001may i have a motion to return the regular board meeting to public session uh thank you dr littman miss poland second all in favor moving on thank you all hands up equals unanimous i call the regular board meeting to order all board members are present except for mr vasquelia miss poulin would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag i pledge allegiance of america and to the republic which stands for one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you please be advised 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 please turn their cell phones and other electronic devices to silent
002is there a motion please to approve the agenda as presented thank you mrs vince and mrs beager second all in favor unanimous thank you motion carries all right we now have recognition and board acknowledgements dr brown hall i turn it over to you thank you very much president leatherboro so tonight we continue our school spotlight highlighting the great work that goes on within our school buildings this month our school spotlight focuses on dodge elementary and heim elementary first i'd like to welcome up principal extraordinaire charlie smiling the principal of dodge elementary to share more about a student-inspired kindness challenge that has impacted the school community i'll talk first originally when this first started morgan started all of this so instead of me explaining what it is she's going to explain what her challenge is what
003it did in the spotlight for dodge elementary so i'm not going to steal her thunder and she's going to present on behalf of dodge today all right thank you yeah the idea came from a writing unit last year in first grade about persuasion i thought i could come up with easy ways for people to be kind it turned into a month-long challenge just showing everyone it doesn't cost anything to be kind and also that kindness is contagious this year my saying was made kindness effortless and i think dodgers did just that my hope is to keep the kind of stones going for many many years [Music] morgan created the kindness challenge for the month of march there are things that happen here at school there are things that happen at home and when they complete
004the 30 challenges we ask them to turn that in so we can recognize everybody for all the kindness that they've done in the month of march i wrote down a lot of things that people could do to be kind and then um it turned into uh 30 days and then we asked if we could make the whole entire school do it even before she came to talk to me she thought about how she wanted this to grow and reach all the kids at dodge morgan is focused on kindness all the time reaching out to friends who need her but this is really important this comes from morgan's heart because she wants to expand kindness and make sure that it's important to everyone just like it's important to her one of the challenges in the 30
005days of kindness was to make a donation to the spca this one really meant a lot to the kids they were excited to do something to help animals we were really overwhelmed with the donations that kids and families have brought in i think it's really nice because it's helping the dogs and cats the best part about being kind is that everybody shares things and they're all nice it makes me feel good to have the kindness challenge because then um lots of people are spreading kindness and everyone's being kind to each other holding doors for people giving compliments being kind of strangers because it could spread kindness to everyone when you do it we have been overwhelmed by how many kids took on this challenge and it goes beyond things that kids do in their day-to-day
006lives so it wasn't just easy things they've really challenged themselves to be more kind this month this is student-led empowered by a second grader that's really spread throughout our school what we've learned from morgan is saying is not just doing you have to do it you have to live it day by day every single day to be kind to all it's beyond my words to say how proud i am of her and our school for participating in doing this [Music] [Applause] that is awesome morgan thank you very much and i really like that you said make kindness effortless i like that awesome thank you very much morgan and prince post milnik thank you very much also thank you morgan would you like to get a picture with superintendent brown hall your sister your sister can
007come up through that sounds like a good idea okay yeah bring him up president leatherboro awesome [Music] okay great job pictures kindness [Applause] next i'd like to bring up another phenomenal principle dr bonnie stafford principal at heim elementary to join us and provide insight into their rise initiative r-i-s-e which is dedicated to recognizing students good evening everyone thank you so much for having me on behalf of heim elementary school our video tonight is showcasing our rise program which stands for recognizing an inspiring student effort we've been putting a huge emphasis and focus on social emotional skills at heim elementary school especially over the course of the past couple years as we've been trying to navigate through this pandemic and our rise initiative has been part of that focus so we hope you enjoy it thank
008you [Music] rise stands for recognizing inspiring student effort it's a nice opportunity to reward kids for being kind for being helpful for having some perseverance and difficult situations for themselves whether that be academically socially or behaviorally and it's not a competition it really is just kind of lifting everybody up and really showing the extra effort and i think that's the part we're really looking for when the teacher recognizes you doing something amazing he or she gives you this award i love congratulating people when they get one and all of every and all my classmates were congratulating me too so it's really fun to like just say like congratulations that was amazing i got three rise awards what did you do to get them picking garbage off the floor giving other friends compliments playing with people
009makes me feel good it makes me feel really great because that means that the teachers know that i'm working hard kids should do good things and be good in general because it helps the community and it makes you and the other person feel great i've seen kids that are reaching out to help other kids who are not included um really helping kids to show some kindness i think they're getting an opportunity to really show all of their attributes not just how they're doing in math or social studies but also just how they are improving as a human being and really showing social emotional growth it's very important for us that our students know that we're proud of them and that we notice their efforts by recognizing them with a rise award it hopefully helps them
010feel proud and appreciated and also motivated to continue those efforts we've seen an increase in empathy between students just kind of giving them that little extra boost that they need to turn their day around i'm always proud of our kids it's just it's a great place to be [Applause] thank you principal stafford two great school spotlights i'll turn it back over to you president leatherboro okay are there any board acknowledgements tonight dr litman yeah i just wanted to uh commend generically all of the students who have been involved in all the musicals and all of the performances but i did attend uh last month at north uh joseph and the amazing technology and it was just so phenomenal the the quality of the performance as well as a quantity of participation of students who were
011on stage who were in the orchestra pit who was there just to help people and guide people and it was just a very pleasant experience again i commend all of our students at all of the high schools for their performances thank you dr lipman anybody else vice president van sais just quickly i would like to also recognize the sayak which is the superintendent in her high advisory council just for the creativeness and the new initiatives that we saw they had a spirit week the three high schools right before the spring recess where one of the days was anything but a backpack and they were extremely creative it just fostered this new sense of hope and camaraderie with each other and then i know they also are having a mentor a mentoring program that's going to
012be taking place too so just like morgan from dodge and seeing heim all of these wonderful student-driven initiatives that are really focusing on our social emotional wellness it's fabulous to see so i just like to recognize that thank you thank you very much mrs speaker just wanted to mention also um the painted bird the world premiere that performance that we saw um i know there were many people in attendance and perhaps some of you in the community that weren't able to attend saw some of the highlights that the district put out it was so incredible to see all of our school ensembles play together but then for our music department to put together a williamsville win ensemble and see kids from all three high schools playing together on a stage playing music of that caliber
