001sorry I called the regular board meeting to order all board members are present does anyone want to on the board want to make a comment as a check-in before we begin tonight's meeting okay Miss kasmarak Bogner would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag I pledge allegiance United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands by one nation undergrad indivisible with Liberties and justice for all right oh my gosh 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 [Music] item 2D is there a
002motion to approve the agenda as presented Dr Singh second leather barrel all in favor carried unanimously item number three recognition I will turn the program over to Dr Brown Hall for some announcements and recognitions thank you very much president McCleary so tonight we begin our recognition by welcoming the Williamsville unified basketball team [Applause] the team is made up of student athletes from Williamsville East Williamsville North and Williamsville South High Schools we wanted to take a moment to honor our student athletes from these three schools for their incredible teamwork and sportsmanship last spring this group won the unified basketball championship I now like to welcome the team and Coach Tracy Fitzpatrick to say a few words foreign [Music] Holland board members we want to sincerely on behalf of all our staff our coaches our parents and
003all the athletes we thank you for the opportunity to be here today um we are pleased to be here and thank you for your continued support with our unified athletic and social programs this year we started our very first Better Together a unified Club at North High School and it has been very very successful we have many students come and have the opportunity because you approved us so we thank you for that and as you know our bowling and our volleyball and our basketball teams have grown immensely and are super huge in our school especially North because we're housed at North but we have athletes and partners from East and from South so we're very thank you thankful for your support and as our students grow so do our needs and you've provided us with
004coaches and aides who have been invaluable to US during our practices and during our games so we thank you for that as well um your support has helped us to grow into the team we are today the unified program has gained a lot of interest at the school level at North especially within these past two years and we cannot wait to see what it holds in the future so to bring even more recognition to the program we are putting together a district-wide contest to design a unified logo in winter with the hopes of a rollout next school year awesome so personally this is one of my favorite parts of my job at Williamsville and I am pleased to introduce some of the athletes who make my job the best job in this whole District awesome
005so we have Paul Armitage who's going to say a couple words Paul come on up all right [Applause] I play volleyball it is fun I like to be with my friends who's going to say a few words hi um I okay I just wanted to say I loved playing basketball and I hope to do it next year as well [Music] [Applause] hey David that's my dad they signing that Shack for being your butt the bike I'll buy your buyers it's always fun always love playing basketball next we'll be your team next year oh [Applause] and then who else did we have speaking Connor Henry our announcer for basketball games come on up Connor [Applause] um hi guys good evening good evening um all right here we go hi I'm Connor I went North um well
006volleyball and basketball are fun I like I like talking to friends I like sharing from my friends and announcing the basketball games basketball games okay [Applause] great speakers we have June Gordon Hawley Jack Roland hey Jack hello Caleb Wally hi Kayla Olivia Andre Hey Olivia apology and Turco we have Trevor's on back there [Applause] hey Avi [Applause] Sam [Applause] Drew [Applause] and on behalf of our team and our groups we'd like to present you with a picture that was taken by Julie Walters she's a the photography teacher at our school and last minute she put this photo together with the idea of Mrs spinakia myself so Olivia Nelson Tessa Van Pelt Helena Ware and Kailyn zingle were the photographers for this photo and we just want to present that to you and thank you for
007all you've done for our program boom we're gonna go over here and get a picture I guess we're gonna go this way okay we're going to pause for pictures get together thank you that was the yeah but the pep rally yeah reminded me last year it was phenomenal that's phenomenal it is the best thing that we do maybe they do the best unified sport yeah I mean laughing [Applause] okay as we continue tonight's School Spotlight we focus on Williamsville South High School one of our goals as a district is to create lifelong Learners this also extends to helping Foster good lifelong healthy habits with the new health and wellness initiative the staff at South is doing just that I now like to welcome principal extraordinaire Keith Boardman and councilor extraordinaire Elizabeth Lanny Manley to share
008more about this program and the impact is having at South thank you very much and thank you for having us tonight uh he called me principal extraordinary but he's not going to be happy when I send my formal complaint that we had to follow the unified team um as soon as he told me that I'm like no no no no no no um you know uh before I start on ours I will say um you know and Dr Brown Hall just mentioned it if you get a chance to go to the games I know I speak for Mr Coniglio and Mr swatland um it is when you go to a game and you get a chance to watch that the the unified kids play you feel good for a long time afterwards it is a
009a smile ear to ear and it is uh you know I think we're so proud of you know what the what the kids do up there I mean they're just so impressive and um uh and kind of uh you know transitioning for us um when we when uh what we're going to talk about tonight is our fitness room and how we've been kind of utilizing our fitness room uh about five and a half years ago I think you know some of the people here may remember we got new fitness rooms at each of the facilities and we knew right away that um what we needed to do was uh change the game it couldn't be the fitness room of old which was sort of the you know the room where we just stuck a bunch
010of equipment and what you saw were uh generally some some athletes usually from maybe one team usually the football team there and they were using it and nobody else was using it we wanted to use the fitness room to really change the game we wanted to open it up to everybody we wanted to really encourage um as many students to utilize um those rooms as possible because we know that that that that that lifelong lesson of learning how to use these things is so important um so we had the rooms and really what we were waiting for and what we've been working towards as we've built and built and built is finding someone to run it the way in our minds we really wanted it to and we've been very lucky at South we hired
011Liz Lonnie Manley as a counselor and who also happens to uh you know be trained in doing those these things and what we've seen in particular in the last year or so since she's taken over is a huge increase in the number of students participating in our fitness room after school It's Not Unusual after school and our fitness room is open Monday through Thursday to anyone after school from 3 to 4 30. It's Not Unusual to go in there now and see 40 50 kids in there utilizing the different different activities kids coming to different things like yoga and self-defense class and it's really a it's a program that is only increasing at this point and I'm very proud to introduce Liz Lonnie Manley because she has been sort of the Catalyst behind this as
012you'll see in the video so it is my pleasure to introduce Liz okay awesome thank you so much um and so I do have a few things that I just want to share about the fitness center um so first of all I just want to thank the board for this recognition and highlighting something that I am incredibly passionate about so obviously being a school counselor but also um just being um into fitness something that I've tried different modalities um and everything from running to powerlifting to Olympic lifting to bodybuilding so to be able to incorporate that into what I do at South has been amazing so I really want to thank you for highlighting this today um I'd love to take all the credit for how successful the fitness center has been but it wouldn't
013be as successful as it is without the amazing Community itself and then also within our district so I just want to thank you guys so much we really do have an amazing community so um with that being said as a school counselor and a fitness coach my goal has always been to support student wellness and we know more now than ever that students need an outlet and ways to help them cope with their day-to-day stress so my goal with the fitness center has not only been able to help athletes better become better at their individual sports but also encourage those students to feel a little bit more comfortable with coming into the fitness center those who maybe had never been in a fitness center before might have been intimidated by it so that's always been
014my goal which is you know what Mr up Boardman highlighted so we've had students who have never stepped into the fitness center and now look forward to being there every day it's a place where we not only help them physically but we also try to help them emotionally and mentally right to kind of help cope with those things it's helped students who might not have a great connection to school and they have foreign friendships and they now have engaged more in school so that's been great it's been incredible to see the fitness center evolve into the community the students have built so I want to highlight the students I am there of course but they've really made it what it is um and it's truly what I think we've envisioned and I look forward to
