October 12, 2021 - Board of Education Meeting

001my um [Music] my [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] um [Applause] hmm thank you [Music] i call the regular board meeting supporter may i have a motion to return to public session littmann thank you miss poland second all in favor hands up motion carries unanimously i do call the regular board meeting to order and all board members are present this is cosmeric bogner would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag [Music] i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic [Music] thank you 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 everyone

002turn their cell phones and other electronic devices to silent thank you very much for your cooperation is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented thank you mrs van size um this is kids merrick bogner ii all in favor opposed abstentions motion carries unanimously dr brownhall i will turn it over to you for recognition thank you very much president leatherboro tonight as many of you entered the board room you were greeted by the music of the williamsville south stream quartet i want to thank them for their incredible performance tonight and earlier today during our ribbon cutting ceremony for the spotlight a musical music capital project we can all give them a round of applause [Applause] phenomenal job thank you all very much we appreciate it as mentioned today we formally recognize the completion of

003the spotlight on music capital project a 36 million dollar investment into music education in the district this project provides state-of-the-art education spaces for our music programs let's take a look at today's ribbon cutting ceremony it was really exciting to watch the ribbon get cut and see what we've opened here in our schools i think about what we had before and what we have now and it's exponentially better in terms of what what we have and what we're going to be able to do with our with our students it's incredibly exciting that we're seeing it come to fruition it's been a long time in the planning a long time in the making the community the board of education the families just for their support throughout the years it's just a reflection on what a great community

004williamsell is we wanted to have good acoustics music is about sound so we had acoustical engineers acoustical designers write in working with the architects so that we would have rooms that really sounded good and really look good at the same time it was a huge project we're renovating seven buildings we're building you know three major additions it was really intense but really exciting because we knew what we were going to get to and so while it was a lot of work the the benefits and where we are is great [Music] [Applause] many of us as board members have children or grandchildren who are benefiting from this project but we're just so happy to know that over 2 000 students are currently enrolled in band orchestra and chorus at our three high schools and our middle

005schools combined and we hope that that will benefit our students for years to come when our students walk into their musical wing they know the importance that we have put into that entire project it gives them a seriousness of purpose and it gives them a dedication to their art this is not only what our students today can experience but students and families for years to come [Applause] amazing absolutely amazing this evening we continue with our school spotlight highlighting the great work that goes on within our buildings this month our school spotlight focuses on mill middle school and their all means all initiative i'd now like to welcome principal lori jonas to share more welcome principal jonas thank you and good evening um mill was very lucky to be featured this month when we talked about

006the initiative that we wanted to to spotlight and share with the community it was truly about how much energy and work we've put into our all means all initiative welcoming students back after 18 months many of them not being in a school for that long we knew that it was going to take every single person that stepped in foot of mill to make a difference and change the world for our students and so in the video you'll get to hear from two students you'll hear from myself and you heard from one of our special education teachers that talks about how inclusive we are at mill we know that everybody from janitors to clerical to parents volunteers myself everybody that touches the lives of students at mel we really have to work together to mean all

007means all and to get our students to be successful so i hope you enjoy getting to see a little peek inside of mill where truly all means all awesome [Music] good morning remember to be respectful be responsible and event and not know all means all means that every single person whether it's a student a custodian an aide a parent a volunteer clerical everybody that walks into this building is responsible to help out everyone else so we were having all of our students come back five days a week and we knew more than ever every single adult in this building need to work together to make it a happy place everybody and everyone inside this building takes care of one another there really is no other way if we're going to be a successful campus everybody's

008here to work together and to lift each other up on a daily basis if needed it's really become our culture we are a family here and and it's a team effort and i think um the kids have jumped on board as have the staff it doesn't just take one person but it takes everybody in the team and the kids are a big part of that team and they do seem excited and i think they feel connected here and i think they feel part of the mill family when they come in these doors every day mill is great because we have really nice teachers and staff like everybody is really nice all the kids teachers parents all means all means like all the teachers all the staff and everyone in the building is a community it's

009important so then kids will like to come to mill kids will want to be at now welcome back the students understand their role whether they're brand new or whether they've been here all four years and they're in eighth grade are heading to high school next year they know that they're the ones that make the biggest difference and so we empower them each and every day and let them know that with responsibility and power comes a lot of what they can do inside of the building each day so they have the difference they have the numbers to be able to make the difference in the lives of every single person that walks in this building it's nice to catch kids being nice to one another doing special things for each other but now we can actually

010say you're demonstrating what it means all means all you're demonstrating that so it's being modeled every single day all day by the students by the adults and it is so refreshing and so wonderful to see every day even a small little thing might just make someone's day because they might think about that all day instead of all the things that are bothering them one just simple one is holding a door for someone uh today i helped a kid he was in a wheelchair he dropped like his water bottle on that so i just helped picked it up for the ape everyone's important everyone plays a part here teachers help us we help teachers if you need anything you can go to anyone and everyone will always be there for you students here at mel and

011students just in general have an incredible amount of bravery and perseverance that they show look what they just went through the past 18 months when the waters get a bit rocky it's great to look around and see that you've got many people who have your back it doesn't matter what role you play here at mill you are a very important part of our fabric and without that one missing piece we wouldn't be nil it's energizing every single day to watch what happens around the campus now that we have truly embraced all means all thank you very much for that principal jonas i'd like to leave a little sparkle wherever you go thank you very much for presenting and showcasing your school when we do our school spotlight we appreciate that i'm going to turn it

012back over to president leatherboro thank you for that are there any board acknowledgements this is given eric yes i just wanted to recognize the high school students administrator staff and the ptsa volunteers who are involved in planning and executing the amazing homecoming events over the past few weeks at all three high school i just thought it was wonderful to see so many people in the community come together showing the school spirit and just generally having fun so thank you to everyone involved with that thank you all right um mrs casmerick bogner i'm going to call on you to review our public expression format yes welcome to all who have come to observe this regular board meeting although state law does not require us to hold a public comment period we have chosen to do so

013because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues having said that please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion although we will listen to your concerns and comments tonight we will not be answering them we will be taking sufficient time to process and research the issues if need be and we will respond to your questions and concerns by email after our meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time we recognize that right now our nation and our community are polarized on a number of issues that said we want our school board meetings to serve as an example to our students that both our school board and

014community members can deal with controversial issues in a civil manner and demonstrate mutual respect in that spirit we will insist that all speakers and member of the audience maintain civility and respect for any divergent views that others possess we ask that speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than to the audience and in the unlikely event that the meeting becomes unruly the board will recess the meeting and return once order has been restored finally if you so choose you may submit written comments to the board in lieu of speaking during the public comment period per policy 1510 the board will now entertain public comments for up to 30 minutes each individual speaker is allotted 3 minutes you will be signaled at 2 and a half minutes so that you may conclude your

015remarks after i call on you please step up to the podium and state your name our first speaker this evening is randy camaro good evening i'm randy gamero [Music] i want to thank the board and the district leadership for considering tonight's policies on diversity equity and inclusion that includes those policies that will help support our students who identify as transgender gender non-conforming or non-binary i am speaking tonight on behalf of my past present and future students who will benefit from these policies and i urge all of you to support them this evening i've been a teacher in this district for the past 19 years a tax paying resident and also a parent to two children that maple least i've been in this community long enough to be aware that not everyone is ready for the

016level of inclusion and affirmation that tonight's policy updates could bring i've read comments on social media that a vocal few in our community have said about lgbtq people well i hope that one day they will grow in empathy and understanding i know that i will not be changing any hearts or minds tonight rather i want to speak for the students that these policies will help and voice support as a member of this community for our district as it moves forward towards inclusion and embracing our diversity that after all is truly putting williamsville students first i proudly teach at mill middle school middle school students try very hard to understand who they are to fit in and to express themselves i speak tonight for those middle school students who have been the most marginalized in that

017journey until tonight our district has never had the opportunity to say that they matter enough to be fully included at school in all spaces and activities at the same level as their peers the research is very clear on the negative outcomes for lgbtq students when they are not raised and educated in nurturing and welcoming environments i know firsthand how terrifying it can be to try to hide who you are while making your way through middle school i commend any student who is brave enough to be themselves in that environment for many students that aren't accepted at home it is incumbent upon us to make sure school is a safe and welcoming place i truly believe that your support of these policies can be life-saving for the kids who need them we are fortunate to have

018a social justice club in every middle school in the district while the work of the group varies from building to building at mill i've been fortunate enough to get to know and work with some amazingly brave lgbtq kids in the past five years that our social justice club has operated we have supported dozens of youth who identify or who have family members in the lgbtq community they join the club looking for affirmation like-minded peers and safety i've always said that the true goal of social justice club is to one day no longer need a social justice club board members your support of tonight's policy updates help to make that dream one step closer to becoming a reality someday thank you very much for your comments our next speaker is ryan bolton very short so i