013i'm a composer and conductor of that caliber was really just something so special so i'd like to acknowledge everyone involved in making that happen it was truly a wonderful wonderful event thank you mr speaker and dr singh um i just wanted to wish our community members from southeast asia who had the new year last week and that was during the break and i mean there were a lot of celebrations in the local communities and i just want to wish them that thank you very much anybody else okay i will turn it over to our parliamentarian to speak about public expression actually this evening there is no one signed up for a public expression so i will turn it back over to you all right well now we are on item number five which is the
014review of our code of conduct dr brown hall would you like to speak on that program absolutely so i encourage uh everyone community members uh parents to really look at the code of conduct this is the first uh sitting of the code of conduct it will not be voted on until the or adopted until the may meeting which gives enough time for everyone to review what i do want to point out is we've really infused and i want to thank um assistant superintendents king zuzo and the wellness committee for all the work they put into this and everyone's feedback and the restorative practices that are evident throughout and it's really important on page 22 of the code of conduct it says essential to the implementation of restorative justice practices is helping students who have engaged
015in unacceptable behavior too understand why the behavior is unacceptable and the harm it caused understand what could have been done differently in the same situation take responsibility for their actions make reparations and or restitution to repair the harm done be given the opportunity to learn pro social strategies and skills to use in the future and understand the progression of more increasingly punitive consequences may be imposed if the behavior reoccurs so that's the basis of restorative practices and i'm glad that was infused in the code of conduct so i encourage everyone to review it and if you have any feedback please let us know thank you very much does anyone from the board of any questions or comments for the superintendent regarding the code of conduct dr mcclary just really quickly in terms of reading it
016what i really personally liked i guess might not be the right phrase but that the emphasis is certainly on the student and it talks about student rights but it also talks about student responsibilities and so i think it's important to note that indeed our students do have rights but they also have responsibilities thank you for that dr mccleary any other comments or questions doctor i did send forward some information and you know again just some things i would like to see in it that didn't seem to show up that other districts have is information about alternative instructions for students who have been suspended or outside of class the other issue i had in my mind was about um some of the definitions use the definition i'll use the term and the definition when it would
017just need a little clarity but i gave you that information about data collection uh you know i think there needs to be something in there about when we uh when a student uh you know has an issue that's causes an issue in the code of conduct that that data is compiled and we make sure that we see it i know the state does that but i'm you know again at our level uh you know it's my first year back so uh i can speak to that last comment because that's actually something the board requested about two years ago and so now at the end of the year okay um i believe it's the end of the year is it the fall the discipline yeah yeah so we get a cumulative discipline report and we're able
018to see um a breakdown by building different infractions if you will that's great the code of conduct because we have to and i agree with you to that point you know we asked for that because we wanted to have some data to show is this code of conduct working for our students and ours in our buildings that's perfect that's what we have and um to your point to dr mccleary the code of conduct isn't a fact for students it's also the fact for all staff all employees all parents and all visitors and that's in buildings and on district property or school sponsored events okay any final questions from the board mrs bieger my comment is just um an appreciation for the restorative practices that have been added to this um i i think it is
019timely we've asked questions about that before to see the work that's gone into it not only is the idea of restorative practice is defined in in the document um but it's really well structured you can see the tier one two and three so that you know um it starts proactively for everyone with community circles but that for students that are are have these infractions that we see that there's learning that comes from it and not just a um you know a suspension but a piece where they learn from that so hopefully that doesn't continue i think it's an excellent addition and i really appreciated what i saw in the document so thank you for the work that went into this the whole committee um this isn't just a district document but from what i read
020there's there's parents there's students there's employees that you know it looks like a really nice piece of work from a lot of stakeholders so thank you for the time that went into this it looks great all right so now we're on 5b so at this time the board welcomes anyone in attendance night who wishes to speak about the code of conduct or the podium at this time and if you do come to the podium to speak on the code of conduct please state your name for the record all right so i don't see anyone so we will move along we are on item six which is the approval of our consent agenda item seven eight and nine may please have a motion to approve the consent agenda item seven through nine please at this time
021thank you dr mcclary and miss casmerick bogner thank you as our second any questions or comments for the superintendent seeing none all in favor opposed or abstentions motion carried unanimously the board of education extends best wishes and gratitude to the following retirees for their service to the district jane lorenz transit middle school 32 years of service judith castine transit middle school 20 years of service ronald evans south high school 30 years of service mary beth gunther dodge elementary 31 years diane pecorrero casey middle school 23 years of service kelly simmons transit middle school 29 years of service and gail sterling country parkway 34 years of service thank you so much for your service and enjoy your retirement [Applause] item 10 a and b is our motion to approve the minutes from the march 8th board
022meeting in agenda item 10a and from the march 22nd budget work session in item 10b thank you dr lippman you have a second please miss poland thank you and there any corrections to the minutes mrs bieger yeah i'm just wondering if we can separate the items oh sure then a and b take 10a separately so any questions or comments on 10a all right all approval for 10a opposed extensions okay motion carries seven one zero or seven zero one sorry about that and on ten b all in favor i'm sorry i actually have motion for 10 a or 10 b mrs bigger and then dr lipman and productions on 10b thank you all in favor opposed abstentions that one carries unanimously thank you all right moving on to our president's report for events there are a
023list of upcoming and past events in board docs we had one teacher visit us at east this month during the community um or i'm sorry conversations with staff listening session and she was advocating for a review book for the students to prepare for the earth science exam i put that in my report to the board thank you to all the stakeholders who participated in our spring community forum and does anyone from the board wish to make a comment about any past or future events all right thank you so you won't go through all of them but they are there listed for your review right policy reading item b so i'm bringing back uh policy 3281 for consideration this was just previously reviewed during the 3000 level series it lists the boy scouts of america um
024and i would like the girl scouts to receive equal recognition and consideration in the title and wording so if you take a look and board docs uh district clerk lynn carey has already stated how she would just correct that it's basically a simple correction to the title and then just making sure girl scouts is included in the language so at this time i have a motion to edit the title and wording of policy 3281 to include the girl scouts of america thank you vice president van sais and miss poland any questions or comments on that seeing none all in favor all hands up equals motion carried unanimously thank you and um oh you know what i forgot to put on here but since we're on policy review our superintendent did indicate that we are able