015Growing expanding it even further and I really appreciate the board support so thank you so much thank you thank you [Applause] thank you this is the Williamsville South Fitness room one of the things that we thought was so important in creating this space was we didn't want to Target just Athletics uh you know Athletics and students who play sports we wanted to Target everybody so this is really a place that is designed for anyone who wants to be in shape and work out for high schoolers in particular they need to learn how to put these types of activities health and wellness into their minds as they get ready to go off into the real world and so the ability for us to really get this as a habit is so important for our kids we
016have all types of kids that come in here who have never set foot in the fitness center before and so my goal is to kind of help them through that show them the ropes how things work and they get to know people here they get to know the equipment and it's really been a place for them to come and just build that confidence and self-esteem I think it's great to improve on yourself every day you always want to improve because improving it just makes you feel better and especially mentally feel better and physically better seeing that you can do better and seeing that you're improving it just helps boost your overall confidence is all I've learned that I'm capable of a lot more than I thought it was it's amazing to see the kids come
017in and just the level of confidence that they've built that translates into academics right so you know that you can face a challenge you can face it something that might be the unknown or a little bit more difficult but you're more willing because you've built that confidence to face those challenges we're so lucky to have Liz running this place for us after school the kids really gravitate towards her and she is teaching them how to do all this the right way anyone can do this it doesn't matter if you've never been in a gym before it doesn't matter if you go to the gym all the time anyone can do it and I think the Great Piece is it's a welcoming environment what we see are kids who are here a lot are very welcoming
018to kids who want to come in and learn and they want to show that they're proud of what they know and they get to share that with other kids everybody's helping each other out in the thing in the center like I always see people smiling I always feel welcome when I'm walking through the doors of the fitness center because I'm greeted with Miss Manley who's like the nicest seizure physically like I've never been in like a better condition than like using the gym here and mentally it like helps like get through some things like in case like you're going having a bad day working out can help you that's what I love to see you know even if it's one student 10 students you know however many impacts for me to see that change in
019a student um in their overall confidence and wellness is amazing so that's why I do what I do [Music] thank you awesome [Applause] very much we appreciate it that's awesome I'll turn it back over to president McCleary thank you [Music] I agree that we've certainly had a wonderful start to our board meeting this evening are there any board acknowledgments back to Litman well I just wanted to comment uh October is School Board um appreciation month and there's a week and all of that and I know how much everyone appreciates school board members typically but I just wanted to uh make a comment that I do appreciate the energy and efforts of the members of the Williamsville Board of Education and how they've used their time and knowledge to advance the district so you know speaking
020for the community absolutely [Applause] what else [Music] item number four public expression Miss Poulin please review our public expression format welcome to all who have come to observe this regular board meeting per policy 1510 the board allows up to 30 minutes of public comment this is a time when we invite members of our school Community to share ideas opinions and concerns with us while we are here to listen carefully and we take your concerns seriously public comment is not to be designed to be a discussion therefore please do not expect us to respond tonight instead you will receive a response by email after our meeting because we want to maintain mutual respect and civility please be sure that comments are delivered in a respectful manner to the board directly also under state and federal privacy
021laws we are unable to entertain any comments related to employee Personnel information or 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 public comments after I call your name please step up to the podium and state your name tonight we have one person who has requested public comment time Ryan Bolton thank you and I hate to follow up such positive things with something negative but thank you board members principals Librarians all of you are actually in opposition
022to federal law Department of Justice States and the obscenity law and miners act which strictly quote prohibits the distribution of obscene matter to minors and it transfers such materials is unlawful additionally you're ignoring the children's internet protection act that expects enforcement of Internet safety policies and Shrink protection measures with regard to visual depictions that are obscene child pornography harmful to such minors including communication consisting of nudity sex excretion that which appeals to the puriant or excessive interest in sexual matters and is offensive to prevailing standards lacking serious literary artistic political or scientific value I would like to know exactly who decided to ignore Federal and local standards and provide pornographic material to minor children books should teach intellectually challenge even entertain my very high tax dollars should be used to educate my child in safe
023healthy protected environments these books are not literature to be honest graphic novels of any sort are like junk food for the brain much less those that illustrate boys performing oral sex on each other yep that is one example of the many disturbing passages and pictures in libraries which is inexcusable removing this garbage is not censorship I don't want to be have the federal government ban anything from being written I want sound judgment as to what materials are appropriate and valuable in the context of Education these ages are already hormonally charged and confusing enough without having explicit sexual photographs depictions and drawings and language which embarrass stimulate desensitize the students why do libraries Champion books that entice and addict children simultaneously destroying their innocence millions of kids participate in USA Sports and hundreds of thousands of
024adults coach them under the governance of the safe sport program to which adherence is mandatory if an athlete took any of these explicit books on a bus or to the locker room they'd be spin it immediately if a Coach even possessed these they would be never coaching again and possibly prosecuted and the law will be involved this week my child had that permission to watch a PG-13 movie in class containing hell and dancing to suggestively and close fitting dresses and kissing sweetly so if coaches and athletes and English teachers can recognize pornography and understand boundaries and appreciate transparity parent seat to parents why don't the board the principals and the Librarians the schools ban soft drinks from vending machines because the ill effects of caffeine and sugar to the growing young bodies yet they allow
025for poison to be consumed by developing young minds the destructive effects of porn addiction which obliterate a realistic constructed view of healthy sexual loving relationships are well documented likewise promiscuity and teens exposes them to expose them to transmitted diseases and still slow self-esteem and girls heightened risk for drug and alcohol and sexual abuse suicide and for males it erases self-control and respect for themselves and others there's no legitimate reason for these books to be in schools especially without input from the parents who use State quote partnership is instrumental in our child's education children's education the biology of human reproduction is completely scientific and has Merit in the classroom however sexual intercourse is not science to most healthy honest adults it is a morality it is a morals and values act the schools should not inject
026their own sexual ideology into children as it is a parent's responsibility I'll leave you with this if there are warning labels and age limits on any books or magazines and if reading them aloud to a random child who is 14 at a park could get you arrested for contributing to the delinquency or proposition of a minor do they actually belong in our schools and there's very explicit literature out there that again I would argue it is not literature with the value of opening your mind it is pornographic explicit illicit and if you read it to parents and y'all were transparent and opened up to parents and they saw it they'd be appalled no matter what culture gender race ideological and Spectrum politically thank you thank you thank you for your comments and that concludes our
027opening for unfortunate for today thank you we now are at item number five our consent agenda approval may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items please Miss leather Barrel second Miss Poulin any discussion on any item letter Barrel I just want to draw attention to the lengthy list of uh clubs that are available that are listed that I have understand that we're approving them because the um fall session just was completed and now you know we're entering the payroll and approving the funding but um each year it's just um really enjoyable to go through that list and just see how the list expands over the years and um I know that when I was first a parent here there wasn't as much offered at elementary and I see that growing each year
