September 14, 2021 - Board of Education Meeting

001let me know when we're live good thank you the regular board meeting the public session thank you Miss casmeric Bogner um Miss Poland second any discussion seeing none all in favor hands up thank you motion curious unanimously I called the regular board meeting to order and all board members are present Mr biscalia would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and flag [Music] congratulations thank you everyone please be advised in the event of a fire emergency and an evacuation should be necessary and alarm will sound please note all Mark's emergency access and evacuate while away from the building at this time we also request that everyone please turn their cell phones to silent and any other electronic devices thank you for that is there a motion place to approve the agenda as presented

002um Mrs Van slice thank you Dr McClary second all in favor [Music] motion carries unanimously thank you at this time we're moving on to board recognition and District recognition Dr Brown how I turned it over to you thank you very much president tonight as many of you entered the boardroom you were greeted by the music of the Williamsville East screen quartet I want to thank them for their incredible performance we look forward to highlighting more of our music programs at the beginning of each board meeting this year if we can give them a round of applause [Applause] thank you very much as we prepared to start the school year we asked our students staff parents and community members to share what willpower means to them willpower was a unifying theme created by our students that

003has allowed our school Community to Rally together and move forward in a positive way so what is willpower take a look and listen to some of the powerful messages we received foreign car is like working together like from all different schools of this of this area well power means keep working hard will power is Unity willpower is the unwavering strength to get through difficult times the ability to band together especially in times of adversity the strength to keep going or if you want to achieve a goal if you want to achieve you have to believe strength of the students in the district who were able to get through the pandemic very strongly may I add willpower is the strength and resiliency that the students and staff show every day I like school so much I

004never left from kindergarten and I'm an old guy I'm still here I love how everybody comes from different backgrounds and has a lot of different interests and ideas but we can all come together in one place and we can learn and have a lot of fun what I love best about school is having the opportunity to change people's lives having the opportunity to teach them coach them seeing the kids faces every day their Joy their enthusiasm and their passion and love for being here the sense of teamwork and collaboration among our faculty and staff I like gym science and social studies I like learning about history I like doing experiments and I like running around and having fun I like school because I like learning what I love about the Williamsville Community is it really

005does feel like home no matter where you go whether you're in one of our 13 schools at Wegmans shopping and you see a friend or at Billy Wilson Park on the weekend the Williamsville Community is is kind generous caring and supportive I love so many things about the Williamsville Community the number one thing that I love is being part of a team that truly wants to make it a better place they want to change the schools in the world each day and so working together to get that done is absolutely what I love about Williamsville what I love about the Williamsville Community is how caring the teachers administrators and coaches are and how hard they work for the students what's that saying it takes a village it takes a community it takes a community to

006support one another to encourage one another to raise one another up what I love about our community is the passion the drive even though sometimes we don't all agree we still have a sense of family that's how we show our willpower very nice [Applause] thank you for that are there any board acknowledgments at this time Mrs Vance ice it's actually really difficult to just pick one area I would just like to extend gratitude to everyone involved our district leadership all of our staff our parents and our students for rolling back in smoothly but I would like to point out Transportation so Mr matersky working with transportation and really to our bus drivers as we all know it has been extremely difficult and they are putting their time their heart and soul in trying to navigate

007picking up our Precious Cargo so I'd like to thank the parents for your patience and really thank all of our bus drivers absolutely thank you [Applause] and I wanted to thank the board they sent me a a lovely card for um the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah and I wanted to take this time to wish our Jewish students our Jewish faculty and our Jewish Community Lashana Tova a happy and a healthy New Year absolutely thank you yeah okay um anyone else from the board all right we will not move on to public expression and I'm going to call on Mrs Casimir owner to review our public expression format thank you president La Guerrero welcome to all who have come to observe this regular board meeting although state law does not require us to hold a

008public comment period we have chosen to do so because 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 for a discussion accordingly please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions tonight this is because we take your concerns and questions seriously and we want to have efficient time to process and research issues that need be we will however 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 finally we recognize that right now our nation and our community are polarized on a number of issues that said we want

009our school board meetings to serve as an example to our students that both are school board and community members can deal with controversial issues in a civil Manner and demonstrate mutual respect for one another in that Spirit we will insist that all speakers and members 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 the audience in the unlikely event 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 your written comments to the board in lieu of speaking during the public comment period per policy 1510 the board will now enter public comments for 30 minutes each individual speaker is allotted three

010minutes you will be signaled at two and a half minutes so that you may conclude your remarks the individual timeline limits will be enforced so that as many members of the public who wish to speak may be allowed to do so after I call on you please step up to the podium and state your name and I do see that there are some speakers tonight that will be discussing a potential Personnel concern to ensure privacy fees only use the employee's position and refrain from using their name our first speaker is Jennifer Ayman good evening my name is Jennifer Eamon and I'm here to speak to you about my colleague and friend at williams-list High School right now this person ought to be finishing up coaching his varsity soccer teams game against West Seneca East I

011ought to be home finishing my dinner with my children instead Chris is likely at home excuse me the person is likely at home and I am here speaking to you about potential respectful steps which might have happened before your vote stripped him one of the winningest coaches in Western New York history of his coaching position one phone call to this person out of respect for his 28 years of coaching service to the district one meeting with him and his three administrators who gave him positive evaluations one Fair investigation of his history as a coach of the varsity team any one of those steps and this person might be where he ought to be tonight and I might be home with my family but not any of those respectful steps were taken I don't regret being

012on this Podium at this Podium tonight to speak for this person I have known him for over 30 years and he's a good man he is kind he's a gentleman he has never done anything but Champion nurture instruct and care about the students he teaches and the athletes he coaches well we are here it is very likely that he is at home writing College recommendation letters or speaking on the phone to college coaches securing places for his athletes on college teams he is doing what he's always done being true to his position as coach teacher and human being this person has had offers to coach elsewhere this fall but he would not take any of them because he did not want any of his players to believe that he had forgotten them all of us

013night here tonight supporting him are here because it is the right thing to do it's what we teach our students loyalty kindness respect empathy and honesty what the board's actions are teaching intentionally or not is disregard and disrespect and the disregard does not end with this person who has dedicated 30 years to as an employee to the district the implications raise questions what is the future of the professional evaluative process used by our administrators which has been subordinated by the board what is the future of anyone who puts herself out there to coach a team advise a club or Chaperone a dance what about the teachers in the district shall we be expecting the board members to sit in our classrooms now to evaluate us I wear 79 tonight because any one of us who

014dedicates ourselves to the kids of this District can be put in this position any one of us could find our credentials questions our names dragged through the mud our livelihood cut off and not even know why and that is just wrong I'm sorry you thank you foreign [Applause] thank you for your comments and the next speaker is Bill Shaw 's outstanding hi hi my name is Bill shive coach basketball over at Williamsville North I've known Chris for a long long time [Music] not only is uh Chris a really good friend of mine but he's a great coach I I think most of you probably know that um but you know as good as coach as he is he's a better person and I've known him for 30 years how how long have you people known

015him how well do you know him it's a shame and and Mr superintendent I none of my comments are addressed to you I've been coaching for 40 years in Lockport and Starpoint and now in Williamsville I love it here you I got nothing but great reviews from the people I know in Buffalo about you so none of my comments are related or are to trust you at all they're addressed to the Board of Education um and my question to the board of education is when did the change when did it change that your your job changed because I thought the Board of Education job was to set District policy and higher in fire one person you you picked a good one I think though when did it change when did you decide that it was

016okay to hire and Fire you you have a a District athletic director Chris muchka who's making well over a hundred thousand dollars a year you should fire him get rid of him save the save the taxpayer some money of course I'm being sarcastic Chris muchica is the salt of the earth a great great human being knows Athletics like nobody I know and you just decided that his opinion didn't matter I do have a question for the board though you didn't answer that one about your your job why wasn't he brought back it is our policy not to respond to questions during public expression okay well I I guess I kind of figured that um he's allowed to teach a hundred plus kids a day and he can't be on the athletic field of for sick

017for two hours a day six days a week's not allowed to do that he must have done something pretty bad no he really didn't did he he really didn't do anything we decided that it was time to change unfortunate for the Williamsville School District next speaker is John homerford my name is John cummerford I reside at 201 Rollingwood with my wife hope our fifth child will graduate from Williamsville East in two years as a parent of five kids all who have participated in Varsity Sports at Williamsville East I I provide some perspective to this situation so many of us are here to support the soccer coach in August when all when we were away it seems like we all take one vacation that week of August to bomb one off it was when this gentleman

018after 27 years was let go I think facts are important section 6 soccer chairman for 19 years 391 career wins 16 divisional titles 10 section six championships two state final four appearances yet after 27 years you fired him like a civil war Cannon it's disgraceful after hearing the sports decision I immediately reached out I I've never stuck my hat out in this community I've never reached out to anyone and let me tell you when I expressed my dismay I was bulldozed with hundreds of emails texts thanking me and the people behind me for caring about someone we don't treat people like batteries we don't use them up and just throw them out this board is outrageous what they've done here to sit here and and talk about Civics this is anything but Civic your behavior

