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself to you tonight I wanted to let you know that I very much look forward to working with each and every one of you to support all of the students and the families

041in the Williamsville School District as they move forward with all of their academic Excellence I come from the Buffalo Public Schools where I have been working in human resources for almost 12 years and I just really look forward to working like I said with each and every one of you going forward thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you [Music] Dane that you can come back up we're going to pause for a picture very quickly that doesn't work over here right Nick now like to thank the following retirees for their service to the district William Fuhrman laborer I'm Elementary for 31 years of service Martin geyser laborer East High School for 14 years of service and Suzanne Keane occupational therapy assistant district-wide for 27 years of service congratulations to all those retirees [Applause]

042number nine minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes from the November 8th regular board meeting Miss leather Barrel second Miss Poulin are there any corrections all in favor thank you carried unanimously next is there a motion to approve the minutes from the November 21st special board meeting Miss kasmarak Bogner second Dr Singh are there any corrections all in favor opposed abstentions thank you motion carries 701 under the president's report the upcoming and prior events are listed in board Docs the community Forum will be held on March 28th after the budget work session at Casey middle in the library the approximate time of the Forum 7 30 7 45 8 o'clock when the budget work session is concluded the board retreat will be scheduled for April 13th from 6 to 9 pm are there

043any board members not able to attend this day and time [Music] thank you the next School Board excuse me school building visit will be on January 23rd we have three board members attending Miss kasmarak Bogner Miss Poulin and Miss blackinger is anyone else able to attend you can add me as a maybe thank you I still have to check something next board members kasmarak Bogner and Singh will continue the review of the non-instructional business operations policy 5000 series on Thursday December 15th at 2 30 at District office foreign C board member Poulin brought this topic up of the structure of the school day under the committee of the whole during our last meeting Miss Poulin would you like to now discuss this topic certainly um it has come to my attention in a variety of

044ways through Community Forum last year through interactions with students and other comments from people that there's a that our high school students are feeling an exorbitant amount of stress we've done a lot of things to put pieces in place to help build them up and I I think those are all wonderful pieces of that but I would really like us as a school district to be very proactive and to look at our structure of our schools to see what is it about high school that is contributing to the stress of our students and are there things as a school district that we can address in how we put together our school day that helps students to not have the amount of stress that they seem to have now whether that's in coordination with homework policies

045if that's um in I know that a start time issue has been brought up many times and that's a that's a big question so so this is really a very big question the big picture question that I'm bringing up and it's not something that I'm expecting to solve in a month or two but it's a very big picture for us to look at one of the things that has also come up is that some of our students are electing not to take a lunch time so that they can take a 9th or tenth class because they need they feel the need to be so involved with their academics and that also contributes to their stress level so I think some of the things that we may unintentionally be aiding and abetting is providing students with

046not being able to develop a healthy lifestyle and that has to be a part of what we want for our students we're not looking at just academic Excellence but in well-rounded healthy individuals so those are the things that I have as concerns that I have heard from students that are concerns that I've heard from parents that are concerns so I would really like us to address that whether that is through our Wellness committee or if we need to establish a special group to research what are the best practices in high school academics and structures at this time so does anyone have a comment Miss leather Barrel um just briefly having just met two kids through the high school and one left um I feel like I'm pretty well versed in being among high school kids

047not college kids um two questions come to mind one um is there some I'm trying to recall if there was not some sort of recent um School climate survey or something that students were asked to fill out like I don't want to start things over and or like starting committees just or anything like that I just would rather us use what we have and I'm just curious um does anything like that exists that we know of like a school climate survey like just so that we're not speaking for kids haphazardly because you know one student might be reporting a lot of stress another student might be just coping just fine I'm just curious like where are we getting that assumption from or or is there a survey that currently exists and then while you're thinking

048about that one my second question is knowing that you are our psya crop is this something that has been brought to you by sciac so I guess those would be two starting questions [Music] lots of lots of things and I think one of the things that I continually hear is that we have to continually add more supports for our students so that speaks to me that there's something about the climate that isn't healthy if we have to continue to provide more supports not that supports are bad but let's go up the river and see what's causing the stress before we just keep adding more and more supports so all right imagine say something to the survey because we can look back at the surveys at the survey that we issued at the end of last

049school year the survey that's issued through uh assistant superintendent skin zuzo's department and see if any of them really address School client that in the way that uh board member Poland is discussing it but I also want us to have in the back of our mind that we don't want to solve one problem and create another realizing that High School looks different for so many kids right and that's why it's important to look at what the best practices are because I we've had this lunch discussion and I know the district has had it before but we also know that lunch or having a lunch period can be an environment that some students don't want to be in and so we want to keep that in mind too but we also realize and know that when

050we attempt to try to impose what we think schools should be or schooling should be for some of our students it doesn't fit everyone so looking at Best Practices to see if there are other options or opportunities for our kids might be something we can do but to your point it's not something that we're going to be able to do in a month or two maybe not even a year but have continuous Improvement I believe board member leather Barrel brought that up several times we're in the mode of continuous Improvement so something we can definitely look into to look at what best practices are and thinking outside the box with some other school districts are doing across the country not just Regional exactly exactly and you know because I've we've continually heard about from Wellness