028too so to see the extracurriculars offered whether before school or after school either Elementary and our middle in our high school it's very impressive and I know that that has a lot to do with the sense of belonging that students feel when they come into our building so goes to our district thank you for the comments Dr Littman just into support of that they wouldn't work without the teachers who spend the time organizing and sharing their ideas with our students absolutely all right any further discussion all in favor of the three items on the consent three topics on the consent agenda carried unanimously thank you and on behalf of the Board of Education congratulations and welcome to Christopher sinus kalchi that our new director of Information Technology Mr cynical would you like to say a
029few words and I apologize in advance I'm sure I said that's okay all through school that happened I could write a book on on all the pronunciations of my last name so once Christopher comes out and an S sound I know it's me uh thank you board members especially Mr matersky and Dr Brown Hall uh I am grateful and excited to be chosen as a director of technology for the Williamsville Central School District I'm especially honored to be associated with the district uh that is regarded as leaders in education uh I plan to bring my point 20 plus years of Technology experience to continually discover innovative solutions while focusing on security of our students and staff awesome once again I am honored and grateful for this opportunity and thank you enjoy the rest of your
030meeting thank you if I can ask a favor though because we know that names are not hard they're simply one practice okay so if you can let us know the proper pronunciation of your name cynosculci would be and it's my parents are both from Italy so it's in a skull key and it's in Italian so either way either way it's good but if you really take it slow it's really easy just a lot of vowels in there that's why God we appreciate it thank you very much everybody we'll invite you to step over here I would like to thank the following retirees for their service to the district Linda shermante the senior account clerk in the business department for 17 years of service Carolyn Doster teacher aide Heim Elementary for 22 years of service wow
031Marlene Hooper clerk typist Forest Elementary for 26 years of service and Cindy Orlando teacher aide High middle for 18 years of service thank you to Oliver foreign item number nine is there a motion to approve the minutes from the October 11 2022 regular meeting in agenda item 9A Miss Poulin second Mr bulin [Music] are there any corrections all in favor opposed abstentions thank you motion carried seven zero two okay number 10 the president's report the upcoming and prior events and building visits are listed in board Docs are there any comments or questions regarding these events or School building visits Miss Poland I just wanted to comment on the workshops that doctors saying and Mrs I mean Dr McCleary also attended the foundation Aid workshop with Rick Tims because he um outlined the picture of challenges
032that we'll be presenting Us in the next several years and also it gave us some ideas of talking points with our legislators and particularly for those who are going to be going to the legislative breakfast I think that's very important in terms of talking about the foundation formula one of the things particularly was in the the way students with special needs are weighted and the importance of increasing that particularly as we continually hear that we need to do more for our special education population and that's certainly in an issue there if those students would be weighted more that would certainly help all of us in many ways so I just wanted to bring that up and if anyone has any other questions about that was that was not in my report I'd be happy to
033talk with you outside of the meeting but thank you anyone else 10B board members Miss casmirak Bogner and Dr Singh will be reviewing the non-instructional business operations policy 5000 series on Thursday November 10th at 2 30 district office conference rooms Dr Brown Hall and Mrs Carey will also be in attendance the Erie County Association of school boards and the New York State Association of school boards their upcoming events and meetings are listed in board docs does anyone have anything else to report related to Erie County or nisba Miss leather Barrel I wanted to thank Dr sang because he's going to be taking over the legislative team for me and I appreciate that and I hope that you find it valuable welcome thank you 10 f is there a motion to approve the renewal of the
034nisba membership and authorized payment of dues for 2023 as presented Miss Poulin second Miss kasmarak Bogner any discussion of clarity Dr McCleary this is 10e yeah you said 10 off I just want to make sure it's recorded appropriately for the record yes thank you thank you and E yeah um anyway we have a motion and a second all in favor thank you motion carries unanimously and now item 11 I will turn it over to Dr Brown hall for his superintendent's report Dr McCleary thank you so much I have a lot of good things to discuss this month [Music] all right so Community update for today we're going to start with transportation we wanted our community to know and I know I've spoken about it on the weekly update that we are working diligently to get
035the GPS systems replaced and working properly on the My Stop app so we ordered them we worked with sta our transportation provider and we or make sure they ordered those and they were delayed due to supply chain issues however we are pleased to inform everyone that we do have 20 trackers that have already been delivered to the district and they will be installed by the supplier in the coming weeks so you will see those new um trackers on our buses we're very excited about that another thing with Transportation so I know that uh Bart uh member leather barrel and Littman mentioned the number of extracurricular activities and clubs that we have in our school building in an effort to make sure at the middle and high school level that our students are able to access
036those we are going to look to Pilot a program um dealing with after-school busing for our middle and high school students so buses will be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays for one hour after the end of school so students are able to remain after school and receive extra help or participate in extracurricular activities so this is something we're looking into right now to Pilot possibly beginning in January and I know everyone um well a few people asked about the cost and it is always a concern so the cost is approximately 7 470 dollars per month to um begin this pilot program of course good question go right ahead is this for all the middle schools and high schools for all the middle schools and high schools and this will continue from January to the end
037of the school year one month is it one bus per building one bus per building yes doctor we just had a question on the slide before that about the trackers yes um and and I don't have the uh SGA contract in front of me but um with those track is supposed to be provided within the buses by contract from them or is that something we added additional that we paid for out of our budget no they they take we don't I don't have the contract in front of me either but luckily we have our Chief Financial Officer Tom matersky and he may know but I believe sta takes care of that yeah so I just wanted to uh that Dr Brown Hall is correct yes yeah uh is responsible for that and they did have
038them in these are replacement trackers okay that's the units were just older eight years old so they're being replaced thank you thank you next our speaker series many of you remember I did speak about this is one of our initiatives this year to have a speaker series because there are many initiatives in our district that we want to make sure our public and our stakeholders are aware of so the first speaker series will be on restorative educational practices and that will take place next week Thursday November 17th from 6 to 7 30 p.m at high middle school so this event will be facilitated by Linda ruway who is our district director of professional learning information will be shared on the basic principles implementation and the building of relationships that is associated with restorative educational practices
039in our schools many of you remember that when our code of conduct had been updated a lot of work from our uh Wellness committee went into making sure that we have restorative educational practices in our code of conduct so that parents are aware and our school Community is aware of what that is Miss ruai will be presenting this again on Thursday November 17th from 6 to 7 30 pm at high Middle School ask a question about that please I mean that's a great idea but I think is it possible to have this streamed online too you know what that's a good question we we will see we will definitely see we may be able to record it and have it available so that if someone wants to access it later or when new parents come