025to start a review process for the next set of policies which is the 4000 and that's administration i believe and i believe that we had a few board members that offered to participate so if you can refresh my memory who you were because i think i've forgotten who you are so miss poland miss kasmir bogner and dr mcclary so why don't we just make that official and approve them here at the table tonight that way they can begin scheduling for their meeting and i believe it's only going to take them one session to do this all right so may i have a motion to please approve miss pullin ms casmerick bogner and dr mccleary to be on the committee to review the 4 000 level policies thank you mr speaker and thank you dr litman
026all in favor all hands up equals motion carried unanimously so that is included on policy review i'm sorry i forgot that mrs carey but i'm glad that there is a placeholder all right so after that is um taken care of then we can work on the the five thousands we'll go one at a time because they're a little bit more specific and we want to make sure that we're consulting with the appropriate uh staff and administrators excellent all right let's take a look at item c there are events listed in board docs including mandatory training for newly elected candidates does anyone have anything to add under erie county association of school boards all right thank you item d there's an upcoming event um it's a virtual policy issues workshop it's on may 11th for new
027york state school board association is there anyone at this time that would like to commit to that if so you can always contact lynn carey and she will register you there's also information about another opportunity to receive the board governance training for newly elected board members you can either do that through the erie county association of school boards or you may do that through nisba so that information is in our packet as well the district clerk can manage those registrations does anyone have anything to report under nisba let's pull them i i did just this afternoon actually receive an email regarding um advocacy and there's a packet there which i will review and send that on to everyone if we should desire to put forward a policy to be included in the voting next fall
028we will need to do that by august so that gives us i think plenty of time to review that but i will forward that to everyone um if not the south do not want to get home tonight tomorrow so thanks that's the resolutions for the convention yes okay wonderful thank you so much yup absolutely all right we're on item e so if we would please take a look at the draft board of education meeting calendar listed in there for your review we are not approving it at this time but i just want to make sure everyone has a chance to look it over for those um individuals who are now official candidates or please also look at those dates get them in your calendar so that you'll be ready to go are there any questions
029or comments regarding any of those dates i did notice um the october meeting is the day after the holiday and i just want to make sure that that's okay it's right after um the columbus day break all right today's after the show oh that's true days after the spring break all right so let's go all right we just keep rolling along item f is there a motion to approve and authorize the district clerk to hire election personnel to facilitate the annual district vote which will be held on may 17 2022 as presented all right vice president van says thank you mrs beager second any discussion on that seeing none all in favor opposed or abstentions all right motion carries unanimously at this time i invite our district clerk lynn carey to share information on board
030candidates and the annual vote thank you president leather barrel uh so this evening at 5 30 we did draw for uh ballot placement um stewart boulin um is first theresa ann leatherboro second matthew rie third christina bleckinger iv and jessica fascallo is fifth next up for them is the candidates night which is seven till nine o'clock on may 11th and it is optional but mostly everyone attends that um district vote is may 17th from 7 a.m to 9 00 p.m north high school gym and for the vote in board docs there's voter information there uh the application for absentee ballot is also information you have to email me just put if you're emailing me put application uh in your header in the subject line and they're also available at district office for those who would
031like one and there is a concern of exposure to cover 19 is one of the marks you can you can check if you're concerned about that uh for your application any questions from anyone okay thank you mrs thank you very much would someone like to make a motion please resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the williamsville central school district board of education adopts the proposed erie one boces administration debt for the 2022 2023 year in the amount of 3 million 746 as presented this is the approval of the erie one boces budget thank you dr mcclary and miss casmerick bogner is there any discussion seeing none all in favor oh sorry gary is going to take a roll call vote okay dr singh just reply yes or no dr singh yes
032dr mcclary yes vice president vance yes president leatherbarrel yes miss kazmozak vogter yes mr speaker yes miss poulin yes dr lipman yes thank you all right and at this time now we will also vote on the erie one boces board member election so in past meetings we nominated individuals mrs kerry will also be taking a roll call vote after board members cast a vote for the candidate so would someone from the board like to make a motion to resolve to cast one vote in the annual election of three members for the board of education of the board of cooperative educational services otherwise known as boces first supervisory district so your motion will just be for the individual that you wish to put forward dr mccleary um yes i would like to um resolve to cast
033one vote for mr mark mecca located in the williamsville central school district to serve as a trustee for the board of cooperative educational services first supervisory district of erie county in a term beginning july 1st 2022 through june 30th 2025. thank you a second second yes dr lipman is our second all right and mrs carey would you like to do your vocal though i will do that and again respond yes or no please uh dr singh yes dr mcclary yes president van sais yes vice president vince i'm sorry president leatherbarrow yes mrs kasmir zack brogner yes this is beaker yes miss poulin yes and dr littman yes thank you all right is there anyone else from the board that wishes to put forward a nominee mrs bieger yes please i would like to resolve to
034cast one vote for mr eric borenstein located in the williamsville central school district to serve as trustee for the board of cooperative educational services first supervisory district of erie county and the term beginning july 1st 2022 through june 30th 2025. thank you is there a second thank you vice president van sais will call vote uh dr singh yes dr mcclary yes vice president van sais yes president leatherboro yes this is kazmak brokener mrs beaker yes miss poulin yes and dr littman yes thank you are there any further emotions all right seeing none [Music] we are moving on to item 12 which is our superintendent's report so superintendent brown hall i turn it over to you sir thank you very much president leatherboro so we'll do our community update and with the community update uh part
035b is the update on the status of the district technology implementation there'll be a brief video inside the community update but i encourage everyone also to please look at 12b and board docs and the actual report is there it does highlight the 2225 instructional technology plan highlights from there it also talks about other major technology initiatives in the district and it provides a comprehensive summary also detailing the number of chromebooks we have and the number of chromebooks we will reach to the number what that will be and what it will look like in elementary middle and high schools community update so i know anyone that has been at the meetings or looked at the youtube meetings know about the proposed budget our assistant superintendent of finance tom maturski has done a great job reviewing this
036with us but we do have a balanced budget for the 22-23 school year of 212 million 528 086 dollars so it ensures that all instructional programs are maintained and the proposed tax levy of 2.55 is below the new york state tax cap school building air conditioning capital project mr maturski has also spoke extensively about this this has been reviewed also but we want to make sure that it's fresh in everyone's mind it's a 64.1 million dollar capital project to provide air conditioning in our elementary schools information regarding the elementary school building air conditioning project including an faq document and informational video is available on the district's website so this is funded through debt borrowing capital reserves and budget appropriations and it's really important that you know there's no tax increase with this 64.1 million dollar