051all the things that are going into support but I just really want us to be proactive and so that we don't need as much support would be a great thing for for our students and it's going to look different because I can tell you you know one of my children is graduating college on Friday so you know and that is a testament of being able to finish the whole semester early um the enrichment opportunities that are available here in Williamsville um stress is going to follow you wherever you are it doesn't disappear when you're in college in fact I found that um being a mom of college students they need they need me even more than a native when they were in high school um I do feel though that I want to um be

052very mindful of the words that we're choosing um because I I don't want to I want to be protective and supportive of our high schools and the work that is being done I think a tremendous amount of work is done on our students behalf there's a lot of opportunities with opportunities come choices and a lot of choices do come back to the students and the parents um so often you hear about course load or homework but then you look at what the child has chosen to take and sometimes that can be remedied by just different choices looking for choosing to take and different students can handle different amounts of homework have different schedules and that type of thing I'd be very hesitant to make changes with the lunch is one example because I know that

053um the lunchroom is is a loud environment um there are ways and prefer not having yeah and I would certainly want lunch to have options too for those students who have sensitivity I can tell you that so I think they're I think they're I think there are they're looking again it's looking at what are Best Practices to best meet the needs of all of our students in a variety of ways that will help them be the successful adults that they want to be with well-balanced lives yeah [Music] you want us to sort of look at as a board because otherwise I I'm not comfortable with with giving the wellness committee more work to do or forming another Committee just because I know everyone is already working so hard um but if there was like one

054specific area of focus whether that came from the students from by pulling them at kayak um or if there was some sort of a survey um just to look at that further um you know I just uh yes I agree that stress is there it's right for everybody and there's a tremendous amount of positive things positive things being done to combat that I don't think we'll ever see a situation where supports are not needed and I don't know that that's that's not necessarily the goals if it's not that it's not needed but right that we are not contributing to the need I don't think for me I would just need more clarity and about definitely appreciate you know the scope but um in order for us to be efficient and effective I think it's important

055for us to have um a more narrowed down topic that we want to look at anyone else on the side Dr Lipman yeah and again uh I agree with both of my colleagues Ms Poulin and leather Barrow but you know the idea is you've banted around is how do we help assist our students have an appropriate life balance you know we've talked about mental health you know I work on a college campus I've been a high school teacher you know stress in the faculty and the students and administration is always an issue but you know I think it's important I think it was uh Reservoir was given like a marketing lecture I would give about choice and opportunities and making decisions you know those are all skills we try to develop in our students and

056you know we have some data I think from you know uh what we've done in the district you know you have the into High Council where you have meetings with the students who could bring their issues forward and and the issue really is to say okay what are the major problems we need to face to help our students succeed and then work on those I mean to say um every student needs to follow a certain schedule every student needs to do anything and that that's not what I'm verifying I know but you know when you think about uh just a title of this saying okay structure of the school day is like all I can think of is you come to school at a certain time and if you're a high school student too early

057and then you go through the day and then you know when's lunch or when's a break and those breaks that happen so it's just the whole idea of it's valuable and then just coming up with a solution and that you know I would say we have groups of people who are looking at it and somebody just needs to synthesize the data and especially listen to the students to see what works best for them Dr Singh um Michael and Clarissa I just had a question like do we have data on how many students take more than eight classes a day we have data on the number of students in the classes they take of course I think I know it's just because I I'm it's fine if they don't want to take lunch or but I

058think having a free periodic time to wind down and closer it doesn't have to be lunch right but then and so that's why and we can wrap this up right because I don't want to right every storm runs out of rain but we want to make sure we're focusing on having options for for the students right so even with the free period right that might not be something every student needs or every student wants a lot of students like The academic rigor throughout the day and then they go home they're able to handle the homework that they're giving every child is different so I think what I hear board member pool and saying is actually some of what board member leather Barrel said also what are the best practices and what choices are we giving

059our students in the school day so we're not mandating you must do this you must have right but what are the choices what's the structure of the day look like so that we're all aware of it and then we know what options are available to our students and then we in turn can let parents know so they're having those informed conversations with their students and no one's operating on fragile knowledge so I think that's what I'm hearing going forward anyone on this side and I would just in conclusion make the same request that's kind of been talked about before that perhaps it could be on the psychic agenda to at least get some specific thoughts okay on to letter d progress report on the board goals implementations doctors for 2022 2023 I believe yes Mr

060philipowski is going to put those up on the board the updates to the measures are inboard Docs and I would just like to ask if anyone has any specific questions on any of the goals which were thankfully uh prepared in terms of the midterm suggestions from Mrs leather Barrel Miss kasmarak Bogner Miss blackinger and Dr Singh yeah so I don't know if you want to just flip through or does anyone have any questions or comments on any of the things they are in board docs and they are in your materials I think just flipping through that way if someone's watching the video they can okay so we will just go through so that people watching the video could take a second to see what we're developing [Music] and it is on board that's item 10d