019we pay people like there's a system in place we have an athletic director a a building uh a school a school athletic director um a building up athletic director and a principal they all supported him this Holy Trinity of support was behind him yet you know more I would love to have a soccer conversation with most of you well you know what what really upsets me is how four of you abstained four of you didn't vote four of you didn't vote none of you one of you didn't even show up to to to um for the meeting why are you running for this office if you're not going to vote vote vote I'll tell you it's really awful how he was treated it's shameful I hope you enjoy your seats there because I don't think

020you're going to have them much more and I'm going to grade you from here you'll get an F for how you handle this situation you should be a calming voice you should a school board should be the Bedrock of our Republic you should be transparent honest thoughtful kind none of that was shown here and I'm getting an a civics lesson premium as I sit here I'm very upset I was treated we're better than this we're better than this and superintendent I've heard great things about you I am sorry you inherited this board [Applause] thank you for your comments our next keeper is Pamela brunskill hi um thanks for having me I am Pam brunskill and I appreciate all the work and effort you put into being on the board I know you get a lot

021of grief um I'm here today because as you know as everybody knows we have an issue we need to address um and that is the decision by the board not to reinstate this one man um to coach I have two girls uh playing soccer for East one is on Varsity one is on JV and the decision not to reinstate in was a complete surprise to me and I would say majority if not the entire soccer team it has led to another unfortunate event or incident if you will a cause effect tumble Domino that is individuals in the community both parents and students now believe that if they have a problem with someone in the schools they can complain to the board if there's a handful of very vocal parents and they're lucky enough to have

022a friend or relative on that board their concerns will be heated and that board member that's a friend or family member doesn't need to abstain it's a very very dangerous precedent um it sends a signal that all not all in our community are equal quite frankly we deserve an explanation for the board's decision two years ago a group of angry parents requested an emergency meeting with the board because their daughters violated the code of conduct the board granted that meeting however last month I and several other families made a similar concern or a similar request but we never even received a response instead we waited and a coach I've been told that was recommended by a board member was hired again I appreciate all the time you put into this position it's not easy right

023right now though it's time to address the reasoning behind not appointing a man who served our community for almost 30 years as a soccer coach and remains a physical education teacher at East what could possibly be so severe as to say he's qualified to teach over 100 kids during the day but not as a coach we as a community deserve an answer thank you for your comments our next speaker is uh ramchana ready okay I don't believe Dr Reddy is here the next speaker is Jack Rafferty good evening everyone uh my name is Jack Rafferty I'm a taxpayer of Erie County I'm a graduate of Williamsville North High School as of 2017. and I grew up attending Dodge Elementary and Casey Middle School uh with the way I see things being run now I pray

024to God that people are still not in charge of the next few years continuing all this nonsense I know I'm not the first person here to address the topic and I certainly won't be the last um I'll state it simply and bluntly forcing children to wear masks in this school district is child abuse if you're not listening to concerned parents or even taking these clear facts into consideration shame on you these aren't your own children if you really cared about them then you'd be considered considering that childhood obesity among many other health issues are much greater problem than the Chinese Coronavirus you're the ones complicit the responsibility is on you as elected officials who have instead chosen to align with one side rather than upholding the oath of your position to serve the interests of

025your constituents instead of listening to the government why don't you start acting like adults and listen to Common Sense according to the CDC children that are 5 to 14 years of age have a point two percent chance of dying from covid the suicide rate for children of this age is 1.5 percent homicide is 0.7 cardiovascular disease is 0.6 drowning is 0.5 fluid pneumonia 0.3 Suffocation and covet are both at point two putting masks on the children is not for quote unquote safety of the community when it isn't even the children carrying the virus with them at a significant rate masking children is selfish students can no longer communicate directly with their teachers teachers can no longer communicate directly with their students it was Plato that said take familiarity away from the people and you no

026longer have a society that trusts each other this is a very Foundation of our existence and who we were created to be living amongst each other this is the very basics of social contract theory you guys don't you get it we cannot go like on like this any longer we were meant to be human we were meant to empathize yet you and your self-righteous rules and regulations prevent the children from growing up in a world of proper social and emotional standards these masks are turning kids into robots and the people in the school district are waking up and they actually care about your uh their children listen to your constituents the government does not know or care about our families at all you people should be trusting the parents of this District to make the

027right Health decisions for their own children people are waking up and I hope to God that you are no longer in those seats the next time I have to come here I hope you enjoy your remaining time you're wearing masks because that's all you'll ever be known for here thank you or comments our next speaker is Kristen cacciardi hello good evening I'm Kristen kajotti as some of you probably already know I'm here today to talk to you about class size guidelines um first of all I did want to say thank you for looking at class sizes tonight I know that it's on the agenda and that you're going to be ensuring that class sizes are within the guidelines um I did I'm not sure when it was posted on board docs but I was able

028to pull that up and compare it to some of the information from two years ago obviously last year was um you know with covet and hybrid and all that stuff we can't really look at numbers from there so I did see that a good number of our class size averages did go down so I was really happy to see that um but I do have two requests my first request is that it might be beneficial for you to look at class sizes in July or August I do realize that numbers can certainly change and will change over the summer but I would imagine that by July they're pretty solid and pretty set so if the numbers were looked at earlier we could use our budgeted six non-allocated teachers and grade levels that are starting the

029year out at the higher end of the guidelines this would allow us to hopefully start our classes at the lower ends of the guidelines by adding those teachers that are already budgeted and putting them into place there this might seem insignificant but again looking at the information I had from two years ago adding Just Four elementary teachers throughout the district would have resulted in significant positive changes in reducing our class sizes in those Upper Elementary grades my next request is of course to take this idea One Step farther I am asking the board to lower class size size guidelines to under 25 in The District kindergarten first and second grade class size guidelines were lowered in 2015 with the intention to continue lowering them unfortunately as many of you know other things took priority and

030that did not happen um Dr Brown Hall I know that obviously you just started with us you weren't here but two years ago when I started this work work the board received over a hundred letters in support of lowering class size guidelines when I started coming to speak at board meetings a lot of the members of the board asked great questions about class sizes and also including class sizes in the curriculum extension or what US old folks would call specials um they had legitimate concerns of course then covet hit and again priorities needed to shift totally understandable now that we are back to school full time we have even more reason to continue this good work our students have not had a normal school year with daily direct reading instruction in over two years when

031I think about that from my own perspective I think of my third grader who hasn't had a normal school year in over two years as all of you know especially I know Mrs leatherbro you mentioned it at a board meeting being a former reading teacher that in third grade we have that shift where it gets harder writing gets lengthier we're no longer learning to read we are reading to learn that is a huge shift for people who have not had Direct instruction since kindergarten so as a teacher I was told to expect my students to be about 13 months behind in their reading so I'm asking this board to continue class size discussions and make changes for our students thank you for your comments that will be the end of public expression for this evening

032thank you thank you miss Kiss Mark Faulkner I do want to thank all of our speakers please know that we are listening regarding the comments the coach we very much appreciate it I want to say as president that I wish I could give out information I'm not at Liberty to do that but I have to respect individuals right to privacy um and I just need to clear up one thing that was said during Mr Rafferty that spoke about anti-masking there was a um a racial slur that was used to describe the coronavirus and I do feel like as as members of the school district and board it's really important that we no I'm sorry I just feel like it's it's the right thing to do for me to speak out against that so we can

033agree to this for speaking on class size all right so we are moving on to our consent agenda um we will vote on consent agenda item six Personnel seven business and eight special needs and Student Activities may I please have a motion to approve consent agenda items six through eight Dr Lipman thank you Miss Poland second is there any discussion and if if someone feels we need a roll call vote please let me know any discussion seeing none okay all in favor opposed of sentence thank you motion carries unanimously all right at this time I would like to welcome and congratulate our newly appointed assistant principal for Dodge Elementary and this is Miss Nicole Mayers and Miss Mayors I haven't met you yet so if you're here please oh welcome please come right up to

034the podium so good evening Dr Brown Hall Board of Education today with me I got Miss Nicole Mayers she's a mother of four um all of them went through Dodge so I guess your path is going to be through Dodge again she's been a 16-year veteran school counselor at Batavia Central School District New York State counselor of the year and now she is the ap of Dodge Elementary this is Nicole Mayers [Applause] um thank you very much thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself tonight as Mr smother's side I'm Mrs Mayors Nicole Mayers and um I'm very excited to be joining the Dodge team I would like to um thank the board um Dr Brown Hall Mr smelnich and the district leaders for this opportunity I'm very excited to be joining the Dodge team

035and continue to do the work that they've been doing they've been doing a fantastic job all of the years that I've had children in the school there I'm very excited to be joining that fan that Dodge family in that Community as Mr smolnes mentioned I do have four children that are enrolled in the district all through um elementary through the high school so I'm highly invested in the Williamsville community and I'm just very excited to be joining um the team and be part of the community so thank you again for the opportunity [Applause] the Board of Education extends best wishes and gratitudes of the following retirees for their service are we doing a picture I'm sorry about that I'll come back to that [Music] um foreign [Music] retirees for their service to the district Jessica