037capital project are we going to play a portion of that informational video nick thank you the district recognizes the significant impact that the learning environment has on our youngest students it is critical that these students begin their path to learning in a physical environment that presents them with the highest degree of success this makes the elementary schools a logical starting point for a phased capital project approach so you can watch the rest of the entire video on our website just a little piece there like a little teaser a little teaser action absolutely board of education elections i know that our district clerk lynn carey just spoke about this but it is in the community update so if anyone wants to reference it you can either go back to the video and um our district clerk
038lynn carey was very eloquent at the podium or you can just look it up in the community update here strategic planning buildings at this time are forming their school-based committees we also created a short informational video to help guide the school-based committees on what will be expected of them when they form their committees parents submitted letters of intent to join the district-y dei committee the first dei committee meeting will take place in may all the parents that are on the dei committee district-wide were notified on friday april 8th before we left for spring break and we will also be sharing information for parents to join the district-wide communications committee that information will be shared in the weekly update this friday but for the schools we actually created a short informational video to help guide them
039through their school-based committee and so nick's going to play a portion of that the trailer for that right now the strategic plan is a guiding the strategic plan is a guiding document we are using to move our school community forward in the areas of communication wellness community and sustainability teaching learning and leadership and diversity equity and inclusion while we have district-wide goal statements and goal activities that have already been established you might be asking what work will we be doing in your schools as part of the building-based committee the answer is simple work with your colleagues and committee members to develop and implement action steps to move the strategic plan and goals forward in your schools and departments in collaboration with the district while working under the direction of your building administration your work will
040help align and strengthen our buildings district and school community just a little trailer so everyone else gets it when they form their committee at the school they'll be able to watch the entire thing i want to also again at this time thank everyone that was involved in the strategic plan development it took a lot of work a lot of meetings i want to thank everyone that was involved in that it will really move our district forward cue wishing and cyber security so this is something that assistant superintendent skin zuzo came across he shared it with us at our leadership team meeting and it's really important right so qr codes are incredibly popular and easy to use you see them everywhere nowadays but it's difficult to determine whether qr code is a fake so how do
041we protect ourselves so these are some of the tips they gave us is to add an antivirus anti-malware software to mobile devices check the url before allowing a qr code to open a browser to mitigate the risk of adverse consequences and training staff to be aware of the hazards of qr codes and also training students so it came in handy also because you know i was in new york city over last weekend and many of the restaurants you sit down you have to scan the qr code to get the menu you want to make sure that it's a qr code from the restaurant or ask them to bring you a paper menu because it takes nothing for someone to come and slap a qr code there you scan it on your phone and then it
042loads the virus to your phone so be very careful of those and so it's called queue wishing and i thank assistant superintendent skanzusa for bringing that to our attention so just be very mindful of those i know a lot of kids are so used to scanning it but we want to just be very mindful of that um i like to play scramble so can i use curing as a word you know what i don't know if it's been adopted yet by webster so we'll have to see if it's been adopted because you can only use the ones that webster has adopted for scrabble thank you absolutely technology integration with the report that is actually in board docs we wanted to provide a small video also to show you how we have moved technology forward in
043the district [Music] oh [Music] laughs [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so as you can see from that video our teachers and our students are doing phenomenal things with the use of technology in our district and it will just get greater and greater as the school years progress really impressive regents exams so the new york state education department plans to administer the weakness exams in june and august so specific communications regarding the schedules and the exams will be forthcoming for middle and high school students middle schools will also receive additional communication from school buildings regarding the half days in june during exams so please be sure to communicate with your schools also regarding transportation for regents exams because transportation is available exams are june 1st june 15th through the 17th june monday june 20th is the
044juneteenth holiday so no exams that day no school then exams continue june 21st through the 23rd pta ptsa involvement so as i continue to attend the pta and ptsa meetings district-wide i see what a staple the ptas and ptsas are in our buildings and what support they provide our schools so i encourage parents to please remain involved and i know we see a decrease in parent involvement as our students get older i ask that you please please keep that level of support and involvement throughout your child's educational career um ptas and ptsas allow for the flow of information to keep families informed their additional supports enhancing the educational experience they provide an opportunity to present feedback to buildings they are sponsoring so many school events i can't even name and they provide a great vehicle
045for volunteer opportunities in our school so please continue to support the ptas and ptsas in our schools and look to get involved superintendent enter high advisory council i want to thank vamp vice president van cise i i'd like to buy a ball vice president van cise um about her acknowledgement of the superintendent enter high advisory council so the willpower spirit wheat was a great success that was the week right before our spring break so the first day is the tropical day the day in the middle here is what vice president van sais highlighted anything but a backpack day and then there was another mix-and-match day as you see highlighted in the third picture so it was a great spirit week and i want to thank our ptsas because they actually donated gift cards so that
046there would be um gift cards given for the students at each school that were voted to have the most spirit those days so thank you very much for the ptsas for those donations so the sayak mentoring program also is called project prepare and seniors are mentoring juniors through the college planning process it's really uh if i knew then what i know now so seniors who have gone through the college process they're letting the juniors know you know what to look out for if i would have known at the end of my junior year some highlights this is one i want to share with you so for additional information on project prepare please reach out to the psych advisors at each of the schools east north and south and that is the end of the community
047update i will ask at this time for dr marie bell and our assistant superintendent our chief academic officer and our assistant superintendent of finance mr tom mcturksky to come up and give us a presentation on the federal grant relief information do you need the clicker perfect thank you dr brown hall thank you we have a brief presentation and i'm going to begin and then uh dr balin will take up um a portion of it uh so i'm going to begin with the information here regarding uh our grants and just a summary in addition to the numbers here you can see these are the dollar amounts that we were actually provided approved and awarded uh for the um the sr2 grant um just some acronyms we hear these acronyms all the time esser 2 actually re