019might need to adjust this thank you okay this is okay height wise you can pull it down why not is not a cogent argument for masking kids i am very sorry for the many people worldwide who've suffered pain or loss because of covet 19 it was an unknown emergency to which we responded with little data initially but generally the best intentions it is no longer an unknown pandemic unelected bureaucrats in many departments used emergency powers to implement measures without complying with proper procedures as outlined in state laws this fact has led to numerous costly lawsuits to states and school boards nationwide including here specifically mandating children to mask in schools is an egregious result from the coveted power grab there is no definitive scientific study that proves masking stops the spread of covet the best

020mitigation practices are proper air filtration and circulation and hand washing one of the most exhaustive studies on masking children published by the cdc analyzed 169 schools in georgia over 90 000 kids and failed to show statistically significant results according to dr vinay prasad associate professor uc san francisco department of epidemiol epidemiology and biostatistics even the world health organization the unicef say masking should not be required for children aged 11 in circumstances that are not particularly high risk that would be schools a norwegian study stated 200 000 people were masked this includes adults it may prevent one new infection per week the rate of transmission harm and especially hospitalization is far less with children how many of you knew there are higher odds of an apocalyptic asteroid striking the earth in the next 300 years than

021your child dying with coveted this year should we all mandate metal umbrellas to be used while outside in fear of this catastrophe clearly not unchecked fear is not a valid reason to make children have uncomfortable pathogen-infested stress-inducing clots over their faces for eight hours a day especially since they are bare-faced anywhere else in the community as are the teachers and staff speaking of which the argument to mass kids to protect the adults is specious at best child to adult transmission is extremely rare and all concerned adults can have vaccines and masks themselves the board of vet is elected to establish goals for and oversee resources for the district you have no right to mandate medical policy for our children you say the health and well-being of our children are your top priority no proof exists

022this virus which is point zero six microns and a mass stops eight to ten micron size particles at best is mitigated sufficiently by these but anyone who is objective knows the obvious harm in masking as noted in studies such as 2021 jama pediatrics and seen by a simple observation of students the masks do far more harm than good they block facial expressions which are critical for conveying social cues hinder enunciation mute voices trap bacteria and carbon dioxide effect breathing cause headaches skin rashes breakouts add psychological stress fear fear and isolation and are playing useless uncomfortable talismans to convey control and conforming three minutes is very short and i have a few posts of a poster with some um resources and a stack of just a few of the resources i got as you can see

023these are the states without mass mandates in the blue and countries without mass mandates so i don't think everybody is wrong and these are just literally just some quotes and some new england journal of medicine i've got uh pediatricians from boston university i've touched university that and i even have the you have the surgeon general and cdc rochelle wolinski saying yeah mass don't work thank you for your time i just would hope it would be objective on this rather than political thank you for your comments [Applause] you're welcome to leave your handouts with us if you want to leave your handouts with us you're welcome to do that we'll we'll make sure we take a look at them thank you and these are just some but i have emailed the board and i never respond

024right i will give you credit dr brown hall um did respond to me i appreciate that he gave me time thank you thank you [Music] the next speakers are melissa bennett and just jessica mason [Music] thank you so much for the opportunity to speak here tonight i am here because i was thrilled to read that the board will be voting on new proposed policies regarding diversity equity and inclusion and specifically policy number 7554 student gender identity in actuality these policies are not new because at the very core they are about respecting our students as a teacher at casey middle a former coach and a social justice club advisor i have had many students who identify as part of the lgbtq community growing up as a student in this district my sister who stands beside me

025today bravely came out to her school her family and her friends she did not have many safe spaces at a time when safety was so desperately needed but school was one place where she found refuge many other children walk similar paths school is a place where all students have a right to feel safe and be respected for who they are and we build this place through our practices and our policies this is not a matter of politics this is not a matter of pushing a liberal agenda this is not even a matter of changing people's beliefs and values this is a matter of safety for the people we are all here for the people we care most about in the world our children something that may make you uneasy or uncomfortable could save another child's

026life having adults in a school who are affirming is not just a nicety for a child it is a necessity it can make or break a child my number one goal as a teacher is for all my students to feel loved valued respected and cared for i am grateful that our board of vet is considering these policies and i implore you to vote yes because because it will lead to more children feeling safe and cared for at school for a moment i want you to imagine that you are 16 years old and that you are walking home from school you have a skip in your step because you love life and your heart is full of songs your world is full of hope and endless possibilities you are dreaming of your future of all the

027things you might accomplish you are making sense of today and imagining tomorrow through the pages of a book that you have just read in class which you are replaying in your mind as you walk don't dance home from the place that has given you hopes and dreams and the tools to become who you want to be school but then as you enter the door into your home all that that world of innocence comes crashing down on you words of hate slam into your ear and heart you're no longer the kid with the bright future ahead instead you're a monster you're nothing you're a mistake you're a deformity you have it drilled into you that you're bad you're wrong that you have no future there is no place for you you're told there's something wrong in

028you your baby brother can't be around you because of who you are because you might convert him you might corrupt him words like curling axes are thrown at your head but they don't hit you they don't even scratch you because somehow there is a shield defending you a shield that you made at school a shield made out of the groups you are able to join to help build a better world than the one at home a shield made out of the kind words of your teacher a shield made out of the rainbow flag hanging above the chalkboard in your classroom a shield made out of the policies that the school created to protect you a shield made of the opportunities to be you and to be loved as you are at school which come to

029your rescue and protect you from believing that you're a monster just because you're gay or lesbian or gender non-conforming the child in this story was me when i was a student at east high school but the child in this story could have been you and it will be one of our precious children when you vote on policy 7554 i'm asking you to remember the child who might have a lifetime of access thrown at them you have the power to be a companion and a shield to that child to give them the protection and the help that they need to survive and thrive along the way thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is michelle [Music] many of you may recognize me as a district educator but tonight i'm not speaking as a

030teacher i'm here as a resident and a parent a grateful parent who is hopeful for her child for all lgbtq plus children i'm here to extend my gratitude for the new proposed policy 7554 student gender identity today i implore you to adopt this policy for the lgbtq plus youth in our school community my youngest child l came out as gay and non-binary about one year ago elle will tell you that coming out to us was difficult although subconsciously they knew we would wholeheartedly support them coming out at school was something else altogether as the year unfolded l began to divulge their truth to close friends and some teachers like mrs bennett however this was not the true challenge the challenge would come when l began to discuss their sexual orientation gender identity and pronouns with

031fellow classmates l was met with several homophobic comments like you are going to hell or you are unamerican because you hang the pride flag at your home they seem somewhat tolerable to l but when faced with gender discrimination those comments seem to break their spirit students would often argue you can only be a boy or a girl or there are only two genders one student proceeded to call l it and thing for an entire class period when he learned about their gender identity and pronouns i witnessed my broken child cry every day after school at that moment my child appeared to be broken and as a parent all i wanted to do was put elle's pieces back together but then i realized something my child was and is not broken they are the perfect version

032of themself i wouldn't want my child to be anyone else i love alpharel and frankly i don't think we're doing enough for students like l however this policy is one step in the right direction and i thank you for that with this policy elle can finally live their truth without feel or fear of humiliation discrimination or degradation l is just one of many of our marginalized youth in our district many who are afraid to come out to family and friends for which school is their only safe space with this policy l and their lgbtq plus peers can finally feel safe and secure in the fact that their preferred names matter their pronouns matter they matter thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is bernadette paysack good evening my name is bernadette paysack

033and i have been an educator in the williamsville school district for almost 10 years now i am here tonight in support of board policy 7554 which affirms and supports transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students our schools can and should be a safe and affirming place for transgender children but according to a 2018 report from the human rights campaign only 27 percent of lgbtq youth can definitely be themselves in school as an lgbtq person and more horribly only 13 of lgbtq youth report hearing positive messages about being lgbtq in school board policy 7554 is a step in the right direction it's an affirmation that our transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students should be accepted loved and appreciated for who they are there is a popular saying that goes around between educators students who are loved at

034home come to school to learn and students who aren't come to school come to school to be loved sadly many lgbtq plus children do not feel loved at home because of their lgbtq identity transgender children are disproportionately homeless compared to cisgender youth establishing a policy that respects a student's gender identity is not political and it's not about the personal or individual beliefs of staff or community members it's about making school a safe place where all students are treated with dignity establishing this policy will make it easier for our transgender students to become thriving members of our schools community and society at large thank you for putting forward this policy for your comments and the last speaker that we have signed up this evening is jonathan rich hello everyone um sorry real quick i know that

035there was a transportation uh issue today in the district i know we had spoken previously about that i don't know if what i had requested over the summer has changed but i'll just be interested to know if we are uh keeping students off of uh the thruway during transportation and i do want to fault now um second i just want to say that you know this meeting is in person today uh orchard parks school board meeting is not in person today clarence school board meeting is not in person next week uh that's a testament to you thank you that's a testament to everyone in the audience um but you know kind of proud that we haven't had to cancel our school road meetings at all um just a point of clarification on a few things