036briandi North High School for 25 years of service Michelle Calandra I'm gonna miss you very much North High School 33 years of service and Mary Summers Wendy Casey and high middle school for six years of school of service thank you very much and enjoy repair [Applause] after a motion to approve the August 10 2021 board meeting minutes Mrs Peter thank you may have a second Dr sang Thank you very much are there any Corruptions or additions to the minute seeing none all in favor opposed dungeons okay motion carries with one of sunshine so eight zero one moving on to our president's report the opening day for staff and support was September 1st um there was a virtual format so I wasn't you know the board missed out on being able to sort of pick up

037on the energy of and the excitement of the first day but it was very nice to watch the video of all of that Dr Brown House you wish to comment on that no I I know having those first two days of professional development and building learning and then the day after Labor Day the teachers only got a great amount of opportunity to have professional development and time setting up their classrooms the building principles got time to meet with their teachers to really set the tone for the new school year as we did on the video so the teachers really appreciated that I know the principles appreciated the time they had with their teachers and teachers were able to really get focused and welcome students back in a great manner as they did so yeah it

038was a great time thank you it was really nice to see um usually all the music teachers will join on stage and sing The Star Spangled Banner and um this time they were all outside one of the school s yeah it was really pretty powerful to see that any comments on the board from any of that okay thank you uh we do have a community Forum that's happening on September I'm sorry Saturday October 16th East High School from 9 to 12. so right now this is set to be in person if anything happens and we are forced to go virtual then we will do that but we were really hoping to keep it an in-person event um are there any board members who are unable to attend at this time for the community Forum on

039October 16th I will be able to attend but I will have to leave um early for another commitment okay problem thank you for letting us know is everyone else available is there anyone that's not available for our community Forum on October 16th explained to the public format of that or what that looks like um sure you know what we we haven't really determined it quite yet and then okay so we will we will have to have that conversation because we've done we've done it we have that information we'll be sure to share that out um Erie County Association of school boards also called ecasb their annual dinner is October 7th at Salvatore's there is a flyer attached in board Docs currently signed up is Dr McCleary and Dr Singh there's also a speedboarding event on

040October 14th and I believe we have um the district Department of our district presenting when I looked at the flyer and I forget right do you remember what it was for yes for the uh planetarium yes the planetarium so I when I saw that I felt like I really should be there to support um our Planetarium and is there anyone else that would like to attend the speedboarding I'm going to attend that this is Carrie you can check your calendar your superintendents are always welcome too yeah all right um Mrs Kerry can manage the registration for any of these events so if something opens up and you'd like to attend please let her know there was a western New York virtual law conference which happens on August 10th and August 12th Mrs kazmirik Faulkner did

041its hand and I see you did submit a report is there anything you wanted to add at the table no it was just a very informative event very comprehensive uh discussion on many different topics so I think it's best just people look at the notes that I left in board docs for that thank you very much for doing that and the other upcoming meeting dates for ecasb are listed in war docs does anyone have anything that they wish to discuss in that category right now all right so moving on to the New York State School Board Association the board officers Academy is happening on October 1st Dr Singh has signed up to a ton and Miss Poland were you going to sign up as well yes yes okay yeah I highly recommend it I went

042a few years ago and it's it's very valuable especially for anyone who is considering a board leadership role um the 2021 [Music] 102nd annual nisba convention will be held October 24th through October 26th in New York City this year attending from the board will be myself Mrs Van zeis Mrs bieger and Dr Lipman and um Dr Brownell are you also attending the convention wonderful and Dr Lipman is the voting Delegate for the annual business meeting which will be held virtually on October 18th and we will be approving and authorizing the voting delegates in our next agenda item does anyone have anything they wish to report under nissva well Jeff Whitman I mean as you stated uh within the board packet was the proposed resolution and the resolution kit so we'll discuss anything that's our next

043item okay yeah absolutely we can bring it up a little bit now um you're right though we have a whole other meeting before you have to vote um but Dr Lipman is correct the resolution kit and all of the resolutions are listed if you look through it there's some that the news there's a nisba committee and some of them they support and some of them they don't support and they give their rationale statements as for why um so before we have that discussion may I have a motion to approve an authorize Dr Littman as the voting delegate as presented uh Miss Poland thank you and Miss beager is second so we're authorizing Dr Littman to vote on that so let's let's have that vote and then we can have the discussion on the different resolution

044items okay so all in favor of Dr Littman being our delegate to vote on our behalf opposed of sentence okay motion carried unanimously and absolutely you may vote for that Dr Littman thank you so does anyone and thank you for being willing to do it does anyone wish to share their preferences for any of the resolutions or have any difference of opinion than what nisba supported so I just had um [Music] a couple that I had that I wanted to question and these were ones that nisba supported so one of them is board resolution four and it's asking that there'd be a reimbursement for student meals and I'm wondering if this resolution was written before the federal government decided to to do that so I just wanted to check with um Mr manzarski is it

045true that our federal government is reimbursing us now for all student meals it kind of makes this resolution a moot point yeah for this year we are getting 100 reimbursement for all meals and that's breakfast and lunch yes all right so I'm guessing that this resolution because I know they have to be submitted earlier several months ahead I'm guessing it was probably um done that way another one um and this is sort of a contentious one but it's on vaccine mandates and um you know Dr Lipman you you just gotta vote your conscience on that one it's number 14. you know you're you you're authorized by the board to vote your conscience on that but I just wanted to bring up bring that one to everyone's attention um and uh there was one other one

046I had a question about Mr Mr Mister ski that would come back to you resolution 16 is to abolish um expenditure reporting and the rationale was that um what was intended to be a good thing and be transparent became like a an overly cumbersome big paperwork project and so I didn't know if you wanted to speak to those if you are familiar with yeah I I'm not quite sure what their resp what they're actually referencing okay um our expenditure reporting that the board gets every month would happen regardless of that would just happen uh the reports we submit to New York State on an annual basis uh one is the st3 that's submitted in uh September beginning of September that's required for state aid the transparency report that submitted to New York State Department of

047Finance is also in September that one might be what they're referencing and then the Essa transparency report is submitted at the end of December uh that one is a federal requirement that the state has really must uphold so specifically if it's uh the the one regarding the transparency report to New York State I would tend to agree with that one the others though are required all right all right it works resolution was that was number 16. 16 sort of questioning we're number four 14 and 16. um and then there's a list of resolutions that nizba is against and those are numbers 18 through 25 um I picked out a couple that I was a little concerned about one was um teacher background checks which is number 18. at first read I see that as a

048good thing um this was speaking considerably for out-of-state teachers that were applying um this book was disagreeing with the proposal um another one was number 19 to streamline the teacher certification process as a teacher I personally feel like it can be streamlined especially for out-of-state teachers but nisbah was disagreeing with this one and then the other one was 21 which was the coverage of Child Health Plus for all students so I just wanted to bring those numbers 18 19 and 21 to the board's attention um in case you want to look at them for next month okay and just to go back to number 16 it is the state school level expenditure report to increase transparency so you are right Dr Mr Church okay perfect yes Dr Lipman yeah I would just saying because I

049have served as a voting delegate through the years but not lately but um all I would ask of the board is if you have comments or issues you want to bring forward you know send them to me by email and then at the next meeting we could just discuss anything that has uh issues at the table and I think uh president leather Barrow explains you know the outline of this very well so thank you for that correct excellent okay thank you very much any other comments or questions on any of these resolutions a lot to read through but it was actually really interesting reading to go through yeah there is I mean one thing you mentioned about the psychological testing yeah it's one of those things you always say in writing don't add AMD to

050add stuff if you ended the sentence before you added that two words I mean I think they may have seen a different value in it and which policy was that one I think you mentioned six is it 16. and I agree their rationale for that one was because of the psychological testing component yeah I missed that when I was reading it all right thank you that helps to understand that so thank you for that if I just checked the heart of all the teachers so big well it was that simple right okay so we already approved Dr Linton we're moving on to item e um so this is our nomination for area one director both Linda Hoffman Who currently serves net role and Matthew Kennedy have been nominated by at least five member school boards

051to be candidates for area one directory on the board of directors of the New York State School Board Association and this would take effect on January 1st 2022 for a two-year term so each member's School Board acting in a regular or special meeting is entitled to cast one vote for one candidate so Mrs Kerry is going to do a roll call vote when she calls her name you're going to respond with either Linda Hoffman or Matthew Kennedy both individuals have submitted letters to the board which are available in board Docs um and does anyone have a question about either one of those candidates that either myself or Dr McClary might be able to answer before we vote all right go ahead Mrs Gary okay I'll just uh call it call on you and then State

052uh Linda Hoffman or Matthew Kennedy uh Mr Speaker Linda Huffman this is Mr biscalia Linda Hoffman Mrs kesmarak Bogner Linda Hoffman this is leather Barrel Linda Hoffman Dr Littman Matthew Kennedy Dr McCleary Belinda Hoffman Miss Pullen Linda Hoffman Dr Singh Matthew Kennedy and Mrs Van Zeiss okay I'll submit uh Linda Hoffman to the nisbah Mary Matheny okay so the board voted and the member from the vote is going to be Mrs or Miss Linda Hoffman and Mrs Kerry will cast the board's vote by September 30th and that's done online I believe rock thank you Mrs Kerry all right so District policy Review Committee this is going to take a little bit of discussion as a result of discussion under the committee of the whole at our last board meeting I perceive that we have a