048is elementary and secondary school emergency relief gear 2 which we are hearing is governor's emergency education relief and if you really are unable to sleep at night and you hear crrsa that is coronavirus response and relief supplemental appropriations so with that the last thing i want to say is these grants as we knew from the beginning their multi-year grants so that's how our budgets have been allocated to do this in a portion across a number of years and this particular these two grants end on 9 30 2023 our grant initiatives um you're going to hear us talk a little bit about these in this presentation the one thing i want to point out is that they must all align to what the state told us they they had to achieve we did not need to
049achieve all of the items we were able to select the items in the list that were pertinent to our district so here's an example of some of the items that we um have chosen to use these grant funds for sr2 and gear2 maintaining the continuity of our educational program you can see the list of salary and benefits being a major one here steam supplies is another one you saw in that video technology on that side chromebooks we were able to purchase a number of chromebooks um handheld translators digital platforms those are another few items and then certainly some other initiatives professional development dr baylin will be talking a lot more about that and supplies that support our instructional program as well as some per the grant which is for going back a bit for the
050health and safety cleaning uh solutions and items like that i'm going to turn this one over to dr bailin thank you good evening everyone so we wanted to talk a little bit about some of the items that we were fortunate enough to secure with the funding first and foremost and we had mentioned this way back when when we were planning for summer school that was actually one of the first items that we attended to with the grant money is supporting summer school salaries we also at that time plan for some of our summer school resources these included the teachers college units of study materials and we just listed some of those materials on the slide just as a reminder for our audience these are standards-based research-based materials and some of the items that are focused
051on with these materials include our comprehensive literacy skills which are reading and writing are phonics using the workshop model focusing on phonemic awareness decoding vocabulary generating knowledge and comprehension it's a very comprehensive resource what you've heard before about teachers college holds true here as well it offers many lessons extensive video supports that are for students teachers and parents trade books and also quite a few downloadable resources that can be accessed for teachers in the videos and again going back to the next major grant we received is the american recovery plan um or arp and this was an interesting um grant because it actually the allocations changed from when we first were informed of them to what were final allocations that were in november of 2021. the other important thing to know is this is actually
052four separate grants each of these grants was applied for in a separate manner and they took through although the approval process was similar it was very detailed in what we needed to show and provide to new york state to make these grants be approved again the one thing i want to note on here is the timeline the arp goes out one additional year so it goes through 9 30 2024. okay and once again one of the things we wanted to ensure is that our grant any materials resources or plans for the grants of course had to adhere to the parameters and acceptable expenditures what this required was a detailed review process by the new york state education department so the grant application questions answers responses those were done so over a quite a period of
053time with the reviewer so it was a very extensive process a very detailed process so much of what you're going to see in the slides are really the content of what was shared back and forth with the state education department the grant activities listed on this slide are the ones that were matched to the allowable and acceptable areas within the grant so once again with arp we were again fortunate enough to include some of our summer materials there which you saw some of our examples on the earlier slide these are the resources and grant items that were purchased with the arp funding and once again our summer program was supported in addition we also had funding for additional summer school salaries and we also included technology in this case which were our chromebooks and software
054that were able to be utilized not just during the summer but during the regular school year so anytime you may have perused our hallways what you may have seen were a lot of carts and a lot of uh digital resources those up in large fashion came from the grant money so we were very fortunate to secure those and we also tied in back to the technology report that we had in one of our prior items a lot of the usage there ties into making sure that our plan implementation is tied together with the covered money so they do go hand in hand so we wanted to include also just for your knowledge in our public as well we've mentioned the learning lab multiple times during the course of this year this was one of the
055newer structures that we were able to implement as a result of the coveted funding and in this case uh just as a reminder to all this is a student support structure that we've addressed and it was based on student needs and circumstances really related to the grant purpose so the bolded uh items you see on the screen particularly with the differentiated instruction those are directly taken from the grant language that is an item that is mentioned in the grant with regard to learning so we want to make sure again that that direct alignment was there we also included informationally how students are identified and how they access the support for the program so this includes identification certainly at the building level by our teachers by our counselors and by our administrators our learning lab teacher
056also works hand in hand with other staff members in the building and in addition students and parents also do provide information to the building regarding their needs but the building does a great job working with parents to ensure that the best resources to meet the needs are paired with the need so it may be the learning lab but it also may be one of the extensive other resource supports that we have in our district so one of the new items i just want to take a moment to mention to you is i've been working hand-in-hand with dr brown hall and thank you to mr filipowski we have uploaded a document to our website so this is publicly available under parents and students there's actually a chart that shows really in large fashion many of the
057supports we offer that are universally available to all of our students as well as ones that are for targeted support for student needs those often are accompanied with links you can click right on the name it'll actually take you to either a board presentation or an area of our website in addition we included descriptions of some of the items so there's a bit of a glossary in the back that tells you a little bit about what each structure is we'll keep it dynamic as we need to add to it or edit it that's what we'll do with the document but it is also available for the public to see so we're going to make sure that everybody has a chance to check that out because it's really a nice nice tool so just going back
058to the learning lab for a moment um wanted to also share with everyone what the focus of the learning lab is what the students do and it's very comprehensive so one of the things we want to keep in mind is certainly there is an academic focus to the learning lab but one of the things we talked about in the planning for the lab is we wanted to attend to the whole child certainly economics is always a focus of ours it's always a great area of emphasis but we wanted to make sure that several things were also embedded by design into the model these include the things that you see currently on the screen here but specifically it's really ensuring that first and foremost of course that students are supported with any challenging concept skills or
059any in some cases catching up on missing assignments that they have we all know that once we fall behind it's very difficult at times to get our footing back in place so we want to make sure we have that just in time support for students to ensure that you get right back up and you keep moving forward in addition to that things like time management perseverance taking initiative student self-advocacy confidence and all within a risk-free environment having peer models looking at models there when you're looking at your peers individualized student success reducing of course those missing or late assignments increasing work ethic and classroom performance and introducing organizational methods this is a huge huge piece of again making sure you're establishing a structure for yourself so students in many cases are first and foremost creating