036the statewide covid scorecard website was down for a period of time uh if you look on that website now our covet caseload is is actually quite high i don't know if those numbers are accurate um but it's showing a caseload that's four times higher than the general population inside schools uh so i'd be interested in knowing if that data is accurate if it's an apples-to-apples comparison that type of thing and then finally i'm not here to talk about five 7554 today i'm actually heard about talk about some of the other policies um i know many of these policies are coming from the state they're coming from the federal level um it is what it is um but for me one of the things that i'm noticing is we're spending a lot of time talking about

037these policies and we're not talking about what schools are really for which is academic performance academic achievement i ran some numbers today i can share these i'll email them afterwards but it was actually kind of striking to me so in the last three years and we don't have any data from covet so this is actually 2016 to 2019 uh eighth grade ela scores which you know i just randomly picked eighth grade because i have an eighth grader in the district those scores have dropped 15 in the last three years uh again that's 2019. uh four asian students they've dropped 20 percent for males they've dropped 16 percent and for economically disadvantaged students they've dropped almost 20 percent just for comparison because i did want to make sure this was an apple zappos comparison uh in

038orchard park and in clarence two relatively economically equal districts uh those numbers have gone up double digits across the board we've seen numbers go up 18 28 both of those districts are doing more for economically disadvantaged students than our district is um i know that we're focusing a lot on these other issues right now and that's important i think it's very important um but i think that when we see these numbers and i and i know that when we get covid numbers next year the first post coveted numbers um it's going to be interesting to see you know how do we make sure that schools are about education as well as affirmation and inclusion and making students feel welcome because i think that's an equally and actually much more important aspect of things thank you

039thank you for your comments and that concludes our public expression period for this evening thank you and thank you to all of our speakers tonight all right we're moving on to our external auditor presentation dr brown hall i turn it over to you absolutely i'm going to turn it over to our chief financial officer assistant superintendent tom maturski thank you dr brownhall this evening is the normal uh board of education meeting when our external auditor joshua malecki come in to provide the uh review of the audit of the 2020-21 school year uh so i will turn it over to mr carol widmer from the firm of drescher and malecki so he may give the board the report good evening everybody thanks for the introduction again i'm carl widmer a little over there um from gesture

040malecki here tonight to present on the results of the financial statement outlet for the fiscal year ended june 30th 2021 we did have the opportunity to meet with your audit committee earlier this evening and went over these items in a little bit more detail so if there were any follow-up questions you know i'd ask the audit committee to communicate our discussions during that meeting and if there's any follow-up my contact information is on the the last slide of the presentation tonight and i'd encourage you to please reach out to me i have no problem you know whether it be tonight or six months from now we're available but all together um the status we finished our audit fieldwork and testing primarily back in august and we've been working on drafting the financial statement reports and

041as we stand tonight we are in final draft form and anticipate being able to release by the october 15th deadline so here tonight we have a short presentation i believe that's going to go up on the screen if it hasn't been provided to maybe not all right i'll be able to walk through um sans the slides just to give everybody an update on how the year went um but all together each year what you can expect from us the deliverables from the audit if you will are the financial statement package and that's going to include the financial results for the different funds throughout the district of course your general fund is the the majority of the activity for the year but it also includes your other funds like capital projects fund school lunch fund and

042so on in addition to the financial statement audit we also include and perform a compliance audit over the federal award that the district it's called the single audit and we basically act as an extension of the federal government and perform that compliance audit on their behalf for the district as well outside of the financial statements we do have something typically that's called oh there it is thank you very much that's the slide so the second bullet there is a management letter this would be a formal letter that would document any internal control deficiencies or observations that we may have encountered throughout performance of the audit in speaking with management and the audit committee earlier we reviewed our audit observations and concluded there are no reportable findings that merit needing documented in a formal management letter

043so there will be no management letter issued this year and that you know to to put it plainly is a compliment to the group um at the district oversight from the board policies and procedures that are being exercised and followed throughout the district specifically the business office are in great shape finally auditor communications letter and an extra classroom report extra classroom report is just like a miniature financial statement for the different student clubs and activities that go on throughout the district so on the next few slides we'll take a closer look at just the general fund of the district and provide a little high level analysis for how the year went financially this line graph here you have your blue line is going to represent revenues and your expenditures are going to represent your spending

044for each of the last five years essentially if your blue line is above your red fund balance increased red above blue you dipped into fun balance and decreased fund balance so when you're looking at this graph what stands out to me mostly is last year 2019-20 where there was a big dip in spending this is a great illustration to show a coveted year there was uncertainty there was conservatism you know not knowing what the future was going to hold on the revenue side and also what perhaps mandates on the spending side might come down as a result of kovid the district put a hold in controlled spending and saw a dip down total expenditures were 175 million dollars in that year fast forward to the year ended june 30th 2021 for tonight's audit that went

045back up to 193 million so an increase of 18 million from last year but along with returning to a little bit normal program spending and spending on staffing you also had not invested as much towards capital projects last year during covet so this year there was a large investment a transfer from the general fund towards capital projects totaling over 16 million dollars so that that's the lion's share of the increase you saw on the spending side on your revenue side it held pretty consistent from the prior year altogether when you consider your revenues of 188 million spending of 193 total fund balance went down just about five million dollars as a result of the year's operations and that aligns very closely with the amount that was appropriated in the adopted budget at the district so

046you could say it was a planned use or planned decrease of fund balance on the next slide this is going to represent the fund balance levels for each of the last five years and as you see from 2019-20 to 2021 there is that small decrease that's your total decrease of 4.8 million dollars something to note the different colors are gonna just show the different restriction levels of the fund balance that's there your red portion is restricted fund balance that was maintained at just about the same level as last year while you see the unrestricted portion which we'll cover on the next slide went down as a result of the year's operation so that's really where you spent from if you want to think of it that way so on the next slide and this was

047provided really at the request of you know passports just extra information but this breaks down what that 16 million dollars of unrestricted fund balances the portion that we'll cover on the next slide is the 8.2 million dollars that's called your general fund unassigned fund balance and that's the the portion that is subject to real property tax law there's a four percent rule if you're familiar well you are familiar but once a year we're going to revisit this and see if the district is in compliance and you are in fact in compliance so the graph to the right here shows the district's compliance for each of the last four years it basically says that the district is maintaining an unassigned fund balance that's not in excess of four percent of the next year's full budget amount

048so continued compliance there good score um to wrap up a final slide is really just contact information but reiterate the district you know in our opinion you're in stable financial position [Music] that fiscal year operated as planned like i said fund balance was spent down as it was budgeted no reportable findings in internal control and also no reportable findings on the compliance side of things as i mentioned that federal compliance audit so a clean report card there we're ready to release for the end of the week we'll be back and forth with mr matursky to wrap up a couple documents this week and we'll be ready to roll if anybody had any questions tonight i'd be happy to answer them otherwise please feel free to follow up afterwards that's an excellent report thank you very

049much does anyone from the board of any questions for mr whitmer i just have a comment yeah absolutely would just like to thank you very much for this extensive report and really doing a nice job with the details of really explaining to us and having more slides to understand this um it's great to see especially that we were in that uncertain period last year and so with that i would just like to really thank mr maturski who is an expert time and time again but through the most difficult time that we've ever seen you got an a plus on this still so i i thank you so much for all of your time and energy with this putting us in good standing again thank you thank you very much any other questions or comments thank

050you carl thank you for joining us have a good night we are moving on to our consent agenda we will vote on the consent agenda item six personnel seven business and eight special needs and student activities many please have a motion to approve consent agenda items six seven and eight miss poland thank you mrs van sice suck it is there any discussion at any of the consent agenda items seeing none all in favor oh dr littman did you have a hand up one question again um there's a section where we bring in non-wienersville personnel from a variety of local schools to assess work with those types of things and and that's new to me that we're bringing outside people to do that so i guess i just wanted some explanation maybe when that started and

051whatever and i don't know if you know the answer to that but [Music] to me it's new and i just wanted to understand why is that what you're referring to the student teachers are you talking about it's the one about we're bringing students from madai uh buffalo state uh ub um from various i'm going to work on assessment i was saying so yeah i don't i you know i don't remember i was doing that his work says non-williamsville personnel yeah right but under assignment it it says what it's for right yeah student teacher student teacher classroom observation classroom observation early field experience student teacher so is your question is that you don't remember us bringing in people like this before or you don't remember the board having to approve it i think it's a little

052bit of both that's a great question thank you but i guess the question is uh we're using um students from the colleges to do kindergarten assessments which to me is new uh and maybe i just missed it years ago but um i don't know what specific page that's on um i'll be going down to 115. yeah the speech language screenings yeah you're talking about so this is part of their practicum okay so that's why we also list who the screening supervisors are on there also okay well yeah i don't remember seeing those historically so i just wanted to get some clarity well this is just a good way to let the community and the board know exactly who will be in our school buildings i think it's very valuable that perfect so thank you absolutely

053thank you mrs bieger i can just share it to bounce off of that that that's not a practice just unique to um williamsville that where i work that's another practice that where um college students are brought in so they can practice an assessment and and this is just the way of the district knowing who those people are coming in and out um i don't believe we always had it on the personnel listed in this way though i think we've gotten just better about who exactly is is entering our buildings um because i don't recall seeing that when i first started on the board as well but it's more information that we get now it's a good question so i think it's very valuable and i don't know mr scanzi though if you wanted to um