053consensus to form a policy Review Committee or a series of policy review committees to review and update our Board of Education policy manual so if we look at it as it is now on Port Docs there are eight sections of policies which are all available for our viewing in board docs as I said I wanted to get your feedback on how many teams you would like us to run at one time I do feel it would be overwhelming to tackle all eight categories in one large chunk um I did speak with Dr Brown Hall about this a few times on the phone um ideally we would want to hold these committee meetings either during the school day or before 5 PM because many of us have liaison assignments and just family and life go events

054in the evening and I'm sure Dr Brown Hall wants to go home at some point sometimes um so if we look at the different policy policy sections in the 1000 category which is the first category there's 29 policies in that category alone and then there's only seven policies in the 2000 section and 30 in the 3000 section so Eric I feel like we shouldn't go any further than doing the first three but I wanted to open it up to your feedback if you wanted to start with the first one we could start there or if we want to choose members for all three committees tonight we can do that as well does any feedback I open it up I'll start on this side and I'll go down the table Dr Lipman I mean I think

055you you made a very good suggestion um and if you just look at all of these I mean again you look at them in order is the way they're written or should we in my mind maybe we should prioritize the ones the most germane to what we're supposed to carry out even though we're supposed to pay at all policies but there are some that may be more valuable than another yeah there's a section of so like the 1000 level is bylaws yeah so do you feel like there's a certain section that would be a priority to start with uh and you know I would be sort of a board consensus but I mean I would look at um you know instruction um I mean uh community relations is important I mean all of them are

056important there's no doubt but we have to you know come up with some creative solution to maybe rank them and then go from there okay I mean that's one way can I say one thing but so if you do it in order instead of hopping around and bylaws although there's 29 policies in there most of the bylaws policies are really monitored by law commission or regulation so there's not really any District specific ones so there's not much um changing that needs to be done right just make sure they're adhering and most of those are regularly updated from BOCES so some of the policy sections will probably be easier to get through than others bylaws will be one of them so I I do suggest you just still take it in order so you don't get

057off track so one two and three I would think you would want to chunk it that way and then um just figure out which board members want to volunteer on each of those as you had discussed prior is is that good with everyone to do it that way okay so why don't we just go ahead then and look at um the first category so we need to form a committee for the bylaws and um we can have up to four members we can't go beyond four because that would be a quorum so if you are interested in serving on the bylaw committee would you want to raise your hand for this let me just clarify um that I'm interested in helping with this but couldn't commit to working during the day so I I wonder

058I guess if all of us are going to be in committees how this will look if we just have a policy committee that needs to do this work um I'm happy to proofread and read things after hours but I wouldn't be able to meet during the day so I don't know if I should volunteer to to be part of this work as I as I wouldn't be able to to meet to discuss right I don't want to I don't want to limit it to just during the day I just we you know we just makes sense though to be able to discuss right but um potentially three different committees running at the same time yes um okay so oh my microphone because I put it way up height sorry so we're looking at doing multiple

059committees uh at the same time maybe meeting um and we don't know exactly how many times that would be that would maybe take the entire year correct that just sounds really scary to me I'm just going to be honest with you well running running concurrently not meeting at the same time but right currently but once the committee I I would say this once you as a committee form right I I suggest then you can develop you know what there being a preference for earlier times you can develop what times you meet then as long as the committee the four members in that committee dealing with section one one you know District policy one thousands or the two thousand or the three thousands can set your time and you're committed to those you can all calendar

060match who's ever doing section one bylaws and then figure out what days and times you're going to make So when you say section one two and three we're talking about the one thousands two thousand one section so I see that the 2000 has seven only yeah compared to 29 um or 30. so I'd like to be on the number two all right so let's start with bylaws who's interested in serving on bylaws and Dr Brown Hall is correct we can adjust our times and we can figure out a time to do that but I'm willing to serve on the bylaw committee there's other two more individuals that might be available for that I will thank you Dr letman and we can I I can do it as well Okay so we've got myself um Dr

061Littman and Miss casmirazak Faulkner for the first um 1000 level and then for the 2000 level which was Advanced ice pointed out is much shorter this is Van size you'd like to be on that one who will also volunteer for that one hi so Mrs bigger Mrs Van sais and I'll be the third Mr viscalia and do you want us to go ahead and schedule the third one right now or should we just hold maybe just use you okay Miss Dr McCleary saying so let's go let's go for it so the third level is the community relations and there are 30 policies in the collection okay so Dr uh Miss Poland and Dr McCleary I think and Dr sang that's perfect I think that's a great place to start um Mrs Carrie are you getting

062the names I can repeat them back if you need them to yeah okay so may I have a motion to resolve and approve the district policy Review Committee as discussed and as discussed it was myself Dr Littman and Miss casmeric Wagner for the 1000 level which is the bylaws uh Miss Poland Dr McCleary and Dr Singh with a 3 000 level sorry I'm going out of order which was community relations which is how I wrote it and Mrs bieger Mrs Van slice and Mr biscalia were the internal operations of 2000 level am I have a motion to approve those committees thank you Dr McCleary and second Mrs Beaker any discussion by seeing none all in favor opposed or abstentions thank you to the motion carries unanimously so at least we now have committees formed we

063know like what we're assigned to and you know we can take this baby steps and we can definitely get consult from from you Dr Ronald because I know you've done this work before which we're we're novices in this work great so thank you for that board members moving on to item G this is just a brief message the approved board goals and the action stops and measures they were all approved at our August board meeting I have entered all of this information into our super eval system and at our last meeting individual board members volunteered to monitor specific goals throughout the year you may log out to the super eval system to input the evidence of meeting each of these goals so the measures that are listed the action steps you can put in that

064work and typically we put the the month that it that we addressed it and we put the action item as well so that you can go back and cross-reference it and look it up all right does anyone have anything to add about our board goals yes just to clarify I know in the last year we submitted the evidence directly I believe to Mrs Carey to create a PowerPoint so will this if we are doing it throughout the year then Mrs Kerry can get that information to create her Powerpoint yeah yeah because she has access to Super eval um you know that was the first year we assigned individual board members and I just want to make sure that you all have access to Super email and are able to add information I want to make

065sure that I don't have like a different level of access just because I'm the president so I'm able to add information but maybe we can test it out just to be sure um because it would be easier if we had it in super email throughout the year because then it's more of a living breathing document instead of something like oh it's January it's time to monitor let's go back and scramble and see what we did no I agree thank you that sounds wonderful yeah absolutely good question thank you all right that's all I have for my president's report so we're moving on to the superintendent's report exciting Hollywood turn it over to you thank you very much so we're going to get started with the community update first and the community update really is focusing

066on school reopening there we go so we officially welcome students back um to the first day of school on September 8th for full-time in-person instruction so I had the ability and the pleasure of going around Wednesday Thursday Friday and this past Monday yesterday visiting every school myself and Dr billing we spent time in every school we wanted to talk to students to staff to see the students engaged and it was really really good because um as you can see Nick filipowski and David joined us and they got a lot of pictures of students welcoming back with our hashtag willpower so the students were excited to be back the teachers and the staff were excited to have them back and it really really you can see the liveliness in the hallways the hallways just really came

067alive and it was really good to see engagement in the classroom I mean students were active in their classrooms all of the days you know and really I I was concerned with what the cafeterias would look like also so we made it a special point to talk about the cafeterias to visit the cafeterias and I want to let you know because I I saw this on the cafeteria plans that were submitted to us about QR codes at the high school in the cafeterias and this was new to me so students because we have to have the seating charts for you know the contact tracing the students can use their phone to log in the QR code or if they don't have a phone they can use one of the Chromebooks they log in they scan

068the QR code and then they just log in their name and stuff and it creates a seating chart for the cafeteria so if we need to do contact tracing so at the high schools I thought that was so cool so I want to highlight that also and one thing I want to say our principles and our school administrators really know their buildings they really do you can see the easiness of the transition back into the building with the longevity of most of our administrators they really know their buildings they know their families and it just allow for a smooth transition so I was very very happy with those School visits and I'm looking forward to going back also in a couple of weeks health and safety oh I think I skipped transportation okay so Transportation

069was a concern at the beginning of the year as you heard Vice President Van sice really praising the work of Mr matersky and Graham in the transportation department they've been doing a lot answering parents concerns and questions regarding Transportation as you know the we're not insulated in Williamsville the transportation problem the driver shortage is a national problem what I will say here in Williamsville we are lucky that we are only short 12 drivers now that number will be decreasing we have hired well sta has hired five additional drivers and it takes a little while for them to be trained and to get them on the road because they have to spend a certain amount of time with current drivers also but five additional drivers have been hired and then we have drivers returning from sick

070leave so the the numbers of tardiness of our buses will be decreasing for example Miss maturesky gave me the numbers yesterday I'm sorry it was this morning we had 16 late buses and eight of those buses were late less than 10 minutes right so there are two buses that Graham and Mr matersky are looking into because they were they were really late and so we're just trying to see how we can be more efficient on those routes but as I said again we're in the process of hiring additional drivers and we will continue to do that just to make sure we also have some substitute drivers available and the technical issues with the mystop bus app have been resolved so we're heading in the right direction and once we get into a routine it will