060an agenda or a to-do list and at the end of class they're reflecting on their progress so structures are very important so while again there's that academic piece as you can see the the focus extends to a lot of other areas again one of the things we built in when we were giving the reviewers sort of our feedback and going back and forth or what kind of data and information we gather and we'll continue to monitor the program those are listed on the screen as you can see they're certainly quantitative data points that we are looking at like report cards and grades and certainly assignment completion but also relative to the areas i mentioned this is where student observation reflection and feedback from staff students and parents is critical we need that qualitative information as
061well so we are collecting that on an ongoing basis we will also be collecting a report from each building this is at the middle and high school level just to give a reminder each building will submit to me our feedback at the end of the year we will debrief with the building leaders to review and revisit make sure that our goals were attained and to what degree that will also help us move into next year and looking at the second year of the learning lab it's very important to remember though and i want to make sure we address this is one big question would be will this continue next year it will continue next year the grant is still active at that point but just like any program that we have and certainly one that
062was created under these conditions this was created purposefully given the conditions we were in because of covid so i do want to remind too one of the things that the learning lab really did a good job with is attending to students who were either quarantined or coming back from multiple day illnesses so we had a lot of that as we all know given the past couple of years so this last year has has had a lot of that as well so that that piece is uh tremendously helpful and has been a a good piece for us so at this time just so everyone is aware we have received a lot of positive feedback on the learning lab this is coming from all sources at this point very positive um the reflection from schools also indicates
063that today and these are current numbers um we have over 550 students scheduled and we also have drop-ins that are encountered in that so you can see the magnitude of the reach is vast and it's making a difference for kids and that's really the biggest accomplishment any one of us could ask for so as i mentioned we'll have our planned review and our revisiting but we were clear with with our intent when we planned the program and with what we were doing why we were doing it and what we were going to look at on an ongoing basis so i'm very proud of all the work that's been done and i think everybody who's been involved um at this time we're going to take a quick pause mr phil powsky was tremendously helpful in putting
064together a little video on the learning lab that will be part of what we share tonight but will also be available to our public moving forward so nick if you wouldn't mind the four main areas of focus in the learning lab are academic support executive functioning social emotional learning and connecting with colleagues in learning labs students are provided with differentiated individual and small group lessons supports and assistance students are primarily recommended by their teacher or counselor based on identified need the learning lab teacher works collaboratively with colleagues and other staff members to meet student needs let's take a look at academic support academic support in the learning lab is literally just the day-to-day do you have your homework finished let's make sure that you're up to date let's look ahead what tests you have to
065study for so it's really just teaching the kids those basic skills of keeping up with their day-to-day work for the students it's it's amazing how when someone is so far underwater either they've been absent or they don't have structures in place when they suddenly feel that they're above water and they're successful and they can look ahead it's an amazing feeling for the kids it's really empowering for them and i even had a student recently say well since your room is right here when i walk by from high school will you still help me when i'm in high school so they know that they need the extra help and they're happy to have it and i'm teaching them the skills that they need to be successful later on next up executive functioning i think when you
066look at a learning lab you want to address immediate needs for students providing those academic supports but when it comes to setting long-term goals for student success you need to teach them transferable skills and that's what one of the points is in incorporating executive functioning in the learning lab is these are skills that will serve students in the moment but they will serve students in a variety of settings throughout their academic careers if they can master those skills now it's a two-pronged approach one is addressing student needs in the moment but setting students up for future success they're not always going to have a learning lab down the road to catch them when they're struggling so trying to teach them to fish to build those skills that they can rely on independently down the road
067is one of the outcomes that we're looking for now let's take a look at social emotional learning so social emotional learning is like the foundation of a building and so if that foundation is strong then we know that we can build upon that foundation so when we help students and support them and sometimes teach them how to be in touch with their emotions express them in calm manners to teach other students how to respect that their classmates may have experiences different from theirs we're providing a strong foundation that allows learning to happen and so we've seen in learning lab all kinds of growth in students when they feel a part of a community when they feel connected and they feel that their individuality is valued that allows them to focus on higher order thinking and
068to progress in their learning so we've seen higher test scores and more homework being done in socialization and when that occurs then we have all kinds of growth in terms of learning and finally the importance of connecting with colleagues the biggest form of professional development is being able to have teachers work together and talk together but in terms of learning lab it's the best way that we can support our students to understand what is taking place in the different classrooms our learning lab teacher is responsible to work with students from from all subjects all grade levels so that conversation that dialogue between our learning lab teacher as well as a classroom teacher just ensures that you know our students are getting all the supports they can if we want to support the whole child and
069support the student to the fullest then those conversations need to take place and again it's the only way that there's knowledge on how to best support that child so without those conversations taking place you know we won't be as effective as we are right now [Music] so uh just to continue um one of the things we wanted to highlight is uh the district-wide services and uh many of you know that in this current year budget we allocated about 3 million 36 in our general fund budget that's um supporting our actual um in this case we're listing them our salary and staff and that's part of that continuity of services so you can see here in this grant we're providing the financial support for teachers teachers special education summer school teachers in the learning lab a
070psychologist district-wide guidance counselors nurse services in summer school aids and summer school so again these may not be full ftes but they're paid for in the grant and that's how we're using that three million dollars and then additionally um many of the grant requirements have um a portion that is for uh supporting mental health uh i'm not going to go over all these items but with mr skanzuzo's help we've defined all of these items that are very important for our students to move forward in the area of mental health a lot of it's related to programs that are new some of them are programs that are continuing staff development is included in this um you can see some of those which again web and link crew training for more of our staff to um provide
071more of those services to our students and a number of these items that really have uh helped us move that area forward and again that's uh in compliance with the grant requirements so with that um we'll take any questions and i just want to i'm sorry all right i want to thank you both uh for putting this together with the support from assistant superintendent skanzuso and this was in response to the many questions board members had about esser gear and gear funding how it's being used in the district if there's any changes learning lab and what's also important is what dr billing said having that chart on the website that parents are able to go to click on the link to get a definition of the supports or watch a presentation on the supports that