040into the district if they want to access it that's a very good idea Dr Singh covid-19 vaccination and booster Clinic we're very happy to present in partnership with the Erie County Department of Health the district is hosting an on-site covid-19 vaccination and booster clinic on Friday November 18th from 3 30 P.M to 7 30 p.m at Forest Elementary School so please enter through door 12 a Wix mail with information on how to sign up for the clinic was sent on Friday November 4th and it's very easy on the Wix Mill there is a link you could click on to sign up and reserve a time slot if you have any questions please contact Christine Harding our district nurse practitioner by calling 716-626-8096 District rebranding so this is exciting also so our district Mission and belief
041statement subcommittee of the strategic planning committee has um our mission statement has been Consolidated down to one sentence so we looked at our mission statement and we decided we needed to make sure that it really focused on what our strategic plan focused on and so we were able to consolidate it down to one sentence so that it's easily um repeated and memorized also so that we really really have a mission statement that is simpler our belief statements Consolidated down from 16 to eight belief statements so we're able to combine some of them and make sure that reflected our strategic plan also public comment on the new mission statement and belief statements will take place from December 2022 to January 2023 so we will be presenting that at the December board meeting and then we will
042put at that up on our website so we have a public comment period along with the district rebranding the logo subcommittee which is a subcommittee of the communications committee has met twice and is continuing to review local concepts for the district rebranding so three major points came out of the local subcommittee to make sure the new logo will be identifiable simple and modern so you can share your input by emailing contact at williamsvillek12.org by Friday November 25th so if there's something that the community or stakeholders think we need to make sure is exemplified and our logo you can definitely send your input to that email address please include District rebranding Dash logo and the subject line the tentative timeline to present to the board of education is in January 2023 so we want to present
043to the board what the Final Logo um logos for consideration look like before we open it to the community for voting Regents exams so there I know this slide is a bit uh text dense so I will read it though because I don't want to miss anything so any student who makes the following eligibility conditions May appeal to earn a diploma with a lower score at a Regents examination so if a student has taken the Regents examination during the June 2022 August 2022 or we'll take a January 2023 June or August 2023 Regents examination and scored between a 50 and a 64 on that Regis exam that's subject to the appeal and was taken during one of the above administrations and has a passing course average of 65 or higher they are eligible for a
044special appeal so again if you take a readings exam this past June this past August next year January June or August and you receive a 50 to a 64 on the Regents exam but you have a passing average in the course you are eligible for a special Appeal on that exam yes all grade levels or just seen no this is for all grade levels that's a very good question Mr beulen board member Dylan because a lot of individuals thought it was just for seniors but it is not and we've we've explained to people you're right that's I'm glad you asked that question it's available for anyone taking a recent examination Brown Hall do you think that specific information is something that perhaps our high school principals could share in their weekly up oh we we
045definitely will and this was I know this was big you know it made news if you will when this was released by The Board of Regents and the nearest education department but we can constantly make it make them aware of it because we also uh reviewed and signed the appeals for the August 2022 summer school examinations good I just worry that you know that's not that the onus isn't just on the family you can file the appeal that our schools are are actively looking absolutely who might qualify absolutely yeah thank you Dr Brown help me I just answer please the high school principals will actually be sharing this and piggybacking off of this message and sharing the message again with families we did share the message when it was first released by The State education
046department but they're doing a re-communication to the family so they that families are aware that this is continuing for the next several administrations [Music] very fluid Dr Littman Dr Brown Hall I just want to know for clarity who would they make the appeal to specifically absolutely so there is a standard form that must be used in all the information that we have here right so what is the score the student received on the exam what is their course average all of that is included on the form the form is then reviewed um there is a panel that reviews it and then it is brought to me uh for approval of the appeal thank you thank you with that um I know it had been something that we've done in the past but New York's education
047department does not require and strongly recommends that schools not use Regents exam scores as part of the calculation of a student's final average and the reason this is important is because when the appeal so I'll go back to the slide prior so when a student has a passing course average we actually have to back out if a Regency exam was included in that course average we have to back out that Regents exam score and recalculate the course average so going forward beginning with the 2022-2023 school year courses that culminate in the Regency exam will no longer have the exam score calculated into the student's final average students enrolled in Regents courses are still required to take the Regents exam High School local courses courses that do not require Regency exam may continue to have a
048local exam project or or task which may be part of the student's final average as in the past 10 percent please contact your child's high school guidance counselor with any questions you may have and I want to make sure I read that text dense slide just to not mess any of that up I don't know that um are we going backwards in terms for a student who's graduating or is it like if we have a senior this year and where they're looking at their GPA for all four years of high school are we going back and recalculating the past three years of their High School juniors or you know just beginning this year the 22-23 going forward thank you very good question thank you very much for that clarification graduation cap and gowns so this
049is something when I uh first became superintendent I know this was something that was brought to my attention and was asked to please re-um re-evaluate and so in 2015 the New York State education department shared the creating a safe and supportive environment for transgender and gender non-conforming students and the guidance document the section that is gender-based activities rules policies and practices States gender-based policies rules and practices can have the effect of marginalizing stigmatizing stereotyping and excluding students whether they are transgender or GNC gender not conforming or not for these reasons school districts should consult with their attorneys to review such policies rules and practices and should eliminate any that do not serve a clear pedagogical purpose in this instance it would be students having different colors for their cap and gowns at the high school
050level in 2017 a district committee recommended that each of the high schools moved to one cap and gown color for the graduation class so principals at North and South High Schools will continue and begin discussions about moving to one graduation color at those schools so they will start those discussions I know in the past they have begun those discussions they will continue those discussions with their senior class about moving to one graduation cap and gown color very similar to what East High School already does if you could see my wheels turning Dr Leather uh board member um is there a timeline for this so that we're not just continually discussing it absolutely it is for this year and when I when I say just discussing I want to because the principles will have those discussions
051with the schools to answer any questions they have but I believe the schools will be moving towards that I know they will be moving towards that one color just so that we are able to order the cap and gowns in time and I know schools are also discussing they may have a way to incorporate the other color like blue and white with the white trim or something like that so they're having those discussions at the school days level Associates who just does the cost savings for families the gender piece aside if you have you know several children in your family as I do um but you know one was a male one was a female and you had to buy separate accounts so now you can just have one by one guy on the whole
052family wears it absolutely and you save yourself some money save yourself some money absolutely my question any other question Dr Whitman you got a question let me SEC no problem foreign everyone that there's no school Friday November 11th and recognition of Veterans Day and also no school on Wednesday November 23rd Thursday November 24th and Friday November 25th due to the Thanksgiving recess so I want to remind everyone that Wednesday also we don't have school on November 23rd [Music] this month we are recognizing and honoring the accomplishments and contributions of individuals during during Native American Heritage Month last Thursday the district shared a video project a doctor on Dr Susan lafleche pacoat picati is a Cod uh thank you Nick the first Native American to receive a medical degree in the U.S this week we'll share