071after we hire the new drivers and get them to a routine it will get easier and easier every week I have a question about Transportation so when I read the initial guidance my understanding was that it would be one student per seat unless they were in the same household but um I'm seeing that the buses are full and so is this is this the type of guidance that you know has the disclaimer to the extent possible or is this guidance that we are completely following yeah it's absolutely to the extent possible because right now we do have primarily full buses we do okay right I know we indicated that we would um you know we would do that too that's impossible but that we would load our buses um and that was allowed also in

072the guidance that parents know that because because it might change whether or not they feel comfortable having their child be on the bus correct Mrs vegan I just want to express my gratitude Dr Brown Hall to you Mr machersky and on Transportation we've heard a lot of concerns from families of course we know that the first day of school but I appreciate rather than the district just saying well it's going to get better to really look targeted what those buses are you're tracking those you're checking to see which buses are late and looking into those routes that's how we're most efficient to solve problems so thank you for taking the time I know that's important too obviously the kids but the families as well we want to make sure that our bosses are absolutely thank

073you for your targeted attention to that thank you thank you very much health and safety so we ask parents to please continue to complete the daily covid-19 health screening the daily reminders to complete the screening and temperature checks will be sent at 6 a.m this next bullet is extremely important if staff members or students exhibit signs or symptoms of covid-19 please stay home even if you are vaccinated so we want to be very clear vaccinated individuals are still able two unfortunately catch covet you are able to be a breakthrough case and with that you do have a contagious period so we ask if you are experiencing any signs or symptoms please stay home and we encourage you strongly please go get tested okay so if you can please if you don't hear anything else tonight

074please make sure you hear that daily covid-19 reports are available on the district's covid-19 education page also so they are not sent or emailed anymore they do appear on the district's code at 19 education page you can check that daily foreign and please don't get me wrong everything we do and say here is important but that one was very important so all uh staff members and families were sent information regarding surveillance and proximal testing this testing is optional um if staff members and students choose to participate they can opt out at any time this is where we will do it's a random sampling of testing so just because you opt-in does not mean you will be tested okay it's optional and it's a random sampling but I need to be clear this testing does not

075satisfy the requirement for all individuals working in a p12 environment to show proof of vaccination or undergo mandatory weekly testing so we are in the process now of collecting information of individual staff members who have been vaccinated those that do not provide proof must undergo mandatory weekly testing this testing the surveillance and proximal testing does not um qualify for that requirement all right so it does not qualify for that requirement I want you to be clear on that PTSA meeting yesterday and one of the questions about that was um if parents do elect for their child to um be part of the optional testing would that happen at their own School building or would they need to travel to another location yep and we got clarification I was on that meeting with you absolutely um

076so it will happen at their School site absolutely so we are partnering with the Erie County Department of Health who is partnering with um Buffalo home care and so those nurses will be traveling to the school sites to conduct the testing excellent parents weren't sure how do families um uh choose to do that for their children to participate so there was a letter we sent out and on the letter it had the links for additional information and then they can call our offices or they can call the Erie County Department of Health but the links were there also for families to register to participate in either of the screenings so if that got lost in the shuffle family should just go back into wits yes and information okay thank you so much thank you very

077much the next item I want to direct your attention to is the class size report that is available in board Docs now the class size report here you will notice that all of our classes and the guidelines are on this report so the class size guidelines for grade K are 16 to 20 grade 1 class size guidelines 19 to 23 grade 2 20 to 24 grade 3 22 to 26 grade 4 23 to 27 grade 5 and grade 6 25 to 29 and I'm happy to report that all of our classrooms are either within the guidelines within the range or below the range and so that is something that we all are very happy about we have a parent speak about that this evening I want to thank Dr McKenna and his staff for staying

078on top of this and compiling this information and working with the building principals who supplied this information so the class size report as the parent said when they were speaking is inboard dots also any questions about that Mrs Beaker I'm I'm Satan chatty Kathy tonight but um I am very appreciative of this report it's something that's important to me and I've asked for and I'm very grateful to see that our class sizes are all within the range just one of the pieces that I wanted to point out where maybe we can continue the conversations around the curriculum extensions and we see that those same class size guidelines don't apply in the same way and I know that might be because you know there's larger groups for PE or things of that nature but um that's

079something that I think we can continue to discuss the other question that I just wanted to ask is as we're looking at these class sizes is the district looking at any of the current construction that is happening in our area because while these are our set class sizes just for example like within a mile or two radius of where we're sitting tonight um there's tons of houses that seem to be going in off of Dodge Road and off of Heim Road over by new road and and with all and there's just this little pocket um I know we get uh someone to come in and look at those numbers but I just I'm curious if the district is looking at that and if we will have room to accommodate as families start to go in

080as our community continues to grow right and that's that's a great question and I know that at the November board meeting I believe is when we have the outside company working at the Amherst Town board to really look at what buildings are what new build is going on in new construction in the district how many of those are residential how many of them are not you know Senior Living how many students might we anticipate getting and that's all factored in I know um assistant superintendent skin zuzo works very closely with them to keep an eye on our enrollment and our enrollment management so that we can plan out years to come as a district great thank you very much for that and I think one of the I had asked that question too about you

081know what space is available in the buildings that we currently have as we add in um the universal Pre-K to the schools which I think is an excellent thing I'd love to see that in every one of our buildings but do we have the space so right and we we were uh very very lucky that the schools we added the universal Pre-K and we were able to find the classroom space back but I will let you know that going around to many of our schools our schools many of them are at the capacity right they really are at the capacity so that's why when we talk about class size and we look and if we increase enrollment at some of our schools it might not be adding another class but trying to keep the student

082to teacher ratio Low by maybe adding a teacher Aid or additional supports in the classroom because you know adding extensions to school buildings is very costly and in some places you can't even do that right you know so thank you very much for that point but that you that space utilization that you were talking about is something that we have to consider when we look at the enrollment management for years to come in the district Mr Brown House oh I'm sorry so with that and I know we look at years to come but this seems to be a growing Trend right and we know that we really don't have a lot of space um it is a concern I think for all of us because we know those numbers most likely will increase we do

083know that many students are currently at private that might return but we also although there's not a lot in the e-remote academy that's a little factor and potentially some parents are parentally teaching and homeschooling this year so I'm happy to see that we're within the range right now but it there are circumstances that could have also put us here so just really being cognizant absolutely the following year and years to come that we wanna as it is already lower guidelines but then we have these other factors and the space is a huge thing of really being um looking at our options and being able to think outside the box I guess to look for spacing to be class sizes absolutely absolutely thank you for that but you're very right that that's why that enrollment coupled

084with the space utilization are so very important to see what is possible and what can be done um next we have a um our diversity equity and inclusion update so I will say there's been a lot of focus on Dei Statewide and it's really really important and many board members when I've spoken to you there is a focus on diversity equity and instruction so we wanted to present in October myself assistant superintendent billing and assistant superintendent scan zuzo to to show where we've been as a district where we're currently at and what we see in the future coming as it revolves around in regard in regards to diversity equity and inclusion so if we can get that up Nick foreign so first please know that this entire presentation is really built around the culmination of

085planning for the implementation of Dei I know there's been presentations in the past by Dr villain and assistant superintendent skin zuzo about diversity in our school district but now that the New York State Board of Regents lost launched an initiative to Advanced diversity equity and inclusion in schools across New York State as first steps in the initiative the board released a policy statement in draft framework it's a call to action now this was released in May of last year but I will let you know Williamsville did not wait for that to begin their diversity work the diversity work had already begun years prior and we wanted to make sure we um highlighted that for you but we are going to use this New York State education department framework to really base a lot of our

086work moving forward and you are in the Pilot in the packet you have this evening you do have policy 3431 for a first reading it is the Williamsville School District policy on Dei foreign [Music] so in their call to action there were purpose and intent right so I'm going to read these three statements because these are the ones that really jumped out and really what we're going to base our work on so all student students benefit when their school employment's strong diversity equity and inclusion policies and practices including academic cognitive Civic social emotional and economic benefits knowing that all of our students will have to operate in a global Society so anything we put in place for Dei will benefit all of our students and partnership with parents and families it will Empower students from

087all backgrounds to visualize successful futures for themselves and provide them with a sense of belonging and self-worth so that belonging piece is really important and you will hear it again when we talk about the basic definition of inclusion that I is so important it shall be the policy of the New York State Board of Regents to encourage and support efforts at the state and local level to create within every school and ecosystem of success that is built upon a foundation of diversity Equity inclusion access opportunity Innovation confidence trust respect caring and relationship building I know all our board members agree and our parents agree too those those are the words you want to hear when we're talking about educating our students in our district making sure that all of our students are included have access

088and opportunity build confidence trust and that relationship building piece is also so important I'll turn it over to assistant superintendent scan zuzo thank you Dr Brown Hall as a result of these efforts the focus is placed on several critical elements for students and members of our school community these include areas of belonging appreciation personal experiences reflecting individual identities the impact of words and behaviors unity and relationship building and I think that during our little video of willpower you saw a lot of these terms pop up from kids so as you can see these are terminologies and these are phrases that we've uh we've been implementing and sharing with our students and it's sticking with them as you can see that they're able to regurgitate these on their own uh when uh when asked to so