072have been done at a previous board meeting is very important too so i just want to say that's what this came from and i thank you very much for the presentation i'll go to my left and then to my right any questions or comments on my left all right i'll start at the end and move down this way oh i can do that yeah i missed cosmetic book nothing personal thank you i just want to thank um everyone for the presentation we did have a lot of questions and i think you answered all of my questions through this presentation so i appreciate your time in putting this together and also the time that it took to apply for all these grants separately as you said in some instances so i just wanted to thank you
073for all the work and the time and effort in all this thank you thank you thank you i am so grateful for that piece in particular about learning labs i've heard a lot of questions um or from parents that were looking for help for their kids and didn't even know it existed so uh i appreciate the outline both in the presentation and the video thank you for taking the time to do that because i think that will really help to illustrate what's available to children this year and and next year it seems as well i went to the website to find the um the chart with all the different pieces and it's wonderful so thank you for putting that together my only suggestion would be just to ensure that that video is easily accessible because
074it looks like the learning lab takes to this presentation which i know about because i just watched it and i saw where the link is um but it's such great work um i would hate for that to be lost and so maybe just or maybe it's there and i just didn't find it yet but um sometimes i think one click versus two or three um you'll get more views and and it's really just a nice uh and i also appreciate that it wasn't just in one school that you're showing across um the levels and it does that in the document beautifully too thank you so much that's great thank you and with mr filipowski's help maybe we can extract the video out and have that be its own standalone item too thank you thanks miss
075poland or dr lipman i just i would just also say say thank you um i had many of the same questions and appreciate very much your answer and the focus is this was targeted for a special need so i i think that's important for all of us to keep in mind so thank you for picking that up thank you i'll continue the thank yous uh and again what i want to thank you for and i'm happy to always see emphasize is student support for learning because that's valuable especially in the challenging times we've had over the last year or two or three or whatever and the second part of that is the uh increased support and focus on mental health because we know that that's an important part of learning and having training for our
076faculty and staff and increased opportunities for our students to have supportive mental health is always of great value so thank you anyone on my right vice president manseis so i appreciate this very much i know we did have a lot of questions um as mentioned and just a couple notes that i had yes covet definitely made us recognize acknowledge and implement ways to better support the whole child so this presentation is very welcomed we know that our children have gone through some losses on varying different ways i am confident though i truly feel confident that even without this funding we will continue to provide these support services one thing i am truly elated with is that we have heard many of us have experienced there was a time that in order to receive some assistance
077we had to go outside of that school setting to receive that this ensures that we're able to provide it within our own schools and it's incredible because again executive functioning all of those other pieces are so important and the building of relationships that's happening in-house so this is very pleasing to see awesome thank you anyone else just also a thank you but not just for the presentation but for putting it all together and having the pieces of the learning labs and everything it's appreciated thank you okay um i just wanted to add that back in february i believe it was february 3rd dr singh and i both attended even though it was virtual an event with rick thames and his focus was on long-range financial considerations but he designated a significant portion of that training
078to all of the different grants that were available through the pandemic he went through all of them in much the same way that you did mr maturski and then he gave specific recommendations to school boards because with all that happening was new um as school board members you know we weren't really sure what our role is what's in that and how do we know whether or not the recommendation that's coming from the superintendent in the district is one that we should be agreeing with and have it be in line with these grants so some of the recommendations were to make sure that if you do hire staff that you do so for the short range or if it's going to be a long term position that it's something that the budget can absorb in the
079future um his primary suggestions though were not to spend the majority on staff but to use it for programming and professional mentoring so the different professional development opportunities and those two items the different programs and the different pd opportunities are real i mean you laid them all out there and to me i felt like you know what dr singh and i participated in was evidence that our district was really just following it to a t as to like what those recommendations were for school board members and then here in turn we can see our district is following all of that so that was several months ago back and that made me feel very comfortable that we were doing the right thing as a district so i just want to thank you for that and also
080point out that um you know there were some questions in the past from community about the use of our funds so this presentation i'm hopeful will serve as a source of accurate information going forward as well as right on our budget page you can find the links to the fs tens which is the documents that were sent to the state which you know repeat everything that you shared tonight so thank you for all of that thank you thank you very much and now oh now i'll turn it back over to you president oliver okay so i think we're on 14 13. we're moving over to finance okay i'm going to combine a few items here for items 13. may i please have a motion to resolve and approve the proposed 2023 budget including the budget
081notice and property tax report card in 13a internal audit risk assessment 13b and the agreement for payment in lieu of taxes for the jewish federation affordable senior housing project at 275 sj road in 13 c as presented so we're combining all of our budget items tonight dr mccleary thank you and vice president van slice is a second any final questions or comments on the proposed budget or any questions on mrs bieger i just want to comment for the public that um we are not just rubber stamping this budget that we have been over this budget and have received several wonderful in-depth presentations from mr maturski for months and months now so um for those that may be tuning into a board meeting for the first time this is not something new to us this is
082something that we have been over and asked several questions in depth um several times thank you mr speaker we did have just recently on march 22nd our budget we sure did which was our last time that we visited this in dots any other questions or comments none all in favor all hands up equals motion carries unanimously item 14 if you have any liaison reports please send them to mrs carey the list of meeting dot dates are important if anyone wished to report on a meeting or events that they recently attempted says bogner i just wanted to mention at a recent pta meeting that i went to on the issue of technology and having chromebooks for students came up it seems like although i believe most students at the high school level are aware of how
083to get chromebooks and they can sign them out through the library for the year that maybe that information hasn't gotten communicated to parents as clearly so i i just wondered if moving forward we could consider somehow communicating that to parents maybe in the beginning of the school year so they're aware of the process we will we um are actually going to put it in the weekly update this week also we can this friday also and you know in the what's being sent home but we are going to have to find multiple moments of communication i know we've said it many times and we've even presented it here and president leatherboro has put an exclamation point behind it here also but somehow there's still a disconnect and i know that was brought up earlier last week