061[Music] again thank you for all of the input that we've been receiving on to item number e the Erie County Association of school boards the various ecasb upcoming events and meetings are listed in board Docs Dr Singh will be attending the advocacy training is there anyone else interested in attending this on January 21st 8 am the rescheduled legislative breakfast will be held on January 21st at this time the attendees are Dr Singh and Miss kasmarak Bogner is anyone else from the board interested in attending I know I was originally scheduled but with the new date unfortunately I don't think any of us can be in two places at once at least speaking of that is the advocacy training prior to yes okay it starts with the advocacy and then kind of run because it'll be

062really hungry bye it tends to be many people who are interested in both does anyone else have anything to report on ecasb thank you f the New York State School boards Association upcoming events and meetings are listed in board docs Dr Singh and Miss Poulin are interested in participating in the micro learning course offering through nisbup is anyone else from the board interested and Miss Kerry will uh facilitate the registrations does anyone else have anything to report related to nisba item 11. at this point I will turn it over to Dr Brown hall for his superintendent's report thank you very much president McCleary and I will get through this without coughing I hope thank you very much so Community update December 13 2022 restorative educational practices so one of the goals we have this year

063is to have a speaker series so there are important topics we want to make sure we're sharing with our community and our parents and our caregivers and the first topic is the restorative educational practices so that speaker series which was rescheduled from the November storm will be held this Thursday December 15th from 6 to 7 30 p.m at high middle school so Linda ruay who is our director of professional learning is facilitating this event and she'll be discussing basic principles implementation and building relationships so again next this Thursday December 15th six o'clock high Middle School District rebranding uh okay there's this oh so let me go back if any of you know that the district is undergoing a rebranding process so we have a subcommittee of the communications committee that is working on a new

064District logo that will be presented early next year and the community will be voting on we are also the communications committee is working on a new District website so there will be ease of use of our district website new graphics and that along with updated Mission and belief statements will lead to a total rebranding of the district effective July 1 2023. so with the new Mission and belief statements it is in the agenda uh for a presentation later however I'm going to discuss it now we won't be able to do that presentation later so I will discuss it now what the smaller committee did so the smaller Committee of the mission and belief statements was a subset of the strategic planning committee so I want to thank board member casem Eric Bogner for sitting on

065that subcommittee also we looked at what our district mission was and we wanted to make sure that it was simpler simpler but still contain the essence of what our district mission statement is and have it aligned to the Strategic plan so the district mission statement the Williamsville essential school district is committed to empowering all students to develop their unique potential to contribute as Citizens and leaders in a diverse Global Community it's simpler it's crisp and it's to the point of what we are really here for our belief statements underwent the same type of review so we looked at our belief statements and we wanted to make sure that everything we discussed in the Strategic plan and everything that we're using and our action steps to move our district forward are reflected in some way in

066our district police statements so we reduced the number of belief statements combined a few but we make sure the essence was still there so students are our highest priority that is our first belief statement all members of our diverse School Community are valued and respected strong partnership among schools families and Community Support student learning and well-being students learn best in a safe and welcoming environment and which they feel they belong all students deserve Equitable access to engaging instructional and curricular opportunities to support their success strong social emotional competency support learning and success in our Global Society growth and excellence in different forms should be encouraged supported and celebrated and learning is a continuous lifelong process after today the mission and belief statements will be on our website they will have a 30-day comment period for

067Community feedback that may be included in the final versions of the mission statement and belief statements any feedback that we receive by way of email to contact at williamsvillek12.org we will have another meeting of the mission and belief statement subcommittee to analyze that feedback and to see what if anything needs to be changed in our mission and our belief statements the final mission and belief statements will be brought before the board and the February 7 2023 meeting for final approval and adoption so all community members will receive a letter about this tomorrow and the directions on how to provide feedback will be in that letter too diversity equity and inclusion so I wanted to provide an update so the district the community members and all stakeholders know where we're at with our Dei District plan

068during the final months of December and January individual meetings with each gold subcommittee will take place with Linda ruay the district's Dei coordinator so we're finalizing each of our goals that are in our Dei plan making sure that they are over the same period that our strategic plan is over awesome the final district ydei meeting will take place in January I believe we're going to finalize the date of January 24th a final draft of the district's Dei plan will be submitted to the board of education and the community on February 7th and then a 30-day comment period will commence for the Dei plan and then we'll have a meeting after that to gather all the feedback and then evaluate that feedback to see if there are any changes or enhancements we can make to the

069Dei plan again the Dei plan will be our district ydei plan from there we will look at our goal activities and our action plans that support what our goals are and our Dei plan parent involvement so the district is seeking parents to join the following committees and this was brought up at the Board of Education meeting a few times before so we're seeking parents to join our Wellness nutrition and fitness committee our technology committee and our district-wide school safety team so if there is um additional parental involvement we want to make our teams more robust with parental feedback or caregiver feedback if you're interested in joining any of these committees please send an email to Lisa Dane at eldain at Williamsville k12.org so that is something I know board member members have been asking about