089um it's really great to start seeing that the foundational pieces are being put in place at all levels on this slide we've reflected a summary of how we see the work come to fruition our district our school district and school communities as a whole are committed to supporting each and every individual with an appreciation of Multicultural multiculturalism that focuses on opportunity respect caring and relationship building and these are foundational pieces that I think we're seeing more and more of a lot of emphasis being put on on a daily basis through curriculum through readings through you know just having opportunities to be with one another and the fact that we're in person together is going to bring this to a whole other level so that that challenge is is going to be uh much more much

090more realistic for our kids to achieve our state documents also include common language and definitions so that these areas these These are communicated and understood we featured several for you on the next few slides and as you can see there's a definition of diversity and as we Implement something new It's always important that the language be common among the entire districts only 13 schools it's important that not only the schools the kids faculty and the community understand when we talk about diversity what it really entails foreign next definition is equity inclusion and one that certainly cannot be forgotten which is probably one of the strengths of our district happens to be our diverse culture and we've shared this definition with you in a previous presentations um but schools as I want to point point out

091in the bolded area schools then become a meeting point for cultures containing children and adults who bring with them multiple facets of their identity along with unique experiences and perspective we learned so much from one another when we have opportunities to just listen and and talk and learn more about you know what life is like in their home like at this point I'll bring up Dr Valen thank you Mr scanzuzo thank you Dr Brown Hall and good evening Board of Education it's great to be here with you this evening in our next segment of our presentation this is something that will be ringing familiar with you as we've talked about this before New York State education department released a culturally responsive sustaining education framework and what this does for us is it helps Educators but

092really the school Community as a whole help to understand what student-centered learning environments do and those have very specific purposes and you can see some of the schematics on the screen actually speak to this these affirm that racial linguistic and cultural identities are important within our school Community we want to prepare students for rigor and Independent Learning and also develop their abilities to connect across lines of difference and certainly Elevate historically marginalized voices and Empower students as agents of social change this framework as you may recall was finalized and released to the field just prior to school closure as a result of covid-19 in the late winter and early spring of 2020. we have several examples that we've presented to you during the 2021 school year of how this framework was coming to life within

093our schools and I just want to share a few this evening with you as well with the creation of a welcoming and affirming environment you've heard much about restorative practices and Community circles we do continue to strive to implement those in each and every classroom as schools were opening this year that was a primary focus as we welcome students back to school that connectivity certainly was first and foremost and we spent a considerable amount of time talking with our building principals and also our faculties about how we are going to welcome our students back and making those connections was really a strong component of that certainly our communication with parents of our English language Learners as you know we communicate in their language of preference we have that recorded in with so we know what

094parents preferences are and we do hold to that and respect that for our families we have multiple workshops that we have had for teachers and staff much of our professional development which you'll hear about a little bit later this evening is to learn and understand cultures of of our students and it even transcends beyond that as Mr scanzuzad and we looked at that definition of diversity and looking at that closely you can see that culture is one component it speaks to multiple facets and I can assure you that all of those are so important within our school community and certainly are a focus for ours that we've maintained and certainly will maintain uh even more so moving forward under fostering high expectations for students again this is a very very large component of what happens

095within our classrooms we do speak of events particularly in social studies and as you know there is a board of education policy that also provides guidance on issues and topics as they're addressed in the classroom as you know from past presentations we have hosted a number of events in our schools to further understanding talk about acceptance and also embrace our differences and our similarities within our school Community as far as curriculum and assessment really this can be a presentation in and of itself but you've heard a lot about and certainly today they know all of the work that's been done in our Ela curriculum and in our classrooms with regard to reading and writing Workshop one primary component of this has been our extensive Library Collections and much as even being done this year as

096you may recall from some of our grant expenditures one primary area that we are focusing on is continue to to add to these libraries so that we have a diverse rich and deep collection of resources for our students not only so they can see themselves in the literature but so they can see authors that come from all backgrounds and all cultures all all identities it's very very important that students see that we talked about Windows mirrors and sliding glass doors and that is an outstanding resource again that we shared with you in a previous meeting students active participation in social emotional learning certainly is one area again that you've heard much about to date that is something that again fits right into and aligns nicely with the work on Dei so one thing that I

097think we want to really keep in mind mind and really know that is important as all of the initiatives that we speak to you about one being SEL certainly Dei and what you'll hear about again from our strategic planning they are purposefully intertwined and infused with one another and that is a critical component moving forward and certainly as we move forward we look forward to other opportunities as we address all of these topical areas to bring you even more information this year so one of the items we also just wanted to revisit briefly is just to remind as Dr Brown Hall had shared already is the history of Williamsville and our work has been extensive this this dates back several decades we shared with you at one of our previous board meetings some of the

098history regarding Community Dialogue on diversity there were matters that were dealt with in the 1980s that actually resulted in some of our policies that were actually put into place and certainly as we go through policy review we always look to see if there's anything further that needs to be addressed or updated but what this did for us is long before there was a Dei initiative from New York State our district was already committed to ensuring that we are embracing everyone within our school community so we have to really applaud that those efforts were made many many years ago and they continued to this day and they will continue as we move forward one of the policies that we want to bring to your attention that you're very familiar with in our community may also be

099familiar with is policy 8360 which again has been in place for some time if you look through other districts policy manuals you will see a very similar policy in place there but what this speaks to is specifically cultural diversity and religion in our schools and again the purpose is for an inclusive environment which promotes tolerance and understanding to be created in our school Community it also speaks to which is also a very important component is legally what is allowable and permissible within a school because oftentimes questions will be coming up as you can imagine about religion and where the lines may or may not be drawn and our policy really does address this very nicely so what is constitutionally permissible educationally sound culturally sensitive and also age-appropriate those are actually four filters that are used

100really to determine the appropriateness of information within a classroom certainly from a teaching and learning perspective teaching is always handled with great care sensitivity and respect for all members of the school community and an environment where students of all backgrounds feel comfortable in sharing their traditions and their cultures and their backgrounds is a goal of our district and a means of promoting understanding as we move forward it is important to note that this is not studying about religion to be devotional or pressing for a certain religion or convincing or indoctrinating that is not the purpose of this again it's to create understanding of all of the members of our community because we all bring with us very individual pieces from our own individual worlds and that is all important so when you hear words like

101belonging and identity and voices it's really critical to to really focus on those because that is really what we're looking for not only for our children but also for the adults in our community and I think that's an important note to make you may also realize and know that music is a big part of the so you may or may not be familiar that we include an array of Music in our music program and that's purposeful because again we may have music that has some underpinnings when it comes to let's say a religious component but again it is not to teach religion it is for value of the music and we want a broad repertoire of Music in our concerts they are actually reviewed Michael Russo our instructional specialist does actually look at all of

102the music that's presented and again the idea is that we want balance we want inclusivity we want to make sure all members of our school Community see themselves and hear themselves in these beautiful performances and we should also know that um it's also respectful um you know I've gotten questions over the years about various pieces and people appreciate it they notice we've had members of our community come from various faiths saying you know it was great to see that all of what you included was there in our programming so I know that our parents are really paying attention to and actually value that part greatly so there's a whole compute component of this that that speaks to music and very proud of what we've done just to highlight briefly a couple of other things and

103they're all here on the screen so I will not uh necessarily read these to you but over the years many many resources have been created for internal use and also are very useful references for our families and parents moving forward again the most important piece here that we can take away is that these represent multiple expressions of diversity as assets that is what diversity is it is a strength um we are so fortunate in the k-4 realm to have the infusion of multiculturalism we've presented links here so that in the presentation if someone desires to go to our website these are all publicly available this is a curriculum that's specifically designed for k-4 talks about patriotic cultural and religious holidays and the basic outlines and understandings taught for each across those grade levels grade four

104is really where you first start to see Chronological Study of History so of course teachers will reinforce many of the understandings as they get deeper into that curriculum we also have a cultural diversity resource booklet this is served primarily as an internal resource and this presents information on a number of religious groups religions and also a question and answer for outside presenters about our policies again it's very important should um we have visitors to our classrooms and in covid there was a whole lot in person but certainly from a virtual perspectives anytime we're inviting someone in to come to our classroom to speak on any of these topics we want to make sure they understand again the um certainly the First Amendment piece but also what is acceptable within a classroom and really give some

105tips and tricks about how to facilitate some discussion points because the idea is we want diverse thought there so it isn't again about one particular Viewpoint or you know one particular person's opinion it really is about balance and understanding and developing a depth that there is a multitude of perspectives and understandings to be had we have a district brochure which includes that information for outside presenters of course you are aware about our district calendar as you were instrumental in helping to bring that about we also have a more detailed version of that which is our district in religious observances calendar and this goes through a whole host of observances which is developed each year for building administrators teachers and staff to utilize this document highlights both religious and cultural observances which may impact school activities

106and the purpose is to assist all faculty and staff in planning as well as raise awareness and understanding of various faiths and cultural communities represented in Williamsville so quite a helpful resource that we have I literally could probably go on for quite some time about professional development but a lot of that you've heard already so the last time we were together I gave you a listing of several different titles of some of our professional learning I just wanted to bring you up to speed on where we are with that that is still continuing added to our catalog if you will of professional learning opportunities also include SEL signature practices using Equity centered skills in the classroom culturally responsive teaching which we did several seminars and series of beginning last year creating a culture of belonging