053a video highlighting Joseph medicine Crowe who fulfilled the four requirements of becoming a war chief of the Crow Nation while serving in the army during World War II Thursday November 10th at the Country Club of Buffalo we will have the Williamsville Wall of Fame program and it will be screened on the district's YouTube channel so we're very excited about that we have Wall of Fame inductees from Williamsville North South and East and that is the end of the community update thank you very much for your questions also for clarification anyone else have any other comments thank you we are on to item number 12. the 2023-2024 budget development 2021 22 audit recap and historical budget information I turn it back again to Dr Brown Hall and Mr matersky thank you very much uh board president
054McCleary I just want to say our district is very very fortunate to have such a capable assistant superintendent of finance and Management Service and our Chief Financial Officer and I am always grateful and appreciative of his hard work during the entire budget season so at this time I would ask assistant superintendent Tom matersky to come up and um give us the budget preliminary for the 23 22 23 24 school year thank you Dr Brown Hall very much for those kind comments uh the presentation tonight is really the kickoff of our budget development process to a certain extent uh we are going to look at a summary of what the Auditors presented to the board at the October meeting and uh I always like to begin the process by going back and and referring to why
055we do audits in in school districts and it's based upon education law so as you see the laws are there that's really more for our community the board is certainly aware of this as is our audit committee but one of the things I wanted to again point out for our community is what is audited what is in the external audit and those items include our general fund which is our major operating fund the special Aid fund which is where our federal programs are housed and accounted for uh the capital projects fund Child Nutrition fund Debt Service Community Education and the extra classroom fund and the extra classroom fund receives an actual separate presentation by our auditors so moving to the purpose of the audit it really is to provide an opinion on where we are
056as far as our financial status and that's given to us by the Auditors Drescher and Malecki and as they said we're in good standing for this particular audit which is where we want to be to start a budget development process so what I wanted to do here is again just spend a few minutes to summarize the differences that occurred between last year and this year and why we have differences and how that sets us up for the budget development process so as we begin looking at the revenue and expenses you can see that uh comparing it to the prior year our our revenues were up a bit our expenses were up a bit and then we had some greater transfers between uh funds which is that 27.9 million dollars at the bottom so the major
057reasons for Revenue increases is really seen from what we put into our budget process it's a state aid was increased as well as our normal tax levy increase so that really was the revenue side and on the expenditure side it's the items that we normally would think salary and benefits so there again is the reason for those increases regarding the transfers out that really is going to be explained and you're going to see it a little later uh in in a greater detail that that's the amount of funds that the community approved as part of the security project that we began this past summer and so we transferred 13 million dollars to that and so that's really the difference the prior year transfers was also um including Capital project dollars but that was the end
058of our music Capital project so the dollars were less than what um we had in this past year looking at that next slide which is our balance sheet you're seeing that our assets fell a bit and our liabilities increased and again when you transfer a lot of money out for your capital projects that's going to be the reason why your cash balances are going to decrease a bit so that's really the reason behind that and as far as liabilities as you see really the difference is we had some higher expenses that we had to accrue for our Retirement Systems both the teachers as well as the employees just a note for anyone I have put reference points here on these slides to where the dollar amounts are appearing in the actual audit so as we
059go into fund balance definitions I I wanted to again as we begin to prepare for the budget development process there's a sign fund balance and there's unassigned and so I wanted to explain what makes up those and what the differences are a sign fund balance is representative of really two items what is appropriated fund balance and that's actually in our Revenue budget for each budget year and it's five million 574 000 that number has continued to be the same number for the last four or five years and that's a good thing and the other piece when it comes to assign is something called encumbrances essentially those are the open purchase orders where we have not received the item so we haven't paid it or the invoices have come in but the processing hasn't occurred so
060we carry those dollars over and that represents the two million dollars that you see there and again if you go to page 14 and 45 of the audit you're going to see those numbers additionally unassigned fund balance this is the four percent rule that we hear a lot about essentially you where you are at the end of your prior year the 2000 2021 year was the audit report date we're now in 2223 you take your next year's approved budget which is this year and multiply it by four percent and that is the appropriate amount of your uh limit per the four percent Rule and as you can see and as director Malecki said we're under the amount uh that you would be required uh per the four percent rule so we're in a good standing
061there looking at other reserves what I wanted to do is just share with you a brief summary on what's there we have about 61.5 million dollars in total Reserve balances and these are called restrictive reserves and the reason they are listed in that manner is because the dollars can only be used for the purpose of the reserve and so you cannot use say unemployment Reserve dollars to pay for workers compensation they have to be what's in there is adjusted every year as you're going to see and then the dollars can only be used for those purposes the two greatest reserves we have here are capital project capitals and those are approved the funding is allowed and approved by the community to establish and to withdraw it's also approved by the communities on the way out
062so that's the only way those funds can be used and then the other major reserves uh that we have the largest one would be our Retirement Systems as you see there so I realized this slide is very hard to read on the screen but it's really there for um to be transparent to everybody including our community and it shows really uh What uh what has been done to the reserves at least year end and this was really also based upon the authority that you the board granted to me in June of 2022 so this report is is to satisfy the reporting requirements and it also shows what happened to those reserves over the course of this past accounting cycle I'm not going to go through all the numbers I'm just going to say that if
063you look at the bottom line uh we it matches the other items I discussed as far as changes in fund balance and we have about 78.3 million dollars in total fund balance as also reported in our audit so the changes of fund balance again major items here Capital funding we spent 13.3 million dollars uh going to our security project and uh we had 7.8 million in new funding the important part of both of those items is this the 13.3 million means we did not have to borrow 13.3 million dollars and pay it back and pay interest on it over 15 years so that's a significant savings for our district and our community as far as the ability to put new money in that's going to help us for future capital projects with the same type
064of things going forward when we do a new project we'll be able to appropriate these funds in a proposition and save the community dollars on expense borrowings as far as the what we do with the future fund balance and reserves in our budget we have appropriated 4 million one hundred thirty thousand dollars in our current budget in reserves and that number has been somewhat constant over the last five years I'd recommend that we continue to do that as we look forward to the 2324 budget development process you don't want to be moving things up and down however if you're looking at the dollar amounts and you see it a certain expense may have maybe a one-year blip and we have a reserve to address that that would be something that we would look at very
065carefully and possibly if the circumstances are right recommend a increase for maybe a single year and then go back to a more sustainable level foreign so as we look at the budget development process and and what this means as we go forward uh I think we're all aware of the impact inflation has had we're going to have some areas in the budget as we start to look at the numbers in great detail about areas such as utilities natural gas electricity those items are going to require increases that we have not traditionally had to do additionally diesel fuel although we do contract for transportation it's our responsibility to buy the diesel fuel for our buses so there's another area that will have to be looked at and estimated so that we are covering our expenses for