070to increase parental voice we're on a um a real push to increase student voice but we also want to have increased parental voice on these committees also it is universal human rights month so this month we're recognizing and honoring the accomplishments and contributions of individuals during Universal human rights month we shared video projects on Malala and Eleanor Roosevelt and this week we'll share a video highlighting Bayard Weston who is a civil rights activist so we want to make sure we're continuing to do that as part of really celebrating everyone that contributes to our world and our district and community winter recess last day of classes before the run to recess is Friday December 23rd 2022 that is a full day of classes I know there was some question around it and we've gotten uh calls

071and emails for Friday December 23rd is a full day of classes so Winter Classic winter recess and no classes the week of December 26th all the way to January 2nd classes resume on Tuesday January 3rd but just so everyone hears me hears me again there is school on Friday December 23rd involved it all day all day there we go and that's the end of the community update thank you very much any comments or questions from the board such as the last day for school last fall day yeah last four days all day thank you um item d under approved resolution determining open enrollment schools may I have a motion to approve agenda item 11 D the resolution determining open enrollment schools at Dodge Elementary Forest Elementary Casey Middle High Middle East High School North High

072School and South High School as presented motion I make a motion but I just to make you aware um you didn't cover B and C I believe and I I can go back to those okay yep so 11 B and C I'm sorry that's my fault that's mine I I finished the community update and yes so 11 B and C those are the 2020 to 2023 Staffing and class size reports I am I am very very pleased to say that we are within our guidelines for our classes and we will be always monitoring that I want to thank Dr McKenna's office for preparing those reports and thanks to the schools for reporting so we are being Mindful and our adherence to the class size guidelines also Staffing projections for the 22 2023 2024 school year

073if you go to the last page of the Staffing projections you will see there is um an anticipated need of two additional ftes at the elementary level a reduction of one teacher FTE at the middle school level and an increase of one FTE teacher at the high school level that is the final summary once we're looking at all of the class sizes and that all gets flushed out when we actually evaluate student requests for classes and things of that nature so those reports are in board docs for everyone to see and they are very robust so I want to thank Dr McKenna and the HR department for assembling those reports again any questions or comments move on to may I have a motion to approve agenda item 11 D on the schools that I um

074just stated Miss kasmarak Bogner second Dr Singh a discussion all in favor um I'm sorry please go ahead I'm gonna say I had raised some questions yeah the recommendation for um Dodge but also looking at it a little over the forest as well just looking at how next year it is expected to go out for as long as um yeah I guess I'm basically taking you ahead you're worried about it um that there is space for um and that we you know I I guess I worry about us running out of room and not being able to house a special education classes I want to make sure that there's always room there in those buildings and I realize that sometimes that's why those schools are designated for open enrollment because you might want to send

075a sibling there if a child already goes there but I just want to you know I I just looking at the open enrollment it doesn't have to be a little bit nervous about it but I'm still willing to go configuring that song it does seem to have the caveat that you can change absolutely we will definitely keep an eye on that I know that was a concern but we will definitely keep an eye on that because we do have the space set Dodge and we will keep an eye on the class sizes through the class size report also all right thank you that's what I was just saying uh thinking that we keep that data I mean we have the date of how many students open and roll and it's not absolutely very large numbers

076of students you know as you say whatever fits in to the schools will work any other questions or comments Miss Poulin the only other comment I would have is I was pleased to see how many of our class sections are under our guidelines so that does speak to allowing us options for opening as well as increasing our enrollment down the road that we have days ago that's a good thing anyone else so all in favor in the motion thank you motion carries unanimously please we are now on to E the first reading of policy updates is there a motion for the first reading of the policy updates there are new policies 3520 extraordinary circumstances 6571 remote working and 7151 remote instruction then updates to policies 1510 regular board meetings and rules 51 10 budget planning

077and development 5130 budget adoption removal retire policies 51.50 contingency budget updates to policies 5230 acceptance of gifts grants and bequests to the district 55 15 Reserve funds and 56.72 information and security breach and notification as presented someone I'm Sorry Miss kasmarak Bogner second Miss blackinger all in favor any discussion I'm sorry Cash America program yes thank you um just two small things for policy 1510 there's a new sentence in there and it I believe it should read parliamentary procedures not parliamentarian procedures and then with a new policy 7151 it refers to emergency remote instruction plan being in the district-wide safety plan however I believe this isn't required until 2023-24 right so can the wording be changed to indicate that that will begin in 2023-24. so on the second page the paragraph beginning after emergency remote

078instruction plan prior to letter A we'll say beginning the 23-24 school year the district-wide school safety plan will include plans for the provision of so we'll make that addendum and we'll add it right before that sentence begins thank you very much absolutely any other discussion Miss leather Barrel um for 15 times the edit of it of the rubber tools being used as a guide and I agree it to be parliamentary parliamentarian but I'm also wondering if we should add you know in addition to the Roberts rules being used as a guy that in the mid parliamentary emotions um I just think maybe they should both be in there together absolutely parliamentary emotions guide is a little bit more concise Robert's Rule sort of you know it's very in-depth and a lot of a lot of

079the pieces of Robert's Rules don't necessarily apply the school board service and through your little handy dandy book um so that might just be consideration to add um this is the first reading correct correct all right so maybe um you know to also include the midva Parliamentary motion good as a guide as well can we request that Miss Kerry thank you and then one other question just for a point of order is there are we not voting to like put this on the table and then take it from the table next month like what is that yes that's my next sentence okay thank you one comment on 5672 information security breach and notification uh I just want to thank my colleagues who updated that because you know it definitely needed to be updated in this