054[Music] um for us see i'd be concerned about the safety and the privacy of all that data so uh i assume you have that all under control any other questions or comments seeing none all in favor on consent agenda items six seven and eight opposed abstentions thank you motion carries unanimously the board of education extends best wishes and gratitude to the following retirees for their service to the district laura kakelmeyer mill middle school for 22 years of service the tatiana lespar east high school for 15 years of service denise slimko transit middle for 17 years of service and andrea white's middle for 26 years of service thank you and best wishes [Applause] you're now on item nine is there a motion please to approve the september 14th board meeting minutes thank you mrs bieger mr

055baskellias suckett are there any corrections to the minutes seeing none all in favor for approval opposed abstentions motion carried unanimously we're moving on to our president's report so as was reported on earlier today we did have a ribbon cutting ceremony that took place at south high school for our music capital project it was a delight to hear all of the performers from the chorus and the string quartet we will be having our community forum that will be this saturday on october 16th at east high school in the commons which is on the first floor and that's from 9 a.m to 12 p.m dr mcclary mrs cosmerick bogner and miss poland have volunteered volunteered to serve as facilitators for the forum both myself and dr brown hall will do a welcome and a brief closing um

056our next community forum after our october one will be in march and that's march 22nd after the budget work session we will be having an open house with staff this is something new we're doing this year and that's going to be um after school on monday october 18th beginning at 3 30 and this will be in the north high school auditorium i wanted to check in with the board to see which members of the board would be able to attend on monday october 18th right mrs carey do you see all our hands our hands up i see miss poland mrs bieger miss kes merrick bogner myself mrs van sice and dr mcclary thank you and this is just an informal gathering with staff um prior to colby when we would do our school board visits

057we would meet in the library or the cafeteria and we would bring breakfast and um have you know some informal one-on-one conversation and that sort of had to be eliminated so you know this is just a way to still have some face time with all of our staff and it's open to all staff not just teachers we do have a school board visit to to observe academic instruction as was noted on by one of our speakers earlier that's happening wednesday october 20th and that will be to aim north and casey so wednesday october 20th um dr brownhill do you know our start time for that i can pull it up right now oh i probably could have done the same i apologize oh no you're fine um but either way you can you can always

058be emailed to us just so we know where to show up first um while dr ron hill's looking that up i wanted to check to see which board members are able to attend because we do try to have a minimum of three okay so we have dr lippman miss poulin miss casmarzak bogner and myself so that's great we'll have four board members that are available it depends on the start time okay 8 a.m start time at north high school perfect thank you mr speaker did you say you might be able to start with us at the very beginning okay so this speaker is going to join us at the beginning where she has to get to her distract okay wonderful thank you very much on that and it will be a really good opportunity for

059us to observe academic instruction student learning and teaching moving on to um our erie county association of school boards there's a speed boarding event and that's this thursday on october 14th miss poland and i have registered i understand that uh mr percy from the planetarium will be giving a presentation for all the other school districts which will be really exciting to see if anyone else from the board is available you're welcome to join us there's no registration fee they just ask that you bring a canned good or perishable food um non-perishable food item for the local food pantry on september oh sorry november 13th there is a legislative breakfast dr singh has signed up for that so thank you dr singh we are allowed to have two board members per district so i just wanted

060to check one last time to see if any other board member would like to attend the legislative breakfast if not we'll send the rsvp so that another district can bring an additional person could you tell me where it is sure it's going to be at erie one beau sees in wasanaka at um 355 harlem road i just i can't commit with no it's november and children's i know avocados i have a cross-country meeting we're going to pick totally layoffs okay no problem um we also attended dr mccleary and myself attended the legislative team meeting and that was on september 30th um i did ask um mrs carey to upload some of the documents that we brought back from that meeting and they did give us um a stack of postcards and these can be used

061by any of us board members i've asked miss kerry to hold on to them there's postcards that say thank you there's postcards that say please vote yes and there's postcards that say please vote no so throughout the year as if there are bills that we are you know anxious about or wanting to see action on we can use these postcards to send to our legislators both here at the local level state and state level to um either thank them for an action that they talk or to advocate one way or another so just wanted to bring that to your attention that those postcards are with mrs carey in her office so that they gave us a ton of them so this way they can be used in the future and it doesn't just end with

062me all right um the other thing i was going to mention is that there was an annual dinner that was held on october 7th dr mccleary and dr singh were able to attend that event does anyone else have anything to report under erie county association of school words yes doctors think i just wanted to congratulate dr mccleary she got an award at the annual dinner she was a rising star and she was also elected again to the board at the member member at lodge and two of our former board members such sean lemay and mark mecca also got to watch at the dinner so congratulations to them as well thank you for sharing our former board members too so we can reach out to them and thank them all right um does anyone have anything

063they want to report under nisba new york state school board association um miss pullen um i think you haven't have it on here but um i think attended the uh officer's training you pull your microphone up mrs paul all right thank you um here we go dr singh and i attended the officers training session that they did um on october 1st which was um very well done and provided us with a lot of good information not necessarily geared toward being an officer on the school board but just in good practices of school board function of course one of the benefits of doing those kinds of things is hearing from other people and listening to some other practices some of the practices that they shared with us were things that we might want to consider for

064our own school board um including agenda planning sessions and who was invited to them besides the president there are a couple districts where other members of the school board are invited in a rotating basis to also be part of the agenda planning workshop so that's that was something to think about and some of the school boards had student members that either were they were ex-officio of course they didn't vote didn't attend executive sessions but they brought a voice to the table some of them had a person who was there for the whole year others there was one school district that had a different student from a different school every month so it was a interesting thing the second half of that really focused on diversity equity and inclusion training and we got some really good

065resources and um contact people with some people who are much further down the line with that so they'll be good resources for us to have in the future thank you so much thank you first for the opportunity to attend that well i appreciate you sharing the idea of having like having an additional board member attend agenda planning i'm certainly open to that so for our um november meeting prior to us meeting i'll send out an email and perhaps we can rotate because i think that that's just good um succession planning anyways because you know we're gonna need someone to take the lead next year so i absolutely support that and thank you for sharing that i'm glad that you're able to attend as well dr sang i can send out an email when i go

066to do the email for agenda planning that mrs leatherbarrow and i kind of prep if you have i can send out and if people volunteer i can create a schedule of the rotating um anyone else that would like to be part of it with dr brown hall and president leatherbarrow and i yeah absolutely definitely open to that um i also want to point out that nisba at their convention from new york city and it's now virtual um the upside of that is now it's also free so right now it's going to be held obviously online october 25th and mrs carey has registered myself mrs van cise mrs casmerick boebner mrs beager dr lippman and miss poulin and i just want to do a final all call if there's anyone else from the board that would

067like to attend the now virtual convention they've been able to shrink it down to one day which is going to be um on the 25th of october all right thank you um let's see what else the call to order event was held on september 14th and i did attend this this was also virtual i i attended it with mrs bieger mrs kezmerick bogner dr mccleary miss poland and mrs van slice we were all we weren't together we were all in our own homes watching it we were able to you know send a report and i know that since that meeting um david lowry from ecsb sent out sort of like a cliff notes synopsis of it and what i was happy to see was that a lot of the recommendations for running an efficient and

068orderly board meeting are reflected in our policy 1510 which was just you know the timing of things and as one of our as one of our speakers pointed out just sort of like a mirror of kind of what's happening in society so i i too am very happy that we're able to continue to hold our meetings in person i don't want to be behind a computer screen more than i have to be um so i you know i'm thankful to the community that we're able to do that and um also thanks thankful to nisba for just hosting that timely seminar it was very very time sensitive and very needed does anybody else have anything to report underneath before we move on all right so as we did discuss briefly at our last board meeting uh

069dr lipman is going to be authorized to vote on the bylaws and amendments and resolutions so i would like to ask at this time if i could please have a motion to resolve to authorize board member dr lippman and or alternate miss pullin to vote as they deem appropriate for our school district after they have heard all discussions regarding the issues that are presented for the bylaws amendments and resolutions thank you mr speaker may i please have a second this is van sice i know there was some discussion in the previous board readings i won't go through those all again um i very much trust dr lemon and miss poland to be able to vote your conscience you know you're both very educated and educational backgrounds i feel very comfortable on that does anyone have

070any bylaws or amendment resolutions specifically that they want to speak on okay thank you mr litman or miss poland any questions about it i mean just uh since i've done this historically i kind of know the process although i will go through the training programs as it gets tomorrow afternoon so i'll be better prepared um you know if any of you do have any comments uh or any thoughts i just send them my way thank you very much thank you for being willing to do that because i know it is a long process and sometimes the discussion for each item you've got different board members from around the state and they can speak at length at it i'll pack a lunch just to be honest yeah wear the comfy clothes right all right thank you