066the next year as well as the inflationary impact on normal school supplies all of that is being reviewed we've already started the process internally and we'll be providing the information in the first presentation in January and what some of those increases will look like at this point I wouldn't recommend increasing the appropriation and reserves that we currently had that four million one hundred thirty thousand dollars but again if the situation is right um it might be considered but I don't see that as being in the 23-24 school year um and so with that just going to a summary here on um 16 years of the other piece of information in your packet is 16 years of budget adjustments changes the all basically the planning and the thought process that went into those budgets and really
067I'm not going to spend time going through all the numbers the key thing here is that if you look at it our annual budget increase was about 4.5 almost 4.6 million dollars and the average salary increase was 5.3 million so when you look at that um the that's before reductions and if you look at it what it was after reductions it was about 4.2 so essentially every year there's a ability to make some savings when we go through this process retirements are part of it position changes all of those things that happen as we go through that very detailed process with salary and benefits has an impact on those final numbers and again we will be doing that same process us this year the last piece on the bond the slide I think is probably
068the most important piece here salary and benefit increases of the total over this 16 years represented 66. almost 9 million dollars or 91.5 of the total increases so that is where our dollars are going so with that um really this is um some of the planning items we're thinking about uh certainly the major item is what will happen with state aid and and that's going to be critical to us especially because of the second item you're seeing there we have a tax cap it's two percent right now there's there's been discussion about whether the law may change but it has not and we have inflation at above eight percent so we are under pressure with our budget our budget is stable this year so there's no issues with it but as we move into the
069next year and inflation compounds we're going to need to be budgeting effectively so that we meet those issues so if we don't get enough state aid it's going to mean we're going to have to look internal and look at the expenditure side of the budget so again and that's what those last three items on this page represent increases or decreases in other revenues there could be some of them at the same time we may have to look at doing some reallocation of budgets within the expense budget to balance things and um again looking at the continuation expenses that's going to be our key item to start the budget development process so with that it just is a little bit of a timeline and what's to come we will be providing a update on the long-range
070financial plan in December and that plan will provide both a written explanation on the impacts to our budget as well as the financial projections uh for a four to five year period and we'll be reviewing that in a reserve plan uh in uh in the December presentation as well and have a discussion [Music] thank you very much Mr matersky do any board members have questions Dr Singh I mean just one question just from my knowledge how do we decide how much money we pay towards our projects like I know you mentioned so many million we try to save money that way yeah the the Dallas actor saying are appropriated when you do the propositions so when you go through the initial propositions that are voted on by the community um when when the financial plan
071for that specific project is developed we look at what is in our Capital reserves and we review the amount of funds that we feel we can allocate to that project and it's placed in the proposition so we can't go above or Beyond it it has to be what voters approve and the proposition since we did this last year the interest rate is locked at what last yesterday okay correct anyone else [Music] thank you continuing with uh Finance may I have a motion to resolve approve and adapt the erie1 BOCES installment purchase agreement in 12b the budget transfer in 12C and the after school security contract extension in 12d as presented motion Miss leather Barrel second Miss kasmarak Bogner any discussion yes um I just wanted to ask Dr Brown hall for a confirmation it's three
072parts okay board approval is needed on 12 D so that this because Vista security officers can continue providing Security Services in our buildings during the school day two that the district-wide safety plan will be amended to include the Vista contract and the SRO contract and three the amended safety plan will be presented and have a 30-day public comment period that that is correct all three of those I can answer in the affirmative and that will happen at the December meeting and then we will begin the 30-day comment period after that wonderful thank you so much anyone else questions Mr beulin I know that some of the according to what I read was some of these officers are retired Buffalo police oh I'm just police they are off duty Amherst police so we have on that
073list there are um the Amherst police the University of Buffalo police in the event that there is an extenuating circumstance where they can't get and it'll be very rare then they would go to their reserves and that would be the list B but these individuals are off-duty Amherst police officers what's the difference in training between the off-duty police the University Police yeah there'll be very many together yeah the University Police are State Police together and they train together okay yeah um anyone else have questions or comments Dr Singh I mean is it would it be possible to add more Community or board members to the district-wide Safety Committee so we and I I know I answered a question earlier about this because at the May 2022 meeting there is a question about adding additional parents
074to some of our committees and we said this year what we would do is very similar to what we did with other committees we would um have a point in time we were solicit additional parental input for those committees and so we will do that yes well board members have to be appointed so we went through that before also I believe we already have board members appointed to the wellness committee okay the Safety Committee well I guess that would be a discussion of if we want to have board members appointed to that right so we I don't know that we have in the past so that would be a discussion and let's look into that to see if there's any benefit to that all right again on this particular um motion what is the quest
075I mean it's just uh clarifying information for decision making you know I know in uh 2007 we had an RFP for security and it's changed over time have we done another RFP to look at other options you know for school security uh and the second part of that other what kind of feedback do we get from the administration of each school about how effective they feel having uh you know that security system in place well we've had sros in our buildings for a very long time right so after um the May incident the horrible May incident in Uvalde we told our community that we would increase that and our the presence and our school buildings and for a point in time uh supervisor culpa was able to provide overtime for Amherst officers and then we
076contracted with Vista also at that point in time from May on yes and so the parents that we've spoken to the administrators have been very appreciative of that thank you anything else so therefore on the motion to approve 12 b c and d all in favor carried unanimously thank you we're up to number 13 with our liaison reports if you have any liaison reports please send them to Mrs Kerry list of assignments and meeting dates are in board Docs does anyone need coverage for any meeting does anyone have anything else to report under liaison assignments there are no legislative matters to discuss there are no curriculum matters to discuss so we are up to number 16. may I have a motion to resolve and approve the 10-year recommendation as presented was pulling second Mr biscalia
077discussion all in favor carried unanimously thank you we have no matters to discuss under District facilities and support services nor under special needs and Student Activities this brings us to number 19 which is our committee of the whole [Music] um last month during Committee of the whole we talked about and voting on that we would have a discussion this month led by Dr Singh regarding the broad category of the calendar and Dei I'll turn it over to Dr Singh thank you I mean I guess my primary motion is since we are reviewing our mission statement our the entire strategy plan everything is going through Dei lens I I mean I thought it also makes sense to look at our calendar which uh the process of which has been a little confusing to some and to
078see if we can look at it through a Dei lens and make sure it's Equitable to all and I think in my opinion at least we should at least have a Dei committee once they're done with preparing action plan which they're going to present in December to look at our calendar and see if they can I don't know if what what what outcome would be but at least make it more Equitable than what I think it is now and thanks to Crystal she's who sent a whole bunch of links for us to read which were very useful I mean we have one policy now which is policy 8360 which talks about rich and religious expression and that's true like you don't have any religious holidays on our calendar and I think that's how it has
079been for a while and I don't see um I don't think that that needs to change it dramatically and uh and I know our school website is working very hard to put up information about all religious practices on our website so we are making progress in our school district but I think the calendar is one thing that's most visible to all our parents and Community to see how our calendar reflects our community so it's my suggestion slash motion that we request the da committee once it's done with his action plan to look at our calendar and see if it's equitable could I have clarification are you asking for for example a subcommittee of the people who are already on the district Dei committee to look at this or are you looking at an entirely new