084also so we'll make sure we do a better job at communicating that so students and families know about the library loan program the chromebook loan program through the libraries and the high schools thank you i'm wondering if it could even go in the um school handbooks for each of the high schools because that is linked directly on on the wix page when you log on if your child is in high school so maybe that's just another place that parents can look to um because i think it was even a question at the community forum it was one of the pre-submitted questions that we didn't get to so with this late in the year we hate to hear that that's still correct an issue for anyone um anybody else wish to comment on a recent liaison
085event that they attended we'll mention them yep i will mention so i did go to the kcptsa meeting i think it was last week i did my entire report but as i think we know on whits it times out after a certain amount of time and doesn't save so when i got in the car and drove my son to an event and then went back to what it didn't save so i'm so sorry i didn't submit a report but i was there but i just wanted to mention there is a ptsa leadership and training event that is going to be held monday at williamsville north at seven o'clock so if anyone's watching listening and interested in joining their ptsa or is currently a member you don't have to be part of the executive board for
086the ptsa at your school you certainly can reach out to a ptsa executive the president or vice president or even show up there's a link to register but it's going to have dr brown hall and president leatherberry will be there they will be doing round tables for elementary middle school high school so it's a very informative way to again as you have already stated to become involved and really understand your school your ptsa and the district better and i just want to point out i'm not the liaison at north but i am a north parent and i just want to thank you superintendent brown hall for attending absolutely asks pta meeting at north and just sort of echo what you said earlier because attending the pta meetings is a really way to get the information
087straight from the source and i go to hear directly from the principal right um because i just think that that's so important anybody else all right item 15. does anyone have any legislative or curriculum matters to discuss all right thank you 17. may please have a motion to resolve and approve the home instructor's pay rate in 17a the funding for the negotiated agreement between the superintendent and the williamsville coordinators association in 17b the funding for the contract of employment extensions for the assistant superintendent of instruction and the assistant superintendent of finance and management services in 17 c and the funding for the contract of employment for the assistant superintendent of human resources in 17d as presented thank you vice president van sais board member poulin thank you as a second are there any questions for
088discussion all right seeing none all in favor all hands up equals motion carries unanimously and i'd like to thank our assistant superintendents for all of the fine work that you do all right we are on item 18 district facilities and support services superintendent brown hall i turn it over to you for us the facility update absolutely and i appreciate that i'm going to ask mr maturski just to give brief highlights we're entering the security improvement phase and as you know over the spring break there was some construction and demolition that already occurred so assistant superintendent mutowsky will speak to that very quickly and if there's any questions yes uh again we started our construction in earnest over the spring break we had construction going on at country parkway mill middle heim elementary in forest elementary
089as well as north high school major work we started to do some of the roof work not necessarily putting the roof on but taking these concrete papers off that's a very labor-intensive process and that happened at many of these schools and you may see some of the safety barriers around them at this point in time the other thing we began in earnest again at both country parkway mill middle and at maple east is going into the security aspect of renovating their offices so those buildings now um will not be able to re go back to their offices until they're fully renovated which is going to be at the end of august that's our plan so a couple of them have portable trailers being mill middle and um maple east the others were able to secure
090some space within the buildings all in all we had a very successful process over the last week and everything is really back on track some of that work will be continuing at the sites for those schools that have the security aspects going on between now and the end of the year most likely on second shift so again a really good start we're in a good place right now and we're hoping to meet our schedules which would allow those spaces to all be done by the time we return to school in september thank you very much and i did notice um there is information on the school security project on the business page because i did see some questions uh that popped up on our facebook on facebook about you know why are why are we
091tearing down the front-end buildings it's not random so it was that approved by the voters in june of 2020 and there's um all the detailed information is available on our district website thank you very much mr motorski all right does anyone have anything to discuss for correspondence since nothing was submitted for committee of people it actually did submit something quick that's okay um i just wanted to mention a concern that i had brought up um a few months ago when we were looking at student projections uh time i know it's difficult to look at projections especially given what's happened with the pandemic the last couple of years but one of my concerns at that time was that the firm that was looking at our student projections may not have been taking into account um the
092development that's been happening in amherst and at that time uh i had expressed that concern and asked you dr brown hall if there might be um some way that or if the board our district was working with the town just to stay up to date with exactly what's happening since that time uh i've seen a lot more trees go down sadly and where my real concern is is the schools and the reports that we've seen the heims and north high school that really have high population of students and even without the development figures were projected to go higher so my question to you is where are we as far as looking at what that means do we know is there a relationship between the district and the town and how are we being proactive so
093that we know what this means as far as if we can expect an increase in student population more so than what we were shared at uh the beginning of our school year absolutely and so we are working with the town to get more updated information to see if these developments are student housing senior housing or if they're residential you know and they're going to appeal to families that are going to have um students you know potentially and i know information was shared by board member chasmeric wagner also about one of the developments and it does look like these are residential homes three four five bedroom you know and those homes do attract families with children but what we're also doing we're looking to see if we can get better enrollment projections if not from the
094current group from another group so that we can better anticipate what our enrollment and our schools will look like and making sure that they take into account what the developments are and what type of housing so that we have you know future projections that are more accurate and give us a better picture i know there was also a suggestion that maybe we try to do some of that stuff in-house and i wouldn't want to ask our staff because none of us really have that specialty right because it is a special science to be able to project enrollments and what that looks like so it's better that we do go with the outside company that has expertise in that and then can take the information from the amherst town board and really figure that in into
095what our enrollment projections will look like perfect i'm so glad to hear about that enhancement looking for a company that can help us to eat the whole big picture and that work with the town so that's great thank you very much excellent thank you mrs speaker does anyone have any um correspondence they wish to share all right i just want to mention there were a few i think there were two letters that came in during the spring recess so i was away last week and i will be answering them um by friday um all right i guess we are ready to go back to executive session so at this time i have a motion to adjourn into executive session which is the best current litigation and employment matters related to particular persons thank you board
096member poland may i have a second vice president van sice thank you all in favor thank you all hands up equals motion curious unanimously [Music]