071so much so all in favor on this approval i opposed extensions motion carries unanimously thank you last item on my president's report is our policy review committee uh the liaison assignments are listed in board docs for sections one thousand two thousand and three thousand i just wanted to throw out there that i think it would be a good idea to designate some committee chairs for these committees so that we can sort of build momentum and make sure that we you know really start meeting and working on these policy reviews policy review and maintenance is the primary job of the school board and even though we get updates provided as a service from our cooperative erie one boces i think it's it's a really good thing that we're going through and looking at them because some

072of them are like from 2009 and we know that we could chances to really review them so i'm willing to chair the the bylaw committee and i did secure with my team today that dr lipman and this kids merrick bogner are both available on november 1st at 9 30 so that will be our meeting day for time for that dr mcclary has already taken initiative on the 3 000 level policies and i believe you've already set up a meeting or have one set up also in november wonderful thank you and so i just wanted to check in with the 2000 level team i know there's there's less policies and if you wanted to start your work in november or after that's totally fine i just want to see if there's one of the three of

073you that would like to share that i'll chair thank you mrs speaker so then i'll leave it to you to set up to organize with dr brown hall to find a date and then work with your team november 16th is the meeting for um the three thousand every thousands of dr mcqueary okay november 16th at 4 15 p.m i believe perfect all right so we've got a november 1st at 9 30 for the bylaws which is the one thousands and we've got on november 16th for the 3000 level policies thank you all right that's all i have for my president's report this evening so dr brownhall i'm going to turn it over to you for the community update thank you very much for president leatherboro busy day busy evening we're flying nine absolutely i thought

074i checked it nick there we go so we're going to start with some updates with health and safety many of these things the community the public has already seen on the weekly update but i want to go over them again so the erie county department of health in late september announced that they were adopting the new york state department of health guidelines for schools this was emailed to families and staff regarding these guidance changes on october 1st that was a friday under the nys doh guidelines completing the daily kovic screening the health screening questionnaire and temperature checks are optional now visitors will still need to complete the covet health screening and questionnaire students staff and visitors will continue to have their temperatures checked as they enter the school building so for students and staff the

075health screening questionnaire is no longer required entire classrooms will also no longer be quarantined after two confirmed cases of covet 19. that's what it was under the ecdoh guidance now under the new york state department of health guidance the entire classroom will not be quarantined however this does not mean the entire classrooms cannot be quarantined but if there are two cases in the class they will not automatically be placed into quarantine we will still consult our local health officials to see when and if an entire class needs to be quarantined closed captioning not available students are required to sit in their assigned seats so if there's a need to do close contact tracing and quarantining we know exactly which students we have to talk to and which family members we have to talk to about

076quarantining also athletic teams will no longer have to go on a 10-day pause due to a confirmed covet 19 case while there may be student athletes identified as close contacts and therefore need to quarantine practices and games will continue as scheduled please continue to monitor for any signs or symptoms of covet 19 if staff members or students exhibit signs of covet 19 please stay home daily daily covet 19 reports are available in the district's colvit 19 education page for families and staff that have opted in to participate in the proximal and surveillance testing programs again remember this information was sent home families opt in and if you want to opt out you can also do that at any time but please know if you are selected to test for either program you will receive a

077wix mail with the date time type of test that will be that will be performed and remember the testing of staff and families and students will occur at their building of attendance there's no need to go anywhere else it will happen at your home school building staffing shortages areas of current recruitment and there will be eggs and the amherst b in the buffalo news the district continues to recruit for teacher aides food service workers and custodians we are asking the board tonight to please approve the tentative agreements we have increasing the wages for teacher aides folk service workers and custodians and those new wages will be advertised when we recruit for these positions so i want to say it publicly so that everyone knows share with a friend and share with the family member the

078district is actively recruiting and accepting applications for teacher aides food service workers and custodians spotlight on music capital project this was an awesome awesome day today so we had the highlight video earlier we had the ribbon cutting today at williamsville south our community forum will be this friday so the board of education will be hosting their first community forum of the year on saturday october 16th from 9 a.m to 12 noon at whimsville east high school information has been provided in the weekly video update newsletter the digital fire is available on social media and the district's website and reminders will be sent to families and staff on wednesday this is your time to interact and communicate with board members and the superintendent this saturday october 16th from 9 am to 12 noon 2024 total solar

079eclipse this is what you were talking about president leatherboro so western new york is in the path of totality for the 2024 total solar eclipse williamsville's planetarium director mark percy is presenting to the new york state school boards association on this thursday communications team is working in coordination with the planetarium to keep the public informed of this once in a lifetime event i want to thank nick and dave for that and that's the end of the community update if any board members have any questions please let me know just want to comment on the planetarium piece um mr percy just brings so much enthusiasm to it um my very first year on the board when we got to visit north high school and visit the planetarium he was talking about this totality event 2024 like

080back six seven years ago so um it's just you know if you've never had any interest in it at all to hear mr percy speak about it you develop a passion for it because it's just like wow it just sounds so really really really cool so thank you for that does anyone from the board of any questions or comments oh mr biscaglia so community is aware for the community forum i'm going to be leaving early with the family engagement just so everyone knew okay thank you see me walking out no problem it's not because i don't want to be there just uh little kids a lot of places to go we understand and that's why there's nine of us that we can always fill in all right any other questions or comments regarding the superintendent

081report okay so we're going to move on to our policy updates we have several policies we're going to take them from the table first and then we will we'll do our vote and i'll check to i'll check in with you to see if you want me to pull any for a separate vote okay so may i first have a motion to take from the table the following new policies diversity equity and inclusion in the district gender-neutral single occupancy bathrooms student gender identity and revised policies 15 ton regular board meeting rules quorum and parliamentary procedure smoking tobacco and cannabis use meal charging and prohibition against neil meal shaming temporary housing alcohol tobacco drugs and other substances for students and 80 to 80 instruction for english language learners as presented so this is just to take off

082from the table you skipped two accidentally that tell me which one's 61.50 150 alcohol tobacco got it i see i skipped the whole line is included in this alcohol tobacco drugs and other substances for staff so we had one for students and one for staff and 71 31 education of students in temporary housing okay that makes more sense thank you sorry for that confusion so may i have the motion to take those from the table please dr littman thank you in this colon second so this is just taking them from the table so this is just parliamentary procedure so all in favor on that opposed abstentions motion carries unanimously and i just want to check in with the board does any board member wish me to pull a policy for separate vote all right seeing

083none what can you clarify what that mean um so all of the policies that i just read we would vote on them all together to approve them or we would if you want a separate vote and discussion on one specific policy or an or an amendment on a policy then you could ask it to be pulled and we would just talk about it separately okay so do i make a motion i want something separate no you can just tell me okay which one um new policy 3431 for discussion and vote okay so we'll start with that one so would someone like to make a motion for the second reading and adoption of policy 3431 vice president vance oh thank you mrs van size and mrs bieger all right i'm gonna just pull these up really

084quickly here all right and go ahead with your discussion mr dr lipman so this is 3431 is diversity equity and inclusion in the district um it is a very valuable policy there's no doubt about that i've sent before i think on two occasions different comments some have been i guess clarified some planet um i have you know some issues from editorial points to uh using semicolons instead of commas uh but i i think the main point for me um i mean just starting with um if we stop the dei coordinator which is on the second page oh i mean the first thing i think we should state and i'm trying to go backwards but uh i know uh in the state policies on uh definitions of diversity equity and inclusion which is what we use

085in our documentation i was thinking if it would be valuable to state that these are the state guidelines and definitions that we're using i mean it's just for somebody who would read it and say where did these come from i mean i think we need to make sure that they understand that it's state uh it comes from the state of new york if you look at their website so i mean that's an option um not if anybody wants to comment and i don't know if so what is that fine the way it is well each board member can speak on it but then when we go to vote on it if you want to amend the language you would just make a motion to amend and you have to give your specific language changes okay

086so any other comments on the dei policy i'm just going to go down anyone else on my left right am i right doctor you're saying i mean i've been to this policy and i think i think i said my changes earlier i think the policy would be much more stronger if you had the belonging part in the whole dei initiative like instead of dei we'll have a b i b where the add belonging has an integral part of the whole policy so that was one thing i didn't want to change and the second part was in the last part where we talked about i think training i think it's i think it just makes sense that we have administrators and board members also have to be part of the training so we get to learn

087and we get to provide the right guidance framework for the bib initiatives that we're going to have in our schools so that's being left out in the current policy thank you and again when we go to vote on it you can definitely amend the language if you would like to make a motion to amend that language mrs van sice so and just in regards to the training absolutely we can be part of it so i have gone through extensive training through nisba that offers you have to participate in it the training is available um i have spoke at this table about the training dr lovell brown who the district is now implementing and using for the dei initiative is outstanding i learned a great deal which in looking at these policies the thing that i'm

088so proud of is that we have now taken these policies these initiatives and there are action there is an action plan with specific steps in place i do not feel that the amen that it really needs to be amended or postponed in any way because these policies are for our students and our staff propelling forward to make sure that we are including all of our students and we are teaching the culturally responsive teaching practices all of these things i would never want to put this on hold can i say something absolutely um and i to talk about training i i many of you will remember from from the september 14th presentation that uh dr bellen and mr skanzuzo did a piece of the training did focus on board members also participating in the training and