080time when technology and privacy and Safety and Security is so highly valued when we use that technology which we use pretty much all the time all the time that's if you don't have your phone thank you so in terms of this first reading all in favor thank you motion carries unanimously now is there a motion to table these policies for a second reading and adoption at the January 10th regular board meeting Dr Littman second Dr Singh all in favor thank you motion carries unanimously item f our mission and belief statements I will turn it back over to Dr Brown Hall um because I did it in the uh Community update we won't have a a presentation here for this one I was thinking that that's probably what was going to happen but I figured I

081would ask thank you very much on to item 12. under finances the claims auditor report is in board docs are there any questions regarding this report for Mr matersky right thank you B the annual long-range Financial range financial budget plan with Reserve information and I will turn this again over to Dr Brown Hall and Mr matersky absolutely so I'll turn this over to our Chief Financial Officer Mr Tom matersky thank you Dr Brown Hall at this time I'm going to present an update of our long-range plan we do this every December as you can see this is part of the process we use as we begin our budget development planning so I just want to begin with I usually do this every year to look at some of the details that really are supporting our

082budget development and that really begins with some Elementary items that we are aware of but I wanted to make sure that our community does understand why we do the things we do in budget development and we first start with the fact that all school districts must have a balanced budget so what does that mean means that our revenues must equal the expenditures as we go forward also we as a school district Public School District in New York we have to follow um and have our budgets approved not only by the board of education but in a pub public vote so that's a little bit different than what other local and state governments have to do they can normally use their bodies to approve their budgets and lastly school districts are required to publish a lot

083of reports and comply with a lot of different laws including the tax cap compliance Public Notices property tax report card budget notices and the likes which we send out prior to our budget being left up for adoption so as we um go forward to the next step I just wanted to talk a little bit about the tax cap that is one thing that our community is always aware of and one thing I wanted to say here is that actually There's No Limit as to the levy increase on the tax cap for school districts however if you do decide to go over the maximum amount in the tax cap calculation you would need a super majority or 60 percent approval rate and if you um do don't receive that and you have a defeated budget twice

084you must go back and retain the budget you had in the previous year with a zero increase so that is definitely something that we in this District have never encountered and never even had a super majority vote but that is just something that is out there in the law uh in regard to discussions revolving around the tax cap we all know how inflation has impacted our own budgets and it definitely is impacting the school district but at this point in time there still is no change in the law and the two percent die rate is still um there and that is what we must follow in the upcoming school year so um just looking at the next piece of this presentation I'm going to highlight on this slide what our notable revenues are and then

085the following side what our notable expenses are and again these are things that we are aware of but I wanted to show that in in reality we really are getting our revenues from five major categories state aid is about 23 percent we get about six percent almost from sales tax and our tax levy is 65 and a half percent and when you add fund balance in there four and a half percent that basically equals 99 of our total revenues so a couple things here I have an item here that's short and long-term budget planning is directly impacted by changes in these categories but it also is important because if you were to overestimate a revenue expense in a given year that is going to have to be made up in the future year so that

086will create a big budget issue when you're developing that next year's budget so that's why you must have the best estimates you can that are realistic and that are really going to be appropriate in the um in the next year and years uh the other thing that I always want to point out is that you want to make sure that you're adjusting your fund balance and reserves in a manner that's really going to work for the district in the future so that's why as you see me go through this long-range plan there's not going to be a lot of adjustments in those categories you know on the expenditure side what you're seeing again are two major categories actually salaries and benefits and that's representing about 76 percent of our budget the other areas that I

087put down here are pretty much minor but I wanted to bring them out because we haven't normally seen expenditures in those areas but with what's happening in in around us with inflation and the costs in these areas we are going to see expenses increasing in the next budget year and possibly in the future years depending on what is going on in those areas salaries and benefits as you as I said there continue to be our largest expenditure and and we're going to have to be concentrating on that and understanding how we're going to balance those increases out and as I just mentioned inflation is impacting these other areas so every year I show you this and and the intent is not to try and read these numbers if you want to read these numbers they

088are in the detailed written report that's also attached but but really there's two points here I want to address the first point is that salaries as a percentage of the total budget has actually gone down over this 17-year period the other point I want to show is that if you look at the benefit side the trend that we had was they were decreasing as a percentage but as you see in this current year 2223 it's gone up and and we're expecting that that increase is going to go up again uh quite substantially as a matter of fact based upon really it's a little bit of the remnants of of what covid-19 has had on our health industry and some other factors that we are seeing within our district and with our our staff who have

089been using the medical expenses so this is a um a slide that I put together that is really the um the summary of what the dollar amounts were in the forecast I'm going to be going over some of the input input numbers after this but the the piece of this that I wanted to just share is to explain what these two pieces of this um slideshow um the first is that you can see that there's a revenue budget and there's an expense budget and then the dollar amounts on the revenue budget increase you can also see at the bottom part of this slide which is the 5.6 million when you look up above you're seeing that the budget change is 5.6 million the point here is that our revenues are always going to be driving