107identity entity and engagement and this is in addition to various book studies and things that are done independently both here at the district but also at the school level and of course clubs and different leadership opportunities for students continue to exist we are very excited about our strategic planning continuation that we are commencing this year we are looking forward to continuing with that and really continuing the momentum that we've had with regard to that plan a large part of it will be focused upon Dei in fact every goal one of the Strategic pieces of that is in the three goal areas that were set for strategic planning that each and every one has a direct connection to diversity equity and inclusion we had shared with you and we will not go through this in detail

108again but uh Mr scanzuz and I met with several professionals and experts in the field of uh engaged in these efforts that help to inform some of our steps moving forward we have shared all of this information with Dr Brown Hall We are continuing our work with UB the trauma and trauma-informed care has gone exceptionally well so we are continuing with that and we have distributed the crsf to all of our staff and Linda ruay our instructional special list for professional development will personally be delivering professional learning to every faculty across the school district in all three 13 buildings so that's going to be a big piece of our work moving forward you've heard from Mr scanzuzzo on our restorative practices and of course PD will continue in the rich fashion that it has so

109again just a couple of Recaps and just briefly there are a whole host of activities still occurring at the building level when Dr Brown Hall and I visited schools we talked briefly with the principals we are planning on returning in a couple of weeks but they know one of their areas of focus has also been helping to carry on our important work here for Dei they are committed to enhancing their libraries the resources a number of them have already completed or are initiating book studies their SDM Endeavors are still focused on much of what we're speaking of here their celebrations took a bit of a turn with Colvin because as you know much of that was in person but for example East instead of they're doing flavors of yeast in person they actually did a

110virtual book and put a really nice resource together so we're there's creation there's also Innovation so sometimes it's just hitting it packaged a bit differently we still have clubs going on I think we'll hear more as the year goes on that piece will of course pick up and our district initiatives really speak to the effort we've already made but certainly the focus on the Strategic plan will be the the next large one that you'll hear more about and certainly those school-based items so Dr Brown Heine will cover a lot of what's coming up next we are very passionate about this topic and we look forward to again updating the board as we go through the school year so thank you for the opportunity this evening thank you very much Dr Baylon so next steps and

111timeline so you you heard the history where we were at Dr Bill and and assistant superintendent scan zuzo really went through what we have in place now in the district now next steps and timeline it's really important that the foundation be laid throughout the entire District right so we all have that common language the common foundation so the Dei overview will be mandatory for all faculty and staff so all faculty and staff will get that so we're all operating with the same language right and the strategic planning efforts that I mentioned Dr Baylin mentioned um Mr Skin and zuzo mentioned are so important because that's how we get our staff our community members our Board of Education members involved and that is how we take Dei to the next level so how do we know

112that it's infused in our buildings what does that look like look strategic planning efforts will really identify that continued professional learning for faculty so Dr Bill and explained there's a lot of PD that is available and then what new PD opportunities will be available for our faculty and staff because we want our teachers our administrators to keep growing administrative professional learning opportunities providing the solid foundation so there will be monthly meetings throughout this school year for our assistant principles and our principals specifically focused on Dei and district and board of education learning opportunities and messaging and that's something I heard from board members too you want to be included in some of the PD opportunities some of the learning and making sure that we're all sending the same message so it provides a common language

113for us all to use also a multi-year commitment so I want to say Dei is not something that we do and we're done with it's not something that we just do to be in compliance or compliance even though New York State Board of Regents passed a resolution their call to action it's something that we really want to take our time with do it slowly so that we know it's going to be sustainable in our district and the multi-year commitment is important because that student engagement and supports it will really support that family and Community engagement that all is involved in Dei and strategic planning diverse school and learning opportunities Workforce diversity that's something that we have to address in our Dei plan how do we diversify our Workforce how do we change our recruitment methods

114making sure that our interviewing and all of everything we look at on a resume isn't prohibiting someone from moving to the next step in an interview process our policies Dr Bella mentioned it the board you're going through policy review so making sure that we don't have any policies that would have the adverse effect on any of our Dei initiatives Dei committees at each school and the development of our Dei plan it's in our board policy and it's one of my goals also a superintendent so that Dei plan will be something that you can hold me accountable to and it's something that will provide a framework for our district and it will be very involved so that we can see all the steps that are necessary to have a successful successful Dei plan in the district

115our goal a comprehensive inclusive approach to advance and enhance our efforts as a school district to support all of our students families and staff also a committed layered and thoughtful methodology and process over time that avoids an isolated siled approach resulting in sustained changes and enhancements that become part of the culture and fabric of the organization so that second bullet is so important and why we must be very thoughtful and take our time in order to enact a Dei plan so that's where we're at right now now many board members have shared many examples and many thoughts and opportunities on what you think a good Dei plan should entail and so that's why it's important that we get your thoughts also when we begin our strategic planning any questions I'm sorry so more of just

116a comment um I think this goal that you just touched on is exactly what encompasses what we just heard today that we have a committed layered and thoughtful process we have been talking about diversity I know we're actually as a district ahead of the game I am really pleased with seeing this plan and this PowerPoint and going through it and hearing the details again we now have action steps to take to get us there I'm very pleased to hear about the professional development we know what's in there but to really recognize that staff needs to learn but also practice in the classroom the culturally responsive you know teaching I also am happy to see that Dei will be such a focus with the strategic planning and I do we all know right that children and

117our students sometimes act because of learned behavior so to see the K to four inclusion of that multiculturalism is great to really shape that they have this diverse thinking because we know that they're so impressionable at a young age and I will say that it's very exciting I have two children one that has gone through the system another one that is currently in high school and I'm going to say that the character that they have is because of Williamsville and what they've learned and the acceptance the tolerance but to we all know that there's always room for growth so this plan Fosters that um so just to comment I'm I'm very grateful and I'm very pleased in seeing this thank you very much thank you one thing I do want to say about the cultural

118observations calendar so there there's um just an idea I want to share with you that was shared with Dr Singh um because we can always Advance what we're doing also right so if we have the cultural observances calendar and it's actually interactive so if community members or teachers want to go to that calendar and click on one of those cultural observances and have a video pop up right and really a teaching of what that is so say you know the the Rosh Hashanah is on the calendar if a teacher clicks on that and Dr Littman pops up and explains what Shoshone what Rosh Hashanah is right and so those are teachable things that we can also get the community involved in and so that's some sort of project that Dr Singh thought will be a

119great idea that we can explore in advance in our district so can I add based on that because Dr Brown and Brown Hall and I had had this discussion we did yes I've already talked to Mrs Greco so we are going to explore how to make that come alive it is a wonderful Resource as is and I think it can be further enhanced by doing some of the things that were suggested so we are already looking at the possibility of making that happen awesome excellent thank you another question go ahead I mean I was looking through the distant goals and I was really very happy to see that the whole timeline for setting up a commodities for district-wide school-wide and for the whole year and a lot of community members have reached out to me

120asking when is this going to start we want to be in there so once we have a plan to set up a committee I'm sure there is a process in which you're going to reach out to the community to get their input if they want to join and if they want to contribute their time and effort to this right and I see Dr Bellman shaking her head also I know we have a meeting set up it's either this week Thursday or next week Thursday to sit down assign dates and then figure out how individuals because I know there'll be interest to be on these committees but we have to figure out what that will look like to get representation on these committees that move us on to item day I'm sorry your goals I know

121that was sort of what your question was thank you very much thank you very much thank you very much and board members thank you very much for your feedback and your questions so yes and and I will just share this so import docs the district goals and activities are listed and the detail is listed in there also the goal activity the timeline the individuals involved the success indicators the cost and then there will be progress updates in January and towards the end of the school year in June so I'm not going to go through each and every one because it is quite extensive but it is available in board docs if you have any questions please let me know all right thank you very much we are going to move to our policy updates um

122so we're going to do some first readings first of all so may I have a motion for the first reading of the following new policies 3431 diversity equity and inclusion in the district 56 34 General gender neutral single occupancy bathrooms 75 52 student gender identity and and revised policies 5640 smoking tobacco and cannabis use 5660 meal charging and prohibition against meal shaming 6150 Alcohol Tobacco drugs and other substances for staff education of students in temporary housing 73 20 Alcohol Tobacco drugs and other substances for students and 8280 instruction for English language learners as presented all the information is available in board docs for the first reading we have a motion on that please for our first reading Mrs van zois thank you Mrs bigger second is there any discussion on any of these policies I

123know there's a lot of them here any discussion for the first readings thank you um all in favor of them for the first reading opposed abstentions motion carries unanimously and now may I have a motion to table these policies so that we will have a second reading and adoption in our October board meeting which is on October 12th Dr Littman thank you Miss Poland second all in favor to table these policies for now thank you opposed motion carried unanimously we also have our policy update 1510. now this was our second reading we were set to adopt it so I want to first of all have a motion to take the revised policy from the table may I have that motion please this is Van size thank you Mrs kasmarek boatner thank you very much for