089i do want to make clear although we are using many of the concepts that dr lavelle brown speaks of and dr oliver robinson i know that we are working closely also with dr javon hunter um from buff state on many of our dei works also okay may i say one more thing about dei b and i appreciate the entire concept of belonging but i want to make sure we don't deviate too much from the initiatives that the board of regents has put in place with regard to dei belonging is important and it's a subset and the the need for students to feel a sense of belonging but that comes with the activities that you do to be inclusive so the d e i and the subset of i is the b the belonging part i

090just want to make sure we don't deviate that far from what the state guidance is and the new york state board of regents has issued as the dei framework those are just my comments about that so just to make sure you understand that then is this policy like sort of a mirror of the language that's coming from the board of regents yes that's exactly where um when we receive these promotions that's exactly where they got it from and is is that what you were kind of saying dr lipman yeah i'm just saying that at least definitionally uh that many of this i mean if you follow it most of our information does come from state policy right there are one or two things that i didn't talk about yet that um i would need clarity

091on so when an opportunity arises i will bring that forward okay very good points any other points of discussion before we take a vote and then someone wants to amend the motion they can this is bigger just interesting to the point about um citing where it comes from at the end and many in our other new policies it specifically states the law of where it comes from from new york state um and i wouldn't be able to offhand pull the policy number or you know the specific document from board of regents i know we've seen it and and um we know that's where it comes from but i i'm not just but no right because it's the footnote of where it belongs is that something comes from right now that if we if we approve

092the policy as is it like a footnote could still be added to it just to cross-reference like a lot of our other policies yeah because yeah because you're not a yes because the footnote is a reference right it's not a policy enacting right so it doesn't affect the policy it's just a reference so you definitely yes i feel like that's a good um solution to that because you know a lot of our other policies i know mrs carey is always referencing them to me you know a cross-reference or a law that is where the policy originates from so i would be good with that um is there any other discussion before we get into a vote with possible amendments dr levin well um i mean so can i look at another section of this if

093you want to um change specific language how about we bring it to a vote and then you can right away say i'd like to amend the motion and then give that specific language change does that sound good because one more time well we we have to vote on the policy yeah and so that that that requires the motion um which the motion already happened we're in discussion so when we go right okay so we're in the discussion now so again make his amendment right now okay so go ahead make your amendment right now okay what of what your language is i'm not your amendment i mean there's two or three clarifications that uh i haven't seen changed and i just want to get some clarity on that uh if you look at under teaching and

094learning uh it says unto be uh it says develop curriculum that incorporates diverse perspective and it goes on but i i guess my question would be who will be developing the curriculum uh will we be doing it in house are we buying a curriculum made by somebody else are we using a textbook company that does that and i mean i think if we're moving in this direction we need to know where that curriculum is coming from because uh to me that just needs to be clarity yeah and i and dr billing can interrupt but i don't know that we want to pigeonhole ourselves in the policy to be that specific when we say develop curricular that incorporates diverse perspectives materials and texts it's broad in the sense that it allows us to pull from various

095resources the more specific you get that limits you this is more broad and it allows us to pull from many different resources and i think you hit the nail on the head so i appreciate that um so but that leads into my next point which is d which says we should encourage educational discussion about racism and bigotry there's no doubt that we should but you know if you just said it's very generic this is very specific uh i have a concern about you know we've talked tonight about gender issues um there's nothing that specifically says gender discrimination uh there's nothing that says anything about anti-semitism there's nothing that says anything about um you know muslims and other groups that are discriminated again so to single out one group in a generic document uh is somewhat

096concerning to me it's just like saying uh education is important and we have all of these areas but let's focus on uh history or something else so uh not so all i would ask is the word be changed to include educational discussions about all aspects of discrimination because again the document defines all of these diversity terms and you're asking that uh part d so if you go back on number d so it would read as part of this effort the district will continue to seek to and then you jump to d encourage educational discussions about what was the language that you were all aspects of discrimination and it could say to include racism anti-semitism any other groups you want to do but to not include that singles out one group only for special treatment and

097that's not what dei is supposed to do well i don't and i just want to go back i don't know that it singles out one group racism and bigotry is experienced so what what one group are they talking about when you talk about racism and bigotry if you look at the definition it says diversity includes but it's not limited to race color ethnicity nationality religion socioeconomic status veteran status whatever so i mean here it just says racism that's race-based oh you oh i see you're saying you're you're talking about one of the aspects of of the diversity and the discrimination yeah i'm saying it should be more right so we just said educational discussions about all forms of discrimination yeah including racism and bigotry yes okay but i would say it should include more than

098just racism and bigotry because well bigotry is very generic it is a little more specific but there are other things that should be included as they are all right that's problematic to me individually right and then we can we can definitely add those also yeah all right so just so that we understand what the amendment is encourage educational discussions about i just need to know what the exact language changes yeah forms of description all forms of discrimination but but but the definition of bigotry is prejudice against one particular group that hence means you are saying against different religious groups different race groups different gender groups i mean that's that's what bigotry means so i don't know why we have to add all those words why because it would be the right thing to do well

099but a variety of people who would find this somewhat so why don't we vote um too restrictive i understand what you're saying but it's not restricted if you think of it as i'll read you the definition of patreon but we don't we don't define it that's not in the policy right you can't define bigotry in our policy you're saying you want to add a definition of bigotry or add more we don't need to all forms of discrimination including racism including racism including but not limited to including but not limitless not limited to racism and bigotry okay so an amendment to that motion okay are there any other amendments all right so we're ready to vote on policy 3431 with the new amendment to the language of part d and i just wanted to make sure

100you got it perfect okay uh dr mccleary just a quick question um going back to dr littman's statements um you had kind of brought up a couple of different things and then as we were talking i just want to make sure before i vote that the only change that's being written not that i agree or disagree with concepts but the only change on the written piece will be number b there's nothing else that you are requesting that the wording change i agree yes thank you that i just wanna accept some time is along the way like typos we can fix afterwards don't worry about that right so that's the only uh thank you clarification absolutely and i appreciate that that point of clarity so all in favor on the amended policy 3431 opposed abstentions motion

101carries unanimously thank you does anyone else wish to pull any of the remaining policies so we have 56 34 7 5 54 15 10 56 40 56 60 61 50 71 31 73 20 and 82.80 this is bigger i don't wish to pull another policy but i can we for that last one just make the footnote or make notes to include the footnote of um as we said before just as we have with our other policies where we cite the laws and where it comes from we'll do the same dr ronald definitely said we can do that because in fact what we voted on thank you so much okay that's it i have a question on policy 7131 okay would you like me to pull it for separate discussion no just probably a question that

102dr donald may answer the only thing that like the question i sent you about the confidential confidentiality of the students can i just get a motion for these policies first and then have this discussion just so we follow the procedure so can i get a motion please for the adoption of the remaining policies 5634 7554 1510 5640 5660 6150 7131 7320 and 8280. miss poland thank you mrs bensley second now we're discussing them and you had a question about 7131 the temporary housing of students and uh the only part had a question was uh the student confidentiality like is there anything in the pii the personal information that says this is temporary housing or that's something that the student can be singled out for no not that the student will be singled out for that

103anyone will just know there will be indications in their record when we know that a student is either mckinney vento or you know that's the the homeless we will have to indicate that in the records because many times it affects transportation and things like that but it's not something that will just be you know known district-wide it'll just be for the educational professionals when it's necessary okay and there was a question about the education of students in temporary housing for those people who are following along i think that's a really good question too because we always want to make sure that we're that we're never shaming the student and that we're protecting their student privacy at all that clarification because that's the clarification i i need it thank you all right any other discussion mrs

104dance yes i just want to mention um for policy number seven five five four gender neutral or student gender identity i would like to first off thank our speakers who showed such courage and confidence in speaking regarding these policies tonight i think it just shows a lot of bravery so i would like to commend them and i think it's quite fitting that we just saw a video from mill middle and miss jonas with the theme of all means all everyone must work together and we must take care of each other is the message that we saw in that video tonight these policies especially this one truly helps to foster an inclusive environment as we know that every student is a gift and every student has a right to feel safe and be successful within our

105school setting thank you mrs any other feedback yeah feel it man just in support of uh mrs van sais is um you know passing seven five five four which is a great policy shows uh the importance of the acceptance and respect for all people and very clearly ties into the policy we just uh proposed and voted on 3431 diversity equity inclusion because again that community has been marginalized and it'll be nice uh that we support bringing everybody into our community because it's valuable to all so thank you for that i just want to say too that you know this policy 70 50 75 54 i'm personally proud to support i really believe wholeheartedly it's a responsibility of educators to be a vehicle for social change and to support and provide a safe environment for all

106students and we did hear some amazing testimony tonight we know that some of our students don't feel loved and welcomed in their homes and you know if that is the case then our school needs to be a safe haven for those children so um i also just want to point out that these policies are actually us as a district becoming in compliance with law that already exists so we're talking about title ix um federal law and we're talking about the dasa app their dignity for all students act um there was when we get to correspondence i'll speak to it later that you know there was some some emails about athletics and things like that these are things that have been happening since like 2014 within our state so uh nisba new york state um athletic