090the the expense budget or our budget for a given year and so what's happening is the budgets in the forecast are the expenses are a little bit higher than our revenues and as a result of that you're seeing that there's a near need for a current year Revenue reductions so in order to make this um uh be understandable from a perspective of what these reductions are every year the first part where it says current year reductions total on the top the the line I'm looking at one million four three six four eighty eight if you go across that those are accumulated numbers if you look down below where it says reductions in forecast year those are the numbers that would be on an annual basis so that's assuming that you balance the budget if you've

091balanced the budget from the prior year you do not need to have the accumulated increase so as you can see most of those numbers are really pretty reasonable when it comes to what a district like our size has had in the past and how we can handle it in the future so looking at some of the input input items here on the revenue side state aid you can see that I'm using a three percent State increase and the key factors that I considered in this forecast is that there is no major increase but there are also no major decreases the reason why the percentages are higher in the first year is due to the fact that we are going to experience possibly a little bit more Aid coming in in the first year of this

092forecast and in the other years we're also seeing some of the changes that are representative of our decreased enrollments which does affect our state aid formulas so there's a little bit of a decrease that's why it's not at the exact three percent that I've used for General Foundation Aid the tax levy is at the two percent tax cap amount the reason it's at 255 is because every year as you know it is a little bit higher and that's due to assessment growth so the same assessment growth numbers that we see in an annual basis I'm doing a projection there to show that they are a little bit a higher so that's where the revenues numbers are coming from looking at the next slide we're showing the major expenditures and again the salary lines I'm not

093going to go over every single line here I'm just going to point out those include some um projected retirements so if you were to go back to where we start the year and our human resources and our program continuation expenses we're usually around five million dollars so we're expecting to have retirements in every year and that's why those numbers are a little bit lower than what you would normally see on those those reports in regard to another item that I'm just going to say that these these dollar amounts were done back in November so we're always updating this as we get into the actual numbers you're seeing in January with the latest information we have in all these areas but the area that I wanted to just show as a kind of a blip here

094is in bus transportation you're seeing that there's a higher increase in 24.25 the reason for that is that's going to be the first year of a new contract whether it's with our current contractor or whether it's with a new contractor that will likely be a larger increase if you think about what's happened in in all of our transportation area school bus salaries have gone up for bus drivers fuel has gone up that entire line is going to see a pretty substantial increase and that increase may actually start in the next year not just only in 24.25. so the last item you know when we're looking at a forecast it's trying to be reasonable and that's 6.8 to 5.8 number if you go back the last few years those increases are pretty close to what we've

095had on our budgets um after we've gone back to review them adjust them and they've been presented to our community so looking at a summary here what we're really looking to do is to uh be aware that state aid is vital to our district even though it's only at 23 percent uh any major changes in that you saw how it impacts our Revenue that would have a severe impact on what we would do on a budget and it would require if we did not receive the state aid to have some other additional expense reductions um the other thing that I always like to point out is there are expenditure increases that are increases in a single year and remain and they don't compound and then there are those that compound if you're adding um any

096type of a salary uh uh FTE in any area that's going to have a compounding effect and so then that's going to be part of a negotiated contract in the future additionally I always want to point out here that we're very much aware the Consumer Price Index right now is above seven percent for this year um year to date and that has an impact on many different areas including as I've written here utilities bus transportation and it also is impacting everything that we see in the classroom as well paper has gone up substantially you've seen some of the bids even as of tonight that were in the uh how expensive the paper has become all of those items are items that we must consider as we're building our budget and make sure we have enough

097dollars in it to support our instructional programs I'm now just going to flip over to our long range balance fund balance and Reserve plan and again the intent here is not to look at all these numbers it's just to highlight a couple important items so that the board and our community are aware of where we're moving with these dollar amounts uh the first item is in that First Column we've got about 4.1 million dollars that are is in our current budget and I project that to continue to be in the budget throughout the forecast so that's a stable amount and that's a good place for us to be financially the second thing is you're going to see as I move through that there's some adjustments that are being made to these balances and the major

098adjustment is you're seeing is in capital reserves those dollar amounts the 8 million and the 15.7 million those were approved by our community to be appropriated on the security project as well as the air conditioning project at the LM mentary school levels so those reserves are going to dwindle down and they're going to impact on this last slide where the district is going to going to wind up at the end of this Five-Year Plan so even though we're adding some dollars back the key is that if we can add more we want to do that because we want to be able to go to that next phase of the district-wide air conditioning project which would be to do the middle remaining middle and high schools and I can tell you that that price tag will

099be well above the 64 million dollars that we currently have had approved for the elementary schools so um another thing I just want to know here is that we are the balances that are in here do change every year and they're supported by documentation because there's input items that we use that will change over a year workers compensation is a good example we receive an external report from a consultant that tells us where our workers compensation cases are and what we should have as a reserve dollar amount and that's what we use to to Really fund our our Reserve in that capacity as well as to share that with our Auditors so that they know exactly what we are doing in those capacities so looking at the long-range plan objectives the key here is you