124a second all in favor to take that policy for the table for discussion opposed absentions motion carried unanimously so now this is back um off the table for us to discuss it so since our last meeting the word Edition additional edits that were recommended by our board attorney and those have been are now reflected in the amended policy I want to ask does anyone have any additional amendments they would like to contribute at this time for a policy 1510. okay doctor they missed the amended policy coming my way but one of the comments I made before was about the clarity about having people sign up in person so you know as they do on the podium historically so was that added along the way let me pull it up really quickly here so it's item

125um f uh 11f forgive me while I pull this up so if you pull that up Dr Levin you can see there's a clean version okay and the edited changes and I'm just going to flip through it to see if what you're so yeah so if you scroll down under sign up it says the members of the school Community who wish to address the board must contact the district clerk to sign up to speak before the meeting starts with their name address and topic that they wish to speak speakers who read from prepared texts are encouraged to present copies of that text to the board members or make a copy available to the district clerk within 24 hours after the conclusion of the meeting sign up is required to speak in order to speak during

126public expression um so I'm so you're correct that portion doesn't say anything about sign up at the table I'm just scrolling to see it it used to if that's an added anywhere exactly uh Mrs Kerry do you recall if we removed that or if it just never was there what it was written in the edits to sign up at the podium prior to the start of and that was edited to say to sign up just to sign up to speak before the meeting prior to the start of the meeting okay so is it listed there I'm sorry that is not it was and it's not it was so originally because I think we were um virtual we were doing the and we were going to continue that they can reach out to Mrs Carey but

127the addition that they are also permitted to sign up prior to the startup meeting right so I I think the consensus is that we want able to sign up ahead of time however you still can come and sign up at the podium as long as we're not exceeding the 30 minute Mark so if we have 30 minutes three minutes per person that's 10 people right so if 10 people have already pre-registered then those individuals will go on they could still sign up but it would really be a wait list and it might not be called upon unless someone were to make a motion at the table then the public expression format which is what policy currently says any member of the board if you make a motion to extend the public expression however we we

128have it at 30 minutes for a reason because we're meeting we you know we have to get our business done did you want to comment on that further doctor I mean uh your point is again we can extend the time uh I think is one of our obligations as a board to listen to the community although in this part we cannot respond but we can I assume that the community Forum in October but I think it should be very clear that people do have the opportunity to sign up in person because you never know when somebody says something uh during public expression and you might say yes that's a good point or I want to add something or do something and and if we want to be inclusive and give everybody the opportunity we just

129can't say well you know if you didn't sign up ahead of time uh you're at a lot we're not really saying that but we're not clear enough in my mind to encourage the community to come out and speak so anything we could do to do that so I'm hearing you say you want us to amend it so that we include that language and just sign up yeah and I think we're all in agreement of that that we have a sentence that says you can still sign up at the podium as long as time permits so um we're actually not going to vote to approve it yet because and that's why we do these readings right because sometimes it takes several months to get it right and we want to make sure we get it right

130and that's why we get our feedback from our attorneys we get a feedback from our superintendent our leadership team and then we also tweak it as needed so I'm going to ask if there's any other amendments I know Mrs Kerry's noting that Amendment so we get that added any other amendments for this policy so I'm just questioning is the amendment that they can sign up at the podium prior to the start of the meeting or at so so we would keep how it's we would keep the sign up section and then we would add a sentence to say um that individuals may also sign up at the podium if they did not pre-register okay um I I'm thinking it's still not clear and I'm I guess I'm piggybacking on what Mrs Van sice was saying

131that people can sign him at the podium which is of course acceptable but I thought in the earlier version it also said they could sign up in the podium until 7 pm so let's start with the meeting until the start of the meeting which is really it wasn't that wasn't included yeah I think that's a good point that it needs to be you may sign up prior to this prior to the state once the meeting has started it's too late to sign up because district clerk has to take that sign up sheet bring it over to the parliamentarians of the parliamentarian can be prepared but I wanted to make sure yeah that's a personal level clarification and that language is actually it was in here and was stricken so we can look back to that

132it says he had the podium prior to the start of the meeting so in our review before our next reading we can look back to that and I think it's important that we are stressing that our preferences that people sign up ahead of time because if you really want to speak we want to be sure that you're granted that opportunity we might not always extend a public expression you know it's going to be based on what our agenda looks like at that month's meeting okay all right any other amendments for this I think we're getting some good and good feedback here okay so is there a motion to table how is the 15th time we will get those things added for next month is there a motion to table revised policy 1510 regular board meeting

133rules um which is our Quorum and parliamentary procedure as presented and as presented meaning with the audits we verbally discussed Mrs van zeis thank you Mrs Beaker second we've had a lot of discussion already all in favor opposed absentions motion carries unanimously thank you item G may I have a motion please to approve and adopt the resolution for the certification of lead evaluators as presented thank you Mrs Van sais Mrs Poland is a second any discussion on this seeing none all in favor both abstentions motion carries unanimously item 12 Finance I'm going to lump sum of these agenda items together may have a motion please to resolve to approve the budget transfer in 12a the amended contract for the districts in school upk program 12b the resolution pilot with Brewster Amherst preservation housing of 12C

134and the reapproval of the district's corrective action plan pertaining to the 2019-2020 audit of 12d may have a motion to resolve to approve items 12a 12b 12C and 12 d thank you Mr viscalia second is there any discussion in any of those items seeing none all in favor the post extensions motion carries unanimously thank you moving on to Liaison reports if you have any lays on reports please submit them to Mrs Carey the list of meeting dates are in board Docs um Elementary and Middle High high schools had PTA meetings on um September 13th yeah there was an esasb meeting um and Dr Lemon I saw your email and I can cover the Dodge meeting for you okay so you can enjoy Yom Kippur and uh are there any other people that need substitutes at

135this time I didn't actually miss kazak Wagner already substituted but uh on Mill Middle there is a meeting that's not listed on the dates Miss Carrie just so you know um I can email you the day perfect thank you just so we have it on there so excellent thank you for that does anyone wish to speak about anything discussed at any of the recent liaison assignments okay thank you there are no matters to discuss under items 14 15 or 16. so we are now in item 17 and Dr Brown Hall I turned it over to you for our facilities Improvement and preservation Plan update and I'm going to ask our um phenomenal CFO Mr matersky to please give the facilities update and uh update on the capital projects including a potential new capital project Mr

136Turkey thank you Dr Brown Hall as you all know our music project is coming to conclusion with really fantastic results at this time I think I really want to spend just a few moments recognizing the people that made that happen certainly I'm going to start with our architect firm cadeni Architects Ray bednarski who is a district resident he's Executive Vice President he has been from day one right through the end in all of our meetings and I just want to recognize that that's not something that normally happens Scott lahaus his architect has also been vital over the course of the summer construction addressing contractor issues and change orders and items like that and and moving them through quickly our construction manager campus construction Von Miracle Andrew Malcolm again fantastic job getting that stuff done and

137I must recognize our own Keith langlatz superb job you don't know how much goes into these projects really from the daily um conversations we have and I also have to really say this project wouldn't have happened you know without our music teachers input our principles and a really a major major force in this was Mike Russo you don't know how much we relied on Mike from the design for uh pro project you know getting equipment information doing everything that was resulting in enrollment projections for music programs all of that that was done way back four years ago when we began and Mike was really Central to that so you know he's involved and the last person just on that piece is Seth Waltz from evl if you go in the space as you will and

138you listen to it it would not have happened without his professionalism and his ability to put the Acoustics in place so you're going to see that I think there's going to be some type of a ceremony toward the end of this month and I think you'll have an opportunity to meet most of those people so I'm looking forward to that and and having you enjoy the space as now our teachers and our students are moving to the next uh big item we're going to be we have actually already begun the process of looking at a new capital project in addition to the security project which was approved in June 2020. we're going to look at district-wide air conditioning and this project is already the design pieces are underway we've met with our architect which is

139going to be cadeni again and they're going to be using another firm we also are going to be doing an RFP which has already been posted on our website I have four firms that have already notified me that they're in interested in applying including our own campus construction Who currently works here so we're going to be doing a site visit next Thursday with these firms and we're going to take them through four different buildings to show them what's going on that's going to be a very large project and the plan will be to share updates with all of you from now through December provide you kind of a range of a dollar amount in January more detailed expenses by School in February and then a total detailed presentation in March so the intent would be

140to provide a proposition if it's approved by all of you first that would go on the ballot in May so that would be a great project it's going to be very intense because it will have to happen when school is in session unlike some of our other projects we always try to do them when school is out of session in the summer but we will work those through and we'll share that with you so that's a really brief summary of where our Capital Project work is at thank you very much is anyone from the board of any questions if he's going back to his feedback thank you so much I'm very excited about the future it's really amazing all right so um we are on item 17c may I have a motion please to approve

141the architect security project contract Amendment as presented thank you Dr Littman may have a second Dr Singh thank you very much any discussion on this item seeing none all in favor opposed abstentions motion carried unanimously item 18 I have no matters to discuss does anyone have anything to discuss on their Committee of the whole all right does anyone have any correspondence they wish to share all right and our next regular scheduled board meeting is October 12th is there a motion to adjourn the regular board meeting I'll jump up at once now Dr McClary thank you Mr Dr Singh a second any discussion all in favor pose abstentions motion carried unanimously thank you stay safe and be well