107association you know already has guidelines that clearly lay out what is what is acceptable and expected and um you know i just i'm i'm proud to be able to to vote in favor of that tonight dr mccleary and then mr biscagelia um i guess i would just i won't go into a detail because we've been hearing it which is wonderful that i completely agree with uh mrs van sice in terms of listening to our speakers tonight um agreeing with president leather barrel about it's both necessary and good that we are following through with policies that help us be inclusive of all our students thank you mr biscay followed by dr singh yeah i was just going to touch even on a sports thing i mean i know gymnastics for about you know eight nine years

108uh men have been competing on the girls team once the uh you know boys gymnastics programs have dropped here in western new york and this is just a testament to to us improving as a district um and going in the right direction which you know has already been occurring for many years um so you know it's a good thing and i just you know to note being a teacher and being in a school um it's kind of funny that students understand this topic probably better than adults um to them it's it's almost what they've been growing up with and um this kind of just adds that rubber stamp to to their beliefs and identity and understanding of you know being inclusive with each other and and i think it'll help our district grow in the

109right direction thank you mr pascalia and dr singh i mean i'm just going to echo what most of you already said i think policies 34 31 then 7554 are long overdue and i think it's an honor to vote on the policies i agree and what it tells meant to our community right that during public expression every speaker that spoke on it spoke in support of it that's a huge testament of who we are as a community and that just makes me really proud to be here so i'm not all in favor for the policies listed miss kasmir oh sorry we already said that part all hands are up andy opposed okay thank you all then we are all good motion carries unanimously no abstentions correct correct may i say one thing absolutely i also want

110to um give a special thanks for to dr rosa debate who actually implements many of the laws guidance and policies that are necessary for our students who are identified and affected by policy 7554 i also want to thank mr chris muchica who is our athletics director who is implementing the policies and laws that are set forth by new york state for students who are competing in athletics also dr bailin and mr skanzuzo for supervising those departments and making sure that we are in line with the laws policies and procedures around protecting all of our students who have since felt marginalized but now we'll feel supported even in this way by our community and by the board so thank you very much for that thank you thank you we're moving on to the approval for the

111dasa coordinator which we just kind of spoke about is the dignity for all students act and the amended code of conduct may please have a motion to approve the amended dasa appointment of coordinators in agenda item 11c and the amended code of conduct agenda item 11d as presented mrs bieger thank you dr mcclary ii is there any discussion on either of those items dr singh i had a i mean question on the amended code of conduct i think i said the changes but we are missing the word equity and in the whole code of corner i think that important word to have there and i'll pull up one of the changes i have in mind um like you know what that and i'm sorry to cut you off doctor scenario with your questions i believe

112you sent changes into that effect didn't you pardon me are there changes in the amended correct you sent some suggestions and i think what needed to get mentioned is that it's different from our other policies in that an entire committee does the work to write the code of conduct so i didn't want oh you are you're on the committee yeah okay wonderful so was were your edits shared during the committee work uh we reviewed this but since we came up with the code of conduct then and all that trainings have been threatened i mean i felt that this was something that was missing in the code of conduct we're not talking about the equity that we are going to offer to all our students like everybody is going to be given what they want to

113succeed so i thought that was a key word that we're missing in the code of conduct what what keyword okay where where specifically did you want that to go on page three the last paragraph it says the district has long-standing expect set of expectations for conduct for school property and school functions and all of site these expectations are based on the principles of we can add the word equity there equity stability mutual respect and dr ronald do you have any um and this is what this is what i would do um because the best point that was brought up so this is the the issue right and i i completely get what you're saying dr singh but when you have a district committee that works on a document and it comes to the board for

114approval then the board decides that something needs to be changed it either diminishes or dismisses the work of the committee so if there are changes that are suggested by the board i suggest those changes go back to the committee as a whole to have discussion and decide you know what i'm saying as opposed to just board members putting in what they feel is necessary for the code of conduct so what i would do is i would humbly request that the board approve this amended code of conduct take any suggestions from board members about what needs to be included and take that back to the committee because the code of conduct can be amended at any time right so i would take those suggestions back to the committee for committee discussion committee deliberation committee approval and

115then have it brought back to the board for an additional amendment to the code of conduct i would not attempt to amend it here at the board table though yeah i i agree with that because um just having been an educator and having served on these types of committees you never want to undermine the work of everyone that gathers because you know and i appreciate that you're part of that committee i do think it's important that we have an approved code of conduct on the books but i like the idea of making suggested edits and sending it right back to the committee so that your committee could then meet again to consider those changes i just would want you know there's such a long list of people that put in the work for this document

116i would want all of their voices to to be able to be heard to listen to your suggestions if that makes sense yeah i'm gonna call the vote and um we'll go from there okay so we already had um emotion and we have discussion is there any other discussion on these items okay so all in favor of approving items 11 c and 11d okay all hands up opposed extensions motion carries unanimously thank you and i would um is it okay with you then after staying absolutely smith's recommendations yeah what i will do is i know he submitted some already i can take those and ask dr um to bring them back to the committee for consideration okay yeah and i think another point too is that we you know the code of conduct we had

117a hearing a month you know back previously we had a hearing on it um so there has been like consecutive months where we've been working on this so just you know in going forward if any board member and that's for policies too if you want to make edits i really encourage you to do them like as soon as possible that way you can go back because it needs to be vetted and if there was a committee that worked to write it we want to give that committee a courtesy to be able to give input on that okay thank you very much um we are on item 13. if you have any liaison reports please send them to mrs carey i'm on 12 12. thank you sorry getting out of myself that's tom's work time's at

11812. all right may i have a motion please to resolve to approve the 2022-2023 budget development calendar in 12a the sale and disposal of district property in 12b in the annual external audit in 12c as presented thank you mrs beager mrs van slice second any discussion uh thank you mr matursky in your office for all of your hard work for both the budget development calendar and the excellent audit report that we received tonight thank all in you opposed extensions motion carried unanimously thank you does anyone want to report on any liaison assignments thank you there's no oh be quick mrs speaker followed by miss casper's book i just wanted to share a conflict um i had i have a ptsa meeting this thursday october 14th at high middle i hadn't sent it out to the

119board yet because i was just waiting back to hear reach out to the officers to make sure that meeting is still happening this week and assuming it does i have a conflict that i cannot shift so i just wanted to share that out i um can certainly provide the board notes but if anyone wanted to attend it's seven o'clock and it is a virtual meeting assuming i i just want to hear back from the officers first but that i'd bring it up over here at the table thank you i'm going to the speedboarding at east is anyone else available this thursday i think okay i'll put it out in the email once i get back the confirmation from the school and then um we'll see thank you and i know the schools are aware too

120that you know we only really have so it's on three correct we have to miss me you know it does happen right thank you for sharing that though sure um and miss kashmir yeah it's the sepsa liaison i just wanted to announce their um upcoming october presentation that they're going to be doing virtually which is on addressing social emotional needs in students and that will be on thursday october 28th at 7 00 pm um i believe that information has been included in most of the school newsletters on as to how to sign up so i just wanted to put that out there though because i thought that might be of interest to the general population thank you for that all right there are no matters under 14 or 15. moving down to person now may

121i have a motion please to resolve to approve the funding from the negotiated agreement between the superintendent and the civil service employees association inc local 1000 afs cme afl cio williamsville central schools custodial units 67 55 local number 838 and 16a and for the negotiated agreement between the superintendent and the williamsville association of education related personnel in 16b as presented and this was part of what was ex explained during the superintendent report dr singh thank you ms kasmir bogner's second is there any discussion on either of these items mrs speaker followed by dr litman i just went it's local 868 i don't know if it matters but as we read it just to for clarity because they read it wrong yeah i'm sorry no problem i don't know if that's important or would come back

122later so i think we're good thank you dr littman did you have a question absolutely [Music] yes absolutely i'm happy we're going to be able to advertise the increase rate of pay and i really do hope that that helps us to build some vacancies absolutely okay any other comments from the board thank you all in favor opposed abstentions motion carries unanimously thank you all right may i have a motion please to author to approve rather the summer capital project report change orders in 17a and authorized approval of the contract based on best value proposals in 17b as presented so this is 17a and 17b mrs van size thank you dr litman second is there any discussion seeing none all in favor opposed abstentions motion carries unanimously there are no matters to discuss under special needs

123and student activities president leatherberry i just want to make sure that i'm not getting lost our last vote before was for 16 a and b no no no the item before we were voting on personnel a and b correct okay yeah because we approved the two perfect funding for both um thank you so much and um you had said that after they're approved and verified they'll get posted in board docs for once we change the language change the language okay got it because in bordex right now is just the tentative agreement which changed in the contract and we posted the former contract so people can compare once we get the new language updated we will post the new contracts and board docs awesome thank you i appreciate the clarification got a little lost i mean