100of course every year we want to have a stable Revenue um uh basically course for our district we don't want to have fluctuations we don't want to have had a situation where we have overestimated a revenue and now we have to make a major adjustment in it so that makes for a stable budget and a stable long-range plan we also as I've mentioned at the very beginning I do not uh at this time recommend us making any changes to the appropriated fund balance or reserves that would be in our budget or in future budgets uh lastly um we're looking at some of the self-funding reserves um I mentioned workers compensation we have unemployment workers compensation those are reserves that we uh actually have to have to pay our claims so there isn't a way that

101we can use those reserves in a methodical method and we actually do it in our current budget with workers comp and exactly what we do is we know that we're going to have about a nine hundred thousand dollar expense in a year but we only budget about three hundred thousand so we're using that workers comp Reserve to help us through but the key in doing that is that we don't deplete the workers comp Reserve over a course in time where we don't have the money and then it's not put back in the budget so it's a balancing act that we monitor very carefully every year and lastly I mentioned already the need for us to consider the air conditioning the capital project and the Future air conditioning project so we have to keep that on

102you know a really high level plan to try and put more money in our Reserve to be able to do that and as the board knows we approved New Capital reserves last May so we had the structural ability to do that uh now we have to try and have the financial capacity to fund that so that we can help support that project so with that the last piece here is just the timeline and uh we're going to be doing a lot of things over the next several months as and and it's going to really begin with our January report to you with an early look at what our program increases will be we're also going to be as we look we're looking at our Esser and our ARP and our Gear 2 programming and seeing

103how we can sustain the programs that we do wish to support going forward so that will be all Incorporated we always begin our BOCES budget process toward the end of Jan January and that meeting is already scheduled for the 26th of January so we'll be doing that and we'll start to look at reviewing our revenues uh we'll be getting a Governor's report toward the middle of the month and uh and then we'll also be able to start to put together the balance between what our Revenue projections are and our expense projections complete the tax cap calculation for February and then um we'll have to submit that to the state by March 1 and then uh you know a preliminary budget presentation as the board knows is scheduled for the March meeting so that is um

104where we are as I've said a very detailed written report is provided that provides a lot of different different information regarding the methodology used to come up with these summary numbers as well as the detail actual um spreadsheets that provide you a look at all the expenses in all the categories that make this up thank you Mr matersky as usual anyone have any questions on the plan Dr Singh thank you for the presentation I just have a question with increasing Federal interest rate would that affect our interest payments on our bonds not on our bonds because we're out we're set the bonds that we have um which uh their their fixed rates we don't have any variable rate of debt at all uh and even even our band anticipation note from last year that's a

105fixed rate too so we have no impact the first impact will be the next borrowing we do in June which would be another Bond anticipation note and capital reserves we have it at four point I'm sorry four point some percentage right our our Capital reserves um the the balances are right now that balance before you make the reduction is actually about 33 million dollars that's what's in our capital reserve but we are going to have to use um a good portion of that for the air conditioning project and still the security project so in the future budget field we have option to replenish those reserves you you can add um the controller's office does not allow you to replenish a past Reserve that's why we ask the community to do a new Reserve back in

106May so we can fund to the maximum allowable amount from the originally approved proposition by the community and then we can go to the next reserves and so that's why the secondary the last proposition was put out there because if we fully fund the last Reserve amount we now still have a new Reserve to use okay thank you anyone else Dr Littman I just want to uh just again thank you as usual for the detailed information um I just had a two two points on uh Foundation Aid which seems to be increasing I think I read that we're going to get about six hundred thousand more than we expected and the other is the sales tax projections and you know I don't I don't look at it on a ongoing basis as you might but

107um our sales tax revenues in the state with what's been going on been pretty stable up down on we don't know yeah I'll start with the foundation Aid um for this year yes we've saw uh six hundred thousand dollar increase in our foundation Aid so that is a good start for us for next year yes so um I I think that's putting us in a good financial position uh before we get Governor holko's state budget and and state aid as far as sales tax I I I tell you that right now we're we're trending at above our our current your budget by a bit which is good good um however there's also the questions about you know how inflation is going to impact that there's also you know Statewide the um uh really the ability

108for the state to say that there's a gas tax holiday that they so that's a little bit of an impact on reducing those and um I think Dr Brown Hall shared with everybody going back a few months ago uh we got a letter from the Erie County controller's Office stating that they were going to project our sales tax revenues to decrease so it's all about watching the numbers and seeing what we actually receive and and that's what we'll be doing in the next couple months before we come up with the final estimate just from a marketing standpoint this is a holiday shopping season my understanding was a project it to be a higher than normal uh shopping season so that helps us it does maybe that should be the slogan shop more help our schools

109but anyone else thank you again thank you Mr matersky item 13. and liaison reports if you have any liaison reports please send them to Mrs Carey the list of assignments and meeting dates are in board docs does anyone need coverage for any upcoming meetings foreign if anybody is available for a high Middle School there's a January I'm just cut off on here what I think it's January 12th uh if I remember I know it would be uh but I'm not available [Music] anyone else have any conflicts all right thank you does anyone have anything else to report under our liaison assignments number 14 we have no legislative matters to discuss number 15. may I have a motion to resolve and approve the curriculum Council recommendations as presented Miss Poulin second Miss blackinger any discussion all