080no I mean from what I've understood I think correctly the groundhog that after we present a Dei action plan in December we are not going to disband the DEA committee there would still be a standing DEA committee so this would probably go to that committee which so and I and I just want to clarify because the Dei committee the the focus of the Dei committee was the development of the Dei plan um and that's what they would be in charge of just maintaining that our Dei plan our action steps we're moving and making progress with that right so very similar to how the communications committee had a separate logo subcommittee the strategic planning committee had a separate Mission and belief subcommittee I think individuals on the Dei committee that would be interested in looking at
081the calendar May we we were probably form a separate subcommittee because that might not be everyone's request right they their focused on the Dei plan so maybe a separate subcommittee focused on looking at our calendar with the Dei lungs right and so that would go to everything from the number of days we have off to the renaming of Columbus Day to all that type of stuff correct yes thank you No so at this point um we do not need any motion from us it's just that you feel that this is the one of the next natural steps that the Dei committee is going to be well what I'm hearing is that there's a request from the board to actually um have the Dei committee and then we would then create a subcommittee of the Dei
082committee so I think the board will need to make a motion referring the calendar review to the Dei sub to the Dei committee that was my question so and correct me if I'm wrong board members who are may I ask a question um I know that currently the district follows the erie1 BOCES calendars that correct we do um and I know that the the breaks of erie1 BOCES um determine what our breaks are currently and I know we've had discussion about this previously to me it seems like Erie won BOCES needs to look at the calendar with a Dei lens although I know we don't have control over that um but would it be problem I guess I well I guess this would be for the subcommittee or committee the calendar committee to look at
083would be to determine can we keep the erie1 BOCES and make adjustments as needed correct absolutely and so for an example we have a fall recess right that's not on the everyone BOCES calendar we have the Wednesday before Thanksgiving which may some years be on the everyone BOCES calendar or not for the major breaks the winter break the spring break the mid-winter break we do follow the Erie wumbosis calendar but for Singletons you know districts are given that Latitude thank you absolutely any other questions comments Mr viscalia I I think the subcommittee is good I mean I brought up calendar issues in the past too I just we have to make sure we also look at the 180 day Rule and that would be my only it's not a concern and I remind you and
084we all know that but I think it's something we always have to remind ourselves of because that ties into funding and things like that right but it it very well is a concern right it's a concern in that when we start looking at a calendar or attempting to say you know there needs to be additional days off if that might be a request that definitely is a concern because we we have a good number of days where students are not not in attendance and we have to make sure we meet that 180 day minimum with the snow days built in right so those are always concerns knowing that we live in Erie County right off Lake Erie and you know snow days are a true concern yeah I just just like you know I think
085it's a great idea Dr Singh and I and I'm you know forced to start in the subcommittee I just want to make sure we always look at that it's just it's hard you know we want to do these certain changes and then you know you're kind of strapped a little bit so very good comments so far Miss leather Barrel so I have more discussion to add but I just want to make sure we're following protocol here do we have a motion that's been seconded before we engage in continuing discussion I've been getting ready to do that I appreciate it did start I'm sorry please um I would like to make a motion to present uh the D.A sorry our school calendar to the Dei committee for review all right now with now continuing or okay
086starting formal discussion with continued discussion um I just want to make sure that we also include our attorneys with us because um and I think our and you guys at the end of the table here are Niagara University guy I took uh education law with Dr polka right and and wrote a very lengthy paper for him once upon a time I want to put that to use and my recollection is that we're not legally taking off days because of a religious holiday however legally we are allowed to have a day off from school or a you know a day on the calendar if we anticipate um an excess of student or staff practices that can interfere with the um flow of instruction so I'm curious I know that we're not legally able to ask families
087what religion do you celebrate you know I understand that legally we cannot do that but are we able to access data to to look at certain days that may be of interest to to see what the absentee rate is or has been in the in the past for are there staff or students correct absolutely or we have another committee and more meetings is there data that warrants us is there data that shows that on Ramadan or you know on a celebration of Ramadan that more than 20 of our students or staff are out and I you know I agree that we want to be making sure that our calendar mirrors our district population in our community but I want to make sure also that we've got data to support such changes and that we're making
088any changes within the law because I do for thoroughly support a separation of church and state a better question is more specific is how many absences are I need not on Ramadan itself yeah right how many students and staff are out on heat thank you yes right and just for clarification purposes no absolutely and these are these are all good questions right but when you have discussion like that I think that's what the subcommittee can definitely look at right because there are districts across the state for example Schenectady just gave an additional holiday and I I shared it all the information with office staff also and the process they went through to see if they really did need to give that day off so we would contact you know other districts also to see what
089process they have gone through to decide what days they are giving off in their calendars and you know one of the things our district has always been uh at the Forefront of recognizing different holidays uh but not again always having you know that time off is some kind of break and you know we have to balance that out between saying oh yes we do recognize the holidays of all of our uh students and faculty and Community but again what goes to the level of saying um should we have another day off correct or a holiday because I can't call it a religious holiday absolutely and we we do understand and know that our students their um excuse absences are protected you know via board policy for any religious holidays or culture they're religious holidays that
090they you know they they um have as you know a family or community anyone else thank you then can um I hear from everyone who is in favor of requesting that a subcommittee be formed and take into account the items that we've talked about and look to see what can or cannot perhaps work in terms of a calendar and Dei all in favor thank you carried unanimously continuing with the committee of the whole does anyone else have any items to discuss bring up under Committee of the whole Miss Pullen [Music] I wanted to take this opportunity because a couple of things have just sort of come together and that's in regards to student mental health and wellness as I was reviewing the 5 000 category of board policies that will be reviewed I noted one
091of the items under there was that every student will be provided a lunchtime and currently that's not our practice because students have been able to opt out of lunch for a variety of reasons um and I just heard you know what from our high schools like talking about helping our students establish healthy life habits and I'm just concerned that we are creating an environment in which our students are practicing unhealthy life habits now whether they in fact eat or not is another thing altogether but that they need a break in the middle of the day to go from 7 30 in the morning till three o'clock straight through um choosing to have a ninth class instead of lunch because eight classes of projects and so forth isn't enough for them it seems kind of seems
092kind of a lot and then we ask ourselves why are our students so stressed we heard about that in our sciac meeting you know the student stress and can't the teachers do a better job of coordinating all of their lessons so we're not demand having so many demands and yet we're facilitating them making some not necessarily the best health choices and setting themselves up for a pattern of not healthy life practices so I would like to request um that our Wellness committee take a deep look into how our school days are structured we keep adding more and more Band-Aids to deal with student stress I'm kind of an up the river person I want to go up the river and say what's causing all of the stress on our students so I would really like