124i just this was just a thought that we have we talk about student performance all the time it's there in the board goals it's there most of the goals that we have and even speaker today talked about performance but do we have like metrics by which we can gauge performance like i was talking to dr brown earlier and we really don't have a baseline by which we can compare metrics how every metric has changed over the years this can also be used as a diversity audit it can be used in multiple things but has our district ever considered creating a baseline baseline academic achievement data and this year you know and talking with um commissioner rosa when she was uh talking not so long ago and this goes back to last year also this year

125is going to actually be the new baseline right so the last two years and because things have changed even from the 18 19 school year this year will indeed be the new baseline um and it's really important that we don't try to compare compare this year to last year to the year prior right this year will be our new baseline year for comparisons after that so as we did speak before this will be the new baseline year just as long as we have the necessary data the necessary assessments and then there's no waivers in regents exams or assessments this will be the new baseline year i think it's important important too to point out and i know dr bailey can speak with us because we have have had reports on this as early as last

126year you know we used to always use ela and new york city assessment or region exam data as our student achievement reports typically we would have it maybe this month right and it's sort of unfair to go back and start talking about 2019 data but we do use benchmark data we we do screenings and we have beginning of year middle of your end of year assessments using fastbridge and did you want to speak a little bit about that dr dr balin of course yeah because i think it's an important um clarification correction that needs to be made because you know we are always looking at data and i know that that's a big piece of your leadership team meetings that you have annually well thank you dr brown helm thank you to the board of

127education and also thank you for the questions and the comments that you've made everything all of you have said is absolutely correct so one key piece to remember is and we remember over the last several years and even before covid state data is one level of analysis it's one piece of information we also have to be very careful to not let it define a child's educational experience because some of the data points that you mentioned president leatherbarrow speak to our benchmarks our diagnostic information and our formative information which actually serves not only to measure achievement but to drive instructional practices so we did speak of that very many years before covet i hope that will continue after covet because that is really what drives our day-to-day teaching and learning in the classroom so with respect

128to our state level data i will also mention we have many students and families who do not participate in the state testing program and at grade 8 in particular between 30 and 50 percent of our students take accelerated courses so they would not take the grade aid assessment and that is true in both ela and math in addition to the refusal component all of our rankings we've published year after year traditionally as mrs van sice had mentioned yearly we would typically do our presentation in the fall for the previous school year the entire assessment program has been completely influenced and revamped understandably due to coven 19 and the impact it has had on schools the regents exams are impacted this past year only four were given they were optional for all students so this is

129a new baseline moving forward we have to again really remind ourselves of the fact that we have to use all of our sources of information and that includes qualitative information as well to really ensure that our instructional program is continuing to meet the needs of students so we will be bringing a presentation to you this spring at that point we will reiterate some of the data points that were mentioned this evening and also speak to other measures that we look at we are always looking for improvement we're always looking for enhancement because with any set of data even with ours which has traditionally been in the highest of rankings there are there's always room for better things to be done on behalf of students and we're con we're committed to doing that i appreciate that

130and i think one of the things you spoke about really is the difference between the formative and summative data and to me kovid has provided an opportunity for us to focus a little bit more on the formative assessments and less on the summative and the formats of assessments for those of you not in education that is what you know might be your your screeners but it's also your progress monitoring and it's what drives your instruction it's what changes your intervention groups and um perhaps i know you mentioned we'll get something in the spring but might it be possible because we do have an obligation to monitor academic achievement and it is one of our goals as dr singh has said might it be possible for us to see some type of report for elementary related

131to beginning of year scoring for fast bridge not you know not broken down too much but just so we can see sort of generally how our students started off the year because we do hear about learning loss and i you know i don't tend to like that word um but i do know that we have a need in some cases for learning recovery which is part of what you had shared last year when you reported um primarily with the younger the younger students for number sense and letters and sound recognition is that something that we could work on yeah we can definitely work on that and look at the various um assessments that we that we use so we can definitely work on that okay i think that would be beneficial i know it gets

132a little bit harder for middle and high school because otherwise we're just looking at gpas and that might not be the best you know indicator but i i do agree that um as a board we do have an obligation to be monitoring the student achievement and i don't know if i would want to wait until spring that's no problem at all we can certainly bring some data to you and our community and show really what is our starting point for this year and i think it'll be important for the community to see that and then we can also explain what the data mean and where we go from here because as it is the beginning it really is a mapping of some of the direction we need to take with students and i can certainly

133draw to the areas that we feel like we're on some firm footing with our learners and also areas in which we're needing to put some additional resources supports and structures in place which we are already in the process of doing so i'd be happy to share that that's awesome and we did approve the learning lab teachers tonight as well and so that is one example of you know a measure to improve academic performance and that benefits some of our older students so yes thank you very much we do appreciate that very much thank you very much dr valen you're welcome mr bizkel yeah terms when we talk about all this data um and i know maybe redundant tasks we probably already do this but you know when when you hear statistics previous uh during this

134meeting about you know when you compare schools and all that we also taking a little count and i'm assuming you do is cohorts as well i mean you can't just look at one grade what they did that year you go back throughout their cohort how they did from you know third grade on to eighth grade and i know we do that as a district but those are things we have to keep in mind you can just focus on one particular exam on one particular year it doesn't give you well enough data to see you know learning loss or whatever it may be you're an educator and that's an advanced conversation because you're looking at growth as opposed to just achievement right and that's what we just the public understands that we i know no that's

135a great point that's it yeah and it's pretty good it's hard to just look at one single number that's why you're great at what you do because it's a deeper conversation right because like until you've been evaluated as a teacher and you don't you know it's different when you're being evaluated on your growth of your students first versus right just a data point well thank you those are all um wonderful comments thank you mr pascalia your your points are well taken and that becomes especially problematic to draw conclusions on the state assessment program all of you have been around for quite a while and hearing a lot of my comments over the years so we've lived it together but we well know that program has changed over time and it really is quite challenging and

136actually we've been cautioned against making any comparisons because there are so many variables that have influenced what that program has looked like we still report on it we certainly draw from it whatever information we're able to but i would ask that we not use a singular metric to define the student's experience um going back to the fast version before your question mrs van says i just want to add when we're looking at something as a starting point that is not a measure of achievement that's a mapping for instruction so the information we're going to bring to you is not an achievement level data point it's actually a metric for teaching and learning that we need to map out our instruction for our students so that will not unfortunately answer the question about you know loss

137or gains or anything of that nature because that's not the way that that information works so i just want to make sure that that's understood before we bring anything more so for our community because that is what that data will show is our students are walking in with certain skills it's also a screener which means it's a very brief assessment and it's supposed to be a gateway to providing again that next stage of instruction for students either all students or specific skills and strategies that certain students may need so we just have to use it for what it's intended for and not draw any um larger conclusions that are not appropriate for the data set so i just wanted to add that into i'm sorry i saw your hand up that was excellent because i'm

138going to say it's not about um even the the data points it's curriculum mapping right now and to understand just what you're saying about state assessments if we like i wouldn't even want to see graduation rates because they are so skewed because students have been exempt from them all so i've never seen so many students receive a regents diploma um for the next year or two so that we cannot measure and assess for student achievement so i really know that you're the expert and i appreciate as we always receive student achievement presentations as that's something we oversee it's a goal of the board so i know that you'll present us with that but the curriculum mapping is the piece that will be essential for us to see this year so thank you thank you and

139i look forward to bringing that thank you for the opportunity again thank you thank you anyone else have anything for committee of the whole i i just will just add it so it fits in with curriculum mapping and um our reporting and and the diversity equity and inclusion and the equity piece is really central to to the curriculum and how how equitable it is for all of our students i don't want us to look at some of our schools and say well they're they don't have the same level of achievement because they have more children who are on free and reduced lunch because if we're a school district that's what we need to intervene and close that gap so i'm really interested in what resources we can bring forward to support them so that that's

140not a factor because that's what equity means yes thank you doc thank you very much all right um for correspondence i just want to share that we did receive an email from a building substitute teacher at east high school advocating for increased daily pay and also explaining some of the barriers with the current pay schedule that is contributing to our substitute shortage um this is an issue that the board is monitoring and we are working with dr brown hall to look in to see if we have the means to increase the daily rate pay for substitutes um so anyone wish to comment on this [Music] all right thank you we also did receive uh i counted four so i apologize if more got through that i didn't see four emails regarding this month and last

141month's policy updates two of the messages asked the board to postpone the vote one asked us to vote no for the policy on gender rights and one of the messages asked the board to vote yes to approve the policy for student gender identity um i will say that we read every email that we received i know one speaker said that she didn't get a response i do not have a record of receiving an email from that speaker so i just wanted to say you know my apologies to that speaker but you will get an email now that you've spoken but i didn't see an email come through regarding the individual um i do make sure that i respond to everyone that emails the board um unless it's like someone who is continually emailing like every

142single week or if it's anonymous um and anybody else want to share any correspondence thank you and with that our next scheduled regular board meeting is november 9th is there a motion to adjourn the regular board meeting this is bigger thank you mrs van slice second all in favor all hands up means unanimous have a good night everyone thank you stay safe and be well