110in favor carried unanimously thank you number 16 personnel may I have a motion to resolve and approve the contract of employment for Dana floriano Executive Director of Human Resources as presented Dr Littman second Miss kasmarak Bogner any discussion all in favor thank you motion carries unanimously number 17. the 2018 music Capital project final Financial summary is listed what did I do 10 years and your appointments foreign [Music] no but thank you ignore me no no thank you for checking on something um 17 the 2018 music Capital project final financial statement summary is listed in board docs are there any questions regarding the financial summary for Mr matersky but I just wanted to thank Tom and Keith for their work for saving 2.49 million dollars 37 of the budget great job thank you yes thank you

111very much um we have no matters to discuss under special needs and Student Activities number 19 does anyone have any items to discuss under Committee of the whole Miss kasmarek Bogner yes um there was recently a change in the open meeting law that permits board members to participate in meetings remotely from non-public locations in extraordinary circumstances for example due to disability illness or caregiving responsibilities but to do so the board Quorum must be present at a physical location where the public can attend there must be the opportunity for the public to participate remotely in real time during public expression or any public hearings and the video conferencing technology must be ADA Compliant so if the board would like to pursue this we would need to hold a public hearing and then adopt a resolution that

112defines and authorizes the ordinary circumstances in which the video conferencing could occur occur so I just wanted to get input and see if that's something the board might be interested in moving forward with well anyone else want to make a comment or I have a what oh go ahead I just think that because we already are a large Board of nine um it's not difficult for us to get a form of buy for typically for a meeting I think only once in the past seven years with the entire cough and we couldn't start a meeting um so I'm not sure it's something I'd be worth um my thank you my question comment is are you if if you are requesting that we hold a public hearing about that can that be part of a regular

113meeting like could it be under I'm making a number of item number 12. my understanding is is that you would present the resolution and hold the public hearing regard to that resolution before then you would pass the resolution like we have done on other items yes okay correct then there are others who agree that we should place this on the um agenda as a voting item to take it off of Committee of the whole I need um a motion to take it off of Committee of the whole and discuss it next month on the regular agenda someone motion there Dr Singh or or you're going to ask a question just one question does this apply to between all meetings or special meetings or it it you need to outline which meetings that it would apply

114to but I believe it can apply to any board meeting and any uh committee meetings that are majority board members at the committee meeting so for example at our policy committee meetings it would also apply potentially if we chose for that then I can see being especially useful for committee meetings because we have very few members so having that option to do video conferencing may make sure you have Quorum and you have people to take part in the meeting then I you don't require most of our committees don't have Forum right you don't need you don't need a quorum of board members um at the committee but you still need a quorum of committee members participating in the committee and that would still be the case any um they'll need to be a quorum of

115individuals in person and then the people the person I would imagine would only be one at any um particular circumstance would be able to participate remotely and I remind you that this is committee of the whole and so there really can't be much of a discussion and so again I'm asking if someone would like to motion that we move this to part of the regular agenda for January Dr Singh second Miss leather Barrel any discussion on the motion right all in favor opposed foreign motion carries four or five six one one oh she's got it all right 611 area code no no no six one one yes yes thank you under correspondence oh I'm sorry committee the whole oh I apologize go right ahead um through the years I've always spoken about the importance of

116school nutrition and the impact it has on academic success of our students uh being our advocate to nisbah in the last on board was a whole section of information on on what the state or what nizva has supported last year when we voted and this year again and it relates to the healthy School meals for all New York and what it is is a request for the state to fund permanent meals or free meals for all students in our schools similar to what the federal government did during covid um so basically there from my experience on the board and there's an issue like this we asked the board to uh you know develop and sign a letter that has already been developed it's just bringing that letter to the board and getting approval that we

117would send it under our name is a board to our legislative legislative representatives and to the governor because again individually I can't do that but as a board working together we can so I'm asking that we look into moving that forward thank you and as we saw from our last one we really won't have our discussion now yes but are you making a motion that we put it on the agenda for January thank you and second Miss leather Barrel any other no no discussion for discussion if we could get the um sample leather included on the board docs for next month and you'll send all that information I'll just click on it and send it perfect thank you so all in favor of adding this to our January thank you motion carried thank you thank

118you any other individuals want to bring anything up under Committee of the whole item 20 our correspondence correspondence that was received from community members involved or included a bill to increase School District state aid covid-19 pandemic affected education and asking for an interview on that the upk wraparound care costs lunch menu choices comments on a recent Buffalo News article and public expression does anyone wish to discuss anything under correspondence I think yeah just uh since already came to me in a discussion with somebody about lunch lunch menus and again that was distributed to the board and the key part of that was the need to there needs to be a variety of non-meet option for a number of our students who do not uh eat meat and that is important for different groups in our

119district and that was the intent thank you that it is being um checked on thank you for expanding on the explanation our next regular board meeting is January 10th I would like to wish happy holidays and happy New Year to everyone and at this point may I have a motion to adjourn the regular meeting Dr Singh second this leather Barrel any discussion all in favor [Music] thank you [Music]