093to ask our well this committee to do that to look at the structure to see if there aren't some ways that we can help our students make good choices help our families make good choices for their students if students aren't going to the lunchroom because it's too noisy and they have some issues that's another issue that we need to address is there not a quiet space for them to go um but I just think that the time has come for us to look at what are our structures are there some things that we could be doing better to prevent the stress rather than always having to deal with the stress um so I'm asking then miss Poulin are you going to make a motion that this be discussed carried forward as you outlined at the
094December meeting at the December meeting yes do we have a second I think Dr Singh all in favor further discussion so just for discussion um with our policy if we go back to our policy regarding Committee of the whole if we vote then like if this motion is approved I it should go on the agenda next month as a separate item as as probably sort of doctor's things lie done at issue with the calendar that way it's listed on the agenda um at you know clearly stating what the item is and that brings transparency to our public so that they know we're going to be discussing it because we did have a motion um regarding the calendar and Dei we are public would not have known that we were going to be discussing that because
095it wasn't listening we just want to bring that up as a point of order thank you and then it's my understanding just for clarification after that occurs then individuals are able to come to the board and speak about it track to any other action being taken by the district as far as looking into anything up in that way too if there's if there's an anticipated motion that's going to be at the December meeting that Miss Pullen or whatever board member would have the time to have that put into board docs that we could all look at it and ask our ask questions accordingly thank you for that clarification so we have a motion and a second and we've had discussion all those in favor of making it an item on our agenda for the December
096meeting raise your hands thank you motion carried unanimously does anyone else have any item that they would like to bring up to potentially discuss in the future um I have a thing oh thank you I have one more item and this is uh regarding our board meetings we have policy uh 1510 which talks about our board meetings and I think at in the last year we decided we no longer would exactly follow Robert's Rules and we have modified version of robot rules and it's I mean the question I have I mean sometimes is if you have modify the rules but and there are also nisbar rules which have rules for board meetings and my question my current question my confusion is probably like we do we have like our set of rules that we follow
097instead of being vague and saying modified address that we're changing this part of the rule not the entire role so um pattern is not confused but my point is like can we have like a discussion on okay if you're changing the policy we'll event the policy and we'll come up with our own version of robots rules and we write it as a policy that this is what it is or if we take nesbar rules and we adopt it and this is what we are following so that is the motion that you are requesting we might discuss in December if I'm doing this correctly I don't think it was a motion can I can I add to that because I think I understand just from being the officer um so a little bit of history is
098that at a at a previous Retreat going back prior to covet it was at the attorney's recommendation that we no longer um say that we're sticking it here like strictly to Robert's Rules but that we follow parliamentary procedure so when we talk about what rules the rules are is our policy manual those are our rules and so if something isn't clear that the specific policy might not be clear and so that is why one of the reasons why we as a board chose to go through each policy series by series to make any um additions as needed but what I would recommend for this is that instead of perhaps putting it on the agenda that because Dr Singh is an officer that the two of you as officers could consult with one of our attorneys
099I do believe it was an attorney from Harris speech that made this recommendation for us in the past and perhaps have a phone conference with the attorney um between now and next month just to to see what specific if there's any specific recommendations that need to be brought or if if our 1510 isn't thorough enough because I know our 1510 has gone through like maybe five or six uh iterations already and which is good right we keep trying to make it stronger but then we'll come up to a scenario that's new and we're like oh okay what do we do now well let's go back and fix that let's let's make sure that we've got language in there for the specific um task so that would be my recommendation I don't I don't think we
100need to spend table time talking about it if we if we don't know exactly what the specific guidance is so either whether it be from our attorney or with ecsd or with nisba to get exactly what the recommendation is for what for whether we strengthen 1510 or if there's another policy we need to strengthen so I would ask then before we continue with any discussion would you like to make commotion based on some of the material that you were hearing from this leather Barrel that you and I explore this and bring it back to the board in December in terms of where we're going with Robert's Rules or internal practices well that sounds like a good idea probably they can have again like what Teresa said and that only give us I think you already
101have that but we can look into that and also see if there are other like the nisbar rules or the other parliamentary procedures are which one would suit us better and we can come back to the board next month or if next month has a very looks like next month is going to be very busy it's a lot of December items you know this every month is busy so that would be the motion is there a second and I could add that it probably doesn't even require an emotion because that's your lad that's your Authority as board officers to just go back and consult with your attorney to get any um bus practice information for us so it's a direction that you're giving to the officers yeah all right it's yeah it's under your Authority
102really yeah it just as a comment you know if you know what specific problems you know we're having that you've observed as we go to the policies and procedures um then that would be the starting point where do you want to clarify specific you know items of concern okay and I'm just going to add you know I spent a lot of time looking and there are some quick one-page guide to parliamentary procedure kinds of things that are just really simple and rather than having a whole lot of discussion this might be best done in a board retreat format where we can all just kind of understand what those are that's a great idea if I may because the the information that nisba has our district clerk also revamped it to a one sheeter so it
103could be a quick reference for our board members also yeah we're now having two different discussions no or not really I mean I think it's all pretty much the same because it what you what you and Dr Singh can do with with Dr Ron Hall is just go back and during it maybe at your next agenda planning to come up with a game plan moving forward and take a look at the calendar because it's not super urgent is Dr Singh said December might be busy or there might be a month it might fit in better and then looking to see what month we were considering for a retreat and then you would get the guidance from the attorney prior to that and then have it you know I guess yeah certainly not disagreeing but then
104yes that's taken it into a different direction in terms of discussing it at the table bringing something to you at the table versus talking about it at a retreat so I'm hearing then well I would then suggest that the board president make a decision on how to present it pressure the lawyer what's the best procedure moving forward and that term too you know what I mean get again an opinion of that helps absolutely thank you I'm all set I took notes we're good on video too um moving on to number 20 correspondence um this past month correspondence was received from community members regarding buses for after school program the bus trackers the bus schedules District calendar relating to holidays and Dei library books and vaccinations does anyone wish to discuss any correspondence that we have
105received or anything you would like to add Miss leather Barrel let's add one because I am the Casey liaison so there was a Casey parrot that reached out to me and I did share it with the board but they also told the parent I would share it at the board meeting she was advocating for Mandarin as a world language to come back to the district once upon a time before kovid we attempted to run Mandarin as a course here in the district um obviously it's a little different than the other world languages and that we weren't offering like a full sequence but it was being offered and I think my memory serves correctly I think we had a teacher that may have traveled between buildings and um you know so we did I think we
106Dr bielen would know more than me but I think I think we ran it for at least one semester I don't know if we ran it for a full year or not but I did say that I would share that um with the board and I'm not personally necessarily advocating one way or the other I'm just sharing her correspondence yes thank you anyone else have anything under correspondence so our next regular board meeting is scheduled for December 13th and at this point may have a motion to adjourn into executive session to discuss employment and insurance matters related to particular persons Mr bulin second Dr Singh all in favor [Music] thank you we will now move to Executive session